A Strategic Model for Brand Activations

A Strategic Model for
Brand Activations
By
Divesh Rohra
(200714 A)
PGPCM II
(2007-2009)
Submitted to
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
In partial fulfilment of requirements of the Post Graduate Diploma in
Communications Management
Dissertation Supervisor
Dr. Richa Agarwal
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad
7th March 2009
1
Note of Copyright
© Copyright of Divesh Rohra
Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA)
2009
2
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my guide Dr. Richa Agarwal for her valuable comments, belief in my
project, support and flexibility which made this possible.
I am also grateful to Deepti Matai for giving me the opportunity to expose this project to the
real marketing world and test my process model at Sunsilk.
3
Dedicated to all those who love advertising!
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Table of Contents
I.
II.
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................................10
i.
What is Activation? ....................................................................................................................................................................10
ii.
Cases .........................................................................................................................................................................................12
iii.
Strategic Planning Models ..........................................................................................................................................................19
iv.
Creative strategy........................................................................................................................................................................21
v.
Existing Approach / Models for Brand Activations ......................................................................................................................23
vi.
Limitations of existing models: ...................................................................................................................................................25
III.
RATIONALE..........................................................................................................................................................26
IV.
METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................................27
V.
RESEARCH FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................28
VI. ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................................................31
i.
Insight........................................................................................................................................................................................31
ii.
Disruption..................................................................................................................................................................................34
iii.
Proximity ...................................................................................................................................................................................37
iv.
Media Innovations .....................................................................................................................................................................40
v.
Entertainment............................................................................................................................................................................43
vi.
Content......................................................................................................................................................................................45
vii.
Engagement..........................................................................................................................................................................47
viii.
Amplification ........................................................................................................................................................................50
ix.
Invisibility ..................................................................................................................................................................................52
x.
Memory.....................................................................................................................................................................................54
VII. THE STRATEGIC BRAND ACTIVATION MODEL..............................................................................................56
VIII.
X.
MODEL TESTING: LIVE CASE – SUNSILK HAIR CARE........................................................................57
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................................................59
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Executive Summary
Brand Activations are a form of ‘Below the Line’ communication where the brand communications is
given a live dimension. Activations ensure one to one communication between the brand and
consumer through consumer interaction and engagement. Advertisers refer to Brand Activations as
a medium which leads to not just ‘Brand Communications’ but ‘Brand Conversations’. Earlier brands
had advertising budgets for main stream advertising and the surplus was then allocated to BTL
activities. Not much emphasis was given on these investments till lately certain agencies and brands
achieved amazing ROIs for relatively smaller investments, by introducing strategic planning for BTL
activities. The clutter in the media has made it more and more difficult everyday to get the
consumer’s attention. The marketing approach towards BTL has taken a new dimension ever since it
got decentralised and spending came in the hands of sales managers and local marketing managers.
This has reduced the hierarchy and hence smoothened the functioning of Activations. During times
of recession where marketers have to cut their advertising budgets, Brand Activations come out as
efficient means of advertising spends.
Planning as a strategic tool in communications was introduced by JWT in the early 60s where the
planners work as agents in place – agents of change, working within teams but providing a wider
perspective; sometimes described as the conscience of the account group, always willing to take the
hard path if the orthodoxy is no longer working. Historically, account planning strongly advocated
the consumer perspective, but it was always more than this, looking to formalise, simplify or
improve the quality of advertising. What was achieved for main stream advertising then is now
required for below the line advertising now. Earlier it was a tedious task as the markets were huge
and the BTL activities required a lot of local approach. The approach needed to be personalised
which meant encouraging strategic planning for each region. With sales and regional managers
getting control over BTL there is scope for planning the process of Brand Activations.
The media which is used for BTL activities is different than ATL. There is lot more scope for
experimentations and engaging the consumer here in the BTL segment. Hence the same planning
models may not be as efficient for ATL activities. BTL also give a chance for the Brand to try out new
things as the scope for damages is smaller relative to main stream advertising. It gives the Brand a
platform to be up-close, bold and innovative. The approach to Activations today is an inside out one
i.e. it is very idea centric. Creativity is an essential part of any communication; it gets audience
attention, entertains them and increases communication recall. But the results can be better by
introducing the planners approach. A planner introduces consumer’s perspective into the picture
and then provides the creative brief. If activations were approached similarly but not just to get in
the consumer’s perspective but also a new dimension for Brands and Media the results could be
better. This is when the idea of having a process model for Brand Activations generated.
The research for the designing this process was was divided into three phases. The first one was indepth interviews of experts in the industry. These included media experts, agency planners and
strategists and also the clients i.e. brand managers. The second phase included secondary sources
for interviews, comments and ideas of experts in the industry. Secondary research comprised of
6
expert comments, successful Indian and International campaigns and user/audience comments. This
research help identify ten tools used here and abroad for successful Activations. They were
Consumer insight, Disruption, Proximity, Media Innovations, Entertainment, Content, Engagement,
Invisibility, Amplification and Memory.
Consumer insight is a research finding or an inference having two characteristics. It provides new
knowledge about the consumer and changes the way we look at the phenomenon under study i.e.
we develop a new perspective. Disruption is finding the strategic idea that breaks and overturns a
convention in the market place and then makes it possible to reach a new vision or give new
substance to an existing vision. Proximity is getting up close and personal with the consumer. There
are two steps to increase proximity between consumers and brands; one is entering the consumer’s
world and the second inviting the consumer into yours. Media innovation, in the true sense, is a
creative use of a medium or the creative adaptation of a message to a medium - something that
hasn't been done before. Entertainment is core of any communication to get desired attention and
results but some brands can take this tool to a whole new dimension by creating entertainment
using their brands i.e. their brands as a source of entertainment. Brand Content is the world
revolving around the brand essence. If the brand were alive the life of the brand helps identify the
brand content. Brand engagement is involving the consumer in the Activations and making him a
part of the communication, message or/and medium. Invisibility is a tool which talks about emphasis
on the message and avoid overshadowing the message by focussing on the brand too much. It helps
acceptability of the message. Amplification is a tool which suggests making the communication bold,
dynamic and creative enough to gain free publicity and thus deliver greater ROI. Memory ensures
there is a tangible take away for the consumer to extend the effect of the activation for a longer
period of time and earn the space of the consumer’s mind positively.
The third part of the methodology was to try the model for a live Brand Activation. Sunsilk gave me
the chance to present a Activation on a brief focussing on sales promotion for their hair fall
prevention segment in organised retail. The third step helped identify the limitations of the model
and scope for improvement.
7
I.
Introduction
As consumers today are using and enjoying media, entertainment and information
products in increasing numbers, dramatic changes in industry fundamentals have
brought forth a whole new challenge. There are 300+ channels on television and
more mushrooming every day. The last decade has seen a lot of fragmentation in the
print media as well with new comers like DNA, Hindustan Times etc. The consumer
has more spending power and makes informed choices, which has made the job of
the advertisers more difficult. A piece of communication is no longer about
informing the consumer, creating interest and desire to purchase the product or
service. Today one has to earn the consumer’s time, attention and respect the same
with relevant & entertaining piece of communication. Though the increase in
fragmentation in media the prices of ad slots has gone low but it is more difficult to
reach the consumer. There is pressure on brands to be present across various
communication channels through a 360 degree approach resulting in cost per
consumer going high. "On television, ad avoidance levels have gone up as high as 70
per cent since audiences generally tend to switch channels during an ad. Brands are
therefore looking at alternate mediums for gaining more visibility" - Lintertainment
communications director Harshad Bhagwat. (CHAUDHURI, 2007).It is important for a
brand to have communications, which would not just create awareness about its
presence in the market but also create an impact in the mind of the consumers.
This fragmentation of communication channels – as a result of the high degree of
consumer segmentation – added to the increasing competition between companies,
and to the fact that ways of achieving differentiation are increasingly scarce, means
that the efforts to find and convince consumers of the virtues of my brand are ever
greater. In the age of globalisation this new form of communicating brands, Brand
Activation, is developing. It is certainly a consequence of this situation, and another
medium for bringing brands to where the consumer is and better adapting to their
interests and styles. At the same time, it is the way transnational companies have
found of complementing globally developed innovation with strategies that bring
these new developments closer and adapt them to local habits and idiosyncrasy, and
so make brands gain in both innovation (provided by their global factories) and in
closeness to local consumers (through brand activation).
