Category Archives: advertising

advertising, engaging, planning

TV and Online – Forever Frenemies

Tv_online
in a post on The Black Box Fallacy, in which I referenced Transmedia storytelling, I concluded by noting that;

‘whats going to be fun is to see to what extent commercial advertisers
use transmedia storytelling.  at the moment a campaign idea tends to be
executed across different channels.  there’s little consideration given
to how what is produced can be contextualised from the off.  and
there’s massive opportunity for the advertisers – and indeed the
agencies – that learn how to do this best first’

I recalled this whilst watching two recent examples of advertising campaigns.  both of which are pieces of communication with two very different expressions in TV and Online channels.  in both cases TV merely provides the precursor, the call to action being to go online…

Army_jobs_home_2

the first is for Army Jobs, where a series of video clips show different aspects of Army life.  in each example the execution is cut short – the ending… is to be found online.

here you not only get to view all the video’s in a dedicated player, but can also – by addressing a series of questions in the Pathfinder – identify which aspects of Army life would be most appropriate for you.

it’s all very slick and involving, making the visit from the TV execution more than worth the effort, whether you’re interested in a life in the Army or just curious to see how the stories end.

the second example is beyond surreal…

yup.  it’s the R&D team who developed the Peanut Chunky inviting you to punish them if you don’t like what they’ve come up with.  whether you did or didn’t like it is irrelevant, as when you get to the website you’re given the option to punish them or…  punish them…

Peanut_chunky_home

another very slick online experience not only shows you what happens when the staff are inflicted to a cactus bath or lobster down the pants.  but in an added trick some of the juiciest content is locked.  you unlock it by sending video clips to friends…

Peanut_chunky_two

the most interesting thing about both of these campaigns is that the online content could have quite happily existed without the presence of a TV ad.  but TV brought efficient mass reach – as well as a wealth of credibility – to the invite to engage with both of these brands.

both channels benefit hugely from the other.  at it’s most basic, if either brand schedule had prioritised one channel over the other (or sacrificed a large chunk of the budget in one channel to do a broadcast job in the other!) it wouldn’t have worked.  but more importantly it shows integration within or across creative agencies that will be not just beneficial but crucial in the future implementation of digital (across all channels) media schedules.

is it Transmedia storytelling?  no… that would require different and dedicated content across different and dedicated channels bringing a concept to life in very different and relevant ways.  but its two big and very slick steps in the right direction.

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advertising, researching

Implicit vs Explicit Memory

this ad for Virgin Trains nearly didn’t get made.  which would have been a great shame.  it nearly didn’t get made because its the kind of ad that fails pretesting with consumers.  it fails because when we are asked directly about something we recall explicit not implicit memories.  the theory goes like this…

How_stimulus_is_recalled_one_3our initial gut feel or reaction to a stimulus is stored implicitly, once we consciously process that stimulus – ie think about it – we form an explicit memory of that stimulus.  when we are asked to articulate our perceptions of something (eg an ad) its our explicit memory that we recall.  because of this conscious processing it’s open to counter argument – something Virgin Trains wanted to avoid coming out of a wave of negative publicity.  they couldn’t attempt to change people’s heads without first changing their hearts.

after consumers were talked thru the script, they recalled their explicit perceptions of Virgin Trains, which were inherently negative.  they couldn’t articulate their gut feel – ie their implicit recall, which duckfoot were able to prove was very positive.  this is how they did it…

Duckfoot_memory_test

the response to part 3 was – as expected – negative.  and the ad may have been killed there and then.  but by repeating part 1 duckfoot were able to identify the implicit memory of the ad, and its affect on the perceptions of Virgin Trains…  in theory 1 and 4 should be the same, but they weren’t.  the stimulus had fundamentally changed the subjects’ implicit perceptions of Virgin – for the better.  and so the ad got made.  and we all got to see it.  which is nice.

it’s also worth noting that back in 1977, Hasher, Goldstein, & Toppino showed how implicit memory also leads to the illusion-of-truth effect; which suggests that subjects are more likely to rate as true statements that they have already heard, regardless of how true they are.

in short, the very act of saying something in an ad and having consumers implicitly hear it is enough to lead a consumer to recall that statement as true.  so a medium like TV, which is often processed with low involvement and therefore stored straight to implicit memory, is great at making viewers think something is true, whether it is or not!

