Advertising Archives - YouCom

Packaging Sex

Philip Wimbledon — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 08:00:44 +0000

With many retail outlets now automated (think the Costa Coffee machines in service stations), packaging becomes your sales person and your advertising. Good packaging creates a personality to the brand and creates a link with the buyer.

Brand association is also achievable with packaging design. The square foil wrappers of Durex condoms for example make you associate the packaging with sex.

When the retail shelf is full of similar products, packaging can connect to other strong drivers for the purchasing decision achieving more by association than an above the line advertising campaign alone.

Good packaging can create competitive advantage by emphasising the brand, the brand’s USP’s, or increasing the life of the product.

In terms of advertising reach, the packaging of a brand will penetrate into the consumer’s home and remain in the consciousness for however long until it’s consumed or completes its lifecycle.

Packaging must actually cover several areas of the advertising communication function. It has to focus heavily on A.I.D.A. by gaining the attention of the consumer in an often crowded environment with other similar products vying to be seen and bought.

Packaging must also then persuade the consumer that it’s advertising will match the contents (effectively explaining why it should be picked up and purchased).

Some brands struggle with this concept and opt for a nice easy transparent window where the consumer can see the contents.

Of course brands can also find that difficult which is why when you think about it, the stickers on the transparent packet of meat in the supermarket (sirloin steaks for example) is always covering the less attractive area of the meat (a strip of fat or gristle for example).

Packaging can connect other benefits to the brand product such as recipes for its use. They form a reason to buy that product over similar.

Another aspect to incorporate (just when brands thought it was challenging enough to communicate their messaging on such a tiny space), is the ever-increasing demand for information from the modern consumer linked as it is with regulations from government (nutritional information, health warnings, source of origin, full ingredients etc).

Packaging must also say whether it is recyclable and how. Packaging design can create the USP necessary to gain mass awareness similar to advertising, by improving functionality.

For example don’t packets of tea still contain tea dust..? Packs of sugar still leak, well, sugar..?

Think of that bottle of olive oil that drips down the side of the bottle after pouring..? Imagine how many units that first manufacturer sold who created the packaging of a second lip inside the bottle which eradicates drips?

Coca-Cola designed their glass bottle in such a way that it is instantly recognisable, even in the dark. With the sense of touch alone, we can distinguish a bottle of coke.

Some of their adverts don’t even say anything, they just show a bottle. The advertising is just showing you what the packaging looks like (quite amusing). Certainly on the shelf then that image is easily seen.

Packaging has to keep its contents safe. Consumers don’t want to get home with chocolates for a loved one that are all jumbled up or melted.

So, you need a careful box with hollows for each chocolate’s shape. The Happy Egg company has to keep the eggs from being broken long before they can advertise why their eggs are happy and the competitors aren’t.

Once that is mastered, packaging can get down to the job of communicating brand messaging. While packaging often has no home in the media budget, if you don’t ask your agency to produce effective packaging communications, you will waste millions of budget on above-the-line advertising just to get the same level of sales.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

USP – Unique Selling Point

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Nov 2018, London, ‘Packaging Sex.’

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Buyer Behaviour 2

Philip Wimbledon — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 07:00:21 +0000

All is not quite what it seems when brands look at the consumers of their products. Some consumers simply ‘copy’ their friends to be like them. Others deliberately choose to be different.

The decision-making process is complex and led to a whole large module of marketing under the heading buyer behaviour. Many buying decisions are made when the customers don’t know the real reason for their purchase.

Many decisions are made unconsciously or emotively. Some reasons for buyer behaviour are logical and reasoned. Others are emotional decisions.

Brands over time learn the ‘best’ way to sell their products or service but only the best brands likely to remain the longest as market leaders, understand that this way fluctuates over time.

For example, Pepsi sell their product as a brand image representing a lifestyle of young, hip, trendy, cool, fresh, different. They appeal to the emotional decision of buyer behaviour. They do not sell their product as ‘logical’ or as a performance product.

A good advertising agency will research the client and understand this, as well as identifying when that brand may need to change their understanding of the key market buyer behaviour.

Pepsi has learnt that their key customer is influenced by the emotional decision for though they may say they buy “because it tastes better than Coca-Cola”, that may not be true (logical) and instead they are buying “because it’s Pepsi”.

Consumers attach their own personal value to a brand. The Pedowitz group state that personal value has two times as much impact on buyer behaviour as business value does.

