[Marketing] Reflections on advertising

[Sean DALY]

As an example, OLPC has just been awarded TVC airtime in Australia:

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2009/03/charities-win-2m-airtime-from-sbs.html




On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:25 PM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Marketers,
>
> The day may come, this year or next, that a government or corporation
> will be willing to fund us generously.
>
> After the champagne corks are popped, the realization will set in that
> we can go much further in spreading our message.
>
> David kindly suggested to me I share some thoughts about advertising with you.
>
> Television ad spend is sort of like brute-force search: the more
> power, the more reach, up to the point where people groan "oh no, not
> *that* commercial again". The original spam!
>
> Rest assured I would never suggest we get to that point... we will
> have a duty to carefully measure ad spend against results and only the
> biggest spenders (car companies, consumer goods) ever hit that
> saturation.
>
> As a nonprofit, however, some avenues will be open to us:
>
> http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=319
>
> In the USA, the Ad Council provides a framework for nonprofits to get
> a "good" message out.
>
> Today, YouTube etc. has made it ridiculously easy to get a TV
> commercial (or "TVC") in front of people. But that reach is multiplied
> when the ad is shown - even sparingly - on network television.
>
> And, TVC is a very effective way to communicate a URL, where all the
> information is and where we can shape our presentation as we see fit.
>
> Print ads in magazines and newspapers are a very cost-effective way to
> reach a target market. I say target because smart marketing means
> going to where your prospects are. If we want to reach teachers in the
> USA, it might be Teacher magazine (http://www.teachermagazine.org). If
> you want to speak to US government IT buyers, Government Computer News
> (http://www.gcn.com) would be a better bet.
>
> The next traditional alternative is "OOH" or "Out-of-home", a term
> which covers billboards, public transport, that little plane that
> flies over the beach trailing a flag.
>
> Often, nonprofits can arrange for an ad agency to donate time to make
> "creative". It's often a good way for an agency to enhance its image,
> support something they believe in, and pehaps help junior staff get
> experience on a noncritical account.
>
> The way it works is, the marketer sits down with the agency and
> outlines the goals: the product, the target market, short-term goals
> (increased sales), long-term goals (brand building). And, problems to
> be overcome ("we're getting clobbered in marketshare", "we need to
> look more modern", "people are upset with us but we can't fix the
> product quickly, what do we do?"). After the goals, the marketer
> mentions non-negotiables: "the product has to appear fullscreen in TVC
> for at least 3 seconds, and a quarter of the page in a print ad." Or,
> "we need our logo in overlay for at least 5 seconds during the spot,
> and 3 seconds at the end, taking care to avoid the corners where the
> TV station bug (logo) lives, and mentioned at least twice in the VO
> (voiceover)". Or even "we have a contract with a celebrity and we can
> do a shoot with him 4 days per year and he is filming in the Bahamas 3
> weeks from now, so we need to set the day quick before he leaves."
>
> A good agency will understand the marketer's problems and goals... and
> come up with an idea which will hopefully attract attention, generate
> buzz, build the brand values and awareness, and so on.
>
> That said... even good agencies can mess up. I am astonished at how
> bad Microsoft's ads have been as they burn through 300 million USD
> (!). It's easy to see why: nobody at Microsoft has a handle at what
> good advertising is, and the agency got overcreative, completely
> skipping over the products in a bid to seem "relevant".
>
> Here's a thoughtful guide which shows how nonprofits can waste
> precious Ad Council grants on ineffective advertising:
>
> http://www.agoodmanonline.com/pdf/bad_ads_high_res/BadAdsHi.pdf
>
> The guide outlines an excellent methodology for measuring the
> effectiveness of print ads, which of course have to fight against
> cars, beverages and meds for mindshare.
>
>
> Big-budget advertisers do lots of market studies and usually rely on a
> key metric: brand recognition, either aided or unaided.
>
> here's an example I am making up:
> ****************
> 1) Can you name three or more types of computers which are distributed
> to children for education?
>
> 2) Of these, can you name three or more software systems or interfaces
> which run on them?
>
> 3) Which of these education computers for children do you recognize?
> * Everex Cloudbook
> * One Laptop per Child XO-1
> * Intel Classmate
> * Apple Macbook
> * PC
>
> 4) Of these, can you name which system or systems run on which computer?
> * Windows XP
> * GNU/Linux
> * Sugar Learning Platform
> * OSX
> * gOS Rocket
> ****************
>
> Any of you will see problems in the way these questions are phrased.
> Yet, a marketer knowing nothing about computers or software would
> learn a lot about the "unaided" versus "aided" brand awareness, and by
> sifting the answers would learn how to better phrase the questions.
>
> A typical media campaign starts with a market study likes this, runs
> the campaign to improve brand awareness or positioning, then does the
> market study again to see if there has been a measurable impact.
>
> Our goal as marketers could be resumed as the following answer, when
> asked of teachers:
> 4. "Sugar runs on all of them".
>
> :-)
>
> thanks
> Sean
> Marketing Coordinator
>