Cheil Communications Introduces a New Vision and Slogan - Passion for Ideas

This year, CEO and President of Cheil, Mr. Kim, announced a new vision and slogan for Cheil that has enormous potential to provide clients with creative business solutions above and beyond the normal offering of traditional ad agencies. After conducting research throughout the network, the new slogan was developed based on the people, passion and purpose of the organization.

In this day and age, competition as a term seems so soft and trite. The marketing environment today looks more like a war zone, a perpetual stream of attacks between businesses and consumers and vice versa.
And consumers have the upper hand, the means, and the power to determine the success of our clients’ products. And clients thus demand more – bigger, smarter, successful ideas. So, to provide Cheil’s clients with the value needed to engage the market more effectively, Cheil Communications has taken a step
backward to assess the battleground, and made a leap forward to redefine its value to clients.

Cheil Communications: Passion for Ideas

This slogan is based on the principle that our purpose is to create ideas that work for our clients. Ideas that are relevant and bring about a desired change among our clients’ target consumers. Ideas that impact our clients’ businesses. But every agency has “ideas” as a core value. So what makes a Cheil idea different? By better understanding our clients’ needs, the macro and micro environments of the business and categories, and attitude and behavior of consumers, Cheil develops compelling insights that deliver “activating ideas”. These ideas engage and elicit desired consumers to add value to our clients’ bottom line. Ideas that have spirit. Ideas that are driven by energy and enthusiasm. Searching continuously for ideas that have never been done. Supported by the pragmatism of professionalism and the responsibility of implementing these ideas.

Idea Engineering

To live this spirit of passion for ideas, a new process and way of working has been created – Idea Engineering. To be an Idea Engineering company, we harness the power of collaboration by restructuring
the way we work. We remove barriers that impede free thinking and limit richer ideas. The passion of our people invigorates the way we think.

Our new vision requires that we re-examine thinking (ideas for the sake of ideas) vs. acting (ideas for creating value). Our focus will be on creating and activating specific and well thought out ideas, thereby
bringing new value for our clients.

We are a company of idea engineers who work with our clients to develop ideas that are fresh, startling and activated for success. With this new vision we will harness the power of collaboration – the passion of our people and the precision of the engineer – to develop and implement ideas that engage customers at all points of contact, with the express purpose of changing attitudes and behavior to impact our clients’ ongoing business success.

Mark Kronnenberg, Director,
Integrated Solutions Group, Cheil, NAHQ

■ 8 out of 10 Americans know about blogs; half visit them regularly 87% of the people who read blogs said they don’t spend less time with other media now that they’re reading blogs.

Source: Marketing Daily, August 29, 2007

■ IBM Consumer Study: Internet rivals declining TV as primary media source 66% of respondents reported viewing 1-4 hours of TV per day, vs. 60% who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage.

IBM Study, Source: Marketing Charts, August 22, 2007

■ Media usage per person drops for the first time in a decade For the first time since 1997, US consumers spent less time using media in 2006, compared to the previous year. Media usage per person declined 0.5% to 3,530 hours. This drop is mainly attributed to changing consumer behaviors and advances in the digital space.

Source: Advertising Age, August 8, 2007

■ Millennials like traditional – not just new – media Almost three-quarters (71%) of Millennials say they enjoy reading print magazines even though they know they could find most of the same information online.

Source: Marketing Charts, July 30, 2007

■ Social networking reached near full penetration among teens and tweens Social networking is approaching parity with TV time among 9-to 17-year-olds. And when kids are multitasking, they’re four times more likely to pay closer attention to whatever they’re doing online than to whatever they’re watching
on the tube.

Source: Alloy Media and Marketing, Advertising Age, June 25, 2007

Cannes [isn't just] for Creatives

This past June, I had my inaugural Cannes Lions experience. The Cannes Lions festival is widely known as being a “creative” awards show. But once I was there, I found it to be a melting pot of not only creatives, but of planners, account directors, developers – and clients.

As I walked the seemingly endless sea of blue walls, sat through seminars and workshops, and analyzed the accolades, there were several things that struck me. It’s not just the way we work that’s evolved. It’s the way we think. The way we talk. The way we generate ideas. Our audience has changed. As marketers, we should no longer be talking at consumers. They are empowered. They decide how and if they want us in their lives. “Integration” has taken on an entirely new dimension.

