I attended the Financial Services Forum annual conference this Monday and found it really inspiring. A lot of what was said, although aimed at financial services clients, can be applied to most businesses.
Dave Trott creative legend who brought us the brilliant Hello Tosh campaign in the 80s talked about making things simple. To him this means talking in the language of the “punter” not the marketer. He is right when he says it’s a mark of a really clever person to take complex ideas and make them simple.
Even those who work in the world of data and analytics can learn a lot from this. This is not dumbing down but helping to formulate effective/workable communication plans based on walking in the audience’s shoes.
The next point to remember is that the marketing communication process is simple. Get noticed (impact) ask for something (communicate) and give reasons why (persuade). In these days where people receive 1,000 to 10,000 messages a day, being noticed is a massive challenge. In media planning circles coverage, frequency and continuity tend to take priority, especially for direct response products, over impact.
So, even the biggest advertiser’s share of voice in the great scheme of things is tiny. Try remembering two advertising messages from yesterday without thinking too long. It isn’t that easy is it? So let’s hear it for Dave the voice of reason in a frantic world.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Thursday 17 November 2011
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Overhauling the DM Industry
It was announced last week that the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has agreed, with government body DEFRA, to implement a range of measures aimed at cutting down on the amount of waste produced by direct mail.
The main change will be to the way in which people are able to opt-out of receiving advertising through their letterboxes. The current system offers consumers three options – the Mail Preference Service, the DMA’s door to door initiative and the Royal Mail equivalent – all of which will be consolidated into one website (although consumers will still need to register twice to stop both addressed and unaddressed advertising mail).
Other commitments include:
• DMA members being asked to produce all direct mail from recyclable paper that has originated from a certified sustainable source, or made from recycled paper
• The development of a carbon calculator for paper direct marketing material by the end of 2013 so that businesses can see the carbon footprint of the DM they produce
• 40% of all DM produced will have to conform to the requirements of a new industry environmental standard that will replace the BSI-endorsed waste standard PAS 2020
The commitments are in the wake of a “responsibility” deal agreed with DEFRA, following increased criticism of so-called “junk-mail” by environmental groups and will be intended by the DMA to stave off the threat of statutory regulation, which could have a highly damaging affect on mail volumes.
In our opinion, measures that will improve the perception of advertising mail in the public’s eye are to be welcomed. They should also lead to improvements in the accuracy of targeting - after all, it is in advertisers’ interest to target just those who are potential customers, rather than opting for blanket coverage. By not dropping to uninterested or actively-opposed households, we should be cutting down on wastage, saving on costs and improving ROI. We already work closely with our clients to make sure we are doing this, using up-to-date and relevant data to target just those most likely to respond. Any further improvements in targeting accuracy created by the opt-out website can only be a good thing for our clients and the industry as a whole.
Kyle Seeley
Senior Planner Buyer
The main change will be to the way in which people are able to opt-out of receiving advertising through their letterboxes. The current system offers consumers three options – the Mail Preference Service, the DMA’s door to door initiative and the Royal Mail equivalent – all of which will be consolidated into one website (although consumers will still need to register twice to stop both addressed and unaddressed advertising mail).
Other commitments include:
• DMA members being asked to produce all direct mail from recyclable paper that has originated from a certified sustainable source, or made from recycled paper
• The development of a carbon calculator for paper direct marketing material by the end of 2013 so that businesses can see the carbon footprint of the DM they produce
• 40% of all DM produced will have to conform to the requirements of a new industry environmental standard that will replace the BSI-endorsed waste standard PAS 2020
The commitments are in the wake of a “responsibility” deal agreed with DEFRA, following increased criticism of so-called “junk-mail” by environmental groups and will be intended by the DMA to stave off the threat of statutory regulation, which could have a highly damaging affect on mail volumes.
In our opinion, measures that will improve the perception of advertising mail in the public’s eye are to be welcomed. They should also lead to improvements in the accuracy of targeting - after all, it is in advertisers’ interest to target just those who are potential customers, rather than opting for blanket coverage. By not dropping to uninterested or actively-opposed households, we should be cutting down on wastage, saving on costs and improving ROI. We already work closely with our clients to make sure we are doing this, using up-to-date and relevant data to target just those most likely to respond. Any further improvements in targeting accuracy created by the opt-out website can only be a good thing for our clients and the industry as a whole.
Kyle Seeley
Senior Planner Buyer
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Media Down Under
I’ve spent the last year living and working in Sydney, Australia, but returned to London a few weeks ago and into the open arms of MC&C. When I tell people that I wasn’t forcibly removed from the Land Down Under and actually wanted to come back to England, their reaction is usually along the lines of a high pitched ‘REALLY?!’, followed by the incredulous raising of at least one eyebrow. It’s true though, I really did miss this city, and having now experienced working in direct response media on both sides of the globe, I have also developed a deeper appreciation of how we do things over here.
After arriving in Sydney I was fortunate enough to find work quickly, and joined MediaCom on two new pieces of business they’d won. One of my clients was Australia’s largest insurer, the other a new mobile telecoms start-up, lead by a group of entrepreneurs who had been there and done it in several European countries including Germany and Spain. Joining such a renowned agency and knowing I would be working on clients with extensive budgets, I was, perhaps naively, expecting to slot in to a large, well-established team, working with clients who were well prepared for the demands of creating successful DR campaigns.
This isn’t quite how it panned out. The insurer, despite being Australia’s largest, had only started using DR advertising a few months earlier, and it soon became apparent that to them DR was the ‘black sheep’ of the marketing family. Targets were set in a very inflexible manner, with their data department struggling to supply us with accurate numbers on which to report. The telecoms client was well versed in online media, but when it came to offline found it difficult to distinguish between measuring success on DR as opposed to brand metrics, when our strategy called for a careful mix of both.
Even within the agency, the amount of work needed to make DR successful for our clients was underestimated by senior management, although this was rectified later on, with additional recruits joining from their London office. Most difficult of all though was dealing with media owners, most of whom just did not seem to fully understand that we weren’t just trying to screw them down on price (not all the time, anyway) but that we really did have cost per response and ROI targets that we needed to achieve.
By the time I left, I was exhausted, having experienced what felt like uphill battles on all fronts in the name of direct response during my time there. I would like to think I won a few of those battles, if not the war, and I expect Australia will continue to look to the UK as it wakes up to the potential power of DR.
Kyle Seeley
After arriving in Sydney I was fortunate enough to find work quickly, and joined MediaCom on two new pieces of business they’d won. One of my clients was Australia’s largest insurer, the other a new mobile telecoms start-up, lead by a group of entrepreneurs who had been there and done it in several European countries including Germany and Spain. Joining such a renowned agency and knowing I would be working on clients with extensive budgets, I was, perhaps naively, expecting to slot in to a large, well-established team, working with clients who were well prepared for the demands of creating successful DR campaigns.
This isn’t quite how it panned out. The insurer, despite being Australia’s largest, had only started using DR advertising a few months earlier, and it soon became apparent that to them DR was the ‘black sheep’ of the marketing family. Targets were set in a very inflexible manner, with their data department struggling to supply us with accurate numbers on which to report. The telecoms client was well versed in online media, but when it came to offline found it difficult to distinguish between measuring success on DR as opposed to brand metrics, when our strategy called for a careful mix of both.
Even within the agency, the amount of work needed to make DR successful for our clients was underestimated by senior management, although this was rectified later on, with additional recruits joining from their London office. Most difficult of all though was dealing with media owners, most of whom just did not seem to fully understand that we weren’t just trying to screw them down on price (not all the time, anyway) but that we really did have cost per response and ROI targets that we needed to achieve.
By the time I left, I was exhausted, having experienced what felt like uphill battles on all fronts in the name of direct response during my time there. I would like to think I won a few of those battles, if not the war, and I expect Australia will continue to look to the UK as it wakes up to the potential power of DR.
Kyle Seeley
Thursday 13 October 2011
Google Adwords - The Process to Achieving Google Certification Status
Did you know that the sponsored ads that appear when you make a search on Google are called Pay Per Click. This paid advertising on Google is managed by Google Adwords and at Mike Colling and Company we use Adwords to manage the PPC activity for a number of our clients. For our PPC clients, the fact that we are a Google Certified Partner is an important sign of credibility but what does the process involve and how hard is it to achieve? As the newest recruit to the digital team at MC&C, I’m the latest to have been through the process.
The Google Adwords Certification Program is a test accrediting PPC experts. It proves that certified professionals can handle a PPC account. The exam is in two parts. The first one, called “Advertising Fundamentals”, asks general questions about the Google Network, PPC, the bidding system etc. The second part of the exam is a specialisation in one of the four following areas: Reporting, Display, Search and Analysis. My specialisation was in Search.
Questions are about optimising the rank of a sponsored ad, getting the best quality score for an ad, the lowest bid etc, but also about other aspects of PPC that we don’t use every day such as the billing payments and account management.
For starters, as a non-native English person, the exam is particularly challenging! And if that wasn’t enough Google pose the questions in a complicated way. Sometimes all the four answers appear to be right, but only one really is. I found that the best way to prepare for it was to study, like any exam. And to help, Google Learning Centre recommends several articles about all aspects of Adwords and provides quizzes to test your knowledge. It might just be me but for my money, the quizzes were simpler than the actual exam!
The exams take two hours to complete and with more than 100 questions per exam, that’s approximately 1 minute per question – phew! And to ensure security, the test is done on a separate browser to prevent having other windows open at the same time.
But the revision and time taken has paid off. I’m delighted to say that passed both the fundamentals and the specialisation and am now officially qualified.
If you’d like to find out more about Google Adwords and how it could help your business please get in touch at melanie@mcand.co.uk.
Melanie Houget
Online Planner/Buyer
The Google Adwords Certification Program is a test accrediting PPC experts. It proves that certified professionals can handle a PPC account. The exam is in two parts. The first one, called “Advertising Fundamentals”, asks general questions about the Google Network, PPC, the bidding system etc. The second part of the exam is a specialisation in one of the four following areas: Reporting, Display, Search and Analysis. My specialisation was in Search.
Questions are about optimising the rank of a sponsored ad, getting the best quality score for an ad, the lowest bid etc, but also about other aspects of PPC that we don’t use every day such as the billing payments and account management.
For starters, as a non-native English person, the exam is particularly challenging! And if that wasn’t enough Google pose the questions in a complicated way. Sometimes all the four answers appear to be right, but only one really is. I found that the best way to prepare for it was to study, like any exam. And to help, Google Learning Centre recommends several articles about all aspects of Adwords and provides quizzes to test your knowledge. It might just be me but for my money, the quizzes were simpler than the actual exam!
The exams take two hours to complete and with more than 100 questions per exam, that’s approximately 1 minute per question – phew! And to ensure security, the test is done on a separate browser to prevent having other windows open at the same time.
But the revision and time taken has paid off. I’m delighted to say that passed both the fundamentals and the specialisation and am now officially qualified.
If you’d like to find out more about Google Adwords and how it could help your business please get in touch at melanie@mcand.co.uk.
Melanie Houget
Online Planner/Buyer
Friday 7 October 2011
Using New Initiatives to Launch the RSPCA’s ‘Sponsor a Safe Little Place’
As we all know the RSPCA works really hard at preventing animal cruelty, encouraging animal welfare and rescues thousands of abused and neglected animals every year. It is this message that has been conveyed in their recent advertising campaigns.
Last week the RSPCA launched a new campaign, which is focusing on neglected cats and dogs. The campaign is called “Sponsor a safe little place”, to sponsor a kennel or a cat pod. The money raised through this campaign will go towards veterinary care, food, shelter, warm blankets and the love and attention they so desperately need.
