The MC&C Blog

‘Why i? - It’s all in the ABCs’

2012-02-14T03:06:00.002-08:00

The latest paper circulation figures for January have been released in the last few days. As we all know the national press has had a turbulent time over the past year and in particular with the News of The World closing there was much speculation as to where all that paper’s readers would go.

At least for now it seems the dust is starting to settle with the Sunday Mirror absorbing a large number of those left seeking an alternative to their Sunday spread. Figures show the Sunday Mirror has enjoyed an almost 36% year on year increase in circulation of approximately 700,000.

A big question is where have all the others readers gone? The News of The World closed with 2.6million loyal followers, which means that there should be a huge opportunity for the Sundays. However, even the Sunday Express only managed to take over a small proportion of this with a 100,000 increase in sales which seems to indicate there are a lot of people who simply don’t want to buy and read a Sunday paper anymore.

This raises some other questions. With the scandal at The Sun on-going, will people start to turn their backs on brands they’ve remained loyal to years? Will they choose a different medium to absorb the daily headlines or are people simply not that interested in the world around them anymore?

The January circulation figures show that there is only one daily paper to see a marked increase - the i. The i being the sister paper of the Independent, aimed at readers and lapsed readers of all ages, and commuters with limited time, launched on 26th October 2010. This is another strong month for the i backed by a considerable spend on TV which has resulted in a 40% year on year increase and improvements in circulation every month. The i sells for only 20 pence, 30% cheaper than The Sun and 80% cheaper than The Times. Therefore it appears the formula is right, a quick, quality read at an affordable price.

What will be interesting is how other titles react? There are rumours circulating that The Sun may launch a new Sunday alternative and will some of the other Daily papers follow the same route of producing a low cost alternative like the I? It remains to be seen…

*ABC- Audit Bureau of Circulations

ROI Under the Spotlight

2012-01-31T04:13:00.000-08:00

Social media seems to have become a buzzword. Most modern marketers would find the question “Do I need a social media strategy?” a no-brainer – as much as the noughties equivalent: “Does my company need a website?”

But what place does such a qualitative, PR-based medium have in the world of Direct Marketing? Any company writing about their latest social media success tends to talk about it in terms of top-line figures: numbers of followers, re-tweets, the number of fans accumulated within X number of hours etc. The success of social media campaigns tends to be measured from the outside, the end result. But why? Because it’s just so difficult to justify how you got there!

However, despite the fact that few marketers seem to be brave enough to utter the terms “ROI” and “social media” in the same sentence, there are platforms emerging which allow the creation and strategic tracking of social network campaigns. One such platform has been developed by the Oxford-based company EngageSciences. The software was developed from two simple premises: the first, based on market research by IBM and Experian Hitwise, is that those who ‘Like’ fan pages on social networks are most likely to do so if they know they’re getting something in return; and secondly, that successful harnessing of social media is achieved by identifying the greatest influencers amongst existing fans. A good campaign will therefore identify and maximise individual channels of potential.

In return for offers and vouchers, the individual is invited to 'Like' a Facebook page, by their friends or by the company, which then subsequently allows the EngageSciences software to track their level of interaction with the fan page and the extent to which they share this activity with their friends. Both of which, of course, vary hugely from user to user, meaning that the most ‘generous’ fans may then be segmented for targeted messaging and offers.

It does seem then that marketers are beginning to harness social media by understanding consumer motivation and embracing the mechanism upon which social networks thrive.

So, are there any other learnings to be taken from this? The day appears to have arrived where a direct marketer is forced to acknowledge the value of earning attention from its customers. ROI is increasingly becoming a reflexive concept: it is no longer the concern solely of the marketer, as customers have a greater range of brands than ever to choose from, each with a similar offering.

From here on there are two routes: the first is increasingly targeted marketing; the product of more and more sophisticated insight. And the second? Attention earned through knowing exactly what your customers will listen to. In an increasingly cluttered marketplace, it’s worth learning a thing or two about the latter.

Sarah Greaney
Analyst

It’s not austerity, it’s intolerance

2012-01-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

We live, allegedly, in a world of austerity. It is accepted wisdom that all consumers are wearing hair shirts, spending no money and are as miserable as sin.
No marketing activity can overcome this. Especially on Blue Monday

From where we sit that’s patently not true. Reviewing client results this morning we see clients with 60%, 15% and 30% growth year on year. Consumers will spend, and spend on high ticket products or services. Absolute cost isn’t an issue. Perceived value is.

There isn’t universal austerity, but there is universal intolerance of poor value. And that covers relative value for prices that can be easily bench-marked, or perceived value of less easily bench-marked services.

There are obvious messaging implications of this consumer behaviour, but there are also media implications. Once again this stresses the need for an integrated media campaign to demonstrate value. Broadcast media have a role to engage consumers emotionally and break inertia; print and digital media provide rational support to the value message; and social media provide a comfort blanket of the “wisdom of crowds” reinforcing that buying decision.

That implies higher risks and bigger capital investments. But the rewards are there, even on Blue Monday!

Mike Colling
Managing Director

MC&C 2012 Predictions

2012-01-03T04:38:00.000-08:00

Bearing in mind prediction is very difficult, especially about the future; who could have foreseen the demise of the News of the World in such torrid circumstances, it’s still worth a crack.

So here are a few pretty safe 2012 predictions - famous last words! Not surprisingly, it’s going to be a big year for TV. London 2012 Olympics, Paralympics, Euro 2012, and the digital switch over are going to make 2012 a particularly interesting year. Adam Crozier is talking down the revenue uplift but I’d have thought that they will add significantly to ITV’s coffers to enable him to make new investments in programme production. Radio and outdoor will do okay again through the Olympics’ effect although community radio will have a devil of a time surviving, however, press will continue to fall as retail continues to feel the strain. Only the Metro is in for an Olympics windfall possibly in the region of £5m.

One thing that won’t be difficult to predict is that there will a lot of happy people at Facebook. The likely $100bn internet public offering will make 1,000 people into millionaires. Thinking about social media, multi social media networks will become more popular. The improved quality of cameras in mobile phones will make the video and visual communication more compelling than just 140 characters. More significantly there will be greater convergence between social media activity and mobile devices and the need for clients’ web sites to be mobile friendly will move from a ‘nice to have’ to an absolute necessity.

Have a great 2012!

Ian Prager, Planning Director

Keeping things simple not simpler!

2011-11-17T03:00:00.000-08:00

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

Overhauling the DM Industry

2011-11-08T06:04:00.000-08:00

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

Media Down Under

2011-10-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

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

Google Adwords - The Process to Achieving Google Certification Status

2011-10-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

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

Using New Initiatives to Launch the RSPCA’s ‘Sponsor a Safe Little Place’

2011-10-07T02:50:00.000-07:00

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

The Future’s Bright, the Future’s TV!

2011-09-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

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

Adpoints – Where advertisers pay you to watch their commercials

2011-09-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

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

“Plans are nothing; planning is everything” General Eisenhower

2011-08-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

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!)

It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.

2011-08-04T08:02:00.000-07:00

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

Just text giving – just what the sector ordered?

2011-07-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

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

The stars come out for Max

2011-07-19T03:25:00.000-07:00

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...

Will you be the master of your domain?

2011-07-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

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 ………

Hunt ready to clear News-BSkyB merger

2011-06-30T02:09:00.000-07:00

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

Half Price Media Opportunities

2011-06-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

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

CBS Outdoor London 2012 briefing

2011-06-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Motability - Using One Big Day to Increase Awareness and Understanding, Create a Positive Brand Association and Increase Membership

2011-06-15T04:35:00.000-07:00

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!

Radioplayer

2011-06-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

Marketing Lessons from the World’s Most Illusive

2011-05-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

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!

‘JustTextGiving’ – Enabling Charities to Harness the Power of Text

2011-05-11T02:18:00.000-07:00

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

Integration: action speaks louder than words

2011-05-04T02:29:00.000-07:00

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

Can ambient media produce an accountable response as part of a direct marketing strategy?

2011-04-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

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.

“The Japanese tsunami and fundraising”

2011-03-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

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

Changing Affluence

2011-03-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

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

New cookie laws could change online environment

2011-03-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

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

Keep Calm and Carry On!

2011-03-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

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

Product Placement – Coming To A Screen Near You!

2011-03-02T06:01:00.000-08:00

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

Compulsory Correction to the CAP Code of Conduct – Common Sense

2011-02-23T02:51:00.000-08:00

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

Sky Atlantic -More Repeats than an Onion Bhaji

2011-02-16T06:25:00.000-08:00

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

Hearst pays £559million for Lagadere’s International Magazine Portfolio.

2011-02-09T03:34:00.000-08:00

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!

Online Video 2011and Beyond …

2011-02-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

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

Keep Taking the Tablets!

2011-01-26T02:48:00.000-08:00

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

The Benefits of Quality over Quantity in Email Marketing

2011-01-19T02:05:00.000-08:00

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

Mobile, the 7th Mass Media Channel?

2011-01-12T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

Changes in the World of DRTV

2011-01-05T02:10:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas Media Present

2010-12-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

December 25th used to be TV day where the Christmas double issues of Radio and TV Times had been studied enthusiastically over the previous week to ensure family viewing schedules were agreed and World War 111 avoided.

This might be looking at the bygone media world with snow tinted glasses but whilst families haven’t changed that much, media has. Multimedia tasking rules the day. Charades with the Great Escape in the background has been replaced by playing Mario Brothers on the DS. Texting mates to check out each others pressies while watching Dr Who or e-mailing friends and family from a mobile phone in between the turkey and Christmas pudding seems to be the norm for many people.

And those shrewd purchasers amongst us will be checking out the January sales online.

Technology hasn’t detracted anything from the Big Day. It just makes it like any other day but more so.

If this is Christmas Present then Christmas Future should be something else!

Have a good one …

Ian Prager, Planning Director

It's TV Jim and yes, basically as we know it!

2010-12-13T03:07:00.000-08:00

Attending Thinkbox’s recent Tellyporting seminar reinforced why media is such a fun place to work in. It gave a great opportunity to navel gaze on how technically savvy but not geeky families will interact with TV both as a piece of technology and entertainment device over the next three years.

Three years in technology development terms is about as long as the Palaeozoic era. The view amongst the experts was rather comforting. It goes some way like this.

Enjoying TV programmes with other people will still be by far the preferred way to interact with television. Social media has a role to play by extending the number of people you can share the viewing experience with. People will remain proud of their television sets and will want them to be the focus of home entertainment. After all they bring cinema to their homes. They will love the way they can access VOD on their TV rather than lap top. In fact the role of online will be a way of augmenting TV pleasure by enhancing programme content rather than a distraction.

And broadcasters will take advantage of this development. Mobile will have a support role rather than be a challenge to the TV set. In other words, a continuation of the move towards integration of technologically rather than fragmentation.

In other words basically Jim, its television as we know it.

Ian Prager
Planning Director

It's TV Jim and yes, basically as we know it!

