Proof Positive Conference Report
The 2nd annual advertising effectiveness conference, ‘Proof Positive’, took place yesterday at the Park Lane Hotel. The conference, organised by the IPA and Marketing, sought to explore ‘how to make advertising work hard – and be proved to work hard’.
Tony Hillier, Director of PIMS Europe, spoke about the impact of marketing on business profitability and gave some hints on achieving the right level of spend on ad campaigns. He pointed out that the main factors which need to be considered were the strategic intent of the campaign and also ‘structural’ factors such as market growth and product positioning. The latter is especially important, since spending large quantities of money trying to promote a low-ranking brand is a waste and can actually lose money. Similarly, spending lots of money on a campaign for a high ranking brand is pointless since it is already popular.
How advertising works was considered in Demetrios Vakratsas’s speech. Mr Vakratsas, a Research Fellow at the London Business School, discussed the various models which have been formulated to explain exactly why advertising makes people buy products. These included: the cognitive approach which uses information in an ad to increase awareness (such as the BA ‘Manhatten’ campaign); the Pure Affect model which relies on people actively ‘liking’ ads via personal feelings (Scottish Amicable ad); the Persuasive Hierarchy of Effect model, which uses feeling and emotions together with information to persuade the consumer (Alliance & Leicester ad featuring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie). Probably the best ad campaign however uses all of these factors combined to create an experience which makes people think, feel and become informed. Small frequency of ads is a good ploy and a campaign’s success should not be measured purely by sales – other important factors include public awareness and the social class of the buying consumers.
In terms of creativity in advertising Peter Souter, Deputy Creative Director of AMV.BBDO, pointed out that he believes ‘recognition’ is very important: ie, that a consumer recognises the experiences and emotions an ad features. He described this as selling within a human context. It is also important that ads are aimed to appeal to one person rather than many: trying to communicate with millions at one time often confuses the message.
Advertising to European and global markets was also discussed. Keith Weed (Global Strategy Member, Unilever) and Alison Turner (European Planning Director, JWT) spoke about advertising in a European context. They pointed out their belief that if a campaign is to be successful on a European-wide scale it must be conceived in those terms: a ‘localised’ or purely national campaign cannot be properly translated into a European campaign and the ad should feature cultural commonalities.
Norman Berry, European Creative Director O&M, made similar points. He said that consumers must be able to identify with common brand qualities which cross national boundaries. He cited IBM, Dove and American Express as successful global campaigns.
After lunch Tim Cunningham, Group Media Director Saatchi & Saatchi, spoke about advertising in the future. He believes that the key changes in the future will include more TV channels, purchasing from home, the Internet and electronic ads. He also foresees infomercials, where consumers actively choose to see adverts, and multi-product advertising which consists of TV spots featuring a variety of adverts within the same context. He pointed out that advertisers should start looking at media other than television such as the Internet and CD-Rom.
Tim Broadbent’s speech looked at what advertisers have learnt in the 16 years since the IPA Ad Awards were first launched. Mr Broadbent, Planning Director of Y&R, highlighted the fact that 70% of ads increase sales immediately and 50% are beneficial in the long term. He used the example of Heinz Baked Beans to highlight how important advertising is: as soon as Heinz reduced its ad spend in favour of below-the-line promotions a slump occurred in its sales. In assessing an ad’s effectiveness he made the same point as Mr Demetrios that sales should not be seen as the only way of measuring an ad’s success. Other important factors include qualitative research, consumer profile, image and price support. Speaking of below-the-line promotions Mr Broadbent said that they definitely increase sales in the short term, but advertising is absolutely essential in the long term in building a secure customer base.
Kevin Parry of KPMG and Hamish Pringle of K Advertising also spoke at the conference – their speech concerned a survey which showed the attitudes of finance directors to advertising and marketing expenditure. The substance of the speech was covered in yesterday’s Marketing Still Difficult To Evaluate.