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advertising, planning, researching

Some Engaging TV Research

Thinkbox_engagement ethnographic observation in 22 homes formed the basis of the first phase of thinkbox’s Engagement Study, which when followed by interviews established six key influences on the degree to which audiences engage with TV ads.  in collaboration with ACB Research, have established an ‘engagement index’ based on the following factors:

Attention
Ad Exposure
Memory
Attitudes
Self-regulation
Self-referencing

…all of which determine the extent to which the content of an ad is processed, and to what degree it is therefore recalled to the brand engram (and ultimately – although this will be investigated at a later stage in the Payback Study – to what extent it influences purchase intention).

some of the key findings from the research were that:

  • TV is central to people’s lives, and the majority of viewing remains communal; 70% of viewing time was typical of "our time" as opposed to "in-between time" or "my time"
  • ‘engagement’ can be defined in a range of ways, some of the most observable being strong interactions like playing ‘guess the ad’ to responding to music cues
  • overall, around 17% of viewing could be typified as ‘strong’, 51% as medium (taking notice in some way), with 32% of viewing showing no observable response or interaction
  • negative engagement does not equal bad engagement – the Frosties ad (below) being a prime example of an ad that was hated but which got the product discussed (in not a necessarily negative way) as a result
  • attention is not always vital – eating increased the engagement index
  • shared engagement is powerful, and both the extent to which an ad is implicitly recalled as well as emotionally engaged with is re-enforced by sharing the experience with others
  • the power of emotion; ‘affective’, ‘cognitive’ and ‘sensory’ ads have higher recall indexes
  • less than 10% of ad breaks are affected by some form of ad-avoidance
  • 5% of commercial breaks were viewed with a laptop present and being used in the room

here’s that Frosties ad:

the first phase was then followed by 3,000 online surveys, which formed the basis for the creation of five segments:

  • ‘Ad Enthusiasts’ (30%) – love ads and TV generally; they have higher than average recall of ads but less ‘favourability’ and purchase intent
  • ‘TV is my friend’ (15%) – TV viewed for companionship, generally live and watch TV alone; heavy users of TV, but advertising has less affect on favourability compared to other segments
  • ‘Ad-averse’ (18%) – TV isn’t important or relevant in their lives; despite the name, ad exposure was seen to be more likely to affect favourability / purchase intent
  • ‘Creative Connoisseurs’ (19%) – appreciate quality of programmes and ads; actually showed the lowest recall generally
  • ‘Thank you for the Music’ (18%) – TV isn’t that important, but they take in and recall more readily slogans and tunes; much more likely to be partially attentive – brand recognition didn’t equate into an effect on favourability or purchase intent

what matters now of course is what we are able to do with the research.  getting it onto touchpoints will be a great first step, allowing planners to explore these audiences in the context of other TV info as well as other media.  but ultimately the extent to which planners and buyers distribute spots amongst programmes – and indeed within the ecology of the break – will depend as much on the current context of the TV trading model as it will new news about how we can segment different audiences subject to how they engage with the nation’s favourite pastime.

that said, what this thinkbox initiative does comprehensively is add much-needed ammunition to the why spend on TV? debate.  TV advertising revenues are decreasing because of fragmentation and the need of marketeers to fund internet activity on a media schedule.  but – let’s be honest – TV is also suffering because it’s become less fashionable for TV to be the answer.  we all believe TV advertising works, all thinkbox have to do is prove it…

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advertising, engaging, planning

Thinking Inside the Box

Thinkbox_dispatcheslast Friday saw tv marketing body thinkbox present findings from it’s Engagement Study, a project to understand how different audiences interact with TV and as a result how advertisers can best use TV to reach those audiences.

interestingly the first question they needed to address is what is engagement?  thinkbox turned to a definition coined by their equivelant body in the States… that "engagement is turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context",  which despite being very TV advertising focusses, seems as good a definition as any.

learnings were then presented from the project, including a TV audience segmentation the study has identified, as well as some extreme types of behaviours demonstrated across the segments.  I’ve outlined the findings of the research in a seperate post here.

a brilliant presentation by Dr Ali Good from duckfoot research then discussed explicit vs implicit memory, and how media and advertising research is great at measuring the former but not so good at the latter…  so he took the audience thru a technique for exploring implicit memory, via a great case study for Virgin Trains’ Return of the Train ad.

the last aspect of the morning was a discussion led by Sue Unerman of Mediacom on what all this research means for advertising and specifically media planning.  ten questions ranged from "is it better to be noticed or ignored?" to "are we fiddling while Rome burns?", taking in everything from bemoaning the disapearance of jingles to the role of media vs creative planning strategies on the way.

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advertising, branding

Products are over. What idea are you selling?

