Category Archives: Direct Response Advertising

When Branding goes Wrong

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It’s the dream of all UK Advertising Agencies to come up with branding that is that good it is universally recognised and appreciated. Take Coke Cola or McDonalds, we all recognise the infamous golden arches and coke cola swoosh’s, wherever we are in the world and when you achieve a formula that works and get an image and logo that is right then many people agree that it is best to leave it as it is. Why fix something that is not broken?

Unfortunately, one of the most recognisable brands in the world, Gap, decided that it was time for a makeover and having spent thousands of pounds rebranding their ever popular logo which is the blue box with capital letters reading ‘Gap’, they changed it to a white box, with a small blue box sitting over the letter P.

There was an online furore with 2, 000 people protesting through Facebook and Twitter collecting 5, 000 followers along with a ‘Make your own Gap logo’ site that went viral. Gap were forced to reconsider the launch of their new logo and in the end opted to do an embarrassing U turn on the whole thing. They have decided that if the Brand needs evolving in the future they will be much more inclusive and listen to what their consumers would like.

Gap is not the only corporation to get things very wrong. The Royal Mail decided in 2001 to rebrand their postal service and call themselves Consignia, after spending £2 million on the venture, they reversed the changes 16 months later.

If you are considering rebranding, then before you start to spend thousands of pounds it might be an idea to test the market and see what consumers views are on your existing brand first.

Facebook Furore

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The leading social media network Facebook is once again in trouble regarding privacy issues. This time it concerns some of the popular applications on Facebook which can pass on the user’s identity and that of their friends to internet tracking agencies. It can affect even the most diligent of users who have the highest privacy settings.

Popular applications like FarmVille and Texas Hold em up were just two of many applications that grab a users ID number which is unique and transmits personal information to external companies. The data that can be captured allows these companies to look up the users name and also reveals any data that has been set to be visible to everyone on the site, which in turn means visibility across the internet.

Gaining data from users and friends ID’s allow companies to build up an individual profile of the user and many UK Advertising Agencies benefit from this by achieving highly targeted ads that go direct to the user based on their detailed profile, likes and dislikes etc. This is widely used across the internet and whilst it is not new, the latest revelation with Facebook which could affect the 500 million members is cause for concern as many people don’t know what data is held about them personally.

It has also been revealed that many people’s phone numbers are retained by Facebook without their knowledge, by capturing the details when the user uploads photos from their mobile phones or external systems on to their profile page.

How to Write a Good Advert

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Millions of pounds are spent on advertising every single month across the world. Advertising is a huge industry and one that people can make a lot of money from. Small businesses right up to global enterprises use advertising and often utilise the skills of UK Advertising Agencies to manage their campaigns

Many companies can spend a fortune on advertising but can get things scarily wrong. Even the perfect placement in a magazine with good and relevant readership cannot guarantee sales. People don’t buy a magazine to look at your advert. You need to be creative and draw that potential customer in.

The design needs to be clear and concise. It’s all very well having a glorious and sophisticated advert that is clever on many levels but unless it clearly states what you are advertising and the benefits this has to the customer then people will turn the page. Similarly, if the advert is too plain, albeit clearly telling customers what the advert is about, people will be less likely to be drawn to it and turn the page still.

The main thing people want to know when they look at an advert is ‘What will it do for me’. You have to sell the benefits. Whether that is making the customer more beautiful, saving them money or making them healthier, the customer has to see a clear benefit your product or service offers.

Once you have them captivated, which a good Direct Response Advertising agency will achieve, then you have to prove the benefit somehow. A testimonial is always a good option here. To finish, a successful advert will have some kind of ‘call to action’ whether that’s ‘Call us now’, ‘Request a Brochure’ or whatever else you choose.

Bearing these points in mind should help you along the way to writing a good advert and remember there are many good advertising agencies out there that can help with your campaigns.

Facebooks advertising revenue to reach £1bn

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Facebook has just released a forecast for its advertising revenue for next year that cites the company will make just over 1 billion pounds.  Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and several of his college roommates whilst studying at Harvard University and has seen its popularity increase over the past few years immensely.

People could be wrong in thinking that this will be a trend within the online advertising market as other companies such as MySpace have unfortunately reported 14% shrinkage in their advertising revenues.

Facebook now has over 500 million users globally and relies on 65% of its revenue from the US. It is very big news that it has now dwarfed its rival MySpace that is currently owned by Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation. With advertising profits rising by 165% since 2009 the company is set to soar even further over time and reach its own goal of 1 billion users in the near future.

