Media & Marketing:The Esomar multimedia conference which took place in Dublin earlier this week attracted hundreds of delegates from around the world. However, only three delegates from Ireland registered their attendance, which is a pity, given the changing times in the media-buying world.
Conference chairman Steve Harrison, international media director of Henkel Cosmetics in Germany, said in his opening speech: "The advertising and media business is facing increasingly rapid change. Often these changes are driven by developments in technology, especially digital technology."
One of the issues dealt with at the conference, organised in co-operation with the World Federation of Advertisers, was the "long media tail".
But what is this tail? As technology allows people to find more ways to be entertained and informed, and to communicate and express themselves, a so-called long media tail grows. Wagging the tail effectively is the biggest challenge facing advertisers, according to Sue Elms of research company Millward Brown UK.
Advertisers are using a wider range of media and are embracing digital technology, but it is not yet time to write off conventional media, she said.
Millward Brown researched a range of clients on their attitudes toward the long media tail. These advertisers are taking an experimental approach to the long media tail and display a healthy interest in "keeping real" about new opportunities.
An interviewee in Japan said that despite the hype about Japan's technical superiority, TV remained the dominant medium due to its high reach and lack of fragmentation.
"Advertisers are aware that they are probably not maximising their opportunities in new media contexts, but still all the advertisers we have researched retain 'conventional' media at their core, usually TV, sometimes foregoing multimedia in order to keep minimum weight thresholds. In fact, for most of them, integrated communications means using other media to amplify and complement the TV activity," said Elms.
"On the face of it, this does not seem to be such a bad strategy since conventional media still offers reasonable targeting, good reach, measured frequency and engagement."
The online doomsayers have been suggesting that the age of TV advertising is coming to an end. The marketing mantra is that brands have to engage. As consumers take control of their own media agendas, they are avoiding advertiser messages. As Elms noted, it would almost make advertisers believe they should be turning their advertising models upside down, putting "engagement" rather than "interruption" before anything else, and diving into social media. But she said: "The premise that 'the age of interrupt advertising is dead, it's all about engagement', is fundamentally flawed. There is evidence that advertising in low-engagement conditions is still a viable strategy. Current insight from neuroscience supports the view that anything which generates an emotional response is going to capture attention and be memorable, whether it is a TV ad, interactive event or a doormat.
"Therefore, at the point where the consumer decides to buy a brand, all the connections the brand has made along the path to purchase up to that moment of truth can matter, whether they are classified as 'interrupt' or 'engagement'."
Neither is advertisement avoidance as bad as suggested, according to Elms. A recent Millward Brown survey measured the impact of digital video recorder (DVR) usage on awareness and recognition of advertising. It compared the responses of 1,200 DVR owners and 1,200 non-DVR owners covering four categories and 16 brands. The results showed that there was no difference in advertisement recognition and brand-linked advertisement awareness between the two groups.
A key challenge in long tail communications is ensuring that the advertising is re-enforcing and not dissipating the brand idea. There is evidence that using several media works better than just one, but advertisers do not know how many media can be used before effective reach is sacrificed and the cohesion of the communication is at risk.
What is still not available in the UK or Ireland is research measuring combined media audiences. The area where the most work is needed is cross-media evaluation, and only advertisers themselves can push the holistic agenda.
Ryanair ad space
Conduit founder Eddie Kerr and former Microsoft Ireland general manager Ann Riordan are the financial backers behind Fourth Edition, which announced this week that it has been contracted by Ryanair to sell the advertising space on the airline's overhead luggage compartment doors.
Fourth Edition, established 18 months ago by Martin Barry, one of the founders of Bus Media, developed a new patented framing system, Aeropanel, to place advertisements on the doors.
The advertisements will by sold on a country-by-country basis on a fortnightly cycle. To advertise on the 26 aircraft in the Irish fleet costs €13,530 for a fortnight. The cost can be split between a maximum of four clients per aircraft.
Mobile operator Meteor is the first brand to sign up. The campaign begins this month and will run until August on all Ryanair flights out of Ireland. Contracts have also been signed with Red Bull for UK-based aircraft and ING bank for the Belgian fleet.
Competition is fierce for roaming customers, and Meteor PR and marketing manager Amanda Carroll says the Ryanair deal is aimed at reaching roaming customers.