For this campaign we planned the use of traditional media, DRTV, Direct Mail, Door Drop, Radio and Online along with some ‘new’ media activity, to target younger affluent females.
Concentrating within the vicinity of the branch that is the focus of this test, we had a stand within Bluewater shopping centre to kick start the launch of this new product, and to engage with potential donors and sign them up on the spot. This proved to be a really successful exercise: in fact, the number of sponsors who signed up was 37% above our target! Great news, not only did we beat our target but the feedback from the shoppers was that the stand gave a lot of information, and in most instances, people had learnt something they didn’t know about the RSPCA. They also liked the fact that they were speaking to someone face to face, to whom they could ask questions, but who wasn’t ‘pushing’ them to sign up in return.
The other event we organised was a dog walk – “Bark on the Beach” on the Isle of Wight and “ Bark in the Park” in Salisbury to raise awareness of the campaign launch. The dog walks took place last weekend, on the 1st October, the week leading up to the dog walks, each local radio station promoted the walk, with live reads and promotional trails. We picked the presenters for the promotion, who were avid dog lovers and who had dogs themselves. This gave additional support as the presenters were really passionate when they read the live reads, confirming that they themselves care about this cause.
During the actual walks, each station had live feeds back to the radio station, interviewing the participants who had signed up for sponsorship and stating why it was a good cause, in their opinion. This in itself was a great endorsement for the RSPCA, to have actual supporters giving heartfelt reasons why they support the charity and, in some cases, they had rescued a dog from their local RSPCA centre.
So the campaign is in its initial stages, but it’s certainly had a great start, by using these new initiatives, along with the traditional media , and making it personal to the sponsor.
If you would like to sponsor a kennel or cat pod please go to www.rspca.org.uk/safe
Vicky Nunn
TV Group Head
Last week the RSPCA launched a new campaign, which is focusing on neglected cats and dogs. The campaign is called “Sponsor a safe little place”, to sponsor a kennel or a cat pod. The money raised through this campaign will go towards veterinary care, food, shelter, warm blankets and the love and attention they so desperately need.
For this campaign we planned the use of traditional media, DRTV, Direct Mail, Door Drop, Radio and Online along with some ‘new’ media activity, to target younger affluent females.
Concentrating within the vicinity of the branch that is the focus of this test, we had a stand within Bluewater shopping centre to kick start the launch of this new product, and to engage with potential donors and sign them up on the spot. This proved to be a really successful exercise: in fact, the number of sponsors who signed up was 37% above our target! Great news, not only did we beat our target but the feedback from the shoppers was that the stand gave a lot of information, and in most instances, people had learnt something they didn’t know about the RSPCA. They also liked the fact that they were speaking to someone face to face, to whom they could ask questions, but who wasn’t ‘pushing’ them to sign up in return.
The other event we organised was a dog walk – “Bark on the Beach” on the Isle of Wight and “ Bark in the Park” in Salisbury to raise awareness of the campaign launch. The dog walks took place last weekend, on the 1st October, the week leading up to the dog walks, each local radio station promoted the walk, with live reads and promotional trails. We picked the presenters for the promotion, who were avid dog lovers and who had dogs themselves. This gave additional support as the presenters were really passionate when they read the live reads, confirming that they themselves care about this cause.
During the actual walks, each station had live feeds back to the radio station, interviewing the participants who had signed up for sponsorship and stating why it was a good cause, in their opinion. This in itself was a great endorsement for the RSPCA, to have actual supporters giving heartfelt reasons why they support the charity and, in some cases, they had rescued a dog from their local RSPCA centre.
So the campaign is in its initial stages, but it’s certainly had a great start, by using these new initiatives, along with the traditional media , and making it personal to the sponsor.
If you would like to sponsor a kennel or cat pod please go to www.rspca.org.uk/safe
Vicky Nunn
TV Group Head
Wednesday 28 September 2011
The Future’s Bright, the Future’s TV!
Last week MC&C hosted a seminar on Integration, in conjunction with creative agency Targetbase Claydon Heeley. In addition to presentations on the benefits of integration from both a media and creative perspective, we were also lucky enough to have a session from Tess Alps from ‘Thinkbox’ on the future of television and in particular how well it performs with other channels as part of an integrated campaign.
With the average person seemingly having less free time on their hands and new technologies that allow people to watch what they want and when they want, you would be forgiven for becoming worried about traditional television advertising. However, 2010 proved to be an extremely strong year for television with record linear viewing, an increase in advertising and reports confirming that television viewing makes up 50% of an adult’s media day. And Video on Demand (VoD) looks as though it will only boost television as a medium.
In a survey carried out by Thinkbox, families were given a host of new equipment for their homes, everything from high definition televisions to iPads; they were also given a number of ways to use VoD via X-box and TV enabled laptops. At the end of the process they were questioned on how they had found the new technologies and how they compared to traditional TV. Their findings showed that TV still incited a very positive response. The enhanced viewing that came with the high definition television meant that people still preferred the overall viewing experience that came with watching their favourite programming on the television rather than on a laptop. People cited the major use for VoD as being for ‘catch-up’ to enable them to continue with the linear programming on the television. This means that not only is VoD another platform to advertise to viewers but it also provides a service in driving viewers to the linear television schedule.
Another result of the enlargement of technology in the home is the increase in ‘two screening’ where viewers are using one platform at the same time. So, for example, using a smart phone or laptop while watching the television. Again, Thinkbox found this to have a positive result making the viewer more receptive to an advertiser and providing the opportunity for an instant reaction to what is on television via a few clicks on their phone or laptop.
So far from being a dying channel to the consumer, as technology has moved on, so has the television. Bigger and better quality viewing is the Holy Grail for both the manufacturers and the consumers. Advertisers can be more creative in how they connect with this more receptive audience, and for DRTV and MC&C better technology and two screening can only be a good thing!
Peter Bradley
With the average person seemingly having less free time on their hands and new technologies that allow people to watch what they want and when they want, you would be forgiven for becoming worried about traditional television advertising. However, 2010 proved to be an extremely strong year for television with record linear viewing, an increase in advertising and reports confirming that television viewing makes up 50% of an adult’s media day. And Video on Demand (VoD) looks as though it will only boost television as a medium.
In a survey carried out by Thinkbox, families were given a host of new equipment for their homes, everything from high definition televisions to iPads; they were also given a number of ways to use VoD via X-box and TV enabled laptops. At the end of the process they were questioned on how they had found the new technologies and how they compared to traditional TV. Their findings showed that TV still incited a very positive response. The enhanced viewing that came with the high definition television meant that people still preferred the overall viewing experience that came with watching their favourite programming on the television rather than on a laptop. People cited the major use for VoD as being for ‘catch-up’ to enable them to continue with the linear programming on the television. This means that not only is VoD another platform to advertise to viewers but it also provides a service in driving viewers to the linear television schedule.
Another result of the enlargement of technology in the home is the increase in ‘two screening’ where viewers are using one platform at the same time. So, for example, using a smart phone or laptop while watching the television. Again, Thinkbox found this to have a positive result making the viewer more receptive to an advertiser and providing the opportunity for an instant reaction to what is on television via a few clicks on their phone or laptop.
So far from being a dying channel to the consumer, as technology has moved on, so has the television. Bigger and better quality viewing is the Holy Grail for both the manufacturers and the consumers. Advertisers can be more creative in how they connect with this more receptive audience, and for DRTV and MC&C better technology and two screening can only be a good thing!
Peter Bradley
Wednesday 14 September 2011
Adpoints – Where advertisers pay you to watch their commercials
Ian and I met with a start-up company a couple of weeks back, who are aiming to revolutionise the incentivised segment of the online advertising environment. The Adpoints offering is simple – consumers are rewarded for watching video advertisements online. Their processes are a deal more complex though, which will result in the advertiser being able to profile the customers generated through the channel in great detail.
Research indicates that 69% of adults would watch more advertising if the advertiser paid them, and it is this level of incentive and engagement that Adpoints are looking to capitalise upon. By effectively paying people to watch their ads, marketers can increase levels of interaction with their brand, offering opportunities for the consumers to learn more about the ads which they are watching, sign up for further information from the advertiser or even to get their hands on special brand offers.
Alongside increasing the levels of interaction, Adpoints are able to build up demographic and behavioural profiles of the users of their site, which then allows them to target future advertisements to more relevant audiences. They do this by incorporating incentivised surveys which appear alongside the ads as they play, asking for the consumers’ vital details and attitudes to relevant issues.
All in all, their aim is to build up a base of highly responsive consumers, who are happy to view and interact with the ads that they see. This will in turn enhance the positivity the users experience when viewing the ads on site, increasing the chances that they go on to actually engage with the advertisers and purchase their offering.
Adpoints are planning to begin their pilot in late 2011, with a mind to rolling out
towards the spring of 2012. If you’d like to know any more then please contact a member of the MC&C team.
Alex Prout
Senior Digital Planner Buyer
Research indicates that 69% of adults would watch more advertising if the advertiser paid them, and it is this level of incentive and engagement that Adpoints are looking to capitalise upon. By effectively paying people to watch their ads, marketers can increase levels of interaction with their brand, offering opportunities for the consumers to learn more about the ads which they are watching, sign up for further information from the advertiser or even to get their hands on special brand offers.
Alongside increasing the levels of interaction, Adpoints are able to build up demographic and behavioural profiles of the users of their site, which then allows them to target future advertisements to more relevant audiences. They do this by incorporating incentivised surveys which appear alongside the ads as they play, asking for the consumers’ vital details and attitudes to relevant issues.
All in all, their aim is to build up a base of highly responsive consumers, who are happy to view and interact with the ads that they see. This will in turn enhance the positivity the users experience when viewing the ads on site, increasing the chances that they go on to actually engage with the advertisers and purchase their offering.
Adpoints are planning to begin their pilot in late 2011, with a mind to rolling out
towards the spring of 2012. If you’d like to know any more then please contact a member of the MC&C team.
Alex Prout
Senior Digital Planner Buyer
Friday 19 August 2011
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything” General Eisenhower
Mike and I often reminisce about the good old days when media planning was a bit of a dark art and press coverage and frequency were calculated using the revered “Sainsbury’s Formula” . We revel in telling the youngsters about blue and green AGB books and how we’ve both got one arm longer than the other because we had to carry BRAD in our briefcase at all times. Media planners of today just don't realise how lucky they are!
But are they? The modern day media planning process is far more complex than it’s ever been and just like O-Level Maths, clients expect you to show the workings out.
So, below are some of the working outs behind our process of planning and buying media activity.
Media plans need context – This means understanding the client’s business, their position in the marketplace, analysing what their competitors are up to and agreeing a strategy for the brand.
Objectives - Before putting a plan together we agree with the client a definition of their communication objectives, cognitive- oriented objectives (awareness), affective –oriented objectives (engagement) and co native- oriented objectives (purchase objectives, customer loyalty).
Target group analysis – This means not just looking at TGI but in-depth profiling of client data. We might look at the profile of their booking data against our own in-house profile classification, Pollen, and we’ll look at things like demographic, psychographic, socio-economic and behavioural characteristics to understand our target audience and how best to reach them.
Strategic media planning – Refers to the requirement for joined up thinking. Far more than just media alignment but integrating messaging and setting coverage and frequency targets by media as well as calculating overall coverage and frequency of the total campaign. How is this going to help deliver the hard metrics? How have we come up with the campaign shape - duration, burst, drip, pulse etc, etc.
