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INTERNATIONAL
MARCOMMS INSIGHTS FROM EBIQUITY
THE KEY ELEMENTS OF
PROGRAMMATIC TRADING
Inside:
How eye-tracking can reveal the true value of media
Advertising evolution: The World Cup
The missing link in your marketing mix
The role and impact of music in advertising
Can marketing and communications ever live in harmony?
TV remains the most effective way to advertise
Issue No.16: Q3 2014
“Advertisers are being pushed toward
programmatic, but don’t like the
relative lack of measurable metrics
and are suspicious of the motivations
of the supply-side providers.”
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MEDIA TRADING
COVER STORY
Programmatic media trading:
how can advertisers get
maximum benefit?
This year’s buzzword in the advertising media is ‘programmatic’:
otherwise known as automated media trading. Media agencies,
vendors and supply-chain players all want to encourage advertisers
to adopt programmatic buying and thereby enjoy supposedly
enhanced targeting, greater effectiveness, and improved cost.
A
gencies aim to persuade
advertisers, and especially
branded goods clients, to move
budget into online from the
offline media trading market.
Offline, clients know what they
get for their money in terms of audience
delivery, media performance, and financial
visibility. They also verify these KPIs with
independent providers of measurement and
audit services to ensure budgets are well
spent.
However, this is not currently the case in the
digital market, and the lack of transparency
in online is increasingly hard to defend.
Advertisers are being pushed toward
programmatic, but don’t like the relative lack
of measurable metrics and are suspicious of
the motivations of the supply-side providers.
This is particularly ironic given that online
media potentially allows activity to be
precisely tracked at an impression level for
Nick Manning
is President,
International at
Ebiquity
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
everyone individually. It’s the gift that keeps on
giving for advertisers, with precise targeting of
messaging, personalization, and relevance all
possible through the smart use of technology.
Advertisers frequently report that they are
pressurized into investing more through
agencies’ programmatic trading desks but,
when they ask searching but perfectly normal
questions about the detail of performance
and money, they encounter resistance and
obfuscation.
owners have received less revenue to invest in
advertising properties.
To redress the balance in their favor – and,
after all, it’s brands’ investment and ROI we’re
talking about here – advertisers need to take
control of the programmatic agenda, and do so
contractually.
A contract that requires complete
transparency should contain the three key
elements detailed below, for the measurement
of performance and value in online channels,
with the right clauses to safeguard data
ownership, access, and financial transparency.
Trading desk activity often sits as a single line
on the media plan, with no detail of where
the inventory will go. After the event, there
is comparatively little reporting of actual
performance, such as whether the advertising
was seen by its intended audience, for how
long, whether delivery has achieved target,
and where the conversion from impressions to
action actually took place.
1.Measurement of performance
and value
It can be credibly argued that the main
reason why advertiser transparency hasn’t
already become standard is because of
vested commercial interests. Currently too
much of an advertiser’s budget is eroded
by undisclosed margins. This situation is
detrimental to the industry as a whole;
advertisers’ budgets have been less effective
than they should have been, while media
However, digital media is still traded crudely,
with impressions and CPMs as the common
currency, and this is detrimental to the inherent
potential of the channels.
The golden rules of advertising should apply in
online channels just as much as offline media;
it is crucial to target the right people, with the
right message, at the right time, and at the right
level of exposure.
Programmatic trading and real-time bidding
– where inventory is auctioned in fractions
MEDIA TRADING
“To redress the
balance in their
favor – and, after
all, it’s brands’
investment and ROI
we’re talking about
here – advertisers
need to take control
of the programmatic
agenda, and do so
contractually.”
of a second – really do hold out the promise
of data-derived targeting and greater cost
efficiencies, but they rely on the quality of the
data being used for the bidding process. This
can be lacking if prior performance is based on
basic metrics, inadequate attribution and low
viewability scores.
For advertisers to be confident that their digital
trading – whether programmatic or not – is
correctly optimized, they need to ensure that:
•
•
•
The data used in the trading process are
accurate and relevant, and in particular that
the right viewability KPIs have been used to
identify the most productive inventory.
The correct attribution methodology is
in place to identify the right inventory,
eliminating false attribution by applying
relevant visibility scores and the right
cookie windows.
The right data are sourced to ensure that
the targeting profile is measured accurately
to take account of demography, personal
attributes, and behavior, allowing for the
dual use of devices, for example.
Based on getting these factors right,
advertisers should only then determine
whether programmatic buying is the right
route, which sort to employ, and whether real-
time bidding has a role to play. Programmatic
buying without the right data is no advance on
more traditional types of trading.
2.Data control, ownership, and
access
At the heart of the most powerful marketing
today lies the Data Management Platform
(DMP), a data repository used for storing
customer data derived from online behavior,
including website visits, to build profiles of
each individual.
