A few clever/funny OOH executions for a Tuesday afternoon

Who's car did they borrow?!

Say no more

Clever placement

Just love this one. Simple but brilliant

Fake dead pigeons - interesting (or genius) way of communicating a USP! 

The ad campaign is only half the battle

I was in my local supermarket last weekend and something caught my eye. No, not the gentleman kind enough to expose half his backside crouching down to the bottom shelf - but the point of purchase display and packaging for Old Spice. What stood out for me was that it looked as tired and old as it always has done. Which begs the question, why go to so much effort of producing the grandest of grand repositioning campaigns if you’re not going to follow it through all the way to the point of sale? No one can deny the multi award winning creativity of the ‘man your man could smell like’ campaign. It is simply one of the best campaigns of the last few years. But I have read conflicting reports on the impact it actually had on sales. And judging by what I saw in my local Sainsbury’s, this does not surprise me. 

A similar thing could be said for TK Maxx. I was pleasantly surprised by the creative for their recent TV campaign, positioning the brand as a provider of all things classy and fashionable. Yet walking into one of their stores resembles something closer to the dole queue at the local job centre. Scruffy and disinterested sales staff, cheap looking, messy display units and clothes flung all over the place.

A great ad campaign, together with an effective media plan is only half the battle in this game. More thought and time needs to be allocated to overall business aspects. And the responsibility of this does fall with media agencies. In partnership with the client, they should be thinking about such things as retail environments, packaging, what can be done to smooth the buying process, etc etc.

*I have to point out that these thoughts are my own and in no way represent those of Mediacom or the WPP network

Sports journalism at it's best and worst

For those people who are both Twitter users and sports press readers, you will have noticed many examples of journalism at its laziest since the increasing take up of Twitter by top flight professional footballers. You will have also been within a click of journalism at its best.

You see Twitter is acting as a platform for players to have a voice. They can speak directly to the public, albeit in their often primary school standard grammar. This must frustrate some print media as they are taking potential headlines away from them. They are struggling (or at least failing to recognise that their readers are also quite possibly Twitter members) because they can’t get away with misquoting footballers anymore. Some of the tabloids are that bad now it’s embarrassing. For example, ‘publications’ such as the Metro often just take player’s off the cuff Twitter comments or exchanges and try to make stories out of them. When you have read the actual feed as it unfolded and then read the Metro’s version of it hours or days later it is embarrassing for them. Journalism at its laziest.

However, this is forcing the better sports journalists to up their game, and spend more time as ‘sports writers’ than reporters. I have noticed an increase in blogs and opinion articles as well as just reporting news. We have so many instant news sources now that the real journalistic skill for me is not putting a headline on a Twitter comment that has already been read by thousands of people, but adding some value or insight - taking a current issue within sport and writing about it. These guys spend a lot of time around footballers, managers, coaches and clubs so more often than not we are interested in their opinion. The likes of Oliver Kay (The Times), Henry Winter (The Telegraph) and Ollie Holt (The Mirror), to name just a few, offer some insightful and thought provoking articles.

Twitter is a fantastic platform for these guys to share their writing. It can also be entertaining to view the direct exchanges they have with footballers; past clashes between Ollie Holt and Joey Barton have been particularly interesting to say the least, although they seem to have settled down somewhat lately.

When they aren't trying in vain to get a rise out of footballers (cough cough…Mike Parry) but are using Twitter to either engage with footballers on a public forum, or share each other’s better articles, you can find some great nuggets of information by following these guys. Sports writing at its best.

The fall and fall of the QR code

Let’s be honest, outside of agency walls the QR code has never taken off. The idea is great – add code to ad, everyone who sees it gets as excited as us and in a mad scramble they grab their smartphones, hover them over and are treated to a world beyond their wildest dreams that an ad could ever offer. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of the advertising world if you will. Not only that, but they will also share it with their friends, their friends will share it with their friends, their friends will share it with their friends, their….. well I think you get my drift. Failing that, at least they might be able to engage with the brand in some mobile coupon offer that they will be forever thankful to the brand for giving them.

The reality is the average consumer goes a little like this: ‘what the f*ck is that weird bar code thing on that ad?’

The problem isn’t the QR code function; it’s the lack of awareness, and perhaps interest, of the viewing public. Ask yourself this – how many brands would you go out of your way to, not just notice and read their ads, but make the effort to find out even more information about them? People still say ‘yeah but they’re huge in Asia’. That may be the case but us Brits tend to be a lazy nation, it would take something pretty special, or rewarding, to make us go out of our way to actively engage with an advert. Especially through a medium over half of us don’t even know exists. And there lies the problem; we need a mass reach advertising campaign to advertise that QR codes advertise for advertisers. Hmmm.

Now there are a few developments of the general QR code function that are getting me excited. The Blippar app offers exciting, endless creative solutions. The marmite example springs to mind - you hover your smartphone in front of the actual product and are presented with various recipes. Cadburys have implemented it on to chocolate bars with interactive games you can play on your smartphone by hovering it over the wrapper. The opportunities are endless and idea sessions on the platform are sure to bring up many creative ideas that are easy to keep on brand. These will all make an exciting client presentation and it is easy to get the Brand Manager excited – but to get their autograph on the plan is going to take more than a few fancy creative ideas. They need to know that people apart from media and advertising professionals know the app exists. Now I hope that Blippar doesn’t suffer the same fate as the QR code.