2010-12-07T02:41:00.000-08:00

Attending Thinkbox’s recent Tellyporting seminar reinforced why media is such a fun place to work in. It gave a great opportunity to navel gaze on how technically savvy but not geeky families will interact with TV, both as a piece of technology and entertainment device, over the next three years.

Three years in technology development terms is about as long as the Palaeozoic era. The view amongst the experts, however, was rather comforting. It goes some way like this.

Enjoying TV programmes with other people will still be by far the preferred way to interact with television. Social media has a role to play by extending the number of people you can share the viewing experience with. People will remain proud of their television sets and will want them to be the focus of home entertainment. After all they bring cinema to their homes. They will love the way they can access VOD on their TV rather than lap top. In fact the role of online will be a way of augmenting TV pleasure by enhancing programme content rather than a distraction.

And broadcasters will take advantage of this development. Mobile will have a support role rather than be a challenge to the TV set. In other words, a continuation of the move towards integration of technologically rather than fragmentation.

In other words basically Jim, its television as we know it.

The Impact of Occupation on Charitable Giving

2010-11-22T00:13:00.000-08:00

We have just finished a fascinating piece of work. Using Touchpoints we investigated if occupation has an impact on charitable giving. Guess what? It does. Employees in the public sector give significantly more than those in the private sector. And they give to specific causes.

Using the figures that George Osborne produced as part of the CSR we were able to quantify the potential loss to the sector overall, and then follow it up with bespoke work for our clients. For example, one was concerned about a capital appeal in the West Midlands, and we were able to quantify the potential loss in total public donations over the next year.

We followed this piece of work up with a joint quantitative online survey, with one of our creative partner agencies, WPN.

The objective was to probe issues thrown up by the Touchpoints work. The results really surprised us. Only some 5% of public sector employees are likely to lose their jobs in the next 3 years, but the fear in the sector is very widespread. 48% of public sector employees told us that they were planning on giving less to charities.

Now this may be a short-lived phenomenon. We have seen very poor response rates in October both before and after the CSR, and those have now recovered in November. It may equally rear its head again in the new year when redundancies and VAT rises really bite.

Either way we suspect the impact of occupation will be felt further than in just the charity sector, and it’s a theme we will continue to investigate.

More anon …

Mike Colling, Managing Director

The Future of Print Media

2010-11-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

I spent Monday afternoon with a new industry group: Print Power. As one might gather from their name they have been formed from leading print companies (Associated, News International, NPA, PPA etc) to promote print as a united medium.

They asked me to represent the media buying industry, and speak on the subject “What does print have to do to earn a crust in a modern media world”.

This came hard on the heels of a request two weeks ago to appear on a Thinkbox programme and speak to the future of TV advertising.

The contrast between the future prospects for the two media channels was shocking. The death of both TV and press has been banded about by industry pundits for at least ten years. Normally these arguments are ill constructed and based on short term share loss to new channels. Over the longer term most channels (and cinema is a great example) reinvent themselves and recover both consumer audience share and revenues.

And that would appear to be the case with TV. With the launch of YouView, Google TV, IP enabled sets from Sony and Samsung, and a host of other initiatives TV is reinventing itself. We will see more change in the next 30 months than I have seen in my last 30 years in media. In fact I think the future of TV deserves a blog of its own!

But the future for print media is, for the moment at least, bleak. In the last 13 years the total print share of advertising revenue has fallen from more than 60% to 40%. And I see no new innovation coming over the horizon. The last major print jump forward was the Apple Mac in 1984 - revolutionising editorial and seeing the number of magazines leap from hundreds to tens of thousands. Print is suffering in reach- only 46% of us read daily; and in dwell times: we read for less than 3 hours a week. And ask consumers which media channel they wouldn’t live without and it's all screens, TV, computer, phone. Paper doesn’t get a mention.

Print at the moment feels like an aging sports team. They performed well once, but they are getting older. Competitors are younger and train harder. They should take a leaf from TV’s book: reinvention, but with consumer benefits remaining at the core. Print Power is maybe the first step in that, but it will be a long journey.

Mike Colling
Managing Director

The Key Messages from mediaPro 2010

2010-11-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

Despite the best efforts of London Underground, this year’s mediaPro 2010 at London’s Olympia was a great success. The two day exhibition included a talk from our very own MD Mike Colling on how integrated planning helped the RSPCA quadruple response, double ROI and recruit new donors. However, the main aim for the mc&c team in attendance was to seek out new ideas and innovations. Our objective - to help give our clients the cutting edge for the year to come and continue mc&c’s approach of placing innovation and new thinking at the heart of our business.

Indeed, as ever in media, new ideas and thinking were not in short supply during the two days. The challenge in fact was to cut through the noise and find the key messages that really will stand the test of time to ensure our media approach is business effective not just a pretty PowerPoint slide.

So, here are the team’s two day highlights:-

Day 1: Tim Brooks MD of Guardian News & Media put it bluntly when he predicted that print media will most likely not exist post 2025. Lovers of the press fear not. As Brooks stated, the biggest growth area for the Guardian is mobile readers, despite their small share of total audience at present. The trends all point upwards for in this technology, with a world of smart phone dominance and mobile online interaction surely not that far off. The challenge for advertisers is to recognise how audience engagement changes with this medium and how best to make advertising effective on this platform.

The sense of being in the middle of a paradigm shift in business thinking, as the reality of an online world comes to fruition, was further brought home by Peter Fenton, investor and board member of Twitter. Fenton provided a tour de force narrative of the growth of the ‘global village’ represented by the growth in social media and most importantly, the emergence of what he see as the new consumer. This consumer is connected (online), empowered (with numerous social network connections) and impatient when it comes to an online response. While crucially the challenge is to reach out to those who have the greatest influence in this environment and engage them with a comprehensive engagement strategy. The challenge for brands, therefore, is to recognise this new communication environment, where listening to consumers is the key to really engaging them and old top down models are a thing of the past.

Day 2: Surely one of the highlights of the key note speeches, and music to our ears, was Roy Sutherland’s speech on behavioural economics. mc&c has been championing the insight behavioural economics can offer our clients for some time now and we are already converted! The challenge we face is to take this rather abstract thinking and ensure it’s made concrete as a media strategy, put into action and delivers results.

The middle of the day saw the enthusiastic advocacy of content led marketing strategy by Paul Troy of Barclaycard, following the success of the ‘waterslide’ campaign. For Troy this is the future, where consumers come to engage you instead of you constantly reaching out to them – driven by a content idea that naturally lends itself to cross platform delivery.

However, Troy’s questioning of the push advertising model, although compelling and certainly a key development of the last few years, suffers from one key question. What’s the nature of your business? Not all businesses have the budget or the natural flexibility to offer great content. Indeed, these questions were powerfully brought home by Nick Emmel of Dare, who questioned the need by advertisers to always chase the new idea or technology for their campaigns. As Emmel made clear, yes, these innovations can be great and the choice over whelming, but don’t be suckered into thinking that because they exist you have to use them. The key is to look at the media problem and answer the question ‘what’s the best solution?’ This could be the latest online development or it may be using press ads and TV. Choice doesn’t mean choose everything, it means selecting the best channels for your campaign driven by knowledge of what delivers, an insight that mc&c have long held to with our emphasis on data led media strategies that test, analyse and deliver.

And the key message we took away from our two days?

This is an industry built on shifting social trends, technological change and ever changing commercial pressures, where new ideas and innovation are the keys to ensuring our clients get the best use and value out of their media activity. In this sense we work in an industry shaped by change.

However, we are also shaped by continuity. The recent attempts at social revolt in Iran may have been aided by new the new social media of Twitter, but the 1979 revolution was fuelled by speeches recorded on cassette. As Billy Joel sang, “we didn’t start the fire”. Media innovation and change is constant throughout societies across the globe.

Nevertheless, it’s also a commercial environment where you need to be careful not to lose your head. Despite the huge changes over the last 30 years, key values still remain vital for success:

 Understand your business
 Understand your audience and
 Understand what you want to achieve

Innovation and good old fashioned media commonsense are the real skills we as an agency can offer our clients. The world keeps on turning …

Jamie Cregan
Media Planner Buyer

The Impact of SMS as a Response Channel

2010-10-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

I spent this morning looking at some pretty dreadful results. One of our clients recently ran a test campaign that didn’t succeed. With 20/20 hindsight one can see why not. A new proposition to a new audience, with a new creative agency, and a new media mix, at a new price point. They had asked for a radical jump, and that’s what they got. Good clear learning that they shouldn’t progress in that direction in the near future. And that’s valuable.

But they also learnt one positive thing, and that’s the value of adding sms as a response channel to their DR advertising. For them it generated c40% incremental response. Net additional consumer contacts that wouldn’t otherwise have been captured. And that’s fairly typical of results across our client base. Increasingly we are seeing response to DRTV and other media channels move away from phone and towards text and online. And we would much rather consumers texted us than went online. Online we might convert 2% of responders to some form of sale. If they text us we typically convert 35%+.

Consumers’ love of SMS as a channel seems to be growing and showing no sign of abating. In 2009 we sent 104 billion text messages, 4 per day for every man woman and child. It’s a mobile medium that is here and viable for most clients now. It’s well worth considering if you aren’t using it.

The Future of DRTV Continued

2010-10-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am writing this blog from Amsterdam, and the global fundraising conference that is held there each year. Many of the 900 attendees use DRTV to recruit new donors, and there is much debate amongst delegates about falling levels of telephone response.

The world seems to have divided into two camps:-

- those who are just seeing falling phone response and despairing and
- those who are seeing phone response fall, but total response to DRTV rise

This latter group are integrating SMS and web response into their commercials. As a result they now typically see 30%+ of their income from DRTV come via web donations. SMS response can add 10%+ incremental response, and sometimes more than double response.

As media channels converge, and consumers spend more and more time consuming more than one channel simultaneously, measuring campaign results will become harder. DRTV plays a vital role on many clients’ schedules, reaching audiences that other media do not, and generating very cost effective response. It is vital that our measurement systems keep pace with changing consumer behaviour.

Mike Colling
Managing Director

The Future of TV?

2010-10-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I have been pondering what the future might hold for the medium we all spend a day a week watching still. (I have to confess I have been prompted to these thoughts by the need to write a speech on this subject, promised to a conference next week!)

What have I found in my researches?

Firstly, TV is in rude health. Despite doom-mongers prophesising its impending demise viewing to TV is stronger than ever, and showing no signs of abating. If anything I suspect viewing levels will continue to grow going forward as we all read less and watch more.

Secondly, there is no evidence that TV viewing will be replaced by consumers watching video online. Whilst lots of people do watch video online (43% of us at last count) we don’t spend much time doing it (less than 1% of our media day).
My third finding is that we are about to see a huge amount of change in the TV landscape. The last few years have seen an explosion of channels (from 3 when I started to 650+ now), digitisation, the advent of the PVR, but, as the poet said “you ain’t seen nothing yet”
The big impacts, I think, will come from 3D and HD devices, on demand content (the launch of YouView from the BBC et al next year), searchable content and personalised interfaces (Google, Apple and others launching this year) and home media centres that will allow movement of content across devices (Virgin, BT, this year and early next).

So from a technology point of view we will see huge change. But what impact will it have?

