IAB case studies prove real-world power of online in branding mix.

Cross-media optimization studies for four brands reveal that online proves to be more cost-efficient relative to the cost per branding impact than other media, but produces the greatest results when used in integrated campaigns.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the results yesterday at its Leadership Forum in New York. Marketing Evolution, an independent research firm, developed the cross media optimization study (XMOS) methodology -- drawn from real-world, in-market results -- to help marketers determine the optimal mix of interactive, TV, radio and print advertising.

IAB and Marketing Evolution studied advertising campaigns for Ford Motor Company’s launch of its 2004 F-150 pickup, ING, Universal Studios Home Video DVD release of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and VeriSign.

Ford Motor Company

The marketing launch for the 2004, all-new Ford F-150 pickup was the largest and most comprehensive marketing launch in the history of Ford Motor Company. The XMOS research examined branding and sales impact from television, magazine, online roadblocks, online ads, Internet search, auto Web sites, Ford’s Web site, Spanish language online advertising and offline events sponsorships.

The online roadblocks took over AOL, MSN and Yahoo! home pages and email sections in a coordinated fashion -- Ford reached more than 40 percent of males aged 25 to 54 in a single day.  

Other specific findings:

• Six percent of all sales could be directly attributed to online advertising exposure. Additional sales beyond the 6 percent could be traced to click-through and online brochure requests.
• TV generated the greatest level of absolute reach and purchase consideration impact, but was significantly less cost-effective. TV was more than 20 times more expensive than the most cost-efficient opportunity -- the online roadblock -- and five times less cost-efficient than online or magazines.
• Magazines and in-market Web sites offered similar results, including selectivity and efficient delivery of in-market prospects.
• Online was more cost-efficient, relative to the cost-per-branding impact.

ING Direct

ING, an online bank, was introducing its brand into the U.S. market. Its primary marketing objective was to create basic brand familiarity and, secondarily, to impact purchase consideration and general brand attributes. The six-month campaign and media allocations included television (68 percent), magazines (17 percent) and online (15 percent). 

The study determined that this budget allocation was almost optimal for achieving the campaign's various objectives. For example, to affect purchase consideration and convey the brand message that ING "shows fresh thinking," the study found the combination of ads from all three media was by far the most cost-effective compared to the results from ads in any medium alone.

The study also found that making the online frequency levels similar to TV (frequency is four times higher than print and nearly three times that of TV) would make online the most cost-efficient element of the mix.

“This research enabled ING to bring our marketing team together and take a closer look at how we intended to allocate funds for the next big marketing push," says Tom Lynch, head of online marketing at ING.

VeriSign

VeriSign aimed its print and online campaign at business decision makers and technology decision makers in medium to large enterprises, across several industries. The research measured five key metrics: brand awareness, association, familiarity, image and lead generation.

In general, the results demonstrated that while print media offered a more cost-efficient reach (lower CPM) to top-level executives, online proved effective at increasing brand awareness/association and, with higher frequency, improving brand image.

Direct response was 30 percent of the magazine’s goal (70 percent was branding) and 50 percent of online’s goal. Yet, despite magazine’s much larger budget and reach, online delivered nearly 100 percent of all leads that could be traced back to advertising. Marketing Evolution concluded that since magazine and online generally reached different types of business decision makers (at different levels within the organization) and accomplished different goals, they should be used in a complementary fashion. 

Andy Sims, media director of SF Interactive, VeriSign's ad agency that orchestrated the campaign, says "Effective enterprise technology advertising demands an appreciation of how to best apply one's efforts across your customer's purchase process. This study further proves that integration works. We saw that using print and online awareness vehicles with proven online direct response tactics not only hit our audience at multiple touch points, but increased velocity along the purchase continuum, increasing marketing ROI."

Universal Studios Home Video

The objective of Universal Studios Home Video campaign for the DVD release of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' was to present the film as one of the most-beloved movies of all time, while communicating that the DVD featured never-before-seen footage and enhanced visual effects. The target audience was 25- to 49-year-olds.

TV was the cornerstone of the campaign, accounting for 94 percent of the budget. Slightly less than 6 percent was spent on banner ads, with less than 1 percent for on rich media ads, which floated animations over Web pages.

The rich media ads delivered the most dramatic results -- most notably in combination with TV and banner ads. In addition, the study found that online was effective in reaching the portion of the audience that watches little or no TV. 

For example, of those exposed to the TV and rich media combination, 25.4 percent said they would "definitely or probably buy the DVD," compared to 19.9 percent who saw TV alone. Likewise, people who saw both the rich media and TV ads remembered key brand messages better than those who saw just the TV advertising. Specifically, 48.1 percent who saw the TV ads plus the rich media overlay understood that the DVD included never-before-seen footage, compared to 39.4 percent of viewers who saw the TV ad alone.

The XMOS study methodology, conducted by Rex Briggs of Marketing Evolution, with research solutions from InsightExpress, has been reviewed by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and nominated for Best International Research by ESOMAR.