MRG Conference – Day 1 / Session 3 The New Armoury
Philip Ley, Sega Europe Michael Freter, McCann Erickson Dave Waters,Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters
Philip Ley, European Marketing Director of Sega Europe opened the first afternoon session with an entertaining case history for Sega, which made use of all promotional vehicles, most particularly PR (some real, some spoof) He also explained how Sega has a second board which meets quarterly, consisting entirely of children.
Michael Freter, Executive Director of McCann Erickson provided a further case history – The Gold Blend Soap – when discussing “Above The Line, Below The Line, Blurring The Edges.”
“The days of the line are numbered”, he said, detailing how all former “below the line” activities can be used – but only in support of advertising.
He suggested that advertising as an effective sales tool “is not getting its due. The agency is always best placed to be custodian of the brand” The Gold Blend soap had seen McCanns “acting like a programme maker, not an advertiser.” A video of the entire series of commercials had sold well and a book had sold 200,000 copies after being launched in Valentine week 1993.
Brand share has reached its highest ever, with volume up 40% (equivalent of 3 million extra cups drunk daily). In the USA, Nescafe’s equivalent premium coffee, Taster’s Choice, had performed equally well, and the campaign had received the same incredible level of media coverage. A new campaign starts soon. Dave Waters, Creative Director of Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters concluded the conference’s “advertising campaigns session” with several examples (from past and present) of TV advertising which had tackled difficult and often dull briefs in an innovative – and brave – fashion.
There were no telephone numbers in sight in these examples.
MRG CONFERENCE – DAY 1 / FINAL SESSION
Debate – Media Research Provides The Cutting Edge Today.
For: John Billett Against: John Ayling
John Billet put forward the belief that more ad-hoc customised research was inevitable, as nobody would pay for more industry research. This privatisation of research will put it at the cutting edge.
He went on to provide three examples of such research into end/centre breaks; newspaper sections and clutter. The end and centre break research by the Billett Consultancy was now being taken up by an ITV survey (due out this week). Newspaper section readership had only been researched by Carat – the NRS response was poor. If it remained so poor, Billett threatened that the AMI was fully prepared to pull out of NRS and fund its own research. “The NRS is no longer an independent organisation – it is in the hands of the newspaper publishers.” Zenith and Carat had researched clutter – one of the surveys was not worthwhile said Billett, without naming names. Billett has now taken this a stage further.Shorter breaks are better. Billett concluded – “if you measure, you have knowledge, and if you measure properly you do so through research.”
John Ayling opposed the motion by suggesting that there was already far too much un-used data, and that vested interest meant the most vital research was not available. Clients have less time than ever to devote to media issues, witness the fact that there are only two here”, said Ayling. The “entry price” was limiting the number of buying points, and if one looked at the top 20,it would be buying expertise and planning credentials that provided the cutting edge. From the floor, Phil Georgiadis (WCRS) called for funding of research that would effect client investment most.
Doug Thornes (Laser Sales) felt that the conclusions of the Billett Clutter research were obvious – “it is interpretation of the data that is most important.”
John Humphrey (Economist) feared that media was becoming dislocated from the business of advertising. He called for more research into the impact of advertising environment.
The motion was narrowly carried.