Well for viewers I'm not sure the impact will be that great. In five years' time we may well be able to watch anything we want, anywhere, on any device. I suspect that for the majority of us our viewing habits will not change. Most viewing is a passive activity. We get home, slump in front of the set, and watch what schedulers put in front of us. Even when we have PVR technology for ease of recording and playback, or video on demand via iPlayer through our TV’s, less than 9% of viewing in those households is on demand or time shifted.

So, our viewing patterns won’t change radically in terms of what we watch. But I think the one change that might be drastic is how we watch TV. We used to watch in social groups, typically families gathered around a single set. That is a thing of the past. But we are fundamentally social animals and TV viewing is a social activity - conversations around the water machine in the morning about last night’s viewing convince us all of that. And the growth of social media, now almost 25% of all internet time, and engaging 40% of all of us each week, reflects that need.#

One of the big changes I foresee to TV viewing over the coming years is the convergence of social media and TV. We used to watch TV in physical groups, all in the same room. I see us watching TV in virtual groups, chatting in real time to friends or family about the programme we are physically, separately, watching. That has huge implications for advertisers, about which more next time ......

The Dawn of Daybreak

2010-09-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

Watched the dawn of Daybreak, the re launch of GMTV, this morning. First reaction, there was a lot of purple in the studio. Instead of the old GMTV style of someone talking to you at the kitchen table we were transported to a view of the city of London. I wonder what people in Liverpool think about this?

Adrian Chiles' grumpy act is fine when talking about West Bromwich Albion but will probably fail to appeal first thing in the morning. Accusations of transferring the One Show to ITV have already been made but that’s not the real problem. In fact that wouldn’t be too bad. The show is likely to fall between two stools. One the one hand BBC Breakfast, where high quality journalism, flows effortlessly in a likeable fashion and Sky News Sunrise which has a slick global aura about it. I’m not sure where Daybreak sits.

With ratings plummeting something had to be done, but maybe, all was needed was some editorial guidance. There is nothing wrong with a populist approach –look at the Sun. The difference being The Sun has top class contributors. Daybreak still has a star in Lorraine Kelly but they need more talent in depth.

Richard Madeley, who knows a thing about this type of TV, is pretty pessimistic about its success. Sadly I share his pessimism. Adam Crozier has gone for the Sven Goran Erickson solution when he ran the FA. Hire someone who is expensive but with a proven record, and we all know where that led us.

Ian Prager
Planning Director

The Future of Five

2010-07-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

Lots has been written about Richard Desmond’s purchase of Five - mostly centred on the view that he is going to make Five an extension of Asian Babes!

To me, this view is just mischief making. When Five was Channel 5, their policy of making the then Channel 5 into Channel Filth was well documented. Who can’t fail to remember Cheggers in Naked Jungle a programme which lead one observer to refer to it as a “nasty little piece of voyeurism posing as a game show”? It didn’t work to build ratings and revenue ten years ago and it certainly won’t work now. And Richard Desmond knows this. The Daily Express doesn’t have a page 3 girl and the Daily Star hasn’t become the Sport!

More to the point is how Desmond’s energetic and entrepreneurial spirit will shake up Five. So far he has said a lot of sensible things. He is likely to stick with CSI, Australian soaps and go for Big Brother but I’m sure he’ll also give the channel a little shot in the arm with some Daily Star and OK! content. It looks like he is fully committed to Project Canvas which will champion broadcast and broadband connectivity through the TV rather than the computer.

There is little doubt that Five’s sales teams will become more Express like and will ferret around for any loose change found under the sofa cushions. And there is absolutely no doubt that fully fledged cross platform deals will be part of everyday negotiations.

If his track record with the Daily Star and OK! is anything to go by Five’s future looks to be safe hands but it won’t be the dawn of a new age of broadcast quality!

Ian Prager
Planning Director

You’re probably bored already…

2010-07-20T06:56:00.000-07:00

HOW CAN I GET YOUR ATTENTION?! I can assure you I’m shouting this at you at the top of my voice, catching some rather curious glances in the office. Yet you, the reader, remain nonchalant, unaffected by my efforts to catch your notice. This is the problem that a marketer faces with the written word, you can make it big, make it small, make it blue or pick the ‘sexiest’ font you can find, it is still however, just words and can quite easily be ignored.

This week we were advising a client on the importance of using video in an ecommerce environment. We outlined to them the significance of video when engaging the public; involving more of the senses, sight, sound and even emotion. Building a solid relationship with your clients is a main key to boosting your sales. The use of video is an effective and simple way to make this connection. Video marketing is not just designed to increase brand awareness but it has a direct effect upon sales; jewellery makers ‘Dynomighty’ were a new company to the market, in the US, they implemented a video marketing campaign on ‘youtube’ and increased sales by $130,000 in three months. Angelbeds.com (Internet Retailer Top 500 company) implemented a video marketing campaign with great success; the videos were implemented on the home page and product comparison pages in mid-August of 2007. Conversion rates immediately jumped 11% in one month and increased 47% year-over-year in Q4 of 2007.

Video marketing is a cost effective way to demonstrate a product, the consumer can almost ‘try before they buy’, and seeing the product in action rather than just a written description is of immeasurable value for the e-commerce industry where web interaction is the only contact between business and customer. This removes the uncertainty involved with purchasing online, inevitably increasing sales figures. With many people now scouring the net for videos on share sites, ‘Nike’ created a viral ad showing footballer ‘Ronaldinho’ hitting the crossbar consecutively without the ball dropping, this ad had over 50 million views worldwide. Video marketing as an entity is increasing every day, with US giants ‘Cisco Systems’ citing in their latest ‘Visual Networking Index’ forecast that global IP traffic will increase 4.3 times through to 2014 and that video will be the primary driver, accounting for 91% of traffic by 2014. A media source of this magnitude, as a company or a marketer, cannot be ignored.

Peter Bradley
Trainee, mc&c

World Cup Review

2010-07-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

World Cup 2010 was last night brought to an end by a Yorkshireman amid eruptions of celebration around the stadium; unfortunately the Englishman was the referee and the fans in rapture were the Spanish.

World Cup 2010 began 11th June 2010 with thirty two teams in the group stages; it will be remembered for the early exits of holder’s Italy, the sullen French and another year England failed to deliver. The World Cup was viewed by a collective audience of approximately 26 billion, once again underlining the opinion that the World Cup is the largest worldwide event and therefore for those in marketing and media, every four years it’s ‘all systems go’. A well-placed advertising campaign during this period of time is guaranteed to have the largest audience than any other time, equally a media gaff on the scale of ITV HD ‘0-1 USA win’ after cutting to an advert and missing England’s goal, can be catastrophic. A major issue faced by an advertiser is the thrashing that ITV took in the ratings battle with the BBC, many citing the lack of advertising being a major pull for their 54 percent share of those viewing the final. 3.3 million viewers tuned in to watch the final on ITV and ITVHD compared to the 15.1 million on BBC and their HD channel. Therefore it seems clear that although the World Cup is the largest sporting event on the planet, the media and advertising world must be creative and not merely bombard the viewer with television advertising, as they will ultimately switch over. To put the efforts of ITV in perspective, the highest recorded ratings of Coronation Street is 27 million; room for improvement indeed.

Peter Bradley, Trainee MC&C

Off the Net

2010-07-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

I have just had a wonderful but also salutary experience this last weekend.

I spent three days in the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It’s a huge wilderness, about 600,000 acres and a population of less than 19,000.
The upside - it’s a beautiful wilderness. We were within 25 feet of a pair of golden eagles, beaches that would not disgrace the Caribbean, red deer, salmon, and no traffic.

No road traffic and not much digital traffic either. Hours of no phone signal, and broadband only in the hotel. An iphone is pretty useless here.

This is a community that’s pretty dependent on direct channels. The vehicles we saw most frequently were the Royal Mail and other parcel delivery services. But the media channels that drive the sales are analogue and not digital. Local press, TV, local magazines, local radio, and above all Royal Mail are all far more important parts of the media mix than digital here.

This was a useful reminder that sometimes some of the biggest users of direct services may still be in pockets that require an analogue answer and not purely a digital media solution.

Localism is a theme I shall return to …

Mike Colling, Managing Director

iAds - ipop ups, just what the world needed

2010-06-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

Apple has officially unveiled its new mobile advertising platform, iAds for its new iPhone 4.

The new iAd platform will be built directly into the iPhone 4 OS interface potentially meaning users get little say as to whether they chose to opt in or not. Apple suggest that iAds is being developed to change the face of advertising, but surely this is just a pop up that's been made almost impossible to opt out of as it's preloaded to your handset?

Fear not, Mr Jobs has stated that far from rehash a 10 year old technology, he has in fact identified a flaw of both standard online advertising and TV advertising — the combination of interaction and emotion. The key is that ads will keep users within an app, rather than redirecting users to a browser window. So don't worry that you are seemingly trapped inside a never ending advert as you will be 'enjoying' being 'emotionally interacted with'. Sounds like something a catholic priest might be accused of!

I'm sure all you Apple evangelists will gush that iAds is great and that the ads are so engaging, so relevant, lets just wait until you've been served your 20th 'flab to fab' ad and see how engaged you are! Then again I'm sure there's an app for that.

Bodhi Morrison, Head of Digital MC&C

2010-06-28T03:38:00.000-07:00

The Budget: every cloud…

Doom! Gloom! Swingeing cuts! While the emergency budget may make for depressing reading for many sections of the UK, what does this practically mean for the advertising and marketing industries?

The advertising industry is one of the most cyclical of all industries – by this I mean that it very closely tracks macro economic movements in terms of UK GDP. Typically, it follows GDP’s suit around two quarters later which means good news over the next year or two if the government’s forecast and the Bellweather Report are to be believed.

Clearly however, the changing financial landscape will affect parts of the UK differently. Were I parent relying on child benefit or a public sector worker seeing consumer goods prices rise thanks to VAT while knowing that my pay was frozen for the next two years, I would not be enthralled by my prospects. Broadly though, the prime ABC1s beloved of advertisers will still be available and willing to spend, so what is the big impact going to be? Regionality – that’s what.

To be more specific, it is not macro regionality, but dynamic shifts within regions at a much more micro level. This will particularly be evident in place such as the North East where there is a high level of public sector employment. Where the region as a whole will probably be adversely affected, some specific areas will remain relatively unaffected thereby creating pockets of people who are disproportionately wealthy compared to their surrounding peers.

This clearly represents an opportunity for highly targeted strategies – where the difference between good and bad targeting can be as wide as just a street or a town, this is extremely vital. What we will see coming into effect is the increased use of micro-targeting, particularly with techniques such as IP flooding, retargeting and postcode level display and emails.

mc&c have previous in this area – have a look at the First Bus case study on the website to see how successful such a strategy could be.

These techniques will enable you to reach customers in more intricate ways – perhaps even down to single contacts. I’m not sure that we could target your vitriol at George Osborne though.

