Integration works
We hear the word ‘integrated’ all the time in marketing, but what does it mean? According to the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Marketing the definition of integrated marketing is: “The co-ordination of all of a company’s marketing activities in establishing marketing strategies such as packaging, media promotion, point-of-sale material or after sales service.”
A footnote to this definition states however that the separation of departments makes integrated marketing difficult to achieve. Step forward the integrated agency. As little as five or six years ago the concept of the integrated agency in Scotland was somewhat looked down upon. They were considered as the proverbial ‘jack of all trades, masters of none’. But interestingly as times have become tougher and clients have demanded more for their marketing spend more traditional advertising agencies have developed into integrated agencies able to offer everything – advertising, design, PR, new media, direct marketing, sales promotion and events – all under one roof.
In Scotland it could be said that Rob Morrice of Citigate Smarts has been amongst the most vocal supporters of integration during the last five years, but he has slowly been joined by a band of merry men and women that now sing the praises of integrated marketing strategies. In recent years communications businesses have begun to take over from single discipline agencies and now Scotland can boast agencies such as Citigate Smarts, Story, Family, Barkers, Clayton Graham, FrameC and Navigator Responsive Advertising, all of which can offer an integrated approach to communications. Here we look at some of the integrated campaigns the agencies listed above have worked on and they consider the benefits of tackling marketing problems in an integrated manner.
Agency: Barkers
Client: Scottish Executive
Campaign: Binge Drinking
Barkers was briefed in summer 2003 to produce a campaign aiming to reduce incidents of binge drinking amongst young people. Scotland’s drinking culture is entrenched in our society. For teenagers, drinking is seen as a right of passage and becomes the norm. For most people the fun outweighs the risks of drinking. It is considered harmless, hangovers are accepted and young people rarely worry about long-term health effects.
Barkers’ strategy has been to develop a route that sits alongside alcohol advertising, not compete with the spend of the big brands. We’ve developed the idea that drinking is fine, as long as you don’t go overboard. But that if a night is ruined through excess drinking; it is the fault of the drinker not the drink.
Research confirmed that the messages with most resonance were those that played on personal fears of loss of dignity or social exclusion amongst females, and loss of prowess or face amongst males.
The campaign was developed around the line “Don’t Let Too Much Drink Spoil A Good Night”. The idea was to bring together colourful advertising alongside a high impact image for editorial. The creative style was colourful, sharp and glamorous, featuring beautiful people as drinks advertising does. Six-sheets worked around an image of a drinker who has had too much to drink with headlines playing on well-known phrases to highlight the problem.
Washroom advertising plays on females’ fear that they are annoying their friends and the male drinker’s fear of reduced appeal to the opposite sex. Radio commercials were developed around “You Choose What You Lose” a parody of a youth game show. The more they drink the more they lose – wallets, mobile phones, friends and dignity.
On the PR side we went for a big impact image that would capture the imagination of the media. We did this by bringing the ‘girl in the glass’ image to life in a city centre location in Glasgow - taking a six-foot glass and our model into Buchanan Street.
We wanted to make the most of the image, and take the idea further than the central-belt. The same set was taken to a number of other regional centres around Scotland. This allowed for regional news coverage across the whole of Scotland.
Post campaign evaluation has been really encouraging with a total reach of 84% amongst our audience of 16-25 year olds. Comprehension was high and the messages were agreed to be easy to understand and attention grabbing. 61% agreed that the campaign made them think about their own behaviour – extremely high considering the personal nature of the statement.
Attitudes shifted significantly in a positive direction increasing awareness of the fact that drinking can ruin a good night out and the reasons why it does so.
In particular awareness of the ‘Girl In The Glass’ concept featuring across both the PR and advertising activity was substantially increased. The image was carried by a range of newspapers, from The Times to the Daily Record as well as broadcasters such as the BBC and Grampian TV. The regional activity was picked up in local press.
The result was a high-impact campaign that made young people think about their drinking.
Agency: Navigator Responsive Advertising
Client: Dunfries & Galloway Tourist Board
Campaign: Seasonal Offers
When Dumfries & Galloway Tourist Board briefed Navigator Responsive Advertising for their Spring 2004 campaign, the main objective was to drive responders to request more information on seasonal offers. The ultimate aim was to prompt bookings for breaks in the region. A secondary challenge was to increase awareness of the region, so that the target market would consider Dumfries & Galloway when looking for a break.
