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News OMD.ebate Archive |
February 2008 A Starring Role for Brands
Andrew Lord The interest and excitement surrounding product placement on European TV makes it seem as if it’s a brand new marketing channel. Yet, the first recorded instance of product placement occurred as early as 1896 in a grainy black and white film Défilé du 8e Battalion. As men in bowler hats mill around a cobbled street lined with tram tracks, a wooden wagon is surreptitiously wheeled to the front of the screen inscribed with bold letters, ‘SUNLIGHT SAVOR’ – the very first example of TV product placement by a company called Unilever. Product placement is growing rapidly. Estimates suggest that the value of product placement in the US grew by 48% to $1.5bn, in 2005. Meanwhile, global product placement surged by 42% to $2.21bn, according to PQ Media. While advertisers concerned by growing media fragmentation want to get their brands as close to content as possible, broadcasters are desperate for new revenue streams as traditional advertising budgets dissipate. Shouting to be heard Striking changes in consumer lifestyles combined with fragmentation, channel multiplication, digital technology and PVRs have all combined to create tectonic shifts in the media landscape. Inevitably, these changes are eroding the effectiveness of traditional communication and making it harder and more expensive for brands to reach consumers. TV channel proliferation is one key issue, while 103 TV stations operated in Europe in 1990, this figure had increased to 1,100 by 2004. The explosion of channel choice has lead to a dramatic increase in advertising clutter – it’s estimated that consumers receive more than 1600 commercial messages a day. Television Without Frontiers While TV product placement has become a lucrative, multi-billion dollar industry in the US and Asia, it’s been under tighter restrictions in Europe. However, this may change. A relaxation of EU legislation means European advertisers will finally be able to tap into the potential of product placement from 2008. And as the reality of media clutter and fragmentation dents the effectiveness of mass market advertising, it’s a new channel worth investigating. The revision of the EU’s Television Without Frontiers directive, which will be rubber-stamped by the European parliament by the end of 2007, has ended years of wrangling over the sensitive issue of brand promotion on TV. The relaxation is an acknowledgement of the existing grey areas surrounding the legislation. For example, there are no restrictions for product placement in films and Europeans frequently watch US series that make wide use of product placement like 24, which features Ford cars and American Idol, with its Coca-Cola cups. But the liberalisation is not without its critics. Some in Europe fear that it might trigger commercial-heavy television and are worried that advertisers will be able to exert too much editorial influence on the programmes they sponsor. Others suggest that European viewers will be hostile to overt product placement. We believe that product placement can be a very strong advertising channel if managed correctly. And, interestingly, experience has shown product placement to be self-regulating because if a placement is too obvious, it will be rejected by the audience. The James Bond Effect Films have always influenced consumer’s purchasing behaviour, sometimes unintentionally. In 1938, during the film, It Happened One Night, Clark Gable took his shirt off in front of Claudette Colbert and stood bare-chested. It led to plummeting vest sales in the US. And film product placement continued to sell brands. There was Reese Pieces in ET, which resulted in a 65% sales increase and the appearance of the Slinky in Toy Story, which led to $27 million in sales after 10 years out of business. When product placement works well it can raise brand awareness, shift perceptions and even increase brand affinity. Consider Aston Martin’s close relationship with the James Bond films. Aston Martin was recently voted the coolest brand in the UK, beating the iPod, Google and Apple to the top spot thanks to the James Bond effect. Other car brands have benefited from the magic dust of 007. But BMW transformed its association with the film The World is Not Enough, into a memorable brand experience for consumers. There was a premiere screening for all BMW owners, cars were placed at theatres after the show and the results were impressive – 20,000 orders. Yet, this partnership was less suitable for the Bond franchise, which has since returned to Aston Martin. Stars of the show Savvy advertisers are learning to glean value by tapping into more sophisticated placements that engage consumers. As James Stengel, P&G’s global marketing officer stated: “There has to be a reason for your brand to be there and it has to be relevant to the story.” We like to think of it as brand integration, rather than product placement. It should become an integral part of the story. Brands can be the stars of the show, if they are seen as a relevant part of a story rather than something that’s hijacking the tale. In The Runaway Bride, Julia Roberts escapes in a Fedex delivery lorry being chased by Richard Gere. Two characters watch the drama with interest. ‘I wonder where she’s going,” says one. “Wherever it is, she’ll be there by 10:30am tomorrow,” replies the other. The integration of the National Census into the storyline of British soap Coronation Street is another successful example of a brand penetrating the script, this time on TV. The tale of one of the soap’s characters taking part in the National Census was woven into the storyline, featuring in ten episodes of the soap and accounting for over 13 minutes of air time. An effective channel? According to industry research, product placement is an effective marketing channel. 