David Ogilvy once said, “It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night.”
He also said, “I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.”
If this is in fact the case – and based on the work out there, I have no reason to believe otherwise – we’re all in a lot of trouble. What exactly are we to do with the remaining 99 campaigns?
For some reason, I remember the Agilent Technologies print campaign that appeared in Fast Company. Besides the fact the ads themselves (spreads) were beautifully designed, incorporating magnificent photographic elements and assets, what really caught my eye and made this campaign stick in my mind was the four consecutive spreads the company’s media agents purchased on its behalf in the most desirable section of the magazine.
Big idea or no big idea, it was pretty damn near impossible to let Agilent’s ship pass me by. In fact, I bought stock in the company, but that particular ship sailed (and sunk) a long time ago!
In a previous article, I outlined the Best Practice of Commanding Awareness through a Cross-Media Blitz. This best practice overlaps significantly with this week’s topic, which is essentially another crucial component in the formula for effecting key brand and business lift.
Every medium has its own expression and application of tactics that help marketers and brands dominate Share of Voice (SOV), whether defensively (from a competitive point of view) or offensively (against total noise or impressions).
The challenge upon our fledgling community is thus really two-fold:
- The importance of implementing and integrating SOV methodology into our media speak
- The interpretation and expression of this philosophy into proven and practical practice.
Let’s start with the part best exemplified by Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, “Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth!”
“Yes,” exclaims Brian Quinn, director, Eastern Ad Sales for CBSMarketWatch. “This is extremely important, especially when meeting with high-level clients. Online media salespeople sometimes get too caught up in the jargon of our business, for example looping, frequency capping, cookies and so on. On a more macro level, when it comes to advertising (in particular on a mass marketer scale), we need to deliver targeted ad programs that match up with what marketers get in other media.”
John Durham, COO of Winstar Interactive waxes lyrical on the importance of speaking a common language. “For centuries, French was the language of diplomacy and its goal was to be able for all humanity to communicate together ever since the tower of Babel broke us up. It is critical that as we sit at the "security council of media" that we have the tools and verbiage that everyone can mutually understand.
“Mutual understanding can advance any best practices, and mutual understanding ultimately means mutual advancement and ultimately growth.”
[sidebar: Ironically the Tower of Babel analogy has a sting in the tale. The very existence of the story came about when all of the people did in fact speak the same language. When everyone could understand each other, they forgot where their bread was buttered and began their now infamous Bigger-is-Better quest. The implication here is that a common language is a means to an end, and not the end itself. Incidentally, the higher power in today’s world is the consumer, but that’s an entirely different topic for a different article on a different day.]
Quinn goes on to add, “SOV is a valid best practice, especially since one million impressions delivers very different impact depending on the size of the site. A dominant SOV also ensures that the client sees the banners!!”
This couldn’t be truer in the online space. For starters, a dominant SOV does go a long way towards solving the ever-present “show me my ads” conundrum. I cannot stress enough how critical it is to overcome our inability to consistently allow our clients to not only see their ads in action, but also empower them to present the creative in turn to their respective constituent audiences.
Secondly, the notion of not all impressions being equal from site to site is another important idea to expand upon.
Research from NetRating's AdRelevance illustrated how share of voice historically tends to be concentrated among a few sites in certain industries (e.g., financial services firms collectively put more than 80% of the ad buys into portals, search engines and community sites.) Breaking through the clutter is hard enough, but in these cases there’s the added complexity of doing it among a competitive set, as well as the practical limitations based on a finite amount of inventory.
Dominant SOV is naturally achieved by owning a large enough chunk of impressions relative to the total amount available. However, other expressions of the tactic in practice include roadblocking, day-parting, (Surround) Sessions and fixed sponsorships.
Here’s a real life example in action.
Situation: After the thriller "Hollow Man" (starring Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Shue) had an average showing at the box office, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment was under pressure to make back more of the film's high production cost. Based on the luke-warm box office takings, the studio had limited marketing funds to reinvest in the upcoming DVD release. Furthermore, it faced stiff competition from upcoming blockbuster releases such as "Gladiator" and "Gone in 60 Seconds."
Program: Columbia Tri-Star tasked its agency Universal McCann Los Angeles with reaching as many consumers as possible given a relatively lower budget.
The campaign targeted specifically entertainment-oriented, tech-savvy young men most likely to purchase DVDs and home videos.
The solution offered was to "roadblock" the top portals, entertainment properties and sci-fi sites over a few carefully selected hours in one specific day.
Universal McCann chose a Friday for the campaign, knowing that people are more likely to make entertainment decisions towards the end of the week. Using day-parting, the placements ran during typical Internet traffic spikes at-work and at-home -– during the lunch hour and at 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., utilizing rolling time zones.
Results: The campaign – largely believed to be the first true roadblock on the Web – was awarded Adweek's "Best Use of New Media" award in 2001. According to Universal McCann, the challenge of bringing the offline concept of roadblocking to the Web was not only achievable, but more importantly as effective in terms of generating the kind of impact normally associated with a traditional television roadblock.
Consequently, several of Sony’s online vendors reported huge sales spikes including one vendor that reported a 25% sales increase during the time the campaign was live. In addition, the DVD debuted in the number one position for sales and remained in the Top-Twenty Chart for three months.
It is still relatively cost efficient to dominate SOV in this medium, relative to the existing alternatives in the offline space. Furthermore, as evidenced from a slew of case studies including mLife, Budweiser and Spiderman, the effectiveness associated with owning attention online is an integral competitive differentiator to those marketers who recognize the full scope of this opportunity.
And to the rest of the chasing pack, ask yourselves this question: What will happen to my brand once my fiercest competitor buys up the lion’s share of available impressions or real estate in the most desired online locations?
Budweiser has locked up Happy Hour on CBSMarketWatch for the next eight consecutive quarters.
So if you’re an Anheuser-Busch competitor, commiserations and happy hunting!
