Advertising Media Strategy

Communications Strategy5

Percy and Elliott’s Five Steps…

Select the target audience

Understand target audience decision making

Determine the best positioning

Develop a communications strategy

Setting a media strategy

Percy and Elliott, 2009

Can analyse

advertising by using

this as a strategic

framework and

working backwards

Fundamentals of creativity…

Dependent on quality of brief (clear thinking/planning)

Saatchi and Saatchi

Make that message compelling (intrusion/interest)Communicate a selling message (persuasion)

(cited in Yeshin 2006)

Winston Fletcher

The product is inherently different (brand image)

The advertising is sufficiently unusual (creative appeal)

The advertising has personal relevance (target audience)

People keep seeing it (frequency and media mix)

(cited in Yeshin 2006)

People notice advertising when…

Is all advertising creative?

All ads have been created BUT some ads considered more creative than others

Creative label more usually applied to transformational ads

But a lot of advertising is informational

What is creativity?

Broad agreement that it involves having an idea that is…

In advertising, a creative idea also is usually…

extendable (into a campaign)

new, novel, original, useful and has value

transferable (across media)

(adapted from Percy and Elliott 2009)

Creative brief sets objectives

For a specific ad or campaign…

Category need objective… not always needed

Brand awareness objective… always an objective

Brand attitude objective… always an objective

Purchase intention objective… not always a specific

objective for advertising but is for a promotion

Percy and Elliott (2009)

Creative concept has to…

Break through clutter

Be relevant

Differentiate the brand from competitors

Arouse interest

Promote the brand and not the category

Answer the creative brief

Appeal to both the consumer and the client

Be meaningful to the target audience

(adapted from Yeshin, 2006)

Styles of advertising (content)…

USP: makes a claim of difference and superiority

Resonance: reflects the target’s experience

Generic: market leader makes a category claim

Brand image: psychosocial differentiation

Emotional: triggers an emotional response

Pre-emptive: presents a generic claim as a USP (Shimp 2007)

Ways of categorising…

Hard sell / soft sell

Informational / transformational

Type of advertising format

Rational appeal / emotional appeal

Type of advertising appeal

Not about which is right or always the best…

About which is most appropriate in a particular context

Advertising appeals

Product feature

Quality

Popularity

Price or value

News

Social acceptance (Yeshin, 2006)

Competitive advantage

Fear or anger

Sensory

Novelty

Celebrities

Ego

Advertising formats

Product as hero

Problem-solution

Testimonial

Product demonstration

Slice of life

Spokesperson

Mini drama

Brand heritage and history

Spectacular musical

Continuing character

Pastiche

Non-verbal

Celebrity endorsement

Opportunistic

Company endorsement

People like me

Animation

Infomercial

Teaser

Fantasy

Shock advertising

(Yeshin, 2006)

Benefits of frameworks…

Help us predict likely outcome

Help us come to an informed conclusion about whether a specific

advertisement is appropriate and effective in its context

Identify important aspects to be considered when analysing and

evaluating advertising

Are a useful planning and training tool

Stops us relying on our subjective reaction as consumers

Some often used models…

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Strong and Weak Theories

Ehrenberg model

FCB matrix

Rossiter-Percy planning grid

Shimp’s CAN model

ELM model…

the Elaboration Likelihood Model argues that

consumers have different motivations in attending to ads

the ELM assumes that once a consumer receives a message, the

way he or she processes it depends upon the personal relevance

of the information

that is, when the consumer finds the information to be relevant or

interesting, they will attend carefully to the message

ELM model…

central route… in order for a message to be relevant (eliciting a

cognitive response, to think about the information), the quality of the

argument will be important in the ad (more high risk purchases perhaps..?)

peripheral route… in contrast, when the person is not motivated to

think deeply about the argument, other cues should be presented in the ad such

as the colours, images and the sources attractiveness (FMCG goods)

ELM model…

if the Central Route argument is strong, relevant and there is the

ability in the receiver to process the message then favourable

attitudes will be formed…

…conversely if the argument is weak, irrelevant and there is an

inability to process then either negative attitudes will be formed or

the initial attitude is retained

Petty and Cacioppo, 1986

ELM in action…

• PeripheralPeripheral, central? Accept, reject?

strong and weak theories…

strong view… ads can increase sales through use of persuasive,

manipulative techniques, deployed against passive customers who do not

process information, such as the sequential models

weak view… Ehrenberg’s ATR‘N’ framework (awareness-trial-reinforcement-nudge)

promotional messages do not make us buy products

but rather consumers are driven by habit

hence, it is only after trial that our attitudes are changed

Ehrenberg model

Awareness

Trial

Reinforcement

Nudging

Reinforcement to encourage regular purchase (habit)

Maintain interest and provide reassurance

Curiosity may inspire trial purchase or finding out more

Consumer has to become aware of and interested in the brand

Achieved through advertising + other marketing activities

Thinking Feeling

Level of

Involvement

High Low

Informative (Thinker)Car – House - Furniture

Affective (Feeler)Jewelry – Cosmetics - Fashion

Model:Possible ImplicationsTest:Media:

Creative:

Learn – Feel – Do

Recall, DiagnosticsLong Copy, ReflectiveSpecific Information, Demonstration

Model:Possible ImplicationsTest:

Media:

Creative:

Feel – Learn – Do

Attitude Change, Emotional ArousalLarge Space, Image SpecialsExecutional, Impact

Habit Formation (Doer)Food – Household Items

Self Satisfaction (Reacter)Cigarettes – Alcohol - Sweets

Model:Possible ImplicationsTest:Media:

Creative:

Do – Learn – Feel

SalesSmall Space Ads, 10 second IDs, Radio, POSReminder

Model:Possible ImplicationsTest:Media:

Creative:

Do – Feel – Learn

SalesBillboards, Newspapers, POSAttention

Adapted from FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding) Grid, Vaughn, 1980

Rossiter-Percy Planning Grid

Motivation

Informational Transformational

Involvement

Low

High

Brand Attitude Strategy Quadrants from the Rossiter-Percy Grid, 2006

Fast Food

Holiday

Banking

Credit Card

Transformational Motives…Sensory GratificationIntellectual StimulationSocial approval

Informational Motives…Problem RemovalProblem AvoidanceIncomplete Satisfaction

Shimp’s CAN model

Connected

Appropriate

Novel

- unique, fresh, unexpected

- but not too weird that it fails to resonate

- pertinent to the brand

- fits the brand’s positioning

- empathy with the target market

- creates a bond with the consumer

(Shimp 2007)

Which to use?

Different models can work better for some types of brands and

some types of advertising than others

Which is most helpful in evaluating a particular advertisement?

No one model is perfect and there are many others…

Using a model stops us judging based on personal preferences

and prejudices (subjective) and pushes us towards analytical

evaluation based on theory (objective)

Use more than one model so can compare and contrast and

produce a more complex analysis

which is correct...

so in contrast to the strong view, the weak view sees consumers as selective and only perceive ads which promote products they have use of or some prior knowledge of

it follows that if the person holds strong views, ads cannot convert

them and when combined with peoples ability to switch off, there may

be no effect at all

Advertising then is often seen as a defensive approach to retain customers, to reinforce existing attitudes and not change them

Brief the creative team (in conjunction with agency

account management and account planning)

Agency will believe in the idea… their job is to persuade the client

to agree with them… and this doesn’t always happen!

Advertising manager’s job

Will have already been approved by Creative Director of agency

and Account Management/Planning

Evaluate the ideas they come up with and approve the

ad or campaign for production and media scheduling

The creative process

Creative brief

Evaluation

Evaluation

Pre-production testing

Post-production testing

Advertising strategy

‘The Big Idea’: creative concept, creative platform, advertising idea

Detailed copy and layout, scamp or storyboard

Client approval

Appearance and then measuring effectiveness

Production

Who - and what they do

If advertising agency used…

creative department

If done in-house…

write copy in-house and use freelance graphic artist

get the media to do it

freelance copywriter and freelance art director/designer

in-house creative department

copywriter and art director team

working under creative director

What the creatives do…

Art director and copywriter team…

Develop the concept into detailed copy and layout or script

Present draft work to client for approval (but not always)

Come up with ‘the big idea’ (creative concept)

Brief those providing production estimates

Make client amendments

Commission and direct production

and the client responds…

and the client responds…

Essentials of copywriting

Headlines should…

Copywriters should…

Use active language

Complement the image

Be part of the story

Push the reader into the body copy

Add meaning to the image

Avoid clichés (and be careful with puns)

Use everyday language that fits the audience and the brandTalk about the consumer not the brand

Keep it as short as possible

Avoid jargon, flowery language, long words

(Burtenshaw, Mahon and Burfoot 2006)

Essentials of art direction

Decisions…

What goes where? (We read from top to bottom and left to right)

What usually works…

Photography or illustration? Proportions

Simple, clean layout

Digital manipulation?

Which typeface?

Strong, dominant image

Use of white space

Apt and carefully crafted typography

Logo in bottom right corner

(Burtenshaw, Mahon and Burfoot 2006)

The future?

Less use of network television

More use of ambient media

Rejection of the hard sell

User generated content

Rapid changes in what’s fashionable

Advertising as entertainment

Global campaigns to culturally diverse audiences

More use of targeted direct communications

Combination of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media

References and reading

Burtenshaw, K., Mahon, N. and Barfoot, C. (2006). The Fundamentals of Creative Advertising. Switzerland: AVA Publishing.

Percy, L. and Elliott, R. (2009) Strategic Advertising Management. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Shimp, T. (2007) Integrated Marketing Communications in Advertising and Promotion. USA: Cengage.

Yeshin, T. (2006). Advertising. London, Thomson