These data are used to target individuals with
targeted messages. The DMP is essential for
modern marketing, as it can be used for any
digitally delivered channel, including e-mail,
social, and mobile. It lies at the heart of the
programmatic market, as it drives the whole
targeting and bidding process based on prior
history, with continuous dynamic updating.
It is important that advertisers have full
control over their data, are able to access
their data freely, and maintain integrity and
confidentiality. To maintain ownership and
control, advertisers should contractually
guarantee ownership and free access, and, if
necessary, employ an independent DMP to
ensure that this happens.
3. Financial visibility
Advertisers often do not know where their
money is going, or how much is being paid in
fees, commissions, and mark-ups. Many have
been contractually excluded from finding
out. The issue of ‘arbitrage’ – agencies buying
wholesale inventory and marking-up to the
client – has led many advertisers to consider
appointing independent trading desks to
gain greater control and visibility where little
currently exists.
The answer is to apply contractual terms
that cover the whole ecosystem, including
associated parties and subcontractors,
with full and free access to all money flows,
including rebates and other benefits, as well as
the margin on wholesale inventory.
‘Programmatic’ will doubtless be next year’s
buzzword too, as advertisers dip their toes in
the water of automated media trading and the
practice spreads to TV and other channels.
Advertisers must seek independent advice and
systems that open up the black box of current
market practices, with strong contractual
underpinning.
Meanwhile, let the programmatic buyer
beware.
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ADVERTISING VISIBILITY
ASK AN EXPERT
The eyes have it
Martin Radford, Director at Ebiquity, and Mike Follett, MD of attention
technology company Lumen Research, consider how eye-tracking
can reveal the true value of media.
This assumption builds deep-seated
inefficiencies into the media market, warping
investment decision-making and undermining
our understanding of how advertising works.
The evidence shows that what matters is
attention – and attention is what needs to be
measured.
Recent innovations in eye-tracking show
which ads actually get noticed – and how brand
owners can optimize ROI. But the technique
goes further and suggests the possibility of a
future economics of attention which could
revolutionize media planning and buying and
deliver greatly enhanced value to clients.
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
£80,000
Rate Card Cost
Salience
£55,502
100%
84%
75%
67%
£30,526
£23,000
£0
FULL
PAGE
HALF
PAGE
0%
% OF READERS VIEWED AN AD
The reality is that just because people have the
opportunity to see an ad on TV, in a newspaper,
or on a website, it doesn’t mean they’ll see it
– still less that they truly have seen it. And yet,
media owners and buyers act as if OTS was the
same as S: that everybody sees every ad that
they could.
The units of currency in eye-tracking are Stand
Out (percentage of people who actually look
at an ad, even once; this can also be known
as salience) and Dwell Time (average time
people look at an ad). Stand Out matters
because it’s critical to capture potential buyers’
attention if you’re going to communicate
with (and sell to) them; Dwell Time matters
because it correlates strongly with prompted
recall.
MEDIA COST
T
he more attention people pay to
a subject, the deeper they encode
it, the better they recall it, and the
more likely they are to act upon it.
Many ads, however, suffer from
attention deficit disorder. They
don’t get the attention brand owners pay for.
25X4
Research shows that all media are not the
same – even within the same medium. The
chief driver of ‘ad blindness’ is the size of the ad
– bigger ads are harder to ignore than smaller
ads. As the chart shows, full-page ads are
viewed at least once by 84% of readers (which
still means 16% ignore them entirely). Halfpage ads achieve 75% Stand Out on average,
and 25x4s get 67%.
But attentional reality does not reflect how
these ads are priced. Rate cards relate more to
real estate than impact. A half-page ad gives
you half the space of a full-page ad, and costs
you half as much, but delivers you 90% of the
salience. In fact, half-page ads and 25x4s are
astonishing bargains, punching far above their
weight. Smart media buyers will see the pricing
gap and take advantage of this arbitrage
opportunity – before media owners adjust
pricing accordingly.
Studying how we pay attention will show us
how attention pays. In the future, it’s possible
that attention metrics will be reflected in the
fees clients pay for evidence-based, valuedriven media planning. Stand Out and Dwell
Time could supplant GRPs as the currency
with which media is traded.
Martin Radford
is UK Media Business
Director at Ebiquity
Mike Follett
is MD of Lumen
Research
MULTI-CHANNEL ANALYTICS
In 2013, digital advertising
spend reached over $119
billion worldwide1
FOCUS ON
The missing link in
your marketing mix
In 2013, global spend on digital marketing topped $119 billion – an
astonishing number, but one that will undoubtedly rise again this
year. The variety of options available to help today’s marketer to
reach customers continues to grow fast, too. As a result, brands are
increasingly putting significant resources behind reach and acquisition
efforts, in an attempt to beat the competition and create new, loyal
customers for their business.
