Working to digital’s strengths in a multimedia ad campaign

Martin Ash, research director for Millward Brown, examines how marketers can strategically incorporate digital touch-points into their multimedia campaign planning.

As the media landscape continues to evolve and marketers face a daunting choice of established, new and emerging media channels, thinking about your specific campaign objectives in advance will help you determine the best mix.

Taking the overall campaign objectives and allocating roles to each channel, alongside adjusting your messaging to play to each channel’s strength and following creative best practice guidelines, are all practical and empowering steps marketers can take now to use digital strategically as part of their multimedia campaigns.

So, strategically, what should marketers be doing?

Let’s start with the obvious: TV is still top dog. No other channel comes close in terms of the reach and quality AV engagement that TV can achieve. Rather than undermining the power of TV, this high-speed, digital world – in which messages can go viral, or be ‘shared’ around the globe – can work alongside TV to facilitate the reach and impact of a good ad or strong campaign even further.

The media landscape that marketers are faced with is unrecognisable from the one they would have been working with just a decade or so ago. Consumer ‘sharing’ of engaging campaign content via social media is just one of the ways they can exploit new and emerging digital channels to support, complement and bolster the reach and impact of their multimedia campaigns.

Marketers are waking up to an important realisation: those who learn to exploit these opportunities stand a greater chance of improving ROI on their campaign investments, as well as improving long-term brand equity.

Getting the message out: The role of online display and VOD in the cross media mix

Millward Brown has measured over 150 multimedia campaigns across Europe, and when looking at the analysis of the performance of these campaigns in aggregate we typically see targeted online media delivering more strongly than TV on consideration and intent metrics (per person reached).

As you would hope (and expect) though, TV and other traditional broad-reach channels – OOH for example – typically do a strong job on saliency and reach, while online video does a great job of bringing more detailed product messaging home to relevant and/or engaged consumers.

Thinking about your specific campaign objectives in advance can help determine the best mix. If your campaign goal is to drive awareness, then large online portal sites and networks offer sizeable reach and can be a valuable addition to your media plan, especially if the campaign is not led by high TV or out-of-home investment.

This type of online buy is a common and accepted way of building digital into multimedia campaigns. However, reach isn’t the only thing that online can deliver, and advertisers often fail to fully exploit its impact as they fail to think strategically enough about their online execution.

Analysis of over 7,000 digital campaigns by Millward Brown shows that online campaigns can deliver impact against all key measures from Awareness through to Consideration and Intent – but the top performing campaigns demonstrate clear, focused messaging and clear, consistent branding on every frame of the ad.

As part of a multimedia campaign, then, marketers should look to combine the reach and impact of online channels. For display advertising, make the most of the first frame. Eye-tracking data tells us that consumers typically pay online display ads less than one second’s attention, so they have to convey the campaign message and achieve immediate association with the brand being advertised.

Carry the brand and the message on the first frame to maximise impact and ensure message cut-through. Think about simple messaging that conveys quickly, and use strong brand cues to aid cut-through in a cluttered online environment. Reveal ads won’t work.

Appreciating that the online user is typically in a goal-orientated state can help marketers understand why reveal ads or ads that try to convey too many campaign messages in one rotation can struggle to impact the user.

As users search, browse, scroll and jump around the internet – often spending just a couple of seconds on a page before moving on – advertisers are flattering themselves to think they will stick around to watch a static, flash or rich media ad run through numerous frames.

A campaign message which works well on TV takes time to reveal in an online execution. Often a cut-down campaign message or reduced number of product messages for your online ad will result in a targeted, succinct and focused execution much more likely to deliver campaign impact.

In contrast to online display, online video seems adept at conveying complex or product variant messaging; providing a functional role in multimedia campaigns. In campaigns that heavily invest in online video for additional AV frequencies and reach, then, allowing online video executions to lead the delivery of functional product messaging frees TV to lead saliency with a strong TV ad that carries an emotional punch and memorability for longer-term brand impact.

The targeting capability (both behaviourally and contextually) combined with the more ‘lean-in’ mind-set of desktop PC, laptop, mobile and tablet users means you have the audience’s attention. This allows you to utilise strong AV executions to call out particular product benefits and features, or as a platform for conveying complex product messaging for certain categories – finance, for example.

