Anti-Competitive or Competitive Advantage?

It used to be the view that brands should never mention competitors in their adverts. The reasoning was that why would you want to give them any exposure? You’re basically giving them free publicity, especially if we’re following the wisdom, ‘all publicity, is good publicity’. There are also various legal battles that one could face through mentioning that your brand is better/cheaper than another brand, although the rules have been relaxed since 2008.

In the battle of the supermarket supremacy this age-old wisdom has been replaced with what seems like a surge in comparative advertising. Take for example the Tesco versus ASDA price comparison war. We’ve even had the more upmarket supermarkets such as Waitrose creating adverts to say they’re as cheap as Tesco on a range of branded products, in a bid to keep their shoppers in times when people are tightening up the purse strings. But since every supermarket seems to be claiming they’re the overall cheapest it’s left us wondering; can they all really be the cheapest? And doesn’t it eventually become a bit like political parties – who do you trust?

However, there may be smarter ways to beat the competitor, and the recent campaign by Newcastle Brown Ale shows how well parody advertisement can work in the right environment. The creative is based around the heavyweight advertising Stella Artois campaign, with the tag line ‘It’s a Chalice, not a glass’ trying to give the brand a slightly more glamorous edge. Newkie Brown took this and turned it on its head, ‘Who uses the word “Chalice”?’ implying that Stella Artois are trying to make their drink seem fancy when it really isn’t. Whereas Newkie Brown are far more down to earth, and with a ‘no bollocks’ attitude – and note they didn’t have to mention Stella for this campaign to work.

In the fundraising world creating a unique place in the hearts of potential donors is vital. You’re certainly not going to see charities comparing themselves to other charities, as it’s not going to win the hearts of their potential donors. Or are you? We all know money is really tight at the moment with donors rationalising the causes they’re going to support so maybe there is a place for some healthy knocking copy…

Felicity Bramald, Media Planner Buyer

The Peter Pan Generation

Better known as the “millennials” this generation is also sometimes referred to as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation, because of the members' perceived penchant for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood, longer periods than most generations before them. These labels were also a reference to a trend toward members living with their parents for longer periods than previous generations.

What makes them interesting to marketers and media planners is that having been born somewhere typically between the late 1980’s and 2000, they are the last of the children of the 20th Century and therefore know nothing else other than digital communication and being part of online communities across a diverse number of platforms primarily mobile. Those in the workplace like structure and working in a team and because of their digital literacy are able to multitask like crazy.

Some really interesting research carried out by Nicola Payne working for Eloqua Limited shows that the millennials are mad about Facebook. They can’t get enough of it. According to Quantcast, 76% of Facebook users visit the site at least 30 times per month. If my children are anything to go by its more like 100 plus! Twitter has a rate of 57% and sites like Linkedin and Foursquare less than 1%. When advertising to the millenials the same rules apply as when talking to most groups, especially in social media circles. Be transparent – engender trust. Be interactive – they liked to be entertained. Be generous – they like a deal as much as anybody else.

So media selection seems pretty straightforward but engaging with them is something else. The Peter Pans can become the Lost Boys if you get it wrong.

Ian Prager, Planning Director