building your brand - iab uk · work at these various points of the customer journey, identifying...

BUILDING YOUR BRANDInsights, case studies and research from the Internet Advertising Bureau

Intro

Brands in a digital age

Understanding the consumer and the tools to get you there

Brand-building in action

How online can drive brand engagement

Conclusion

1

IAB AND MICROSOFT ADVERTISING REPORT:

from Guy Phillipson, chief executive, Internet Advertising Bureau

Introduction

2

INTRODUCTION

rand marketers have always used media to tell compelling product stories. Ten years ago the key channels were

pretty much self-selecting but with the exponential growth of digital media and changing consumer habits and attitudes, it’s essential that advertisers choose the right media mix to tell their story in the most effective way.

Back when I was an advertising man, TV was often the

best place for brand campaigns, as we reached millions

with our audio-visual delights in a neat 30 second window.

Print, outdoor, radio and cinema were also excellent

partners in crime to help us tell these tales, and fast

became reliable – and reassuring – formats.

As online and broadband have evolved the medium has

become the perfect proposition for brand-building, whilst

some years ago when sites were static and the user

experience relatively unrewarding, it wasn’t quite there.

Now we can say with confidence that the internet is

entertaining, enlightening, sociable and no longer confined

to the realms of banking and simple electronic mail. When

it comes to building brands each medium has its USP,

but one thing we know for sure is that when you add

significant online elements - such as rich media, video,

search and word of mouth to your brand story, then your

metrics do go up. In fact, whilst online video advertising

is still in its infancy it has served to shift the paradigm

somewhat, as consumers increase their appetite for

consuming video content and present us with even better

storytelling opportunities.

In this new phase of online usage, the medium has

become something of a big red button – the channel

of choice for consumers to get more out of brands, to

access information, to play, to find out what other people

think of these brands and then if not buy, at least make

Engaging Consumers

a significant commitment to them. However, it would be

a mistake for us to say to advertisers: “Online is the only

place to be sir, put all of your marketing budget there and

then you will surely build your brand!” (Unless you’re a

Google, Ebay or Amazon, the few exceptions to the rule.)

Because integration really is the key.

Throughout my career at the Internet Advertising Bureau,

the medium has changed beyond all recognition, and

as a brand, if you’re not there already then you certainly

need to reappraise your strategy. Over the years through

research and best case studies we’ve been able to

champion those marketers who have demonstrated

that online is an immersive, engaging platform for brand

communication, whilst at the same time highlight to other

brands exactly what they’re missing.

This report will go further. Whilst existing in a digital

age can present a challenge, we think we’ve provided

some helpful solutions, with a guide to understanding

your consumer (and the tools to get you there), the

best case studies and the IAB’s very own research into

brand engagement, as well as our landmark cross-media

research with Thinkbox. Throughout this book we’ll be

telling our own story about how to build your brand online,

and we guarantee a very happy ending.

Search THIS!

Introduction

3

IAB AND MICROSOFT ADVERTISING REPORT:

According to the latest study from the IAB and PwC, in

2008, such interruptive formats accounted for just 0.4%

of all internet advertising expenditure, and this is a figure

that continues to decrease with each wave. That is why,

aside from within this solitary paragraph, you will never

find a reference to pop-ups within any IAB educational

materials, aside from recommendations that you never

employ this prehistoric marketing method. So lesson one

is that such impolite interruption is the very antithesis of

building your brand online – consumers crave respect,

control, and creativity they can relate to.

et’s begin this section with one of the most important facts the modern marketer needs to know. Pop-ups - the intrusive, irritating and

irrelevant advertising format synonymous with the early days of online - are all but extinct.


4

BRANDS IN A DIGITAL AGE

Building a believable brand

For some years now the Internet Advertising Bureau has

urged marketers to ‘unthink’ their brands. This means

performing a thorough reassessment of the structure of

their communications plans, to put online at the heart.

Advertising has changed, and digital has been the catalyst,

but possibly the most important conclusion to draw from

the rise of the medium is that it’s not just marketing that

needs to adapt. It’s your strategy, product development,

customer relations and even business structure that

require a much-needed makeover for an audience that,

thanks to the internet, we can now understand better

than ever.

The internet has revolutionised the way consumers gather

information about products and services, and with just

one click we can find out anything we need to know.

This means that the brand promise, and the service they

provide, co-exist online. Traditionally, you advertised in

one place and fulfilled in another, but with the internet this

now happens in the same place. For Chris Clarke, chief

creative officer at digital agency LBi, this means brands

in a digital age need to be ‘believable’, and to deliver on

their promises, adopting a new view of communications.

“For us, believability means ‘impress me’. Often clients will

talk about authenticity and trust, but believability is more

emotive, and the key to consumers’ hearts.” In Clarke’s

mind, this is what the marketing community needs to

strive toward.

Interactivity as the advertising ‘utopia’

Across the industry, particularly in 2008, we have seen

within many online disciplines - such as search, video or

behavioural targeting - a greater dedication to refining

processes, making practices more robust and setting

standards that will reinforce the integrity of the medium

and pave the way for more mature marketing. But

what does this mean for the future relationship between

advertiser and consumer? While, even in a time of

economic flux, monetary forecasts may be relatively

straightforward to make, predictions about the ways in

which consumers and brands will interact are incredibly

hard to make, as we remain undecided about the kind of

advertising utopia that we are all working toward.

‘The Connected Agency’, a report produced by Forrester

Research in 2008 provides an insightful look at the future

of marketing in theory. It suggests that all marketers and

agencies will, over the next five years, become a real part

of online communities, moving from pushing campaigns

onto the passive public to conversing with active

consumers.

And this is where interactivity comes in. Millward Brown

tell us that if someone sees a piece of communication

then there is – on average - a 20% take out of message,

if someone hears a piece of communication then again

there is a 20% take out of message. However, If they see

and hear the communications this rises dramatically to

70% and if they see, hear and interact then this goes up to

85%. And whilst online is not the only place for advertisers

to turn in order to achieve this interaction, its unique

characteristics do lend themselves to such engagement.

Toby Horry, head of planning at creative agency Dare,

believes that because of online, we should be thinking

about interacting with consumers in the long-term: “Digital

has an always-on aspect, it requires great commitment

from a brand.”

Keeping up with consumers

And of course it’s not just about the consumer/brand

relationship. Online, consumers talk to each other too.

“Digital is making everything advertising,” says Horry. “Any

experience you have of a brand you can tell people about,

therefore everything is an ad.” EA games considered

this after the launch of Tiger Woods 2008. After a fan

video posted on YouTube showed an apparent glitch in

the game - if Woods hit the ball into the water, he could

walk out onto the water and take a further shot there - EA

promptly responded. They created their own tongue-in-

cheek video – which to date has received over 2.5 million

views on the video-sharing site - stating that in fact it

wasn’t a bug in the game, ‘he really is that good’.

Praveeta Singh, product manager for Tiger Woods PGA

Tour at EA Sports told Adwatch: “It was actually our

advertising agency that brought it to our attention; they

thought we could do something with it involving Tiger. We

looked at it and we thought it would be pretty funny, so

we gave it the go-ahead. One of the nice things was that

people saw the human side of EA.”


5

And in terms of how this has informed their future

communications strategies, Singh states: “It’s really

important as we look at our marketing list to reach new

marketing mediums. People are on the internet and one

of the things we consider is that [with personal video

recorders] people skip over commercials. You think about

all the things you’re doing in a day, you might not watch

TV, but you’ve probably been online. As marketers we’re

looking for different ways to approach our customers.”

Playing to online’s strengths

Brands in a digital age don’t just need to respond.

Their proactive marketing also needs to play to online’s

strengths in order to successfully reach their target

audiences and engage consumers. Indeed, the IAB would

rarely suggest that all advertising activity takes place

online, rather it plays a fundamental role in the broader

marketing mix. Gavin Reeder, head of digital strategy at

Quantum BLM, suggests brands need to fully appreciate

where online can add exceptional value before planning

their campaigns:

“Arguably the medium is not as effective as traditional

media at achieving reach and pushing a marketing

message, but it is for driving consumer engagement, and

if you need to make your brand fit. Online is great at doing

a job within an overall campaign, and getting a core group

excited about your communications.”

Understanding this role that online plays will ensure your

internet-based activity complements the wider strategy.

