Its been a while since I commented on Hot Ads on TV at the moment but a handful that have caught my eye recently. They are both completely different ads with wildly different production but both have an element of humour, which potentially explains more about me than great advertising. If there was one common theme between the ads (which in advertising law isn’t good) you could easily miss what is being advertised especially on first view.
Doggy Dentures
This ad, if you haven’t seen it, is for Pedigree Dentastix, chew treats for dogs that apparently help them clean their teeth. This is a ridiculously simple ad but the whole view of the dogs with gleaming white dentures just works.
Volkswagen
This has polarised opinion in a few quarters, but in my view is a classic ad. Once again relatively simple in the sense that the boy dressed in his Darth Vadar costume tries to use the force on various objects. The darkside Star Wars tune plays throughout and at the end the lad genuinely thinks he used the force when the lights flash on his dad’s VW. Brilliant!
Cadburys
The dancing clothes is a great ad. Complex fance moves and oversized settings are what makes this ad great. Technically very difficult to master and film but looks ridiculously simple on screen. However Cadburys have come up with another tune that just works, even resulting in “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” being in the charts earlier today.
And the not so good…
Comparethemeerkat
Apologies for all you meerkat fans, but I seem to remember in the very early days when I rated the original ad so highly, that I thought the concept could annoy after a while. Well I think Alexander hit that stage a while back and is now just plain annoying. So much so, I think I prefer the GoCompare opera man.
There is always a mass of hyperbole surrounding social media and branding. This can be due to lack of understanding, the fact that few hard measures are put in place or just the fact it is in the interests of some marketeers to keep the mystique around these subjects. Whilst both areas may not be as simple to analyse as an immediate ROI from a PPC campaign, or coupon redemption through DM, there are ways to measure their impact and effectiveness.
This post looks very simply at some of the methods of measuring social media campaigns and in a way, branding campaigns online in general.
Desirability
This is the section that traditional ATL or brand advertisers would call consideration. Essentially it is the measure to ascertain if people actually like your brand or not. Traditional advertisers will run surveys, perform focus groups or take a spurious number from a third party research house. However, these are sometimes the route of the reason why we never truly know the impact of our activity. How many times have you been asked to take part in ‘research’ and declined the opportunity.
There is a (relatively) quantifiable way of doing this online. Tapping into the social media cloud around your brand, you can see how people view your brand, both positively and negatively. This can be done through buzz metrics (reputation management) which effectively analyses all the commentary your brand receives through social media channels.
Awareness
The central point for any brand has to be has your target audience seen the brand and are they aware of it? These are important (although not necessarily critical) questions to answer prior to your campaign, as it is easier to raise awareness if there is existing rapport. As users become increasingly sophisticated and engaged with your brand, campaign materials will be spoken about, distributed by users and eventually searched on. Again as a brand you need to extract these conversations, it not only allows you to evaluate awareness, it also allows you to understand impact and perception.
A great example of a campaign that has generated large levels of awareness is ComparetheMeerkat. The TV ad aired and created a stir. A microsite was available that was then promoted via the majority of online channels, social and other.
Frequency
The old rule of traditional advertising was developed in the 1970s by Krugman. He stated that you need to expose your target to your message three times. What? Why? and the payoff. Essentially this still rings true. Potentially even more relevant in social media.
Be aware when developing campaigns or activity for your brand you need to have a sufficient campaign base and content to maintain users engagement and buy-in. Users aren’t willing to see and review the same content on a regular basis, they are even less likely to be interested in distributing this to their friends.
Engagement
This is quite simply how deeply entrenched your brand is within the consumers’ minds. How often are you referenced in blogs, on forums or other social media platforms. This is how many times are you commented on, how long were the conversation strings and were the messages postive or negative. The ultimate and potentially more difficult to measure is did the activity spark other activities. A great example of this in action can be found on YouTube, where users in the YouTube community post video responses.
Pay-off
With more media becoming available at an accelerated pace both online, in print and on broadcast media with the advent of digital TV and Radio, users attention is becoming more and more difficult to obtain. Key measures to see if you have grabbed the attention are simple methods such as click-throughs, UVs and repeat visits. This indicates your content is engaging enough to offer users some form of pay-off.
Another measure (depending on your content) is time spent interacting. Generally in brand building (social) campaigns the longer users spend on site, the better.
Spread
Traction is key here. As an advertiser you can only target certain media channels, it would be impossible to target all possible channels. Therefore organic spread is a great measure of success. Your campaign needs to spread from mailbox to mailbox if it is to progress. Perhaps more importantly does the campaign spread from social network to social network? Another great track is to see if your campaign gets bookmarked on social bookmarking sites such as Digg or Stumble.
