Integrated Marketing : GoPro

Integrated Marketing is a marketing communications that are combine all the different kinds of methods together to present a message to the consumers.

Nowdays people using GoPro for any kind of situation, there is a theme I found on web that is “Be a HERO” which is to attract and try to connect with the target audience in a quite meaningful way. The theme that they had named is by using the brand-related sponsorships and endorsements, social media, outdoor ads and web, this is the way that GoPro integrates all their marketing efforts with a tons of user consistently generate their personal content of the day. Furthermore, GoPro users can submit their video to win the event such like Video of the week or day on the GoPro’s Channels. By doing several event, GoPro brand was able to climb to the top of the leader board because there were a fire-fighter submitted an original video using GoPro, and it is also represented that when there is a strong brand message, it also can be a successful campaign even is the brand is a user-generated content.

This Fire-fighter GoPro Video is providing quite inspiration of “Never Give Up” and “Be a Hero” message to people even though the kitten looks to be dead but when you never try, you will never know the result. In the end, the fireman had saved the unconscious kitten.

Some of the user- generated provided an inspiring motivational message to people. Such as Team GoPro’s Quest for Glory, this would inspire and attract a lot of viewer to start pump up and do what they dream of and GoPro for it.

These video would inspire younger generation to do what they dream of and never easily give up or scare on failure.

In your opinion, after watching these GoPro’s original video do you think these motivates you? Do you think these would have an impact on the market? Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments!

Started with Integrated Marketing

Integrated Marketing is an approach to marketing communications that synthesizes different methods together to present a consistent message. By leveraging an integrated marketing approach, a marketer can reach more prospects by enabling their brand to resonate on multiple different channels.

There are some key areas to focus on:

1. Collect customer data to gauge what content or messaging speaks to them and what channel is most effective. Initiate conversations directly with customers, coordinate with your internal teams, and test different combinations of content and channels to determine what works are the best.

2. Break down barriers between organizational groups to discover more about what really resonates with your customers. Schedule a brainstorming session with your team to identify key touch points and the right message.

3. Invest in integrated toolsets with cross channel campaign management. Make sure you have a solid presence across your top channels (social media, email and mobile). And remember, all of these channels should be highly coordinated with unified messaging.

4. Create cohesive messaging and promote the right content at the right time. Understand where your buyers are in the process and make sure you are delivering content that speaks to their points.

How to started with integrated marketing:

1. Create a road map for cross-channel relevance by identifying the right message and method for each stage in the buying process.

2. Remember to tell the story with your content. Buyers will respond to the emotional connections and personalization that good content can create.

3. Always coordinate with internal teams to have a holistic view of what will resonate with the customer.

Reference

Luxton, S, Reid, M, & Mavondo, F 2015, ‘Integrated Marketing Communication Capability and Brand Performance’, Journal Of Advertising, 44, 1, pp. 37-46, Business Source Complete, viewed 28 May 2015, EBSCOhost

Melovic, B, Mitrovic, S, Djokaj, A, Nesic, A, & Lekovic, M 2014, ‘Integrated marketing communications as a function of brand development’, Construction of Unique Buildings & Structures, vol. 27, no. 12, pp. 24-31.

Measuring the degree of corporate social media use

Facebook is a convenience tool social media tool which is very famous in terms of internet. The official report of Facebook indicates that the number of registered increasing dramatically. Though the data and analysis of Facebook itself might be unrealistic in some extent, but it does prove that Facebook plays an important part in the life of many users. Besides, many of these users prefer to log on Facebook every day in order to share what happened in their life daily, or showing their favourite like for friends, big shots and so on. It seems that Facebook could be able to consider as a representative one when talking about social media and the network. However, the definition of social media is so widely that Facebook is just one of the examples in this definition, especially in the field of marketing. In other word, social media does more than Facebook.