Radio stations like Red FM, Radio City, Radi Mirchi and others have introduced an
Activation team which focuses on activations designed specifically for brands
considering personalised content, events and contests. Abraham Thomas, COO,
RedFM asserts, "Earlier a client would organise such an event and they would come
up to us for an on-air promotion of the event. Now it is different. We pitch a plan to
the client and execute the on-ground activities." (Balan, 2007)
Gautam Sahane who heads the activation division for Radio Mirchi says, “Since BTL is
now getting decentralised and spending authority now lies in the hands of sales
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managers and local marketing managers, radio is the best way to promote local
events in cities. By focusing on BTL spends, radio is able to capture a larger pie of
client spends.” (Balan, 2007)
The challenge for Activations is how to measure it but the real question is what we
should measure. Activations are not about exposure but about engagement. It
requires qualitative research approach and not a quantitative one. The idea of
activations is brand building and not mere exposure. Agencies are working on
methods to calculate the derived value out of branded entertainment, product
placement, sponsorship marketing etc. But are these the right variable to be
measured? What one really needs to measure is the engagement and the impact.
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II.
Literature Review
i. What is Activation?
•
•
•
•
•
Mark Joy, Managing director “Gasoline” (Sales Promotion agency in UK) explains
Brand Activation as a communicating activity in which while having fun and engaging
customers the Brand seeks to bring life to the brand experience. 'Brand activation'
(BA), the technique gives the brand an added 'live' dimension and, in the process, a
new relationship with the customer. BA is not theory; it is a practical and logical
form of integration that enables client and agency to focus on delivering activities
that bring them closer to customers while remaining anchored in the fabric of the
brand. (Joy, Brand Activation is the King! Long live the King!, 2006)
Viviana Barcesat, ID/Millward Brown, Argentina and Vanina Gruart, Consumer and
Market Insight, Unilever, Argentina in their paper for ESOMAR research explain
Brand Activation is an evolution from the tactical approach of brand promotions.
Brand activation is communicating to the consumer in a more attractive way
breaking the clutter of mass communication, with emotional contents and
respecting the core values of the Brand Equity. (Gruart, 2005)
34 a Brand Activation Agency in Cape Town define Brand Activation as a medium
where people can act upon the communication and interact with the brands.
Activation in today’s age is about delivering new and innovative ways of interaction
reaching consumers at every touch point they have with the brand which should be
done in an appealing and measurable way. (Fourie, 2007)
Encompass an event agency founded in 1996 by Roshan Abbas and Sukrit Singh
today is a part of the world’s biggest advertising group WPP. Encompass is a onestop all-pervasive media house which provides BTL solutions through events,
promotions, special events & exhibitions, convention & conferences and radio, TV &
mobile content. Roshan Abbas explains activations as bringing brands to life as
experiences and creating positive engagement through 'interactive conversations'
rather than 'one way communication'. “Activations give a bigger bang for the buck
than the traditional communication. The experiential marketing industry is more
engaging than the advertising agency and delivers results. Agencies focussing on
Activations are not into 'brand communication' but into 'brand conversation'. We
want to educate the market by saying that one way communication is death, we
believe in live interaction of any sort. Live interaction is what Encompass is creating
through activations and we believe that activations are the future of advertising “Roshan Abbas. (Abbas, 2007)
OgilvyAction the Brand Activation arm of Ogilvy and Mather believes activation
build brand experiences wherever and whenever a consumer can be most impacted
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by a message. Activations are about understanding the consumer journey and the
different touch points along the path to purchase. (Ogilvy, 2008)
All the above mentioned definitions seem to define activations in a broader
perspective and only touch upon some specifics. It is essential for us to understand
the larger purview of the meaning of activation.
For the purpose of this study we shall define activations as a form of below the line
communication which focuses on one to one communication by emphasising on
consumer’s engagement and involvement in the communication.
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ii. Cases
•
•
•
•
•
Hutch and Rang Shankara (Bangalore)
Background: Ranga Shankara is the bedrock of quality theatre in Karnataka. It stands
for theatre of the people, by the people and for the people. Hutch had been
associated with the theatre since its inception in 2004. The association provides
them the opportunity to bond with the Karnataka populace outside the telecom
space like they do with the Half Marathon in Delhi and Pune, Prithvi in Mumbai and
so on.
Brief: Theatre is fast losing relevance amongst people with steady declining
audiences every year. As a result 2006 edition of Rang Shankara’s annual fest they
hosted 8 plays across 9 days as against 16 plays across 2 weeks in ’05 and 29 plays
across 4 weeks in ’04. The challenge was not to promote or facilitate sales of 4000
tickets. The brief clearly was to revive drama as an engaging and entertaining activity
for everyone.
Solution: Activation was designed using the medium of “Staged Incidents”. To
promote the Hutch Rang Shankara Theatre Festival they staged different incidents at
25 locations in Bangalore. The Solution was based on the insight that “In India,
drama is everywhere”. Also the real life emotions and melodrama are like in any play
one sees on stage. So to solution was to take real life drama off stage to the people.
They planted professional actors to enact real dramatic situations to an unsuspecting
audience. They used locations like cafes, restaurants, malls and offices, also including
the Rang Shankara Press Conference. After each skit a person would come with
plank card which said “for more drama come to Rang Shankara”. After that fliers
were distributed with the festival schedule, enquiry numbers, SMS numbers and
website address.
Result: SMS traffic increased immediately after the each skit. Hutch received at least
200 calls and 150 SMS for bookings and enquiries every day. Top of mind scores for
Hutch went up by 12% which was the highest recorded for the year. Tickets were
sold out a week in advance for both matinee and evening shows. Over 300 youth and
corporate signed up with Rang Shankara at the end of the festival to pursue their
interests in theatre.
Process:
(O & M, 2007)
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HSBC corporate – “Deffered Live”
•
Background: HSBC had a Global campaign running about the idea “different people
Different views”. HSBC’s communication identifies different point of views of
different people and how it should be respected.
•
Brief: How to give the global campaign an Indian taste and how to escalate the idea
of different people different views adopting from popular culture?
•
Solution: India is a country where everyone has strong opinions on just about
everything. It’s also a country where everyone is passionate about movies. So they
gave ordinary people in 4 major cities a unique opportunity to express their opinion
about things in a totally unexpected way, on the big screen. Their aim was to
generate personal involvement by asking movie goers to express their views on
various topics and then showing them during the interval for the movie they’ve
come to see. They interviewed audience before the screening and edited the best
ones to be screened during the interval and announcing prizes to the each of the
audience who were screened.
•
Result: They created a totally new media consumer engaging experience, a world
first. Audience were captivated and thrilled to see their interviews shortlisted and
screened. They married country’s 2 strong passions, one for movies and the other
one for debates effectively bringing local meaning to the global campaign of
“Different people Different views”. 1000+ were interviewed and 50,000+ were
reached through the campaign.
•
Process:
(O & M, 2007)
13
Nike – Football World Cup
•
Background: Football had a million eyeballs in India glued to the World Cup. The
official Sponsor for the World Cup was ADIDAS. Nike could not do much in terms of
creating noise as most of the space was bought out by Adidas. Nike did a little bit of
TV campaigns but Nike is always on the offensive side and is known to thrive on
shock and awe.
•
Brief: Go and create some “Visual Disruption”. This is not increase sales or GRPs but
to express what Nike is all about.
•
Solution: The Agency placed a 200 Kg massive football over a car crashing it at
Gurgaon and Bangalore.
•
Thus Nike brought about football fever in a different manner to the audience. This
activation created a disruption all over the country.
•
Results: Coverage by all leading news channels and dailies. This led to media space
worth Rs 75lacs nationally on a minimal investment. It also resulted in a top of mind
recall for the brand communication over a long period of time.
•
Process:
(Minshare,2006)
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India Railways - Handcuff
•
Background: Ticket-less travel, though the single largest crime it is largely viewed
only as a minor misdemeanour at worst.
•
Brief: create a piece of communication that communicates the seriousness of the
crime. The target audience are men and women across SEC who due to lack of
regular check points habitually hide and cheat the system by travelling without a
ticket
•
Solution: JWT came with an idea which was avoiding the use of poster warming signs
and create a dramatic stark installation, bang in the middle of the ‘crime zone’ that
drives home the gravity of the of offense by highlighting the severity of the problem.