Dare’s Toby Horry states that “you can’t just view digital

as a channel or a line on a media plan. Instead digital is

instigating a more fundamental change in the way that

brands are built and run requiring more interaction, more

transparency, greater speed of response and greater

generosity from brands to their customers. Not all of this

will necessarily be executed in digital channels but it is

digital that is provoking the change in approach.”

The next section of this report will prove how online can

work at these various points of the customer journey,

identifying the unique selling points of each. Chris Clarke

from LBi echoes this, arguing: “Building a brand digitally is

not about thinking of the internet as a channel, or medium

per se, rather you need to consider all the consumer

touchpoints and think about how you can effectively reach

your consumers at each.”

Display advertising can, of course, be an excellent way

to do this, and later in this report we’ll be presenting the

proof that, with the right creative, online display can drive

exceptional brand engagement with consumers. However

it is important to remember that with online, the same

tried and tested rules of traditional media communications

no longer apply. One challenge for brands today is that

consumers have increasingly short attention spans, and

will rarely go online with the sole intention of seeking

out advertising. For example, a study from web

video services provider TubeMogul in November 2008,

measuring 23 million streams on six top video sites over

two weeks, found that after clicking play, viewers only

watch to the end of 5-minute long videos around 10% of

the time and only 16% make it through three minutes.

So whilst incessant interruption is not the answer, giving

consumers something they deem worthy of their attention

and time, is. As Reeder argues, “You’re usually limited by

a restricted time frame. Therefore you need to add to the

online experience, enhance it and make your advertising

useful, and don’t assume people will watch or interact with

your ad from start to finish.”

Making the internet work for your brand

So it would appear that for brands in a digital age,

rethinking your strategies to make the most of online is a

no-brainer. But understanding online and the consumer

is the only place to start, and this should inform every

part of the communications process, as Chris Clarke from

LBi concludes: “If you want to be believable, you have

to understand everything: media, website and creativity

to make people engage. This should be a manifesto for

how brands should think. Often there is a disconnection

between website and marketing teams in-house, but

clients should consider them all together.”

As marketers we should no longer be daunted by the

prospect of putting online at the heart of communications

campaigns. Rather we should see it for what it is:

arguably the biggest gift that advertising has been given.

Understand online and you will ensure your brand is

always one step ahead of the competition.

BUILDING YOUR BRAND ONLINE

6

hat makes online special? Is it the immediacy of your communications, its reach, the capability to engage with targeted or niche groups, the fact that you can harvest sales from that initial point of interest all the way to the virtual cash register? Of course, one of the internet’s unique selling points

is that it can facilitate a number of consumer activities, all at the same time. From essential tasks such as managing one’s finances and arranging travel to daily routines such as reading news and emailing, as well as more entertaining pastimes like watching video content and playing games, consumers rely on the medium more than any other.

Understanding the consumerand the tools to get you there

7


The extent of this increasingly sophisticated consumer

behaviour might at first make online seem too daunting to

some brand advertisers who like the certainty of knowing

how a medium works. Indeed, in the early days of online

the marketing community took some persuading; it

was placed into the ‘too difficult’ box and the poor user

experience associated with internet advertising, as well

as the inevitable dot com crash, led to a universal call for

proof and statistics of success. However, now the benefits

of online advertising have been realised and understood,

the possibilities of the medium become more obvious.

What makes online such an exciting option is that it

enables us to fully understand the consumer: to monitor

their behaviours, to see where they go, how they group

and what their motivations are. The Internet Advertising

Bureau has long been educating the marketplace

about how to talk to your target audience in their own

environment, and identify exactly how they use the

medium to better communicate your brand messages.

This is because nothing in this realm is possible –

particularly not brand-building activity – unless you first

research this behaviour. The following chapter provides

those initial insights for you to begin the planning process,

and appreciate what it is that makes online different, and

such an exciting prospect.

Grouping behaviour patterns and analysis

Consumers are accessing the internet in huge numbers

every day. A beginner could assume that mass behaviours

take place that are easy to understand and advertise

around, an understanding which forms the basis for

traditional media planning. Whilst this is true in some

cases, increasingly with the huge choice of activities

available – and the online consumer’s ability to multi-task

– behaviour patterns are not as easy to group together

in such a way, and treat as a linear activity that makes

targeting as easy as identifying popular TV or radio

shows, or evaluating newspaper readership.

The complex nature of internet usage has turned

traditional advertising knowledge on its head. This is

mainly due to the interwoven nature of advertising with

all forms of activity online, which is unlike anything that is

seen in other media. Online is a direct response medium,

a branding medium, a sales channel and a communication

and information source all at the same time. Our own

research carried out in partnership with Thinkbox, shows

that online is used for a wide variety of reasons, all of

which involve some form of interaction with advertising

messages which can drive preference at every point of the

purchase path.

(Source: TV and Online: Better Together, IAB and Thinkbox 2008)

Another thing to take into account when looking at what

people do in this new digital age is to understand the

amount of time they spend online. The internet now takes

up a huge chunk of people’s media time – 59% of people

go online everyday, with only 6% going online less than

twice a week. Once online, people are spending over an

hour a day on the internet, with younger people spending

over two hours a day.

(Source: BMRB’s Internet Monitor, wave 45, August 2008)

Research/find information 75

Online Motivators...

% Agree

Communicate 66

Be entertained 56

Relax and unwind 56

Organise my finances & household 53

Get some work done 37

Organise my social life 23

Share information and content 31

Great ideas and inspiration 47

Male 121

Female 99

15-19 136

20-24 141

35-44 103

55+ 81

45-54 95

25-34 132

Average in minutes

Entertainment and relaxation on the up

Time spent online

On a day when you use the internet, for how long on

average do you use it?

Merging of mindsets between TV and online consumption8

UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER AND THE TOOLS TO GET YOU THERE

This is a huge shift in behaviour. Within ten years, the

internet has become one of the most highly consumed

media – and is showing no signs of slowing down. Of

course, this is now also combined with the fact that, as

laptops and wireless internet becomes more popular, the

internet can be used while consuming other media – in

particular, TV.

Exploiting the internet to communicate brand value: the brand-builders toolkit

The cunning marketer must use careful planning – as

with all media buying – to make the most of this diverse

platform and to understand consumer drivers. Here is a

list of ten things to consider before planning any online

branding activity:

1. Who are we targeting?

2. And what is the desired outcome?

3. Where are these people?

4. What time of day are they most receptive?

5. During what online activity can we get their

attention?

6. What other activity are we doing that they might

have come across?

7. How can the online part of our activity extend

this awareness and build on the online

opportunities that other media don’t offer?

8. What fits our brand and will help make it

stand out?

9. Which online tools are best suited for our

objectives?

10. What metrics should we be using to measure

my campaign?

Answering each of these in turn gives a framework

against which to plan any activity you are looking at doing.

Research by Lightspeed and the IAB in 2009 shows that

quite simply the more relevant your ad is, the more likely

people are to pay attention to it.

1. Who are we targeting?

This is the first important step in terms of fully

understanding the consumer mindset, and is not a task

that should be taken lightly. From both a media and

creative perspective – and particularly for a brand-building

campaign – extensive research is required into this target

audience. There are many different ways that you research

audiences, for example consumer panels such as TGI.net

or bespoke research at the start of the campaign to further

understand how people respond to your brand, and your

previous marketing activity. Quantitative research via a

consumer panel for example, can be undertaken quickly

to achieve a snapshot attitudinal profile of your target

audience, and focus groups (both on and offline) are also

an effective way of really getting to grips with what your

consumer wants.

You can even put yourself in your target consumer’s shoes

– what would they search for, what online communities do

they visit and what would this demographic expect from

advertising? One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can

make is to base their briefs on simple assumptions about

the opinions and behaviours of their target audience, when

the internet offers us such in-depth insights.

2. And what is the desired outcome?

Online is a highly responsive, interactive medium, but

this shouldn’t mean that every action possible should be

measured or indeed that any form of response should

be seen as a success for your ads. People can click on

a banner ad to go through to a microsite or a website.

They can go on to buy a product online or sign-up to

a newsletter, post a comment on a social network or

play with a branded game. Each one of these activities

may drive engagement with your brand, but for those

consumers who don’t click, you need to understand the

branding impact of the impressions served, as well as

analysing the campaign metrics for click-through rates and

further interaction with the campaign.