According to related researchers, social media is not restricted to social network, blogs, business networks, enterprise social network, video sharing and social gaming could all be considered as different contents of social media. Besides, social media has become one of the standards to critic whether a company is success or not. In marketing field, social media has become a compulsory part for many enterprises and business agencies’ strategy. However, it is a long way for a company assess to the area of social media. There might be many unpredicted difficulties and issues need to overcome. As an example, as the developing of technology, it is very simple to broadcast useful information to almost every corner of the world. Therefore, delaying reply users confusions or requirements may cause the customer dissatisfaction. This will lead to many customer decide to purchase other substitute productions and then resulting the decrease profit of a company would be gained. Based on the analyses, a successful combined social media and business company needs to be both of careful and adopt suitable, then evolving potential customers. By this way, an enterprise could be able to distinguish that whether the current strategies is correct and when is the most property time to response consumers and suppliers. It does very helpful in terms of related interactions of a company.

It is worth to point out that on the corporate level, social media is not only important to decision objectives but also necessary of measuring success or not by the way of using relevant metrics. Those metrics are not limited by the number of visits, page views, members/fans, impressions, incoming links and the average time of visitors preferring to spend on websites. Besides, there is no doubt that not every single platform of social media is suitable or relevant for business. As an example, photo sharing, and social gaming might be limited to business as their specific characters. What’s more, some consumers prefer to use internet to browse some websites which focus on purchase such as Alibaba and Amazon. Although many costumers might not like some of the companies which are combined with those online purchase, but the influence of the website itself are more than those companies. As an example, though consumers may not be very sacrificed with those companies, assume the situation that their first-choice company are out of stock occurs, they might choose the company even they do not like. This is because they have been accustomed to use the website which they prefer to.

Generally speaking, just depending on by registering a simply account or an official website to complete social media for a company, is not enough. What they need to do is updating useful information regularly and trying to reactive customer in order to reach a higher communication with consumers. According to related studies, the better communication a company does, the better a company doing well in social media comparing other competitors.

Overall, it can be told that Intel is posting the highest number of messages and uploading most videos, but receives the lowest number of views, ‘likes’, comments and shares, while Samsung Mobile’s and Disney’s posts seem to be more popular among their fans and followers.

Sources:

Aichner, T, & Jacob, F 2015, ‘Measuring the degree of corporate social media use’, International Journal Of Market Research, 57, 2, pp. 257-275, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 May 2015.

Katona, Z, & Sarvary, M 2014, ‘Maersk Line: B2B SOCIAL MEDIA–“IT’S COMMUNICATION, NOT MARKETING”‘, California Management Review, 56, 3, pp. 142-156, Health Business Elite, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 May 2015.

Chocolate Market in China

China’s Imported Chocolate Market

Now the China market has already become the engine for the global chocolate market. Its 30% annual growth and its large population have attracted chocolate marketers from all corners of the world. A profound understanding of the market, customers and the right marketing strategy is the key to penetrating the massive China chocolate market.

Chocolate in China

Status quo of Imported Chocolate market

Seen as an exotic food product, it has taken decades for Chinese people to accept chocolate. Now the Chinese market is ready for chocolate from the taste and the culture,
According to the data from Association of Chinese Chocolate Manufacturer, Chinese consumes 70 grams of chocolate per capita every year. This data is dwarfed by 2 kilos that of Japan and Korea, needless to say 7 kilos of one European. However, multiplied by 1.3 billion the size of the market which is ￥3.5 billion is a huge potential as well.

That also explains why the Chinese market can witness a 40% annual growth in 2008 when the global growth is only 10% and report from Bain estimates that the annual growth will stay around 11% in the next 5 years and it looks quite negative compared with that of 30% fromAC Nielsen report. No matter which one comes true, the huge potential of the market has been recognized by everybody. The huge population means a big potential to drive the chocolate business up when chocolate consumption per capita reaches 1 kilo.

So far, the top 20 chocolate makers have already presented in the market. In a common supermarket in Shanghai, you can easily find chocolate of over 70 brands. Most of them are foreign brands. The study on consumption habit of Chinese chocolate consumers also indicates that foreign brand chocolate is more popular in the market.