•
This was based on the insight that in a railway compartments that packs in a density
of approximately 9 people per square meter, the overhead handles became a virtual
life line of survival. Basically it was a simple, bold and dramatic installation that
bluntly drove home the point.
•
Results: Passenger earnings went up by 14%. The awareness about the real penalty
of ticketless travelling has gone up and hopefully will result in even less ticketless
travelling. The simple visual device over came the language and literacy barriers and
clearly communicated the point regarding the severity of the offense.
Process:
•
(JWT, 2006)
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AXE Unlimited – Mobile Academy
•
Background: Axe consumer is well defined in the minds of audience. He is one who
aspires to be chased by girls and win the edge in the mating game. But his
techniques are old and outdated.
•
Brief: Axe wanted to create a school where the consumer learns the art of seduction.
A school where one can earn alluring courses and a degree in the same. They wanted
to create a school with inspirational faculty members. There should be exchange
programs to encourage interactive participation from users. And last but not the
least it should be accessible to him 24/7.
•
Solution: Considering the challenge to retain the relevance of the brand on the
mating game and empower him (the consumer) to get the girl Mindshare designed
the concept of Axe Mobile academy of Seduction. The Mobile academy was based
on following insights and facts –
- Mobile phones are no longer an accessory but a necessity for the TG
(Qualitative Research and AXE teen panel study)
- High end Mobile phones with GPRS compatibility are considered cool and
sexy
- Downloads and Mobile telephony is a big hit amongst the TG
On these basis the brief was edited with addition of the following objectives for the
Activation –
- Market share to be achieved - 45% post Launch
- Improve the score on the cool and sexy aspect of the brand by the end of the
year i.e. the consumer’s association with AXE as cool and sexy should
increase.
- Also increase the score from32 to 40 units in terms of Qualitative measures
on AXE helps one in the mating game.
This would also be measured through the minimum target of 50,000 hits and 1000
downloads. The Media agency designed the entire communication based around the
website www.axeunlimited.co.in. This website was available on the mobiles
downloadable from a WAP site. They created a new subject called “Cellulogy” based
on the interest of the consumer in mobile telephony. The concept of the site was
designed using ideas such as a mobile textbook, fun zone, a subject called Cellulogy
and information services.
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•
Results: The targeted market share was 45% post launch but the brand managed to
achieve a whopping 72% market share post launch. Also the targeted 50,000 hits and
1000 downloads was easily achieved with overwhelming results of 63,000 hits and
5984 downloads.
•
Process:
(Mindshare, 2005)
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Thumps up – Everest Challenge
•
Background: Thums Up as a brand has a distinct male identity associated with it and
also Thums Up enjoys great market share in smaller towns and non-metros. Lately
Thums Up was losing its Macho imagery and losing share in these towns.
•
Brief: Revive the “male” identity especially in small towns using the communication
plank “Hai Dum”. The objective was to fire the male imagination with “Hai Dum” and
create a Media multiplier impact.
•
Solution: Thums Up Everest challenge was designed using the event as an innovative
media for communicating the Thums Up’s brand strength. The event was executed
at 4 stages as follows –
o 16 city road shows and 800 town activations (reaching to 800,000 people)
o 16 Big city finals to select the Thums Up man of the state
o 16 shortlisted candidates were taken to NIM for a training camp where they
were trained for 10 days by a Kernel N Kumar ( 1st one to scale to Mt everest)
o On the Mega finals at Shivepuri the winner was chosen to attempt to climb Mt.
Everest.
•
Results: Changed the operating paradigm from
•
Brand strategy
Creative development
Media Implementation
to
•
Brand strategy
Media Idea & Execution
Creative Development
Dumdar was reached and impacted 2 million people across India. It actively engaged
210,000 people consumers and 1.4 million via SMSs and downloads. Thums Up regained its
unique male identity from rating of 6.4 to 15.2 after the event. It saw a steep share increase
in markets across the nation.
•
Process:
(Madison Comm. 2006)
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iii. Strategic Planning Models
a. The Butterfly Model by O & M
The context encourages us to look at the environment within which the brand lives, from
different perspectives. The Brand Scan Helps capture objective aspects of the health of the
brand by looking at its relative strengths and weaknesses on six brand equities i.e. product,
image, influence, customer, channel and visual.The Brand audit Puts into words the actual
experience of the brand in the life of the user. The Brand Ambition is the big goal for the brand. It
is the role the brand will play in consumers’ lives. It is the reason they will want it. The Brand
Print is a concise articulation of the relationship between the brand and the consumer. The funnel is
a vivid word portrait that reveals the soul of the customer. Who they are, how they behave and
make decisions. An effort to understand the customer’s decision making process and then influence
it through brand communication. (O & M, 2009)
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The JWT planning Approach
The current Brand Situation is about understanding why people find the brand appealing?
What is its personality? Who does the brand appeal to? What relationship does the brand
share with the people? Why is it different? And how does it express itself? Key discoveries
focusses on details about the category, consumer, brand and their previous communication.
The culmination of the analytical process and the beginning of the creative process is Brand
Vision. Brand vision statement summarises the decisions that will make our brand make
powerful connections with the consumer. Branding idea is the message that makes the right
connection with whom we want to. Communication plan is about choosing the right vehicles
to send your message. The communication is measured using three steps i.e. action (how
has the audience responded to the communication?) involvement (How does your TG feel
about the brand?) and communications (how well does the TG notice and understand the
message?). (JWT, 2008)
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iv. Creative strategy
Creative strategy consists of guidelines for thoughts, feelings and impressions that are
communicated with advertising and other marketing communications. These guidelines
provide direction for the copywriters and artists to develop ads that are on target and
withing the message strategy. A creative plan is an articulation of the strategy. One might
think of it as a map. This map outlines or profiles the important strategic considerations for
the campaign’s creative thrust, which ultimately drives the message.
There are many formats and structures available for creative plans, and each agency tends
to use a different one. There are certain critical elements that ought to be a part of the
creative strategy:
A strategic focal point – To be sure all creatives concentrate on strategy it is helpful to state
the creative focus clearly. The focal point is that particular aspect of the company’s problem
or opportunity the campaign is intented to address.
Positioning – Once we determine the focus of the creative plan the next step is to provide
the context or the background for the advertising messages. Positioning refers to the way
one generally gets consumer to think or feel abut the product especially with respect to the
competition.
Big Unifyin Idea – It can be helpful to use an attention getting device to make ads
memorable and to tie together the various elements in a creative plan. Many agnecies
simplpe call this device the big idea. Donald Parente calls it a Big unifying idea to signify that
the idea should be a vehicle that provides a common bond to all elements contained within
an ad. (Parante, 2000)
Donald Parante summarises Creative strategies as follows :
Strategy
Description
Most suitable conditions
Competitive
Implications
Generic
Straight product or
benefit claim with no
assertion of superiority
Monopoly or extreme
dominance of product
category
Serves to make
brand synonymous
with product
category
Preemptive
Generic claim with
assertion of superiority
Most useful in growing
market where
competitive advertising
is generic or nonexistent
May be successful in
convincingconsumer
of superiority of
advertiser’s product.
21
Strategy
Description
Most suitable conditions
Competitive
Implications
Unique Selling
Proposition
Superiority claim based
on unique physical
feature or benefit
Most useful when point
of difference can not be
readily matched by
competitors
Advertiser obtains
strong persuasive
advantage, forces
competition to
imitate or choose
more aggressive
strategy
Brand Image
Claim based on
psychological
differentiation; usually
symbolic association
Best suited to
homogeneous goods
where physical
differences are difficult
to develop or may be
quickly matched
Most often involves
prestige claims that
rarely challenge
competitors directly
Positioning
Attempt to build or
copy mental niche in
relation to identified
competitor
Best strategy for
Comparison limit
attacking a market leader options for
competition;
counterattacks seem
to offer little chance
of success
Resonance
Attempt to evoke
stored experiences of
prospects to endow
product with relevant
meaning or significance
Best suitable for socially
visible goods
Few direct
limitations on
competitor’s
options; likely
competive response;
imitation
Affective
Attempt to provoke
involvement or
emotion through
amibuity, humor, or the
like, without strong
selling emphasis
Best suited to
discretionary items;
effective use deends on
conventional approach
by competitors to
maximize the difference
Competitors may
imitate to undermine
strategy of
difference or persue
other alternatives
(Parante, 2000)
22
v. Existing Approach / Models for Brand Activations
•
Starsky a Brand and Design agency in Sweden explains Brand activation as follows“Brand activation is not a theory; it’s a natural step in the evolution of brands. We
believe when all the necessary brand strategies are implemented, companies just
need to execute them across the organization and in the total offer towards the
customer. Brand activation is looking deeper into the possibilities within the brand,
its strategy and position to find assets that have relevant consequences for the
whole company. A brand can be activated in a range of situations, best summarized
in four cornerstones; Products and services, Employees, Identity and
Communication. An active brand offers products and services that deliver on the
brand position. It meets the customer in a personal manner closely related to the
position.”