45% of respondents said they would be more likely to purchase if they had seen a product placement. Product integration lifts brand awareness levels by 24% and by 16% over a traditional 30 second TV spot. Meanwhile, product placement improves brand affinity levels by 22%. Similarly, a Nielsen study in 2006 found that product placement was likely to boost recognition, positive brand feeling and high purchase intent. But how does product placement fare compared to traditional advertising? Interestingly, Nielsen found that it can be as powerful as TV ads, and more powerful when used in conjunction with advertising. At OMD we have developed a Product Placement Evaluation Tool to analyse the media value of this form of advertising. It uses qualitative and quantitative measures to establish the media value of creating the same impact through a 30 second TV ad. One of the things we consider is the strategic fit between the values of the placement and the values the brand aspires to – for example it’s better for a 4X4 car to showcase its strength being driven by 24’s Jack Bauer than Mr Bean. We also examine the context –again it’s better for a 4X4 car to be seen racing across the desert rather than parallel parking outside a shop. Geography lessons Audience and broadcaster acceptance for blatant product placement varies widely across territories. What is tolerated and enjoyed in some markets would not translate well into Europe. However, in the Middle East, OMD has successfully stretched the concept of product placement for live TV. The agency managed to persuade a presenter on Rotana Café, a young, music channel to hide on set munching his Lay’s crisps, to reinforce the brand’s ‘naturally irresistible’ promise. In another stunt, the camera man covered his lens so he could join in eating Lay’s too. The campaign delivered 4x120 seconds of brand exposure in the middle of live programming and some viewers even received bags of Lay’s from fans weeks after the placement! Similarly, OMD Saudi Arabia orchestrated a partnership between Special K and the reality TV show Perfect Bride. The breakfast cereal was consumed by many of the contestants and often sparked conversations about diets on the show. Four episodes featured special cookery lessons starring the brand as a key ingredient and a nutritionist offered tips on healthy starts to the day. Although this product placement probably wouldn’t have worked with a more cynical audience, the results speak for themselves – Special K went out of stock after five weeks. For the bold When product placement is done badly it can damage a brand. One obvious pitfall is when a brand hijacks the content of a film or TV show and alienates the audience. One criticised product placement occurred with the Dr Pepper drink in the Spiderman film. When Peter Parker is experimenting with his ability to make spider webs, the first web he throws is at a Dr. Pepper can, properly placed with its label facing the camera. It’s a clunky moment that damages the credibility of both the film and the brand. Product placement is not for the fainthearted. Marketing directors who choose this advertising channel are taking a gamble. It’s an arena where they will not be able to control their brand in the way they could in traditional communication. The relationship between Ford and 24 has been successful for the car brand, but sometimes the car is driven recklessly and involved in scrapes and accidents that could make a nervous brand manager wince. Final advice Successful product placement is not easy, but there are some simple steps to ensure you’re heading in the right direction. First, think in terms of brand integration not product placement. It’s about establishing the right context and the right values. Second, don’t assume these placement deals will happen overnight – be patient. Third, add value. How is this creating enjoyment for the audience rather than just selling your product? Fourth, think like a consumer and imagine being on the receiving end of your content. Product placements of the future have one thing in common; they recognise that the audience is not consuming content to learn about their brand. And that’s why it’s important to get product placement right, because when it’s done clumsily, brands end up looking like awkward, unwanted guests at a party. But when product placement is done well, brands can play a starring role entertaining a captive audience – and that’s a role worth playing. It’s TV, but not as we know it