W
ith so much money on the
line, it has also become
business-critical for
marketers to measure
ROI and squeeze as much
as possible from every
dollar spent to acquire a customer. All of the
investments made in search, display, and
social are under increased scrutiny with each
organization trying to find the silver bullet to
deliver the highest possible level of conversion
from these channels.
With the focus on conversion comes a
heightened challenge of understanding
attribution over time for each of the different
digital touchpoints with which a customer
may come into contact. While technology
continues to innovate for this business
challenge, the advertising industry and client
community has yet to reach consistent
maturity in this space. The ideal state for
organizations is to build effective attribution
models and use them to design the optimal
marketing mix for their digital investments.
While digital marketing spend increases year
on year, a fatal flaw continues to present
itself within the marketing plans of most
organizations around the world. In 2013, for
every $100 spent on digital marketing, $95
was invested on reach and acquisition, with
only $5 allocated to conversion optimization.
This breakdown of spend shines the light on
the fatal flaw:
An organization can have the perfect
marketing mix model for its digital investments
but, without an optimized customer
experience in its owned media channels, it
will never realize the anticipated ROI from its
investments.
Reach and acquisition efforts are ‘top of funnel’
contributions. The actual conversion events
for the funnel are typically found in the owned
digital channels (websites, mobile apps, social
pages, and so forth), or else in the offline
world. The steps between the top of the funnel
and the conversion event are also typically
found in the owned digital channels. While a
customer may interact with several marketing
campaigns prior to a conversion, each of those
campaigns is attempting to lead customers
down a path within owned channels. However,
only $5 out of every $100 currently being
spent is being deployed to optimize owned
channels to meet customer expectations and
needs.
While it is absolutely critical to optimize
reach and acquisition, it is just as important to
optimize the user experience in your owned
channels. Lack of transparency is a major issue
in advertising these days, yet organizations
are throwing 95% of the budget into what
equates to a cloudy medium, subject to agency
manipulation and margins. Marketers can
control the experience in their owned channels
and also have the ability to own the data being
collected in these channels. They operate
the current and sustained misallocation of
resources at their peril.
Owning and extracting actionable insights
from the user experience data gives marketers
an incredible amount of power as this process
enables them to create unique, personalized
experiences for their customers based upon
genuine, historical, or real-time interactions.
For this reason alone, it would make sense
for marketers to spend a little more time and
money on optimizing the true conversion path
of their business. All too often, we see so many
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And for every
$100 businesses
spent on digital marketing,
just $5 of that went towards
conversion optimization2
Social Media, Mobile, Website, Online Store, etc...
opportunities to
capitalize on lowhanging fruit that
are passed up in lieu of
an increased investment
at the top of the funnel.
$95
Reach &
Acquisition
The path to ROI does not solely lie within
an organization’s ability to reach as many
customers as possible. The old adage states:
You can lead a horse to water, but you
can’t make it drink. If marketers focus on
identifying and testing different versions of
the underperforming areas of owned media
channels, they can at least make the water
appear refreshing to the horse and entice it to
take a drink once it arrives at the source.
Bill Bruno is CEO
of Stratigent, part of
Ebiquity plc
“An organization can
have the perfect
marketing mix
model for its digital
investments but,
without an optimized
customer experience
in its owned media
channels, it will
never realize the
anticipated ROI from
its investments.”
$5
Conversion
Includes: Search, Display,
Mobile, Digital Video, Lead
Generation, Rich Media,
Sponsorship, etc...
Includes: Purchases,
Contact Requests,
Downloads,
Appointments, Sign-Ups,
etc...
1 eMarketer, 1010736 www.eMarketer.com 2 Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey
Infographic data supplied by Lauren Gelecke, Marketing Manager at Stratigent, part of Ebiquity plc
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
INTEGRATED MARKETING
FEATURE
This article is taken from a complete supplement researched and
written by Helen Dunne for Ebiquity’s Reputation practice, to be
published later this year. The supplement features interviews
and case histories with companies including: 3, Aviva, Barclays,
Debenhams, Heineken, Home Retail Group, Hotels4U
(Thomas Cook), O2, Regus, and TSB.
To register your interest in receiving a soft or printed
copy of the supplement, please e-mail
[email protected]
Can marketing and
communications ever
live in harmony?
Helen Dunne, Editor of CorpComms magazine, has spent the
past two months talking to the heads of comms and marketing at
leading UK and global businesses.
I
n this first overview of her research,
Helen reveals that the reality of
integrated marcomms is perhaps rather
closer than many have suspected.
“The trouble with marketing and
communications is that it is a little like
Americans and the British,” comments one
director of communications at a FTSE 100
organization. “They are separated by a
common language.”
It is a view shared by many communications
professionals. They see the role of a marketer
as nebulous, worrying about branding, taglines,
and ‘fluffy stuff,’ while their work is more
hard-hitting, defending corporate reputations
against a 24/7 barrage of media, stakeholder,
and government scrutiny.