Starsky uses the following model for Brand Activation
•
Starsky identifies identity, employees and product or services as the assets which are
relevant, adaptable and profitable for the entire company. And the brand activation
communication is designed considering these assets of the company. (Paul Morel,
2002)
•
Brand Activation ™ is a trademark of The Marketing Store. They explain BA
consumer-centric approach to communications. BA is driven by, and inspired by, the
consumer. Brand activation is to build communications around not only the
behavior, but the emotional benefit that drives the behavior. It’s about being
inspired by insights, versus merely targeting a demographic.
“Brand Activation™. It’s our process that brings the spirit of brands to life. Our
team’s goal is to make your brand work harder by activating it in the minds of your
customers. Every action we take is dictated by research and insight and is directed by
23
uncluttered, realistic thinking about your customer, your brand and the places they
all connect. Our job is to ensure that these brand interactions result in constructive,
measurable change. Not only does this process guide the creative ideation, it insures
the right business solution to accomplish your goals.”
The Marketing Store describes its own proprietary process for consumer branding.
(The Marketing Store, 2006)
•
Encompass is an agency specialist in BTL communications. Encompass was originally
started by Roshan Abbas as an event management company in 1996. With time
Encompass widened its service to providing complete solutions under BTL
communications. They climbed the ladder to be one of the best agencies catering to
BTL communication and were taken over by the WPP group in 2007. Their approach
to designing a creative solution for activations is explained in the chart below.
(Gupta, 2008)
24
vi. Limitations of existing models:
• No model shows a clear link between the brand, media and the consumer.
• The solutions seem more idea centric than based on marketing strategy of the
brand.
• There is lack of strategic approach in designing the activation.
• As it seems from the feedback from clients, most activation communications do not
compliment design and activation of ATL communication.
• The activations may be designed as campaigns with short term goals but it is
important that the activation is designed integrating core values of the brand
• To the best of my knowledge through research on the existing models there is need
for a model which emphasis on a strategic approach to activations and acts as an
extension to the brand’s ATL communication.
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III.
Rationale
Clients today are investing more and more in BTL activities. Earlier the investment in BTL
was whatever was left over from the marketing budget. Today, BTL no longer gets such
step-motherly treatment by Brand managers. There are separate budgets allocations for ATL
and BTL activities and in fact some of the agency representatives say that BTL is eating into
the share of ATL in cases of various Brands. Marketers like HPCL have separate budgets for
ATL and BTL activities. Their budget for marketing in the year of 2008 is Rs 40 crores out of
which Rs 10 crores is specifically for BTL. According to the HPCL spokesperson, BTL
marketing companies are witnessing a boom in business, and with industry growth, there is
an emergence of speciality verticals – companies offering dedicated services in affinity
marketing, podcasting, CRM (customer relationship management) programmes and POS
(point of sale) management. However, marketers are faced with a problem: They find that
their BTL agency delivers well on contact programmes, but not on design and strategy, to
cite an example. Similarly, CRM based data management and analysis is not a strong point
for BTL activation and promotion agencies, says the HPCL spokesperson. Therefore, HPCL’s
plan could be to hire either different BTL agencies, depending on the discipline in which they
specialise, or a single agency with expertise and experience in all BTL areas.
Research Objectives:
•
•
•
•
•
To understand the evolution of activation as a communication tool.
To study the various strategic approaches by clients and agencies for designing
activations.
To understand the need gap of a strategic tool for designing activations.
To identify measurable variables to identify the right mix of media selection, brand
essence and consumer insight in designing strategic brand activation.
To study the role of disruption, engagement and entertainment for creating a
powerful impact through activation.
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IV.
Methodology
The research for this dissertation would involve primary , secondary research and model
testing.
o Primary research: Primary research would be through in-depth interviews focussing
on information areas such as evolution of activations, change in client’s investment
pattern, business (fee) structure, models and planning approach, case study,
measurement parameters, return on investment, brand building and brand
exposure, use of branded entertainment, limitations of activation, importance of
disruption, similarities and differences in the international and Indian scenario of
activations and important parameters under consumer, media and brand to be
considered for planning communication.
o Secondary research: Secondary research would include news articles, papers, books,
case studies and any other published data available on activations. This research
would focus on information areas to understand the industry, current investments,
existing models, consumer response, impact of engagement, entertainment and
disruption, consumer insights and more.
o Model testing: drawing analysis from primary and secondary data a model will be
designed to design strategic brand activations. This model will be tested through
designing creative and impactful solutions for live cases of clients/agencies using
the model. The acceptability and further impact of the accepted/implemented
activation will help understand the advantages and limitations of the model.
Sampling plan:
The in-depth interviews would include, representatives from the advertising agencies,
media agencies, BTL and Activation specific agencies, activation teams of Media channels,
Clients (managers) investing in activations and consumers involved in activation programs.
These in-depth interviews would give a fair weight to Media, Brand and The Consumer.
27
V.
Research Findings
“Brands today have to earn respect of their consumers. Word of Mouth has become such an
important tool in marketing brands. The consumers decode your marketing messages and
refuse being targeted. The messages need to be communicated differently and not as direct
advertisements to gain attention and acceptability” – Mubin Khan, Vice President - Dianik
Jagran
"Advertisers and agencies need to take trade-off calls, between the bigness of the
idea v/s the consumers reached. Innovative use of media however is still quite limited.
It's a pity, but most clients and media professionals fear to take the ‘innovative’ route.
There is hardly any risk taking"
- C.V.L. Srinivas, COO-Madison Media (C.V.L. Srinivas, 2003)
“Brands need to focus on content. It is all about content generation and content
marketing. After 4 years at Yash Raj Films I have realised how important content is
a tool for brands to connect to their audience. ” – Tarun Tripathi, Director
Marketing & Content- My Space
“International Markets are older and advanced. Indian audience are ready open to
bold Activations and Experimentation but the Brands are sceptical about taking
any risks. Most of them prefer the tried and tested methods. One needs to realise
with innovative and disruptive advertising a Brand tends to gain free publicity
thus gaining more out of the money invested” - Sapna Gupta, Associate VPEncompass
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“All brands cannot afford to pay for advertising at a high scale. The solution to this is tie
ups with stronger brands and alternative advertising. Movie association through
Branding entertainment provide Brands an opportunity to achieve exposure at lower
costs. The monies invested in advertising have to be accounted for and provide great
returns. Alternative Advertising help brands with lower budgets in efficient marketing.” –
Tejaswani Aparanji, Associate VP - P9 Branding Entertainment
“Any communication model revolves around the Brand, Consumer and the Media. It is
further within these where the advertiser needs to explore opportunities to
communicate his message. It is important to involve the consumer in the
communication. The greater the time one spends with the brand the greater is
advertiser’s opportunity to build a long term relationship” – Devendra Deshpande, VPMedia E2E
“Media planners focus on GRPs and ratings only. A brand needs to grow beyond
quantitative approach where it is all about returns in terms of exposure and sales. At
CNBC we provide our clients with Branding solutions beyond such quantitative
measures. We focus on building brands, making them more interactive and
increasing their equity in the market. This approach may be restricted to certain
brands but those are the ones who have the courage to emerge as leaders in their
category.” – Anshul Ailawadi, Sales Team Focus - CNBC TV 18
“In times of recession brands are cutting their budgets for advertising on air. As Planners
we understand that are clients are looking for alternative solutions and hence we focus
on Media Innovations. Activations have the limitations of being catered to limited
people but the focus is on increasing the exposure of these innovations to provide
maximum value for money. Activations even today are idea driven and not planning
driven. Brands investing research time before designing activations achieve better
results. The results at the Emvies awards for media innovations speak for themselves. ”
Payal Rohra, Media Planner –Group M
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“BTL activities are equally important as ATL. A brand needs to change with its audience
and continue to be a part of their lives. Sunsilk’s Gang of Girls has been a successful
initiative appreciated by all Sunsilk users. The site focuses on girls and their lives and
not merely on Sunsilk’s promotion. A certain level of invisibility is important to win the
confidence of your audience. It has been a great source of consumer insights for us as
the users discuss their likes, dislikes, problems and a lot more on the forum.” – Deepti
Matai, Assistant Brand Manager - Sunsilk
“Brands are much more involved in BTL activations today than they were a few years
back. It is due to the clutter and noise it creates, shutting the consumer’s mind.