They also agree that as much as 68 percent of consumers for your product who identify a personal value with your brand will pay a higher price for it. It is therefore a good investment to build the personal value via a good advertising campaign as you are able to increase the GM to recover it.

When brands advertising campaigns fail to attach the personal value to their brand product, the Pedowitz group show only 8.5 percent of buyers would pay the higher price. Most would simply choose the competitor product.

Emotion, created by the personal value attributed to a brand product, precedes the customer’s conscious decision and materialises in conjunction with the rational decision-making thought process.

Therefore, the highest value of ROI for an advertising campaign lies in how much personal value (and emotion) a brand can attach to consumer buyer behaviour. Probably one reason why there are so much cat videos online…

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

GM – Gross Margin

ROI – Return on Investment

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Jun 2018, London, ‘Buyer Behaviour 2.’

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Crocodile Dundee

Philip Wimbledon — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 11:52:28 +0000

The son of an Australian legend. Returns home.

Brian. Son of Mick Dundee.

Thirty years after Mick Dundee, played by Paul Hogan, brought Australia to movie going audiences worldwide, Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride star in a sequel.

Marketing communications and advertising works best on the AIDA model. To gain awareness and interest in the product you’re advertising is the goal of all marketing managers.

To do so on as small a budget possible is the secondary goal (or the primary goal if you’re the Finance Director). Tourism Australia produced a very funny trailer to a (sadly) fake film sequel, simply entitled Dundee and gained high brand engagement.

Tourism Australia use a host of Australian stars including Chris Hemsworth and Danny McBride but also Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Russell Crowe, Isla Fisher, Liam Hemsworth and Ruby Rose.

Ruby Rose is the latest up and coming actress having recently starred in the John Wick sequel opposite A-lister Keanu Reeves.

Featuring in the Super Bowl, the film’s trailer has a release date of: “Coming soon, Mate”.

Online engagement for the brand has increased by 1,256% according to Amobee.

Although Super Bowl advertising will drain any marketing budget (the latest 30 second Super Bowl adverts going for £3.5m), this great viral video could just as easily have been used with less budget.

As you can see, a very funny video. Amobee also gives us a comparative insight showing Tourism Australia’s use of comedy to have had an effect of twice the engagement statistics of Super Bowl sponsor Pepsi.

With brand giant Pepsi having deeper pockets, this is a marked achievement for the marketing team at Tourism Australia and an example of where the choice of advertising agency is the key.

It has often been proven, the smaller agencies can deliver greater brand engagement and awareness than those preferred by the giant brands.

Tourism Australia make a big emphasis on the ‘Dundee Hat’, using it to great effect on their landing page to tie promoted products (flying to Australia, Culture, Events to see) back to the video trailer.

Linking the products and services of your brand to the current Ad campaign is a simple easy way to increase engagement with your brand and boost sales.

Using humour in advertisement and marketing will also make your brand seem more “human” allowing you to build a relationship with your target audience.

Ben Franklin once said, “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”

At YouCom Media, our advertising creates that level of brand awareness which incites interest. Your brand doesn’t want to be clever with intellect, it just needs to be interesting enough to drive a desire to act among your target consumers.

And for the record, we’re starting a petition to encourage Hollywood to make a Crocodile Dundee sequel! Retweet our twitter post to join the petition…

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

A.I.D.A. – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action

Data source:

Amobee

Tourism Australia

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Feb 2018, London, ‘Crocodile Dundee.’

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Buyer Behaviour

Philip Wimbledon — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 06:56:57 +0000

The first stage for any agency drafting a marketing communications strategy is to identify, research and ensure understanding of the brand’s target market together with their buyer behaviour.

Buyer behaviour is not as simple as you might think. Brands cannot simply choose an audience and think they know how to communicate with them. Buyers respond in different ways to the continual and relentless marketing communications aimed at them.

There will be general buyer behaviour practices but also variables such as motivation, perception, adaptability, memory, attitude, personality, pre-disposition and group behaviour (the collective).

Understanding buyer behaviour can be gained from asking five questions;

Who is the buyer? (target market or decision-making body)
Why do they buy? (or why they don’t buy your product or your competitors)
How do they buy? (behavioural patterns)
When do they buy? (when can determine where)
Where do they buy? (a fragmented market place leads to accessibility)

Of these questions, marketing managers really need to know ‘why’ the audience buys. The answers won’t be constant, the buying behaviour of a target market is constantly changing.

