Response 16

INTERNATIONAL MARCOMMS INSIGHTS FROM EBIQUITY

@ebiquityglobal

How eye-tracking can reveal the true value of media

The missing link in your marketing mix

Can marketing and communications ever live in harmony?

Advertising evolution: The World Cup

The role and impact of music in advertising

TV remains the most effective way to advertise

Inside:

Issue No.16: Q3 2014

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF PROGRAMMATIC TRADING

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ISSUE 15 Q2 2014 RESPONSE MAGAZINE FROM EBIQUITYISSUE 16 Q3 2014 RESPONSE MAGAZINE FROM EBIQUITY

“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.”

View more insights at blog.ebiquity.com

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

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.

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.

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

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.

1.Measurement of performance and value

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.

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.

Programmatic trading and real-time bidding – where inventory is auctioned in fractions

COVER STORY

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.

Programmatic media trading: how can advertisers get maximum benefit?

MEDIA TRADING

A


Nick Manning is President, International at Ebiquity

http://blog.ebiquity.com


ISSUE 15 Q2 2014 RESPONSE MAGAZINE FROM EBIQUITY

MEDIA TRADING

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.

“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.”



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.

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.

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.

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.

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). Half-page 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, value-driven media planning. Stand Out and Dwell Time could supplant GRPs as the currency with which media is traded.

T

ADVERTISING VISIBILITY

ASK AN EXPERT

Mike Follett is MD of Lumen Research

Martin Radford is UK Media Business Director at Ebiquity

The eyes have itMartin 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.

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FOCUS ON

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.

The missing link in your marketing mix

MULTI-CHANNEL ANALYTICS


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

W

In 2013, digital advertising spend reached over $119

billion worldwide1


opportunities to capitalize on low-hanging fruit that are passed up in lieu of an increased investment at the top of the funnel.

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.


“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.”

Bill Bruno is CEO of Stratigent, part of Ebiquity plc

Social Media, Mobile, Website, Online Store, etc...

Reach & Acquisition

Includes: Search, Display, Mobile, Digital Video, Lead

Generation, Rich Media, Sponsorship, etc...

Includes: Purchases, Contact Requests,

Downloads, Appointments, Sign-Ups,

etc...

Conversion

$95$ 5

And for every $100 businesses

spent on digital marketing, just $5 of that went towards

conversion optimization2

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




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.

“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.”

“We think they don’t know what we do,” admits another. “Too often marketing sees

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.”

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.

“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,

Can marketing and communications ever live in harmony?

FEATURE

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.

INTEGRATED MARKETING


I

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]


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 real-time – 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.

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.

Helen Dunne is the Editor of CorpComms Magazine


rules for better integration between corporate communications and marketing

Karen Prichard is Head of In-depth Earned Media Analysis at Ebiquity




The World Cup: the beautiful game in the global spotlight

ADVERTISING EVOLUTION

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’ deep-rooted 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 non-sponsoring 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.

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.

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

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

COMMUNICATIONS INSIGHT

F



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 orange-colored (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, 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

boots and a second,

more tongue-in-cheek 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

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%.

Best of 2014

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

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featured ads at

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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

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 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.

E

The role and impact of music in advertising

SPOTLIGHT ON

COMMUNICATIONS INSIGHT


“The right song or musical soundtrack to an ad can increase attention, enhance emotional response, influence intention to buy, and demonstrably increase sales.”

Jenny Naish is a Senior Analyst at Ebiquity


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

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.”




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-for-like 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.

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%.

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.

TV remains the most effective way to advertise

EFFECTIVENESS

T


FEATURE

“TV advertising has become more efficient in the last three years, generating significantly more online interaction, as the trend toward multi-screening grows.”


Theory in practice: Arla makes best use of TV as part of an integrated approach to advertising

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.”

Dr Nick Pugh is Effectiveness Business Director at Ebiquity


“Investment in TV is forecast to grow

again in 2014, boosted by the

World Cup in Brazil.”

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.



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brands across the world to make better informed decisions to improve their

brands and business performance across integrated communications channels.

Market Intelligence

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Research and analytics to improve the impact of activity on core performance metrics.

Marketing Performance Optimization

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