Marketers, on the other hand, often find it
hard to grasp the necessity for corporate
communicators and PR teams. After all, their
objectives are clearly defined; they are there
to lift sales, boost bookings, or drive traffic
to websites, generating a real return on their
investments. To them, PR represents a huge
cost – often carved from their budgets – with a
seemingly impossible-to-calculate return.
comms as a sub-set, who just sit there and
bang out press releases.” Or spin, as some
marketers still describe it.
But the tide is turning. “I absolutely think that
we have to work together,” says Nicola Green,
Director of Communications at O2. “Nothing
is more powerful than a campaign that is joined
up. We shouldn’t be afraid of marketing. We
have a role to play around the table.”
Nigel Prideaux, Director of Communications
at insurance group Aviva, agrees. “This is my
first in-house role and one of the reasons for
me coming here was because communications
is part of a strong marketing department.
“We are one team. We work hand-in-hand
with marketing. We are a customer-facing
brand with 31 million customers; the customer
is front and center of everything we do.
The customer is the source of our success.
We need to build a strong, consistent, and
coordinated reputation, and marketing and
communications must talk as one to achieve
that.”
“We are realists,” says one comms director.
“Marketers have a cheerleading mentality.
Everything they say is amazing and they have
this huge belief in what they do. Their world is
black and white. Our world is a bit grey.”
Some of the wariness between the two
disciplines is historic. Some relates to
structural issues within organizations, such
as when divisions set up dedicated marketing
teams who fail to liaise outside their realm –
even with other marketers to check they are
not duplicating efforts – or to invite opinions
from their counterparts in communications.
“We think they don’t know what we do,”
admits another. “Too often marketing sees
“Silos are and can be dangerous,” says Jeremy
Beadles, Corporate Relations Director at
Heineken. “I don’t see how unaligned working
can be beneficial. We have similar business
objectives; they are not exactly the same, and
nor should they be. But overall I have got to
ensure that we hit our numbers just as much as
the marketing director does. And if our targets
aren’t in conflict, then we should be aligned
and cascaded.”
“Comms is valued,” says one marketer. “But it
is not seen as powerful.”
“Marketing wants everybody to work to the
same brief,” says Green, “but we always have
to do the reputational piece to bring balance.
We have to work collaboratively. Comms can
be the forgotten piece. They come to us when
all the messages are done. That just doesn’t
work. We need to be brought in right at the
start. They want to sell stuff but we have a role
in helping them do that.”
“The big difference is that, with marketing,
nobody really challenges what you say. You can
buy a billboard and say what you like, but the
same is not true for communications people,”
explains Alistair Smith, Managing Director,
Corporate Communications – Group, at
Barclays. “Comms people have a responsibility
for corporate reputation, and everything we do
and say is mediated through other people. It is
an intensely competitive field.”
Social media is starting to change the dynamics
of the relationship. In many organizations, it
is the communications team that manages
the Twitter and Facebook accounts. As one
PR executive says: “If we didn’t control these,
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rules for better integration
between corporate
communications and
marketing
Karen Prichard is
Head of In-depth
Earned Media
Analysis at Ebiquity
we would have marketing trying to push any
product that isn’t selling in the stores to our
followers. We effectively operate as a quality
control system. We control the message.”
But these channels also offer another
opportunity for PR to prove their value by
demonstrating the power of the networks
they have created and nurtured. When Nick
Sharples ran communications at Sony Europe,
the company once sold one million euros’
worth of refurbished computers over Twitter.
“It was the communications team who did
that,” he explains.
“It was not sales or marketing. It was because
we had set up a Twitter page and engaged with
followers over time. We were able to sell more
to them. If we had just set up a Twitter account,
without gaining followers, then this would not
have been possible. For us, it provided a clear
return on investment.”
Comms and marketing may be separated by
a common language. But what many in both
disciplines have discovered – and often in realtime – is that our 24/7, social world has forced
the two to work together toward a common
goal of more effective, more impactful, more
measurable communication.
Helen Dunne is the
Editor of CorpComms
Magazine
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
Social media is increasingly blurring the
lines of accountability and responsibility for
brand communication between corporate
communications and marketing. It is our
experience at Ebiquity that, for these
two functions to work in a successfully
integrated and aligned fashion, it is essential
that leadership and team members of both
commit to a clear and consistent set of
principles for collaboration. These should
cover ways of working, measurement,
culture, mutual respect, and a continuous
process of test and refine.
Based on this experience, our observation
and interrogation of client best practice, and
the realities of theory in practice identified
by CorpComms magazine’s Helen Dunne
in her research project for Ebiquity, we have
identified the following, ten-point framework
for successful integrated communications.
1. Work together right from the start –
don’t bring in the other discipline at the
point of launch.