Their reasons change, the market changes, the products change, competition changes and of course technology changes. A brand sending out their communications in adverts to their target audience may do well one year and have a disaster the next.

A brand may use an agency to develop their communications strategy and then go it alone thereafter only to find it stops working because a new app has been launched which changes their target audience’s buying behaviour.

The amount of effort a consumer is prepared to put into any purchase depends on the amount of money spent, how often they will need to buy and the perception of risk.

If it is a new car, the risk is high, the expense is high, buyer behaviour changes and the message of the advertising needs to change.

If it is a tin of baked beans, it is a routine purchase, risk is low, frequency high, expense low etc. The buyer behaviour in that example will be fast decision making and low involvement with the product.

The marketing manager must understand the buyer behaviour of their target market, before, during and after purchase.

Good qualitative research will reveal insights into that behaviour and so too will the latest PEST research.

Buying models like A.I.D.A will help understand the stages through which the buyer passes offering a checklist for which to compare marketing strategies.

With better understanding of the buyer behaviour, brands can gain greater ROI from their marketing communications.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

PEST – Political, Economic, Social, Technological

AIDA – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Nov 2017, London, ‘Buyer Behaviour.’

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Generation Z attention spans

Philip Wimbledon — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:26:55 +0000

For Marketing staff to reach their audience effectively it is necessary to categorise people into age groupings. Here is a brief history about the list of generations leading up to Generation Z;

The Lost Generation

Also known as the Generation of 1914. This is the age group who fought in World War I. The members of the lost generation were born between 1883 and 1900. This was the first of the list of generations marketing categories created. Sadly, none of this group are alive today.

The Greatest Generation

Also known as the G.I. Generation. This includes the veterans who fought in World War II. The members of the G.I. Generation were born between 1900 to 1924. This group had high attention spans like their predecessors of approximately 1 hour plus, as they spent their time reading detailed newspaper articles that looked more like academic texts than the snappy stories we read today, or authors like Dickens. They required intelligent marketing, editorials, localised Direct Mail works well. They are of high morality and ethical. They fought, they served, they gave us our freedoms we enjoy today.

The Silent Generation

The Silent Generation are also rather romantically known as the Lucky Few. This includes men who fought in World War II, the Korean War and many who fought during the Vietnam War. Similar to the Greatest Generation, the Lucky Few respond well to localised direct mail and (formal) personalisation, possessing long attention spans like their ‘greatest generation’ parents. Typically an attention span of this generation (decline of older age aside) is between 40-60 minutes as they often read the lengthy novels and newspapers of their parents. The members of the silent generation were born between 1925 and 1945.

The Baby Boomers

This is the generation that was born following World War II. Members of the baby boomer generation were born between 1946 to 1964. At this time due to the end of the World War, there was a marked increase in birth rates and prosperity. This generation is the generation still alive today which common consensus agrees has the most wealth for brands marketing products and services to sell to. They are also widely regarded as the most educated and self-motivated. The baby boomer is most likely to own more than one home in more than one country with more than one car. They worked hard and saved for a good pension.

Baby boomers were the first generation to see a marked decline in attention spans due to the changes of the world around them. Consequently, they respond well to localised direct mail and personalisation, catalogue marketing, coupons and voucher marketing, cinema advertising, billboards, signage, TV advertising, editorials, radio advertising and PPC. Baby Boomers are less knowledgeable for online marketing (unless their career required later learning), so PPC to this group is simply the first results on the search page and more effective than natural search results.

Directory marketing run by our Direct Response department works very well for this generation and most would use their local BT Phonebook rather than look for a business online. Attention spans for baby boomers would be typically 20 minutes as their novel of choice became more Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel or Jack Higgins than the Dickens of their parents i.e. shorter novel length, smaller vocabularly and faster plots. With a penchance for broadsheets requiring more time to digest, 20 minutes was broadly what the brain required and therefore became the approximate attention span of this generation (Darwinism states the brain evolves to meet its environment and advertisers must evolve to meet the same changes).

Generation X

Usually abbreviated to Gen X, this generation were born after the baby boom and retained a lot of their parents’ traits. They also desire to exceed their parents’ achievements. Generation X are highly educated, active, balanced, happy, and family-oriented. They were the first generation to have a great surge in entrepreneurs. These are the go-getters and self-starters. They are ambitious and were the last generation to have a good attention span (although further decline was noted in comparison to their baby boomer and silent generation parents).