Most of Facebooks revenue is served by its advertising partner Microsoft in the form of Banner advertising.  Facebook has a much lower click through rate than many other large websites but is still extremely successful and used by many UK advertising agencies.

One of its reasoning’s for its low click through rate is its reckoning that many of its users are very young and technically minded and in turn use advert blockers to bypass adverts.  It has been reported that some adverts used within Facebooks wall posts have had click through rates as high as 6.49%, which is one of the reasons as a Direct Response Advertising Agency there is no better time to start using social website Marketing.

Media Sector set to lift

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It has been a turbulent old time for Direct Response Advertising and other elements of the media sector which over the last three years have seen a drop in revenue. Today there seems to be a surprise recovery though on the global advertising markets, having seen for the past three months some positive growth. Some large UK Advertising Agencies have actually boosted their forecasts for industry spending this year by more than 50 per cent and have predicted a further spike in 2012 which can only be good news for an industry that has been suffering.

Drastic falls in advertising have historically been followed by a good rebound approximately three years later, so for example, after the big slump of 1991, spending went up by 6.8 per cent three years later. The same can be said for the dotcom bubble when spending went up 7.4 per cent about three years later.

Whilst the media industry diversifies all the time and opportunities arrive in all manner of new places like online, via mobile phones and even through television programmes with the latest allowance of product placement then the scope for companies to get their products and messages across to consumers is as exciting and innovative as ever. Companies need to lead with their innovations and pave the way against their competitors in what is an incredibly cut throat, competitive industry. Consumers are more demanding than ever and expect great value for money along with well designed, high quality finished products.

Footballers and Advertising

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As the world cup kicks off, England had their first game on Saturday night and in true form managed to have the nation in states of tension, frustration and at times embarrassment. Robert Green, England’s chosen goal keeper, managed to let a goal in that even I could have saved and in the wake of his embarrassment, UK Advertising Agencies have told him that he should have a fairly good career in advertising, presumably being the butt of his own joke.

So, who else has managed to make a career in advertising?

Gareth Southgate, Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce who all famously missed penalties in crucial matches gained roles in the Pizza Hut advertising campaign. Southgate was seen with a bag over his head in the restaurant whilst trying to eat a pizza, trying to hide his identity from fellow diners.

Gary Lineker was a household name for his football abilities and clean record on the pitch and become the face of Walkers crisps in ironic roles as Mr. Bad Guy, stealing crisps off unsuspecting crisp eaters in a series of very successful adverts.
Eric Cantona retired early from an extremely successful football career playing for Manchester United and his country, to become an actor. Along the way he starred in a fair amount of adverts, the most famous being his Nike commercials which featured a whole host of world class players in a dungeon playing football, he was the dungeon master hosting the tournament.

It will be interesting to see which players sign up to a UK Advertising Agent and start to appear in adverts as a result of their success or demise in the World Cup.

Advertising and the Election

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2010 Election

2010 Election

It would have been a bitter pill to swallow, in the wake of our turbulent economic crisis, to find the powers that be had spent millions on advertising fees to promote their party in the quest to govern this country. Thankfully the leaders, especially Brown had the sense not to.

For the three UK Advertising Agencies appointed to peddle each party, a baptism of fire ensued. It is often a few weeks, sometimes months, for the strategic briefing of an ad campaign to turn into the creative execution. For this election it was required within a matter of hours, overnight sometimes, to rewrite messages and tweak ads already lined up to run. The modern digital world moves at such a pace that it is possible (and sometimes vital) to reconfigure entire strategies overnight, reacting to the media frenzy and party oppositions day by day.

The recent election has been hailed as the Social Media Election. With tiny budgets, the evolution of social media has played a huge role. Allowing each party to work hard building relationships with the voters via social media opportunities along with email marketing to amplify their party policies and keep in touch with the voter.

Opinions are split on how much more effective social media has been for each party opposed to the traditional poster sites and press ads of yester year. One strong argument is that it is the real people within these realms that have had the most influence, rather than the parties themselves. From high brow intellects to youthful pop stars; it will be difficult to quantify how much impact their tweets and profiles have had in swaying the public with their unrestricted and transparent opinions posted on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the run up to the next election and monitor how each UK Advertising Agent will strategise the campaign; will the emphasis be on Modern Social Media or Traditional Press Media?