Tim Part, Business Development Manager

2010-06-28T03:37:00.001-07:00

Sky Sports News: it’s just not cricket

Friday 18th June was a disastrous day for sport. Forget England’s passable impression of an over 70s team in the scoreless bore-fest with Algeria, I’m talking about Sky’s decision to withdraw Sky Sports News from Freeview and turn it into a pay TV channel. One quotation which appeared beside the BBC report caught my eye. It reads as follows:

“There is a broad, emerging consensus that in the multi-media era it is insane to give content away for nothing”
Tim Luckhurst, Professor of Journalism, University of Kent

Interesting. Provocative. Utter claptrap.

The fact is that as the world becomes more advanced in terms of multi-media content, the easier it becomes to find content of similar quality and substance. Since I churned from the Sky platform to Freeview and subsequently Freesat last year, I have not once laid eyes on Sky Sports and my scarily useless knowledge of all things sporting has not diminished as a result. BBC Sport does the same job in terms of headlines and there are scores of places I can get my Spurs and Surrey fixes earlier than Sky could ever report the gist of the story. Indeed, most of the time Facebook and Twitter get there first.

There are three possible reasons why Sky have taken SSN away from Freeview.
1. They actually think it a valuable commodity. As discussed above, this is crazy. As media fragments, generic content such as SSN becomes less valuable, whereas the crown jewels become the prize. Where else can the UK public watch shows such as 24, Lost or Premier League Football? Professor Luckhurst described SSN as a “loss leader”. He is probably right, but will Sky 3 +1, which has replaced SSN on the Freeview EPG, be as successful?
2. They want to annoy Freeview. In times of recession, downturn and economic strife, downtrading becomes a serious concern for premier businesses. By taking away even the smallest piece of content from Freeview, Sky are flexing their muscles in a public way. It is worth PR in itself.
3. Murdoch’s pay wall is writ in stone. This could be a clear indication that Sky are aggressively pursuing the pay-per-view model for all of their content.

Whatever reason it is, I doubt that there will be serious ramifications for either Sky or Freeview which just makes the decision all the more puzzling.

Going back to the dear Professor, I think I may have been a little unfair. He is not entirely worng – he is just missing a word. Had he said “the wrong content” he would have been spot on. Giving away some of your content as a sweetener is vital – we have seen from our years of work with Which? that giving a free guide gives a much better quality of customer than prize draw. Customers recruited on brand values stay longer and are more profitable than those lured in on a false premise whose latency and inertia provides any revenue. These themes are explored in an article on the subscription business model which can be found on the mc&c website.

Tim Part, Business Development Manager

Twitter or TV?

2010-05-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

At the iMedia conference in Brighton this week there was a good deal of discussion about social media and how best to measure it.

Oddly though, there was little consideration of the fact that different verticals will be able to benefit from social media in very different ways.

One way of looking at verticals is to place them on a grid where one axis runs from low to high emotional importance and the other axis runs from low to high rational importance.

Verticals with high emotional importance contain products that we buy because they “say” something about us. Verticals with high rational importance contain products that we buy because we need them.

Using the emotional-rational grid we can divide verticals into four sectors:

High rational, high emotional (HRHE) verticals like travel, motor cars and electrical devices. These are verticals where the functionality needs to be right, where we are risking relatively large amounts of money, and where part of why we buy is because we feel comfortable with the brand

Low rational, high emotional (LRHE) verticals like fashion, print media and charity. These are verticals where we are not risking a great deal, where we don’t really need the products but where we do feel emotional engagement because the products we buy “say” a lot about us

High rational, low emotional (HRLE) verticals like banking, retail and utilities. These are verticals where the functionality needs to be right, where we are risking relatively large amounts of money, but where we are not emotionally engaged with the brand

Low rational, low emotional (LRLE) verticals like washing powder and petrol. These are verticals where we are not taking great risks and where there is no emotional involvement with the brands. While products in these verticals are important the functionality they deliver is generally simple.

HRHE verticals can use social media very creatively. As well as using social media to research the marketplace by listening to conversations and to manage their reputation they can actively “campaign” messages through social media.

LRHE verticals are in a similar position – able to exploit their emotional connection with consumers through social media, although they may need to work harder as there is little they can say about rational benefits.

HRLE verticals however will find it far harder to exploit social media for campaigning. They have little emotional connection with their consumers and proactive use of social media platforms will frequently be considered intrusive – who wants to hear from their bank on Facebook? They can however use social media for market research and importantly for managing their reputations. For instance few people are likely to praise a bank’s service to their friends but many will criticise it if something goes wrong.

The LRLE verticals are the Cinderellas of social media. No one is interested in them: why would you blog about washing powder or review a cleaning fluid? For brands in these verticals social media are far less important. While they should monitor conversations just in case a big issue starts to brew, they need to do little more than that.

Both HRLEs and LRLEs need to employ advertising techniques to add a layer of emotional connection to their brands. But for HRHEs and LRHEs that are considerable opportunities to enhance their brands through social media.

The lesson here is that brands should consider whether they are in a vertical that can usefully use social media for active campaigning or merely for research and for more reactive communication.

A failure to understand this can result in wasted budgets and in losing the opportunities that more powerful media activities can deliver.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk

What should digital TV really look like?

2010-04-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

The kind folk at Broadcast magazine recently asked me to act as one of the judges for their Digital Broadcast Awards. It was a fascinating afternoon with, as you would expect, some excellent entries.

My first thought though was: why “digital”? I was told that the awards were about content aired on digital terrestrial channels which of course encompasses anything from BBC 1 and ITV to more niche channels like BBC parliament and FiveUSA as well as various shopping and information channels.

But these days, “digital terrestrial” seems a slightly out of date and artificial set of channels to base an awards ceremony around.

OK they are all free, which is, I suppose, a point of difference. But there are many “TV channels” that are now available purely online while others provide so much content online that you don’t really need a TV to watch them (although of course you still need a TV licence!).

Restricting the awards to purely “digital terrestrial” means that anything winning a “Streamy” award wouldn’t be included for the Broadcast awards.

I am not sure if all that’s particularly important. But it did nake me think about the nature of TV programmes on a digital platform and how they can be developed beyond simple long form TV to enhance the viewer’s experience.

And looking at some of the entrants to the Digital Broadcast Awards helped me identify some of the possibilities.

As well as programmes that make no attempt at online enhancement, there seem to be two aproaches, one which we might call “normal” and one which is very definitely "advanced".

Normal enhancements

There is a “normal” level that looks pretty like the “extras” you get when you buy the DVD of a movie.

You get the long form video (of course)
You probably get some additional editorial, perhaps some short form clips and out-takes, pictures and text based bckground
And you are pretty certain to get one or two more interactive elements: voting perhaps, a forum where you can submit comments, even the opportunity to upload your own pictures or video
The channel might also market the programme by uploading clips and information to other, third party sites such as YouTube where more people may discover it

Advanced enhancements

But increasingly many programmes are developing advanced online content and applications that really blur the boundaries between the long form TV video format and online interactive formats.

Thus some programmes:

Use viewer interactions or feeds from Twitter and other sites to tweak story lines
Create immersive video games based around the programme
Provide alternative storylines and extra characters online
Merge the real world with the programme by for instance sending emails to registered viewers from characters in the programme
Introduce new characters (or even the whole programme) online before they have been seen on the programme

These advanced enhancements are where the real creativity will be seen over the coming year or two. With the rapid acceleration of the long awaited “convergence” between online and TV (as witnessed by the launch of internet enabled TVs) perhaps this area should be the focus of future awards.

It is certainly the area that programme makes should focus on!

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director

jeremy@mcand.co.uk

The first step in a revolution. Or a bold experiment doomed to failure?

2010-04-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

So it's finally happened. After months of speculation the first of the UK national newspapers will start charging for online content from June.

It's a brave move which will be watched with interest by many different parties. And despite the confident soundbites coming out of NI there's no doubt that this is a high-risk move.

However it's not necessarily as risky as some are making out. Only the quality papers, which attract an online savvy audience, will be going paid-for initially.

TimesOnline currently has 1.22m daily users. Even if only 5% of these convert they would bring in £1.8m on a daily pass. The initial success of TimesPlus suggests that these numbers aren't just pipedreams.

Moreover the new Times and Sunday Times sites will be very popular with advertisers. In a similar way that paid-for papers bring in a better quality response than the freesheets so NI will have an effective monopoly in this sector and could theoretically charge accordingly.

If Murdoch follows through with his promise of improving content to differentiate his sites from other publishers' then NI may well succeed in stealing consumers away from the free sites. It's no coincidence that this announcement comes hot on the heels of the BBC's declaration that they will be significantly reducing their online offerings.

But it still feels like a very risky move. TimesOnline simply does not inspire the same brand loyalty as Guardian.co.uk, MailOnline and the behemoth that is the BBC. While there are so many other free alternatives out there it's hard to see what NI can offer consumers to put themselves far enough above their competitors to justify charging for content.

Chris Skone James, Senior Planner Buyer

The London Weekly – myth or reality?

2010-03-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

The London Weekly, a new free newspaper aimed at the London commuter market was launched at the start of February, aiming to fill the gap left following the demise of the London Lite and thelondonpaper in late 2009.

Created by a group of private investors calling themselves Global Publishing, the paper is distributed outside Underground stations on Fridays and Saturdays. The team behind it describe it as "the only free newspaper in London covering light entertainment, gossip, politics, health, music and fashion" – obviously unaware of the London Evening Standard.

Working in the heart of media land, I use the tube to travel to Tottenham Court Road from Stockwell and back again daily, where I’m constantly exposed to the Metro, City AM and the Standard, as well as weekly magazines, such as Shortlist, Stylist and Sport. However, as of yet I’m still to be offered one of the supposed 250,000 copies of the London Weekly – and we’re now on issue 5.

Have I just been in an oblivious daze as I stumble out of the tube on Friday morning still half asleep? Possible but unlikely it seems, as a quick survey of the office reveals nobody else has seen it either – and I’m pretty sure at least half of them were awake.

Launching a new free-sheet in London is a daunting task no doubt, and anyone attempting to do so would of course face difficulties along the way and bumps to smooth. However, targeting Friday and Saturday tube users (Friday users likely being very different to Saturday users) and failing to make it readily available, especially in its first few weeks of existence, seems like a bad way to start.

Kyle Seeley, Planner/Buyer

Adding some rigour to social media measurement

2010-02-22T03:27:00.000-08:00

Measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing is a fairly fuzzy activity. Putting a little structure around it can therefore be useful.

There are three main types of measurement you can consider. There's absolute data – data that measures size. There is trend data – data that measures change. And there is comparative data – which you could use for benchmarking.

Absolute data is factual – I might have 5000 Twitter followers, or 37 people might have commented on this blog post. Or perhaps 6000 people viewed my video on YouTube. Or my brand was mentioned 5000 times in forums. Etc etc. Some of this can perhaps be assigned a value in media terms. And while it isn't always easy to assign an appropriate value (what is a Facebook fan worth?) at least you can make a start.

Trend data is also factual – but as you are comparing two sets of data, as you can with tools like Alterian's SM2, the important fact is the change in the data. Thus if there are 10,000 positive mentions of my brand through social media in August that may or may not be good: it's hard to know. But if there were 9000 in July and 12,000 in September I can be pretty confident that I am going in the right direction and that the value of those mentions in September is 125% of the value in July.

