FOCUS - CREATIVITY IN MEDIA: Media solutions give topspin to traditional ad campaigns

<p>Okay, let's forget about the Internet. No, really. Let's pretend it </p><p>never happened, or that it is, in fact, not a medium at all. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What that leaves us with are the stalwarts of "old", traditional media - </p><p>print, television, radio and magazines - as well as familiar friends </p><p>such as POS and outdoor. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Unfortunately, even if we were to eliminate the Internet, the job of the </p><p>media planner does not get any easier. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In fact, there is no such thing any longer as a "media planner". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>No, what we have today are "communication planners" - highly skilled, </p><p>highly talented, highly focused and highly stressed. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And sorry, media is no longer media - these days, we talk about "contact </p><p>points". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>When "old" media first started its massive fragmentation about a decade </p><p>or so ago in Asia, it happened at a time when research companies </p><p>discovered that the average consumer had a growing amount of disposable </p><p>income. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This was the good news. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The bad news (at least for marketers and their agencies) was that there </p><p>was a corresponding drop in the amount of leisure time. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In other words, the more people had to spend, the less time they had to </p><p>spend it in ... or at least, the less time they had to listen to </p><p>advertisers trying to tell them where to spend it. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And so began the immense effort to find new and interesting ways to </p><p>arrest a consumer's limited attention span. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What had happened was no less than fundamental, tectonic change - the </p><p>balance of power had shifted from the seller to the buyer. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Choice lies with consumers today, and it is an extremely powerful </p><p>thing," said Starcom Greater China MD Andre Nair. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"A lot of the problem lies with technology; it has made life more </p><p>stressful. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Let's face it, if we wanted more leisure time, we'd invent machines </p><p>which were less efficient." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The bottom line is that media solutions must make more strategic sense </p><p>than ever, and the creative twist matters most of all. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"However, it cannot be creativity just for creativity's sake," Mr Nair </p><p>warned. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Any media idea today demands synergy between the medium and the </p><p>communication message." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Hence, most communication plans today include more than a simple media </p><p>buy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The straightforward print/TV scenario still plays a major role, of </p><p>course, but it tends to be complemented by a range of other options. </p><p>These include innovation in existing media, new uses of POS, novel ways </p><p>of penetrating the target audience's lives, the media stunt, or even a </p><p>truly new medium. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Take for example, the "filler" TV programmes put together by Whiskas for </p><p>China. Ranging in length from one to five minutes, these fillers </p><p>consisted of a series of footage clips of cats at play and interacting </p><p>with their human owners. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The only ID which Whiskas placed on the fillers was a simple logo at the </p><p>beginning and end of the fillers, which were offered free-of-charge to </p><p>television stations across the mainland. Those spots are now airing on </p><p>more than 50 networks nationwide, giving Whiskas valuable - and best of </p><p>all, free - promotional airtime. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The aim was not to promote Whiskas catfood itself, but to promote the </p><p>ownership of cats in China, where pet ownership as a whole is </p><p>miniscule. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Whiskas' logic, therefore, was that if they could get more people to own </p><p>cats, these people would then buy more Whiskas. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And the TV stations went for it because they are desperate for content, </p><p>and were happy to exchange what would otherwise have been dead airtime </p><p>in return for some colourful, uplifting, non-controversial </p><p>programming. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Other examples cited by Mr Nair include the Kit Kat benches in Beijing </p><p>parks and at Hong Kong bus stops; and the Speed Post posters stuck on </p><p>the inner and outer doors of lifts in prime office buildings in Hong </p><p>Kong. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>And then there's Real Me, a new magazine recently launched in China with </p><p>Redwood playing the role of publishing consultant and P&G an advisory </p><p>consultant at initial stages of the project. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Aimed at women, the magazine was started up to provide P&G with a </p><p>quality medium for its advertising. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>However, beyond what Mr Nair described as "subtle communications </p><p>messages within the editorial", Real Me is not exclusively a P&G </p><p>vehicle. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It accepts advertising from direct P&G competitors, for one thing; but </p><p>the flipside of this is that Real Me's subscriber base now forms a brand </p><p>new database of several hundred thousand women who are prime targets for </p><p>one-on-one communications with P&G. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Media solutions such as these can be effective in isolation and with </p><p>smaller budgets," but they are usually a component of bigger, broader, </p><p>traditional media campaigns," said Mr Nair. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"It is these 'extras' which offer the main campaign topspin." </p><p><BR><BR> </p>