2. Agree and align KPIs, using simple,
understandable, and meaningful
performance metrics, such as effective
delivery of aligned messages through
paid as well as earned and owned media.
3. Understand, accept, and appreciate
the different – and complementary –
impacts that the different roles have
on the business and the business of
communication.
4. Create a common lexicon. Understand,
for instance, what each means by media,
media auditing, media analysis, channels,
and coverage. They are not always the
same.
5. Don’t work in silos and ensure corporate
communications and marketing teams
are physically co-located, working
together on projects in multidisciplinary
teams. Use physical geography to foster
collaboration.
6. Demonstrate the value of your function
to the business in a way that has meaning
to the C-suite. C-suite endorsement of
the integrated approach goes a long way
toward making this way of working the
new normal.
7. Ensure lines of communication between
corporate communications and
marketing are kept open at all times. It
may sound basic, but instituting a regular
meeting between both groups is a critical
starting point.
8. Agree who controls which parts of social
– work out what social can and should
do for your organization, and plan social
outreach with precision.
9. Be prepared to be always ‘on’ – always
available for proactive and reactive
commentary – particularly because of
social. The social revolution has made
comms and marketing truly 24/7.
10. Don’t try to control everything that
happens, particularly in social. Be
prepared to be the start of a branded
communication, but let it take on its own
life as your customers and consumers
turn an owned media channel into a
shared one.
By adopting these simple, tried-and-tested
principles, corporate communications and
marketing should not just lead a respectful
coexistence; they will have joined together
the strengths of their respective disciplines
and made the integrated whole considerably
more impactful and effective than the two
functions working independently.
Social media is often accused of making life
more complicated. In the case of genuinely
integrated comms, it has truly been the
catalyst for enhanced performance across all
dimensions of communication.
COMMUNICATIONS INSIGHT
ADVERTISING EVOLUTION
The World Cup: the
beautiful game in
the global spotlight
F
or the best part of a century, the
World Cup has given nations
the chance to battle it out for
world supremacy – safely – via
the most popular game on
the planet. The competition
harnesses teamwork, physical skill, and honest
graft, while tapping into supporters’ deeprooted tribalism. In recent years the finals
have also created a battleground for brands,
where official sponsors show their support
and appreciation for the game while nonsponsoring brands attempt to muscle in on the
action. As the world’s attention turns to Brazil
2014, we’ve taken a look at some of the most
poignant, impactful, and effective World Cup
campaigns from the last 16 years to assess
what works best when it comes to commercial
communication around the final stages of the
tournament.
Nike: Airport (1998)
Although never an official World Cup sponsor
and never likely to be, Nike’s 1998 campaign
captures everything that makes the beautiful
game beautiful. The World Cup itself is not
mentioned explicitly for legal rights issues,
but the now iconic ad sees the Brazilian team
play football across an airport, with all their
legendary skill and panache. The ballet-like
movements of the players and the tropical
soundtrack create a festival feeling of
enjoyment and fun around the game. Nike also
shows a respect for history, with a brief cameo
from the just-retired Eric Cantona.
Carlsberg:
Old Lions
(2006)
Although not an official
sponsor, Carlsberg had
great success in the UK
with this campaign featuring
retired England legends getting
together to play in a pub team. The
ad included an all-star line-up and, by harking
back to an era before the glam and cash of the
adidas: Footballitis (2002)
Keen to emphasize its role as an official
World Cup sponsor, adidas ran a light-hearted
promotion in 2002. This multi-country,
multiple execution campaign featured leading
international footballers apparently suffering
from footballitis, a new disease which makes
them believe they are always playing football.
The brand’s heavyweight support behind its
World Cup sponsorship was associated with
a 24% sales increase in North America and its
first ever sales in Asia, the home of the 2002
tournament.
modern game, presented football as a more
authentic and noble pursuit. The emotive and
nostalgic elements of the three-minute ad
had a powerful effect on male drinkers in the
UK. The brand’s www.oldlions.co.uk website
received almost half a million hits during the
four-week tournament, and Carlsberg outsold
market-leader Carling by three million pints.
Bavaria Beer: Bavaria Girls (2010)
Carlsberg is by no means the only alcohol
brand to try to steal some of the limelight from
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e t
th s a m
ch ad co
at d ty.
W ure ui
at biq
fe g.e
o
bl
official
sponsors.
In 2010, Bavaria
Beer launched an ambush
marketing campaign which
saw a group of female Dutch
supporters remove their outer
clothing to reveal orangecolored (but unbranded)
Bavaria Beer dresses at a
Netherlands World Cup game.
The situation escalated to the
point where FIFA officials ejected
the supporters from the ground,
having two arrested in the process,
while ITV pundit Robbie Earle lost his
job for misappropriation of guest tickets in
connection with the promotion. Charges were
filed against Bavaria Beer, although by then
awareness had already been raised and the
global coverage given to the incident helped
fuel a 41% rise in sales for the brand in its home
nation.
