Ad Sales Blog

2008: the year of selling with ideas!

A study just released by Next Level SMG gives insight into why marketers will spend on advertising next year. Among marketers, the top reason to budget for advertising in 2008 is "differentiation."

From the study:

"The need for differentiation and an updated brand image / personality are the lead drivers for marketers’ who see developing a new advertising campaign as their lead initiative for 2008. Changing media consumption trends are also creating a need for messaging that has greater clarity and impact. As one respondent noted, “in an increasingly attention-scarce economy, [you] need to work harder to ensure that branding messages are sharp-edged and clear.”

Eighty-two marketing executives participated in this survey, and respondents include marketing executives from companies including Kraft, Pepsi, Dannon, Colgate, Cadbury Schweppes, Playtex, Clorox, Nokia and Starwood.

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Use this on a sales call.

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A marketer motivated to differentiate product will be highly motivated to differentiate their media buy as well. Pitch ideas that offer unique exposure to your audience. Custom publishing projects or single sponsor newsletters or web sections can deliver unique exposure with no competitors present.

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If you are calling on a marketing executive present these options as way to differentiate brand/product in competitive markets.

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If you are calling on a media buyer, print out the study at the link below and show it. Then say, "In 2008 marketers see differentiation as their top priority...is differentiation important for your client?" Assuming a positive response present your ideas a way to differentiate the clients product/brand.

      

Download the whole study

http://www.nextlevelsmg.com/files/news/NLSMG_FinalSurveyReport.pdf

Interactive advertising idea page

You are on a call. Your advertiser looks at you skeptically and asks why they need to buy interactive media from you. You could go academic and give the the top five top reasons why interactive media is effective. Yawn. Better to dazzle them with a a kick-ass idea that gets them excited. If you walk them through an idea they could really use they will follow their own self interest to buy the advertising needed to make it work.

I found a great web page loaded with examples of response driven web promotions. ePrize is one of the largest Internet promotion companies, and the "portfolio" page on their website lets you view many kinds interactive web promotions they have done for blue chip companies. It is a great place to visit to get ideas you could suggest to your advertisers.

Use this on a call.

First you have to know your client. Then ask, "What could they do with interactive media that will improve their business?" A contest? New product engagement program? Promotional discount? Download a white paper? Game? Join a forum?

Then print out an example of how another company is using this approach. Then say, "Look, here is how American Express used this approach. You could modify this for your market...etc." If they buy your idea, they will buy your media.

Link to the ePrize portfolio page

When selling ads in digital magazines think "Website"

Digital magazines have all of the advantages of print magazines except they are online. Right?

In addition, readers have instant random access to content. Everyone wins. Right?

Wrong. Advertisers can lose. If a reader takes a random access skip  over their ad, that ad is not seen.

Although digital magazines may look more like a print magazine than a website, the random access feature asks us to sell ads more like those on a website.

You will do better to sell positions in a digital magazine that offer adjacency to content that a reader may take a "random access" skip to visit. It is helpful to offer stats on which pages or sections get the most traffic. In short, use some of the same approaches you would use to sell fixed position ads on a website. 

Above, a slide from a Penwell survey documenting the challenge

Download the entire Penwell survey

Study: magazines lift brand favorability and purchase intent best

A study, just released by Dynamic Logic, found that adding magazines to a TV or TV and Internet media buy greatly increases the success of the measured campaigns. In some areas the contribution of magazines outweighed that of TV.

The researchers first isolated the impact of TV advertising. They then looked at what impact adding the Internet had. Last they looked at what adding magazines contributed to the mix.

As  advertisers use more mixed media in campaigns, understanding how the media work together becomes critical. This study found that the three media worked best when used together. Both online advertising and magazines added significantly to the impact of the advertising when used along with TV.

In a Media Life interview, Bill Havlena, vice president, research analytics for Dynamic Logic said, "Looking at the data shows that TV worked strongly in generating brand and advertising awareness. In those categories the other two media built strongly on the initial impact of TV.

In terms of advertising awareness, TV provided a bump of 9.8 percentage points. The Internet, which performed strongest in the same categories as TV, added another 4.4 points.

Surprisingly, magazines also performed strongly in building advertising awareness, adding 8.3 points.

We would not necessarily have expected that. It is clear that TV did a strong job in building awareness, but TV is thought of as an awareness-building medium, magazines, less so,” says Havlena.

But it was in the final two categories of the purchase funnel that magazines really excelled when used in combination with TV and Internet.

Said Havlena, "When it came to brand favorability and purchase intent, magazines added far more than TV and Internet combined. For instance, in the key area of purchase intent, TV added 4.6 percentage points; the Internet added 1.0 points; and magazines added 7.0 percentage points."

The study analyzed 32 cross-media campaigns from 10 different types of companies, including consumer goods, automotive, electronics, apparel and financial services. Most were U.S. campaigns but some were global as well.

Read a review of the study in MediaWeek

Free "Power of Persuasion" seminar next Tuesday

If you can make to Brooklyn, NY

next week on Tuesday December 11th I will be running a free seminar on the "Power of Persuasion" at the Brooklyn Business Library.

Date: Tuesday December 11th

Time: From 6 to 7:30 PM

Place: Brooklyn Business Library, Brooklyn Heights

Without meaningful interaction...the customer will want to break up!

Do the ad programs you propose promote interaction with customers? No matter what media you sell, you are now in the business of advancing your client's dialog with their customers...unlike the couple in this funny clip:

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

Internet to Overtake Radio in ‘08 & Mags in ‘10

The ineveitable prediction has been made. According to a ZenithOptimedia forecast,

"We predict internet advertising to pass three milestones over the next three years," ZenithOptimedia's forecast said. "We expect it to overtake radio advertising in 2008; to attain a double-digit share of global advertising in 2009; and to overtake magazine advertising in 2010, with 11.5% of total ad spend."

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On a call.

Use this on a call.

A perfect study to show your web laggards. Show them the chart and ask, "Come on guys, do you really think this Web stuff is just going to blow over?

Read the full article on the AdAge website

PDF with the stats on the Ad Age site

What marketers want to know: back to basics

Question: What should you talk about on your next call to get high level marketers interested in your proposal?

Answer: review of the basics.

An Andersen Analytics survey of the The Marketing Executives Networking Group, of almost 1700 top marketers, found "Marketing basics" as their top interest followed by Search Engine Optimization.

MEG Board Member Chandra Chaterji said, “Senior marketers are facing an increasingly complex world with new technologies and new market segments rising to the fore.”

In times of rapid change, "the basics" get rewritten. It may  not sound so sexy, but is it what your marketers want to hear about the next time you call on them.

As you plan your next call, think about how the basics of what you are offing have changed. It could be the theme for a presentation that gets their attention.   

Press release on the Andersen Analytics web site -

See an article from eMarketer, source of the chart posted above