Maryrose Lyons blogging since 2003...

Ubiquity is the New Exclusivity

June 19, 2007 at 8:33 am

According to Carla Hendra of Ogilvy in the US.  Carla gave a great presentation that has really stayed in my mind.  Her main points on the day are summarised below:

Video is the new tv

Text is the new print

Mobile is the new outdoor

We don’t know where the consumer is anymore, but we want to meet them on their turf and terms.

Ubiquity is the new exclusivity.  But we can’t afford to be ubiquitous.

Is Google the new agency? 
Is it a distribution platform or an agency?
There’s certainly a lot of activity in that space.  Google acquired Doubleclick $3.1 bn.  Microsoft buys aQuantive for $6 bn. Yahoo purchases the 80% of Right Media it dioesn’t already own for $680 million.  WPP gets 24.7% of  Real Media for $649 million.  [A lot of scrambling says to me it's the early days of a new paradigm.]

When clients want their marketing to be more accountable they ask us to optimise.  Being able to make the right decisions but coming from an analysis of the huge amount of data that is available, that’s what clients mean by more accountable.

Most Effective Online Ads

4 key elements – art, science, innovation, experience

• Art = creative ideas.  It can’t be commoditised.
• Science = growing in importance.  Can be used to achieve healthier ROI’s.
• Innovation = re-inventing the agency around brands.  Once it starts, it spreads like wildfire.
• Experience = contact.  What allows the consumer to think, feel, touch, evaluate, maybe purchase.  Content creation and distribution are having profound implications for the online business.

What works for online direct:

[It seems a lot of the old tried and tested print DM rules rule!] 

1. Size matters.  Bigger performs better in DM metrics.
2. Put a face on it.  People sell better, get higher metrics.
3. Place logos on the right and ‘above the fold’ (horizontal).
4. Get to the point, simple direct messages work better.
5. Offer and main point in the initial frame.
6. Grabbing attention with rich media – they get more clicks but less conversion rates.   Works better at beginning and end.
7. GIF based and Flash based ads work similarly in terms of response, but Flash costs more and allows you to do more.

What works for online branding:

1. Size matters.
2. Put a face on it.
3. Frequency adds up.
4. Find some private space – a little bit more white space improves brand awareness and noticeability of the ad.  Just a couple more pixels.
5. Get a halo effect with rich media – raises other response rates for non rich media around it.
6. Content is king.

What else works?

• Video/advanced tv (eg. visible world) – very effective at creating response click through.
• User generated content
• Mobile
• Search
• Gaming
• Branded content and entertainment
• Community

Then she presented a whole series of interesting case studies to correspond to each of her point above, but all really interesting – and relevant too.   She said that at Ogilvy, they don’t go out to clients anymore without a fully expressed digital pitch.  Whether the client asks for it or not, they get digital. I think that’s where many in the Irish market would like it to go too, but they just don’t have the capability – yet.

She mentioned branded video content as being ‘explosive’ amongst the VC community right now.  Irish readers – we can expect this in another 2, 3 years? !   In general though, it’s the wild west right now.  [And that's even in Amercia.]  We’re going to focus on building a knowledge base with continued testing.  We’re not always going to be right, but must take the risk.  Carve out 15% and demand something new. Don’t be afraid of it.  Embrace digital.

Carla was one of three women who presented at the FOOA in New York the other week.  She rocks!

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