• 1% of the consumers prefer foreign brands
• only 22.2% like local brands more

And local companies still need time to improve this totally imported food product. As a result, about 90% of the market is occupied by foreign brands. The big four (biggest four companies in China chocolate market: Dove, Ferrero, Cadbury and Leconte) have taken over 70% of the market. Only Leconte is a local brand. Among the three foreign brands, only Dove has taken one-third of the market.

And these four brands have held the high class market. Then following brands such as UHA, Meiji and Lindt & Sprüngli take medium-to-high class chocolate market and the rest of the market is taken by local companies.
Good news for imported chocolate is that the new generation of consumers has much deeper understanding of chocolate including its taste, making process and culture. This trend will probably increase the daily consumption of chocolate which means the market will expand greatly.

Selling Points of Imported Chocolate

Why more and more Chinese become fans of chocolate, a foreign imported food product?
What are the factors to getting Chinese people buying chocolate ? A report shows that the No.1 factor Chinese consumers consider is the taste; following by brand (18%) and price (7%).

1. Taste

From the slogans of big foreign brands, we can see that taste is the key factor those big companies consider:

• Dove: 牛奶香浓，丝般感受(Sweet-smelling milk as silk tasting)
• Ferrero: 溶在口味，回味无穷(melt in mouth, a lasting flavor)
• Cadbury:顺滑(smooth)

It’s true that in China, taste is the most important factor, but compared to western consumers, Chinese consumers don’t care about the taste nearly as much. A report shows 66% western consumers put taste as the most important factor while only 30% consumers think it’s the most important factor.
With the deeper understanding of chocolate, Chinese consumers will consider more and more about the variety and the taste.

2. Brand

When chocolate came to China’s market, it was branded as an exotic food product which is an added extra value.
And now the brand has become even more important.

First of all, a big part of imported chocolates purchased in China are for gifts or ceremonial use like wedding candy.

For young Chinese men, chocolates, especially luxurious delicately packed chocolates have become a must to show their love to their girlfriends. During the Chinese Valentines’ Day this year, half of the top 10 items sold online were chocolates.
That’s why imported chocolates are sold as high class food product.

Apart from its decent look, imported chocolates also enjoys a fame of high class ingredients. With the growing concern for health and food safety, consumers are becoming more careful about the ingredients of chocolates and imported chocolate are trusted for containing more coco or milk.

3. Price

When chocolate first appeared in China, the price for a box of imported chocolates was sky-high. Today, chocolate has become a common food product that most people can afford. But some chocolate brands are still famous for their high price such as Ferrero because Ferrero targets on high class chocolate market where price is an important tool to show its value.
A Chinese consumer can easily find reasons to buy a box of imported chocolate for its taste, brand and price. And what chocolate makers need to do is to produce nice chocolate, promote its brand and label with a suitable price.

Branding

If you already have the products, why not sell them in China? But before that, you will need to know how Chinese think about the taste of your chocolate and build your brand first. To reach these two targets an integrated strategy of both online and offline marketing will be good.
As shown in a survey by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), 85% of the interviewees choose Internet as their choice for information, following with TV 66.1%, then newspaper 61.1%.
For new comers in the Chinese chocolate market, online marketing and branding is a suitable strategy. It has the following four advantages:

1. cost efficiency
2. precise marketing
3. easy reputation control
4. feedback from the market.

There are mainly two ways to promote your chocolate in China online: Special designed website and SNS promotion

1. A website in Chinese

With a website in Chinese, you can

1. increase the popularity of your brand
2. influence consumers by content and design
3. create a company image

After creating a website for your chocolates, the promotion of it is also important. A good website without people visiting is a waste. To promote a website by SEO and SEM is the most popular solution now.

2. SNS promotion

Social Networking Service or Social Networking Sites (SNS) has become an important source for people to get information. Now half of the Chinese internet users have registered in Weibo (micro blog). As “2012 Corporate Weibo White Paper“by Sina and CIC introduces, there are about 5000 food products manufacturers opening accounts on Sina Weibo. Some of them have opened very professional Weibo accounts.