Detail planning/optimisation - This is the nuts and bolt of the plan. Within each media there is a multitude of formats, copy and booking deadlines. Airtime deployment considerations detailed here. Data requests and plans are discussed in this section. How are tests such as creative, advertising weight, regional up weight going to be incorporated in the plan? Where does social media fit in? And more importantly, this is where each individual buy has a response/sale/donor/ROI value attributed to it. This is fed into a comprehensive call/lead forecast within agreed time segments. A really important working out is how we’re going to incorporate learnings gathered as the campaign unfolds. Online is pretty straightforward, but how can we optimise other activity, such as inserts, national press?
Buying Strategy/Tactics - More and more clients want to fully appreciate how their media agency is going to maximise media value and how they can help. Part laid down, part distress, payment by results, even barter need to be assessed and a strategy laid down for approval.
The above is by no means is an exhaustive list of workings out and is a lot trickier than O’Level Maths even with the use of log tables (ask your parents!)
But are they? The modern day media planning process is far more complex than it’s ever been and just like O-Level Maths, clients expect you to show the workings out.
So, below are some of the working outs behind our process of planning and buying media activity.
Media plans need context – This means understanding the client’s business, their position in the marketplace, analysing what their competitors are up to and agreeing a strategy for the brand.
Objectives - Before putting a plan together we agree with the client a definition of their communication objectives, cognitive- oriented objectives (awareness), affective –oriented objectives (engagement) and co native- oriented objectives (purchase objectives, customer loyalty).
Target group analysis – This means not just looking at TGI but in-depth profiling of client data. We might look at the profile of their booking data against our own in-house profile classification, Pollen, and we’ll look at things like demographic, psychographic, socio-economic and behavioural characteristics to understand our target audience and how best to reach them.
Strategic media planning – Refers to the requirement for joined up thinking. Far more than just media alignment but integrating messaging and setting coverage and frequency targets by media as well as calculating overall coverage and frequency of the total campaign. How is this going to help deliver the hard metrics? How have we come up with the campaign shape - duration, burst, drip, pulse etc, etc.
Detail planning/optimisation - This is the nuts and bolt of the plan. Within each media there is a multitude of formats, copy and booking deadlines. Airtime deployment considerations detailed here. Data requests and plans are discussed in this section. How are tests such as creative, advertising weight, regional up weight going to be incorporated in the plan? Where does social media fit in? And more importantly, this is where each individual buy has a response/sale/donor/ROI value attributed to it. This is fed into a comprehensive call/lead forecast within agreed time segments. A really important working out is how we’re going to incorporate learnings gathered as the campaign unfolds. Online is pretty straightforward, but how can we optimise other activity, such as inserts, national press?
Buying Strategy/Tactics - More and more clients want to fully appreciate how their media agency is going to maximise media value and how they can help. Part laid down, part distress, payment by results, even barter need to be assessed and a strategy laid down for approval.
The above is by no means is an exhaustive list of workings out and is a lot trickier than O’Level Maths even with the use of log tables (ask your parents!)
Thursday 4 August 2011
It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.
Commercial radio’s impressive Q2 performance just shows what hard work and innovation can achieve. Quality content that’s accessible across multi platforms is starting to pay dividends for commercial radio. As a result, it is continuing to grow its audience, its listening hours and its market share.
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Just text giving – just what the sector ordered?
Just text giving by Vodafone allows charities to create their own SMS code then publicise it to make texting donations for any charity direct from your phone fast and simple. It’s a great idea as it builds on the modern need for everything to happen instantly and it’s ultra-simple which prevents a short attention span getting in the way of good intentions.
However, this first version by Vodafone does have some significant limitations for charities. The two major areas for concern are a) a maximum donation amount of £10 and b) the lack of data the charity gets from each donation, which prevents them from re-contacting the donors in the way they would using other media channels.
For a large proportion of charities their average cash donation is in excess of £10 so using this in isolation could mean they would lose money. It also suggests that this approach isn’t a stand-alone income generator but more of an additional income channel. Furthermore, the issue of ‘bill shock’ may mean that the donation amount has to be limited for now. However, the minimum could conceivably increase as the methods involved in the scheme and awareness of the scheme increase.
The re-contacting issue, however, looks like a trickier problem due to opt in regulations and data protection between operators and the charities themselves. The lack of a method to re-contact donors means people can’t be followed up after their initial donation and limits further potential warm income for the charity.
Having said that it has some very real benefits – Its simplicity allows charities to engage with a younger audience, which is something most are very keen to do more of. It also provides high levels of awareness to smaller charities with simple brand strategies, saves charities the cost of building web material such as dedicated landing pages and microsites and it reduces call centre operator costs that would otherwise be needed at off-peak periods.
So, all in all, I feel that ’Just text giving’ is a large step in the right direction and as long as its simplicity doesn’t erode or prevent charity loyalty I think it will develop into a useful tool that can, and indeed should be, used by all charities.
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
However, this first version by Vodafone does have some significant limitations for charities. The two major areas for concern are a) a maximum donation amount of £10 and b) the lack of data the charity gets from each donation, which prevents them from re-contacting the donors in the way they would using other media channels.
For a large proportion of charities their average cash donation is in excess of £10 so using this in isolation could mean they would lose money. It also suggests that this approach isn’t a stand-alone income generator but more of an additional income channel. Furthermore, the issue of ‘bill shock’ may mean that the donation amount has to be limited for now. However, the minimum could conceivably increase as the methods involved in the scheme and awareness of the scheme increase.
The re-contacting issue, however, looks like a trickier problem due to opt in regulations and data protection between operators and the charities themselves. The lack of a method to re-contact donors means people can’t be followed up after their initial donation and limits further potential warm income for the charity.
Having said that it has some very real benefits – Its simplicity allows charities to engage with a younger audience, which is something most are very keen to do more of. It also provides high levels of awareness to smaller charities with simple brand strategies, saves charities the cost of building web material such as dedicated landing pages and microsites and it reduces call centre operator costs that would otherwise be needed at off-peak periods.
So, all in all, I feel that ’Just text giving’ is a large step in the right direction and as long as its simplicity doesn’t erode or prevent charity loyalty I think it will develop into a useful tool that can, and indeed should be, used by all charities.
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
Tuesday 19 July 2011
The stars come out for Max
Our TV Manager, Vicky Nunn, was at the recent IoF - here are some of her thoughts:
At the this month’s Institute of Fundraising conference, Max Clifford the PR guru opened up proceedings with a presentation dealing with the use of celebrities in the fundraising areana. With 40 years of experience, he talked a lot of good sense such as making sure the celebrity has a real and genuine connection with the charity. Also, you’re more likely to enlist the support of a celebrity, if you ask for their help on a particular aspect of the charities work.
As someone who has been buying TV airtime over quite a few years this has led me to think why it’s very rare to see commercials feature celebrities. Sure there are a few celebrity voiceovers but not a full blown personal appeal. The last one I can remember is Davina McCall, who featured in the Action for Children commercial.
Why is this?
Maybe charities appreciate Mike Masnick (Techdirt.com) point of view that today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago. This means that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today's consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection.
Today's consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads. There is no reason why this is not true about fundraising commercials.
Oh and there is always the Tiger Woods/Ryan Giggs scenario to put you off...
At the this month’s Institute of Fundraising conference, Max Clifford the PR guru opened up proceedings with a presentation dealing with the use of celebrities in the fundraising areana. With 40 years of experience, he talked a lot of good sense such as making sure the celebrity has a real and genuine connection with the charity. Also, you’re more likely to enlist the support of a celebrity, if you ask for their help on a particular aspect of the charities work.
As someone who has been buying TV airtime over quite a few years this has led me to think why it’s very rare to see commercials feature celebrities. Sure there are a few celebrity voiceovers but not a full blown personal appeal. The last one I can remember is Davina McCall, who featured in the Action for Children commercial.
Why is this?
Maybe charities appreciate Mike Masnick (Techdirt.com) point of view that today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago. This means that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today's consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection.
Today's consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads. There is no reason why this is not true about fundraising commercials.
Oh and there is always the Tiger Woods/Ryan Giggs scenario to put you off...
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Will you be the master of your domain?
The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit group which controls the internet domain name system, has announced its final guidelines on a new host of web addresses which will allow companies to purchase URLs ending in their brand name. For example Apple could buy the ending ‘.apple’ instead of ‘www.apple.com’.
This potentially opens up a new online marketplace where any company or organization that loses the race for this second generation identity, could be impacted significantly.
Buying a relevant web address has become a significant commercial issue for companies, who found previously that they cannot buy the web URL of choice. “Cyber Squatters” moved in quickly first time around and then, often successfully, forced companies to pay high sums of money to in order to reclaim themselves online. These ‘Cyber Squatters’ are not prone to giving up these rights easily so getting in before them is vital.
However the privilege of owning one of these new TLD’s does not come cheap in the first instance either. The application process for these new names will only be open for 60 days from January 2012 and will cost a whopping $185,000 / £114,000, regardless of success rate! After that, the process will be closed for another three years so companies need to think about this issue urgently.
Due to the costs involved, this opportunity has most impact on governments, large organizations and corporations, however over time I would expect ICANN costs to drop potentially causing a last minute scramble for the most desirable leftovers. To avoid this we recommend that clients review their current and future requirements in the area of their domain names.
So if domain personalisation is only for the business big cheeses, what alternatives are there for everyone else? Well there is a way you can play the TLD game without spending $185K and that is by utilising Dashcoms. What are Dashcoms I hear you cry! They are a free way for anyone to create their own set of TDL’s at no cost and without reference to ICANN, simply by registering new Dashcom (instead of Dotcom) Domains.
Dashcoms are memorable and relevant web addresses such as ‘animal-protection’ ‘live-music’ or ‘tennis-net’, you can even use Facebook Emoticons like musical notes ‘♫♫-♫♫’.
For more information on Dashcoms go to - http://dashworlds.com/src/about.php?P=about
As this is a relatively new technology and needs specific free software installed on the user’s computer this will take a while to build momentum. However, tools are being developed right now that should remove the current need for downloaded software and open up this resource to the masses. Should this happen it could well make the ICANN TDL sale have a whiff of the Emperor’s new clothes. I guess we’ll have to wait and see ………
This potentially opens up a new online marketplace where any company or organization that loses the race for this second generation identity, could be impacted significantly.
Buying a relevant web address has become a significant commercial issue for companies, who found previously that they cannot buy the web URL of choice. “Cyber Squatters” moved in quickly first time around and then, often successfully, forced companies to pay high sums of money to in order to reclaim themselves online. These ‘Cyber Squatters’ are not prone to giving up these rights easily so getting in before them is vital.
However the privilege of owning one of these new TLD’s does not come cheap in the first instance either. The application process for these new names will only be open for 60 days from January 2012 and will cost a whopping $185,000 / £114,000, regardless of success rate! After that, the process will be closed for another three years so companies need to think about this issue urgently.
Due to the costs involved, this opportunity has most impact on governments, large organizations and corporations, however over time I would expect ICANN costs to drop potentially causing a last minute scramble for the most desirable leftovers. To avoid this we recommend that clients review their current and future requirements in the area of their domain names.
So if domain personalisation is only for the business big cheeses, what alternatives are there for everyone else? Well there is a way you can play the TLD game without spending $185K and that is by utilising Dashcoms. What are Dashcoms I hear you cry! They are a free way for anyone to create their own set of TDL’s at no cost and without reference to ICANN, simply by registering new Dashcom (instead of Dotcom) Domains.
Dashcoms are memorable and relevant web addresses such as ‘animal-protection’ ‘live-music’ or ‘tennis-net’, you can even use Facebook Emoticons like musical notes ‘♫♫-♫♫’.