Media agencies are focussing on providing 360 degree solutions and realise
activations with a strategic approach to compliment the ATL message. This will take
the relation with the consumer a step further. One has to decrease the distance
between brands and consumers by improving proximity.” – Jai Lala, Media Planner Mindshare
“We should ask ourselves why should any consumer watch our advertisement
and invest his time. We intend to inform them, add knowledge about Brands we
live with under the presumption that consumers do too. The message has to be
more than mere information, it has to be entertaining! I cannot recall any
successful piece of communication which was not entertaining and I believe one
cannot exist. Entertainment is the key to get the consumer’s attention and create
a positive synergy between the consumer and the brand. One might argue that
such communications lead to higher recall for the communication than the brand.
This only shows the lack of confidence they have in their own brands. Everyone
wants to be a market leader but there is only one in each category and they have
taken their risks.” – Shushoban Mukherjee, Strategic Planning Director - JWT
“Paddle Pop is a brand which has been advertised only through Activations. It
gives us a great opportunity to interact with Kids. Over years of Activation
programs with different themes we plan to have a day defined as Paddle Pop
day which kids would with us every year. It is important to have ‘take away’ for
the participants to make activations more pleasurable and remembered over
time. We ensure all our participants are winners in certain way and continue
the relation with our events.” – Chitrank Goel, Brand manager - Paddle Pop
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VI. Analysis
The key terms identified through the research were Consumer Insight, Disruption, Proximity,
Media Innovations, Entertainment, Content, Engagement, Invisibility, Amplification and
Memory.
i. Insight
Consumer insight is a research finding or an inference having two characteristics. It provides
new knowledge about the consumer. It changes the way we look at the phenomenon under
study i.e. we develop a new perspective. It opens new strategic doors – futuristic. Consumer
insights are simple but elegant and by nature holistic. They are all about the “AHA”
experience or may be raises the question “why didn’t I think about that?” (Rajneesh
Krishnan, 2007)
An insight is the penetrating understanding into consumer’s underlying needs and wants.
Some questions that will help identify these consumer insights would be; Does it describe a
relevant human truth and how does it open a door for this brand? Is it fresh and inspiring? Is
this an observation or a deeper truth? Is it enduring or fleeting? What is the improvement,
however small it brings to people’s everyday life? Keep asking ‘why’ people use the
brand/category and ‘so what’ until we get to a deep level of understanding as to why the
brand is important to consumers?
For example insights for following Brands would be, Lakme-Good looking women donot
have to stand in queue; Surf Excel-dirt is experience, dirt is good; ACC- a house is built not
just for the existing family but for generations to come; Nescafe-I like having a cup of coffee
when I feel dull etc
Account planning is all about understanding the consumer behavior in a better way, deriving
new findings, exploring deep and hidden facts about the consumer and developing
inferences based on observation. Brand activations designed on basis of insights prove to be
more efficient as they have a greater impact on the consumer due to the connect.
For example the agency BBDO in Amsterdam, Netherlands for their client Mercedes
researched about the affluent Dutch. They discovered an insight about them, which was the
rich Dutch wanted to show off their wealth but not in a loud and extravagant way. The team
came up with an activation where they made personalized posters for the list of these
affluent Dutch living in the richest areas of Amsterdam.
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They designed posters which had their names, price of the Mercedes GLK, the car’s picture
and a message which said “Don’t worry it’ll be between us.” This was a message that
immediately connected with consumer.
The message was placed in outdoor media neighbouring the houses of those addressed.
This strategy resulted to engage the consumer in the most confronting way. This campaign
was both aired through personalized outdoor media, and placed in strictly local newspapers
of the 10 most fortunate communities. Therefore the campaign on the one side reached the
targeted audience, and on the other reached their ‘wannabe rich’ counterparts, influencing
their opinions too. The goal of this campaign was a sale of at least 4 Mercedes GL’s amongst
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a niche audience, the happy view who can afford almost 200.000 euro on a car. During the 2
weeks of the run of this mini campaign sales went up to a total of 12 cars (300% of clients
demand). Furthermore, the demand of the personalized posters among those addressed at
Mercedes headquarters was overwhelming. Concluding, the campaign resulted in numerous
more test drives and possibly more sales in the future. (FHV BBDO Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, 2008)
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ii. Disruption
What is Disruption? If we had to define disruption as a tool of marketing, it would be about
finding the strategic idea that breaks and overturns a convention in the market place and
then makes it possible to reach a new vision or give new substance to an existing vision.
Charles Handy in the Age of Unreason defines Disruption as the ability to see things,
problems, and situations in other ways; to look at them sideways to put them in another
perspective or another context. Disruption means taking information, perspective
knowledge and looking at them in a new light.
Disruption is a basically “Way of Thinking”. It is a marketing and methodology that implies
idea of rupture of non linearity. In the clutter when needs attention of the audience
disruption get that for the brand? How does one achieve this? How does one plan to deliver
disruptive communication? How does one approach disruptive marketing?
The key element is to identify the continuity pattern. Every sector or category has a
particular similarity. They have a pattern which they follow, usually identified by semiotic
analysis of the category communication. The audience to this communication find it hard to
differentiate and feel they have been targeted with same ideas again and again. The
audience forms a particular expectation because of that. Our eyes, minds and ears have
been trained to spot advertising messages. We have recognized these adverting formats for
decades and they have been subject to very little change. They are burdened with a degree
of predictability that stands in the way of genuine surprise.
When we throw our friends a surprise party for their birthday the fun is in the
unpredictability. The success of our plan lies in the fact that the friend is unaware about
what is going to happen. One has to catch him by surprise and making sure he is the one
who would like such kind of a surprise. Hence for a marketer it is important to know your
audience and get his attention when he would enjoy it.
Disruption is about identifying limitations. We as humans identify certain limitations and do
not expect beyond them. We limit our ideas, practices and expectations to these norms.
Disruption is caused only when one pushes the limitation defined by the society, by the peer
group or by the person himself.
Strong brand which use the disruptive way to communication are leaders. They speak their
heart and not head. They define their own identity and are non-conformists to the norms of
their category. They understand that a company or a brand cannot make changes to the
product on a frequent basis but they can change their communication. They identify this as
an opportunity to be a bold, experimenting and challenging communicator. They identify
the expectation of their audience, and present creative ideas which are targeted to reverse
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their perspectives. This could be their perspectives about the category, the brand and the
consumer himself.
Disruption has been successful because it clearly gains people’s honest and immediate
attention. Consumers should not be expected to have to fit into categories predefined by
the brand. Brands should fit in the unpredictable behaviour of the consumer. (Dru, 1996)
For example as explained earlier the Nike example. The company to gain attention of
football lovers during the world cup got attention of their audience by placing a 200kg
football over a car crushing it in the middle of a busy street. The consumer was caught by
surprise. It is not what he expects from anyone on his daily routine of life. An advertisement
on television while watching the match, during match analysis and so on. But they did not
expect the world cup fever to be presented this way.
One of the most successful examples of disruptive advertising is the launch of Opel /
Vauxhall Insignia a car in London. The tag line of this product was “A CAR OUT OF THIS
WORLD”.