Attention spans of Gen X people declined by approximately 9 minutes from the previous generation to approximately 11 minutes. This generation grew up with Thundercats rather than Thunderbirds and with Dungeons and Dragons rather than The Jetsons (childrens cartoons for Gen X and Baby Boomers respectively). However compare both those differing cartoon types to the Teletubbies of 1997 (Millenial generation era) and you can see one example of why attention spans shorten from an early age. Members of Generation X were born between 1964 and 1980 and will still be found reading a broadsheet or novel.

Generation X are the greatest group for multi-channel marketing, able to process the editorials effective with the Baby Boomers, yet still be at ease with mobile app advertising and natural search results. Cinema advertising works well with this group the most frequent audience and radio advertising also. Localised direct mail starts to become less effective with this group and personalised mail whilst still effective is starting to become less able to stop the journey from the letterbox to the bin.

Outdoor advertising such as out of home and alternative marketing like guerrilla marketing is effective for Generation X people. TV advertising is still effective but less so as people can now pause live TV and turn to services such as NetFlix and Amazon TV. Generation X looks past the PPC results for the natural search results. In some studies, participants ignored PPC completely beginning their reading at the first natural search result. Printed directories are less effective for this generation although the earlier members still use them. Online directories are however highly effective because of how they filter through into the natural search results on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Members of Generation X were born between 1964 and 1980.

Millennials

Often known as the Millennial Generation, or Generation Y. The Millennials are generalised as having traits of greater confidence and tolerance, but also a new sense of entitlement and narcissism that wasn’t seen in such numbers from the previous list of generations. In the millennial generation this group are a mix of those still with traits of generation X and those whose attention spans were beginning to shorten dramatically. By the end of the millennial period, attention spans had shortened to just 12 seconds (compare that to 11-12 minutes of their parents). This has had a great impact on advertising campaigns to this audience and many brands were too slow to adapt their marketing.

Advertising messaging needs to be much shorter to this group with more imagery. Millennials have a sense of being let down, that the world isn’t the way they thought it would be. This entitlement factor mostly isn’t met by reality. Sujansky (2009), states that Millennials “continually show up late for work, ask to leave early, always turn down overtime requests and wonder why they haven’t been promoted after just one year on the job”. There is a lot of ‘job-hopping’ in this generation, rather than patience to learn a trade. In fairness to this generation, they are simply adapting to the changing world around them and will be more tech-savvy than their predecessors, less content to accept the status quo and more likely to question saying ‘why not?’.

Offer based advertising, money off, price match advertising all works well to this group. Aspirational advertising and advertising better suited to storytelling using real-life examples of other customers work best. Channels such as radio isn’t suited to that. Cinema advertising works, Mobile apps, outdoor, out of home and natural search including online directories all works well for this generation group. Signage is less important as this group are less brand loyal and drive vehicles less than previous generations. Members of Generation Y were born between 1980 and 2000.

Generation Z

The list of generations concludes (until 2025) with the group that follows generation Y (the millennials). They are occasionally referred to as Generation Alpha but more known as Generation Z. Generation Z is highly skilled with technology. But they are also under more social pressure than any other generation before them. Their lives are all shared and online. Society has moved toward expectations for all young people to aspire to University education while apprenticeships and early employment are all but unheard of.

Unfortunately, due to the changes observed in the millennial generation, the average Generation Z member has a documented attention span of only 8 seconds (for context and we apologise to use such a worn analogy; a goldfish has an attention span of 7 seconds). Yes Generation Z multi-task, yes they can do more simultaneously than their parents, but 8 seconds is not anything to be proud of and is something brands need to adjust to with their marketing plans. Members of this generation were born from 2000 and the category won’t close until 2025.

How to Advertise to Generation Z and to prepare for when they form your main customer audience

Generation Z are most notably at ease with today’s communications. They have grown up with the internet and social media. They are familiar with viral videos, virtual interfacing, international gaming, and comfortable with technology in general. Unlike previous generations a greater than average proportion of their social interactions is from social media websites.

It is a widely held view that growing up through the crisis or recession of 2008 has given this generation a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity. This combination of social factors makes Generation Z one of the hardest to advertise to. They are clued up and will switch off from traditional advertising. With today’s options to pause live TV they have more resource to remove themselves from brand messaging.