Jean-Paul Edwards Ten years ago, the prospect of watching TV through an internet connection was unimaginable. Today, the internet delivery of TV content is a reality that will change the face of TV advertising. As the two media converge viewers will be able to have a more interactive and personalised experience, and advertisers will be able to take a more targeted approach. Internet TV could be the best thing that ever happens to the medium – creating more value for TV viewers, advertisers and media owners. Just last month, Vint Cerf, Google’s vice president summed up the burgeoning potential of Internet TV, suggesting that it was simply waiting to be packaged up and presented to consumers. “It’s just waiting for its iPod moment,” he said. Internet TV is growing in significance because advances in technology, namely faster internet connections, are making quality TV broadcasts possible. The adoption of fast broadband throughout Europe is enabling consumers to access good quality TV broadcasts through their internet connection. The internet delivery of TV goes by many names – IPTV, Broadband Video, Online Video and Peer to Peer TV – depending on the approach of delivery. What might Internet TV look like? We believe it will form a variety of formats including live streaming, seven day catch up, ‘first look’ launches, bespoke programming, ‘extended window’ archives, advertiser funded programming and user-generated content. OMD Snapshots research has shown that the majority of people do intend to watch TV online in the future. While 75% of 16-24 year olds say they will watch Internet TV when they can view it on a full screen, 62% of the same age group say they will watch it over the next six months. The Longtail In 2004, Wired magazine popularised the phrase ‘the Longtail’ to refer to the large number of specialised offerings that appeal to a small number of people. Cumulatively they represent a large market that can be easily aggregated on the internet. Internet TV will enable thousands of producers to reach dedicated small audiences. It enables broadcasts to tap into a much larger global audience at a much lower cost than a satellite or cable channel. In turn, it enables advertisers to target these valuable niche audiences at a relatively low cost. The popularity of YouTube has already shown the interest in user- generated content from Dirty Dancing wedding routines to Coca-Cola-Mento sweet fountains. Internet TV also enables consumers to access interesting, niche content that previously wouldn’t have been available from expensive Italian shoes to growing orchids. As David Foster Wallace says in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, “TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is because people tend to be similar in their vulgar interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.” People who count There’s a genuine opportunity for brands to create niche content around their products. Advertising becomes less about campaigns and more about offering valuable services. For example, Microsoft could launch a PowerPoint channel that would offer video tutorials on how to use their software. Or a bank might create a TV show. At any time, the audience viewing these niche shows may be tiny. But as the audience builds and grows, they will become a significant proportion of those who are influential in the market. It may only be watched by 0.01% of the population, but providing the content is relevant and useful, this audience will consist of hundreds of thousands of influential people across the globe. Our job is less about counting the people we reach and more about reaching the people who count. Connect the circuit Internet TV and the specialised broadcasting and niche audiences it delivers will also be able to offer targeted advertising for brands. There’s undoubtedly an opportunity to match ads to specialised audiences in the way that Google does with internet searches and web pages. In fact a useful analogy here is not with television, but with magazine publishing. Niche magazines can charge high rates in order to target their specialised audiences, and it will be the same with Internet TV – there’ll be less wastage. We are seeing a shifting model in terms of media. We can liken the planning of a TV campaign to watering a garden, for a given amount of water (or budget) a good planner will position his sprinkler to get the maximum coverage with as little wastage and overlap as possible. The new landscape is like a complicated electrical circuit. Some people are more connected, and therefore more valuable than others. Rather than watering a larger audience with a blanket message we should focus on smaller groups with targeted messages to help complete our circuit. Additionally, research suggests that online video advertising may be more palatable for consumers. While 78% of consumers say they’re annoyed by pop up ads and 57% annoyed by traditional TV ads, just 26% are irritated by online video formats. Internet TV advertising could take a variety of different formats including part of sponsorship, as advertiser funded programming, with companion ads, integrated with chat and IM or simply run pre, mid or post-roll. The best business model for Internet TV has not yet been fully understood as the different stakeholders attempt to find the most effective way of working. We believe it will be a mixture of search, online and traditional TV models. However, what is essential is that the three main parties involved: advertisers, media owners and consumers all share the value equally. The opportunities