In meeting these core objectives, the spring 2004 campaign also aimed to grow the database through an aggressive acquisition strategy, while continuing with the development of the retention strategy.
Navigator created the ‘Come to Life’ campaign for spring 2004 using an integrated approach to media. The retention campaign was executed through direct mail and email and the acquisition activity used DRTV, direct mail, online activity and press inserts. All media followed an integrated creative route, ensuring that prospects exposed to more than one channel of the campaign would recognise it as the same message. The acquisition activity made up 90% of the total campaign budget. Press inserts performed well in Spring 2004, with a very low cost per conversion. The DRTV achieved a high conversion rate by using micro regions within a four-hour drive time and daytime Sky channels.
Cold direct mail had not been used in recent campaigns, so the targeting was based on learnings from the customer database profiling. Selections were made by identifying key Mosaic groups from the database. Best performing cells in the cold direct mail exceeded target by 50%.
Online activity involved banner ads, advertorials and emails to third party customers. These all proved very cost-effective and an excellent support medium to offline activity.
The remaining 10 per cent of the total budget was spent on retention activity. Key groups on the database were targeted using Mosaic profiling. The mailing used an incentivised ‘one-stage sell’ approach. It further developed the segmentation strategy by testing tailored messages to each segment. Different combinations of media channels were tracked – direct mail versus email versus a combination of direct mail and email.
Overall, the Spring 2004 campaign exceeded the target revenue for Dumfries & Galloway by 18% and the cost per conversion (i.e. visit) was less than half of the previous campaign. The response rates were 4% over target whilst costs were reduced to 16% below target. Furthermore, the combined email and direct mail approach increased the response by over one third. These key learnings will be developed in future campaigns.
Agency: CitigateSmarts
Client: See Me
Campaign: Anti-stigma
‘see me’ addresses the stigma of mental ill health through a genuinely integrated campaign where marketing disciplines and tactics work together to create powerful synergies. Starting with a general public focus, the campaign has developed to tackle stigma in the workplace and among young people.
The core proposition is ‘People with mental health problems are normal. So, look at the person. See beyond the label’. The campaign identity, ‘see me’, presents service users not as helpless victims. It gives them an assertive voice they can feel proud of. The first person tense creates empathy and synchronises with the PR strategy of using media volunteers to talk about their experience of stigma. The secondary line ‘I’m a person, not a label’ explains the proposition.
Using ‘ordinary’ people in everyday contexts underlines the fact that people with mental health problems live normal lives. The core proposition is easily understood. The public and the media recognise that they are being asked to look beyond the illness and to see the person. This approach again ties in with the use of media volunteers.
Communication channels and tactics ensure that all campaign elements work in a holistic and integrated way. While broadcast and outdoor advertising is used to capture attention and deliver the core proposition, PR and the website deliver other key messages which require more detailed information.
All advertising, press releases and other media material carry the ‘see me’ website address. The website gives people the opportunity to feed in their views and experience of stigma, whilst also providing a neutral, non-threatening medium to communicate with people who may be reluctant to come forward.
A viral campaign (Stigma Stop Watch) signed up media representatives committed to using non-stigmatising language and promoting best practice. Branded ‘swear boxes’ encouraged the use of proper reporting language. Journalists use the website as a valuable on-line information resource.
The brand has reached remote communities through community newspapers and local radio and a sponsored Stand Comedy Tour. Supporting promotional materials, such as leaflets and posters, use consistent imagery and are circulated widely to libraries, GPs, prisons, mental health awareness groups and suicide prevention groups.
The campaign has penetrated the public consciousness. People are much better informed. Well over half of the Scottish public recall the campaign and the ‘see me’ identity. The website is extensively used. Stigmatizing reporting has been effectively eliminated. Mental health groups around the country are mobilised behind the campaign. This sustains the effort and carries the key messages across local communities.
The campaign has won five awards, two UK-wide, for its advertising and PR effectiveness, including the IPA’s Special Award for Best Integrated Communications.
Dr Andy McArthur is Strategic Planning Director of the Citigate Smarts Group and is responsible for the planning of all major and integrated campaigns.
Agency: Paligap
Client: James Frew Ltd
Campaign: Brand awareness
Paligap was commissioned by James Frew Ltd – a major long-running, family-owned plumbing and heating contractor for residential and commercial sectors based in Stevenston, to create a campaign which will launch a new division of the business called Gas Sure, a maintenance plan for gas central heating systems.
