Indiantelevision.com Team

(24 July 2006 10:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Traditional means of advertising are soon going to become passé. With the proliferation of media, categories such as viral marketing, consumer generated content, advertising funded programming, branded entertainment, mobile and gaming, ambient and guerrilla and integrated marketing are going to be more effective in catching consumer attention.

In a talk organized by the Bombay Ad Club - Building Wildfire Brands - Leo Burnett Worldwide chairman and CEO Tom Bernardin and Leo Burnett Asia Pacific president Michelle Kristula-Green threw light on the effectiveness of non-traditional means of advertising in gaining consumer attention and also providing return on investment for clients.

"Wildfire brands are those who by their nature, spread rapidly and weave themselves into the social fabric, proving the massive creative and financial potential of the new media landscape. It pays to play with fire. The important thing is to invest and to trust consumers," Bernardin said.

He also threw light upon Leo Burnett's proprietary study - "Does Award-Winning Advertising Sell?" that proved more than 86 per cent of award-winning advertising actually increases sales. "New means of advertising are working at a time when consumers are reshaping the industry and advertising models are being redefined. From a passive audience, we now have an active audience and big ideas are bound to give return on interest and investment," he added.

Quoting Ofcom, Bernardin added that for the first time ever, television viewing had fallen in the UK this year. The television entries at Cannes were also down by 2.7 per cent this year. "Advertising has to operate in and compete against a unique range of media now. Companies like P&G, Coca Cola and Unilever have started giving importance to branded entertainment," Bernardin said.

Kristula-Green added, "In viral marketing, content is king and can circumvent the need for a huge media spend. Consumer generated content and social networking sites are fast gaining pace and hence the gap between the content generator and the content consumer is narrowing by the day."

Moving on to branded entertainment, Bernardin said, "Branded entertainment is no longer an oxymoron."

Some of the advertisers leading the branded entertainment arena internationally are: Pontiac, Axe, Mozilla, Henkel Super Bonder, Toyota, the UK Department of Transport, Chevrolet, adidas, Microsoft, Kodak, Converse and Sony.

"This is the most exciting time to be in the advertising business with the advent of branded entertainment, viral, mobile marketing and the rise of new screen-based technologies," Bernardin said.

UK-based The Viral Factory extended Axe Deodorant's "Spray More, Get More" campaign by unleashing a spoof news story about the town of Ravenstoke on the web, prompting 32 million viewings of the film on video sites, which contributed to Axe's leadership position in a $2.4 billion category in the US. In addition to this, the viral outperformed all but five of the actual TV programs on the Video on Demand (VoD) Adult Swim channel.

Speaking about Pontiac in advertising funded programming, Bernardin said, "Leo Burnett Detroit and General Motors made Pontiac a more modern and relevant brand to the consumers with the "Designed for Action" campaign, which introduced a new line of high-design vehicles. The campaign included live events at the Pontiac Garage in New York City's Times Square, the Oprah Winfrey giveaway of Pontiacs to each and every member of her audience on The Oprah Winfrey Show, an integration with The Apprentice and content partnerships with Virgin Records and Apple."

The result: The overall campaign resulted in a 1400 per cent increase in web traffic, global PR worth $110 million and a sales increase of 11 per cent. Not to mention the fact that the Pontiac G6 became a top 10 nationally searched brand on both Google and Yahoo!

"Change is our opportunity. The future will be about customization and community. The challenge for advertisers is how to make creative more personal and contagious. New marketing mediums are the ideal catalysts," he said.

On a concluding note, he added, "Go off the brief, trust your instincts and play with fire."