For more information on Dashcoms go to - http://dashworlds.com/src/about.php?P=about
As this is a relatively new technology and needs specific free software installed on the user’s computer this will take a while to build momentum. However, tools are being developed right now that should remove the current need for downloaded software and open up this resource to the masses. Should this happen it could well make the ICANN TDL sale have a whiff of the Emperor’s new clothes. I guess we’ll have to wait and see ………
Thursday 30 June 2011
Hunt ready to clear News-BSkyB merger
This morning’s news that Jeremy Hunt is prepared to clear the News Corp/BSkyB merger signals exciting new potential for us as data led media planners.
Both News Corp and BSkyB are both capable of, and interested in, generating consumer data for advertisers.
They either have (in the case of Sky) or are creating (in the case of News) subscriber relationships that allow them to create a rich depth of data on consumer behavior. They are investing in teams and tools that enable the utilization of said data.
What is really interesting is that we will potentially have access to single source data, allowing us to track consumers as they move from the emotional environment of broadcast to the more rational environment of “print”. We know from single source media research tools like Touchpoints that these journeys are crucial in improving media schedule effectiveness. This merger may eventually allow us to replicate that at data rather than survey level.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
Both News Corp and BSkyB are both capable of, and interested in, generating consumer data for advertisers.
They either have (in the case of Sky) or are creating (in the case of News) subscriber relationships that allow them to create a rich depth of data on consumer behavior. They are investing in teams and tools that enable the utilization of said data.
What is really interesting is that we will potentially have access to single source data, allowing us to track consumers as they move from the emotional environment of broadcast to the more rational environment of “print”. We know from single source media research tools like Touchpoints that these journeys are crucial in improving media schedule effectiveness. This merger may eventually allow us to replicate that at data rather than survey level.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
Wednesday 29 June 2011
Half Price Media Opportunities
It’s an ill wind …
The news that the Greek parliament has voted for the austerity cuts has just hit my screen. The Euro will live to fight another day, but as is obvious from the UK high street it’s not just Greece that is suffering. And the UK media market this summer is no different. We are seeing the equivalent of high street sales on media space, with media being offered at literally less than half usual prices.
Most of our clients have taken up the opportunity to invest in TV at half price. Much of that availability is now gone, having been snapped up. But other media owners are now offering similar deals. Incremental insert spend is particularly keenly priced - call John Willacy on 020-7307 6139 and discover just how cheap it could be.
Mike Colling, Managing Director
The news that the Greek parliament has voted for the austerity cuts has just hit my screen. The Euro will live to fight another day, but as is obvious from the UK high street it’s not just Greece that is suffering. And the UK media market this summer is no different. We are seeing the equivalent of high street sales on media space, with media being offered at literally less than half usual prices.
Most of our clients have taken up the opportunity to invest in TV at half price. Much of that availability is now gone, having been snapped up. But other media owners are now offering similar deals. Incremental insert spend is particularly keenly priced - call John Willacy on 020-7307 6139 and discover just how cheap it could be.
Mike Colling, Managing Director
Tuesday 21 June 2011
CBS Outdoor London 2012 briefing
9.2 million tickets, 4 billion global audience, 20,000 accredited media, 15,000 athletes. In just under 430 days, all eyes will turn to London for the world’s largest event – the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Last Tuesday my colleague and I were invited to hear a number of talks on the subject of the upcoming Olympic Games, hosted by CBS Outdoor. As we scaled the dizzying heights to the thirty-first floor of Centrepoint, we expected to be given an insight into the ways in which brands are using the Olympics as a marketable commodity.
First up was Greg Nugent, Brand and Marketing Director for the London 2012 committee, who, in between fielding queries about why various members of the audience hadn’t received any of the tickets they had tried to buy, gave an exciting update of the progress of the Olympic site to date.
We also heard from Fran Hegyi, who divulged as yet ‘unreleased’ information about the programme of events comprising the ‘Cultural Olympiad’ – something we learned, we could still get tickets for!
Then it was the turn of the marketing director of TFL to provide us with insight into consumers’ travel behaviour, and the role of public transport during the games – including facts such as the number of people on the tube across the Olympic period will be the equivalent of hosting the Royal Wedding, every day…
Fiona FitzGibbon, Head of London 2012 Strategy at CBS Outdoor then took us through a showcase of the advertising opportunities in London for the Olympic Games. This prompted a discussion around how brands using outdoor advertising across the Olympic period will be able to achieve standout and how to make the most of consumers’ passion for the Games.
It seems that the key lesson now for marketers targeting the London 2012 Olympics is that sponsors and advertisers alike will have to develop intelligent and evolving strategies if they are to make the most of their significant investment into the Games. Competition to stand out will be fierce, and all will want to cash in on the collective and growing excitement surrounding the Games.
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Motability - Using One Big Day to Increase Awareness and Understanding, Create a Positive Brand Association and Increase Membership
The Motability Scheme enables disabled people to lease a car, powered wheelchair or scooter by exchanging their government-funded mobility allowances for a worry-free mobility package that might include a car, powered wheelchair or scooter, insurance, servicing, tyres, breakdown cover, or vehicle adaptations. The best way to find out about how great the Motability Car Scheme is is to actually go into a dealership. And we know that more conversions to the scheme take place once a prospect has spoken to a dealer either face to face or on the phone.
For our target audience however it can be physically difficult with their disability and mobility issues, to go from dealer to dealer not to mention the anxiety that can surround a dealer visit, test driving cars and finding the one that’s exactly right for them. Motability recognise this, and have brought everything their prospects need to know about the Car Scheme under one roof. This includes opportunities to talk to the experts, ask the questions they’ve always wanted to, look around the cars and take a test drive.
Motability is planning to hold 5 One Big Days this year and we are currently planning campaigns around the following events on their behalf:
• Stoneleigh Park, Coventry – Saturday 4th June
• Colchester Football Club, Essex - Thursday 28th July
• Reebok Stadium, Bolton – Thursday 11th August
• Cardiff City Football Stadium – Thursday 18th August
• Newcastle Racecourse, Thursday 25th August
We have worked closely with the client to identify venues in areas of the country where there are high numbers of DLA recipients and have chosen venues that will act as a draw to potential new customers whilst at the same time providing a fun day out for the family. The main message of the day, however, is that this is a primarily a Motability event and any other themes relating to the venues (horse racing, football etc) are secondary.
The events themselves fit with Motability’s strategic objectives of Scheme growth: generating increased awareness and understanding of the Scheme, creating a positive brand association with Motability and giving them a chance to have face to face interaction with both their potential customers and existing customers who may be in the market to renew their car. It is also their aim to create a buzz in the local community where the event is being held so that they can reach out to people that were previously unaware of the Car Scheme.
Their precise goals for each event are to a) attract 1,000 plus attendees, that’s 500eligible prospects plus guests; b) capture new prospect data via data capture on a competition entry form (mailed to prospects and downloaded at www.motability.co.uk/onebigday; c) provide a positive brand experience for all guests and; d) generate positive Motability PR in the local area each event is held
Although the campaign has just commenced we have generated over 2,000 attendees from the first event alone through careful analysis of the catchment area and by integrating local press with radio. We’ll keep you posted as to developments!
For our target audience however it can be physically difficult with their disability and mobility issues, to go from dealer to dealer not to mention the anxiety that can surround a dealer visit, test driving cars and finding the one that’s exactly right for them. Motability recognise this, and have brought everything their prospects need to know about the Car Scheme under one roof. This includes opportunities to talk to the experts, ask the questions they’ve always wanted to, look around the cars and take a test drive.
Motability is planning to hold 5 One Big Days this year and we are currently planning campaigns around the following events on their behalf:
• Stoneleigh Park, Coventry – Saturday 4th June
• Colchester Football Club, Essex - Thursday 28th July
• Reebok Stadium, Bolton – Thursday 11th August
• Cardiff City Football Stadium – Thursday 18th August
• Newcastle Racecourse, Thursday 25th August
We have worked closely with the client to identify venues in areas of the country where there are high numbers of DLA recipients and have chosen venues that will act as a draw to potential new customers whilst at the same time providing a fun day out for the family. The main message of the day, however, is that this is a primarily a Motability event and any other themes relating to the venues (horse racing, football etc) are secondary.
The events themselves fit with Motability’s strategic objectives of Scheme growth: generating increased awareness and understanding of the Scheme, creating a positive brand association with Motability and giving them a chance to have face to face interaction with both their potential customers and existing customers who may be in the market to renew their car. It is also their aim to create a buzz in the local community where the event is being held so that they can reach out to people that were previously unaware of the Car Scheme.
Their precise goals for each event are to a) attract 1,000 plus attendees, that’s 500eligible prospects plus guests; b) capture new prospect data via data capture on a competition entry form (mailed to prospects and downloaded at www.motability.co.uk/onebigday; c) provide a positive brand experience for all guests and; d) generate positive Motability PR in the local area each event is held
Although the campaign has just commenced we have generated over 2,000 attendees from the first event alone through careful analysis of the catchment area and by integrating local press with radio. We’ll keep you posted as to developments!
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Radioplayer
This week I'm talking about an event which I think should have received significantly more trade coverage because it has real significance on how a highly fragmented media market place can improve audience experience and enhance user experience. I’m referring to Radioplayer’s early snapshot figures which show that a healthy 5.7 million unique users were generated over a four week period producing 22.5 million listening sessions.
Radioplayer, the online listening partnership between the BBC and commercial radio, has achieved instant impact since its launch only eight weeks ago. Its success lies in its ability to offer a simple, consistent way for users to access UK radio stations of all shapes and sizes and make online listening more enjoyable. For example, if you want to listen to live coverage of a football match you can search for it using Radioplayer’s search engine. Or you can access local stations by entering your postcode. This is great for advertisers this giving them the opportunity to serve locally relevant ads at the same time.
My personal experience is that it’s a bit like Spotify where I search for music which might not be part of my usual listening repertoire because it’s easy to choose and one musical experience leads to another, meaning sessions are longer.
Radioplayer is to be congratulated for making the multi-faceted world of radio accessible in one place and improving the experience through digital technology.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Radioplayer, the online listening partnership between the BBC and commercial radio, has achieved instant impact since its launch only eight weeks ago. Its success lies in its ability to offer a simple, consistent way for users to access UK radio stations of all shapes and sizes and make online listening more enjoyable. For example, if you want to listen to live coverage of a football match you can search for it using Radioplayer’s search engine. Or you can access local stations by entering your postcode. This is great for advertisers this giving them the opportunity to serve locally relevant ads at the same time.
My personal experience is that it’s a bit like Spotify where I search for music which might not be part of my usual listening repertoire because it’s easy to choose and one musical experience leads to another, meaning sessions are longer.
Radioplayer is to be congratulated for making the multi-faceted world of radio accessible in one place and improving the experience through digital technology.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Marketing Lessons from the World’s Most Illusive
Whether you like it or not, social media is increasingly becoming the choice of channel for breaking news. There will always be sceptics - those who don’t use it, those that don’t trust it and those that don’t understand it. In fact, in February 2010 a study found that some 18% of companies weren’t using social media. This was up 9% from 2009, and a further 13% said social media was unimportant. Even with those that have embraced social media it is largely considered “un-strategic” and often frowned upon by traditional marketers.
So here’s the lesson, if the White House uses Social Media to get the message out about the execution of Bin Laden, then it’s pretty obvious that social media is one of the first places you should be looking to get your message out. The image of the President, Vice President and members of the national security team in the Situation Room of the White House on 1 May receiving an update on the mission is one that was beamed across the world, made the front page of the National Press and will no doubt be shown to generations of the future. And where was it first published? On Flickr, a social media site.