The Effects of Social Media

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As the internet evolves so do the opportunities of advertising and marketing avenues for UK Advertising Agencies. Whilst we once engaged in placement ads on social media sites with gusto we now see that people want to see what others are into, and like, and can offer, than just clicking on the adverts that sit next to these people’s profiles. That’s not to say paid placements are pointless. As we watch social media grow and mature we see more sophisticated methods of advertising coming through with developers designing much more reactive and measurable information in the form of capturing profile data, profile targeting and auction systems that meet the advertisers ability to engage and also to measure the results.

Away from the paid placements there are of course the social media usage itself that for the likes of almost every company has benefits: from increasing brand awareness to direct response call to actions. Marketers are awakening to the realisation people don’t want to be shouted at or have adverts thrust in their faces. More so, businesses see the effective benefits of offering relevant, informative and valued insights to facilitate building a relationship with consumers. By engaging in more social communicative ways and offering entertainment and benefits to their valued target audience, the target audience in turn, respond in a more effective way. Following companies tweets, becoming a fan of their Facebook page and signing up to their news alerts has become a way of life for consumers to keep in touch and stay informed with all the latest that company may offer.

They say in this industry it is far more cost effective for a UK Advertising Agent and indeed a business, to retain and market to their existing client base than reaching out to new, and in this social media world we live in, surely that is truer and easier today than when this statement was first penned.

TV Product Placement Confirmed

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In an inevitable turn of events, product placement on TV has finally been accepted by the government in the UK. Until now, the UK, along with Denmark were the only EU member states that had not yet allowed TV product placement or indeed express an intention to do so. But following heightened pressure and a realisation that if they didn’t allow product placement they could jeopardize the competitiveness of UK programme makers against the rest of the EU, the UK realized it was something that they had to be a part of which will mark significant opportunities for UK Advertising Agencies.

Stringent legislation will prohibit the placement of alcoholic drinks, foods and drinks that are high in fat, salt or sugar, gambling, smoking, accessories, infant formulas and follow on formulas along with over the counter medicines. Health Secretary, Andy Burnham said that without these restrains, advertising these products could lead to further obesity and alcohol related problems.

These restrictions bring mixed reviews to the table, whilst ITV and other commercial broadcasters have been lobbying for product placement for some time to generate higher levels of revenue are against the limitations of certain products, cabinet ministers and certain charities such as Children’s Food Campaign have had their concerns alleviated somewhat. Another concern over the movement in the UK was that product placement would blur the distinction between programmes and advertisements, but with every other country participating and the need for commercial broadcasters to generate revenue to invest in original content in the UK, the legislation seems to be a good compromise to start with.

How product placement will develop over the years in terms of its level of presence on screen and content, only time will tell, but what is for sure is that it is an advertising venture new to the UK which is set to grow substantially.

Advertising News 2009

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Whilst advertising in 2009 as a whole has been down on 2008 there have been successes across the board with digital and online advertising continuing to grow and become more competitive. The war of the Internet Search Engines began with Microsoft’s Bing launching globally in June, much to Google’s annoyance. They have teamed up with Yahoo and now have a Market share of 10%, Google is a little worried and has launched its first ever global advertising campaign. The question is will people be coining the new phrase ‘I binged it’ in the new decade?

Internet advertising has been the most innovative marketing medium in 2009 which is supported by the Internet Advertising Bureau (LAB) reporting that it had grown by 4.6% in the first half of 2009, overtaking television spend for the first time ever. Now more than ever people should be looking at utilising the Internet for their marketing and many UK Advertising Agencies are fully equipped to manage campaigns as paid for searches continue to grow and be in demand.

The mobile phone market is also driving innovation in marketing with 2009 being another strong year. In June, consumers camped outside O2 stores across England to get their hands on Apple’s 3G iPhone, a launch which secured a 40% share of the smartphone market. The future for mobiles look set to get bigger and bigger and the medium is now accounts for 11.7% of ad spend.

TV has struggled this year but with shows like X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent, TV advertising revenues will be up by 4% year on year this month. The BBC has been suffering with their networks and need to find £75 million in order to kick start its cost cutting programme for the next five years. Whilst Channel four has signed a ground breaking deal with YouTube this year which will make the broadcasters programmes available on demand, in full and free of charge via the video sharing website.

With these new avenues of marketing looking set to grow and continue to be fiercer in competition who knows what other ground breaking deals, new innovations and jaw dropping tactics will be used in 2010 by search engines, phone companies and direct response advertising . Watch this space.