Abercrombie_one
there was a queue to get into the new Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store in London yesterday.  at least a couple of dozen excited young things were happily waiting their turn to get the opportunity to spend their pocket money in America’s latest retail export.

the launch of the store (the first outside the Americas) has generated significant word of mouth and editorial coverage despite a limited media spend.  the discussion has come about not from the clothes on the shelves, but from the beautiful young things stacking them.

much of the discussion has been negative; the brand shamelessly exploits the idea of the body beautiful – typified by David and Peter Sheath from Swansea who meet and greet the bright young things in nothing but low hung jeans and flip-flops.  it would be easy to dismiss such coverage as a PR failing, but its almost certainly quite the opposite.

in A&F’s pursuit of communicating their brand of beautiful bright young men, they are selling much more than a few preppy clothes.  they’re selling an idea.  you’re understanding of the brand isn’t about clothes at all…  but rather – perhaps – the very nature of beauty.  and whether your take on this is aspirational, envy or just bemusement – what’s important is that you almost certainly will have a take on it.

when brands stand for something, they compellingly invite us to have an opinion.  and in doing so they win some headspace.  and that’s rather valuable.  A&F’s body beautiful is in a very real sense the anti-real beauty campaign from Dove.  if you haven’t seen their Evolution creative execution, watch it now…

both these brands stand for something.  and both – whilst the success of A&F in the UK is to be seen – are doing rather well as a result.  this is telling in a week that saw the retail chain Next  announce that like for like sales were down 7.2%.  selling products – certainly for many high street retailers – isn’t enough any more.  there’s too much on and offline competition to rely on the products to do all of the talking.  brands that stand for something – that sell an idea – get noticed.  thats why there was a queue to get into the A&F store yesterday, and thats why anyone working on a brand that doesn’t know what it stands for, should be very nervous.

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advertising, planning

No end in sight for London’s Freesheet War

London_paper_1the announcement that News International’s thelondonpaper is set to increase ad rates from tomorrow by almost 46% comes amidst the latest volley in the battle for the capital’s evening freesheet audience.  the same title recently increased it circulation by 100,000 to 500,000 – fueling further an explosion of paper onto the streets (and tube carriages).

in a presentation this morning, the title’s main rival, London Lite, outlined research that showed what most media planners suspected…  that there’s essentially nothing to separate the titles, with the exception that the majority of thelondonpaper readers prefer the editorial and layout of London Lite.  the thing is – so what?

the same research showed that there is around 50% cross-over between the titles.  they’re reaching the same audience and so as far as an agency is concerned we should be going with the most cost efficient title – something that won’t bode too well alongside tomorrow’s significant rate increase.

this is all a little like watching two boxers of equal weight and ability (if very different styles) battle it out in a ring.  who no matter how exhausted they get, have powerful backers with deep resources in each corner pushing them right back into the ring…

its a costly war for both parties.  money is being lost.  but there’s even more to lose if either title vanishes – and pride can be a very powerful motivator.

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advertising, planning

Begun, the Media Owner Science Wars have

BrainI’ve noticed a recent escalation in the battle for share of media planners’ minds, by media owners.  it marks what is probably the third age of the media planner (MP) / media owner (MO) relationship.

the first was informational – MO gets the MP what they need to know and all was a bit one way.  phase two became a great deal more collaborative – with MOs generating ideas and concepts relevant and unique to the media channels they represented.  NB this subject was recently picked up by the IPA Strategy Group in a debate centered around whose best to come up with media ideas? – MPs or MOs.  both – silly – is of course the correct answer, we are – or should be – a generation of collaborators.

but recently a new front has opened.  it was marked by two different presentations from two different MOs.  the first – from Carlton Screen presented findings by work research which demonstrated the extent to which single vs multi tasking affects our ability to take in and recall information.

Abbeysingle01_4the above image shows a drawing produced when someone who had been shown a series of ads in the cinema was asked to draw all they could remember.  the ad was for Abbey National. source

essentially it produced behavioral evidence for the assertion that "attention plus emotive experience equals higher level of recall", but it was grounded in psychology and neuroscience in order to do so.

you can see full details of the research here.

Johnny_metro

the second intellectual volley came from Metro newspaper, who last week invited MPs to attend not only a presentation on engagement, but a presentation by none other than Johnny Ball, who talked us through the four rules of engagement.  this wasn’t just a media owner presentation – it was a full blown television production.  let battle commence.

for more on Johnny and Metro click here.

what both of these projects represent is an escalation in the arms race that MOs use to grab share of mind – and hence share of schedule – with MPs.  the challenge for MOs is that as buying is increasingly commoditized, the conversations with MPs are increasingly based on what the media channel can strategically – and scientifically – bring to a schedule.

did we learn anything we didn’t know intuitively from these experiences.  I suspect not.  did we leave feeling better about the extent to which Carlton and Metro understand whats going on in planners’ worlds.  I suspect yes.  mission accomplished… let battle continues.