Other SNS sites like Douban where high educated Chinese are and RenRen (China Facebook) are also important.
The benefit of promoting your chocolates on SNS is that you can

1. get feedback about the taste, brand and price quickly from them;
2. build a community surround your company;
3. reach your target people precisely;
4. creating a more friendly company image;

and people accept information from SNS faster.

3. Community management

Besides its taste, the concept of chocolate culture has also been accepted by Chinese. Chocolate Salon has already been held three times in Shanghai and gained a lot chocolate fans and build a high-class image for this food product.

Question:

Chocolate has very high calorie，so women think that eating chocolate will make them fat，and it could not help them to keep in shape.

If you are the marketing manager which want to attract more women to eat chocolate，what do you think you need to adjust on the integrated marketing communications of chocolate？

The use of mixed emotions in fear advertising

Fear is frequently used to advertise many products, services and social marketing campaigns. It can be used to advertise home alarm system and insurance and etc. Also, it is also widely used in social marketing, discouraging unhealthy or dangerous behaviours such as smoking, drink-driving and alcohol abuse. Although using fear appeals in advertising has made some achievement to some extent, but some researchers found that the persuasive effect of fear advertising will reduce when the tension of fear increases (Mukherjee & Dube 2012). These following video clips show two examples of fear advertising used in commercial and social marketing.

As a negative emotions to the environment, fear is a strong motivator of attitude and behaviour modification, particularly when fear appeals accompanied by high-efficacy messages (Lennon, Rentfro & O’ Leary 2010). High level of fear tension causes fear and activates defensive responses, making audience, particularly those with most empathy and close relationship with the issue to escape from the message (Brennan & Binney 2010). In that case, many researchers suggested to introduce a sense of humor in fear advertising to reduce defensive responses and increase the persuasiveness of fear advertising.

Humor works in fear advertising in two ways. Firstly, as a fundamental ingredient of social communication tool, the playful nature of humor will provide a safety margin for audience, allowing them to elaborate the threatening message and aware their personality vulnerability to the threat. Also, humor effectively reduce the negative consequences of fear advertising, thus decreasing defensive responses to the advertising. Thus, despite humor cannot decrease the level of fear tension, it increases the effectiveness of fear advertising (Mukherjee & Dube 2012). For instance, dumb ways to die is regarded as a good example of mixing humor and fear in social marketing campaign.

References
Mukherjee, A, & Dubé, L 2012, ‘Mixing emotions: The use of humor in fear advertising’, Journal Of Consumer Behaviour, 11, 2, pp. 147-161, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 May 2015.

Lennon, R, Rentfro, R, & O’Leary, B 2010, ‘SOCIAL MARKETING AND DISTRACTED DRIVING BEHAVIORS AMONG YOUNG ADULTS: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FEAR APPEALS’, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 95.

Brennan, L, & Binney, W 2010, ‘Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing’, Journal Of Business Research, 63, 2, pp. 140-146, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 May 2015.

