New Forms of Commercial Communication
Posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2014 by ATC in Industry News with No Comments
By Clement Charles, CEO & Founder, AllTheContent News Agency
A prominent American industrial of the last century used to say, “When I spend two dollars on advertising, that’s one dollar too many, but I’m not sure which one.” In times of economic crisis and in a shrinking advertising market, two emerging trends are measurability and branded entertainment.
Intrinsic to new technologies, advertising is becoming more and more measurable. In network systems (the Internet, mobile phones, itv), each action may be stocked, analyzed and measured. Whether in classical or electronic displays, technologies capable of measuring our attention (or the absence thereof) in front of fixed media are arising. Despite the number of reliable techniques, the market keeps dragging its feet, well aware that measurability will rattle current practices, which have remained steady for nearly 30 years. It can nonetheless be expected that the crisis, be it fictitious or real, will inevitably introduce measuring into all communication campaigns.
Measuring remains tricky with radio and television. Qualitative systems, such as Médiamétrie, a French audience measurement company, are statistical aberrations, considering how complex it is to capture the behavioral data of control families. Technical systems, such as RadioControl and its watch, are more interesting, but are often prone to strange population distribution, hence creating serious statistical biases (for example, if the watch is given to family members of media employees). Measuring can therefore not be depended upon as a cure-all.
In the United States, VOD, catch-up TV and recording TV signals on a hard drive have taken off in the last 10 years, spurring advertisers to change their strategies, going from hard to measure hounding to creative campaigns with a global impact on society. As early as 2000, studies showed that 80% of TIVO users were fast-forwarding through ads, much like 50% of VHS consumers. The figure dropped down to 13% with Budweiser’s famous “Wazza” ad.
Likewise, Donald Trump’s reality TV show, The Apprentice, went through many commercial concept changes with each passing season. While Season One generated tremendous advertising revenue, measurements showed that viewers had nearly not watched any of the ads. Consequently, Season Two had a hard time attracting enough advertisers.
With Season Three, the show itself changed. Since viewers are able to systematically avoid placement reserved to advertisers, producers proposed that products be directly integrated into the narrative concept of the show. In the third season, aspiring assistants to Donald Trump no longer worked on fictive cases to prove their talent, concentrating instead on creating marketing solutions to launch a new Coke, a cosmetic brand, or the best way to sell Chrysler’s latest car (which has since become Fiat). By giving products a narrative and conceptual role, producers were able to draw advertisers back to their programs and ensure a stable level of income.
Following the same reasoning, big advertising agencies now offer their clients branded content / edutainment as a new form of mass marketing outside of traditional advertising spaces. This content can either be directly linked to the product, or be connected to its conceptual universe.
A food product brand might therefore create fun, practical content, suggesting recipe ideas and original menus based on its line of products. The brand name is present without being overwhelming, as the main goal is to create “free” added value for its target audience. Clients then associate this added value with the brand, which is more effective than hammering the public with a slogan.
Integrated into the brand’s visual identity without being mentioned, edutainment tends to mainly target children, though all publics are open to receiving this type of message. Both fun and informative, this kind of content is perfect for making an audience sensitive to an issue, a need, to encourage its target audience to ask a question which the brand will be the only one capable of satisfying.
Next, an information agency such as ours will often offer to create bespoke media to corporate clients. If media is seen as a brand associated with added value intended for a specific target audience, businesses would do well to provide a clever mix of segmented information with high added value, practical advice and product communication.
Insurance companies might for instance create health portals, proposing added value to their clients, in a market where there are few differences between offers, all the while showing competitors that irrespective of their service, clients will receive free added value, and not only payments. Finally, in this example, if only 10% of the clients were to follow the portal’s advice, it would be enough to lower insurance reimbursements. Following the same reasoning, banks proposing real estate loans should invest in a portal dedicated to the home (building, financing, home improvement, landscaping). Public or private institutions use these tools to better inform their existing lenders (backers, taxpayers) of projects which have been funded by their financial contributions. Supported by their considerable communications budgets, local authorities and public institutions should be the first to implement this type of media, to let their citizens and taxpayers know how their pennies have been allocated.
Whether chosen by a brand or an institution, this process closes the communication loop, which, initiated by brands, their agencies and mass media, comes back to the starting point of measurement, creating bespoke media, and collecting field information.
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