In the past, integration has been about how well different elements of a campaign work together. Does the online look and feel similar to the offline? The old school model of integration was made up of a pretty cut and paste media mix too: TV, print, website, banner and email. Today, it includes a much wider set of deliverables. Advertising is in places that are new and different (and even immersive enough to not feel like advertising). Today’s media mix can be enormously diverse, depending on your idea. One example is the Titanium Grand Prix awarded to Crispin Porter + Bogusky for Burger King for developing a series of video games for the Xbox 360 where users are actually immersing themselves into the world of “The King” and paying for it.

“ Titanium stands for
breakthrough ideas. It might be a
brand new idea, or it might
use an existing idea in a brand
new way. ” – Alex Bogusky

In order to reach “the people” we have to speak their language, interact with them and give them meaningful experiences. Integrated is now defined as how well a campaign utilizes these different mediums
to tell a story. It’s about context. Where you are and what you’re doing makes all the difference. These mediums don’t just coexist harmoniously, they feed off each other in order to form a collective whole.

The industry trends we face as marketers and brands were evident at the festival. The Titanium & Integrated category received a 60% increase in entries. The Cyber Lions and Media categories also contributed to the overall growth of entries this year. As a creative director, I looked at their work and asked myself, “How did they do this?” Unique use of media is quickly becoming a creative solution. Our Samsung Shout-Out campaign, which short-listed in the Media category at Cannes, used online elements working synergistically with in-stadium placements. Winners in this category included ambient, outdoor, direct, mobile and cinema (and when I say cinema, I mean that the product plays a lead in the movie itself – not just as a placement or cinema spots).

One might say the only thing that limits us is our own imagination. The truth is, it also depends on the people required to help turn a great idea into reality.

“ Today’s marketing mix brings
big ideas into emerging and
ambient media spaces such as
online widgets and customized outdoor,
guerrilla and events. ”

I looked at work through this filter while at Cannes. As a creative director, I not only have to believe in my team’s ideas and visions, but inspire others to want them just as badly. Samsung Shout-Out was one of these challenges. It was a challenge to pull together and pull it off. I think short-listing at Cannes makes it all worth it. I came back with a new attitude about believing in ideas and how important it is that others around me do the same.

The Cannes Lions festival is a must-see for anyone in the business at least once in his or her career. It will challenge you, it will educate you and it will inspire you. I’m considering spending the weekend doing some COOK uploads to make sure I get to go back next year.

Ann Marie Mathis Creative Director, Interactive http://www.whatsweb3dot0.blogspot.com

Connections Planning

Just because we can buy a space on the side of a dog doesn’t mean that we should.

Today’s media landscape offers us a multitude of ways to connect with consumers, and abounds with opportunities that just a few years ago would not have been thought of as media. While this has served to broaden the scope of advertising, it has also made it more difficult to determine which channels to utilize in order to best maximize resources.

Thus, it becomes critical that every sound communications plan takes into careful consideration all consumer touch points.

Determining whether to utilize media channels such as online, print, TV or out-of-home vehicles can be difficult enough, especially when budgets are tight. However, once a media plan has been reached, our jobs have only just begun. How can we ensure that our advertising is actually effective, that we are reaching the target in the way that we intended, that our message is being heard?

Why not tailor our advertising not only to the target audience, but to the selected media channel as well? Instead of using diverse media channels to communicate the same idea, why not take advantage of
the strengths of each unique media channel to communicate a “custom-made” advertising campaign?

The message can still be tied together by the same strategy or insight, but also give each channel a chance to shine and do what it does best, instead of twisting an idea that’s not really built with any particular channel in mind. Each media channel has its strengths and weaknesses and is self-contained to exist on its own, while simultaneously being pulled together into a greater brand narrative.
Ultimately, involving your audience is vital to any successful communication. So how do we place our brand out into the world in a way that people can become involved with? We create this connection by building relationships. We need to shift our focus to be on the brand’s relationship with people and people’s relationship with different communication channels. Bombarding people with advertisements doesn’t create relationships.

Building relationships starts with treating people as people – catering to people in their own unique and different ways. We can create and place a lot of communication pieces out there, not necessarily expecting
every person to see every piece, but creating enough interconnectivity that people will talk and eventually hear about pieces they haven’t seen from someone else. If we can only generate the following responses — “I’ve seen that ad,” “I’ve been to that event,” “I had a positive experience with an employee at that company” or “I’ve tried that product or service,” and then have our audience compare experiences
with one another. With the explosion of social media these discussions are made easier, faster and are amplified in ways that were never thought possible only a couple years ago.

Connections Planning seeks out the places where brands and people meet in the real world (both online and offline), and sparks conversation to build ongoing dialogues and relationships. Not only should Connections Planners gain insight into why consumers value particular brand attributes, but they must understand when, where, and how consumers choose to interact with the brand across different touch points. The ultimate goal is to find new ways of connecting brand and consumer through touch points that are not only useful and desirable, but credible and social. These touch points can include everything from package designs to the ambience at a retail store to simply owning behaviorallyrelated search words.