of micro-targeting with Internet TV should mean that consumers see better, more relevant advertising targeted at their needs and desires, advertisers see proven increases in ROI and media owners see improved incomes per thousand viewers. How is OMD involved? We have built the world’s first IPTV service on Microsoft’s Silverlight technology in Portugal. MediaPreview. tv is a media, marketing and advertising channel for the Portuguese market which combines news and videos with live interviews where the viewer can interact with the interviewer. In Europe we’ve created internet TV advertising for clients including Sony, Peugeot and Vodafone. In the UK, we’ve integrated new online channels with traditional TV campaigns for services like 4OD and ITV.com through an initiative we call TV+. We’re exploring the potential of Internet TV with traditional media owners like Channel 4, with online portals like Google and with new entrants like Joost, an independent aggregator, in order to fully understand the potential of this emerging market for our clients. Internet TV may be the answer to many of the current pressures on TV advertising. It will see the advertising model leap forward and become more efficient, unlocking untapped value for all stakeholders. It’s an opportunity for new forms of creativity as advertisers are unshackled from the confines of 30 seconds linear content. The future is bright for TV; it’s just not TV as we know it. Researching Web 2.0: The changing face of online research...
Jo Rigby It’s now been seven years since OMD ventured into the world of online research with its internet research tool Snapshots, which allows us to send out online surveys to panels of respondents. Back then the internet penetration in the UK was just 26%, and the profile of the panel meant that carrying out research using Snapshots was only relevant to those clients with upmarket and affluent consumers. Fast forward to 2007 and internet penetration has mushroomed in the UK to 80% while 55.5% of homes have fast broadband connections. Inevitably Snapshots has become a favourite tool among planners and clients for providing robust and immediate insight into today’s consumers. Since we launched Snapshots the internet has become the natural environment for many audiences, from teenagers through to the over fifties. The clunky online sites of the last century now deliver media rich content, which is both highly visual and interactive, offering visitors the opportunity to communicate with other visitors via forums, social network sites and blogs. Reprogramming research So how has Web 2.0 impacted on how we carry out online research? Judging from the online surveys sent to the Insight team, the majority of online research is too steeped in the past. The surveys look like paperbased questionnaires, which have simply been rebuilt online. This approach completely overlooks how people use the internet and ignores the expectations that respondents will have when spending time online. How can we expect people to spend their precious time sharing their views and attitudes when it’s such a dull experience? Now more than ever we need to create surveys which are planned like pieces of content so consumers get excited and spend time interacting with them. OMD’s relationship with GMI, the software people behind Snapshots, means that we are leading the field when it comes to online research. Our Snapshots questionnaires are written in Flash, which make them as creative and interactive as possible. Respondents can view and rate TV ads, drag and drop content to represent their views, and even take a tour of a virtual supermarket to select their brands. We aim to make the research experience as engaging as possible and reward people for spending their time answering our surveys. Sliding doors We showcased one such project, the Peugeot 1007 case study at the recent Admap Online Research conference and it really wowed the audience. For this piece of research we created an online car showroom and invited respondents to check out the car via a series of videos and interactive content. The electric sliding doors were a key feature of the car, so we included a feature which allowed respondents the chance to open and close the doors! The Peugeot 1007 Virtual Car Clinic also gave respondents a 3D view of the car and the ability to see it in different colours as well as view a short film. We achieved a fantastic response rate for this project, and here’s an example of respondent feedback: "I must say it was probably the best survey I have completed. It was quick and easy to understand, the simple illustrations allowed the Luddites like me to easily understand the point." Dramatically different? The internet can also be used to carry out qualitative research. We’ve dipped our toes into the world of online focus groups and found it to be a really rewarding experience. Clinique wanted to carry out some in-depth qualitative work with young women so that they could understand how they felt about their brand. We decided to use online research as we knew the teenage respondents would be comfortable sharing their views on cosmetics online, this kind of exchange is something they are doing everyday with groups of friends. This online forum was a more natural place for them than meeting in a viewing facility where