Q: How is the success of the campaign being evaluated?

A: There was no measurable element to the campaign, making it difficult to assess.

These words taken from a recent Event Magazine case study of a one day marketing campaign for GSK’s hayfever brand, Piriton, highlight an area which has, for a long time, been a hot topic within the sponsorship world. Since the early days of sponsorship, research and evaluation techniques have developed significantly, bringing the sponsorship industry in line with many of the ‘traditional’ marketing disciplines like Advertising and DM in terms of measurability. The likes of Millward Brown, SMS (Sports Marketing Surveys) and the TNS Group are world leaders in market research and evaluation and, along with other specialist agencies, have developed techniques honed to measure the use and effectiveness of sponsorship and the brand’s ROI.

With these many techniques at our fingertips, how then are we to develop and encourage the use of Experiential Marketing - a relatively new area – within brands’ campaigns when the brands and agencies themselves are not taking the time or spending the money to evaluate their experiential activity? We all know that most Marketing Directors look for measurable ROIs to evaluate their brand’s success so it is essential that we agencies work with the client to plan and develop experiential campaigns ensuring that they include an element of evaluation to measure their success.

Millward Brown and research agency 2CV recently undertook a study in which they collated opinions from media planners and clients on the events sector. The result was “those that had used experiential activity were more likely to use it again over traditional forms of marketing” -an encouraging response to a relatively young discipline that is gaining more and more recognition amongst brands looking to engage with consumers on a one to one level.

An example of a well executed experiential activity that implemented a measurable element is the Snow Globe, produced by Synergy for BA during their sponsorship of the National History Museum Ice Rink in 2007. Customers were invited into the giant globe to have their photo taken in the snowy interior. The customer was handed a daily code which they had to input on the BA website in order to download their photo or forward it as a festive greeting to family and friends. Each stage of the process was monitored to measure how many people were touched by BA during the activity and an impressive 91% of customers went online to view their photo with a further 47% referring their photo on to friends or family. Compare this to an average of 3% redemption usually seen in competitions and the experiential activity is shown to be vastly more engaging.

Looking at the activation elements of the Piriton campaign mentioned above, free bus rides were given to visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show between Victoria and the venue. Whilst a good way to engage with the consumers, an evaluation development on that element could have been to hand out a sample or gift with a feedback card to measure responses from guests heading to/from the venue. Guests were also given reusable hessian shopping bags containing tissue packs and information on the causes and prevention of hay fever. This could perhaps have also contained a free or money-off voucher for redemption of Piriton products or an opportunity to win an experience or gift through entering a competition. These methods could all have helped in measuring the activity and evaluating its success, providing the Marketing Director with proof of his ROI.

Whilst these suggestions are perhaps not the most exciting or creative of methods to gauge consumer feedback, the point is that a simple extension of an idea, a little use of creativity to expand an already great concept, can provide ways of measuring its success and take brands that one step further towards undertaking further experiential activity when next year’s budgets are being handed out by the big bosses on the top floor.

By Dordie Brett on October 20th, 2008

Tags: Experiential marketing, Sponsorship, Synergy

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With this week’s sad announcement that Jade Goody has developed cervical cancer, a rather cynical thought occurred to me that the timing and rather inappropriate way she was informed of the diagnosis was more of a Public Relations stunt than ‘the best way of informing her’ of the news.

Was that just me thinking that?

In this day and age where reality TV, celebrity relationships and the latest clothing/hairstyle/tattoos seem to grab the headlines, I start to wonder how far people will go to get some attention from the Public.

From the news that Peaches Geldof and Max Drummey of American rock band Chester French got married in Las Vegas to the tragic string of teenage suicides in Bridgend over the past few years. It is astounding how extreme some people’s actions are becoming to get the attention they feel they should have or often as a cry for help in an overcrowded time where it is hard to stand out in the crowd. According to sources Peaches and Max did not want ‘unnecessary publicity’ but decided to set out the facts after growing media attention. Yeah right!

But what will satisfy the hunger for approval, attention and celebrity that so many people secretly – or not so secretly – desire?

Look to our Olympic athletes currently filling the spotlight out in Beijing – the cyclers, rowers and sailors to name but a few of our medal winners. Their moments of stardom are a culmination of years of focused, hard work whilst they strive for sporting glory in a field that they excel in. This I applaud with all my heart as I admire and respect the sheer determination and time they put into achieving their Olympic goal, which often brings with it their place on the front or back pages.

However, the latest shouting match between Big Brother contestants or the recent hairstyle Agyness Deyn has adopted seem to capture the attention of so many of us but does not, in my view, deserve applause or that much attention. 

The dictionary definition of ‘celebrity’ is:
n. A person of distinction or renown
n. The state or quality of being widely honoured and acclaimed.

Surely we should be striving in our daily lives to achieve distinction and honour in our own strengths rather than searching for attention in a more superficial way. This way we may ultimately end up more fulfilled than the names which drift in and out of the media limelight from one day to the next.

By Dordie Brett on August 22nd, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Cycling, Media, Olympics

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