Specifically the campaign’s aim is to increase the client’s customer base by almost 700 per cent among West of Scotland households in the first twelve months.
The account was won following a competitive three-way pitch. To tackle the brief, Paligap created a campaign on the theme “Warming the Heart of Scotland.”
The creative mix comprised creating a new brand and, developing its presence via television advertising (south-west micro region), direct marketing, response handling, sales and customer service training for staff, PR and website facility. The new brand proposition was extended to include van livery, new uniforms, stationery, signage and ambient advertising.
“Gas Sure has provided a great opportunity for Paligap to deliver a complete business solution through a mix of different creative services. From the outset we specifically knew the number of customers the client wanted to reach and then devised the best way forward to achieve that result. It wasn’t about simply creating television advertising or direct marketing in isolation. For us to achieve our target figures we had to blend a variety of mediums,” says Stephen Cosh, managing director of Paligap.
Agency: Story
Client: Direct Holidays
Campaign: Inflated Prices
Direct Holidays are competing in the travel market, which has seen a declining pattern of sales since 2002.
The Holiday market has had a tough year. The latest cumulative figures for high street holiday sales to (the end of July) show a drop of seven per cent on last year to 10.5 million (AC Neilson).
A range of factors have contributed to this downward slide: changing customer booking behavior, rising interest rates and a shift away from the “two week” break are combining to make it a challenging time to sell holidays. That said however, Direct Holidays occupy a distinct position in the holiday leisure sector.
Because Direct Holidays only sell their own holidays direct, their holidays are cheaper as travel agents commission isn’t built into the price. With Direct Holidays you still enjoy the same level of service and choice of destinations as any other operator. In many instances better, as you’re guaranteed to speak to a person who has actually visited your resort.
Our brief was to steal a march on the competition by developing a hard hitting tactical campaign to drive sales of Summer 2005 holidays. The main challenge being to overcome consumer apathy and drive brochure requests - the main vehicle for customer bookings.
The starting point was to revisit the key benefit of booking with Direct Holidays i.e. you pay less for exactly the same holiday because you don’t pay travel agents’ commission.
By comparing Direct Holidays brochure prices with the competition, Story were able to quantify the average saving. This then formed the campaign proposition, the take-out being that if you book with Direct Holidays you pay around £100 less for your holiday.
TV advertising is dominated by the £100 saving. The use of the inflatable lilo and rubber rings graphically and very simply symbolise the £100 and combine a beautiful holiday backdrop with an impactful, price saving message.
The campaign was launched on 14 August with a TV campaign and rolled out across inserts, direct mail, national press, brochures, POS, and radio. The TV campaign uses a mix of interactive and terrestrial channels, and 30 and 10 sec executions to drive responses and support the other media.
As we’re only really three weeks into the campaign, full results are not yet available. However, early indications are very positive and the campaign is already delivering an uplift in sales on last year.
Agency: Frame©
Client: Gala Casinos
Campaign: Be a Player
Early this year Frame© were briefed by Gala Casinos to create an integrated campaign that would break down barriers to gaming in casinos. We were asked to create a campaign that would ‘widen the popular appeal of casinos to become a mainstream leisure pursuit’.
We needed a solution to promote Gala Casinos as an accessible and exciting night out. And in doing so, dispel any fears and misconceptions about casinos. Research highlighted thoughts such as: “it’s not for me”, “it’s too James Bond”, “you need to get really dressed up”, “it’s just for men”.
Our solution is a single-minded campaign that addresses these concerns and positions Gala Casinos as the brand leader in accessible, mainstream gaming.
The strategy ‘Anyone Can Be a Player’ takes ordinary, everyday people such as teachers, accountants and project managers, puts them in stylish settings and gives them a casino alter ego. What we have created is a contemporary and aspirational campaign encouraging people to discover the ‘player’ within themselves – Jaqueline Harris, sales manager by day, ‘Jack of Hearts Harris’ by night.
We recommended a regional integrated campaign to our client to test the advertising strategy in Glasgow.
Outdoor advertising was undertaken to increase awareness of the brand, positioning Gala Casinos as the brand leader.
On the back of this, classified advertising and direct mail was used to promote member benefits and drive new members to Gala Casinos. To ensure retention of new members, the campaign also included reasons for return visits – two sales promotions with prizes of a trip to Vegas and a Vespa Scooter in each of the participating casinos. These were also supported by a members’ newsletter, in-casino point of sale and mailings of special offers to new members.