CREATIVITY PAYS OFF

Surya Chandra, Tim Young (215029921, 212124584) Ever wondered why coca-cola and red bull are the respective market leaders in soft drinks and energy drink sectors. Do you think it’s just superior quality? Does coca cola taste better than Pepsi, does Red Bull taste better than any of the other energy drinks available such as V or does it give you more of an energy boost. The answer is none of these, in fact there is nothing to suggest these products have any innate advantages over the others in their product categories. So what separates these brands from the rest? It’s marketing. The way these brands have been able to communicate with the consumer is unique and more creative than that of their peers. Red Bull for instance has always believed in bringing people to the brand using the AIDA strategy that is Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action, they have done this despite no intrinsic advantages over the others through lots of sponsoring of events that gets noticed and makes it a more recognisable brand (Awareness). They also create Interest in the brand through the events that they sponsor such as the Red Bull air race and freestyle motocross events. Red bull likes to use a pull strategy, instead of spending millions on pushing the product through advertising they like to generate lots of positive word of mouth cheaply through their wings team that travel around in a red bull car with a large can attached to it offering people a free can. It’s all about finding creative ways to get to the consumer in a way they haven’t been communicated to before, that’s what makes the marketing of the brand effective. A perfect example of getting creative was the wildly successful share a coke campaign that was trialled in Australia in 2011 using the top 150 most popular names in the country. It was successful because it adds a very personal message to the brand and although aimed at 18-25 year olds older people could still get involved because a name is non-discriminating. It created a lot of hype on social media sites such as Facebook with coca cola’s Facebook page likes growing by 39% and traffic on the page increasing by 870%. It created a tangible personalized item which encouraged people to share it online generating lots of buzz. Many brands which are ahead of their competitors are experts in using the integrated marketing communication to spread a message. Ever wondered how energy drink with bulls on its face can give you wings, that might sound stupid but it actually worked. Companies never care for logic as long as their message is delivered. You know how much money goes into marketing, it’s 25% of their profits in the case of Red bull and it seems justified when we just think of actual extent of advertising it does. For a brand to be successful it has to be advertised extensively through different kinds of medium which sends a common message and only when the message reaches the consumer effectively all the efforts are justified. It’s not about the brand or the content of the message it is about how you can communicate that message to the consumer in a way that sticks and in that regard certainly with Red Bull and Coca Cola creativity really has paid off. Related Articles: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/jul/24/share-coke-teach-brands http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/share-a-coke-how-the-groundbreaking-campaign-got-its-start-down-under http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/red-bull/engaging-consumers-through-word-of-mouth-marketing/introduction.html#axzz3YCzP55BV http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article/index.php?a=9437/the-powerful-sales-strategy-behind-red-bull&page=1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2013/06/24/the-wind-behind-red-bulls-wings/

The Impression Green

Have you ever see a special green color when you watch Melbourne cup? Have you ever see the green color when you watch AFL? Have you ever see that green color when you watch UEFA Champions League, FIFA world cup even in Olympics games. Yes! That green color is Heineken.

 

Freddy Heineken served as Chairman of the Board of directors and CEO from 1971 until 1989. During this period Heineken sold their beer to other countries in Europe, as well as North America, Australia, Asian, Africa and South America. As of 2012, Heineken owns over 190 breweries in more than 70 countries and employs approximately 85,000 people

 

Why Heineken become the most famous beer around the world? The efficiency of IMC is the key for Heineken getting those successful achievements in world beer market.

IMC(integrated marketing communications) weaves diverse aspects of business and marketing togetherWhen these diverse aspects of business and marketing are weaved together properly, an effective campaign can be achieved. Effective campaigns are demonstrated on the Integrated Brands showcase which recognizes brands that are innovative, strategic and successfully growing their sales. By effectively leveraging each communication channel, a greater impact can be achieved together than achieved individually

In integrated marketing communications, consumers is the core, the company has to meet customer needs for the purpose of customer demand, establishing a brand that has a high status in consumers minds, This can contribute in maintain long-term relationships and achieve a win-win situation for both consumers and businesses.

 

Integrated marketing communication refers to all information conveyed to consumers, including advertising, sales promotion, direct reflection of advertising, event marketing, packaging, advertisement in an advantageous way for the product. Each piece of information should make it whole and echo each other, if the process is successful, it will be conveyed to consumers by the same brand message and therefore builds brand equity.

Since 1999, Heineken in the global marketing of the investment costs up to 14% of the company’s annual revenue of about $ 815 million. Heineken beer skillfully advertised in entertainment shows and various international sporting events. In many major tennis tournament events, concerts and film festivals, people can see Heineken’s green logo. Also Heineken commercial is everywhere around our life. No matter you are strolling on the street or just open your television, you always see Heineken’s interesting ads which leaves strong impression to the pubic.