If it is relevantto me

Source: IAB and Lightspeed Research, 2009

If it is usefulto me

If it gives memoney off

If it isentertaining

If it addssomething to

my onlineexperience

If it gives menew and/orexclusive

information

51%

43%

33%

16% 15%9%

When are you most likely to pay attention to an ad you see online?

9

(Source: IAB and Lightspeed Research, 2009)

3. Where are these people?

Not just in terms of the sites they visit and their general

online behaviour but in terms of where they access the

internet, too. It goes without saying that online activity

during work hours is likely to differ to at-home, more

relaxing web browsing, and your creative executions

should consider this. Furthermore with the growth of

mobile internet usage, particularly amongst young people,

again surfing behaviour and mindset will be different.

Media planning systems such as the UK Online

Measurement Company (UKOM) will give geo-

demographic details of website users which will allow UK

marketers and agencies to analyse exactly where their

target audience is.

4. What time of day are they most receptive?

Fast food brands such as McDonalds and Subway

probably the best known users of day-part advertising

online, because they can target consumers before lunch or

dinner. Time of day in online is not often talked about but

it is often a useful way to analyse consumer behaviour and

hitting your target audience at the right time is a great way

to build your brand. Research tells us that people believe

they are more receptive to ads as the day progresses, as

their attention becomes less focused on other, important

tasks. The IAB/Lightspeed study shows at what time

people believe they are more likely to pay attention to

advertising.

5. During what online activity can we get their

attention?

Inevitably people have different objectives and ‘modes’ of

behaviour when they are online. Some of these are very

task-driven such as personal admin or communication

when advertising messages may not be particularly

well-received. Other types of activity which are more

entertainment-based offer opportunities to connect

with consumers while they are actively receptive to ad

messages that might add to that experience.

It is important to remember your consumer won’t be online

to seek out advertising, but that they will pay attention to

your ad if you ask them to at a time and in a place where

they are happy to be approached. Consumers need to be

encouraged to engage with you, and choosing the right

time to ask them is very important, whilst at the same time

not rudely interrupting their online session.


What time of day are you most likely to pay attention to an ad you see online?

Before 9am 9am - 12pm 12pm - 2pm 2pm - 6pm After - 6pm

Source: Lightspeed Research

5%4%10%

15% 15%

11%

24%

15%

46%

54%

18-24 45-54

I love Display

10

(Source: IAB and Lightspeed, 2009)


6. What other activity are we doing that they might

have come across?

People can tire of ads online in the same way that they

can with any other media – hearing or seeing the same

marketing message around ten times a day will rarely

result in an increase in brand preference. In fact, having

too high a frequency can damage the impact of your

advertising.

Likewise repeating activity from other media without

adapting this to the online format may increase the

frequency of which people view your ad, but will not

necessarily lead to further engagement and awareness.

Online offers a variety of different ad formats that

advertisers can use to extend their offline campaigns, but

you must tailor the creative to the medium: increase its

interactivity, make the message more relevant, and invite

feedback or further information to extend the dwell-time.

This could include developing shorter or interactive online

videos, seeding useful or entertaining content via blogs or

communities, or by using the various social tools available

online to focus on a character or aspect of the whole

campaign and build up a fanbase.

This has been seen mostly via brands with a definite

personality which they’re happy to develop online, and

Cadbury are one of the best examples of this in recent

years. From their Crème Egg activity based around the

‘here today, goo tomorrow’ strapline, to the promotion of

user-generated content based on their TV ads, and their

excellent response to the consumer-driven Wispa revival,

Cadbury is a brand that fully appreciates the power of

online to drive loyalty and a positive association.

Online is also a great place to host the ‘exclusive’. The

internet is a place not only for powerful advertising in

its own right, but also a channel which can be used to

get consumers excited about your offline advertising.

Sony Bravia, in partnership with their online PR agency

immediate future have spent years building a buzz around

their TV ads even during the production process, and long

before they were first aired.

7. How can the online part of our activity extend

this awareness and build on the online opportunities

that other media don’t offer?

The IAB knows, and has proved that online works well with

other media, for example collaborating with Thinkbox to

explore the relationship between TV and online advertising.

The results are discussed in chapter 5, and demonstrate

the uplift that campaigns can achieve by using TV and

online together, as well as giving examples of how creative

work can be adapted online to extend, rather than repeat,

a TV campaign.

Please indicate when you normally access the internet to do each of these activities

Before 9am 9am - 12pm 12pm - 2pm 2pm - 6pm After - 6pm


5%4%10%

15% 15%

11%

24%

15%

46%

54%

18-24 45-54

14%

26%

31%33%

73%

11%

29%31%

44%

60%

12%

29%32%

36%

68%

11%

33%32%

47%

54%

21%

34%

25%

29%

51%

14%

34%

25%

35%

45%

15%

24%21%

28%

61%

9%

23%21%

43%

52%

Weekday

Visiting social networking sites

Weekday Weekday

Shopping online(including autction sites)

Weekday Weekday

Reading the news

Weekday Weekday

Looking at sports results

Weekday

Before 9am 9am - 12pm 12pm - 2pm 2pm - 6pm After 6pm

11

(Source: (IAB and Lightspeed, 2009)

The online audience can be targeted with calls to action

that other media can not fulfil. People can opt-in to

databases and email communications. They can ask for

more information or can find out more about your products

and services through a website. This ability to offer extra

information and interaction is a big advantage. Often online

ad campaigns are used to drive traffic to sites to increase

awareness of new product launches, to encourage people

to join a database or a mailing list and to find out more

about offers. Online can be very effective at extending the

complete marketing campaign and providing interested

consumers with an easy and cheap way to find out more

about a brand.

8. What fits our brand and how will it help us

stand out?

As an agency or individual creative, you can use the

internet (and now mobile) for mass reach and to drive

awareness. The real power of the medium however lies in

its targeting, and the ability to cut out any wasted views or

interaction.

Fosters and their agency Play for example, effectively

promoted their new in-can bubble preserving widget to

a young male audience. They developed a viral concept

around ‘ride the scuba’ which used a live scuba tank

to replicate the action that the widget does to create

bubbles. A remote control scuba was submerged in a

tank full of Fosters and users could direct the tank to the

bubbles to try and kill them off. This was hosted on a

branded microsite to reinforce the brand engagement,

and on average users spent 12 minutes on the site

interacting with the content. Such extensive dwell-time

and exceptional interaction would not have been possible

via any other media. It was a highly targeted niche concept

that fit the brand and used online as a cost effective way

to reach the relevant audience with a fun and engaging

concept.

9. Which ad formats are best suited to your

objectives?

The IAB would always recommend that rather than treat

each online discipline in a ‘silo’, that you consider the

consumer’s total online journey and meet them in all

the relevant places. Too often we see an online display

strategy executed separately from the social media activity,

and the search strategy far removed from what your online

microsite is hoping to achieve. As such, it’s essential for your agencies, and the teams within those agencies to talk with each other to ensure that all your online (and offline) communications are on the same page, singing from the same hymn sheet and all manner of other clichéd business phrases that may apply.

Moreover, you should not assume that all online tools will be relevant for your campaign, and again an analysis of your target audience will dictate exactly which internet ad format you employ. The IAB/Lightspeed research highlighted the vast differences between what different age groups expect from their advertising online. For example, the research found that newer forms of online advertising are now gaining ground with the younger demographic, with ads using sound and video, widgets, in-game advertising and free gifts on Facebook proving to be effective approaches. In particular Facebook gifts and branded applications online are especially effective with 18-24 year old respondents – 29% had seen and sometimes interacted with an ad from either Facebook or branded content across various other social networking sites. As has happened with other online applications such as social networking, this suggests that these forms of advertising have the potential to become more mainstream. Conversely, email advertising was found to be effective for those aged over 25, with 34% of 25-34 year olds said they had seen and sometimes clicked on an ad from an email.

In terms of promoting greater interactivity with your brand, rich media formats are now an excellent choice. Creative ideas online are becoming more sophisticated everyday and the rise of new formats around social media and online video offer a huge amount of choice to advertisers. However, once again, not all of these will be the most effective for your chosen audience.

