Bless. Have just been sent a link to this article by John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online by a colleague, who had been sent it by a client. Awesome.
I have nothing really against what John is saying in this piece, my issue is, online isn't the only medium where this is a problem. The general public also have trouble recalling their favourite radio/adshel/busback ad. The only medium where this isn't a problem, is typically television.
In fact, in testing a campaign where the ONLY medium used was busbacks, when asked where they saw the campaign almost all questioned answered 'on television'. They knew the campaign, and what it was promoting, but instinctively answered TV because it is the medium that has the most resonance with most people. It doesn't mean that the advertising is not working - and the brilliance of online is that you can see immediate results if the offering and placement of the ad is correct.
In addition to the value online proves with CPC's and CPA's I believe that the brand awareness from online is also worth recognition. For a couple of clients (retail and government) the increase in both search and direct traffic is impressive, much of which I attribute directly to advertising online. Its amazing how much we pick up without really looking.
So that was a little off topic, but I think what advertisers (in particular agencies who are trying to see this medium to their clients) need to do is focus on the advertising working - whether it is tv, radio or online - and lose the egos about memorability. Did it work (drive traffic, generate enquiries)? Yes? Freaking awesome. Did they remember the ad 3 months after it was was live? No? Sweet, put it online again and milk it for all its worth.
For the record, this is my favourite online ad for quite some time. It was beautifully timed to coincide with the NZ elections and when you tried to get your mouse on one of the men, they moved out of the way. Easy, fun to play with and timely.
Ok, I realise that this is actually old news, but not being a member of CAANZ, I hadn't heard...
Why, oh why, have CAANZ set up a Digital Leadership Group? Apparently, this group "...has been established to provide a strong industry voice to assist New Zealand businesses as they adapt to remain competitive in an increasingly digitised and interactive environment." Ah, we already have that. It's called the Interactive Advertising Bureau. I am not going to list everything that the IAB do and stand for, as they are pretty all encompassing with digital media.
There are a few points that really irk me about the DLG.
- Why have CAANZ set up this 'group' for digital media when they don't bother for any other media?
- At what point did 2 of the 'senior digital leaders' (Andre Louis, Publicis Digital and Chris Riley, OMD Digital) who have been included in this illustrious group not stop and say, "wait a minute, we're also on the Agency Sub-Committee for this other interactive industry body who do exactly what the DLG would like to one day achieve - why don't we just back them up rather than adding another notch to our belts??"
- At what point are they providing a strong industry voice to assist New Zealand businesses? From what I can see on their 'blog' they mostly focus on what is going on outside of NZ. Their blogs include information about:
- AAA Town - US
- Sprint - US
- Online participation - US figures
- Barack Obama online campaign - US
- BBC - UK
- Mint Money Management - US
- Music Glue - UK
- Online advertising in economic downturn - US information
- Energy Saving Trust - UK
- Frank's Cocaine Basement - UK
While I get that the US and UK are more mature markets than NZ when it comes to all things digital, why are they not looking some of the great campaigns and things that we're doing? Isn't the point to be building, encouraging and growing the NZ market? Yes, some of our trends here will follow the US and UK, but not in entirety.
I feel as though, while probably with good intentions, this DLG is only going to confuse people, especially those who don't spend their lives online, and understand what else is out there. The current board of the IAB has some serious smart cookies in there. Mark Evans (and the board - and sub-committees also) have done a brilliant job over the last 2 years building it up, encouraging further learning, auditing NZ online spend and sharing information. The DLG sounds to me like another ego boost.
Get your hand off it, go to the IAB website and check out what people who really care about the NZ interactive industry are doing about it.