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advertising

No excuse for small copy

Small_copyI would like to get a slight bug-bear off my chest.  on the way out last night I caught this 16-sheet at Goodge street tube station.  its for a bed company and they’ve taken the tried and tested approach of utilising long copy on a cross-track.

but the copy is too small to read.

now I’d be the first to confess that my vision is hardly 20:20.  but I’d like to think that it’s fairly representative of the population as a whole.  and I simply couldn’t read the poster.

there’s no excuse.  Viacom (now CBS) can electronically mock-up copy in-situ and quickly get it to a client or creative agency.  whilst this won’t let you exactly see if every word can be read, it does give you a reliable idea of scale – allowing you to judge to what extent the copy can be easily read.

CBS optimistically estimate that they are asked for mock-ups of creative for only one in every thirty campaigns.  this just doesn’t seem like anywhere near enough.

waiting for a tube train is frustrating enough.  let’s not make it any more so!

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advertising, branding, engaging, planning

five thoughts on peer to peer (viral) marketing

Network_p2pwhilst there aren’t rules per se, and the way a brand creates viral – or what I’d suggest we term peer to peer marketing – will vary depending on the market, brand, and most significantly the target audience; there are some general principles that I think are pertinent:

one – motivation

the consumer’s motivation to pass on will always be grounded in what’s in it for them, this can be one of a variety of things…

> credibility – getting kudos for finding something first, the act of passing it on is implicit proof of this

> financial reward – people who do something as a result of you passing something on earns the sender a reward (many online promotions work like this)

> exclusivity – you could famously only join Gmail if you were asked to join by an existing member

the rule of thumb therefore is don’t create peer to peer marketing material on your terms, but on consumers’  …what’s in it for them?

two – mechanism

consider how the material will be seeded, received, consumed and passed on…

> seeding / receiving – who are you originally sending it to and how?  material that comes from a known source will have more credibility

> consumption – is it easy and quick to access the material?

> passed on – is it easy and quick to pass it on? – remember consumers are time poor and information heavy

facilitate the spread – minimise viral file size (or host remotely) and allow forwarding easy

three – methodology

historically – viral comms were spread via the garden fence; communities were geographically limited

with the advent of tintinet – it became possible to quickly reach a multitude of people very quickly (exponential spreading of material)

more recently the creation of hosting platforms has attracted attention – eg MySpace, YouTube… which has meant that material is hosted independently of the viral location of it (ie it’s the link that’s viral – the content is hosted by an aggregator eg YouTube)

so… consider where and how you choose to host – it will convey independence (or otherwise), but this will have consequences for the extent to which – as creator – you are given credit

four – contemporacy

novelty value – if it or it’s like has been seen before, it will be less likely to be passed on

currency – easier to spread if its grounded in current affairs or the zeitgeist

reportage – ideal is to get established media to report the activity – such breakthroughs are rare but massively extend the reach of the viral as well as convey credibility and ‘buzz’

make it relevant to something beyond the current state and needs of your brand

five – measurement

whatever you’re putting out there, make sure you keep track of what’s happening to it

who’s getting it, who’s passing it on, who comments? – technorati, delicious and blogpulse all can help brands do this

Host the content somewhere where there is inbuilt measurement (YouTube, MySpace etc)

basically… don’t send off all you hard work into the ether without tying a lead on it first

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advertising, planning

Good and aren’t good enough any more

Match_ug_48s

I like this ad.  I like the line and the insight behind it – namely that in a time-poor, work-dominated busy London life it’s no longer enough to expect love to find you; you have to find it for yourself.  Make it happen.  With a little help from Match.com of course.

It’s also a good looking ad – it’s bright and stands out on a drab underground platform. But I hope that the campaign hasn’t stopped with this one good rectangular underground ad… Good ads are all well and good.  But good ads simply aren’t good enough any more.

Its an insight (and indeed a brand promise) that deserves to be taken further – in short it’s a comms insight and there’s the potential for media channels to be much more than just the medium for the conveying of the make love happen message. Rather, there is the opportunity for the role of media to be a facilitator of making love happen, or the educator to help the increasing numbers of single people to make it happen.

A few starters for ten:

  • Awards for venues that are proven to offer the best chances of meeting a Match
  • Commission a survey to identify the best places to meet people
  • Inserts in magazines featuring entertaining advice on finding a Match
  • Free cinema screenings with drinks afterwards when you register – use the common ground offered by movies, maximise this with in-cinema media
  • Online in-ad questionnaire – an application that determines (based on where you go out / what you like / do) your best strategy for getting a Match

None of these of course could and should better the product (ie the site), but they do offer the opportunity for media to be a true taster for what’s on offer; and – crucially – to make the brand evident through behaviour, not just through messaging.  I hope that Match.com are doing it …their insight deserves it.

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