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
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Adpoints – Where advertisers pay you to watch their commercials
Ian and I met with a start-up company a couple of weeks back, who are aiming to revolutionise the incentivised segment of the online advertising environment. The Adpoints offering is simple – consumers are rewarded for watching video advertisements online. Their processes are a deal more complex though, which will result in the advertiser being able to profile the customers generated through the channel in great detail.
Research indicates that 69% of adults would watch more advertising if the advertiser paid them, and it is this level of incentive and engagement that Adpoints are looking to capitalise upon. By effectively paying people to watch their ads, marketers can increase levels of interaction with their brand, offering opportunities for the consumers to learn more about the ads which they are watching, sign up for further information from the advertiser or even to get their hands on special brand offers.
Alongside increasing the levels of interaction, Adpoints are able to build up demographic and behavioural profiles of the users of their site, which then allows them to target future advertisements to more relevant audiences. They do this by incorporating incentivised surveys which appear alongside the ads as they play, asking for the consumers’ vital details and attitudes to relevant issues.
All in all, their aim is to build up a base of highly responsive consumers, who are happy to view and interact with the ads that they see. This will in turn enhance the positivity the users experience when viewing the ads on site, increasing the chances that they go on to actually engage with the advertisers and purchase their offering.
Adpoints are planning to begin their pilot in late 2011, with a mind to rolling out
towards the spring of 2012. If you’d like to know any more then please contact a member of the MC&C team.
Alex Prout
Senior Digital Planner Buyer
Research indicates that 69% of adults would watch more advertising if the advertiser paid them, and it is this level of incentive and engagement that Adpoints are looking to capitalise upon. By effectively paying people to watch their ads, marketers can increase levels of interaction with their brand, offering opportunities for the consumers to learn more about the ads which they are watching, sign up for further information from the advertiser or even to get their hands on special brand offers.
Alongside increasing the levels of interaction, Adpoints are able to build up demographic and behavioural profiles of the users of their site, which then allows them to target future advertisements to more relevant audiences. They do this by incorporating incentivised surveys which appear alongside the ads as they play, asking for the consumers’ vital details and attitudes to relevant issues.
All in all, their aim is to build up a base of highly responsive consumers, who are happy to view and interact with the ads that they see. This will in turn enhance the positivity the users experience when viewing the ads on site, increasing the chances that they go on to actually engage with the advertisers and purchase their offering.
Adpoints are planning to begin their pilot in late 2011, with a mind to rolling out
towards the spring of 2012. If you’d like to know any more then please contact a member of the MC&C team.
Alex Prout
Senior Digital Planner Buyer
Friday, 19 August 2011
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything” General Eisenhower
Mike and I often reminisce about the good old days when media planning was a bit of a dark art and press coverage and frequency were calculated using the revered “Sainsbury’s Formula” . We revel in telling the youngsters about blue and green AGB books and how we’ve both got one arm longer than the other because we had to carry BRAD in our briefcase at all times. Media planners of today just don't realise how lucky they are!
But are they? The modern day media planning process is far more complex than it’s ever been and just like O-Level Maths, clients expect you to show the workings out.
So, below are some of the working outs behind our process of planning and buying media activity.
Media plans need context – This means understanding the client’s business, their position in the marketplace, analysing what their competitors are up to and agreeing a strategy for the brand.
Objectives - Before putting a plan together we agree with the client a definition of their communication objectives, cognitive- oriented objectives (awareness), affective –oriented objectives (engagement) and co native- oriented objectives (purchase objectives, customer loyalty).
Target group analysis – This means not just looking at TGI but in-depth profiling of client data. We might look at the profile of their booking data against our own in-house profile classification, Pollen, and we’ll look at things like demographic, psychographic, socio-economic and behavioural characteristics to understand our target audience and how best to reach them.
Strategic media planning – Refers to the requirement for joined up thinking. Far more than just media alignment but integrating messaging and setting coverage and frequency targets by media as well as calculating overall coverage and frequency of the total campaign. How is this going to help deliver the hard metrics? How have we come up with the campaign shape - duration, burst, drip, pulse etc, etc.
Detail planning/optimisation - This is the nuts and bolt of the plan. Within each media there is a multitude of formats, copy and booking deadlines. Airtime deployment considerations detailed here. Data requests and plans are discussed in this section. How are tests such as creative, advertising weight, regional up weight going to be incorporated in the plan? Where does social media fit in? And more importantly, this is where each individual buy has a response/sale/donor/ROI value attributed to it. This is fed into a comprehensive call/lead forecast within agreed time segments. A really important working out is how we’re going to incorporate learnings gathered as the campaign unfolds. Online is pretty straightforward, but how can we optimise other activity, such as inserts, national press?
