Archive for the ‘Commercials’ Category
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has found that two-thirds of marketers have, in response to the current economic environment, shifted their emphasis to more short-term strategies. These were some of the findings of a Brand-Building study of 129 marketers, which took the form of an online survey.
Yet in spite of the short-term tactics, marketers are already planning increased activities for when the recession ends. 68% will be increasing their media budgets, 41% increasing social networking/word-of-mouth, and 40% allocating more money to innovation and testing/learning. Almost three-quarters of respondents admitted that they would ideally like to implement these additional marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends.
The survey found that few marketing initiatives had been postponed or cancelled outright, but many had suffered from reduced budgets. Those activities that are being maintained during the recession include:
- Research and development (47%)
- Public relations (42%)
- Innovation/test/learn budgets (33%)
- Promotion activities (33%).
A number of activities have been increased over recent months, including:
- Pricing deals (47%)
- Social networking/word-of-mouth (26%)
- Public relations efforts (23%)
When compared to the results of previous surveys, many traditional media channels have suffered:
- Television (down from 80% in February 2007 to 64% in April 2009)
- Magazines (down from 67% to 51%)
- Radio (down from 36% to 30%)
- Outdoor (down from 35% to 26%)
- Newspapers (down from 36% to 19%)
These results are fairly representative of current sentiment in the wider marketing community. Many organizations are shying away from traditional media and focusing on online opportunities. Indeed, a recent survey by B2B International showed around half of marketers planning to increase their e-marketing spend in 2009, with many stating that online marketing had already proven itself to be a successful strategy in the face of recessionary pressures. More than a quarter were planning increases in their PR activity. On the flip side, around half planned to cut expenditure in the more traditional areas of tradeshows/events and magazine advertising.
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Friday, March 27th, 2009
What do a cassette tape, a boomerang, and a 1980’s electro-pop song have in common? In Matt Powell’s latest Thursday Night Insight entry this week, he looks at the impact of ‘thinking outside the box’ and standing apart from the competition, and the lasting impression that it can make.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve come into contact with a few advertising campaigns that have, in one way or another, caused me to devote at least some part of my day to thinking about them. By that, I mean more time than just taking a glance at a glossy piece of direct mail that goes straight into the recycle bin after couple of seconds. These pieces of marketing have really engaged me – either through getting me to think, causing me a great deal of intrigue, or just appealing to my inner child.
The first was a cassette tape that arrived in the post in a brown padded envelope, in a Mission Impossible-esque manner. On the cassette was a label with a personalised web address for me to visit. I was not the only one of my in the office to receive one of these tapes, so there was some discussion as to what they were for. A quick visit to the website, showed that it was a campaign from E-Rewards that centred around constant evolution – the cassette tape being one of the evolutionary step in the personal music player. The campaign certainly stood out from everything else that landed on my desk that day, it created discussion around the office, caused me to visit the website, and now the cassette is adorning my desk-top. Certainly more interaction and longevity than standard direct mail would have been afforded.
My second encounter with out-of-the ordinary marketing was on a lunch break whilst in the local supermarket/convenience store. Whilst I was perusing the assortment of soups on offer, I – and my fellow shoppers – were treated to short minute-long blasts of a very familiar 80’s electro pop song. I first dismissed it as the slipping standards of the store, probably allowing staff to play their own music through the store music system. Still, the familiar music was annoying me – I couldn’t remember where I knew it from. After a few more minute-long blasts it dawned on me why the dated music was so familiar – it was the music that backs Dairy Milk’s latest advertising campaign (with the boy and girl and the dancing eyebrows). Once I realised that, it evoked the amusing images from the TV advert – by coincidence I was stood at the counter waiting to pay – with an assortment of Dairy Milk products on display in front of me. Very clever. Plus, I was feeling slightly jubilant that I had remembered where I knew the music from – something that would have irritated me throughout the day if I hadn’t have figured it out. Again, slightly different approach to getting the message across, but a memorable impact.
The third piece of marketing that I found particularly engaging is in fact B2B’s latest mailer – not that I’m blowing our own trumpet – it could be a mailer from any company and I would still be writing about it. It is, as the first sentence of this article has probably given away, a boomerang. The boomerang is a play on the theme of ‘getting a return on your investment’. The boomerang has instructions of how to use it on its reverse. This piece of marketing is now sat on my desk awaiting the day when I can finally find somewhere large enough, and unpopulated enough to throw it without posing a threat to the public. Indeed, over the past week, whenever I have come off the phone, I usually find that the boomerang has moved from my desk into my hand.
Of course, there are many, many more examples that could be added to the three I have outlined above, but the message is the same. In order to stand out from the crowd and make a lasting impression, we need to somehow differentiate our offering. This applies not just to direct mail and advertising, but to business as well – and is even more important in times such as these. There is no harm in sitting with the pack – but thinking outside the box or offering something different to the competition, can really make the difference in setting a product or company aside from the rest, and create lasting success.
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Friday, February 6th, 2009
As the furore surrounding this week’s Super Bowl commercials begins to subside, Caroline Harrison reflects on the advertising world’s most important annual ‘event’.
Where would we be without a blog article on advertising this week? After all, Super Bowl Sunday is, for some people, more about the ads than the game. According to one recent poll, 21 percent of those who expected to tune in last Sunday said they would watch "exclusively or predominantly for the commercials." A further 34 percent said they would be as interested in the commercials as in the game itself.
The Super Bowl, the year’s most watched television event with an audience of 90 million viewers, is America’s premier ad showcase. Not surprisingly, advertising spots are highly sought after. A record $206 million of advertising revenue was generated by broadcaster NBC this year for its 69 Super Bowl spots.
