From Ad Age Sept. 4...A Patrick Rant About Madison Ave. and their frequent inability to drive Brand Performance from any/every marketing component.
By PATRICK | MIAMI BEACH, FL September 4, 2009 02:53:36 pm:
Michal, great input.
Here is where Madison Ave. misses the boat when producing print ads, and even TV/radio, banners in some cases, etc.
THE ACTIVATION HOOK: every piece of creative has to think about how to drive an action, a behavior, some form of engagement beyond the delusional "impression value".
As a young brand person at Gillette, we were taught and saw in MRI type research that adding a dotted line coupon to the corner of a print ad drove recall by 32%! And the head creative directors would scream that the brand mgrs were adding coupons to the print ads. Reality check: we are in the business of moving product.
Now fast forward to 2010 where 108 mm US pop are projected to have smartphones ( & watching TV, 40% are using laptops or they are open within arm's reach ). Every marketer/agency person must RETHINK how to connect the ad with immediate action or engagement.
What type of action? Google the product, buy it on Amazon, download or open an iphone app to learn more, text or tweet a friend, or demo it on your iPhone or laptop screen, etc.
To illustrate: Two automotive TV ads were running during 2009 American Idol. The ads produced by Madison Ave. at big price tags. One was Big 3, one was an import. Both delivered 40mm plus viewership. Both ads were compelling.But there was one difference:
-- One had the obligatory tag line and faint URL
--The other had a smart call to action: "Go to Kelly Blue Book.com...KBB.com..then come do a test drive at our website"
250,000 consumers went to the websites or Google!
Why does this work now more than ever? 4 reasons:
1. Lifestyle Technologies now empower the consumer to engage (and it will increase exponentially in 2010/2011)
Here is where Madison Ave. misses the boat when producing print ads, and even TV/radio, banners in some cases, etc.
THE ACTIVATION HOOK: every piece of creative has to think about how to drive an action, a behavior, some form of engagement beyond the delusional "impression value".
As a young brand person at Gillette, we were taught and saw in MRI type research that adding a dotted line coupon to the corner of a print ad drove recall by 32%! And the head creative directors would scream that the brand mgrs were adding coupons to the print ads. Reality check: we are in the business of moving product.
Now fast forward to 2010 where 108 mm US pop are projected to have smartphones ( & watching TV, 40% are using laptops or they are open within arm's reach ). Every marketer/agency person must RETHINK how to connect the ad with immediate action or engagement.
What type of action? Google the product, buy it on Amazon, download or open an iphone app to learn more, text or tweet a friend, or demo it on your iPhone or laptop screen, etc.
To illustrate: Two automotive TV ads were running during 2009 American Idol. The ads produced by Madison Ave. at big price tags. One was Big 3, one was an import. Both delivered 40mm plus viewership. Both ads were compelling.But there was one difference:
-- One had the obligatory tag line and faint URL
--The other had a smart call to action: "Go to Kelly Blue Book.com...KBB.com..then come do a test drive at our website"
250,000 consumers went to the websites or Google!
Why does this work now more than ever? 4 reasons:
1. Lifestyle Technologies now empower the consumer to engage (and it will increase exponentially in 2010/2011)
2. The number one driver of purchase (from BIGResearch and other studies) is live brand experience--which can be done or begun with these activation hooks
3. The number 2 driver is family/friends word-of-mouth ( enabled by new tech)4. The number 3 & 4 drivers is 3rd party endorsement and personal search on the internet--all possible with lifestyle technologies.
Does this matter to CMO's?
Damn straight.
At NOW We focus on one thing for CEO/CMO's and their teams..."driving brand performance now". They are looking for ways to drive performance from EVERY marketing component--thru innovation, new approaches, new metrics and analytics, and new mktg-technologies.
Time for marketing/advertising to shift with the customer and technology.
Patrick Meyer
CEO
NOW
Twitter: patrickmeyer