And there is comparative data. I might have 12,000 positive brand mentions in September. But if my competitor got 50,000 that month I'm not looking so bright!

We can also separate the results of social media conversations into four areas: views, conversations, actions and effects.

First there are views. Sometimes it's possible to measure the number of people who have seen some of your social media conversations – for instance by measuring visitor numbers to your blog. You won't always be able to measure that – but where you can this may be a helpful metric.

Often these numbers will be small – perhaps too small to be relevant in media terms. But they might not be. If Sony Bravia gets a couple of million views of its ad on YouTube then that's worth something. Probably more in fact than 2 million OTSs on TV.

Then there are conversations. These are simply mentions of your brand or your competitors in various places – forums, blogs, file shares etc. They can be good, bad or indifferent (and you should be measuring that). At its simplest it equates to your PR agency counting the press clips.

Next there are actions. This is when people have done something – taken an action of some kind, perhaps signing up to follow you on Twitter, or responding to a comment you have made in a forum.

Again often the numbers here will be very small – and the real value may not be in terms of media but in terms of the opportunity they bring to engage with brand advocates.

And finally we have effects. This is when you can see that social media activity has had an effect on something else you are doing. For instance, and at its simplest, you could measure the effect (or at least some of the effect) of social media on web traffic by tracking people from appropriate sources such as social networking sites.

Other effects might only be measurable through data analysis, for instance identifying links between social media campaigns and calls to a call centre or online sales.

Of course the effect might well be softer than a measurable and identifable action. It may be a shift in purchase propensity or brand favourability on the part of people exposed to your social media. That's harder to measure although not impossible using standard quantitative research techniques.

So there you have it. A little 3 by 4 matrix that should help you put some rigour into the process of evaluating social media.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk

Mobile Media Metrics: a good start by the GSMA. But...

2010-02-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

The GSMA announced the launch of their mobile media metrics tool, delivered by Comscore, at the London Imax yesterday.

It was certainly a popular event, and massively over-subscribed by all accounts. So I went along ready to be impressed.

Well, to their credit, the GSMA have managed to get the five main UK mobile operators, O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, into one space, sharing usage data to allow robust reach and frequency numbers to be accessed by media planners.

That’s useful. We can see that 16 million people in the UK accessed the web via mobile devices (by which they mean phones – small screens, limited ease of use, but always on and always with you).

And we can see where they go: Facebook, Google, the operators, the BBC… (Actually, when you look at the figures in a bit more depth and examine page views and minutes of use, you find that mobile media is really little more than Facebook Media, but that’s another story.)

And, because GSMA have negotiated a survey of a section of mobile users we can even make some assumptions about the socio-demographics of mobile web site visitors. (Although these are assumptions and I believe will be open to some question.)

But. And it’s a very big but:

There is still no independent data. At the moment all the data comes from the operators. So you buy some media. And the operators will tell you whether or not it has been delivered.

For mobile media to have any credibility (and Michael Smith of the COI was quick to point this out yesterday) we do need to see independent campaign data such as that which is delivered by third party ad servers in “fixed” internet advertising.

Without that (and irrespective of whether you feel the heavy dominance of Facebook is an issue), it will be hard to justify serious spending on mobile media.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director

DRTV exists - honest!

2010-01-28T04:23:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday I was invited, along with some of my colleagues, to Response TV – an event organised by ITV to present some research they had conducted with the DMA to prove that TV advertising makes other media work harder.

Well, I can tell you I went with high hopes that ITV were finally going to acknowledge that DRTV exists. And that it is a good thing.

We arrived at Television Centre and were invited to watch a film. The voice-over stated: “It is widely accepted that TV advertising works by building brand associations over the long term. ... However, the responsiveness of TV campaigns could historically only be estimated by long-term sales figures or post-campaign research. Response was almost impossible to calculate accurately and brand owners would shy away from television”

Right – so I’ll just get my coat then as clearly I have been making up all of those phone calls generated in direct response to a TV ad.

No wait – once again it's simply a case that DRTV doesn't actually seem to exist. The only thing worth talking about seems to be 'Brand' television advertising.

I do get a bit cross at times – DRTV is estimated to account for 35-40% of all TV advertising. Based on 2009 Neilson figures that would put the value at between £1.2 and £1.35 billion!

But let me forget my grumpiness for a minute. A study being done by a reputable trade body such as the DMA backing up what we have been saying for quite a while now is fantastic.

At MC&C, we have numerous case studies showing that TV uplifts other activity – DRTV, inserts, doordrops, search etc. And it's nice to have someone back it up.

Anything that gets brands back to spending on TV has to be good for everyone in the media and advertising industry. This might help the TV stations get back the nearly £1/2 billion revenue lost from 2008!

Nicky Legg, Broadcast Director

Is L’Oreal wrecking your magazine recruitment strategy?

2010-01-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

The Daily Mail is re-launching its highly successful Weekend Magazine on the 30th January. MC&C have seen the dummy and, as you might expect from the deep pockets of Associated, it looks great!

Further refined focus on the female readership with celebrity photo shoots & interviews, fashion, shopping and food, with the usual support in the back half from the weekly TV review, gardening and travel. All in the best possible taste – Darlings!

Issue sizes will increase from 72 to 80 pages and advertising pages will also increase by 3 or 4 an issue. It will benefit from a national marketing re-launch and we would expect the magazine to have traction with the readership and deliver strong numbers.

So what’s the problem? Well if you are a direct response advertiser, then advertising will be restricted to a minimum 4 page “classified” section at the back of the title, with no opportunity to book covers or opposite display editorial pages. As a result, this stalwart of the mail order sector will reduce in its ability to deliver volume, optimum ROI efficiency, as well as brand traction.

So why have The Daily Mail done it? You guessed it – revenue! The national press supplement market has been traditionally reliant on DR revenues for its income. As traditional media channels have diversified and online grown spectacularly, DR advertisers have been spending less.

So who did they turn to? L’Oreal and the other brand fashionistas! But they won’t book into low quality editorial or a editorial environment that contains any DR advertising whatsoever. So media owners have had to fundamentally change their product in order to chase the money.

But Hey! How difficult is this decision really? It’s a no brainer! You Magazine blazed the trail almost 10 years ago, morphing into a quasi Marie Claire / She magazine and banishing all but the blandest of brand/DR ads from the magazine altogether. Live followed – they similarly upgraded their male focussed content two weekends ago – but have not taken DR for over 3 years.

The real “sit up and smell the coffee” moment has been News Group’s Fabulous. On the 3rd February 2008 they scrapped Sunday Magazine , relaunched as a female magazine and banished DR altogether. Sources indicate that this magazine actually saw a double digit revenue increase year on year in very challenging times. This has not gone unnoticed by other publishers.

So how long can Mirror Group & Express resist this move? Even the likes of the weekly magazine groups like IPC and Bauer have done very nicely thank you last year on reduced pagination and FMCG advertising – pushing DR advertisers out because they pay less!

So what to do about it? Yes re-negotiate your rates. But this does not address the fundamental issues of replacing volumes and growing quality customer bases.

So if you thought online was just PPC – think again. Are you engaging with the even larger number of online readers that traditional media owners often reach? Partnerships, video, cost per acquisition deals. No? Colour classified in newspapers? You have never got DRTV to work? And what about pre-rolls and VOD?

MC&C think ahead for our clients and look to manage the risk of evolving recruitment strategies proactively as the marketplace evolves. Remember: the next time you see a lipstick advert in a national press supplement – you are probably kissing a frog!

John Willacy, Trading Director

3D: the future of advertising?

2010-01-21T05:42:00.000-08:00

Took myself and the boys off to see Avatar at the weekend. OK Sci Fi story but the 3D special effects were magnificent.

It has to be the future of video – and video advertising. Cars would leap out of the screen at you; well-honed bodies would thrust beauty and grooming products at you; and you’d positively want to reach into the screen to help those poor freezing meercats.

But is this realistic? Whether or not film studios decide that 3D is the future of block-buster movies, the future of TV is far more uncertain. It isn’t that 3D-capable TVs would be massively expensive to manufacture. Or that home audiences would be reluctant to wear 3D glasses.

There just isn’t a lot of money around in TV studios at the moment. Sky (buoyed up by subscription revenues) is planning a 3D TV channel later this year. But it is unlikely that many other commercial broadcasters will be spending a lot of money on creating 3D programming. Even with the benefits of Moore’s Law, this would require an unrealistically large investment in new equipment for several years yet, as well as the development of new skill sets within TV production and artistic staff.

Nonetheless 3D advertising does have an allure that perhaps advertisers will find hard to resist. So if they cannot find an outlet in TV, where will they look?

Well, cinema of course is one place. Wrigley launched a 3D cinema ad last summer. And more recently brands like Royal Caribbean have created ads that do make good use of 3D technology. But cinema, although a fine place to display high quality advertising, is limited in terms of reach and frequency.

Perhaps the future lies elsewhere. Increasingly TVs come ready for connection to the internet. And “watching” the internet on TV – whether it’s for catch up TV, looking at Youtube videos or simply communicating via Facebook – is increasingly common. Is there an opportunity then for TV-delivered internet to be the place that 3D advertising comes alive?

Hmm – I can’t see many people donning those 3D glasses to just to watch advertising! So if 3D advertising is to succeed it will have to be placed in a context where people are already wearing their specs. Where could that be? Well, some might argue that 3D effects make more sense in a video game than in a movie. And certainly 3D video games are going to be big business in the next months…

Could “in-game” or “advergaming” be the future of 3D advertising? The medium has beeen around for years (remember the Peperami animal game?). But it’s never really taken off. Perhaps this time round it will.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director

India: A massive emerging DR opportunity

2010-01-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

I have just had four of the most energetic and enervating days that I have had for a long time. One of our clients asked me to join them for a trip to Mumbai to review the media scene there, and the opportunities for recruiting subscribers to their organisation.

Before I went I guess my understanding of India was hazy to say the least - major inputs being Slumdog Millionaire and EM Forster.

What I found was a group of bright, creative, motivated entrepreneurs. And that applied across the board from the smaller organisations right up to big corporates.

We met with a bunch of media owners, clients and agencies. What we found was a media scene of extremes. Fewer than 10 million broadband internet connections. More than 350 million mobile phones. The largest circulation newspaper at just 5 million copies, but pay TV penetration at nearly 100 million homes.

Direct marketing as a discipline is still fairly immature. It is used mostly for CRM (airline loyalty programmes, financial services cross selling). There is little direct mail for acquisition as data sets are small and of dubious quality.

But the DRTV scene is alive and flourishing. The suburban Indian housewife has discovered the delights of slow cookers, teeth whiteners and exercise equipment in the same way middle America did. And DRTV is beginning to creep into the mainstream marketers lexicon, with financial services and charities conducting campaigns that we would recognise in the UK.

It's potentially a very interesting opportunity for DM acquisition. A growing market of affluent middle class (numbers vary but think more middle class Indians than Americans in the next 10 years), very low media rates (say 10%-20% of UK rates) and a sophisticated call centre infrastructure.