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Here passersby at Potters Fields, London experienced a world-class publicity stunt. A huge
crater with steam coming out of it and an odd metallic object (looking a little like a large flex
capacitor) was being moved out by a crane. Surrounded by about 10 men in black, talking
into their sleeves there was a good air of mystery surrounding the sight to satisfy most
conspiracy theorists. This seemed there had been some alien attack and there was some
investigation going on the spaceship/Rocket kind of thing crashed right in the streets of
London. This was done overnight to add to amplify realistic effect of the event. After a
couple of days the metal object was lifted by a crane and the Insignia was released from a
height of almost 20 storeys calling it ‘A car launch out of this world!’ (Wray, 2008)
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iii. Proximity
“Your place or mine?” this should be the opening line for a romantic relation between the
consumer and the brand. The consumer should not mere like the brand but love it for the
way it here’s him out and speaks to him when he wants to be spoken to using the most
suitable words again. It is very important where we do it. One could get delicious food at a
cart on the street, a cafe at the corner, a shack on the beach or at a five star hotel. What
changes the perceived value of the food is the place where it is served and how is it served.
Media consumption caters to similar expectations from the consumer.
The difference that is required here is convenience and pleasure in consuming media. As
one receives delivery at doorstep media today needs to follow the footsteps of the
consumer. Only this way can one brand identify and explore existing and new touch-points
of the consumer. The tools used by various agencies like 24 hour clock, day in the life of etc.
Helps identify these touch-points but one needs to take these a step further. Applying
guerrilla tactics one can create areas which are a touch point but not really accessible to
brands traditionally.
There is another approach to getting the media close to the consumer. Like I said earlier
“your place or mine?” and now that we’ve checked the consumer touch points the other
option that can be explored is the brand’s world. Every brand has its own space and area in
reality and consumer’s mind space. Considering our previous analogy about restaurants,
many restaurants have open kitchens or transparent kitchens where one can see the food
being cooked. It’s access to the making of the product enhancing the service and adding to a
customer’s experience. The idea is used in communications as experiential marketing. A
staged event or experiential platform can expose a brand to public.
Proximity is getting up close and personal with the consumer. Traditional media like TV,
print radio and mediums that link the brand and consumer; but today it is not more than a
compromise to reach the consumer. Interactive media encourages the proximity between
brands and consumers thus giving brands to truly infiltrate people’s lives and interact with
them directly. (Himpe, 2006)
For example Clorets wanted to communicate to its audience that a new flavour which
included chlorophyll created a great refreshing effect for the consumer. People take walks
or jog in parks to get fresh air and enjoy nature’s way of refreshing human body. The brand
followed the consumer here to present experiential marketing to its potential consumers.
The green podium was placed along the parks bushes creating an ambience which seemed
like the greenery was coming out of the clorets box. (Xue, 2007)
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Another such example could be of the Colgate ‘do not forget’ campaign. The target here
were kids who forgot to brush their teeth after having chocolates, ice creams and other
confectioneries which made them prone to dental problems. The brand here tried to enter
their world and communicate to the kid that he or she should brush their teeth after such
sweet bites. They made the product consumed by the kids as their medium to reach them at
the time when it was most suitable. (Y&R Bangkok, Thailand, 2009)
The brand is making it part of the
consumer’s world. Instead of
giving away product samples they
gave away ice creams and cotton
candies to the kids.
38
This was the brand’s way
of entering their world
and reminding them of
Colgate.
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iv. Media Innovations
Media innovation firstly needs to be properly defined - one finds the term being used in a
flippant manner and very loosely these days. Strictly speaking, an innovation is something
that hasn't been done before. Media innovation, in the true sense, is a creative use of a
medium or the creative adaptation of a message to a medium - something that hasn't been
done before. (C.V.L. Srinivas, 2003)
Brands are continuously on the lookout for places, moments and media where they can
enjoy people’s undivided and devoted attention. Brands are facing a lot of clutter in their
traditional medium. They want to break that but it is not possible all the time. For any brand
it is their ultimate fantasy to spend time alone with the consumer without competing
messages stealing their attention. Conventional advertising scores low in this as they
provide only loud and over-crowded places for communicating. For example if there is an
IPL match going on though the eyeballs are maximum resulting in huge GRPs but it comes
with a lot of clutter and sharing of space. There are boards on the field, pop-ups while the
match is going on and the extremely impatient bombarding of commercials between
bowling overs of a match. At times the money invested may even result in poor publicity for
the brand as the consumer who is hooked on to the channel to watch a match doesn’t
appreciate the continuous bombardment of commercials and eating away his space to enjoy
the match.
How do you get the attention of your consumer in an environment full of clutter? Some
brands have considered this problem and taken steps like buying out exclusive sponsorship
of such BIG events. But this comes at a very high price! One manages to get the consumer’s
attention alone but the investments are too high for every brand to afford it or continue
such investments regularly.
The key to this problem is Media Innovations. Media innovations ensure you and exclusive
platform to interact with your consumer. It is creating new opportunities for the brand to be
a part of the consumer’s life. The exclusivity of media assures the less one has to share the
attention of a consumer with fellow advertisers the more power you can exert over
consumers.
For example, a Brand ‘Rikkis’ provides door to door taxi and shuttle service South Africa. It is
not safe and advised to use public transport late nights in Cape Town as it is not considered
safe. Because if this, the people of Cape Town take their chances when they go to late night
parties and drive under the influence of alcohol. The brand being young and dynamic chose
to communicate to their audience in an unusual way avoiding the clutter of print and OOH
ads. They placed huge posters in restrooms of various pubs, bars, night clubs and other
party going places. The posters were positioned in such a way that when one looked in the
mirror it gave an impression to the person that he was posing for a police mug shot. They
even installed there direct line phones at these places so the ones under alcohol influence
40
could immediately call for a cab after their risks through those posters. The posters clearly
said ‘Drinking under influence of alcohol makes you a criminal. Give us a call and drive home
safe’. (Draftfcb Cape Town, South Africa, 2009)
The message was clear yet delivered in an innovative way. This gave the brand an
opportunity to communicate with his target without any noise from competitors or any
other advertiser. The brand clearly enjoyed devoted and undivided attention from its
consumer enhancing the effectiveness of his advertising.
But the use of media innovations also comes with certain exceptions. It is always possible
for two brands to work hand in hand for long term basis or for a particular occasion as long
as both parties gain from the collaboration. For example if the earlier explained
communication of Colgate was used by Pepsodent, they could have tied up with their own
parent company brand Kwality Walls. This would not even have been a great platform for
both to interact with their TG but also turn out to be cost efficient and hence mutually
beneficial. Parents would appreciate the brand Kwality Walls for encouraging Dental care
and Pepsodent would derive a great opportunity to speak to the audience at the right time
scoring high on Proximity.
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This idea can be used by
two brands i.e. the car
brand Beetle and an
alcohol brand like Diego.
This way the collaboration
makes communication cost
effective, cooler classier
and more competent.
While brands which cannot
find
such
find
collaborations, they have
to do much on their own.
42
v. Entertainment
Jean-Marc Lehu in his book “Branded Entertainment- Product Placement & Brand Strategy
in the Entertainment Business” talks about cinema and television as a competitive way of
communicating. The advantages of through product placements are:-
It’s a technique accepted by the audience
-
It has a potential powerful vector of positive image
-
With a good negotiation one could achieve a lot at a low price.
-
It can even influence one’s purchase behaviour through in film placements. (Lehu, 2007)
But I believe these advantages could be way more if one takes brand and entertainment a
scale further. One should identify the brand to a point where the brand itself is the source
of entertainment. This may seem easy for brands like movies, games, gaming consoles and
music. But today to break the clutter and give one a unique experience about your brand we
need to push our limits to explore our brands deeper. Identify the possibilities where the
brand can be a source of entertainment to the consumer. Virgin is loved by its consumers
for not just its products but also the entertainment it comes with which itself defines the
brand. Stunts performed by Richard Branson during his product launches give a new space
for the product in the life of its potential consumers before they even experience the brand.
To utilise your brand as consumer’s entertainment it has be a bold, unique and dynamic
brand. One should have the courage to refuse being modest about the product or brand.
One has to let go the reality and create their Larger than life reality. Similarly Adidas
identifies the entertainment quotient about the brand is “sports” itself. To demonstrate the
goal of surpassing limits that the brand shares with athletes they took the game of football
to death defying heights in Japan.
Two players and a ball were suspended
by ropes ten stories above the ground
and at a 90-degree angle to pitch.
Similarly, they also created a 100m race track 43
which was vertical and upside a building. A race
was conducted and timed to coincide with the
summer Olympics in Athens.