As with other AV, humour always seems to work well to deliver impact for online video, but – in line with other digital media – clear and persistent branding throughout will also help cut-through and association.

Unlike with online display, reveal formats can work for video – but don’t rely on users having their device’s audio turned on. Particularly with in-banner video units, users that are surfing the web in their office – or with the sound muted whilst second-screening – will miss key messages that are carried only by the audio.

One digital channel more than any other is currently experiencing explosive growth, though – and while a lot of large advertisers are now comfortable with display and video being on their multimedia plans, mobile is proving an elusive platform for them to get a grip on.

Maximising impact: The role of mobile in cross-media campaigns

Mobile devices have high penetration but the fragmented mobile ad landscape, and historically low investment in mobile advertising, means the scope for mobile ads to really deliver anything near mass reach isn’t quite there. Crucially, though, mobile ads out-perform online ads in terms of the impact they have on those they do reach.

The strong performance we witness is delivered across all core brand measures from Awareness through to Consideration, and if the mobile industry can find a way to unlock the reach of mobile ads then a powerful case for a future mass-reach, mass impact media begins to build.

In the meantime, even though novelty may be at play, when we look at our mobile normative data versus early online norms we still see mobile out-performing online display and video. Combined with the fact that the mobile ad environment is still relatively uncluttered, this highlights the potential that exists now for brands to activate strong campaigns utilising mobile’s strengths – as long as they get the execution and delivery right.

The challenges for marketers working with mobile are similar to those with online display – how do you deliver impact in a small ad-space? Well, similar to online it’s crucial not to try and condense too many campaign messages into one ad rotation. Think about the key message you want your mobile activity to convey and keep the messaging clear and focused, and the ad clearly branded.

However, mobile offers a unique opportunity for consumers to engage more deeply with the brand and the campaign, as long as something of perceived value is offered in return.

Mobile devices and social networks are seen as personal and – especially in the case of mobile – private, and brands have a tough job proving to consumers that they deserve to be made welcome in these spaces or have anything to offer.

We know that favourability towards advertising on mobile is very low when compared to other digital channels like online VOD or display, but consumers respond far more positively to mobile advertising when something of value is offered in exchange for speaking with them via their device or social network.

This can be something obvious like deals or coupons, but could also include location-based services, information or extended engagement with the brand itself via a campaign game, fun features, or some kind of enabling tool.

However, some brands are still struggling with the very basics of getting mobile advertising right. As an industry, those advertisers that jump into the mobile space head first without due consideration of creative best practice risk undermining consumers’ tolerance of mobile ads in the long-term (has online ever shaken off the image of flashing prize draw pop-ups?), as well as wasting campaign investment in the short-term.

Clear, concise and well-branded messaging with a strong call to action that invites deeper engagement and delivers something of perceived value to the consumer will deliver impact. Intrusive, poorly executed ads – those not optimised to the specific screen size, for example, that shout at the consumer, or offer them little reward for invading their personal space – will undermine the medium and the campaign.

It’s not all about ads though. Brands need to consider all the potential digital touch-points that might bring consumers into contact with their campaign via their mobile device. Websites, campaign web pages and apps all need to work across a litany of operating systems and devices in order to be effective.

While well-branded apps that offer something of value – be this functional, enjoyable or rewarding – that intrinsically links to the brand can undeniably offer impact and deepen engagement with consumers, investing in mobile optimisation of their website is undeniably the wisest investment for brands.

As more and more digital behaviour shifts to portable devices, there can surely be nothing more detrimental to the customer experience than for a mobile-savvy consumer to be directed – via a mobile ad or app – to a brand’s site only for it not to render properly, be illegible on their device or impossible to navigate. Brands wishing to be active in the mobile space must have a mobile optimised site.

Faced with a dramatically different media scene in which to plan their campaigns, it’s understandable that few brands manage to activate their campaigns successfully across the full range of channels they are choosing to deploy.

However, by following some key guiding principles all brands have the ability to unlock the short-term and long-term impact that new and emerging channels offer and – crucially – continue to speak to and engage with customers in a meaningful and differentiated way to ensure long-term brand success.