Media ShopTalk: w/c 12 October 2009

As we wind down to the last quarter of 2009, many of us are starting to prepare for the new year, the year that everybody is talking about! Chris Botha, one of our Directors, has written the below article which covers one of those interesting questions – Which 50% works? We should all be asking ourselves this question as we enter a quarter that traditionally has seen an increase in advertising activity. Whether or not we will see an increase this year, remains to be seen – but none the less, we can certainly consider this in our planning for 2010! Which 50% works?

The first quote taught when entering the Media Industry is the famous one by John Wanamaker, “I know that half of my advertising doesn’t work. The problem is that I don’t know which half.” Wanamaker said this roughly a century ago. I think if he had a look at advertising in its current format, he would probably increase his percentage to closer to 90%. We all know that the media industry is going through a tough time at the moment. If we look at adspend, the numbers have slowed significantly. Having said this, during the first eight months of this year, according to Adex, there has been just over three million “adverts” flighted / placed / shown.

Three million adverts!

Ok, so how many of them can I remember? Let’s assume that 50% of them are flighted in regional areas that I would not be able to see or hear. That leaves us with 1.5 million adverts. Now let’s say that 50% of those are aimed at another market, not me. We’re down to 750 000 ads. Working off some very rough assumptions, we can say that I will have seen 750 000 adverts over the past eight months. Over roughly 240 days, that’s 3 125 adverts per day! Now, try to recall 10% of those ads. I can honestly say that I cannot remember 312 adverts I saw yesterday (even if prompted). Let’s make it 31 adverts. Once again, no chance that I would remember them. Therefore, if you ask me to remember three ads that I saw yesterday, I would probably be able to recall them. That is 0.1% of adverts that I saw in the past day that I recall. Or, one out of every thousand ads that I saw or heard. In addition, remember that I work in advertising and have an above average propensity to notice them! The amount of advertising clutter across many media at the moment is astonishing. The consumers’ response is simple. Switch off.... Ad noting in general has been steadily declining and with it, campaign effectiveness. Even Online has been affected. If you look at click-through rates, it is evident they are declining virtually by the month.

This should serve as a massive wake up call to everyone in our industry. What are you doing to make sure that you are that one piece of communication that the consumer will remember? What makes your advert /media placement so much different that the consumer will remember seeing it 24-hours later - let alone days later? I am fascinated by the modern trend in the communication of brands becoming content providers again. The older folks amongst us will remember that this is how advertising on TV originally started. A great example is the new Coca Cola Open Happiness song. It is a very catchy tune, sung by some fantastic artists, with a brilliant music video. In addition, to make it even braver, it is completely unbranded. Every time I hear the song though, I think of Coca Cola. As I am sure you have worked out, it is getting tons of airplay, all without a single Rand of media budget.

I don’t know whether it is because we are all too busy, or heaven forbid, simply not creative enough, to think of brilliant break-through ideas. I am hoping it is the former. In between running around from meeting to meeting and doing the urgent, instead of the important, we seldom or never take enough time to think a campaign through.

The next time you write a brief, do a plan, or have a brainstorm. Ask yourself the question, “How am I going to make this piece of communication one in a thousand?”

We end of this week’s newsletter with a little bit of light entertainment! Enjoy!

Until next week!

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