A campaign that has successfully used interactive elements to drive the creative concept is the award winning ‘Talk to Frank’ work designed for the Department of Health by Profero and i-Level which started in 2007 and is still running now. The campaign is aimed at getting young people to learn more about drug use and online has been used to extend the awareness campaign in above the line advertising to drive interaction and provide further information to the target audience. It showed a full understanding of the audience and how they behaved online creating MSN Messenger widgets called Frankbots, a highly interactive website, strong media placement on


12


teen brands online and seeding through social media outlets. Rich media is often used on the website to show graphic videos about how drug use can affect people. The campaign theme has run for a long time and uses online media to extend the messaging and reach of the above the line campaign while reinforcing the ‘Talk to Frank’ brand. Online was the key medium for driving interaction and allowing people to ask questions of the service and find out

more about the subject.

10. What metrics should we be using to measure

my campaign?

The digital consumer is an untamed and at times unpredictable beast, but with the right planning and analysis, the online behaviours of your chosen target group can be explored and the right media plan can be built around this to target your messages at the right time in the right place. Metrics are one of the cornerstones of online, and these can be as detailed as you would like them to be.

Some examples of key metrics to look out for are:

Brand awareness research When running a branding campaign it is important to understand the impact that the campaign has had on consumers. Brand awareness research is used in all media to understand the uplift against exposure and other brand metrics by testing the same group of people in a before and after survey looking at the key brand metrics after a campaign has run. This typically involves looking at the same group of people asking questions before and after they have been exposed to a campaign and then measuring the uplift (increases in the relationship between your brand and your consumers) against the before and

after group.

Research companies like DynamicLogic, Essential Research and Q Media with a range of methodologies, all

offering unique insights can measure changes in:

• Awareness: shows if there has been uplift in the number of people that know about your brand or product.

• Favourability / perception: shows if there has been a positive uplift or change in consumer opinion.

• Consideration: shows if there has been an increase in the number of consumers thinking about buying or using your brand.

• Message association: shows if there has been uplift in the association of a message to your brand. E.g. when fuel companies advertise about their environmental credentials.

This is currently the only way to measure the branding

impact alone and is unique in online measurement in that it

does not focus on any click through activity but purely on

the branding impact of the impressions served.

Frequency of ad serving

Measurement is now starting to look at frequency of

ad serving as well as reach in the same way that TV

advertising focuses on frequency and reach. New tools

are available that can help track how many times a unique

user was served a particular ad. This can help brands to

understand the optimum number of times to serve an ad

in order to achieve a click through if this is the desired

objective, and can allow them to see how often their target

group is being exposed to the ad.

Interaction and click through metrics Click through metrics are very useful in setting targets for the interaction you are expecting to achieve. Typically ads will click through to a website or a bespoke microsite, though measurement can cover activity that is done within an ad format even if the user does not click through to a website. A rich media ad with a video player built in to the ad, for a film release for example, can measure how often the video was launched, even if no-one clicked on the ad. Other interaction metrics may be the number of activities carried out on a microsite such as playing games or watching video clips, the number of competition entries received, the number of times a piece of content was launched or the amount of people signing up for email newsletters. These must be looked at in light of the fact that a large number of people never respond to online advertising though this does not diminish the branding effects of the exposures served.

Impressions/unique users

The unique user metric gives brands an idea as to how

many people saw the ad. It can be cross referenced

against click through rates to get a more accurate view

of what the click through rate was against the number of

people who saw the ad rather than the number of times

the ad was served. The unique user measurement can

also be used in a more sophisticated way to get a more

accurate view of how many consumers within your target

audience you reached.

13

rand-building is a highly complex, diverse process which for many has taken years to nurture. For some people, Coca-Cola is the real thing – you don’t know why, but you are brand loyal and would never touch

Pepsi. Do they really taste that different? For others, Coke is the devil’s drink – bad for you, over commercial and ethically unsound. Yet the same marketing and brand building efforts have taken place, for around 100 years.

Some brands get there quicker, for example the meteoric

rise of ‘new brands’ Google and Amazon who did very

little in terms of self-promotion. What they did was to

quietly focus on what they do brilliantly and in turn

build trust.

If we assume that brand-building is based on engendering

trust, how can you do so online?

Brand-building in action14

search THIS!

BRAND BUILDING IN ACTION

“I trust the internet”

In general, we tend not to dedicate too much of our time

to people or things that we don’t trust. Would you get in

a taxi if the car looked dangerous or the driver didn’t know

where to go? Would you eat food that had been cooked

by a chef with swine flu?

The internet works, and more or less does what you ask

of it. As such we have grown to believe that our internet

connection is almost indispensable and there are even

studies showing that people are more likely to give up their

TV than an internet connection.

Part of this trust is powered by the fact that the online

experience is user-initiated. Consumers are in control

and can do what they want, when they want. This

empowerment can pose a challenge for brands, but there

are also benefits to be explored. So, what do you need to

know to help build your brand online?

Brand tonality - Brands can accurately reflect their

values online because internet bandwidth can now handle

the creative executions needed to do so. A beautiful TV

ad was far more powerful five years ago compared to a

‘Flash’ generated animation. Now beautiful HD creative

can be experienced without buffering.

Below is an example of how Walkers Brit trips went

the extra mile with an online campaign by Microsoft

Advertising.

Key objectives

• Raise online ad awareness with target audience

• Increase purchase intent

• Increase Brit Trips participation using online channels

• Allow consumers to acquire Walkers Brit Trips points

without purchasing crisps

Creative Solution

• A custom-built ‘Brit Trips Mash Up’ game was built for

Walkers

• Live Search played a critical role, providing clues to

mystery UK destinations

• Strategically placed co-branded ads drove visitors to the

game

• One randomly selected player from the top 50 ‘hi-score’

table won a weekend break every week

• The Homepage takeover and branding ads across the

MSN channels and Windows Live services together with

the game, extended the bold eye-catching themes of

the offline campaign

Results - The game increased engagement

• Exposure to the site increased purchase intent by 18.8

percentage points

• When benchmarked against other microsite campaigns,

the Brit Trips campaign ranked ‘excellent’ for purchase

intent

• Exposure to the site increased the brand attribute ‘are

good value for money’ by 12.4 percentage points

* Research by Dynamic Logic

Advertising raises key metrics

• Exposure to the Homepage takeover increased key

branding metrics:

• Online ad awareness increased by 15.5 percentage

points

• Brand favourability rose by 10.3 percentage points

• Purchase intent increased by 10 percentage points

15

• The Homepage takeover also increased key brand

attributes:

• ‘Are high quality’ increased by 15 percentage points

• ‘Are good value for money’ by 12.9 percentage points

• ‘Taste great’ by 16 percentage points

• ‘Are proud to be British’ by 14.1 percentage points

* Research by Dynamic Logic

Brand loyalty - With brand trust comes brand loyalty,

but online can be a fickle world. A consumer might trust

a high street retail store, but can quickly forget when they

are being beaten online for price. Email, exclusive deals,

SMS and search are all brilliant ways to keep your brand

values top of mind and remind consumers why they fell for

you in the first place.

Social media has fast become a mainstay of modern

marketing, and can drive brand loyalty and preference

with an online experience of exceptional quality. Word

of mouth marketing, forums, blogger outreach and buzz

monitoring can be great ways of getting involved in

conversations online – transparently of course – and giving

consumers valid reasons to like and respect you. For every

brand, there is sure to be a relevant online community or

forum that matches your target audience.

Social networks have also been great communicators of

brands, particularly in the entertainment industry. One of

the best Facebook examples seen is Paramount Pictures’

application for the movie ‘How to Lose Friends and

Alienate People’. This campaign went beyond ‘traditional’

movie marketing by building an application that re-invented

facebook’s functionality and imagined how the film’s star

would use the popular social networking site.

