Blue Skies Blog

A warning before we start about something called endism. Endism happens a lot in marketing and occurs when the arrival of a new medium causes pundits and experts to stand on platforms and announce the demise of an older medium. As an example, some saw the demise of cinema with the introduction of commercial TV and others thought the web would kill the press. Not true. A new arrival doesn’t result in the end of an old one, the ecosystem adapts to the arrival of a new one often in surprising ways. TV and radio broadcasting on the web is an excellent example of this.

From Interruption to Engagement.

Interruption Defined
To think that consumers are paying attention to messages and that mass coverage in mass media is achievable is to assume incorrectly. In order to buy your consumers’ attention you need to figure out the correct media mix for your message and decide the optimum number of times you can repeat your message without it being ignored.

Engagement Defined
The common assumptions is that mass media is fragmenting and people are spending more time on personal devices and are tending to edit out brand messages due to the sheer numbers, this isn’t necessarily true.
People are still receptive and responsive to a message if it is sent to them at the right time. You need to focus on the people first, and then the media. If you win people’s time and inspire them to participate and share, you’re more likely to turn them into fans and supporters. To amplify your message use press coverage, networks and word of mouth. Word of mouth is always important and has never been easier through the use of mobiles and the web.

Engagement is not replacing older effective models but is another option to consider.

What do engagement ideas look like?

Supercharged Promotional Ideas
The core of this is the promotional mechanic - So big, people can’t stop talking about it. These ideas are amplified by mass participation and word of click. Examples of such are Close Up’s Lova Palooza where they orchestrated a Guinness World Record attempt on the most couples kissing simultaneously for 10 seconds. Close Up had on-pack promotions and ran several TV ads in the lead up to the event. The news coverage of the event was huge and to continue this interest, there was merchandise items available afterwards at leading retailers.

Another is when Steinlager launched into America, they engaged their target market with their ‘‘Win Nick’s life’ campaign. Television advertising showed Nick in his workplace and offered watchers the chance to switch lives with Nick and move to New Zealand for a year. With the call to action driving people to the website, Steinlager strengthened the campaign with subsequent online interviews with Nicks family, his mates and his girlfriend.

Entertainment Ideas

• Usually based on an existing or created celebrity

Virgin Mobile, when introducing their new low price tariff, launched a campaign with invented “celebrity” 5 Cent. 5 Cent was a little person, thus using the idea that the character being the same size as their new tariff. Working on the idea that celebrity garners coverage in other media including web, TV, and press, 5 Cent toured around Australia performing gigs and also had a number 1 hit single consequently getting extra coverage for Virgin Mobile’s new price promotion.

Media Innovation ideas

• Perfect marriage of media and message
• Dramatise and scene specific

Cleverly placed wording shown in the right place, at the right time can mean your message makes sense to the consumer. Unicef used tangible items to raise awareness of abduction in Copenhagen and placed teddy bears with labels stating “street children are kidnapped every single day” on the streets of Copenhagen for passers-by to pick up and take notice. A very strong message and as such the campaign was extremely well received. Later that year a government division was created solely to combat the child kidnapping issue.

Another example is Adidas using two rock climbers to play football on the side of a building at one of the busiest intersections in Japan. Using their tagline Impossible is Nothing, Adidas created news without having to advertise. People took videos and pictures and sending them to friends across the globe stirred immediate interest and Adidas received news coverage on stations around the world.

Buzz and Stunt Ideas

• Create a sense of something new or strange happening
• News spreads through word of mouth/click and the “reveal” becomes a news story which is again shared through word of click/mouth

A new low-cost, no-thrills airline launched and wanted to escape the persona of being an unreliable service that everyone dislikes. The airline called Ted started doing good deeds. Ted bought everyone in Starbucks coffee, Ted ordered flowers for a maternity ward, Ted ordered pizzas for an entire building site. Ted’s good deeds didn’t go unnoticed. People started asking “Who is Ted?” He received coverage on primetime news and then launched as the people’s favourite low-cost airline. The results were phenomenal and for weeks all the flights were overbooked.

Curated Ideas

• Commissioning and supporting creative artists
• There is an element of public good
• Often used to enhance corporate reputation

Adidas won hearts for their advert of the FIFA World Cup Tournament with a vast mural on the ceiling of the main foyer of the Cologne main train station, Hauptbahnhof. Paying homage to the Sistine Chapel, the fresco covers 800 square meters and features ten of the world’s biggest football stars including the likes of Beckham, Kaka and other World Cup 2006 footballing greats signed to Adidas.

The Swedish vodka brand, Absolut created an Igloo which while being an art installation was also a sampling opportunity. It had seating inside and a bar where consumers could taste the different flavours of vodka.

Gaming Ideas

• Immersive experiences
• Brand messages are tolerated if the game is good
• The message has to be well integrated
• Really good games also get shared

Genesis Energy, a New Zealand energy company worked with the New Zealand government to create an online game for primary school children. Electrocity is a new online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand. In order to help engagement, the children were sent starter packs and stickers and schools were sent school lesson aids. This educational game raised incredible levels of awareness and soon after there were numerous blog entries, strategy guides were created and the site was reviewed on gaming sites.

http://www.electrocity.co.nz

Cultural Trend Ideas

• Success comes from spotting emerging trends
• Looking for counter trends
• Getting on and off the wave at the right time
• Spotting a trend from abroad that may come here

One brand that has noticeably bucked the beauty trend is Dove and its ‘Real Beauty’ campaign. Showing real women who have been made up and airbrushed to look like ‘models’ in advertising proved effective and interesting enough to share -  the video was forwarded en masse through friend networks, the videos being both well produced and message truthful. The trouble they may perhaps face is knowing when to get off the ‘beauty isn’t everything’ wave.

Engagement’s winning techniques

Behaviour: Getting people to do things
Winning time: Winning 30 minutes not 30 seconds
Influence: Inspiring to people influence others word of mouth/click

How to get an engagement plan: A five point plan with tips.

1.    Ask how customers choose and buy nowadays?

• Get the customer’s view

2.    Set up a multidisciplinary communications team.

• pick individuals with complementary skills

• don’t duplicate roles, it causes tensions

• agree how it will work

• get control of all the budgets

3.    Use objectives to lead the team

• set objectives and evaluate from the start

4.    Generate and define an idea

• discuss what kind of idea you are looking for

5.    Get the best out of people through collaboration

• define a collaborative process

One last thing: Changes in behaviour are difficult to motivate and we mainly change behaviour because we are influenced by others or we imitate others, not because we make individualistic choices. Our friends, colleagues, even the route we take to get to work are all factors that can affect us as consumers. Creating a campaign that gets the consumer involved and is interesting enough to be deemed newsworthy, almost guarantees extended coverage through networks, the web and across news channels. Combating “churnalism’, where journalists have found themselves regurgitating news that has already been blogged and reported, engagement campaigns can only get more interesting.