Nowadays, it’s more and more difficult to draw consumers’ attention to advertising and commercials. No one can deny the fact that display advertising on billboards, newspapers, and TV lost impact in the last decade. Consumers are overwhelmed by publicity and don’t pay attention to it anymore. Also, they are increasingly mobile and find everything they want instantaneously by consulting their communities’ news on laptops and mobile phones.
How, then, can a brand draw consumers’ attention and increase the impact of traditional advertising? Well, recent events have highlighted how impactful a marketing campaign can be when using hot news. By linking your ad with a topic everyone is paying attention to, you increase people’s attention toward your company and gain more visibility. And the earned media is higher. For instance, and it’s not a surprise, Osama Bin laden’s death has been used by many brands to gain visibility. Not always with success of course. Being responsive is not just about linking your brand with a recent event. Be at the right place at the right time is essential.
EXAMPLES
#EXAMPLE 1: Osama Bin Laden’s death
In New Zealand, the pizza delivery company called Hell has run a tactical ad that makes reference to Osama Bin laden one day after his death. “Come in, Osama, we’ve been expecting you,” reads the ad copy, which runs beneath an article on the Al Qaeda leader’s death in the New Zealand Herald. The ad was created and media planned by full service agency Barnes. In this case, the success of the campaign is mainly due to the responsive media planning.
#EXAMPLE 2: Carla Bruni’s pregnancy (France First lady)
Two weeks ago, everyone began gossiping about Carla Bruni’s possible pregnancy. It was in every French mind, and the news has crossed European borders. A French textile company, Enviedefraises.com, specialized in clothes for pregnant women, built a smart advertising campaign around the event. It says: «So Carla, sudden urge for a strawberry? » (In France, we say that instead of craving pickles and ice cream). The ad has been released on the front page of « Le Parisien Aujourd’hui en France », the most printed daily newspapers in the country (580 000 editions per day), and spread all over the Internet.
# EXAMPLE 3: Dominique Strauss-Kahn Porsche
The controversial picture of Dominique Strauss-Kahn traveling in a Porsche has been extensively used by his political enemies in France, to denounce how neglectful he is about issues that affect the vast majority of French citizens. But the case has also been beneficial to the luxury car brand Porsche. They used the controversy to make an ad. The new campaign’s slogan says “Porsche is not about politics, just beautiful mechanics. » Beautiful mechanics may indeed be the thing that will definitely stops DSK from running for the French presidency (if he’s not still in prison).
# EXAMPLE 4: Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair
Because staying current can apply everywhere, here is an example of how to use recent events to increase brand awareness on social media. A few weeks ago, Schweppes released a new commercial staring Uma Thurman [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tc7ZB4ywUI] In this commercial, a journalist interviewing Uma is mixing up Schweppes and Sex. The brand cleverly linked the campaign with the DSK affair by creating a Facebook page called: “It’s a big misunderstanding, the maid asked DSK for Schweppes”. In 4 days, the page has already reached 35,622 fans and the joke, staring Schweppes, has been used by many famous TV shows in France.
By using the popularity of a topic, a brand is more likely to be remembered by consumers because the ad is definitely connected to the news. Therefore, an advertising campaign built around fresh news encounters an efficient word-of-mouth effect and is more likely to be shared on social media. The earned media can be tremendous.
However, there is an obvious black mark for our examples 1, 2 and 3. They didn’t support their traditional campaign with a social media presence. With a good PR strategy on social media and blogs, the visibility would have increased very fast and open new rooms for conversation and experience. Next time, find a good partner.
Geoffroy.
