Thursday, June 27, 2013

Where is the recall

    This whole Ad story is getting curious. People love some awesome Ads on TV, yet they don't recall them. I decided to check out the science of recall.

    A small survey was in order.

    I asked 10 people in the office - Can you tell me the Ad in the first page of your newspaper this morning. Nobody answered.

    My friends were watching a cricket match on TV. A mobile operator was airing an Ad regularly over the last few days during the series and it carried a message on the price of its top-up pack. I asked my friends - If you have seen this Ad before, can you tell me the price of its top-up pack. The answer was "Oh, was the price there on screen ?".

    A friend reads all his news on a portal. He is a regular visitor. I asked him, can you tell me the banner  on the portal you visit everyday. He guessed and he got his answer wrong.

   Why people just don't recall what they have seen ? And did the money on that Ad return the favor back to the one who spent it ?

4 comments:

  1. As a continuation to the topic, I'll try and scheme some of the positive thoughts I have towards advertisements.

    Are you going to watch all the ads? I think that's passably straightforward question that you are trying to manifest through your blogs. I would normally tell people that I watch ads based on the idea that is put in it and of course the brand matters. But practically speaking it's a little bit more complicated.

    There are few television ads which no viewer can bury fro their mind, I am referring to the Vodafone's Zoozoo ad, which has taken the online world on storm. Looking at the recent stats about the popularity, I think its one of the best expedition that dribbled and people find it very amusing. My point is, would anyone say that they didn't know that Zoozoo was Vodafone's creation or rather their brand ambassadors? That unique creation was the spice which people appreciated and as the proverb reads 'Variety is the spice of life', each ad portrayed different messages which prevented the people from getting bored.

    One more ad that I feel which has impregnated in the minds of the people is Airtel. Listen to that reverse horn which is installed in most of the cars and who wouldn't know that it's Airtel's? All they did was exploit AR Rehaman fans(which basically has majority of Indian population in it).

    And the third one which I still have in my mind is a very old ad advertising Hutch(yes I know Hutch doesn't exist anymore) but the dog which was introduced in it made all the difference. Even now when me and my friends spot a dog of that breed that was part of the ad, we still refer it as Hutch dog, such was a DOG's impact.

    Fourth and the last one which I would like to mention is the Dairy Milk's 'Pappu Pass Hogaya ad'. Old one yes I agree, but still has its existence. Whenever I see my friends doing well in an exam you see the dialogue coming out of their tongue.

    The point I would like to make is
    "Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement" – Jakob Neilsen.
    That one line outlines my argument! My seem a bit foolish but that's what I think.


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  2. Thanks Ranga for the wonderful thoughts. I totally agree with you on those Ad campaigns. They have all been very successful. The ZooZoos are loved everywhere. I saw a set of instructions at Bangalore airport which were played out as ZooZoo videos without any mention of Vodafone, but everybody could relate it to it as Vodafone.

    However, these large campaigns would have run hundreds or even thousands of times across various channels, magazines, websites to create that kind of recall. Can a similar recall be created with a much lesser number of Ads and cost ? Possibly. How ? We need to find out.

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  3. I believe that it is not correct to expect a singular result out of every marketing $ spent. Not all marketing activities aim to have the same effect. Television advertising is no longer for promotions (discounts/ new prices etc.) it's to build a perception alone. I have led focus groups in which we showed the group 7 ads and the group is able to recollect only one or two. Ranga is right in saying that we don't remember things that don't climb out of the clutter... which is why the use of silly humor (making it entertaining) use of jingles for ease of recollection. Try aided recall surveys with your colleagues and the same respondents might do better. You might just figure out what was missing to create unaided recall value.

    Going back to what TV advertisements were aiming to do: Your colleagues may not remember what they saw, the prices shown in the ads etc. But when the time comes for decision making these viewings will take effect. I see several ads today for things I don't want to buy, or cannot afford. But the perceptions I build today will affect my thinking at the time of decision making. That's the aim of several ads on TV and in which case they are successful.

    When it comes to banner ads on websites, they are not made for brand recall, their job is lead generation and conversion. Your question to your friends should be whether they have ever clicked on a banner they saw. If yes, you should figure out whether they went thru to the purchase and figure the causes and motivations there.

    Obv diff industries operate differently, some industries JUST NEED share of voice in television only because their competition is there. Cannot do anything, must spend only to maintain share of mind - no real aim there - it's to be able to command the same price you need to spend ~% of rev on adv as your competition. However, at Schneider, we are clear about one thing, we don't spend money in talking with people who are not buyers. And our advertising is very 'call-to-action' driven. So that way we're able to track every ad ever placed and find out what ROI we got and make informed decisions. Our ads are designed for response and they are measured solely on that.

    In short: any sort of marketing activity must only be measured against the metric it was launched to achieve.

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    Replies
    1. There are too many interesting aspects about marketing in this era. The construct towards creating a golore of admirers continues to amaze. Then there is the quest to manage the finance. This is an era where Perfection has lost its meaning. It can be discouraging to wonder how your little ad will ever got noticed in the sea of ads, but by targeting your ads correctly and creating a good design, you are miles ahead of the game.
      Deepika I beg to differ regarding on one of your views that you have put forward. Yes as you said the buyer will be more vigilant about the details about the product when he is in a quest of buying that particular article, but is that what an advertiser should really rely upon, should he play a waiting game for attracting the intersts of the consumer? Is that the whole point of TV advertisements? How does the intimacy develop or grow towards a product so that they reach a stage of making a resarch about the prices, quaity etc etc. If you say that the TV advertisements are just for the people who are willing to buy the item then I see no point in animated advertisements, static advertisements should be enough.
      If you say that the buyer doesn’t notice the price tag which was meant to be seen, then I say that the ad is poorly designed. Turning your back to an interesting ad is difficult. The intension of an advertiser should be to attract the viewers to bring them to the Decision Making stage and create a sense of desperation through it. I feel its more about the designing of the ad that matters rather than the stage at which the consumers are in.
      P.S: Deepika this is just my view, I know that you are technically Hundred times much better than me in terms of marketing. Just tried to put my views, hope I portrayed it in a meaningful way.

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