Buying Strategy/Tactics - More and more clients want to fully appreciate how their media agency is going to maximise media value and how they can help. Part laid down, part distress, payment by results, even barter need to be assessed and a strategy laid down for approval.
The above is by no means is an exhaustive list of workings out and is a lot trickier than O’Level Maths even with the use of log tables (ask your parents!)
But are they? The modern day media planning process is far more complex than it’s ever been and just like O-Level Maths, clients expect you to show the workings out.
So, below are some of the working outs behind our process of planning and buying media activity.
Media plans need context – This means understanding the client’s business, their position in the marketplace, analysing what their competitors are up to and agreeing a strategy for the brand.
Objectives - Before putting a plan together we agree with the client a definition of their communication objectives, cognitive- oriented objectives (awareness), affective –oriented objectives (engagement) and co native- oriented objectives (purchase objectives, customer loyalty).
Target group analysis – This means not just looking at TGI but in-depth profiling of client data. We might look at the profile of their booking data against our own in-house profile classification, Pollen, and we’ll look at things like demographic, psychographic, socio-economic and behavioural characteristics to understand our target audience and how best to reach them.
Strategic media planning – Refers to the requirement for joined up thinking. Far more than just media alignment but integrating messaging and setting coverage and frequency targets by media as well as calculating overall coverage and frequency of the total campaign. How is this going to help deliver the hard metrics? How have we come up with the campaign shape - duration, burst, drip, pulse etc, etc.
Detail planning/optimisation - This is the nuts and bolt of the plan. Within each media there is a multitude of formats, copy and booking deadlines. Airtime deployment considerations detailed here. Data requests and plans are discussed in this section. How are tests such as creative, advertising weight, regional up weight going to be incorporated in the plan? Where does social media fit in? And more importantly, this is where each individual buy has a response/sale/donor/ROI value attributed to it. This is fed into a comprehensive call/lead forecast within agreed time segments. A really important working out is how we’re going to incorporate learnings gathered as the campaign unfolds. Online is pretty straightforward, but how can we optimise other activity, such as inserts, national press?
Buying Strategy/Tactics - More and more clients want to fully appreciate how their media agency is going to maximise media value and how they can help. Part laid down, part distress, payment by results, even barter need to be assessed and a strategy laid down for approval.
The above is by no means is an exhaustive list of workings out and is a lot trickier than O’Level Maths even with the use of log tables (ask your parents!)
Thursday, 4 August 2011
It's not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.
Commercial radio’s impressive Q2 performance just shows what hard work and innovation can achieve. Quality content that’s accessible across multi platforms is starting to pay dividends for commercial radio. As a result, it is continuing to grow its audience, its listening hours and its market share.
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Listening hours at Absolute Radio Network have jumped from 17.6 million per week, to a massive 24 million! With their combined audience creeping towards the 3 million mark it is cause for celebration indeed.
And over at Magic 105.4 they will no doubt be celebrating taking the title of London's biggest commercial station, in terms of hours and reach.
One statistic that has caught my eye is that stations who podcast their shows are also reporting success stories. In particular, Absolute Radio's Frank Skinner Show posted record figures of 5 million downloads in the first six months of the year, and a million downloads in June alone, which for a station with 1.6 million listeners at the latest count is a phenomenal number!
Unusually for a media agency that specialises in direct response we really like radio as a medium. We totally buy into the increased brand browsing argument and for our charity clients, follow-up calls to an SMS brings in quality donors. So it’s great to see the industry experiencing another great set of results.
Ian Prager
Planning Director
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Just text giving – just what the sector ordered?
Just text giving by Vodafone allows charities to create their own SMS code then publicise it to make texting donations for any charity direct from your phone fast and simple. It’s a great idea as it builds on the modern need for everything to happen instantly and it’s ultra-simple which prevents a short attention span getting in the way of good intentions.
However, this first version by Vodafone does have some significant limitations for charities. The two major areas for concern are a) a maximum donation amount of £10 and b) the lack of data the charity gets from each donation, which prevents them from re-contacting the donors in the way they would using other media channels.