The campaign raised brand awareness and promoted accessibility. Overall our integrated campaign meant that we were able to drive recruitment and conversion of new members, and once they’d joined give them reasons to return. The eight-week campaign resulted in increased admissions by 5.2 per cent and an 8 per cent increase in drop-ins - with Glasgow consistently outperforming the rest of the casino estate.
After positive results and research findings, we’re now taking the campaign to the Midlands region. And the campaign line ‘Anyone Can be a Player’ is being used on all communications.
Agency: Family
Client: Burn Stewart Distillers
Campaign: Support Latvia
Just because Scotland failed to qualify for Euro 2004 didn’t mean that the nation couldn’t have a bit of fun. The drinkers of Scottish Leader are great supporters of football, but were feeling growing resentment towards the bravado and coverage coming from the England camp. This presented a great opportunity for family to show that Scottish Leader supported and sympathised with their drinkers.
Latvia was selected as the team to support. This was because Latvia was seen as tournament underdogs (much like Scotland often is), coupled with the fact that Scottish Leader is one of the best selling whiskies in Latvia.
To get the Scots on board, family decided to create an integrated campaign that literally took the campaign to the people be they in the pub, on the street, reading the paper or at their PC.
A scratchcard competition (Scratchov to Win) ran in the Pubs offering people the chance to win ‘Support Latvia they’re not England’ T-shirts, key-rings or a free nip. This went down a storm with customers parading their ‘Support Latvia T-shirts’ with pride. This was accompanied by ‘Support Latvia’ posters in each of the pubs.
In celebration of Latvia’s first game, family arranged a ‘Support Latvia’ stunt on the streets of Edinburgh and Glasgow. A team of tracksuited ‘Latvian’ footballers were recruited. The Latvian national anthem blasted out from the decorated Latvian Team bus as the team were put through their paces and while the onboard team gave away T-shirts, keyrings and miniatures.
The stunt was filmed and turned into a viral email which was sent out to Burn Stewart (distillers of Scottish Leader) database causing much entertainment.
The response from the crowds seeing the stunt was staggering, with people chasing the bus to get T-shirts and miniatures, car drivers opening their windows to be thrown T-shirts and numerous toots of support from traffic on the M8 as the bus made its way from Glasgow to Edinburgh. The stunt resulted in the Daily Record running a piece in the next day’s paper which had a media value of £7k.
With a relatively conservative spend this campaign increased sales in the selected pubs, generated PR valued at more than the companies spend and firmly positioned Scottish Leader as the whisky for the Scottish football fan.
Agency: Clayton Graham Communications
Client: Strathclyde Homes
Campaign: G1
Nice brief. A Merchant City development of 62 units in a Postcode with six other developers, three of whom are on the same street. Oh, and we want 18 of them away within three weeks. Why are you still sitting here?
We have an unbelievable relationship with Strathclyde Homes. They don't dictate the marketing so we don't build their homes. Works really well.
The rationale was Sensuality In The City, the address we created was G1, the theme developed stated, "Have you found your G1 spot"?
What's in a name? Everything, and it's where the marketing starts, not after it's been chosen. After all, you can only do so much if the developer calls it Flowery Meadows or something equally in breach of the Trades Description Act. What do you do with that?
Certainly not giant building wraps that talk about your G1 Spot, or giant posters that suggest EXCITING1 with an erect nipple backdrop. They really were huge erections. There would also be no room for naked shivering skin suggesting EXHILARATING1 or nails digging into flesh for CRAVING1 in the press.
What about a 68-page suede covered brochure with hints of fur and PVC? A young lady covered in milk for INDULGING1 or exhibition panels featuring French Bodices being ENTICING1? No, a handed down address just wouldn't have been the same.
Additional collateral included a fully animated website including a sophisticated backend database. It told us who was looking, when, at what, how they found us and it also ran statistics to check how effectively each media format was performing. We threw a launch party with electronic invites, suggested one on one pre-launch buyer appointments in luxurious serviced apartments, printed postcards, estate agent window graphics and POS, branded letterheads and full corporate ID.
Within three weeks of launching the campaign, we had exceeded all sales targets, profit targets and client expectations. We knew then that we could pull back on the reins. Yes, success shortened the campaign but both client and agency won. Strathclyde Homes had a faster return on their investment using Clayton Graham Communications and we got a chance to produce work that everyone talked about. Perfect integration.