In the end, it’s all about ideas. The currency to connect with people today isn’t about great creative execution, and it’s not about efficient and effective media plans. It’s brilliant ideas – which ironically enough, make creative and media indistinguishable. A smart idea nullifies people’s ability to dismiss us and instead invites these ideas into their lives – which is what ultimately we want to do.

Marc Allen, Manager, Connections Planning, Cheil, NAHQ

Report from the Account Planners Conference

Each year several hundred planners come together for the annual International Account Planners Conference, sponsored by the 4As. Our theme in 2007 was “Creating Possibilities”. This year there were twelve countries represented, with over 700 planners in attendance. The three-day conference took place during the first week of August, a perfect time of year to visit San Diego and to enjoy the cool summer weather they have year round. In this report I’ll share key thoughts from the presentations of two speakers who told us their inspirational stories of creating possibilities.

Keynote Speaker: Sir Ken Robinson


The conference began with a presentation on the challenge of cultivating creativity. The keynote speaker was Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the field of creativity for business and education. Sir Robinson’s message is that every organization has to find new ways to succeed in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Revolutionary changes are transforming how business works, creating an urgent need to promote creativity and innovation in the workplace.
Sir Robinson defines creativity as the process of having original ideas. The first step is imagination, the capacity that we all have to see something in the mind’s eye. Creativity uses that imagination to solve problems — call it applied imagination. Then, innovation puts that creativity into practice as applied creativity.

Hear more from Sir Ken Robinson:
Check out the speech he gave at
last year’s TED conference.
http://www.ted.com

The key to future success for all businesses is understanding creative intelligence and the idea of human resources. Sir Robinson argues for radical changes in corporate cultures to make the most of our human resources. He gives the example of Pixar, a company that understands the imperativeness of innovation and has enabled its corporate culture to foster creativity. The company created Pixar University – a program that offers educational classes, events, and workshops daily. Every employee is entitled to spend four hours a week at Pixar University, and are encouraged to not take job-related classes. Sir Robinson believes this keeps employees’ minds alive. One can’t be creative if their mind is not stimulated, just as one can’t be an Olympic athlete if they don’t train regularly. He concluded by emphasizing that the secret of the creative corporation is to look hard at employees and begin to realize their strengths. Because creativity is found in helping people find their talents.

Eric Ryan – Co-founder of Method, “People Against Dirty”

At the age of 27, Eric Ryan founded Method, a San Francisco-based consumer goods company that has reinvented home care products with an innovative branding and product design approach. Eric began his career as a planner, and used his planning skills to identify the opportunity to create the brand and marketing/communications plans that led to this unparalleled success. Method is a partnership between Eric and his college roommate Adam Lowry. It was founded in 2000 with $300,000 from their personal savings, friends, family, and others. Today, they have annual revenues of over $40 million.

In five short years, Method has challenged some of the world’s largest multinationals in home cleaning, laundry, personal care and air care to become the fastest growing consumer products company in the US.
Recently, Method was named number seven on the Inc. 500 list for fastest-growing companies in America.

Eric’s partner, Adam Lowry, graduated from Stanford with a degree in chemical engineering and says, “I knew as a chemical engineer that there was no reason we couldn’t design products that were non-toxic and used natural ingredients. It would be more expensive, but as long as we created a brand with more ‘premium-ness’ about it, our margins would support the extra investment in product development and high-quality ingredients”.

In essence, Eric and Adam have now crafted a master brand in home care. The brand’s tag-line “People Against Dirty” reflects more than a penchant for a clean home, but for clean air, clean water and clean living. Method is a modern lifestyle brand – not just a green leafy brand.


Consumers realize they can be “green” without making a sacrifice in performance or design, as such, package design is core to their business model. Method was going up against big soap companies like
P&G and Unilever with limited resources. They knew disruptive packaging would be required, so they recruited designer Karim Rashid and introduced a startling bowling-pin-shaped dish soap bottle that
put Method on the map, earning the brand coveted distribution with Target and a cult following. Today the brand offers green products and packages in Method’s distinct style.

As his final message to us as planners, Eric noted that the role of planners and planning continues to play an integral part in the on-going operations of the company. Today, Method’s advertising agency has a
planner assigned to the business who works out of Method’s offices in San Francisco. Planners are involved at all points along the R&D continuum, leading ideas through to on-shelf, in-store and all points of
communication. This is truly where the future of planning lies, in growing ever more immersed in all aspects of our clients’ business.