Paramount Pictures International and agency Picture

Production Company (PPC) wanted to promote new

movie ‘How to Lose Friends & Alienate People’ across

social media, especially Facebook, with the aim of

doing more than simply advertising the movie. With

‘Anti-Social Networking’ PPC tried to envisage how the

film’s protagonist, Sidney Young, would use Facebook

– insulting the false friends he encounters and mocking

the way the masses use Facebook, but also provide

an engaging application for anyone to enjoy. Within a

week the application saw an uptake of 4000 users. The

campaign was spread virally and received excellent

reviews in blogs (http://mashable.com/2008/09/23/lose-

friends-facebook) and PopBitch (http://www.lifehacker.

com.au/tips/2008/09/26/anti-social_networking_insults_

your_friends.html). The application can be viewed here.

http://apps.facebook.com/antisocialnetworking/index.php

Brand playground - Online display such as rich media

and microsites are one of the most interesting ways of

getting your brand some attention, and engaging with

consumers. They can offer an opportunity to understand

more about your brand, play, experiment and maybe

even contribute. Care must be taken that everything the

site does builds on what you are trying to say about your

brand. For example, don’t have a game on le of a brand

site is to ‘build’, not provide. There is plenty of free stuff

out there so make your content work really hard. A good

rule is ‘do one thing great’.

The Mazda Icon microsite on topgear.com is a useful

example of how brands can do this effectively. Mazda

wanted to promote their Mx5 Icon car, build brand

awareness, positively increase perception across a set

of key brand attributes and actively engage the users

of topgear.com. The brand also wanted to get users

interacting with them whilst still communicating the key

brand messages and building awareness. In order to do

this, a specific Mazda Icon microsite was built on topgear.

com, complete with a bespoke Mx5 game and voting

system.

The microsite attracted 932,473 UK unique users,

generating 1,792,841 UK page impressions. The game

was played nearly 4 million times, over 420,000 times from

the UK.

More importantly however, the microsite proved to be

a huge success in building the brand perception of

Mazda’s key attributes. There was an average increase

of 13% points across the board for every brand attribute

measured. These included key measures such as: positive

impression; value for money car; stylish; sporty; top

performing; and fun to drive car.

Video is also an incredibly rewarding online discipline, and

allows you to get your brand noticed amongst a wealth of

other marketing messages. An example of a brand that

has used video to build awareness is Transport for London

with their ‘Do the Test’ campaign by WCRS. Tasked with


16


raising awareness of cycling safety, specifically how easy it

is for motorists to miss cyclists and to persuade cyclists to

make themselves seen. As part of an integrated campaign

including TV, press and online; WCRS created a TV ad and

used social media such as YouTube, delicious, community

seeding on facebook and cycling/motoring blogs to help

the campaign spread virally. After just 2 weeks, the online

version of the film received a total of 4.4million views.

1,500 comments on video sharing sites, 4 fan groups on

facebook, and reached 6th most viewed YouTube film in

the UK that month. The campaign also achieved 34,000

results on Google discussing the ad, succeeding £140k

worth of views for £20k, providing an ROI of 600%. The

videos can be viewed here www.dothetest.co.uk.

A more tightly controlled use of online video saw a major

car manufacturer commission a test campaign on ITV.com

for its small car range using in-stream advertising around

ITV content. As part of the campaign, 155,000 video

impressions aired on ITV.com in May and June 2008. As

a result of the campaign, significant differences between

pre and post exposure were recorded for a selection of

key measures: purchase consideration rose significantly

to 36%; ten of the twelve brand attributes tested showed

significant improvements; “innovative”, “affordable”, and

“good value for money” each rose by over 10 percentage

points.

What’s more, the strongest scores were among those

respondents that had previously owned the car make

being tested. Each measure increased after exposure.

Two thirds felt they were good quality, reliable cars while

the score for them being innovative cars increased by half

to 38%. However, those that had not previously owned

that specific brand of car showed the largest increase in

scores post-exposure. Ten of the twelve brand attributes

showed significant growth with the cars being innovative

and affordable both nearly doubling, to 28% and 36%

respectively. Rhys McLachlan, head of broadcast

implementation at MediaCom said of the campaign:

“We’re delighted with the results. This research has

contributed immensely towards the construction of a set of

norms that we are now able to use to increase investment

into online video.”

Case study, Video: InSkin Media

What is InSkin? InSkin is a video ad format that allows brands

to dynamically rebrand the media players of a growing number

of leading UK and European websites. The InSkin ad remains

viewable for the entire duration of the video view, giving

unparalleled dwell times per ad impression served.

Leading FMCG confectionary brand:

Key objectives:

• Build on goodwill and consumer interaction with the brand

• Increase passionate disposition towards the brand

• Deliver views of the full length video content

• Isolate effects of various forms of online video advertising

Media/Creative solution:

• Target 16-24 adults in high engagement ‘entertainment’

environments (watching video)

• Websites NME.com, thesun.co.uk, Tiscali.co.uk

• Use 15” second pre-roll (TV cutdown) copy alongside InSkin

(re-skinned media player ad)

• Isolate 3 groups of users

1. Pre-roll solus

2. InSkin solus

3. Pre-roll and InSkin combined (i-Roll)

• Upon click – opens InSkin expandable microsite which keeps

user on the site they were on

• Clicks on pre-roll solus drive to advertiser website, clicks on

InSkin and i-Roll bring up InSkin expandable

Campaign results (source ISAP and verified by 3rd party ad-serving):

• 1,783,741 impressions delivered across all formats

• 1,186,310 unique users reached

• 75,188 unique clicks on the various formats – 4.22% CTR

overall

• Average dwell time per InSkin ad viewed = 2 minutes 4

seconds

• Average dwell time on ‘combination’ pre-roll and InSkin = 1

min 40 seconds

build your

brand

17


• Average dwell time on pre-roll solus = 14 seconds

• Engagement on the combined pre-roll and InSkin 67% higher than on pre-roll solus

• 60% of clicks on the InSkin ad came after the user had viewed the ad for more than 45 seconds

• Average dwell time per user on InSkin advertiser microsite = 57.85 seconds

• Average view through of ‘full length’ video viewed on microsite = 80%

• Percentage of users who went on to interact further with the brand (enter competition, watch ‘making of’ video, go to

website), after watching the ‘full length’ video = 90%

Branding results (Brand research by Metrixlabs):

• Ad recall and recognition of the advertiser were higher

amongst InSkin exposed respondents

• People evaluating InSkin creative were twice as likely to

regard it as ‘striking and different to other ads’ than the

average for online advertising (41% vs benchmark 21%),

• As-well as providing this cut-through, InSkin generated

significantly less irritation and more message clarity than

pre-roll alone

• Those exposed to either the InSkin or combined unit were

significantly more likely to understand the core campaign

message from the advertising than those only exposed to

pre-roll only

• The advertising led to 6% shifts in brand consideration vs

benchmark for online advertising 2%

• 24% of users said the InSkin ad had made them plan to

buy the product, vs 15% of those exposed to solus pre-roll

(benchmark 16%)

I don’t know what I’m looking for

Consumers don’t always know what brand they want and

this is dramatised particularly with search. Searching for

winter boots, or skin care is an open invitation for brands

to say “I’m right for you – here’s the link”. Often search is

used as the ‘I’m ready to order’ part of the campaign, but

search can offer a great way to build a brand, sometimes

from scratch.

Search is often run alongside brand campaigns on other

media to capitalise on the spike in brand interest that

these incur. These can be tied in to the key terms used in

the advertising campaign. A good example of this was the

Orange campaign ‘I am’ where Orange bought the key

words ‘I am’ and experienced a huge demand for these

key terms on search.

Hitwise publishes the top 10 keyword terms in each

category and shows that for most categories brand

terms are the most popular search terms used. The top

10 search terms in the shopping category are all brand

names, as they are in the automotive category.

This concept of search as a branding tool is becoming

ever more relevant, as a piece of recent research from

Enqiro and IPSOS/Mori, commissioned by Google, shows.

Participants were each given identical search tasks and

then given a questionnaire to ascertain their awareness,

liking and purchase consideration of relevant brands.

This produced an understanding of how paid and organic

results work together in impacting brand metrics. The

research also analyses the importance of the position of

brand listings on the Google Search Engine Results Page

(SERP).

The results of the study demonstrate that consumer

exposure to a brand on a SERP significantly increases

awareness and also demonstrate that the resulting brand

uplift was not restricted to just awareness and recall of

an advertisers brand, but was also highly effective in

increasing “softer” more emotional brand qualities. In

FMCG for example the presence of search advertising in

the top sponsored position increased consumers declared

brand trust by 9% over the control group.


