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!
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Christmas Media Present
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 Charades with the Great Escape in the background has been replaced by playing Mario Brothers on the DS.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
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
Monday, 13 December 2010
It's TV Jim and yes, basically as we know it!
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
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
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
It's TV Jim and yes, basically as we know it!
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.
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.
Monday, 22 November 2010
The Impact of Occupation on Charitable Giving
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
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
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
The Future of Print Media
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
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
Monday, 8 November 2010
The Key Messages from mediaPro 2010
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
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
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