In a very recent campaign from January 2009 Tic Tac Micha a 16-year-old Uzbek
transformed the boxed mints into a variety of percussive instruments, from a rattle drum to
a self-playing cymbal to, and a shaker. The link to this video has been posted on
www.youtube.com on January 6th 2009 and has received immense popularity online. The
brand has taken forward the idea that Tic-Tacs are mere mints for refreshing one’s breath to
Tic-Tacs for musical instruments. The video has been uploaded by Tic-Tac the company
themselves and has been the topic of discussion on various forums. This not only
encourages brand sales but the effectiveness of the campaign leads to people play with the
Tic-Tac and hence spending more time with it. This attention further develops small
relationships between the brand and the consumer. (Tic Tac, 2009)
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vi. Content
Brand essence defines the core reason for the brand's existence. Brand essence considers
questions such as; What is the brand's leadership domain? What is the brand's core
connecting message? What would consumers really miss if the brand did not exist? What
would trade channels really miss of this brand did not exist? What would the company really
miss if this brand did not exist?
Essence can involve everything at the core of a brand which works to the brand's unique
advantage in the marketplace.
The definition of the brand essence must be the simplest statement of the main, distinctive
characteristics that make the brand unique and represent its future source of power. In its
ultimate form, it is one key-word that the brand owns in the mind of the consumer, a word
that nobody else owns. It represents a single thought or attribute, not a laundry list of
attributes associated with a product.
The essence of a brand needs to be expressed in the consumer's vocabulary: The simplest
and often the best way to do this is to define the brand in key-words and to express this in
key-visuals.
For successful brand activation the Brand “essence” which is identified needs to be
converted into brand “content”. Brand content can be explained as a tangible or intangible
property derived out of the brand essence to be used for the communication. Brand content
is the slice of life derived out of the brand. It is what the brand has to offer to the consumer
which includes the product and beyond that. It is the world of the brand that is offered as a
package. (Tarun Tripathi, 2008)
For example AXE deodorant sprays talk about attracting women. The brand content is the
AXELAND, women chasing men after using AXE and the irresistible appeal that the user
develops. The benefits, hopes, beliefs, dreams, adventure and everything else that comes
with the use or aspiration of the product is the Brand content. AXE further used this Brand
content in an activation explained below.
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This Activation was named as 1 man vs. 6000 women. Every year Europe's largest women’s
running event takes place in Aarhus, Denmark. This year more than 6.000 women
participated in the race and an enormous crowd along the roads was following the event.
Immediately after the race begins, a man in an AXE T-shirt jumps over the fence
approximately 100 meters after the starting line. He begins to spray himself with AXE
deodorant and start to run along the route, when the 6.000 women get near him. From the
point of view of the spectators along the road, they saw a man - wearing an AXE T-shirt that was being hunted by over 6.000 women. (Gianor, 17 Jan,2009)
The Brand content of being chased by women was used to develop the activation idea. All
successful brand communications are good stories. To make successful brand activations,
one needs to be a good story teller. Cult brands like Harley Davidson, Dove, BMW, Amul,
Coke, Nestle Maggi etc one needs to have a strong heritage full of stories about the brand’s
existence to consumer’s experience. The essence needs to put into action developing brand
content.
Another example could be advertising by Afinity dog foods from Germany. The Brand
content as we see is the food itself and the smell which the dogs immediately sniff. In their
Billboards they hid some dog food behind it which the dogs sniffed and tried to look for. And
these billboards were placed close to specialist dealers further increasing chances of
converting the communication into sales.
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vii. Engagement
Brands of all kinds are communicating their messages to the consumers all the time.
Consumers are well aware of what the marketers are trying to say. They refuse to be the
targets. They feel too much traffic and noise around them and do not appreciate the been
bombarded with information all the time. This makes them loose interest in brands and the
communication. They decode advertising messages instantly. The new generation even
hates being labelled by advertisers. They appreciate simple communication than
bombarding an idea into their heads forcefully.
This rules out frequency as a tool to get the consumer’s attention. Graham Ellor , Director in
planning at TDA explains in his paper using the below diagram about the consumer’s
engagement barrier. (Ellor, 2007)
With the help of the above diagram he explains that the consumer does take certain
interests in brand communication but it is limited. The brands need to push it beyond from
making a connect with consumer through a monologue to engaging him with a dialogue.
With so many brands shouting in the limited space available to gain the further limited
share of consumer’s mind space, he tends to ignore and shut off most of the messages. A
powerful connect through traditional communication can be made more powerful only by
crossing the engagement barrier and interacting.
Engagement is about creating an ‘Impact’. Stage 1 is about finding the right consumers while
stage 2 is about deepening the relation with the target through engagement. Engagement is
a key weapon in helping brands (re)-establish relevance and get noticed in a grey world.
Brands that merely connect with a consumer do not go far enough – they need to push the
boundaries so that the consumer wants to interact. And that means we need to think
creatively about how we use the tools such as media and creative at our disposal.
Engagement should be planned considering certain points like
Intelligent integration with the media used for the activation.
Be near to your target audience but yet try as much as possible to stand out.
47
If u want to appreciate their participation give the audience what they would need, like and
put to use. It should work from his end to our end and not from the brand to the consumer
as it might suit us. (Ellor, 2007)
For example, we see a lot of non-smoking ads from various organisations which have
messages like smoking kills, the no. of hours you are losing from your life, the chemicals
inside one cigarette etc. The smokers manage to escape these messages by immediately
ignoring them. They do not want to receive such information and easily deny any
consequences to their smoking habits on their body by avoiding such advertising.
Cancer Patients Aid Association gave Gray worldwide a brief that the communication
needed to involve the smokers to make them aware of the chances of cancer that they face
due to smoking. They came up with a solution where a basic cigarette manufacturer's survey
from, the kind they use before they introduce a new cigarette brand, will be handed out to
smokers at cigarette shops, pubs, discos and bars. Asking them their preferences, through a
series of smoking related questions. The twist is the fact that there is another form directly
under the survey form which is a medical report. The answers on the survey form get
imprinted onto the medical form by the virtue of the paper used a smoker's form which
happens to be carbon less sheet. So any smoker who will fill this form unknowingly will be
filling his own cancer report. After which they hand it over to the respondent.
48
Most of the people were shocked when they saw the cancer
report in front of them. Especially when they noticed their
own signature on the report. Some got irritated but at the
same time the report made them think that it can happen to
them. (Grey Worldwide, India, 2008)
49
viii.
Amplification
The most common criticism of BTL activities is that they reach only a limited number of
audiences directly. It may be the case most of the times but the campaign always has a
potential that can be amplified so that more and more people experience it directly. Like
one of the cases discussed in the Literature review where Nike’s brief was to create
disruption and get maximum eye balls for it. With their 200kg football stunt they for free
media coverage more than Rs 75 lacs. This concept of broadening the exposure of the
activation through free publicity of any kind is called amplification.
A lot of clients do not have sufficient budgets to create the kind of buzz they intend to. Bold,
innovative, disruptive and entertaining activations can get them free publicity from media
vehicles like TV, print and the internet. They amplify the message that otherwise would have
very limited reach. The amplification effect is not controlled by the advertiser but by the
audience. Many times association of celebrities with activations also catch eyeballs of the
media. One can amplify the message by supporting the activation by spreading some
awareness about through conventional media. In absence of resources to support such
amplification the nature of the campaign and respective audience response solely control
the amplification effect. (Himpe, october 2006)
For example, a store for outdoor equipment in Sweden called Playground store wanted to
promote to the local audience that they have the warmest “down” jackets. To promote this
and get maximum footfalls they designed an Activation (stunt) where they experimented on
hatching an egg in a down jacket.
50
A fertilized egg needs a constant temperature of 100°F and a relative humidity of 60%. The egg was
kept in a sport-bra inside a down jacket and a thermo- and humidity meter controlled the
conditions. They made a guy called “hen” hatch the egg in a temporary farm built outside the store.
People followed his efforts to hatch the egg online. They kept themselves updated through
www.playgroundstores.com which notified the status of the egg. They placed just one print ad to
create awareness about their Activation. The campaign received a lot of attention and PR in all sort
of channels (National TV, Newspapers, blogs etc). Many blogs gave the campaign attention and
people started to bet on the experiment, whether or not it was possible to successfully hatch an egg
in a down jacket. New costumers discovered the store and the sale of down jackets increased by
almost 500%. Now everyone knows that Playground's down jackets are warm enough to save lives.