60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%FMCG Inskin andpre-roll combined

FMCG Inskin andexpandable

BenchmarkFMCG Pre-roll only

Striking compared to other online ads

18


I trust you with my time

Whichever routes you choose, remember that consumers

want to trust your message – so don’t let them down. If

you promise a great experience, deliver it. If you offer an

exclusive with your online marketing, live up to this claim

and respect the online user. A consumer’s expression

of trust is the time they give you, so make the most of

it. Respect how long you have with them and deliver

brilliantly.

Engaging Consumers

team internet

search THIS!


Conclusions:

• In terms of reaching 16-24 audience, online video is

extremely powerful as it drives high engagement and dwell

times around very visual media

• Pre-roll is an extremely important ‘interruptive’ method

of video advertising, which can deliver high reach and is

extremely good at conveying key messages in a short space

of time

• InSkin helps contextualize the advertising in terms of

reinforcing the message contained in the short-form pre-roll

ad, and drives high interaction rates

• InSkin stays with the user throughout their entire video view,

eliciting dwell times measured in minutes, and consequently

extremely high engagement levels

• Because 60% of all clicks on the InSkin ad came after

the user had been exposed to the ad for 45 seconds or

more, we can conclude that this led to the unprecedented

microsite video view and interaction rates – these were ‘more

considered’ and ‘high value’ clicks

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%FMCG Inskin andpre-roll combined

FMCG Inskin andexpandable

BenchmarkFMCG Pre-roll only

This ad has made me plan to buy ‘product’

19

The proof - how online candrive brand engagement

t remains increasingly important to prove that online display advertising can and does play a significant role in client communication strategies beyond click through – and that it is effective at driving engagement. The

following brand engagement studies undertaken by the IAB highlight that online branding has a vital role to play in achieving successful integrated branding campaigns and should be included in the campaign media mix as a part of the whole planning process.

20

The proof - how online candrive brand engagement

THE PROOF – HOW ONLINE CAN DRIVE BRAND ENGAGEMENT

However, before entering into a discussion about how

brands successfully work across media, it is important first

to consider the term engagement and what this actually

means.

It has become evident that engagement - whilst it remains

very much a buzz word in the current media landscape

- has a number of different meanings that are dependent

on a number of different variables. The word is commonly

used without referencing the type of engagement

being addressed. This makes providing a definition of

engagement somewhat problematic, given that there isn’t

a widely accepted or consistent explanation of what it is.

There are three common ways of looking at engagement

when describing the relationship between consumers and

different crossing points. These are described as:

• Media engagement

• Communications engagement

• Brand engagement

The holy grail for advertisers is for consumers to form an

attachment with your brand (be it either emotional, rational

or both). This is the essence of brand engagement.

Ultimately the aim of all brand communications and

marketing investment is to drive interaction with the brand

and – of course – increase sales. How this is achieved,

however, may vary. There are a number of different things

that can affect the extent to which a consumer engages

with a brand – ranging from communications such as

advertising, point of sales communication and PR as

well as customer service, product quality, performance,

experience, heritage, trust and so on.

It has commonly been inferred that effective ways of

developing brand engagement are to engage consumers

with media platforms and/or communications. By this

argument, if you manage to engage your consumer with

both the medium itself and the brand communications

you will be successful in achieving brand engagement.

Whilst there are still arguments for this approach, the

work that the IAB carried out with ævolve (formally Carat

Insight) challenged the notion that if you achieve media

engagement and communications engagement you will

therefore effectively achieve brand engagement.

To put this into perspective, think about whether you have

ever seen a great piece of creative for an advert that you

really liked, remembered and perhaps even interacted

with, but you were unable to recall which brand the

creative was for. aevolve identified this scenario in its own

effectiveness studies, thereby opening up the possibility

that just because a piece of communication can be very

‘engaging’ it doesn’t necessarily lead to actual brand

engagement.

Furthermore, let us consider media engagement. How

engaged can we expect or assume consumers to be

with a display banner ad, for example, when they are

highly engaged with the online medium itself (for example

by playing a game or interacting with non commercial

content online)? Consumers may be more likely to

engage with communications when they are simply

browsing. Further to this, ævolve stated that: “Sometimes,

high media engagement may mitigate against brand or

communications engagement”. What’s more, “the most

effective direct response campaigns tend to come from

media occasions in which consumers are less engaged

rather than more, because they are more willing to

‘engage’ with the ad when they are less involved in the

media content itself.”

However, on the flip side, research has shown that

campaign evaluations aimed at consumers who are likely

to be unengaged with brands or categories, consumed in

a comparatively passive media environment and featuring

uninspired creative, delivered strong positive effects on

sales and attitudinally. The insight is then, that an impact

can still be made at a subconscious level to the benefit of

the brand.

21

make pop-ups history!

22


The methodology, Marry Jeffries, ævolve

When ævolve started working with the IAB in 2006, the

effectiveness of online display advertising was judged

purely by click-through rates and impressions. The IAB

wanted to prove the value that online communications

deliver beyond the click; we wanted to prove that

advertisers can and should use online as a brand

building medium, alongside other channels.

Other studies had focused on online display advertising

in isolation, rather than as part of the total media

mix. These studies tended to focus either on how

people engaged with the advertising messages – using

diagnostic measures such as ad recall, awareness and

the like – or on how they interacted with the medium.

What was lacking was an evaluation of how online

display advertising works as part of an overall

communications plan to affect how people engage with

brands. Was it capable of changing measures such as

consideration, preference, intention and advocacy, or

was it just an efficient means of eliciting responses?

ævolve’s pioneering research approach was the ideal

solution to answer the IAB’s questions – it would allow us

to measure the effects of all communications on brand

engagement, to isolate and compare the impact of each

medium without bias towards any particular channel,

and without having to use unreliable diagnostic measures.

ICE is an unconventional technique that marries qualitative

and quantitative research to advanced statistical analysis;

it was created by ævolve to deliver genuine actionability for

clients, agency planners and media owners when planning

and implementing brand building campaigns.

Using this approach we measure the impact of both online

and other marketing ‘contact points’ on consumers’ brand

engagement directly and indirectly through key brand

associations.

The analysis:

• Identifies how marketing has driven brand consideration

and engagement.

• Allows us to estimate the relative power of different

channels.

• Establishes relative effectiveness of different creative

treatments within channels.

• Measures the relative impact of communications

campaigns with other brand interactions such as

promotions, trial and usage.

• Provides comparison of the impact of each brands’ own

marketing and that of their competitors’ marketing on

them.

Results

The four studies conducted were in the automotive, hair-

care, soft drinks and retail categories. We chose a diverse

range of sectors and target audiences where published

research was lacking.

Brand Engagement Study One – Investigating the young mother’s relationship with the small car market

Women with kids have a significant influence over

household spending and are therefore an important

audience for advertisers to understand. Aside from this

– women with children are not considered to be your

typical online audience and we wanted to demonstrate the

internet’s relevance to all demographics. With this in mind,

the first of the four studies was carried out in the small car

market sector and examined a sample of 1,000 women

with kids. They had to have bought a car in the last three

months or be seriously considering buying one in the next

12 months.

The internet was the primary tool in the car purchasing

process – highlighted in both the qualitative and

quantitative research. Through attitudinal questioning

we found that three attitudes held the key to brand

engagement in this sector:

‘I like the shape’

‘This is a car for someone like me’

‘This is a fun car’

22


With the 25 statements broken out into seven engagement

factors we found that ‘style’ and ‘fun’ made up 64% of

brand engagement (the statement ‘is a feminine car’ was

also included under ‘fun’).

We found that in the small car market, online delivered on

average 39.9% of brand engagement in the advertising

mix. This compares to 36.6% for press, 17.6% for TV,

3.9% for outdoor and just 2% for radio. TV appeared to

drive brand stature whilst online and press worked on key

model attributes. Both the qualitative and the quantitative

research showed that these women are more likely to look

for information and reviews about cars online than offline

(this being second only to personal recommendation)

and that online aids them in their car purchase decision

making process. They are therefore already engaged with

the online medium. The fact that these women have very

little historical information about the brands in this market

means they need a more in-depth level of information than

traditional media can provide. Therefore, online is having

a greater effect on their engagement, in this case, than TV

which is unable to provide the level of detail required.