Ambush marketing in action at Holland vs Denmark,
Best of 2014
boots
and a second,
more tongue-incheek campaign
which saw David
Beckham and Snoop
Dogg take on roles in the
‘Star Wars’ universe.
Nike countered by launching
‘Write the Future’: a campaign
that many consider to be the best ever World
Cup ad. Indeed, its popularity saw Nike’s
number of Facebook fans double within
a week of launch. Rather than stay within
the realms of football, the ad challenged
consumers’ perceptions of history and destiny,
where players were shown to be capable of
rewriting the future based on good or bad
performances. Notable scenes included
a Wayne Rooney of the future morphing
Soccer City, Johannesburg
Brand Rivalries: adidas vs Nike
(2010)
2010 was also the year in which perhaps the
greatest World Cup rivalry – between adidas
and Nike – reached its peak … so far. adidas
ran two large-scale campaigns: one featuring
more typical World Cup-related imagery and
artistic direction to promote its F50 football
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
between working as a lowly groundsman and
being knighted by the Queen thanks to his
performance on the pitch. Nike’s distinctively
emotive approach – identifying football as an
agent of social change – saw the brand win
the social media battle. At the time, Marketing
Week reported that Nike had the highest share
of online pre-World Cup buzz, scoring 30%
compared with adidas’ 14%.
Although new activity around the 2014
Brazil finals tournament is being released in
a steady stream as Response goes to press
and it is hard to pick a clear winner quite yet,
adidas has released a bold effort in its role
as official sponsor. One of the brand’s latest
ads introduces the world to Brazuca, the
official ball of the World Cup, using a novel
focus on the ball itself rather than just on star
players, to celebrate the roots of the game
and the passion of those who play it. The
battle between Coke and Pepsi is also hotting
up, with Coca-Cola also preferring to focus
on fans while Pepsi uses a more traditional,
celebrity-filled strategy.
As advertising rivalries intensify, the battles off
the pitch threaten to become as important as
those undertaken by the teams – at least in the
marketing community. World Cup executions
frequently focus on the passion behind
the game, but to distinguish themselves
from competitors they also play on themes
including teamwork, nostalgia, and success.
With rival brands attempting to attain World
Cup dominance and non-sponsor brands
threatening the role of official partners, this
year’s tournament looks set to be every bit as
intense on our screens, tablets, and phones as
on the pitch.
Martin Broad is
a Senior Insight Analyst
at Ebiquity
COMMUNICATIONS INSIGHT
SPOTLIGHT ON
The role and impact of
music in advertising
E
arlier this spring, WARC
reported the findings of a
study from North Carolina
State University on how the
emotional themes of songs
can help ads to resonate with
consumers. In analyzing the words and themes
of every No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 from
1960-2009, this new research showed that
the emotional message of lyrics can drive
advertising impact and recall. The study did
for lyrics what psychologists have shown
repeatedly about the power of melody in
advertising – that there needs to be a clear fit
between an ad’s soundtrack and the message
or product it is intended to promote. Impactful
use of music requires creatives, planners, and
clients to work in partnership to choose the
right track.
The academic literature shows that the right
song or musical soundtrack in an ad can:
increase attention, making an ad more likely to
be noticed, viewed, and understood; enhance
enjoyment and emotional response; aid
memorability and recall; induce positive mood;
forge positive associations between brands
and well-loved tunes through the processes of
classic conditioning; enhance key messages;
influence intention and likelihood to buy; and,
the Holy Grail of commercial communication,
demonstrably increase sales.
For evolutionary reasons, the brain encodes
emotional memories more deeply, and
Jenny Naish
is a Senior Analyst at
Ebiquity
memories formed with a relevant, resonant
musical component are stored as emotional
memories. This means that ads with suitable
music are more likely to be remembered and
acted upon.
“The right song or
musical soundtrack
to an ad can
increase attention,
enhance emotional
response, influence
intention to buy,
and demonstrably
increase sales.”
The use of music in advertising was developed
in the 1920s and 1930s by FMCG advertisers
including P&G, who pioneered linking brand
names to distinctive musical and dramatic
themes (from which came the phenomenon
and term ‘soap opera’).
The first 30 years of post-war TV advertising
on both sides of the Atlantic featured jingles,
specially composed songs, and musical stings,
as the cost of licensing original music in
copyright was prohibitive. British consumers
in the 1970s grew up on a diet of brand songs
– many of them corny at this distance, from ‘A
Finger of Fudge’ to ‘Do the Shake ‘n’ Vac,’ and
‘Only The Crumbliest Flakiest Chocolate’ to
‘I’m a Secret Lemonade Drinker’ – every one
a mindworm.