I’m going back. I don’t know how yet, but I am sure India represents volume and value opportunities for our clients and ourselves.

Mike Colling, Managing Director

Improving measurability between off line and online media

2010-01-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

We now understand more about the link between online and offline media. And we know more about the customer journey. But are we using this understanding to measure the journey a consumer takes between offline and online media?

Is it sufficient to say we know that offline media drives consumers online when we can't measure the success our offline media has in driving potential customers online?

How can we identify which of our offline media drives our search? We can monitor the search uplift in and around television adverts, as we know what time the messages are consumed by our audience so any spikes can reasonably be attributed to these spots.

It's trickier where press and out of home are concerned because when the media are consumed is harder to pin-point. And of course increased time shifting behaviour with TV (e.g. PVRs and ITV Player) makes even TV's effect on online harder to measure.

But what if we told our audience what to search for online within the creative copy?

Potentially we could use one word for tube car panels that is relevant and memorable to the campaign, one for our press adverts and a different one for TV. The copy could simply read “to find out more search…….”, or “to take advantage of this offer search……”.

There's another benefit. If the key words or search terms used are different to those your competitors are using then this could mean you to pay less per click to obtain a customer compared to the more expensive generic search terms that are used by people who have not seen an offline advert.

And you are more likely to convert your audience. Sometimes if you are not at the top of search listings you lose a potential sale to one of your competitors (which you really earned because you paid for the offline ad which drove them online in the first place!)

This problem can be alleviated by using the “search for” mechanism as none (or certainly fewer) of your competitors should appear in the search listings.

Measurable, cheaper and more effective. Media-relevant campaign search terms are a powerful tool!

Christopher Bell, Media Assistant

Useful local apps will build real brand engagement

2010-01-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

There are seminal moments in the development of any new medium and I think I have just been part of one.

Check out http://uksnow.benmarsh.co.uk/ or see #uksnowmap 2.0 on Twitter.

It’s a Google map of the UK, but with tweet comments on snow fall and uploaded mobile phone photos of the snow where the users are.

Never mind weather reports and AA snap shots, this is real-time real-location weather reporting.

This is a great example of consumers congregating around a brand new but really relevant and useful application.

The first brand to harness this level of local engagement will do so well. I want it to be one of ours!

Mike Colling, Managing Director

Social media etiquette

2010-01-05T02:46:00.000-08:00

In the last few weeks I have witnessed a couple of occasions when people who have been asked for “friendship” on social media sites have reacted aggressively.

In one instance a woman on LinkedIn asked for reassurance when someone she had tried to connect with rebuffed her approach and told her not to “misuse” the system. Unsurprisingly she received a lot of support and sympathy from other members.

And then, more recently, I read a vigorous discussion in the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) about the rights and wrongs of someone on the list asking another member for friend status on Facebook. In this case the reactions were far more mixed with as many people decrying this as an intrusion as supporting the attempt at building a network.

So who’s right? What is the etiquette here?

In LinkedIn it seems perfectly in order to ask to connect with someone who is a member of the same professional group that you are a member of. Surely that is what online networking is about.

It’s like being at a party or a business networking event: you may not know someone there but you talk to them because you have friends or colleagues in common. And if the person you approach doesn’t want to connect with you all they have to do is say “no”. There is no need to shout and scream about “misusing” the party!

But is Facebook any different? Well, I suppose Facebook is often more closely aligned to friendships in the physical world. But not always.

Increasingly Facebook is used to set up interest groups (in a similar way to Ning, I guess.) And in the case I am talking about the “victim/criminal” was using Facebook to promote a professional grouping on Ning. So it seems perfectly reasonable for him to get in touch with people asking them to “friend” him and join his new group. And again, if people don’t want to connect, all they need to do is say “no”. (I also got an invitation, which I accepted even though I have never met him.)

My conclusions?

First there are plenty of plonkers in the world and if you ever raise your head above the online parapet you should do so in the expectation that one of them may well have a pop at you. So make sure that your skin is at least reasonably thick.

And second, if you are approached by someone you don’t know, and don’t want to know, in a social networking environment, just say “no thanks” politely. To respond to a social invitation with rudeness implies that you are either bizarrely terrified of other people or massively puffed up with your own importance. Neither says much about you.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director

Email is great: but get the message right, Eurostar!

2009-12-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

Sitting at home, toasting my tootsies on a roaring radiator while scanning the inbox, I couldn’t believe my eyes. A jolly email from Eurostar nestled between Johnnie Boden and my sister-in-law.

The email arrived Saturday morning just after the Eurostar’s most hellish day in their 15 year history. Customers being treated worse than any banker deserves to be. Traffic chaos resembling a mass exodus caused by an impending nuclear Armageddon.

The subject matter of the email: “Give a continental gift this Christmas”. Are they off their rails?

I’m a happy customer. In fact two days previously I'd had a great day in Paris thanks mainly to Eurostar. But they’ve shown a total lack of sensitivity. Any Eurostar customer could have faced that situation and instead of recognizing this, they are selling a Christmas present to remember.

I can only think that either some overworked or hung-over marketing exec thought "I’ve been waiting months to get this away, driven the design team nuts, I don’t care, just get it out."

Or they’re just too arrogant to give a damn.

As a communication tool emails are great; but they have to be handled with care. We’ve all got a horror story to tell.

What should have happened is an email explaining what went wrong, the steps taken to rectify the situation and positioning the Christmas offer as a "thank you for understanding". I’d forgive them. After all it’s the season of goodwill.

Ian Prager, Planning Director

Bronze, silver and gold!

2009-12-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

Funny thing change.

Many of the team this morning (including me) are floating – literally on residual alcohol and metaphorically on air.

It was the DMA awards last night: new venue at Old Billingsgate market; new format with ten new categories; and a new attitude that direct marketing is not the poor relation of advertising but rather the discipline that is at the centre of many clients' marketing globe.

I felt a real sense of pride across the room in the work that we created as an industry.

And there was local pride too. We won three awards- a bronze, a silver and a gold, and were associated (as footballers say “assists) with two more.

Huge impact on the teams involved- both client members and MC&C members. And the change again from previous years. In my youth we would have celebrated today’s win all night and thought naught of the morrow. These teams took the joy from the moment- but also used it as a resolution for next year, and the basis of a pact to win not only again, but more and better.

Most mornings I reflect on how lucky I am to do what I do, but today, even through my hangover, the realisation of that privilege is more acute than ever.

Mike Colling, Managing Director

The future of online content revenues

2009-12-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

I went to a Westminster eForum meeting yesterday. On the agenda was "The Future of online content" and much of the discussion revolved around business models.

Several contributors seemed to feel that advertising revenues would ride to the rescue of media owners and that other revenue models were not worth bothering with. In particular, video advertising was held up as a powerful revenue generator.

It is certainly true that you can pay over £20 cpm for some video advertising inventory. But you can also pay £2 cpm!

The reality is that the marketplace for video advertising is still forming and value is still being established. Online enables you to click through to a website from an advert - which can be considered as extra value. And online targeting and ad-serving does allow campaigns that are more sophisticated than TV, where small groups of people can be shown sequential advertising based on their previous online behaviour for instance.

But you can buy TV advertising of £3.50 cpm or less, and even prime-time TV can be bought for well under £20.

Is a pre-roll online ad worth so much more than TV? My belief is that media owners will struggle to maintain a premium for online video advertising – or will perhaps only be able to maintain it for highly targeted (including time targeted) inventory.

In addition, does a linear video ad, which by necessity has to be capable of delivering its message without audio, represent the best way of advertising online? Surely more interactive formats, where people can somehow "participate" in an ad, are likely to be more engaging.

Given that online display revenue actually declined last year in the UK, it seems unwise to rely on video advertising to rescue the online media industry. And while video advertising will no doubt have a part to play, media owners need to examine all other opportunities for generating revenues. These will include:

Subscription - possibly along the lines of that being trialled by Johnson Press, or possibly of certain premium elements of a site - which common sense would dictate will be elements that are hard to find elsewhere and which are particularly suited to delivery in an online environment
Data - which can be used to help advertisers understand marketplaces, deliver advertising messages that are effective and develop new products and services
Syndication - but only where this doesn't have a major impact on subscription revenues
E-commerce share - which can involve specially developed readers offers or simply a share of revenue from sales made by third parties
Pay to participate revenues - which might include fees for joining communities (e.g. dating), talking to specialists (e.g. astrologers), competition entry fees, and fees to participate in online games and virtual environments

Of course, advertising will also be an important source of revenue - indeed it may remain the largest source of revenue for many media owners; but on its own it is unlikely to be enough to be enough to deliver a robust online business for most media owners.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director

Will local newspapers succeed in charging for online access?

2009-12-01T04:56:00.000-08:00

Johnson Press’s decision to trial subscription on some of its local sites, including the Northumberland Gazette, is a sensible experiment, and particularly interesting given the recently announced plans for News International titles to do the same.

The idea of local newspapers charging for content might just be supported by the apparent early success of local titles such as Newport Daily News in charging for content.

However, it would be dangerous to assume that if something works in the USA, it will work in the UK as well. The structure of the newspaper industries in the two countries is very different, with local newspapers being held in far higher importance in the USA than they are in the UK, partly because of the absence of national newspaper brands, and partly because of the locally focussed attitude of many Americans.

Nonetheless local newspapers do have a hold on the UK psyche. And local newspapers have content that is not easy to find elsewhere. If you want to learn how Steven Young gave Choppington Travellers Rest the lead at home to Woodhorn Lane, then there are few places you will be able to find that information outside the Northumberland Gazette.

The question for Johnson Press is – are sufficient numbers of people willing to pay to find the latest on sporting prowess of the Choppington Travellers Rest soccer team.

Maybe. Certainly Johnson Press seem to have chosen an attractive price point, £5 for 3 months. If you are willing to pay something, surely you will be willing to pay that.

And the way that the Northumberland Gazette offers you a tantalising view of the first few lines of the content is surely going to work better than the approach taken by Newport Daily News where only the headlines on the front page can be read.

But Johnson will have to do better with their sign up process. At the moment visitors:

1.see an invitation to subscribe
2.and are then pointed to a log in page
3.which contains another button to a page where users register
4.after which they go to their email
5.where they confirm registration by clicking on a link
6.which takes them back to the newspaper
7.where they click on a story
8.and then see the subscribe button (again!)
9.and then (and only then) are able subscribe.

Come on guys, that’s just silly!

And remember, even if Johnson Press do make this work for their local papers, there is absolutely no reason to assume that the same will be true for the News International titles, which may well prove to be far more “substitutable”.

Jeremy Swinfen Green, Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk

Life Begins at 40 for The Sun

2009-11-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

Along with millions of others I celebrated The Sun’s milestone anniversary: 40 years.

Having worked in media for nearly 35 years The Sun has been a remarkable constant in my working life. As a wet-behind-the-ears media buyer working on Hotpoint I remember the verbal assaults you received from the wild bunch at the Currant Bun, if you dared not to give them at the very least space parity with the Mirror.