Model of Brand EngagementSeven key factors, made up of sixteen brand perceptions

ValueIsn’t too expensive to run 40%You get lots of extras with 45%Is expensive compared to other similar cars 15%

SafetyIs it a safe car 43%Is it a reliable car 57%

6%3%

8%

7%

12%

24% 40%

FunctionHas enough space for my needs 34%Is easy to park 28%Is a nippy car 38%

StatureIs it really reputable company 50%Is good name in car manufacturing 50%

Ad SalienceYou see a lot of ads around 45%Do good advertising 55%

FunIs it a fun car 84%Is it a feminine car 16%

StyleIs a car for someone like me 47%I like the shape of 53%

Small CarBrand

Engagement

Impact of brand communications:Online advertising has most impact


Online

Press

TV

Outdoor

Radio

14%

26%

31%33%

73%

11%

29%31%

44%

60%

12%

29%32%

36%

68%

11%

33%32%

47%

54%

21%

34%

25%

29%

51%

14%

34%

25%

35%

45%

15%

24%21%

28%

61%

9%

23%21%

43%

52%

Weekday

Visiting social networking sites

Weekday Weekday

Shopping online(including autction sites)

Weekday Weekday

Reading the news

Weekday Weekday

Looking at sports results

Weekday

Before 9am 9am - 12pm 12pm - 2pm 2pm - 6pm After 6pm

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

39.9%

36.6%

17.6%

3.9%

23

Brand Engagement Study Two – Investigating women’s engagement with the hair-care market

The second study, in the hair care sector resulted in a

very different picture – as you would expect taking into

consideration the differences between the categories.

The five brands tested in this sector were Herbal Essence,

Pantene, Fructis, L’Oreal and Aussie.

Of all the communications’ effects on brand engagement,

display advertising contributed to 8.5% - admittedly, this

doesn’t sound impressive when you consider that display

contributed 40% in the small car market. However, when

online was combined with the brands’ websites, this

accounted for 35% of brand engagement. We found that

the display ads were very successful in driving women to

the brand websites - so much so that those who had seen

a brand’s online ads were 3.5 times more likely to visit its

webpage than those who hadn’t. There is also a logic to

the argument that online display advertising isn’t engaging

women on a huge scale in this particular market. Hair-care

is a very personal thing for women and the most important

factors contributing to their engagement with these brands

was ‘trust’ and ‘range’. These two factors combined

contributed to 43% of all brand engagement.

We saw in the creatives that the display advertising

was very much about driving consumers to the brands’

websites. Brands were unable to showcase the extent of

their range on banner advertising and so needed to drive

consumers to their websites, where this information was

made available to them. The websites showcased the

range of products on offer and provided further information

in a very engaging way that was personal to users and

their specific hair type.

TV proved to be the greatest driver of brand

communications in this category, with an impressive 62%

of communications engagement driven by the medium.

Through visual aids and brand building, the TV advertising

proved to be successful at showcasing brands’ product

ranges and developing trust. Online also proved to be very

successful in showcasing hair-care ranges. Taking this one

step further by helping consumers to narrow that choice

down through interaction and tailoring makes it a very

personal experience.

Brand Engagement Study Three – Men’s engagement with the soft drinks sector

The third study, carried out in the soft drinks sector tested

four brands – Coke, Coke Zero, Pepsi Max and Powerade.

In this sector ‘taste’ and ‘affinity’ were the two over-riding

factors driving 79% of all brand engagement. Online

delivered 24% of the gross communications effect on

brand engagement. TV delivered 43% and press, 32%.

Given that soft drinks are a low involvement category,

engagement across all communications is likely to be in

part achieved through resonance. Resonance is based

on the notion that there is a peripheral processing of

advertising messages largely seen in low involvement

sectors such a soft drinks. It is important to remember

though that low involvement doesn’t translate to

low impact.

Resonance is most often assumed to be delivered via

TV advertising. However, this study demonstrates that

online advertising can deliver resonance as well as any

other channel. On average, resonance delivered twice the

engagement impact of information.

Furthermore, taking into account the average percentage

of spend allocated to online in media plans for soft drinks,

we found that online advertising for soft drinks was three

times as effective per £1 of spend as the all media average.


Online ads & webpages together account for 35% of each brand’s effects

Brand webpage

Brand online ads

Brand mag ads

Brand TV ads

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

26.6%

8.5%

62.2%

3.3%

Net Cont - 5 Brand

24


Brand Engagement Study Four – Investigating female shoppers’ engagement with major high street/department stores

The last of the four studies was carried out in the retail

sector. We tested five major high street/department stores

- Debenhams, Next, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer

and Woolworths, targeting women aged 30-50 who

had shopped in at least three of the stores in the last six

months who agreed that they ‘enjoy shopping in major

stores on the high street’.

Based on the above criteria, it is fair to say that these

women were very much engaged with this sector - and

in a very positive way. Therefore, for this audience, brand

engagement with the stores wasn’t just about the brand

personality but also very much about what those brands

could deliver to them personally.

On average, across all five brands, online display

advertising contributed to 40% of the gross

communications effect. This compares to 31% for press,

19% for TV, 8% for radio and 3% for outdoor. Further

to this we were able to work out that online advertising

for department stores was 16 times as effective per £1

spent as the all media average. Online proved to be a

very effective platform to achieve brand engagement in the

retail sector – more so than any other medium.

We found that messaging and how this was delivered

was key. These women needed to be engaged with clear

messages that were literal and not abstract. They were

engaging with content that told them what they wanted to

know in a simple, straight forward and creative way. The

message was clear to see from the creative. For example,

campaigns talked about a ‘new collection’ or something

‘exclusive’. In contrast to this, we found that where the

creative in other media was more abstract (and it wasn’t

clear what was being advertised), brand engagement

appeared to be lessened.

It also became apparent how important it is to ensure that

the website experience is a positive one for these women.

Website experiences had over twice the impact than the

brand’s own communications on brand engagement.

Overall ease of use of the sites accounted for half of this.

Online advertising works hard for its money

Online advertising for soft drinks is three times as effective

per £ of spend as the all media average

Online advertising works hard for its money

Online advertising for department stores is sixteen times

as effective per £ of spend as the all media average

Brand engagement of the gross communications effect across all four studies

Online advertising

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

8.5%

24.0%

% Ad spend % of Ad effect

5 brand average

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

2.5%

40%

% Ad spend % of Ad effect

Press

TV

Outdoor

Online display

Radio

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

36.8%

39.50%

23.53%

8.50%

Small cars(mums with U16

kids)

Hair care(women 20-60)

Soft drinks(men 20-45)

Retail(women 30-50)

(Source of the media spend: Nielsen Media Research Ltd. Jan 07 - Mar 08)

25

You can access the full results of all four brand

engagement studies on the IAB website at

www.iabuk.net/brandengagement.

Having looked in detail at how online can successfully

drive brand engagement alongside other media, let us now

look at how effective online is (both as a platform and also

from an advertising perspective) in combination with other

media - specifically TV.

TV and online – Better together

It is widely believed that advertising effectiveness can be

increased by using complimentary media to communicate

messages.

In recent times, the effectiveness of using TV and online in

combination has been much discussed – brought about

by high speed broadband connections and increases in

wireless and laptop ownership. Advances such as these

indicate the relationship between the two media would

be a highly complimentary one. However, until now there

hadn’t really been any research that backed this theory up.

In response, The IAB and Thinkbox joined forces to carry

out some research on the effectiveness of using TV and

online combined.

The research encompassed both quantitative and

qualitative stages in order to gain a holistic view of how

both media work together in UK marketing campaigns.

The quantitative stage used a demographically

representative online sample of 3,011 respondents who

all had both digital TV and broadband internet access.

The restrictions we set at the recruitment stage meant

that the sample represented around a quarter of the UK

population (the most ‘tech- savvy’ of the UK population)

– ensuring the findings were future proofed and providing

an indication of how future media consumption and

consumer behaviour is likely to develop. The research

featured advertising from three major brand categories -

Automotive, FMCG and Finance.

The qualitative element of the research featured

engagement diaries in ten households across the North

and South, an online discussion forum and in-home

observation of how people use and engage with TV and

online in a natural context.

Overall, the results gauged the effectiveness of TV and

internet advertising combined and how this can be

exploited by advertisers to greater effect.