Reach
Remember you need to track your campaign. Remember review how many people have seen your campaign and are they in your target audience? Reach is important and the more people that see your campaign the better. However it would be better to sacrifice some numbers in order to maximise your reach within your target audience.
Summary
Whilst none of the points raised in this post are as complex as rocket science, they may seem obvious, many organisations forget these principals when placing their brands in social media.
They often believe just because they are established brands or are well known, they deserve their place in people’s everyday social networks. If that was the case the job of the Internet Marketeer would be a very simple one. However, social media has made the landscape more complex. You must have a reason for being in social media and above all track what you are doing.
To enable this, you need to set out some clear objectives that can be measured. In my opinion I would also suggest employing a reputation management specialise. Somebody along the lines of Market Sentinel that could also analyse the benefits of all your activity on SEO and overall marketing efforts.
Compare the Market are obviously bidding on their own campaign in Google, but hats off to Confused.com – they are also bidding on the terms. As their ad copy also features the word meerkat, their ad is normally higher in the Google rankings. Whilst we can’t be sure of the conversion off such terms or the ROI it is a good nudge to the team at Compare the Market. Maybe its a little jealousy as Confused.com ads aren’t particularly inspiring.
This is a list of my Top 5 favourite recent or current TV ads.This won’t feature the usual high-budget productions from Nike, Guinness or Coca Cola that you are used to seeing. For me the ads on this list off something different. Create engagement, impact or break the mould in their sector.
The latest series of ads are both creative and show a brave move from the Cadburys Head of Advertising. Rather than concentrating on the chocolate or people enjoying the flavours, Cadburys have created a new stance. They have managed to mix music with humour and creativity and not once does if feel like the brand is being bastardised. Hats off to Cadburys and their agency on these. I could have picked any of the recent series, the Gorilla is probably best known, however due to currency and sheer weirdness I have selected the two kids with the 80s watch and eyebrows.
This ad is a fine example of where creativity takes a lead over the brand police. Obviously the outcome of a creative think tank, the agency that came up with this concept probably couldn’t believe their luck when their client bit. The ad lends itself to some neat viral activity with a spin off website comparing Meerkats. It also very simply gets the message of Compare the market across. Its use of the web to extend the campaign further is a fabulous example of using all channels effectively. The Meerkat with his simples slogan, could also become a great icon. Visit Compare the Meerkat– its worth a look
The series of ads featuring Johnny Vegas and Monkey from ITV Digital is a genius idea from the outset. However the latest ad which shows the over complex method of making a cup of tea. Including the milking of the cow and Vegas dancing with Monkey to the Stripper by David Rose. It takes on some classic cartoon style moments as well as classic slapstick. There is no other tea to beat PG
The first time this was aired was as an exclusive to channel 4. With over 2 minutes of footage from a ‘flash mob’ in Liverpool Street train station, London – it took a while for the pay-off to show that it was an ad for T-Mobile. What T-Mobile created here was a talking point, a stand-still moment that is very rare in advertising. The slimmed down versions are no less entertaining. Whether this is more than a good one-off remains to be seen. The snippet showing a bar-code is hardly inspirational. However as a piece of creative with standout, this is up there.
The ad works on a number of levels. Maybe it is a generation thing. Maybe it’s the visual clues to the 80s, Wimpey and Our Price. Maybe it’s the distinctive Frankie sound-track. Maybe it’s the vivid colours used on the cabin crews uniform and the photogrpahy in the background. Whatever the reason. The ad works – it simply and effectively puts Virgin’s birthday message across (something I wasn’t even aware of before the ads)
Nearly made it:
Nationwide Building SocietyOK, so I may be a little biased here (having had a hand in the development of these ads). However, Nationwide broke the mould in terms of advertising Financial Services products. Rather than solely concentrating on the product and the potentially good rate, they took a brave step of moving to a situational approach. It focussed on exactly what Nationwide isn’t by introducing the bungling Bank Manager, played by Mark Benton. This combination of good story, good one liners and a pay off, mean it is without doubt worthy of a place. Also, it was a contributory factor to the downfall of those annoying Halifax/Howard ads.
Barclaycard The ad with the slide is another fine example of standout within a sector. Finance is slowly moving away from the stayed boring ads. Visually it stands out with good filmography and great visual clues to every day life (Scanning card in supermarket). The music is unusual (Let your love flow by The Bellamy Brothers) offering standout. The addition of a few funny elements such as getting stuck on the slide and the towel line, means this deserves a mention.
Love to hear your views. Do my choices resonate with you? Or do they jar with every sense you use?
Rich Clark Marketing 