I knew my career was on the up when the then ad manager Mike Moore complained to Chris Ingram about my unreasonableness and bloody mindedness. Result, a £50 spot bonus!

The Sun has fared pretty well over the last 40 years. It’s developed from a rude red top into a testimony of what makes Britain tick.

Its ability to muster public opinion is remarkable, from Guardian-esque environmental causes such as forcing Starbucks to turn off its taps, to deliciously spiteful barracking of hapless England football managers.

Iconic is an over-used expression but in the case of The Sun , especially relating to some of its headlines, it fits. Everyone has a favourite headline: mine is that gloriously succinct anti-Europe sentiment, “Up Yours, Delors”. Priceless.

In commercial terms, The Sun has maintained and enhanced its position as a major media force compared not to just other press titles but to the likes of Google and MSN. The well-trodden media fact that The Sun is read by more AB readers than The Times has even more validity, standing at 932,000. What’s more The Sun's persona has been successfully transferred to new media.

Love it or hate it The Sun just can’t be ignored. And long may it continue for the next 40 years!

Ian Prager, Planning Director

Using social media for marketing

2009-11-25T03:26:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it’s the result of some deeply buried childhood experience but I can’t help categorising things.

And one thing that does need categorising is the way marketers use social media because a lot of people talk about it as though it is just a matter of reputation management.

Of course reputation management – monitoring conversations and where appropriate responding to them and guiding them – is important. But there are several other parts of marketing that can use social media. We can start with search marketing.

Search marketing is of course focussed around keywords and key phrases. Some social media tools monitoring are great at helping with this, and add an extra dimension to the insights derived from Google’s tools. For instance Alterian’s SM2 product will allow you to generate a cloud of keyword tags created by people writing blogs and other content. This is a really easy way of discovering concepts that people think are important on any day.

Tools like SM2 or IceRocket can also be used to influence messaging strategy. If you know what people are talking about, and what they want to hear about, they it is easier to create messages that will have impact.

For instance, what are the big issues with cars at the moment: is it reliability, economy, safety? At the time of writing fuel consumption trumps reliability for motor cars – but only if the term “economy” rather than “fuel consumption” is used. And safety is more important than either.

Social media can also be used for driving traffic to websites. This can be done in two ways.

The simpler way (not that simple really!) is to identify people who are talking about your brand or an issue you are trying to get associated with and send them links to information that will interest them in the hope that they will post your links and other people will see them.

Alternatively you can listen out for people talking about your brand or issue and send them information. This is of course may well be more time consuming if there are a lot of people talking about you but you can automate this to a degree using tools like SocialOomph which works with Twitter.

I had a sweet example of this the other day. Tweeting about late (early?) blooming camellias I was immediately followed by @lovethegarden (a web entity owned by The Scott’s Miracle Gro Company) who have a website (www.lovethegarden.com) of great interest to the camellia lover.

And finally there are marketing campaigns that use social media for launching products, generating awareness or favourability, or even generating sales. More on these another day!

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director
jeremy@mcand.co.uk

What’s Murdoch up to with Google?

2009-11-18T03:49:00.000-08:00

What’s Murdoch up to with Google? Can he really mean to stop Google from spidering his sites so that people can’t find the news that he is planning to charge for?

It seems barmy.

But you’d be barmy to write Murdoch off as a luddite and a fool. He is certainly neither of those things by a long way. (Pace Stan Schroeder writing in mashable).

So why the - on the surface - rather odd stance?

Well, Google does need taming. I’ve nothing against Google personally; it’s my search engine of choice (or is that habit?). But it is a very dominant (far too dominant) player in the online advertising arena.

And that dominance, enhanced by ill-informed “last click counts” models of ROI analysis, is skewing the marketplace and taking advertising revenue away from editorially-based media owners like Murdoch’s newspapers.

(If you don’t believe that then ask yourself why online display dipped this year while search continued to grow.)

Murdoch wouldn’t necessarily lose that much by REPing his sites. He would of course lose the traffic from Google – but most of that traffic is from people searching on news stories, much of which is one-off, high-bounce traffic coming from overseas and which from an advertising perspective isn’t particularly valuable. Traffic from loyal media brand visitors would be unaffected.

My problem with this is that I don’t really believe that Murdoch would do much harm to Google if he turned his back on it.

Even if all the other commercial media owners followed him (and that's a big “if”, and even then presumably the BBC wouldn't play ball) then Google would just be a slightly different beast: a place where people search for products and goods but not for content. That would be pretty unlikely to affect Google’s PPC revenue which is founded on people who are searching for products and goods.

Google would still be the medium of choice for advertisers looking to generate click through to their sites. And, until advertisers learn that the last click doesn’t count for everything, it’s likely to remain so.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director

Behavioural Economics

2009-11-17T06:30:00.000-08:00

My father can be a terrible old curmudgeon sometimes.

When asked by his friends what it is his only son and heir does for a living he has two stock answers. Depending on his mood he either says “He puts those annoying things in that fall out of your paper” or “He sells people rubbish they don’t need”.

Interesting views both, but they recently came back to me as I was sitting in the marvellously titled IPA seminar “Behavioural Economics: Red Hot or Red Herring?”

This is the latest big thing at Belgrave Square HQ. The one-liner is as follows: “behavioural economics is a collection of disparate theories which seek to explain irrational behaviour”.

We learned how putting a picture of some scary eyes above a sign makes people pay more for milk without having to change the wording on the sign.

We learned why it is better to sell a Bentley at a yacht show than at a car show.

And we learned why fruit and veg are the first things you see in Tesco.

(Answers respectively: subliminal influence, comparative pricing, and over-purchasing of the first thing you see combined with high margins).

But why do we care?

Essentially, in a world in which the consumer’s attention is harder to gain and in which big ideas are more valuable than media buying, there is a wealth of knowledge which can make our marketing more efficient, more effective, and more innovative.

Super!

Except not, I thought. This is all very well, especially for a committed lateral thinker and crossword nut like myself, but how can we hope to introduce this into the way we work? I wholly agree that the future of media revenues is in creation of ideas that have long term impact rather than the day to day planning and buying grind, but how do we convince clients of this?

It is a strange phenomenon of the media industry that clients pay in direct proportion to the least valuable portion of what we do - i.e. media booking rather than the theory behind it. The trouble is that to change this would take a massive leap of faith on the client side as well as agencies being able to make initiatives such as behavioural economics transparent in the age of accountability that we live in.

I like to think of a great ideas as something that tells you what to do in ten years time, and what to do tomorrow. And this is the trouble, agency side: I want to get paid tomorrow, not in ten years, which means I charge for tomorrow.

So I really don’t see the status quo changing. I absolutely believe that there is something in behavioural economics, but for the time being it will be confined to interesting, but probably unrewarded, high-level thinking of how our clients can sell their stuff more effectively, while plain old media fees and commissions from bits of 200 gsm paper continue to pay my mortgage.

Tim Part, Business Development Manager

Farewell LondonLite

2009-11-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

I, for one, will be sorry when the last edition of London Lite hits the streets on Friday 13th.

I’m already missing those purple jacketed distributors irritatingly shouting "free London paper, free London paper, free London paper", as they shoved a copy of thelondonpaper in your hand.

There has always been the big debate as to whether the free, London evening newspapers offered real news, but they have been a must for me on the long journey home after work.

Whether you want a few snippets of news, a bit of gossip, sports info, a look at your Stars or if only to see the endless pics of celebs looking worse for wear, falling out of nightclubs in the early hours of the morning, the newspapers were free, for goodness sake.

It was also refreshing to see how creatively the various ad shapes and sizes were utilised by advertisers, when allowed to produced something entirely different from the norm. Not many newspapers have offered the creativity, seamlessly merged with editorial that was allowed in the LondonLite - strange shapes, corner pieces etc. Which publisher will rise to that challenge now?

From an advertising point of view, there are those who say that the titles were not read and were a useless vehicle for branding and response advertisers, maybe because they were seen littering the carriages of tubes and trains.

However, if they were taken, read and left behind, does that mean that, as consumers, we did not absorb the information within? I have been known, on the odd occasion, to tear out an advertisement from one of these newspapers, seeing something that interested me, and follow up on-line or by phone. I’m just a consumer like the rest of those readers?

The sad truth is, that despite reaching a large audience, with a fresh new approach to editorial format, the numbers just did not add up. During the recession and with so much competition in the marketplace, all chasing the same advertiser money pot, the titles could not survive and profit.

Well, we still have Metro in the mornings but now we are left with the FREE London Evening Standard as our choice after work. We’ll just have to wait and see how that title evolves...

Jackie Irish

Should PR "own" social media?

2009-11-05T04:30:00.000-08:00

The PR industry seems to be trying to own social media. I wonder whether this is really appropriate?

Recently I went to a seminar on social media where the focus was heavily on traditional PR techniques.

Now of course some PR techniques do have an important part to play in social media. But you can go way beyond reputation management by seeding blogs and posting photos on Flickr in this space.

Social media can be used very effectively for many other things including:

customer service
marketplace analysis
new product development
search marketing, paid and organic
recruitment
customer retention
customer acquisition

None of these were covered in the seminar.

Perhaps that was because these disciplines are not central to PR.

In addition, PR agencies may be tempted to conflate social media with online PR techniques.

So at the seminar I was subjected to a lecture on SEO PR – which hasn’t got much to do with social media!

And I was told that the way to measure campaign effectiveness was to measure the effect of seeded blogs: with no acknowledgement of the need to track blogs that hadn’t been seeded.

Any advertiser looking at social media (and who isn't?) should understand that social media techniques can enhance many aspects of a business and are not only effective in the PR space.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director

Retail - the new online media opportunity?

2009-10-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

Went to a fascinating talk by Alex Marks of eBay this week.

As a massive online marketplace eBay is naturally interested to see what drives online shoppers. It seems that the drivers online are similar to those offline:

» familiarity with and trust of brands and retailers
» being hooked by offers
» being told about new things for sale
» being seduced by the idea of a treat

Interestingly, trust was often the most powerful reason that people chose a particular retailer, with selection next followed by value. (Looks like QVC should have called themselves QCV!)

Behaviour differed though, with different types of shopping. Where the products were purchased regularly or had a high emotional connection with the shopper, people tended to go to familiar and trusted retailers.

But for products which were purchased only infrequently or which were largely chosen through rational decision making there was far less brand loyalty; here search and comparison were important factors driving choice.

eBay is of course a massively familiar and generally well trusted brand. And it is also a place where you can buy advertising. But, as a retail site, is it a good place to buy advertising? After all people on retail sites are there to buy particular things, aren’t they? So they won’t take much notice of any advertising.

Well, that’s not necessarily true. A lot of behaviour on retail sites is fairly undirected browsing. People are in the mindset of buying on retail sites. But they are not necessarily looking for a particular item. They can be influenced quite easily to try different things.

Which is presumably why advertising on retail sites is so very effective. Indeed according to eBay’s research 61% of people take notice of advertising on retail sites, with 41% noticing it on search sites, 12% on portals and only 7% on social media sites.