Key findings

Almost half of the sample watch TV and go online at the

same time on a daily basis. This increases to 61% on

a weekly basis. Going online is second only to eating

for activities that people are doing whilst the TV is on

– demonstrating just how common this behaviour is

becoming for this group of people. Interestingly, we did

find that internet usage whilst watching TV tended to be

more relaxed – more chat, music, gaming, sports - with

consumers dipping in and out of both depending on

content. This behaviour across the two media opens up

increasing opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences

across the two platforms.

TV & Online: Better Together

www.thinkbox.tv

Concurrent use of TV & Internet is becoming mainstream


36 47

143

With a laptop you don’t have to sit at one point, it’s more flexible and you

can watch TV whilst you’re on it

At least once a week

Less often

At least once a dayNo

“”(Pre-family, female)

I sit with it (laptop) on my knee,all night sometimes... watching TV and

messing around online

“”(Pre-family, male)

36 47

143




Less often





“”(Pre-family, male)36 47

143




Less often





“”(Pre-family, male)

Half now use together daily

26


Not surprisingly, researching/finding information (75%),

and communication (66%) came out as the top two

motivators for going online; and entertainment (80%) and

relaxation (73%) came out as the top reasons for watching

TV. However, what is important to point out here is that

the internet is increasingly becoming a destination for

entertainment and relaxation with 56% of people saying

that they go online for these reasons. This is definitely

something that we wouldn’t have seen a few years ago

when the boundaries between the two media were much

more defined.

Two thirds of the sample had watched TV or film content

via the internet. This was primarily as a way to catch up

on missed programming, although having the control to

‘watch what they wanted, when they wanted it’ was also

important to them. Content not yet seen on UK broadcast

TV was also cited as a reason, with a quarter claiming this.

A further 53% claimed to have viewed TV/film content

online via broadcaster websites and 45% claimed to have

done this via YouTube.

We also found that sharing advertising online is an

increasingly popular activity with 60% claiming to have

looked for a TV ad online (or the ad’s soundtrack) and 22%

claiming to have sent a TV ad (or a link to one) to someone

else online.

Case studies

We evaluated six campaigns in the online survey and have

permission to showcase the results to four of these –

Honda, Churchill, Cadburys Creme Egg and Lynx. You’ll

find the in-depth results to each of these in the research

section on the IAB website. However, for all six brands

researched, and across all statements, the pattern was

very much the same with both media driving brand metrics

beyond what they can do in isolation.

TV & Online Together Create Stand-out and Familiarity

Seen TV only or online only Seen neither TV nor onlineSeen both

I feel like I know this brand really well

Brand offers somethingunique

I am familiar with this brand

48

67

33

7177

53

39

63

29

% Agree

= Significantlyhigher

= Significantlydifferent togroup who have seen neither TV nor online

All Brands

This is second only to eating, for activities whilst TV is on

More online chat, music, games, sports: relaxed usage

Internet usage is genuinely during tv programmes

27

Further to this we found that harder metrics such as

‘likelihood to purchase’ achieved greater campaign uplifts

than softer metrics such as ‘I feel I know this brand really

well’. This is unusual in research of this nature where

softer metrics are usually easier to attain.

Our case studies were best practice scenarios and so

the findings reinforce the need to ensure creative synergy

between TV and online advertising. It is important to

remember that it is not simply a case of placing TV ads

online. We identified some elements for consideration

when planning campaigns across the two media in order

to utilise the benefits that the two media combined can

provide, in the most effective way.

• TV and online campaigns need to have a consistent

theme/message

• The strength of each media needs to be maximised

• There needs to be a high level of visual synergy

• Rather than use online simply as a reach extension

medium, targeting those who have seen the TV

advertising to extend the message of the campaign can

be very successful

You will be able to see in the campaigns that we focused

on that these considerations were very much taken into

account. This is likely to have played a part in the success

of the uplifts against brand metrics that we saw from those

who had seen both the TV and the online advertising.

We know that both TV and online are very successful

media in their own right, fulfilling roles across all stages and

for both direct response and brand building objectives.

However, we have seen in this research that using the two

media together does create a powerful combination across

the whole process and increases agreement with talkabilty,

relevance, brand messaging and purchase consideration.


Cars: Consideration raised in this category

Seen TV only or online only Seen neither TV nor onlineSeen both

Car category average

+25% pointsUplift among those exposed to both TV + Online: +16% points

Honda

39

64

29

51

67

34

% Agree: ‘I will place on a short list for consideration

= Significantlyhigher

= Significantlydifferent togroup who have seen neither TV nor online

All Brands

28

he growth of online media over the past decade has followed the path of differentiated speeds: some developments (e.g. ubiquitous, always-on broadband and mobile connectivity) take much longer than we expected; while

other behaviours (e.g. use of email) happen faster than expected. Digital media, mobile telephony and the internet have changed all our business and social activities and are now woven into our everyday lives.

Conclusion 29

from Hugo Drayton CEO, InSkin Media, [email protected]

For our media industry, the changes are profound. At a

time of huge economic pressure, the cyclical nature of

the media and advertising business has been brutally

exacerbated by unprecedented systemic change; print,

television, radio, outdoor and direct marketing have all

been irreversibly affected by the power of online, by the

shift of power to the consumer, by the transparency of

information – the true democratisation of power, now –

vividly illustrated by recent political revelations in the UK

– available to all interested consumers (or citizens, as the

state prefers to style us).

Online advertising has evolved rapidly; Guy mentioned in

the introduction to this report that online is one of many

media for building brands. From my experience over the

past 15 years, I believe that, while using complementary

media can be the most effective brand-building mix,

online is now the single most effective, measurable and

adaptable tool for brand building.

From research referred to earlier, and from countless

other case studies, digital media has proved its mettle in

engaging users, driving improved loyalty, building both

awareness and – even more importantly – an ongoing

relationship and dialogue between brands and consumers,

enabling new processes where brand owners, agencies

and publishers can inform their own development in

harmony with their consumers’ attitudes and preferences.

Such deep engagement involves a massive commitment

– an ongoing and (to quote the earlier agency perspective)

‘believeable’ relationship.

Online video - in which InSkin Media specialises (along

with games and image galleries) - is especially effective

in increasing these touchpoints with consumer media,

within the restricted time that any user has for each

activity. Digital advertising wrapped around a media

player, effectively re-branding that content, increases the

consumer’s window of time with that brand; and with both

short and long-form video that equates to significant dwell

time, which drives advertising results. This is most usually

in a consumer’s leisure time, with multiple other diversions

competing for attention. The advantage is that, since

this is primarily entertainment, the opportunity to distract,

inform, engage, amuse and impress is far higher than it

would be during more prescribed business activity.

These high dwell times are prevalent in many of the new

forms of entertainment media, not only video but also

on social networks as well as audio (e.g. Spotify). The

opportunity exists for brands to exploit digital media to

strengthen their bond with consumers; we saw in the

Milward Brown survey that interactivity is a key driver of

consumer engagement. This might take the form of a

‘contagious’ piece of viral content, an attractive promotion,

or perhaps a polemic, dynamic blog. The important

aspect on which marketers must focus is in grabbing user

interest, providing a forum for interactivity, and ensuring

that results are visibly used in the brand and product

development.

In a tough economic climate, the temptation to move

budgets to direct marketing and performance-based

activity is strong. But, as also shown by CNN’s recent

‘Cross-Platform Advertising Study on Effectiveness and

Engagement’, brand investment, especially online but also

online and mobile mixed with TV, are significant influences

on both awareness and buying patterns.

As this IAB report has illustrated, digital, interactive

media outperforms all others in delivering understanding

of the consumer, immediately and effectively. Brands

and agencies need to grasp that opportunity to create

successful 21st century brand stories. Of course we must

work with and complement offline activity, but today’s

winning brand marketers will have digital activity at the very

heart of their strategy and delivery.

BUILDING YOUR BRAND ONLINE:

30


29

The IAB would like to thank the proud sponsor of this publication

Key Contributors

Amy Keansenior pr and marketing manager

Sorcha Proctor insights manager

Kieron Matthews marketing director

Nicki Lynas head of research

Chloe Chadwick senior marketing executive

Jack Wallington senior programmes manager

Amit Kotecha project executive

Acknowledgements32

Internet Advertising Bureau

14 Macklin Street London WC2B 5NFt +44 (0)20 7050 6969f +44 (0)20 7242 9928

e [email protected]

building your brand - iab uk · work at these various points of the customer journey, identifying...

Documents