After a thrilling game in which the Pittsburgh Steelers snatched a late victory over the Arizona Cardinals, I fully expected to be seeing re-run after re-run of the game’s highlights for days afterwards. Yet, to my surprise, breakfast TV on Monday morning seemed oblivious to the previous day’s sporting achievements, and instead had panels of ‘experts’ analyzing the Super Bowl’s commercials. Indeed, in the days leading up to the game, before the much-anticipated commercials were even aired, the viewing public was being treated to sneak previews of the adverts on television shows and news broadcasts, and many of the advertisers were using pre-game website efforts to generate anticipatory interest in their commercials.
Advertising Age has very kindly given us a link to all the Super Bowl ads so we can watch and re-watch them at our leisure.
I guess the point is that nowadays, if you fork out to be one of the big Super Bowl advertisers, you’re not just paying for the advertising slot alone. For one thing, any commercial usually forms part of a wider integrated campaign, and is not just a one-off. In addition to appearing in other media, you are guaranteed to benefit from all the hype and publicity this high-profile position generates; your advert is seen around the world, discussed on TV shows, dissected in newspapers, posted on blogs and discussed in online forums… All of which must make the outlay – of up to $3 million per 30-second slot – a little easier to swallow. After all, even if your ad isn’t deemed ‘the best’, they do say that no publicity is bad publicity.
Of course, you would hope that no commercial is deemed a total disaster, as no advertising campaign should ever be launched without thorough pre-testing to check it’s suitable and hits the mark. Even after launch, post-campaign research should be used to monitor awareness of a campaign and track its effectiveness over time.
The other thing to bear in mind is that everyone has their own opinion on which commercials they do or don’t like; which would inspire them to make a purchase or otherwise.
I came across this online review of all the adverts, which I read with interest. Personally, Sunday’s most memorable adverts, those which had stood out for making me laugh or smile, were not particularly well received by this blogger. Yet the debates that are raging just serve to highlight that one man’s meat is another man’s poison; what some people will love, others will hate, or at the very least may be indifferent to.
To some extent this doesn’t matter. Companies can never satisfy everyone, nor do they try. Through customer profiling and careful segmentation, they try to identify groups of like-minded individuals who have similar characteristics or needs, and who they can satisfy in a profitable way. So, for example, if I don’t like a beer commercial, it’s of no particular consequence to the beer manufacturer. I don’t drink beer, don’t buy beer, and I don’t even influence anyone else’s purchase of beer; I am, therefore, not the brewer’s target market and I was not front of mind when the campaign was conceived.
As time goes by, it will probably become clearer which companies are adjudged to have been the biggest winners and biggest losers of this latest bout of advertising. But no amount of debating or criticism will deter companies from snapping up advertising spots at next year’s Super Bowl, nor will it stop the general public’s intense anticipation and subsequent examination all over again. Only 360 more days to go!
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Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Invest in your brands now, especially in these dry times. The easiest thing is to shut down, and that’s the worst thing.
“There has never been a more crystal-clear realization of why you need a strong brand.
It would be a mistake to say you don’t need to continue to tend your brand, even in a challenging market like this.
Let’s all go for growth. Let’s see this as an opportunity.
These were the messages emerging loud and clear from the 98th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers.
In an article appearing in the New York Times, Resolved to Keep on Marketing, Even in Tight-Fisted Times, the recurring theme of the conference was to stay positive in the face of industry difficulties.
The attitudes of the 400 members of this association, who together spend an estimated $100 billion a year on advertising and other forms of marketing, will likely have a huge bearing on the direction the marketplace takes in the coming months.
Marketers cutting budgets could intensify the recent sharp downturn in consumer spending, whereas maintaining or even increasing spending levels could help to shorten any recession.
The appeals of many of the conference’s speakers may have borne some influence on the 1,000+ attendees. In surveys taken on the day, around one-third of attendees questioned claimed that in the immediate term they would maintain their current level of marketing spending, with a further third stating they would reduce spend. Twenty-seven percent said they would spend more, with the remaining 7 percent unsure.
Similarly, when asked about 2009 compared to 2008, 28 percent predicted stability, and more than a quarter foresaw spending increases of more than 10 percent. Nineteen percent predicted decreases of more than 10 percent, 14 percent predicted decreases of less than 10 percent, and 13 percent predicted growth of less than 10 percent.
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Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
How’s this for a costly promotion? ‘One free can of Dr Pepper soda for everyone in America if Guns N’ Roses release their next album before the end of 2008′.
Well, guess what? The album’s release date has been announced as November 23 2008, meaning a not-insignificant 300 million cans of soda could potentially be given away free by the corporation.
Guns N’ Roses have been working on their new album for some 17 years now, so when Dr Pepper made their ‘free soda’ pledge back in March 2008, they probably felt fairly secure in the knowledge that they wouldn’t be called upon to give anything away gratis. Yet, if everyone who is eligible to claim their ‘freebie’ actually does so, it will certainly eat into this year’s company profits.
In light of the recently-announced album release date, the soft drinks company has confirmed that it will stand by its promise. On November 23 only, Americans will be able to redeem their free can of drink by registering their details on www.drpepper.com.
In reality, of course, not too many people are going to remember, be able, or make the effort, to claim their drink. Yet, on the back of such an unusual promotion, Dr Pepper will surely benefit from increased brand awareness, and probably increased sales too.
Whilst in the long run it may not turn out to be too expensive a marketing exercise, interestingly the Dr Pepper website currently makes no mention of this generous offer!
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