Another one to keep an eye on in 2012 is Yahoo’s television tagging app ‘IntoNow’. I suppose the best way to describe it is ‘like Shazam for TV’. By holding your smartphone or tablet device up in front of the TV it tags live and time-shifted broadcast television content, highlights related content, and recommends television shows and movies based on your tagging behaviours and preferences. The app’s most compelling feature, however, is its ability to discover and feature real-time content — in the form of tweets, news headlines or play-by-play sports updates — related to what the user is watching. I understand this has been a pretty big hit in the US, and with it being released in the UK any time now, it is sure to bring up conversations on how we as advertisers can make the most of it.

The Value of a Facebook fan

When the first consumer decided to become a fan of a brand on the first social networking site they set marketers a challenge. What was such friendship worth to the brand? How did it help marketers and was it worth providing such fans with bespoke deals and content? In the years that have followed that first act of friendship, many marketers have struggled to answer those questions….

Syncapse conducted research into the value of a Facebook fan, analysing the actions and behaviour of fans and non-fans of twenty top consumer brands on Facebook;

Their research indicates strong findings that Facebook fans are more valuable customers and spend more on average than non-fans. Across the twenty brands examined, fans reported spending, on average, $71.84 per year more than respondents who were not fans. Research across all 20 brands studied indicated that Facebook fans were more loyal to the fanned brand than consumers who were not fans. On average, Facebook fans are 28% more likely to continue using a brand than non-fan consumers. Their research also showed that 68% of Facebook fans indicated that they are very likely to recommend a product, contrasted with 28% for non-fans. On average, Facebook fans were 41% more likely to recommend a product than their non-fan counterparts.

This research suggests that a large base of fans would result in an increase in consumers willing to participate in brand-based recommendations and discussions.

Looking at the impact of recommendations, it is clear that ‘fanning’ has a demonstrable impact on others; 38% of respondents reported that they would likely become a fan of a brand if they saw a family member or close friend do so.

WARC research has shown that internet users in the US are increasingly using Facebook to show their preference for companies. Their survey found that 75% spread positive feedback to friends and another 20% chose to ‘like’ the organisation concerned on Facebook. More specifically, 40% of participants typically signed up as a ‘fan’ on Facebook.

 ‘Likes’ are trumping reviews when it comes to sharing feedback. But this does not translate to Facebook being the first or only place consumers turn when deciding to try something or somewhere new. ‘Likes’ should be encouraged but a part of rounded marketing efforts to reach consumers across a variety of touchpoints.

Although there is evidence of the value of gaining fans on Facebook, the number of fans a brand has is not necessarily an effective measure of consumer engagement. It is important that marketers look beyond the simple number counts at their content. Having ‘fans’ on Facebook doesn’t mean that those fans are engaged with them – that is where the marketing should start. It is important to engage or reward consumers not just let them click ‘like’ and forget about them.

So a successful Facebook brand page is not necessarily one with a high number of fans. The most successful brand pages are those with regular posts, trustworthy brand news, new information, contests and special offers. Brands that are innovative and interactive on their pages are most likely to stand out from others. The fan pages that are doing it right are the ones that are actively engaging with their fans. These pages have creative content, two-way communication, active discussion boards, videos and images, and a fun and casual tone to match the medium.

My tips to a successful Facebook brand page:

•       Engage with fans – remember the marketing begins, not ends, when they click the like button

•       Reward fans

•       Maintain regular posts to create a more lively community

•       Offer genuine brand news and information

•       Prompt user interaction with contests and special offers

•       Provide creative content with videos and images

•       Ensure communication is two-way with active discussion boards

•       Make sure the tone of the page matches the medium, so fun and casual

•       Carefully consider the timing of posts and updates – adapt to your consumers schedules in order to optimise their engagement

•       Encourage brand conversation from influencers and advocates to their family and friends

Sources

’Value of a Facebook fan’, Syncapse Corp,

‘Facebook likes prove worth’, WARC

‘How to improve engagement on your brand’s Facebook page’ www.mashable.com

I wanted to use this post to highlight an innovative use of cinema that ran in Spanish cinemas which gave the audience the feeling of what it is like to be in the Fiat 500c with the roof down. During the ad the dashboard of the car appears on the cinema screen as if the audience were inside the car, then a projection screened onto the ceiling which simulated the opening of the car roof, revealing sky above the audiences heads. Cinema is not the cheapest of media channels but this shows how creative it is possible to be with the space. The campaign was awarded the Sol de Oro Jury Prize for Best Idea in Audiovisual Media at the recent 201 El Sol Latin American Advertising Festival. To watch a video about the making of the ad, click here. 

Recency

I often get asked exactly what a strategist does. Well a huge part of my job can actually be spent detracting myself away from advertising and media channels and just analysing and understanding people. You definitely need an innate curiosity into human nature and an interest in people to be able to then strategise how to communicate with them effectively. Observing people shopping, commuting or browsing the aisles of the supermarkets can give a valuable insight into how to connect with consumers. I guess it’s this need to understand people and their life away from what we consider traditional media channels that makes recency so important to marketers. With so much choice on the shelves, and the ever rising private labels, it is vital that brands now take serious consideration into reaching consumers at the point of purchase, especially when dealing with FMCG or low involvement categories. 70% of purchase decisions are made at the shelf, yet little thought is often given to reaching consumers there. It’s all very well spending millions on a TVC, and I have nothing against this as TV remains at the heart of advertising and is necessary to build emotional connections to brands, but in dealing with these categories it’s important to give some real thought on how to effectively reach people when they are making a purchase decision, or at least on the way to. It shouldn’t be the focal point of a campaign, but certainly should be considered as part of the media mix, especially when dealing with FMCG products.

And these examples prove there is no limitations on creative potential.