And as big retailers like eBay know an enormous amount about their visitors – who they are, what items they have looked at, where they have started the buying process, what they have bought in the past (and when) – they are capable of providing advertisers with highly targeted campaigns.

Retail media (aka sales promotion) is a massive industry in the offline world, large enough to rival traditional media spend. It seems that eBay are leading the charge to make retail media equally significant in the online space.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director
07855 341 589

Facebook measures how happy we are!

2009-10-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

Facebook is even more omniscient than we all thought. It can now chart the world's collective highs and lows – well, nearly!

As we all know, Facebook allows us to update our friends on the minutiae of our day-to-day lives via status updates. With millions of active users (200 million to be precise) that's a lot of data.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently expressed an interest in using this staggering amount of data from the updates to generate a kind of 'sentiment engine'. The Facebook data team analysed the rich information from these musings, along what they dubbed a 'Gross National Happiness' metric.

'Measuring how well-off, satisfied or happy with life the citizens of a nation are is part of the Gross National Happiness movement. The graph below represents how the nation is doing from day to day, and measures 'happiness' by looking at how many positive and negative words people are using when updating their status: when people are using more positive words (or fewer negative words) in their status updates than usual, that day is happier than usual!'

In other words, these updates are tiny windows into how people are doing, and Facebook users will soon be able to update their status even more frequently as the application is set to launch on games console Xbox 360 this month.

So does this, and other behavioural targeting (such as IPA’s TouchPoints Survey), mean we will never be served an irrelevant ad in the future? Moreover, will we soon be seeing ads targeted to our moods?

Spotify, like Facebook, already employs demographic targeting for its display and audio ads, and has now announced it will be introducing the new mood-targeting within the year.

If you're a brand that needs to reach people in a relaxed mindset – perhaps they're listening to Ibiza chill-out or Mozart – you can now serve the right brand to them at the right time, explains UK Sales Director Jon Mitchell.

However with this increased information becoming available, brands now need to think even more carefully about the optimum way to deliver their messages in a relevant way to the consumer, in order to avoid alienating their audience.

Claire Turner

More Power to King Fry’s Elbow

2009-10-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I wrote about how I been intrigued by Trafigura’s ability to gag the Guardian and their failure to gag online comment. I have come across another interesting example of how the Twitterati are influencing the media.

Last week an article appeared in the Daily Mail, written by journalist Jan Moir, which discussed the recent death of Stephen Gately at the age of just 33. The article was originally titled “Why there was nothing ‘natural’ about Stephen Gately’s death”. Although the article has now been amended in several ways, the original can be read as a (Google Doc.)

Within a few hours of the article being published, a furore had grown around Twitter and blog sites buzzing with anger at the perception that Moir was implying the ex-Boyzone singer’s death was intrinsically linked to his lifestyle as a homosexual.

‘King’ Fry tweeted "I gather a … nobody …has written something loathsome and inhumane," whilst Charlie Brooker blogged a scathing riposte to the article on the Guardian website .

The online backlash was so immediate and effective that by the time I became aware of the offending piece last Friday afternoon, merely hours after it had first appeared, the Press Complaints Commission had already received 1,000 complaints. At the time of writing that number has risen to a record 25,000, whilst the Daily Mail has been forced to remove adverts from around the article, after the advertisers too were bombarded with complaints.

Both this example and my earlier example about Trafigura demonstrate how people like Stephen Fry and other members of the ‘Twitterati’ have realised the potential of social media as a tool for socio-political comment.

The enforced climb-down by Carter Ruck and their ultimate failure to gag the Guardian struck a blow for the supporters of free speech and freedom of press. The reaction to the now infamous Jan Moir article however has sought to make the press more accountable and raised questions about press regulation – it could even be suggested that Moir’s freedom of speech has been curtailed! Certainly, last week was a compelling week on Twitter.

Kyle Seely, Planner Buyer

The Power of King Fry and the Twitterati

2009-10-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

Last week I was struck by an example of the ever-increasing power of social media.

On Monday, a question regarding oil company Trafigura’s dumping of toxic waste on the Ivory Coast was tabled for the forthcoming Prime Minister’s Question Time. When the Guardian attempted to report on it Trafigura’s lawyers, Carter Ruck, were quick to seek an injunction preventing them from doing so. However, the very same evening online blogs and Twitter users, unconfined by the same legal restrictions gagging the Guardian, had already uncovered all the details and they were freely available in the public domain.

By noon on Tuesday, the three most popular search terms on Twitter were "outrageous gagging order trafigura dumping scandal", "ruck" and "guardian". Trafigura and Carter Ruck, in attempting to keep the story under wraps, had inadvertently added fuel to the fire and grossly underestimated the power of the internet and social media. The injunction was dropped and Stephen Fry, surely the unofficial King of Twitter, proclaimed to his many followers, "Can it be true? Carter Ruck caves in! Hurrah! Trafigura will deny it had anything to do with Twitter, but we know don't we?"

People like Stephen Fry and other members of the ‘Twitterati’ have realised the potential of social media as a tool for socio-political comment. As this concept enters the mainstream it will inevitably have a huge effect on the way corporations try to manage online word of mouth.

And that's a great opportunity for marketing agencies...

Kyle Seeley, Planner-Buyer

We are shortlisted for the DMA awards

2009-10-21T01:36:00.000-07:00

We have just had the call: We have been shortlisted for three DMA awards.

Eight short words on a screen that as I write them convey none of the passion this event engenders.

Let me try to explain in a paragraph or two.

We strive every day to deliver on our brand-promise to clients: creating new value for them. We take fierce pride in this, and the results we generate.

Then once a year we take the best of our work and try to explain that year's work in three sides of A4.

Some 160 of our peers come together in a rigorous three-day process to ask: does our work have an insightful and coherent strategy; have we been creative rather than derivative in our execution of that strategy; and have we generated outstanding results?

At the end of that three days of debate, considering 600 or so entries from more than 100 agencies, the short list emerges from the conclave like white smoke from the Vatican.

And this year we have been shortlisted for three awards - for work we have done for the RSPCA and for Which?

And the thing I am most proud of? In the category that really matters to us, the “best results of the year” category, which is the closest thing to our brand, our entries are two of the three finalists.

So now we have to wait until December 9th to learn if we have won bronze, silver or gold. I will blog again on this subject on December 10th. It may not be quite so coherent though!

Mike Colling, Managing Director

Hiscox insurance calls a spade a spade

2009-10-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Snapshot whilst waiting for a train this morning: a strong outdoor ad for a potentially dull brand.

Insurance company Hiscox are out to prove they speak plainly to their customer base, cutting through all the usual jargon spouted by a lot of their financial and insurance competitors. In this case, literally calling a spade a spade.

The creative reads: “It’s a Spade. Not an earth relocating implement. At Hiscox, we keep our policies jargon free. After all, what’s wrong with plain English?”

In a world where your office water-cooler arrives via local "water-dispensing solution delivery operatives" and your household rubbish is collected by "refuse waste removal management systems", it's quite refreshing to see a spade called, well, a spade.

Claire Turner

Is Social Media really worth bothering with?

2009-10-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Of course social media is (are?) at the top of the agenda for a lot of businesses.

But is this all hype or should we be taking it seriously?

Unfortunately a lot of the noise around social media marketing is enthusiastic hot air. "Everyone's doing it!", "You can get a dialogue going with all your consumers!", "It's replacing advertising!" Etcetera. Etcetera.

None of these are real reasons for investing in social media.

But there are a number of extremely strong strategic business benefits that social media can deliver. They won't all be relevant for all businesses. But the chance is that at least one or two will be relevant for your business.

Let's start with marketing. Social media can help with acquisition. At its simplest you can use social media to inform and enhance SEO and paid search campaigns. And you can also use it to contribute to advertising campaigns by seeding discussions. It's an important PR tool as well which you can use for monitoring and managing your brand's reputation. All with the aim of getting new customers.

Probably best not to be too overt about direct marketing though (unless you are talking to a group of very strong fans who want to be sold to.)

And you can use it for retention as well. Establish a dialogue with consumers and you can tell them about new products and special offers as well as identifying (and addressing) areas of unhappiness.

As part of this you can also use social media for delivering customer service where it can help retention and also deliver cost savings, by enabling your customers to help one another, and by enabling a common problem to be addressed on a one-to-many basis.

You can also use social media to affect product evolution and to guide new product development. Listen to what your consumers are saying about your products and you will have a good idea as to where your product set should be heading.

Undertake some competitor analysis using social media and you will have an even better idea about your marketplace.

Combining competitor and customer analysis will help guide investment decisons in staff, marketing and production (is your customer service up to scratch, are you wasting your advertising budget, are your products built robustly enough...)

Then there is recruitment: social media is increasingly used in this function, as a way of delivering marketplace intelligence, locating and evaluating candidates (with or without the help of recruitment agencies), and enabling candidates to find and develop positive feelings about your business. Don't forget your current staff either. Social media can powerfully develop feelings of team and increase staff morale.

And finally one should not forget The City. Social media can be used very effectively for financial PR which can positively affect share price and business stability.

The noise surrounding social media is clearly not just hype. But that doesn't mean social media campaigns are always delivered well. Far from it! But a structured and commonsense approach, combined with a willingness to experiment (and sometimes fail) will take your business a long way on the road to benefiting from these exciting new opportunities.

Jeremy Swinfen Green
Digital Director, MC&C
jeremy@mcand.co.uk

TV Response: the new rules

2009-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday Louise and I went to a Thinkbox event entitled ‘TV Response, the new rules’.

Not since the late 1990’s has any real research been done into DRTV and how response is being generated, so we had high hopes that this could back up all that we say on a daily basis to our clients. On a basic level it did – so hoorah!

The findings stated that, of all response to a campaign, only 15% came directly from the telephone – mmm not a lot then! Essentially this means that the CPR of a campaign can be over-stated by as much as 85%.

Now the difficulty with this research is that the clients included (anonymously of course) were not all pure DRTV clients. One who chose to wave anonymity was Honda and I don’t think they could even class themselves as a BRTV client! So possibly the 15% could be increased for many clients – maybe to as much as 50%. Where does the other response go?…

Well no surprises: for the bulk – it's online of course… We have been seeing more and more that the use of paid-for and natural search running alongside a tv campaign has a significant uplift in response – but, hey, its always great to see some statistical proof of this!

According to the study 66% of web traffic during the analysis period came via a search engine, 16% recalled the URL from the ad while the remaining 18% guessed the URL!

We still know though that putting a URL on the ad does increase web response – but maybe that’s simply because they then know they can go online – think of it as a green light to search.

The web traffic came at different times to the ads themselves though – more in the evening and more at weekends – shifting the response patterns once again.

We came away with more questions than concrete answers – David Brennan from Thinkbox summed up the findings at the end of the event and his first two conclusions were really interesting

1) There are no rules!

2) We can’t totally control the routes to response – we need to allow for the fact that the stimulus and the route to response is far less connected than before

I know though that I for one would like to attempt to get some more answers from our own responses – maybe try to replicate the study but with pure DRTV brands.

Now then who’s up for that challenge?

Nicky Legg, Broadcast Director