Indeed, Generation Z watches more YouTube and online video than traditional TV (and TV advertising or sponsorship). In a way, this shows how brands must change how they organise their advertising and marketing (more emphasis on digital, social media, video, imagery and reviews).

Advice 1 – Images Are Important

Generation Z has grown up with visual communications. Every one of them has tablets or big screen smartphones. They can filter and edit pictures and have entire conversations with just photos (think Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat). We advise clients to keep imagery as a constant central theme through their messaging to this generation.

Advice 2 – Short Attention Span

The average Generation Z member has an attention span of only 8 seconds (a goldfish has an attention span of 7 seconds). Generally, attention spans have decreased by 4 seconds since the Millennials (Generation Y) who were the last to actively challenge the world around them in a way where they were forced to memorise, learn, adapt and multi-task without the help of an electronic device or peer sharing.

Therefore, Generation Z marketing must maintain short, snappy content. Lots of soundbites, use of repetitive slogans and jingles. You will begin to notice politicians adopting the same strategies of repetitive short slogans to cover both this (increasing) generation plus their parents.

Reach out and yank their attention fast or they will be past your content and on to other brand messaging.

Advice 3 – Real Life Reviews

Generation Z is the social media generation. They will share content and therefore will more quickly identify advertising. If brand messaging is or appears to be genuine advice and useful guidance (or just interesting to their group) Generation Z will retweet, repost, or share it digitally or by word of mouth. This increases importance to review management and review gathering (services offered by our Direct Response team). Good Google+ reviews will increase your brand engagement with this generation.

Advice 4 – Hunt Them Down

Facebook is now more popular with the previous generations (including the baby boomers). As it becomes populated with mum’s and dad’s, Generation Z are turning to other channels such as Twitter or Tumblr. For this reason, YouCom Media had chosen to focus our own brand engagement on social platforms other than Facebook.

Social Media Management will become increasingly important for your brand as this generation Z gets older. Remember, the first of this generation Z (born in 2000) are already 16 years old now. In a few more years they will become your main customer audience, looking to move out, requiring driving lessons, insurance, storage, banking, finance, car rental, solicitors, and with increasing disposable income for opticians’ products, mobile phones, clothes etc.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, January 2017, London, ‘Generation Z attention spans’

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Guerrilla Marketing

Philip Wimbledon — Thu, 05 May 2016 17:34:30 +0000

Guerrilla Marketing is the choice of every brand. It’s fun, engaging and low budget versus other channels. There is some risk involved, but it is often surpassed by the results (and of course outweighed by a huge budget saving).

Wikipedia catalogs it as an advertisement strategy concept designed for businesses to promote their products or services in an unconventional way with little budget to spend. This involves high energy and imagination focusing on grasping the attention of the public in more personal and memorable level.

Above GuerillaComm.com has some good examples of effective Guerrilla tactics at an obviously low cost. Of course such examples would be unlikely to attract much publicity for your brand. This is where a good brand marketing team will have a multi-channel marketing approach bringing it to the attention of wider media publishers and audiences.

Guerrilla Marketing is often misunderstood for a requirement of outdoor placement. Not so as the above example illustrates (although this was used as a billboard ad too). 78 percent of millennials are more inclined to become part of a brand if they have the face-to-face interaction offered by Guerrilla Marketing.

Further reading / Attribution: http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/50-awesome-guerrilla-marketing-ideas/

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Apr 2016, London, ‘Guerrilla Marketing the Brand’s Choice.’

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Digital Signage

Philip Wimbledon — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:05:03 +0000

The multi-location retailer GAME has become the latest brand to announce a move into digital signage to achieve engagement with its customers. This is because animated digital media signage creates double the level of engagement to ordinary media.

The APS Group ran a survey on 1.6million high street consumers and identified that almost twice as many people engaged with shop window displays if the retailer used animated, digital media content instead of traditional print.

6.6 percent look at traditional print (think shop front, billboard, bus stop advert).
9.9 percent look at a digital screen (non-animated).
11.7 percent engaged with a digital screen with animated content.

According to Arbitron, digital signage has a recall rate higher than any other traditional media with 83 percent of people remembering at least one advert seen on a digital billboard in the previous 30 days. Additionally, Intel Corp claim that Digital displays capture 400 percent more views than static displays.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Mar 2016, London, ‘Digital Signage Media Doubles Audience.’

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