For a large proportion of charities their average cash donation is in excess of £10 so using this in isolation could mean they would lose money. It also suggests that this approach isn’t a stand-alone income generator but more of an additional income channel. Furthermore, the issue of ‘bill shock’ may mean that the donation amount has to be limited for now. However, the minimum could conceivably increase as the methods involved in the scheme and awareness of the scheme increase.
The re-contacting issue, however, looks like a trickier problem due to opt in regulations and data protection between operators and the charities themselves. The lack of a method to re-contact donors means people can’t be followed up after their initial donation and limits further potential warm income for the charity.
Having said that it has some very real benefits – Its simplicity allows charities to engage with a younger audience, which is something most are very keen to do more of. It also provides high levels of awareness to smaller charities with simple brand strategies, saves charities the cost of building web material such as dedicated landing pages and microsites and it reduces call centre operator costs that would otherwise be needed at off-peak periods.
So, all in all, I feel that ’Just text giving’ is a large step in the right direction and as long as its simplicity doesn’t erode or prevent charity loyalty I think it will develop into a useful tool that can, and indeed should be, used by all charities.
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
However, this first version by Vodafone does have some significant limitations for charities. The two major areas for concern are a) a maximum donation amount of £10 and b) the lack of data the charity gets from each donation, which prevents them from re-contacting the donors in the way they would using other media channels.
For a large proportion of charities their average cash donation is in excess of £10 so using this in isolation could mean they would lose money. It also suggests that this approach isn’t a stand-alone income generator but more of an additional income channel. Furthermore, the issue of ‘bill shock’ may mean that the donation amount has to be limited for now. However, the minimum could conceivably increase as the methods involved in the scheme and awareness of the scheme increase.
The re-contacting issue, however, looks like a trickier problem due to opt in regulations and data protection between operators and the charities themselves. The lack of a method to re-contact donors means people can’t be followed up after their initial donation and limits further potential warm income for the charity.
Having said that it has some very real benefits – Its simplicity allows charities to engage with a younger audience, which is something most are very keen to do more of. It also provides high levels of awareness to smaller charities with simple brand strategies, saves charities the cost of building web material such as dedicated landing pages and microsites and it reduces call centre operator costs that would otherwise be needed at off-peak periods.
So, all in all, I feel that ’Just text giving’ is a large step in the right direction and as long as its simplicity doesn’t erode or prevent charity loyalty I think it will develop into a useful tool that can, and indeed should be, used by all charities.
Bodhi Morrison
Head of Digital
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
The stars come out for Max
Our TV Manager, Vicky Nunn, was at the recent IoF - here are some of her thoughts:
At the this month’s Institute of Fundraising conference, Max Clifford the PR guru opened up proceedings with a presentation dealing with the use of celebrities in the fundraising areana. With 40 years of experience, he talked a lot of good sense such as making sure the celebrity has a real and genuine connection with the charity. Also, you’re more likely to enlist the support of a celebrity, if you ask for their help on a particular aspect of the charities work.
As someone who has been buying TV airtime over quite a few years this has led me to think why it’s very rare to see commercials feature celebrities. Sure there are a few celebrity voiceovers but not a full blown personal appeal. The last one I can remember is Davina McCall, who featured in the Action for Children commercial.
Why is this?
Maybe charities appreciate Mike Masnick (Techdirt.com) point of view that today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago. This means that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today's consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection.
Today's consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads. There is no reason why this is not true about fundraising commercials.
Oh and there is always the Tiger Woods/Ryan Giggs scenario to put you off...
At the this month’s Institute of Fundraising conference, Max Clifford the PR guru opened up proceedings with a presentation dealing with the use of celebrities in the fundraising areana. With 40 years of experience, he talked a lot of good sense such as making sure the celebrity has a real and genuine connection with the charity. Also, you’re more likely to enlist the support of a celebrity, if you ask for their help on a particular aspect of the charities work.
As someone who has been buying TV airtime over quite a few years this has led me to think why it’s very rare to see commercials feature celebrities. Sure there are a few celebrity voiceovers but not a full blown personal appeal. The last one I can remember is Davina McCall, who featured in the Action for Children commercial.
Why is this?
Maybe charities appreciate Mike Masnick (Techdirt.com) point of view that today's consumer is a totally different animal than the consumer of even five years ago. This means that what was effective and influential five years ago is not necessarily so today, as today's consumer is more likely to be influenced by someone in their social network than a weak celebrity connection.