Not only this but it was Twitter that was responsible for the breaking of the news by an aide to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld albeit unknowingly by an IT consultant living in Pakistan annoyed by the early morning chorus of four stealth helicopters ‘creeping’ into the area! After the raid, Sohaib Athar (34) Tweeted ““Uh oh, now I’m the guy who live-blogged the Osama raid without knowing it.” Subsequently, by the end of the day, Athar (@ReallyVirtual) had over 33,000 followers on Twitter.
But after this, what’s next? Twitter is a great place to vent your feelings and find out the latest headlines, but what happens after that? 140 characters is hardly the medium for detailed, accurate journalism. You can find out what’s going on, but where do you go to get the ‘real’ news? More often than not, back to traditional media where you can separate fact from fiction, and gain perspective.
So, social media and traditional media should be seen as complementary, rather than a replacement for each other.
In the same way, when you’re looking at new innovative ways to drive response from your target audience, you should be thinking integration. The increase in the importance of social media has crept into the advertising spotlight. It is now on the agenda of many large advertisers with many employing a specific body to deal with advertising across the social media spectrum. It has become an important part of an integrated marketing campaign – it allows the advertiser to accurately target their demographic whilst using press as getting their message to the masses. Hence, social media can be used to enhance the effectiveness of a traditional approach whilst not losing sight of your core strengths and possibilities.
What people need to recognise, as the White House already has, is that social media is here to stay … and that goes for the cynic on the other side of your meeting room table as well!
So here’s the lesson, if the White House uses Social Media to get the message out about the execution of Bin Laden, then it’s pretty obvious that social media is one of the first places you should be looking to get your message out. The image of the President, Vice President and members of the national security team in the Situation Room of the White House on 1 May receiving an update on the mission is one that was beamed across the world, made the front page of the National Press and will no doubt be shown to generations of the future. And where was it first published? On Flickr, a social media site.
Not only this but it was Twitter that was responsible for the breaking of the news by an aide to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld albeit unknowingly by an IT consultant living in Pakistan annoyed by the early morning chorus of four stealth helicopters ‘creeping’ into the area! After the raid, Sohaib Athar (34) Tweeted ““Uh oh, now I’m the guy who live-blogged the Osama raid without knowing it.” Subsequently, by the end of the day, Athar (@ReallyVirtual) had over 33,000 followers on Twitter.
But after this, what’s next? Twitter is a great place to vent your feelings and find out the latest headlines, but what happens after that? 140 characters is hardly the medium for detailed, accurate journalism. You can find out what’s going on, but where do you go to get the ‘real’ news? More often than not, back to traditional media where you can separate fact from fiction, and gain perspective.
So, social media and traditional media should be seen as complementary, rather than a replacement for each other.
In the same way, when you’re looking at new innovative ways to drive response from your target audience, you should be thinking integration. The increase in the importance of social media has crept into the advertising spotlight. It is now on the agenda of many large advertisers with many employing a specific body to deal with advertising across the social media spectrum. It has become an important part of an integrated marketing campaign – it allows the advertiser to accurately target their demographic whilst using press as getting their message to the masses. Hence, social media can be used to enhance the effectiveness of a traditional approach whilst not losing sight of your core strengths and possibilities.
What people need to recognise, as the White House already has, is that social media is here to stay … and that goes for the cynic on the other side of your meeting room table as well!
Wednesday 11 May 2011
‘JustTextGiving’ – Enabling Charities to Harness the Power of Text
It was announced this week that JustGiving and Vodafone have teamed up to launch a new service that will enable all UK registered charities to raise money through text donations. The initiative, called ‘JustTextGiving’, is a simple and free service. Unlike previous charity text campaigns which have involved a steep charge on the donation value, this removes the set up and running costs, as well as the commission fees. This means that the donor can be confident that every penny of their donation goes towards their chosen charity.
So, how does it work? The charity must obtain a ‘JustTextGiving’ unique six digit short code, which allows it to invite others to make donations of up to £10 by texting the code to 70070. The value is then secured from the donor’s bill or pay-as-you-go balance. However, nothing has yet been said about ownership of data which poses the obvious question ‘just how valuable the donors might be in the long term, given that this is based on a one-off gift.’
The new initiative is available across all network providers and will be welcomed by fundraisers. We’ve already seen the potential of text as a means of securing incremental income across a number of our clients’ results – RSPCA, WaterAid and The Salvation Army have all capitalised on the use of text as part of their DRTV campaigns as a means of increasing income in some instances by up to 30%. This has transformed results in a time of declining phone response rates (not to mention a decline in overall giving, as reported by the Pennies Foundation last week).
Not only will this initiative make text giving more accessible for all UK charities but it will also facilitate and improve engagement between charities and the next generation of donor. It’s now more important than ever that fundraisers are speaking to potential donors in the most relevant way and using all of the tools at their disposal in order to do so. Some of our clients have already seen the potential value that text has to bring to the table – for other charities, it’s just a matter of time…
Helen Guard
Senior TV Planner Buyer
So, how does it work? The charity must obtain a ‘JustTextGiving’ unique six digit short code, which allows it to invite others to make donations of up to £10 by texting the code to 70070. The value is then secured from the donor’s bill or pay-as-you-go balance. However, nothing has yet been said about ownership of data which poses the obvious question ‘just how valuable the donors might be in the long term, given that this is based on a one-off gift.’
The new initiative is available across all network providers and will be welcomed by fundraisers. We’ve already seen the potential of text as a means of securing incremental income across a number of our clients’ results – RSPCA, WaterAid and The Salvation Army have all capitalised on the use of text as part of their DRTV campaigns as a means of increasing income in some instances by up to 30%. This has transformed results in a time of declining phone response rates (not to mention a decline in overall giving, as reported by the Pennies Foundation last week).
Not only will this initiative make text giving more accessible for all UK charities but it will also facilitate and improve engagement between charities and the next generation of donor. It’s now more important than ever that fundraisers are speaking to potential donors in the most relevant way and using all of the tools at their disposal in order to do so. Some of our clients have already seen the potential value that text has to bring to the table – for other charities, it’s just a matter of time…
Helen Guard
Senior TV Planner Buyer
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Integration: action speaks louder than words
Not so long ago at new business presentations one of the main things that kept the pitch team amused was to count how many times the term ‘integration’ was mentioned. My record personal best was 26! I’m not sure though anyone really understood what integration really meant. To me it’s more than media alignment, it’s more than consistently communicating a core message across all platforms. Integration is about enhancing the customer journey towards a profitable place – hearts and minds as well as the bottom line.
Nowadays social media practitioners such as Brian Solis from Future Works, are leading the way in integrated communication planning and we can learn a lot from them. They essentially build community through engagement and possess a great deal of knowledge about their audience. They proactively reach out to potential ambassadors to spread the word by integrating communication that’s personalised, real-time and consistent. At the very heart of this integration is being able to start and maintain a conversation that is amplified when it’s held across various platforms.
Good conversations evoke engagement and this is where TV has lots to offer. TV is the most effective advertising medium in generating talkability as we are about to see once more with the launch of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. And ITV have made a huge effort in not only instigating conversation on a large scale but through its platforms are able to prolong and deepen them in terms of both soft and hard metrics. An example of this is where the advertiser on a mobile internet site can feature product information, special offers, downloads, games, competitions and data collection opportunities. Store locator – users text a keyword and their postcode to a short code on-screen. They then receive an SMS informing them of the nearest location where the product is sold. All this is in the context of talking about a show which for a huge part of the country dominates popular culture for weeks.
It has long been accepted that multi-media strategies are a good thing – sum of the parts and all that. The natural progression is that integration is an even better thing. Integration can only be achieved by strategically executing creative across all media. In our experience, creative relevancy appears to add value by matching creative to context. With huge pressure on budgets this has become a really important aspect of media planning for both direct response and brand campaigns although with integration the line between the two has become even more blurred.
At mc&c we like to prove the blindingly obvious just in case … For one of our clients we developed a model which helped them to put a value against integration for a campaign whose objectives were to convey trust as well as generate funded accounts with an average value of £30,000. The model compared multiple messaging across multimedia platforms to one single message deployed across multiple media. Interestingly, what we found was that the single-minded integrated message produced 25% more funded accounts. There was also the added benefit that in research carried out softer metrics such as trust and confidence, the campaign scored well. It seems creative integration wherever the dialogue takes place engenders brand acceptability and higher levels of response.
We’re probably still a long way to fully understanding integration but least we’re doing it rather than just talking about it.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Nowadays social media practitioners such as Brian Solis from Future Works, are leading the way in integrated communication planning and we can learn a lot from them. They essentially build community through engagement and possess a great deal of knowledge about their audience. They proactively reach out to potential ambassadors to spread the word by integrating communication that’s personalised, real-time and consistent. At the very heart of this integration is being able to start and maintain a conversation that is amplified when it’s held across various platforms.
Good conversations evoke engagement and this is where TV has lots to offer. TV is the most effective advertising medium in generating talkability as we are about to see once more with the launch of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. And ITV have made a huge effort in not only instigating conversation on a large scale but through its platforms are able to prolong and deepen them in terms of both soft and hard metrics. An example of this is where the advertiser on a mobile internet site can feature product information, special offers, downloads, games, competitions and data collection opportunities. Store locator – users text a keyword and their postcode to a short code on-screen. They then receive an SMS informing them of the nearest location where the product is sold. All this is in the context of talking about a show which for a huge part of the country dominates popular culture for weeks.
It has long been accepted that multi-media strategies are a good thing – sum of the parts and all that. The natural progression is that integration is an even better thing. Integration can only be achieved by strategically executing creative across all media. In our experience, creative relevancy appears to add value by matching creative to context. With huge pressure on budgets this has become a really important aspect of media planning for both direct response and brand campaigns although with integration the line between the two has become even more blurred.
At mc&c we like to prove the blindingly obvious just in case … For one of our clients we developed a model which helped them to put a value against integration for a campaign whose objectives were to convey trust as well as generate funded accounts with an average value of £30,000. The model compared multiple messaging across multimedia platforms to one single message deployed across multiple media. Interestingly, what we found was that the single-minded integrated message produced 25% more funded accounts. There was also the added benefit that in research carried out softer metrics such as trust and confidence, the campaign scored well. It seems creative integration wherever the dialogue takes place engenders brand acceptability and higher levels of response.
We’re probably still a long way to fully understanding integration but least we’re doing it rather than just talking about it.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Tuesday 12 April 2011
Can ambient media produce an accountable response as part of a direct marketing strategy?
Back in 2002, Precision Marketing posed the question: “Can ambient media produce an accountable response as part of a direct marketing strategy?” I think the answer then was probably no, even though online was well established and the popular phrase of “this really is the year when mobile marketing will take off” was regularly expounded.
But things are different now. Face to face, experiential and putting ads on carelessly discarded chewing gum (trust me, the next big thing in guerrilla marketing!) can be fused into a response channel using social media and mobile technology. QR codes make Oxfam cloth labels transform a smart idea into a response mechanism where the quality of the engagement and relationship building essentially outweighs what back in 2002 was the view that the cost per contact would be too prohibitive.
Direct marketing has always been about dialogue and accessibility but at the right cost. New technology has meant that a huge array of touch points and media opportunities make perfect sense.
Thursday 24 March 2011
“The Japanese tsunami and fundraising”
It’s now nearly two weeks since the dreadful tsunami hit Japan. Unlike its 2004 predecessor when disaster relief fundraising started at a huge scale almost the next day, there was initial confusion as to whether a first-world economy like Japan needed support.