traditional qualitative groups take place. We treated the research like a piece of social networking using a forum capability within Snapshots, which allows us to invite consumers to our site and interact with other respondents. With a member of the OMD Insight team acting as moderator we invited a group of ten respondents to spend their lunch break with us over a whole week. Imagine trying to find respondents willing to travel to one location over five days? The teenage girls logged on every lunchtime for a week and started to build a relationship with girls with similar interests in make-up. We just floated some questions in and then sat back to listen. This was a more natural process for this audience of teenagers, although it was run before the popularity of social networking sites like FaceBook. If the shoe fits... On another project, we worked with Flamingo Research to explore the world of youth and their trainer shoes across six European countries. We wanted to understand young people’s relationship with their trainers and also discover what sort of content grabs their attention and from where they access this content. Flamingo designed an approach to help us unearth this information in a way, which actually created content to bring the respondents’ world to life. It’s no surprise that online featured within this methodology. But we decided against the ‘traditional’ questionnaire and instead created blogs for our participants to contribute to. Over a period of five days we invited participants to make diary entries within these blogs, telling us about their lives and keeping a record of all the media they were experiencing. For example on Day One they were invited to write about ‘You and Your World’ in their blogs, on Day Two the topic was ‘Fashion, Style and Trends’. They also uploaded photos and videos of their lives which provided us with the content we needed to illustrate their worlds. Flamingo ensured that the people recruited for this task were sparky and articulate, already contributed to their own blog and had access to broadband and digital cameras. As this was a new approach to research Flamingo also created user-friendly blog guides and welcome notes for the participants, all of which helped to make this new approach successful. Online chatter Other opportunities to gain insight into consumers are offered by the vast array of online forums. There are forums on almost any topic you can imagine: review sites; TV programme forums; marketing sites; parenting sites. While we need to be aware that people contributing to forums might have extreme views, they can be a great resource for speaking with consumers. Many forums have special threads for researchers, so the people contributing are fully aware that they are participating in research. An example of a forum we’ve used in the UK is mumsnet.com, a site with high traffic of new mums who go there to share information and advice on parenting. It’s a great place to speak to new mums and find out what they think of childcare brands. Gazing to the future So what next for online research? Some research agencies have set up home in Second Life and are carrying out qualitative research with Avatars. It allows the moderator to show content and concepts within the Second Life space and while this is a new phenomenon it’s exciting for consumers to take part. This throws up an interesting research issue: how do people respond to questions whilst they are in their Second Life identity? Can people change their personalities and attitudes as easily as their identities? Probably not! One of our Snapshots respondents has already asked for their points from our Snapshots reward scheme to be transferred to their Second Life account. Online research using Web 2.0 techniques offers some fantastic ways of gathering consumer insight. We should explore all the possibilities when designing our research methodologies as there are often some really cost-effective ways of accessing consumers without even having to recruit samples or send out questionnaires. It’s important to get the balance of on and offline research right, there’s still no substitute for meeting consumers in the flesh and having real life discussions with them! In this context, it’s useful to think of research projects in the same way as advertising campaigns – the internet has become an engaging and useful new channel to interact with consumers, but there is still a role for existing channels. Research has to go where the consumers are, which inevitably now includes social networking sites. Yet, audiences are still in the street, in the shops, at festivals, sitting in their living rooms watching TV. Indeed, some youth audiences are so hard to reach, even online, that there’s a trend back to on-the-street research where you find them hanging out with nothing to do and more open to taking part in research. We need to continue to pioneer new ways of using the internet to interact with consumers. The biggest shift we’ve seen in research over the past five years is that we’re now asking consumers what kind of research experience they want. So, instead of lamenting falling response rates we now collect ongoing feedback from respondents to shape how we ‘research’ them in the future. Spotlight on the Nordics