Heineken realized that the younger generation of beer consumption capacity improved, so the youth market has become the main battlefield. Now the main task at this stage is that the Heineken should not only focus on young customers, they cannot alienate middle- aged beer drinkers, because the latter is Heineken’s core customers.

 

In you opinion, do you wish to try Heineken’s beer after you watch their commercial advertisement? Do you think Heineken is successful in IMC strategy? If you are the CEO of Heineken, what would you like to do to improve IMC strategy? Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

 

Sources:                                      

https://prezi.com/xxf0uljdfxta/heineken-case/

http://www.heineken.com/au/home.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communications

https://prezi.com/ocf5orzqdm2w/heineken/

 

Game of Marketing: Appealing to emotions can be far more powerful than logic.

A study by Carnegie Mellon University found that when people put on their analytical hats, they tend to donate lesser to a charitable cause.

While logic helps us to make wiser choices, emotions drive bigger actions.

If you have a product that you feel is life-changing, it only makes sense that your customers should feel the same!

Think about how your product can appeal to your customer’s emotions, and you can begin to build true brand loyalty. And drive customers to talk about you with their friends.

According to Chip & Dan Heath’s made to Stick, one of the best ways ingrain a message is to make people feel strong emotions while engaging with it.

Consider the following ads by Nike which are focusing on an Individual.

This ad features an underdog, someone who isn’t special. Someone like us.

His similarity to us makes his story relatable, and we can feel his drive to succeed.

This is (part of) what makes a good narrative.

According to Made to Stick, eliciting emotions isn’t just about being a tear-jerker. It has to make people care about something.

When we feel and care for something, we’re much more willing to act.

This Nike ad challenges the mainstream understanding of “greatness”. Greatness isn’t a genetic trait, nor something possessed by a selected few.

An overweight boy then comes into focus, jogging slowly but never stopping. It tells us that achieving greatness is everyone’s game.

Focusing on the underdog, the common man, can be far more effective than the use of a celebrity. Celebrities are hard to relate to, while the underdog can be any one of us.

In particular, Chip and Dan highlight four ways to appeal to the emotional side of us:

• Focus on an Individual – We feel more for a visceral picture of a starving kid than a “100 kids die from starvation daily” statistic.
• Establish an Association – Allow people to associate something they do with something you want them to care about.
• Appeal to one’s Self-interest – Tell customers what they stand to gain, not the features your product has.
• Relate to one’s Identity – We buy things that appeal to our identity: who we are, and what we value.

One of the more effective ways of getting people to adopt your brand/message is to associate it with something they already care about.

This works well either for something that no longer has significant meaning, or something relatively new on the market.

Below is an interesting marketing campaign by Listerine – the self-made solution of bad breath:

Before Listerine was known as an antiseptic mouthwash, it was used for anything from cleaning floors to curing Gonorrhea.

But in the 1920s, Listerine started positioning themselves as a cure for chronic halitosis, aka bad breath.

Their ads dramatized how people were turned off by those with bad breath, then presenting Listerine as the solution.

Even though bad breath wasn’t a big deal then, Listerine became a multimillion dollar company in less than 10 years.

Listerine essentially made bad breath a problem, and then sold the problem-solver.

What is your motivation? What makes a message memorable? Which ads would be more effective; the ones in acted by the celebrities or by the common person?

Author: Akau Alier & Shitanshu Singh

Social Media Killed The Radio Ad

The Buggles made a point with their 1979 hit single “Video Killed the Radio Star”. MTV brought in a new era of music where musicians couldn’t just be great musicians, they also had to have the look to go with it. Some bands struggled with this large change because if they didn’t join the music video scene, their music wouldn’t be heard and they would eventually disband. A few examples could be linked to the same situation radio advertising is facing with Social Media and Television.