When the scale of the problem became apparent only a select few organizations became involved and started direct appeals. These included the Red Cross, and our own client The Salvation Army, who had relief workers on the ground less than 24 hours after the tsunami hit and who began emergency appeal advertising within the first week. We weren’t surprised by the results we are seeing to press advertising, search and other online appeals.
What has surprised us is the results we are seeing to other charity donor recruitment during the last two weeks.
Those of you who know us well know that we work with some 18 charities, including a number of development organizations such as Oxfam, WaterAid and Care.
We have a number of campaigns running, typically multi-media integrated campaigns, using DRTV, door drops, inserts, search, online display and email.
We have seen a significant increase in response to these campaigns since the tsunami hit, most noticeable to the sms response from drtv.
To our minds this serves to underline, once again, that the recession cannot be blamed for poor fundraising performance. As fundraisers the challenge is to show a clear demonstrable need. Show that need, and the means to alleviate it, and one can fundraise in any environment.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
When the scale of the problem became apparent only a select few organizations became involved and started direct appeals. These included the Red Cross, and our own client The Salvation Army, who had relief workers on the ground less than 24 hours after the tsunami hit and who began emergency appeal advertising within the first week. We weren’t surprised by the results we are seeing to press advertising, search and other online appeals.
What has surprised us is the results we are seeing to other charity donor recruitment during the last two weeks.
Those of you who know us well know that we work with some 18 charities, including a number of development organizations such as Oxfam, WaterAid and Care.
We have a number of campaigns running, typically multi-media integrated campaigns, using DRTV, door drops, inserts, search, online display and email.
We have seen a significant increase in response to these campaigns since the tsunami hit, most noticeable to the sms response from drtv.
To our minds this serves to underline, once again, that the recession cannot be blamed for poor fundraising performance. As fundraisers the challenge is to show a clear demonstrable need. Show that need, and the means to alleviate it, and one can fundraise in any environment.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
Monday 21 March 2011
Changing Affluence
I’m at Cheltenham this week, racing, and whilst I won’t pretend it’s 99% play, a little work does creep in from time to time!
Not only are there record crowds (probably a result of a very strong promotional campaign) there also seems to be record shopping.
Whilst the highstreet outside may be suffering (retail sales down 0.4% in February 2011 see http://www.brc.org.uk/brc_news_detail.asp?id=1908) the shops at the racecourse are packed to the gunnels.
Yet another piece of evidence for the rapidly changing pattern of UK affluence at both a tribal and micro regional level. Across many of our clients we are seeing significant changes to their transactional audiences. It’s not the same people borrowing, saving, spending or donating as it was even two years ago. And that has massive implications for media planning, be it a full scale integrated media campaign or a simple DRTV schedule.
Our last newsletter talked about the work we are doing looking at changing patterns of UK affluence. We would love to speak further with anyone who suspects it might be happening to them.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
Not only are there record crowds (probably a result of a very strong promotional campaign) there also seems to be record shopping.
Whilst the highstreet outside may be suffering (retail sales down 0.4% in February 2011 see http://www.brc.org.uk/brc_news_detail.asp?id=1908) the shops at the racecourse are packed to the gunnels.
Yet another piece of evidence for the rapidly changing pattern of UK affluence at both a tribal and micro regional level. Across many of our clients we are seeing significant changes to their transactional audiences. It’s not the same people borrowing, saving, spending or donating as it was even two years ago. And that has massive implications for media planning, be it a full scale integrated media campaign or a simple DRTV schedule.
Our last newsletter talked about the work we are doing looking at changing patterns of UK affluence. We would love to speak further with anyone who suspects it might be happening to them.
Mike Colling
Managing Director
Friday 11 March 2011
New cookie laws could change online environment
If some mainstream press reporting is to be believed, online corporate evil is spreading its net far and wide and like the eye of Sauron will soon seek you out and make you its slave. The reality is that cookies have been used online for years and very few people have been adversely affected by them when used in a reputable fashion by reputable websites. Whilst I’m not advocating the stockpiling of online user data and the auctioning off of our privacy I also think that a measured approach is necessary in curbing the use of cookie technology. Opting in to every advert shown would be more annoying to the user than the ads themselves and blocking access to certain sites because you don’t want the tailored ads would also be OTT.
So what’s the alternative? Well you could have a paid for internet as a development of the UK TV license system which would be about as popular as socks with sandals or users will have to use web browsers to make decisions for them regarding access allowed by cookies to track their movements and behaviour. This would be one business making decisions about another business having access to a user; no chance of corporate politics there then! The reality is that the simplest thing to do would probably be not to target ads to users at all. This won’t mean there are less ads shown to users, as seems to be the general view, it just means that users would see as many if not more ads that are less relevant and arguably more annoying than the targeted ads that went before them. Nothing like a conservative 80 year old seeing a FHM ad targeted at 20 something lads to set blood pressures skyward!
To help reach a reasoned view of cookies and their use I think it would be beneficial for the general public to receive more information and education about how they work therefore allowing people to make their own decisions. At the moment I feel that most users think cookies are evil and so are the companies, not forgetting governments, that use them. Not that I’m totally in favour of cookies as such, please don’t get that Idea, I’m just not convinced that the current proposed solutions would be beneficial for business or consumers.
Once an acceptable technological solution is found I’m sure the furore will soon die down and ‘normality’ will be restored, but until this time remember as the worldly wise Mark Knopfler said ‘Get your email for nothing and your clicks for free’ kind of….
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
So what’s the alternative? Well you could have a paid for internet as a development of the UK TV license system which would be about as popular as socks with sandals or users will have to use web browsers to make decisions for them regarding access allowed by cookies to track their movements and behaviour. This would be one business making decisions about another business having access to a user; no chance of corporate politics there then! The reality is that the simplest thing to do would probably be not to target ads to users at all. This won’t mean there are less ads shown to users, as seems to be the general view, it just means that users would see as many if not more ads that are less relevant and arguably more annoying than the targeted ads that went before them. Nothing like a conservative 80 year old seeing a FHM ad targeted at 20 something lads to set blood pressures skyward!
To help reach a reasoned view of cookies and their use I think it would be beneficial for the general public to receive more information and education about how they work therefore allowing people to make their own decisions. At the moment I feel that most users think cookies are evil and so are the companies, not forgetting governments, that use them. Not that I’m totally in favour of cookies as such, please don’t get that Idea, I’m just not convinced that the current proposed solutions would be beneficial for business or consumers.
Once an acceptable technological solution is found I’m sure the furore will soon die down and ‘normality’ will be restored, but until this time remember as the worldly wise Mark Knopfler said ‘Get your email for nothing and your clicks for free’ kind of….
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
Wednesday 9 March 2011
Keep Calm and Carry On!
You will have probably read or heard stories about TV airtime prices potentially rocketing this year as a result of a decision in the House of Lords.
The advice at mc&c is, in short, “don’t panic”. We are a long way away from seeing TV prices jump by 25% overnight.
So what’s all the fuss about?
The House of Lords Communication Committee has recently published its report on the TV advertising market-place after six months of research and interviews.
It is worth noting that all of its findings are only recommendations - the government now has two months to accept, reject or simply note them and continue as is. They may just be used to start the discussions on policy within parliament.
The Lords have recommended three things:-
1. Standardise the number of advertising minutes to an average of seven minutes across all channels. This is currently the case on ITV1, Channels 4 and Five but multi-channel stations can average nine minutes per hour. As a result this won't affect the pricing across the terrestrial channels - in fact they welcome it - but it could push pricing up across the rest. Currently, several channels don't open up all the minutage they have available anyway as a way of decreasing supply.
How will this affect us?
We expect, that with careful planning and negotiation this will have minimal impact on our pricing, if and when it is enforced.
2. The removal of CRR - when Granada and Carlton merged to sell ITV1 as one entity in 2004, a mechanism known as Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) was put into place - essentially this meant that all of the rules that prevented ITV having a monopoly over the UK TV advertising market had to continue to be observed - eg sales by region, pricing in line with share of impacts delivered. The Committee is recommending CRR be scrapped and replaced with binding agreements to increase UK originated programming funded by the increased a revenue.
How will this affect us?
Again minimal impact. Firstly, the removal of CRR is most unlikely to be implemented. Secondly, CRR has historically been most beneficial to agencies who tie clients into year long share deals which we don't do.
3. The final main recommendation is to convene a panel of independent experts to carry out a review of the trading system for television advertising airtime. It would run over six months and should be a good thing if it happens. This is the one that the broadcasters are saying least about - so it’s most likely to be against them. If however, agencies are allowed to have their say - I'll be the first in line!!
So in summary, don’t panic. It’s true TV airtime prices are rising this year, but in line with returning advertising budgets. These extraneous impacts on prices are very unlikely to impact the prices most advertisers are paying. If things change, we’ll update you but in the meantime, our recommendation would be to resume normal behaviour.
If you do have any questions or concerns relating to the Communication Committee’s report, please do not hesitate to contact Nicky Legg or any member of the broadcast team on 020-7307 6100.
Nicky Legg
Broadcast Director
The advice at mc&c is, in short, “don’t panic”. We are a long way away from seeing TV prices jump by 25% overnight.
So what’s all the fuss about?
The House of Lords Communication Committee has recently published its report on the TV advertising market-place after six months of research and interviews.
It is worth noting that all of its findings are only recommendations - the government now has two months to accept, reject or simply note them and continue as is. They may just be used to start the discussions on policy within parliament.
The Lords have recommended three things:-
1. Standardise the number of advertising minutes to an average of seven minutes across all channels. This is currently the case on ITV1, Channels 4 and Five but multi-channel stations can average nine minutes per hour. As a result this won't affect the pricing across the terrestrial channels - in fact they welcome it - but it could push pricing up across the rest. Currently, several channels don't open up all the minutage they have available anyway as a way of decreasing supply.
How will this affect us?
We expect, that with careful planning and negotiation this will have minimal impact on our pricing, if and when it is enforced.
2. The removal of CRR - when Granada and Carlton merged to sell ITV1 as one entity in 2004, a mechanism known as Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) was put into place - essentially this meant that all of the rules that prevented ITV having a monopoly over the UK TV advertising market had to continue to be observed - eg sales by region, pricing in line with share of impacts delivered. The Committee is recommending CRR be scrapped and replaced with binding agreements to increase UK originated programming funded by the increased a revenue.
How will this affect us?
Again minimal impact. Firstly, the removal of CRR is most unlikely to be implemented. Secondly, CRR has historically been most beneficial to agencies who tie clients into year long share deals which we don't do.
3. The final main recommendation is to convene a panel of independent experts to carry out a review of the trading system for television advertising airtime. It would run over six months and should be a good thing if it happens. This is the one that the broadcasters are saying least about - so it’s most likely to be against them. If however, agencies are allowed to have their say - I'll be the first in line!!
So in summary, don’t panic. It’s true TV airtime prices are rising this year, but in line with returning advertising budgets. These extraneous impacts on prices are very unlikely to impact the prices most advertisers are paying. If things change, we’ll update you but in the meantime, our recommendation would be to resume normal behaviour.
If you do have any questions or concerns relating to the Communication Committee’s report, please do not hesitate to contact Nicky Legg or any member of the broadcast team on 020-7307 6100.
Nicky Legg
Broadcast Director
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Product Placement – Coming To A Screen Near You!
From 28th February 2011, certain categories of programme that are made for UK audiences will be able to contain product placement – this is when a company pays a TV channel or programme maker to include its brands or products in a programme.
