In depth: Is TV advertising extinct as the Chewits dinosaur ditches TV for online?
If you were born in 1972 the image of a pre-historic creature munching on Barrow-in-Furness bus depot to promote Chewits will be etched into your mind. But does the recent move by Chewits mean TV advertising is extinct?
Simpler times. Today Chewits, like other sugary snacks, cannot advertise in the way it once could. It has been absent from our TV screens since swingeing regulations were introduced a little over three years ago which banned ads marketing products high in salt, fat and sugar from ad breaks in programmes aimed at under 16s.
But now Chewits has unveiled its new strategy, one it is so sure of that its marketing boss claims TV campaigns would no longer be its be all and end all anyway, even if the rules were relaxed on advertising to kids.
“Now when we’re really focusing on our core consumers, which is 13 year olds, it’s very difficult to do that on TV,” says marketing manager Tim Boote.
“There are so many different media that they are interested in now and TV is not the dominant media for that age group.”
Instead, Boote and Chewits are concentrating marketing spend on the web. The brand signaled its online intent last month when it launched new games on its website and Boote announced that the internet would be where “we’ll be focusing the majority of the marketing spend going forward.”
Today Boote concedes that the web cannot instantly guarantee an audience in the way TV can, but says it compensates for that in other ways: “With TV you definitely get the reach there - that’s really the thing that’s going to get you the millions of contacts with consumers, whereas internet isn’t going to do that for you.
“Doing traditional media there’s a big financial commitment, but that’s it then. You then hand it over to the media buying agency and leave it up to them - you don’t really have to get involved as the marketeer. As a marketeer online you can get involved with it, you can tweak things. And in fact you must change things as you get feedback from people.
“It’s the reach that you’re giving up in favour of the quality of the interaction.”
By Boote’s definition, this “quality interaction” comes when people seek out Chewits online and “invite the brand into their world” rather than have the brand leap into their living rooms during CITV. “A TV ad or traditional media is much more passive: it happens to you without your consent. [Online] people have consented to invite Chewits into their world to do these sorts of things.”
But television advertising at least attempts to provide a catch-all net. Online people will only find you if they’re looking for you - and there’s an awful lot of stuff to look at on the web.
To that end, Boote explains why Chewits has chosen web games - built by Tayburn and Chunk - to kick off its online plans.
“The games really help us drive reach, because lots of people go on the internet to look for games, and in turn they help us to drive interest and content for our website and social media.” They also help to give the brand personality, Boote says, by fleshing out Chewie, a modernised and much softer version of the monster character who appeared in the brand’s first TV ad in 1976.
Social media has so far proved a fairly fertile stomping ground for Chewits. A groundswell movement on Facebook to revive its Ice Cream flavour was part of the inspiration to put the web, and social media itself, at the heart of the brand’s strategy. ‘Public figure’ Chewie the Chewitsaurus has 20,000 Facebook fans; David Cameron, who looks likely to be our next Prime Minister, has only 13,000 more than the dinosaur.
But Boote admits the social world online doesn’t just bring unfettered adulation (as The Drum’s online comments can attest). “You have to be a bit brave when you start to do stuff on the internet because you need to be able to stand back and let consumers have their say. Sometimes that isn’t always positive, and sometimes it can be downright rude. But what you’ll find is that when you build up a community, the members start to put those people down who make those negative comments.”
Although Boote seems fairly liberal about people having their say about Chewits online, he acknowledges that it’s a tougher adjustment for people more accustomed to the passivity of traditional media.
“It does take a lot of bravery, especially when talking to the owners of the brand. They want to see the brand develop, they’re used to seeing it develop in a very controlled manner, and having control. With digital the more control you have the less interesting it becomes. You’ve got to cede a lot of control to people that are interacting with your brand.
"But I see it as being really positive because they are interacting, so you are building up that sense of community, and they can direct the brand in different directions - that should lead to more success because they’re identifying with the brand.”
So how many people does he want to see identifying with the brand to judge whether online is working? Ultimately, how will he know if it’s impacting on sales?
“Well that is obviously a very difficult measure. We can measure loads of things on the internet. What is very difficult to measure, just like with television and other traditional media, is how it affects sales.
“I suspect because we won’t have the millions of reach that you might get from traditional media it might be a slower burn. But I suspect that will mean you have a higher quality of burn because you get more loyalty.
“The way we will measure that is through consumer loyalty and that will be done through consumer research. This is the sort of thing that we would do towards the back end of this year - quarter three/quarter four and the back end of this year.”
As a final test of Boote’s commitment to the web: would he ever consider taking Chewits back to traditional media during his stewardship?
“Never say never. It’s all possible, but I suspect if we went back to advertising on television it would only be to the parents, and that means the type of ad that we would be able to develop would be quite different from the ones that we’ve had in the past that have been so successful, those have been the ads that Chewits is known for, and that have built up nostalgia around the brand.
“It would be quite a difficult call. I can’t really see that we would ever do posters or radio - that doesn’t seem to feel right for Chewits. I think probably at this stage what is more likely is that we’ll do more things on the internet. Obviously it’s early days yet, but the things are going in the right direction and we just need to maintain that.”