Copyright-free classical music was also
used increasingly, either as a momentous
soundtrack (as in the case of Old Spice,
and its iconic use of ‘O Fortuna’ from Carl
Orff’s Carmina Burana) or as the base for a
witty ditty (as in Frank Muir’s unforgettable
‘Everyone’s a Fruit & Nut Case’ and its endline
“We make it up as we go along, you know?!”).
Coca-Cola pioneered the use of original music
in TV and cinema advertising, with the 1971
emotional story of connectedness, ‘I’d Like To
Teach The World To Sing,’ by the New Seekers.
By the late 1980s, when licensing costs
started to fall, the use of contemporary music
increased rapidly so that, today, an estimated
90% of international TV ads feature a musical
soundtrack.
And, yet, in the 1980s and 1990s, bands and
artistes whose music featured in advertising
were often accused of selling out. When the
Rolling Stones’ ‘Start Me Up’ fronted Microsoft
advertising for the launch of Windows 95,
many music critics opined as if popular culture
was on the very verge of collapse. But, today,
ads gain credibility by being associated with
music, and bands no longer lose kudos by being
associated with ads. Indeed, bands can often
be broken – or their reputations significantly
enhanced – by the exposure that their music
featuring in TVCs can bring. The career of
Edwin Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes was
given a helping hand by the appearance of their
song ‘Home’ in the Peugeot 2008 ‘Crossover’
ad, which led to the song’s re-release and
significant additional airplay, sales, and new
fans. Ads have now become a serious source
of revenue and exposure for musicians.
This is increasingly instantaneous, with ads
encouraging consumers to Shazam and
download as they view.
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Indeed, one of the fundamental benefits of
choosing the right music for brand advertising
is the built-in talkability factor that track
can bring to a commercial. Perhaps the best
exponent of this in the UK is the department
store chain, John Lewis. According to
Marketing Director Andy Street, the brand’s
annual showpiece festive ads have the
declared intention of ‘owning Christmas,’ with
each year’s commercial as eagerly anticipated
by the marketing community as Santa is by
children. And these ads have an increasingly
complex, multichannel relationship with their
musical soundtracks.
‘The Bear & The Hare’, adam&eveDDB’s Christmas
2013 ad for John Lewis
The 2013 execution ‘The Bear & The Hare’
featured Keane’s 2004 track ‘Somewhere
Only We Know’ re-recorded for the ad by Lily
Allen. The song didn’t only feature as the
soundtrack to the original cartoon by
adam&eveDDB. It was also released
as a multi-format single, and download
and CD sales took the song to No. 1
where it stayed for some weeks, providing
countless opportunities for radio DJs and
media columnists to talk about (and talk up)
the campaign and the retailer.
And this wasn’t a one-off. Lily Allen’s No. 1
success repeated the feat of the 2012
campaign, from which Gabrielle Aplin’s
cover of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s
‘The Power of Love’ also topped the charts
in support of ‘The Journey’ ad, featuring
two snowmen.
adam&eveDDB are pioneers in both the
practice of choosing the right music for
ads and the theory. They’ve spent the
past two years researching the impact of
music in advertising in partnership with the
psychology department at Goldsmith’s.
Their experimental research – featuring ads
with and without music – has shown suitable
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
music to focus attention, facilitate brand and
message recall, improve attitudes to brands,
and influence purchase behavior.
With music from ads present at every
touchpoint – TVCs, mobile, downloads,
experiential – getting the music right has never
been more important or mutually beneficial
to brands and artistes. In just the same way as
it did in movies before it, music has become
an integral part of branded entertainment
through advertising films shown on TV, in
cinema, and – increasingly – online.
“One of the
fundamental benefits
of choosing the right
music for brand
advertising is the
built-in talkability
factor that track
can bring to a
commercial.”
EFFECTIVENESS
FEATURE
TV remains the most
effective way to advertise
Despite the recession and rapid advent of social platforms on
smartphones and tablets, TV has retained its dominance as the most
effective way to advertise, delivering more profit than any other form
of commercial communication. TV advertising has become more
efficient in the last three years, generating significantly more online
interaction, as the trend toward multi-screening grows.
T
hese are the principal findings of
a new study commissioned by
Thinkbox, the marketing body
for commercial TV in the UK, and
conducted by Ebiquity’s Marketing
Performance Optimization practice.
It was showcased at Thinkbox’s ‘Payback 4:
Pathways to Profit’ event in London in May 2014.
The study is an econometric analysis of more than
4500 ad campaigns across 10 advertising sectors
between 2008 and 2014. It compared, on a like-forlike basis, the sales and profit impact of five forms of
advertising: TV (linear spot and sponsorship), radio,
press, online display, and outdoor.
In the period 2011-14, TV gave an average ROI of
£1.79 for each £1 invested, up from £1.70 in
2008-11. TV has consistently delivered the
highest ROI of any form of advertising in the last
seven years, despite the twin opposing forces
of technological and media proliferation on the
one hand and economic recession on the other:
factors long predicted to diminish the impact of TV
advertising.