The key driver of the introduction of product placement in the UK is the harmonisation of broadcasting regulation across Europe. In addition, there is a feeling that a level playing field should be adopted – given that we’re already seeing product placement across a number of imported shows – without necessarily being aware of it.
So how will it work? Product placement should be seen as a unique opportunity to advertisers - it is most likely to generate effectiveness when used alongside spot advertising or sponsorship by incrementally influencing brand affinity. It shouldn’t be seen as a replacement to spot advertising but rather as an incremental revenue for broadcasters - this has been backed up by Nielsen who found that when spot advertising is paired with product placement it generates double the recall and double the purchase intent.
As with most new initiatives, there are rules associated with the use of product placement, largely in place to protect the quality of programming. Products will not be placed in news or children’s programmes, as well as religious, current affairs and consumer advice programmes. There must also be “editorial relevance” for the product – meaning that it should have a natural fit within the programme and should not be given too much prominence.
UK viewers are being kept in the loop of this development – a special “P” logo will be shown for 3 seconds at the beginning of the programme and during the ad breaks within the programme that contains product placement. ITV have also created a TV spot which will air across the leading broadcasters’ channels as an audience awareness campaign.
There are still a number of question marks surrounding the use of product placement –in particular associated with its effectiveness, measurement and value.
One thing’s for certain though - it’s an exciting opportunity and it means that broadcasters can continue to invest incremental income into quality content, which can only be a good thing for advertisers.
Helen Guard
Senior TV Planner Buyer
The key driver of the introduction of product placement in the UK is the harmonisation of broadcasting regulation across Europe. In addition, there is a feeling that a level playing field should be adopted – given that we’re already seeing product placement across a number of imported shows – without necessarily being aware of it.
So how will it work? Product placement should be seen as a unique opportunity to advertisers - it is most likely to generate effectiveness when used alongside spot advertising or sponsorship by incrementally influencing brand affinity. It shouldn’t be seen as a replacement to spot advertising but rather as an incremental revenue for broadcasters - this has been backed up by Nielsen who found that when spot advertising is paired with product placement it generates double the recall and double the purchase intent.
As with most new initiatives, there are rules associated with the use of product placement, largely in place to protect the quality of programming. Products will not be placed in news or children’s programmes, as well as religious, current affairs and consumer advice programmes. There must also be “editorial relevance” for the product – meaning that it should have a natural fit within the programme and should not be given too much prominence.
UK viewers are being kept in the loop of this development – a special “P” logo will be shown for 3 seconds at the beginning of the programme and during the ad breaks within the programme that contains product placement. ITV have also created a TV spot which will air across the leading broadcasters’ channels as an audience awareness campaign.
There are still a number of question marks surrounding the use of product placement –in particular associated with its effectiveness, measurement and value.
One thing’s for certain though - it’s an exciting opportunity and it means that broadcasters can continue to invest incremental income into quality content, which can only be a good thing for advertisers.
Helen Guard
Senior TV Planner Buyer
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Compulsory Correction to the CAP Code of Conduct – Common Sense
If the recent media hype is to be believed, from March 1st 2011 the world of online advertising will change forever. Our advice, however, it to take this slightly over-dramatic statement with a pinch of salt though, as it shouldn’t actually be changing too much at all!
The CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) is enforcing legislature changes which will mean that any party advertising online will have to take full responsibility for that which they are saying. Any claims, statements or boasts which feature in an online environment now need to be substantiated, or at least be able to be validated. These rules specifically apply to web pages, emails or any other form of advertising in the digital arena for which the advertiser has paid, and thus has control.
The requirements which advertisers are now being encouraged (at least in the initial six months grace period) to follow are in fact nothing new. They are standards by which all offline advertising has had to adhere for years, and are being purely transposed across to online material. The majority of reputable marketers would previously have ensured that all of their marketing material had an element of consistency in any case, so most will already be acting in exactly this way. Those who are scrambling around to make the changes to meet the criteria changes are likely to be those who simply spotted the previous loophole. Unfortunately for them the game is up!
Obviously, best practice dictates that all marketing claims should be honest, factually accurate and verifiable, so most advertisers shouldn’t be making too many changes at all. Those who do have to make changes – you have six months before the CAP turn into a TOB (tonne of bricks)!
Alex Prout, Senior Digital Planner/Buyer
The CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) is enforcing legislature changes which will mean that any party advertising online will have to take full responsibility for that which they are saying. Any claims, statements or boasts which feature in an online environment now need to be substantiated, or at least be able to be validated. These rules specifically apply to web pages, emails or any other form of advertising in the digital arena for which the advertiser has paid, and thus has control.
The requirements which advertisers are now being encouraged (at least in the initial six months grace period) to follow are in fact nothing new. They are standards by which all offline advertising has had to adhere for years, and are being purely transposed across to online material. The majority of reputable marketers would previously have ensured that all of their marketing material had an element of consistency in any case, so most will already be acting in exactly this way. Those who are scrambling around to make the changes to meet the criteria changes are likely to be those who simply spotted the previous loophole. Unfortunately for them the game is up!
Obviously, best practice dictates that all marketing claims should be honest, factually accurate and verifiable, so most advertisers shouldn’t be making too many changes at all. Those who do have to make changes – you have six months before the CAP turn into a TOB (tonne of bricks)!
Alex Prout, Senior Digital Planner/Buyer
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Sky Atlantic -More Repeats than an Onion Bhaji
Okay, the Dustin Hoffman promos were awful but fortunately it didn’t detract from the brilliant show opener, Boardwalk Empire.
On the face of it, Sky Atlantic’s attempt to increase subscribers with the lure of first rate US programmes is a really smart move. For advertisers, however, one problem is that, for many viewer, ad breaks will detract from the impact of the shows. One of the appeals of watching MadMen on BBC 4 is that there are no breaks.
But the real issue is the sheer volume of repeats. For a short time you can get away with repeats of really high quality new programmes when the broadcaster wants to give as many viewers as possible the opportunity to get hooked on a series. The problem with Sky Atlantic, however, is that the repeats are mostly based on ancient episodes of ER and less note worthy shows such as Star Trek Voyager which can be viewed elsewhere on satellite channels. Discerning audiences just become frustrated and bored when they have to sort the wheat from the chaff. I don’t believe you can base a channel on one great show. And Sky Atlantic will just be seen as a cynical marketing ploy sooner rather than later unless they change their game plan.
Ian Prager, Planning Partner
On the face of it, Sky Atlantic’s attempt to increase subscribers with the lure of first rate US programmes is a really smart move. For advertisers, however, one problem is that, for many viewer, ad breaks will detract from the impact of the shows. One of the appeals of watching MadMen on BBC 4 is that there are no breaks.
But the real issue is the sheer volume of repeats. For a short time you can get away with repeats of really high quality new programmes when the broadcaster wants to give as many viewers as possible the opportunity to get hooked on a series. The problem with Sky Atlantic, however, is that the repeats are mostly based on ancient episodes of ER and less note worthy shows such as Star Trek Voyager which can be viewed elsewhere on satellite channels. Discerning audiences just become frustrated and bored when they have to sort the wheat from the chaff. I don’t believe you can base a channel on one great show. And Sky Atlantic will just be seen as a cynical marketing ploy sooner rather than later unless they change their game plan.
Ian Prager, Planning Partner
Wednesday 9 February 2011
Hearst pays £559million for Lagadere’s International Magazine Portfolio.
Hearst Corporation has paid £559 million for Lagadere’s Magazine portfolio which includes a licensing agreement for Fashion Magazine ‘Elle’. The offer includes the sale of 102 Hachette Filipachacci titles such as ‘Inside Soap’, ‘Red’ and ‘Psychologies’. The deal also covers titles in 15 countries, including the UK, USA, Russia, The Soviet Union, Italy, Spain, China and Germany.
The most interesting part of this whole partnership though is the licensing of ‘Elle’ magazine. Lagadere has granted a license to Hearst for ‘Elle’ that will apply to magazines and all digital and audiovisual supports. In the UK, Hachette Filipachacci’s titles will be housed alongside those of the Hearst owned National Magazine Company. This will consolidate former fashion competitors ‘Elle’ and ‘Harpers’ Bazaar’ and will be pitched against other premium fashion magazines including Conde Naste’s ‘Vogue’ and will allow Hearst to have the biggest international presence of any consumer magazine publisher.
This co-operation of brands has aroused much discussion and opinion within both the media and the fashion world. Many have been asking how this will affect the brands of ‘Harpers’ Bazaar’ and ‘Elle’ and how will the takeover affect other high fashion and high society magazines like’ Vogue’, ‘Vanity Fair’ or ‘Glamour’. Media insiders, however, suggest that it might not have any effect at all and the competition will remain the same amongst the titles regardless of who the owner is. All the reader cares about is the content of the magazine. Ultimately both of the titles have strong established brands targeting different sections of the same interest market. Nicholas Coleridge, the MD at Conde Nast, speaking to Media Week, is not “anticipating any negative effect”. Both ‘Elle’ and ‘Harpers Bazaar’ are number 2 and 3 in the market and this will remain the same. People will not change allegiance just because the two are now batting for the same economic team. There is no talk of the publishers looking to ‘reinvent’ or change the titles in any way and, chances are that the readers won’t even be aware of a takeover, unless there is a price hike or the content changes.
Fashion aside, the biggest effect this acquisition will have is on Nat Mags & Hachette Filipacchi themselves; with a broader portfolio of well established titles this will mean the trading of advertising space will become easier. It will make the flow of conversation, planning and buying a lot swifter with one less buying point. The opportunities of cross selling will be vast for all the magazines and will no doubt only make the brands stronger and more integrated with time. However the main issue (in the short term) is the same with the advertiser as it is with the reader. Advertisers base their planning choices on the quality of the magazine and the relevancy of the readership, if this was to change then reconsiderations will be made, however until any evidence of any changes surface the high glossy, consumer magazine world will probably just continue to sashay along as usual!
The most interesting part of this whole partnership though is the licensing of ‘Elle’ magazine. Lagadere has granted a license to Hearst for ‘Elle’ that will apply to magazines and all digital and audiovisual supports. In the UK, Hachette Filipachacci’s titles will be housed alongside those of the Hearst owned National Magazine Company. This will consolidate former fashion competitors ‘Elle’ and ‘Harpers’ Bazaar’ and will be pitched against other premium fashion magazines including Conde Naste’s ‘Vogue’ and will allow Hearst to have the biggest international presence of any consumer magazine publisher.
This co-operation of brands has aroused much discussion and opinion within both the media and the fashion world. Many have been asking how this will affect the brands of ‘Harpers’ Bazaar’ and ‘Elle’ and how will the takeover affect other high fashion and high society magazines like’ Vogue’, ‘Vanity Fair’ or ‘Glamour’. Media insiders, however, suggest that it might not have any effect at all and the competition will remain the same amongst the titles regardless of who the owner is. All the reader cares about is the content of the magazine. Ultimately both of the titles have strong established brands targeting different sections of the same interest market. Nicholas Coleridge, the MD at Conde Nast, speaking to Media Week, is not “anticipating any negative effect”. Both ‘Elle’ and ‘Harpers Bazaar’ are number 2 and 3 in the market and this will remain the same. People will not change allegiance just because the two are now batting for the same economic team. There is no talk of the publishers looking to ‘reinvent’ or change the titles in any way and, chances are that the readers won’t even be aware of a takeover, unless there is a price hike or the content changes.