The Nordic region has the world’s highest taxes and most generous welfare benefits. And yet Sweden, Finland and Denmark (Norway’s oil sets it apart) have delivered strong growth and low unemployment, and rank among the world’s most competitive economies. The region has spawned global brands including IKEA, Nokia, LEGO and Volvo. The growth of the internet and impact of digital TV is affecting all markets across the region. In Sweden, on October 15th of this year, TV broadcasts were fully digitalised for the first time, after two years preparation. This has led to an increased number of local and national TV channels and is also impacting viewing with people more likely to view smaller, niche channels for the first time, in expense of the larger more established channels. Since the beginning of the year, the media markets of both Finland and Denmark have experienced key changes as digital TV is rolled out. This is causing fragmentation and an increase in niche channels. The growth of the internet is inevitably affecting other media channels. In Sweden, consumers are spending an increasing amount of time online: internet consumption has grown to around 90 minutes per day. And aside from TV with 26% usage, internet has the second largest media consumption at 16%. In Denmark, the internet has also grown and is now the third largest media group in the market. This trend is echoed across the region. With 70% of Norwegians having broadband, consumers are no longer only using the internet in their home offices but in the living room and kitchen too. Contrary to popular belief, the newspaper markets in the region are far from stagnant. Newspapers are a particularly important media channel in Norway. Norwegians tend to read 1.9 newspapers during a normal day and 82% read at least one newspaper daily. Newspapers remain the largest media channel in Norway and are clinging onto market share through innovation and multi-media offerings. Two new weekend magazines launched this autumn. Meanwhile a sales house is launching in January 2008 that combines the five largest regional newspapers to help them compete nationally. In Denmark, the 2006 launch of three home-delivered free newspapers, Dato, 24 timer and Nyhedsavisen has shaken up the newspaper market. Inevitably, this is affecting the readership of traditional paid newspapers, which continues to decline. Some of the larger newspaper publishers are fighting back by building their online presence. It was Sweden, where Metro, one of the world’s largest free newspapers, was first launched 12 years ago. And since the beginning of October 2007, Metro’s distribution covers 117 cities across the country. Competition in the free Swedish newspaper market has also intensified. Last year, Aftonbladet launched a free version called Punkt SE joining Stockholm City, which launched five years ago. OMD NEWS
M&M Europe Awards 2007 OMD wins Media & Marketing Europe’s media agency of the year 2007 – an award it has scooped for the second year running. This year the agency of the year win was supported by awards for Best Out of Home campaign and Best Consumer Goods campaign for Sony Bravia and Best Luxury Goods/Fashion campaign and commendation for Best Print for Elizabeth Arden. Appointments Nikki Mendonça, formerly business development director for Omnicom Media Group EMEA has been appointed as President of OMD EMEA. The newly-created role will see her head the largest media network in the region with over $13bn billings and 70 offices in 38 markets. Nikki has worked with the Omnicom Media Group for five and a half years where she led OMD Europe’s new business, development and marketing and played a key role in launching PHD as a global network. Prior to joining OMG, Nikki was the head of business strategy at Capital Radio overseeing 19 stations. She decided to leave Capital because she wanted to gain an international perspective on media, an ambition that has certainly been fulfilled during her time here. Nikki’s media industry career began 15 years ago as a media planner and buyer at CIA Medianetwork, before running the Kellogg’s and P&G’s media divisions at Leo Burnett. I am delighted to be taking this leadership role across the region. Having helped build the OMD brand to where it is today, I feel an incredible loyalty to the people, the product and the future potential of the company, she says. Over the next 12 months, one of Nikki’s main ambitions is to get OMD to play more internationally. We cannot operate in silos anymore, anywhere, and whatever we do will travel around the globe in a matter of minutes. Be prepared for me getting on my soapbox about this, she warns. Colin Gottleib, CEO OMG EMEA told Campaign magazine why Nikki was perfect for the job. “Nikki is someone who is passionate, almost in love with challenging herself and pushing things forward. She’s very intelligent and has this almost nuclear reactor of energy so she really was the obvious choice.” Nikki MendonçaPresident of OMD EMEA Age: 38 Lives: Richmond Career: 1992, media planner and buyer at CIA Medianetwork before running media divisions, Kellogg’s and P&G, Leo Burnett; 1998, head of business strategy, Capital Radio Group; 2002, business development director, Omnicom Media Group; 2007, president OMD EMEA. Favourite business book: Quoted: Quoted: What Gottlieb says: |
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