Today's consumer is informed, time-compressed, and difficult to impress, and they are only influenced by ads that are relevant and provide information. They don't want to have products pushed at them, even from a celebrity. In fact, the data show that relevance and information attributes were key missing ingredients from most celebrity ads. There is no reason why this is not true about fundraising commercials.
Oh and there is always the Tiger Woods/Ryan Giggs scenario to put you off...
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Will you be the master of your domain?
The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit group which controls the internet domain name system, has announced its final guidelines on a new host of web addresses which will allow companies to purchase URLs ending in their brand name. For example Apple could buy the ending ‘.apple’ instead of ‘www.apple.com’.
This potentially opens up a new online marketplace where any company or organization that loses the race for this second generation identity, could be impacted significantly.
Buying a relevant web address has become a significant commercial issue for companies, who found previously that they cannot buy the web URL of choice. “Cyber Squatters” moved in quickly first time around and then, often successfully, forced companies to pay high sums of money to in order to reclaim themselves online. These ‘Cyber Squatters’ are not prone to giving up these rights easily so getting in before them is vital.
However the privilege of owning one of these new TLD’s does not come cheap in the first instance either. The application process for these new names will only be open for 60 days from January 2012 and will cost a whopping $185,000 / £114,000, regardless of success rate! After that, the process will be closed for another three years so companies need to think about this issue urgently.
Due to the costs involved, this opportunity has most impact on governments, large organizations and corporations, however over time I would expect ICANN costs to drop potentially causing a last minute scramble for the most desirable leftovers. To avoid this we recommend that clients review their current and future requirements in the area of their domain names.
So if domain personalisation is only for the business big cheeses, what alternatives are there for everyone else? Well there is a way you can play the TLD game without spending $185K and that is by utilising Dashcoms. What are Dashcoms I hear you cry! They are a free way for anyone to create their own set of TDL’s at no cost and without reference to ICANN, simply by registering new Dashcom (instead of Dotcom) Domains.
Dashcoms are memorable and relevant web addresses such as ‘animal-protection’ ‘live-music’ or ‘tennis-net’, you can even use Facebook Emoticons like musical notes ‘♫♫-♫♫’.
For more information on Dashcoms go to - http://dashworlds.com/src/about.php?P=about
As this is a relatively new technology and needs specific free software installed on the user’s computer this will take a while to build momentum. However, tools are being developed right now that should remove the current need for downloaded software and open up this resource to the masses. Should this happen it could well make the ICANN TDL sale have a whiff of the Emperor’s new clothes. I guess we’ll have to wait and see ………
This potentially opens up a new online marketplace where any company or organization that loses the race for this second generation identity, could be impacted significantly.
Buying a relevant web address has become a significant commercial issue for companies, who found previously that they cannot buy the web URL of choice. “Cyber Squatters” moved in quickly first time around and then, often successfully, forced companies to pay high sums of money to in order to reclaim themselves online. These ‘Cyber Squatters’ are not prone to giving up these rights easily so getting in before them is vital.
However the privilege of owning one of these new TLD’s does not come cheap in the first instance either. The application process for these new names will only be open for 60 days from January 2012 and will cost a whopping $185,000 / £114,000, regardless of success rate! After that, the process will be closed for another three years so companies need to think about this issue urgently.
Due to the costs involved, this opportunity has most impact on governments, large organizations and corporations, however over time I would expect ICANN costs to drop potentially causing a last minute scramble for the most desirable leftovers. To avoid this we recommend that clients review their current and future requirements in the area of their domain names.
So if domain personalisation is only for the business big cheeses, what alternatives are there for everyone else? Well there is a way you can play the TLD game without spending $185K and that is by utilising Dashcoms. What are Dashcoms I hear you cry! They are a free way for anyone to create their own set of TDL’s at no cost and without reference to ICANN, simply by registering new Dashcom (instead of Dotcom) Domains.
Dashcoms are memorable and relevant web addresses such as ‘animal-protection’ ‘live-music’ or ‘tennis-net’, you can even use Facebook Emoticons like musical notes ‘♫♫-♫♫’.
For more information on Dashcoms go to - http://dashworlds.com/src/about.php?P=about
As this is a relatively new technology and needs specific free software installed on the user’s computer this will take a while to build momentum. However, tools are being developed right now that should remove the current need for downloaded software and open up this resource to the masses. Should this happen it could well make the ICANN TDL sale have a whiff of the Emperor’s new clothes. I guess we’ll have to wait and see ………
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