Fashion aside, the biggest effect this acquisition will have is on Nat Mags & Hachette Filipacchi themselves; with a broader portfolio of well established titles this will mean the trading of advertising space will become easier. It will make the flow of conversation, planning and buying a lot swifter with one less buying point. The opportunities of cross selling will be vast for all the magazines and will no doubt only make the brands stronger and more integrated with time. However the main issue (in the short term) is the same with the advertiser as it is with the reader. Advertisers base their planning choices on the quality of the magazine and the relevancy of the readership, if this was to change then reconsiderations will be made, however until any evidence of any changes surface the high glossy, consumer magazine world will probably just continue to sashay along as usual!
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Online Video 2011and Beyond …
Video content, including TV, dominates most people’s total media consumption time accounting for 40% of all media and communications used. According to PWC Media Research it is by far the largest media market on the planet.
In the past decade we have seen amazing growth of the online video sector illustrated by YouTube’s success. The site is growing by 13% year on year and is now reaching 17.5 m monthly unique users. Video search on YouTube accounts for 25% of all Google search queries in the US. In fact, if it were a standalone site, YouTube would be the second largest search engine after Google!
The importance of online video can no longer be ignored by advertisers and media owners, especially as it can allow them to reach a much younger audience and attract very high attention levels (second only to gaming). What is more, video offers lower rates and better targeting. The market saw substantial adoption in 2010 and some brands, such as Old Spice or Tipp-Ex, have really understood the value of video.
But it’s evident that advertisers have just got started. With scalability, optimisation, interactivity, personalisation, mobility and more features still on the horizon, this year’s journey in video will be even more impressive. Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management at Google, predicts that “fragmentation will produce new opportunities for content producers, interactivity will allow for great advertisers to compete for attention with content, and convergence of video sources will ultimately lead to a better experience for viewers”.
Online video is about to go through its largest transition yet so watch out for some great video content in 2011!
Anna Zolkiewicz
Junior Analyst
In the past decade we have seen amazing growth of the online video sector illustrated by YouTube’s success. The site is growing by 13% year on year and is now reaching 17.5 m monthly unique users. Video search on YouTube accounts for 25% of all Google search queries in the US. In fact, if it were a standalone site, YouTube would be the second largest search engine after Google!
The importance of online video can no longer be ignored by advertisers and media owners, especially as it can allow them to reach a much younger audience and attract very high attention levels (second only to gaming). What is more, video offers lower rates and better targeting. The market saw substantial adoption in 2010 and some brands, such as Old Spice or Tipp-Ex, have really understood the value of video.
But it’s evident that advertisers have just got started. With scalability, optimisation, interactivity, personalisation, mobility and more features still on the horizon, this year’s journey in video will be even more impressive. Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management at Google, predicts that “fragmentation will produce new opportunities for content producers, interactivity will allow for great advertisers to compete for attention with content, and convergence of video sources will ultimately lead to a better experience for viewers”.
Online video is about to go through its largest transition yet so watch out for some great video content in 2011!
Anna Zolkiewicz
Junior Analyst
Wednesday 26 January 2011
Keep Taking the Tablets!
The future of magazines, or lack of it, has been commented on many times over the last few years. Publishers have found spiralling production and fulfilment costs against a backdrop of a soft advertising market difficult to operate under, while readers crave for interactivity and rich content, which, for many, paper just can’t give them.
Magazine publishers have responded by setting up web sites which give the reader more interactive content but this can seem like an endless stream of links which doesn’t replicate the joy of reading a magazine. Readers like there to be a beginning and an end to an article and the act of turning pages. This is where tablets come in. The technology captures the essence of magazine reading in which high quality writing married to stunning moving images allows readers to have the best of both worlds.
The forward thinking Swedish publisher Bonnier have done some really exciting work in this area. Their view, and one that I share, is that people are willing to pay for iphone applications where content is packaged and distributed like a product. In fact, just like a magazine.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Magazine publishers have responded by setting up web sites which give the reader more interactive content but this can seem like an endless stream of links which doesn’t replicate the joy of reading a magazine. Readers like there to be a beginning and an end to an article and the act of turning pages. This is where tablets come in. The technology captures the essence of magazine reading in which high quality writing married to stunning moving images allows readers to have the best of both worlds.
The forward thinking Swedish publisher Bonnier have done some really exciting work in this area. Their view, and one that I share, is that people are willing to pay for iphone applications where content is packaged and distributed like a product. In fact, just like a magazine.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Wednesday 19 January 2011
The Benefits of Quality over Quantity in Email Marketing
A Marketing Week study carried out in late 2010 indicated that over 50% of businesses surveyed expected their email marketing spend to increase in the next 12 months. The challenge for marketers is to understand how to maximise the return for this additional spend.
A common ethos amongst advertisers at the recent forefront of email marketing has been to forego the benefits of high price, high quality data for high volume, low cost data; the thought being that the more inboxes hit, the more likely the email is to get into the right ones. This practice is entirely unsustainable though, in that there is no consideration for the preservation of data quality. People who have signed up to such promotional sites often receive multiple emails per week, sometimes per day, diminishing responsiveness and damaging data in the longer term.
All of the apparent benefits of a low cost per thousand are lost when data does not respond to email advertising. Worse still, delivery platforms suffer negatively as a result of complaints (emails being flagged as spam by unwilling recipients), which subsequently leads to even poorer performance. All signs point to the maintainable future of email advertising being found in responsible, disciplined data management.
List owners who strictly limit the number of messages their dataset can receive in a given time period; those who realise that charging a certain cost per thousand to deter time-wasting advertisers; and those who ensure that the correct messages are sent to the correct people with selective client choices and appropriate targeting – these are the data suppliers who will all play a part in ensuring that email marketing can be a sustainable form of advertising long into the future.
Alex Prout, Senior Digital Planner/Buyer
A common ethos amongst advertisers at the recent forefront of email marketing has been to forego the benefits of high price, high quality data for high volume, low cost data; the thought being that the more inboxes hit, the more likely the email is to get into the right ones. This practice is entirely unsustainable though, in that there is no consideration for the preservation of data quality. People who have signed up to such promotional sites often receive multiple emails per week, sometimes per day, diminishing responsiveness and damaging data in the longer term.
All of the apparent benefits of a low cost per thousand are lost when data does not respond to email advertising. Worse still, delivery platforms suffer negatively as a result of complaints (emails being flagged as spam by unwilling recipients), which subsequently leads to even poorer performance. All signs point to the maintainable future of email advertising being found in responsible, disciplined data management.
List owners who strictly limit the number of messages their dataset can receive in a given time period; those who realise that charging a certain cost per thousand to deter time-wasting advertisers; and those who ensure that the correct messages are sent to the correct people with selective client choices and appropriate targeting – these are the data suppliers who will all play a part in ensuring that email marketing can be a sustainable form of advertising long into the future.
Alex Prout, Senior Digital Planner/Buyer
Wednesday 12 January 2011
Mobile, the 7th Mass Media Channel?
I’m sure you all agree last week was a bit of a struggle. To celebrate getting through the week a few of my esteemed colleagues and I decided to break all our new year’s resolutions and have lunch comprising of a “few” bottles of red wine. To feel less guilty, we thought we should discuss a media topic. Surprisingly, we enjoyed an immediate consensus of views on the topic - mobile.
Mobile facts started began pinging round the table like a demonic pin ball machine. Twice as many mobile phones globally than personal computers, nearly twice as many mobiles as TV sets. One fact that is obvious but still astounding is that twice as many people use SMS messaging on the phone than use email.
Alan Moore and Tomi T Ahonen in their excellent book ‘Communities Dominate Brands’ see mobile as a fully fledged mass media channel. They call it the 7th mass media channel not merely a response tool to facilitate accessibility. Mobile phones are an expression of individuality which makes them unique in media terms. From ring tone to contacts, the mobile phone is as close as you can get to an individual’s cultural finger print. There was a woman on Radio 4 last weekend who told listeners she has an erotic relationship with her phone, she sleeps with it and takes it to the loo. Maybe this is taking things a bit too far but it makes an interesting point.
As practitioners in media communications we all need to exploit the relationship consumers have with the mobile phone. So we all made a belated new year’s resolution. Ensure mobile media is an integral part of our comms planning. Much better than losing weight! If you’d like to explore how you can incorporate mobile into your media mix, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Mobile facts started began pinging round the table like a demonic pin ball machine. Twice as many mobile phones globally than personal computers, nearly twice as many mobiles as TV sets. One fact that is obvious but still astounding is that twice as many people use SMS messaging on the phone than use email.
Alan Moore and Tomi T Ahonen in their excellent book ‘Communities Dominate Brands’ see mobile as a fully fledged mass media channel. They call it the 7th mass media channel not merely a response tool to facilitate accessibility. Mobile phones are an expression of individuality which makes them unique in media terms. From ring tone to contacts, the mobile phone is as close as you can get to an individual’s cultural finger print. There was a woman on Radio 4 last weekend who told listeners she has an erotic relationship with her phone, she sleeps with it and takes it to the loo. Maybe this is taking things a bit too far but it makes an interesting point.
As practitioners in media communications we all need to exploit the relationship consumers have with the mobile phone. So we all made a belated new year’s resolution. Ensure mobile media is an integral part of our comms planning. Much better than losing weight! If you’d like to explore how you can incorporate mobile into your media mix, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Ian Prager, Planning Director
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Changes in the World of DRTV
DRTV has long been considered rather tacky and downmarket. Yes it may be cost effective for some clients, but it requires long commercials, forceful calls to action, and can only work in daytime and late night. It’s been the Poundland to mainstream TV’s Selfridges.
Well one of those ‘rules’ is about to change. Peak airtime, so long an unaffordable commodity for most drtv advertisers, may become familiar terriotory to many. We have just finished the last in a series of tests for a client that proves conclusively that, with the right support infrastructure, peak can be as cost effective as other dayparts.
I would like to claim that this is part of a long held ambition to boldly go where other direct marketers do not. But that’s not true. We have held tight to the “no peak” rule for years.
The only thing that causes us to hold our heads high is our insatiable curiosity. We love new data. And when new data arrived in the shape of Touchpoints we looked to what it told us. And to our surprise, it told us when and where people were as they responded to each media channel. And for TV we saw the familiar peak of response in the morning, and a decline throughout the afternoon, just as expected. But we also saw another rise in response, later in the day, right in the middle of forbidden territory.
Much excitement, much debate. And we convinced a client to test. And fell flat on our faces. But more than 12 months and several re-tests later we now have a string of convincing victories. And benefits that include new audiences responding, higher transaction values and many others.
So a very happy start to the year for us here and one client in particular. If you too use drtv as part of your media inventory and are confined to the daytime ghetto, give us a call.
Happy New Year!
Well one of those ‘rules’ is about to change. Peak airtime, so long an unaffordable commodity for most drtv advertisers, may become familiar terriotory to many. We have just finished the last in a series of tests for a client that proves conclusively that, with the right support infrastructure, peak can be as cost effective as other dayparts.
I would like to claim that this is part of a long held ambition to boldly go where other direct marketers do not. But that’s not true. We have held tight to the “no peak” rule for years.
The only thing that causes us to hold our heads high is our insatiable curiosity. We love new data. And when new data arrived in the shape of Touchpoints we looked to what it told us. And to our surprise, it told us when and where people were as they responded to each media channel. And for TV we saw the familiar peak of response in the morning, and a decline throughout the afternoon, just as expected. But we also saw another rise in response, later in the day, right in the middle of forbidden territory.
Much excitement, much debate. And we convinced a client to test. And fell flat on our faces. But more than 12 months and several re-tests later we now have a string of convincing victories. And benefits that include new audiences responding, higher transaction values and many others.
So a very happy start to the year for us here and one client in particular. If you too use drtv as part of your media inventory and are confined to the daytime ghetto, give us a call.
Happy New Year!
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