October 14th, 2008
An often overlooked aspect of marketing is tracking the results of a media campaign. Too often companies skip this step all together. There are many reasons, but one we hear most often is: There haven’t been many ways to measure an ad campaign across all of these media at once. The reason for this is because traditionally, marketers measured the reach of ads one medium at a time. For TV, it generally was Nielsen; for radio, Arbitron; newspapers and magazines report circulation figures; while the Internet shows hits and page views and other traffic data.
Good news… A small media research company called Integrated Media Measurement released a new technology that measures consumers’ exposure to the audio in ads on television, radio, computers, mobile phones, DVDs and inside a movie theatre — using a consumer’s cellphone.
October 14th, 2008
The state of Michigan had great success this summer with its award-winning “Pure Michigan” advertising campaign. Last weekend I traveled to Frankenmuth, MI, “Michigan’s Little Bavaria,” for the Fall Leadership Conference of the American Advertising Federation District 6 and heard a keynote presentation about the campaign from Mark Canavan, Senior VP, Group Creative Director, McCann-Worldgroup, Detroit, who let us in on some of the creative secrets behind the campaign.
The “Pure Michigan” campaign features stunning photography and videography, strong script writing with narration by Michigan native, Tim Allen, reading with an emotional delivery completely unlike Buzz Lightyear, that evokes memories of happy vacations past, whether they took place in Michigan or not. Each spot tells a story and concludes by telling the consumer, “Your trip begins at Michigan.org.” Here are some examples:
Click here for an overview of the whole campaign.
Shallow Messages for Shallow Media…Deep Messages for Deep Media
Too often I see local ads that try to cram all of an advertiser’s products and services into a :30 or :60 second commercial. The strength of the “Pure Michigan” campaign lies in the focus on a single story. The spots do not rattle off a bullet list of unique selling propositions, but instead pique consumer interest with a captivating story, then drive customers to the web site where they can learn all they need to know.
A colleague of mine advises his clients, “shallow messages for shallow media, deep messages for deep media.” His point is, media is space, whether columns in a newspaper, or time on radio. The smaller the space the shallower the media. Shallow media require shorter messages.
Billboards are perhaps the shallowest media, because space is limited and the message must be fully understood by a consumer within a second or two at 70 miles per hour.
Newspaper ads, radio and TV spots are somewhat deeper.
Your company website is the deepest medium available for advertising today. Space for ad copy, photos and video is virtually unlimited. Customers can download documents, sign up for more marketing info and purchase your products online. And all visits can be tracked with all sorts of visitor data.
The ability to leverage your traditional radio, TV or newspaper ad with your company website results in a less cluttered, more engaging, and more entertaining production with more direct sales and better understanding of the effectiveness of your campaign. Use shallow media, billboard, newspaper, TV, radio, to capture attention with one single story, then drive the consumer to your web site for all the details.