“And who did the people want to see? It wasn’t Supertramp or Joe Jackson. In fact, it was the end of those guys’ careers. People got one look at Joe Jackson, and they said ‘Put the camera back on his shoes!’” -Dee Snider (paraphrased) on MTV, from Heavy: The Story of Metal

The biggest issue that hit the music industry was the people didn’t want to see ugly people on television. Some bands struggled to provide an image that was marketable and couldn’t sustain their previous success. Those bands that survived found that to compete with pretty bands such as Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen needed to have a gimmick. The best example would have to be Twisted Sister and their lead singer Dee Snider. With Twisted Sister struggling to find success they found that cross dressing would be their gimmick. Without being blessed with good looks they found that making their image as repulsive as possible, brought video attention to the band which in turn created a larger fan base. This is similar to the issue that radio advertising has been facing for sometime.

http://www.writeonnewjersey.com/tag/golden-age-of-radio/

At one stage Radio advertising was the main advertising medium. Before Television or Social Media, families would sit around their radios instead. As the whole family was together products could be advertised for the whole family. This would also bring on children asking their parents questions about the products, and from a young age children developed brand loyalty from their parents views. Also as important was the way these advertisements were communicated. Instead of a flashy display and a lot of yelling the local radio announcer would speak the advertisement himself, with sometimes a quick jingle on the piano to recognise the brand. Now to keep up with television and social media, radio has had to get louder and bolder.  The unfortunate path radio advertisements are going is trying to annoy people such as below:

The interesting part about these advertisements is that they are really effective. As soon as you hear that “Helloooo, Frank Walker from National Tiles” all I can think about is “not this guy again…”. However leaving the listener annoyed and disgruntled, also catches the listeners attention increasing the odds of the customer to enquire about the product. This is where radio advertising has come to today. By using the old radio advertising techniques of the 1950s, radio fell behind television and social media’s advertising power of visual aid. As the ugly bands with MTV had to have their gimmick to survive, so has radio advertising and they have chosen to be annoying to be successful.

So has anyone had enough of these annoying radio advertisements?

Have you heard of a more annoying ad than the National Tiles example?

How can radio complete with other radio mediums with using these gimmicks?

Is radio advertising dead?

Carlsberg’s Toast to Courage

Picture this: You walk into a movie theater and almost every seat is full of burly, mean-looking bikers. If that wasn’t already an intimidating situation, the only available seats are right in the middle of the center row, meaning if you want to watch the movie from a seated position, you’ll have to make your way through aisles of bikers who are staring you down.

What do you do?

If you’re like most people, you’ll enter the room and utter sentiments like, “You’ve got to be kidding me” and “This is not what I paid for.” You might even walk out and maybe head to the box office to ask for your money back. But if you’re among a brave handful, you’ll sit down anyway, wait patiently for the movie to start and … receive thunderous applause and a fresh Carlsberg to toast your courage.

The Impact

It’s a simple premise that struck a chord with a lot of people. The video, released in September 2011, had 11 million views on YouTube as of early May 2012. Elke Janssens, senior account manager at Duval Guillaume Modem, the Belgium-based ad agency behind the effort, says that there have been 16 million views worldwide, more than 1.5 million shares on Facebook, 364,000 mentions on Twitter and free publicity in more than 900 blogs, 150 news websites, numerous TV shows, newspapers and magazines — all with a correct brand attribution of 98%. In addition, there was a 4.3% increase in sales, by volume, in the third and fourth quarter of 2011, Janssens says.

What’s remarkable about the campaign is that the bit of theater Carlsberg created tied so closely to the brand’s positioning.

Janssens noted that Carlsberg introduced a new tagline in early 2011 — “That calls for a Carlsberg.” The slogan underpins a new creative strategy, essentially making a Carlsberg the reward for an act of courage. “Starting from this strategy, our creative team came up with some viral ideas for experiments where people have to step up out of their comfort zone and show courage,” Janssens says.

Hence the theater full of bikers.

It is obvious that Carlsberg had developed an excellent advertising goal and also, an advertising design in order to attract its target market. Social media acted as an effective communication channel for Carlsberg to expand its market share.

Authors: Hoi Ting Heidi Li & Yan Li