The campaign is a Gold & Bronze Promo Lions Winner in the year 2008. (The European Advertising
Festival, 2008)
51
ix. Invisibility
Invisibility is all about moving the Brand in the background keeping the message in the
foreground. Invisibility is a mighty weapon of the guerrilla warfare. It is like a game of hide
and seek the brand plays with consumer to increase his curiosity levels and enjoy the game.
ATL options for advertising are much expensive than Activations and hence one would want
maximum visibility. In traditional media one is looking at maximum returns in terms of
quantity wrt the money invested in such communications. But this leads to noise in the
advertising environment. This noise further leads to rejection of the consumer’s attention.
With consumer constantly decoding the marketer’s messages the brand loses its game for
trying too hard. What keeps a relationship exciting is the mystery between two people.
Similarly when there is mystery the brand earns a chance to flirt with consumer’s mind with
his complete attention. It is an age where today brands have to earn recognition and
attribution as they can’t enforce it.
Brands can earn brownie points when they advertise and get away with the fact that it was
an advertisement. What smart product placements, cleverly devised guerrilla tactics,
branded content and word of mouth all have in common is that they are harder to trace and
label as advertising. This makes the advertisement difficult to ignore because you are not a
part of the clutter creating noisy. (Himpe, october 2006)
For example Gatorade had a viral campaign on youtube around mid 2008 called the ‘Ball
Girl’. The video about one of those teens who sits in a folding chair between the box seats
and the baselines at professional baseball games. Her job is to field the ball which would be
a foul it and return it to the game or a fan appreciating the game. They are helpers just like
ones we see on the tennis court who speed up the game by their participation.
In tis video there is match between teams, the Tacoma Rainiers and Fresno Grizzlies. In the
action, the Tacoma batter hits a hanging curveball deep down the left field line. The ball
curls foul into the corner and the Fresno leftfielder doesn't even make a move on it. Then
this Ball girl comes into action where she does a Jackie Chan stunt climbing the ball in two
steps and jumps in the air to catch the ball. While commentator says “Driven down the
leftfield line, and this ball is gonna be ... ohhh, it's caught! It's not Jake Wald ... it's the ball
girl! Jake Wald in left field can't believe it! And look ... she shows him up; she sort of tosses
him the ball, saying 'Take that, Jake, I don't see you making the effort.' Alfonzo the catcher,
he can't believe it. Let's look at that replay. Oh, my! What an amazing play!"
this seemed true but wasn’t and was much debated on a lot of online forums. But then it
was clear that it was a fabricated stunt using cables and other techniques especially when
one notices the ball girl resumes her folding chair with the bottle of Gatorade at her feet.
But the communication was clear and well appreciated by baseball fans.
52
Gatorade’s message was overestimate the power of situational superior hydration. The
video initially did not spread as a Gatorade stunt but as the Ball Girl video. Gradually people
started talking about the Gatorade bottle and that it was a planned marketing stunt. It got
great amplification through TV coverage only over the debate whether it was real or
something executed by the brand.
Invisibility assures that a brand doesn’t enforce itself on consumers but instead earns that
recognition and respect. The less pushy and the less dominant the commercial nature of the
message, the more chance it has of being digested. Brands cannot simply force their way
into the lives of consumers; they need to act like chameleons and subtly blend in. Brands
can overcome their fear towards invisibility considering expected return on marketing
investment by increasing the frequency of activations. If the brand is known for such bold
communications measures it will earn the attention, respect and love from its consumers
for a longer period of time. (Bob Garfield, Advertising Age, 2008)
53
x. Memory
As marketing investment needs to work ever harder to produce an acceptable RoI, marketers are
faced with a bewildering array of old and new media, technologies and techniques. Freebies given
away through promotions and activations such as photographs, posters, coffee mugs, pens, pencils,
retractable solar-powered flashlights and other products bearing a company name and logo prove
to
be
very
useful
medium
to
enhance
the
effect
of
activations.
Activations involve a lot of effort and money invested consumer and a marketer would want to
increase the effect of this investment by increasing the impact of the message over a period of time.
Freebies given away at activations valuable to the consumer help increase the impact of the
activation which makes it a part of the consumer’s memory. They have higher recall of activations
because
of
the
freebies
they
get
to
take
away
from
it.
A survey was published about effectiveness of these freebies. The survey sample – primarily
business people aged 21-plus – was asked to recall promotional gifts received over the preceding
twelve months. Among the key findings:•
84% of consumers remembered an advertiser based on a product they received.
•
42% had a more favourable impression of an advertiser after receiving a promotional
product.
•
Nearly one quarter (24%) indicated they are more likely to do business with an advertiser
based on items they receive.
•
The majority of respondents (62%) have done business with an advertiser after receiving a
product.
•
Writing instruments are the most commonly owned gifts, with 54% of respondents owning
them, followed by shirts, caps and bags.
•
Most (81%) promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
•
More than three-quarters of respondents have kept their items for about seven months.
(AdWeek, 2008)
One such example is the activation done by Nestle Lion Bars. Lion was the sponsor of several
basketball tournaments, and research showed a growth in obesity. Nestlé wanted a
promotion that would link confectionery with sport. The challenge was by keeping the
values and target group in mind, to increase both market and volume share, and create a
link between LION and sport.
54
They started a 3 on 3 Basketball contests where one could win one of the four exclusively
designed Spalding Lion basket balls.
These were Branded Spalding Basketballs. They were so appealing that they were given
equal or more shelf space than lion bars at supermarkets. Everyone wanted to purchase
these balls but one could only win them through the contest or by participating in the 3 on 3
games. (Punta Linea Communications, Belgium, 2007)
55
VII. The Strategic Brand Activation Model
© Copyright of Divesh Rohra
56
VIII. Model Testing: Live Case – Sunsilk Hair Care
To check the feasibility of the model it was tested for a real live case. The case is explained
as follows:
Background: Sunsilk shampoos and conditioners in their Television commercials talk about
the key benefit of great shining hair. Sunsilk has now come with various variants in
conditioners where they have hair fall control also.
The brief: Sales promotion in organised retail for Sunsilk hair fall removal
shampoos/conditioners involving consumers. There should be enough Brand visibility and a
low investment for the event.
Solution: There are various “Standees” next to the payment counters at Retail stores. This
adds ‘Proximity’ for consumers where they are standing in queue to make their payments.
Sunsilk could take one of them and put up a rack of Sunsilk hair fall removal products with
poster of a female’s hair. They would have “stickers shaped as hair” stuck on the women’s
hair representing hair fall. These stickers would have information about a product and a
special discount on the same. This representation would be giving the Brand content of
falling hair a live dimension. This is normal problem women with severe hair fall problem
face, as they brush through their hair they always catch hold of a few in their hand which
only upsets them. Based on this consumer insight it has been used to reverse the effect of
smiling after catching hold of falling hair, as here they are happy to get a discount on
discovering fallen hair. This idea will ensure consumer engagement as they pick the hair like
sticker and the product from the rack instead of directly getting a straight offer on the
product. Here the brief demand s Brand visibility or else the brand name could have been
constrained to stickers where the focus would be only on the poster and hair fall. That way
the invisibility would ensure more focus on the message of preventing hair fall.
Stickers would be all over the
hair and as many as the stock
on the rack. The limited
stock could further
accelerate sales.
Result: The idea/concept is under consideration.
57
IX. Limitations of the model
The model has the following limitations:
•
When a creative strategy is being planned for a Brand Activation the model suggests
use of 10 variables at two different levels. A plan may not be able to cater to
satisfying all the variables mentioned. For instance the plan suggested to Sunsilk
does not involve any disruption or amplification. Inclusion of every variable adds
value to the strategy but one may not be able to have a solution which is fool proof.
•
Also the model suggests seven variables in the first stage which include insight,
disruption, proximity, media innovation, entertainment, content and engagement.
To further enhance the effectiveness of the strategy one needs to focus on
invisibility, amplification and memory and finally design a creative strategy. There
might be instances where one might not be able to find a solution for one of these
three at the second stage till the creative strategy is decided. For example one might
not be able to choose a suitable souvenir to enhance memory of the activation and
might be able to do so only after the strategy is decided.
•
Variables such as invisibility might be debatable for certain brands which are looking
for higher exposure, recognition and brand recall. Brands with existing superior
image and recall within the minds of the consumer have greater chances of playing
cards of invisibility.
58
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