Reasons for TV’s increasing effectiveness include:
‘multi-screening’ viewers being able to act instantly
on what they see; advertisers’ more sophisticated
understanding of how to employ multiple TV ad
opportunities and integrate them with other media;
a golden age of TV content, creating a higher quality
environment for advertisers; and the recent and
sustained fall in cost of TV advertising.
“TV advertising
has become
more efficient
in the last three
years, generating
significantly more
online interaction,
as the trend toward
multi-screening
grows.”
Optimum TV investment – The optimum share of
advertising budgets that should be spent on TV for
brands in both the finance and retail sectors is 60%.
For FMCG, this proportion should be significantly
higher, and for many brands this represents
an opportunity to increase investment in TV
significantly.
TV’s ‘halo effect’ boosts other forms of
advertising – TV advertising creates a ‘halo’
effect across a brand or range of goods. 37% of TV
advertising’s effect is achieved on products not
directly advertised. So if a finance brand advertises
a current account on TV, the campaign is likely to
boost sales of other products, such as mortgages or
insurance.
Multi-screening viewers boost branded search –
TV advertising consistently makes other elements
of campaigns work harder. TV’s effects have been
shown for all accompanying media, but one of the
most pronounced effects is on branded search.
The volume of branded searches sparked by TV
advertising has increased by 33% (relative) per
rating point during 2011-14 compared with
2008-11.
Press and radio are next best at generating sales
– TV consistently outperforms all other media
in generating sales and is, on average, twice as
effective per equivalent exposure as the next best
performing medium. Press advertising delivers
52% of the sales uplift TV creates, radio 27%, online
display (excluding Video On Demand) 13%, and
outdoor 11%.
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“Investment in TV
is forecast to grow
again in 2014,
boosted by the
World Cup in Brazil.”
Theory in practice: Arla makes best use of TV as
part of an integrated approach to advertising
A rosy future – short and medium
term
Total TV advertising revenue in the UK increased
by 3.5% in 2013 to reach a new record high of
£4.63 billion, according to full year revenue figures
from UK commercial TV broadcasters. This is
the fourth consecutive year that TV ad revenue
has grown in the UK, demonstrating that the
economy is showing more than just green shoots.
Investment in TV is forecast to grow again in
2014, boosted by the World Cup in Brazil. The
Advertising Association and WARC predict TV ad
revenue will grow by 6% in 2014.
Dr Nick Pugh is
Effectiveness
Business Director at
Ebiquity
View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com
Compared with the scale and reach of retail
and financial services, it is notoriously difficult
for FMCG brands to deliver meaningful,
sustainable improvements in ROI. This is
why the approach to using TV taken by
dairy powerhouse Arla stands out. For
its Lurpak and Anchor butter brands and
Cravendale branded milk proposition, Arla
has developed integrated, multilayered
communications strategies, with TV central
to all communication. This includes use of TV
sponsorship and VOD, supported by great
creative (including ‘Good Food Deserves,’
‘Taste Like Home,’ and ‘Thumbcats’), and
evidence-based improvements in media
planning and buying.
From 2011-14, Lurpak and Anchor grew 19%
against category growth of 10%, delivering a
market-leading net gain of 9% in a saturated
market at 99% penetration. NPD has been
instrumental in growing sales, with Lurpak’s
Cooks Range and new Anchor baking products
justifying additional shelf space in retail by
selling incremental units. Cravendale, likewise,
has grown 3% by value against a category
dropping by 9% in the past three years.
This performance is even more impressive
against the backdrop of the ‘milk wars’ – with
discounters (Lidl, Aldi) and then the major
multiples looking to drive footfall by slashing
the price of (unbranded) milk and effectively
further commoditizing the marketplace.
Arla has enhanced ROI for all three brands over
the same three-year period – 30% for Lurpak,
37% for Anchor, and 38% for Cravendale.
Improvements have been delivered for media
effectiveness and efficiency, ensuring that all
three brands use the right creative with the
right weight and seasonality.
Arla’s Stuart Ibberson says: “We always start
from each brand’s target audience. TV is a
central pillar to our campaigns. No other
medium has the scale or reach of TV. We
use other, specific media to amplify TV, but
with TV at the heart of everything we do,
that’s proved to be the best way to get to
our target audience. And that’s how, working
with Ebiquity’s Marketing Performance
Optimization team, we’ve consistently
outperformed both the category and the
market.”
Ebiquity are independent marketing
performance specialists. We enable
brands across the world to make better
informed decisions to improve their
brands and business performance across
integrated communications channels.
Market Intelligence
Monitoring and insight to provide the competitor
intelligence necessary for effective comms planning.
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Research and analytics to improve the impact of activity
on core performance metrics.
Marketing Performance Optimization
Research, analytics, and platforms to improve the impact
of activity on core performance metrics.
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