Joy Fournier Director, Customer Engagement Planning Cheil, NAHQ

The Good, the Bad, and the Unremarkable

Current trends in advertising

Advertising has always done a strange dance with the culture: sometimes leading, sometimes following, but the two are always inextricably linked. Lately, this fact seems truer than ever. There are several events taking place in the industry these days that can trace their roots to current cultural phenomena – for better or worse. The following is a look at a couple of these high- and low-lights in the biz – and where they originated.

On the positive side, one trend follows advertisers enlisting the efforts, tactics and ideas of conceptual artists like David Blaine. Blaine has made a name for himself by being something of a modern-day Houdini.
His exploits include everything from confining himself in a glass box over the Thames river for 44 days and nights to standing atop a 90-foot tower in Bryant Park in Manhattan for 24 hours without a safety net.


Target department store was quick to seize on the trend by hiring him to promote their two-day sale by giving him two days to escape from a spinning contraption five stories above Times Square. The event
was considered to be a tremendous marketing success and generated a lot of publicity in the media.

Another instance of an advertiser taking influence from an artist involves Adidas and conceptual artist Phil Hansen. Hansen recorded himself painting a portrait of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il with 300cc of his own blood and posted it on YouTube.

The tactic was then seen in an advertising campaign from Adidas for the New Zealand Rugby “All Blacks” team. Adidas’ agency TBWA/WHYBIN created a limited-edition poster that not only featured the players,
but also included each player’s blood, which was thoroughly sterilized and then embedded into the paper during the printing process.


Sales of Adidas “All Blacks” apparel went up by 24%. All 8,000 posters quickly sold out. In fact, many are now traded on auction sites around the world for around $400 and rising. It was featured on TV news
programs, in The Wall Street Journal and other international newspapers generating millions of dollars of editorial comment; not to mention – hundreds and hundreds of blogs and sites.

On the less positive side, the portrayal of women in advertising has always been a controversial topic in the industry. And while the old advertising bromide “sex sells” seems to be repeated nowadays only with a healthy dose of irony, we all still see ads that portray women in ways many don’t appreciate, either intentionally or not. A recent TV spot for Heineken featuring a robotic blonde beauty pulling a mini beer
keg out of her abdomen seems to be the “offender du jour”.

What’s new here, however, is the way some in the industry are choosing to shed light on the problem. 3iying is an “all girl creative agency” based in New York City. Their mission is “to make better ads,
products and media for other girls”. They asked young women to point out ads they didn’t like because they found the message particularly insensitive to them. 3iying compiled the results into a video mosaic that provides a fascinating look at a highly targeted demographic responding to advertising that was aimed at them – and missed.


One video critiquing a print ad for Absolut vodka caught my eye. In the video, a young woman holds up an Absolut ad that features a man and a woman facing the camera. The woman is beautiful and elegantly
dressed, holding a drink. The man stands beside her – poorly groomed with a bulging, obviously pregnant, stomach beneath a frumpy sweater. The headline reads “An Absolut World”. What offended the young
woman was the way the pregnant man was portrayed – how he struck such a stark contrast to the elegant and sophisticated woman – that, in effect, being pregnant was shown to be un-fun, unglamorous,
and undesirable.

What I find interesting is that the ad was surely intended to have just the opposite effect: to give a nod to women, to poke fun at gender roles and stereotypes. But even with the best of intentions, the effort appears to have been handled a little too cavalierly for some. It’s a lesson all of us in the advertising industry should be mindful of.

Tom McManus Creative Director, Cheil, NAHQ

The World's Largest Market and Marketing Opportunity

“ The consumer is not a moron,
she’s your wife. ” – David Ogilvy

Women:

• Control more than 75% of discretionary income
• Over 40% of households with at least $600,000 in assets are headed by women
• Married women’s earnings are growing faster than their spouses
• 25% of working married women make more money than their spouses
• 85% identify themselves as the principle household shopper
• 90% of married women identify themselves as the principle shopper
• 80% of consumer goods purchased are made or influenced by women
• Women buy 50% of all cars and influence 80% of car purchases
• 51% of consumer electronics are purchased by women (70% of new digital cameras are bought by women)

• Women are more likely to use people as a resource in their CE research
• 56% of women turn to their friends and family versus 43% of men
• 46% of women rely more on in-store sales people versus 39% of men
• Women tend to get most of their product information from the product packaging, whereas men utilize various websites
• Women tend to ignore ads driven by features, but rather relate to brands that demonstrate purpose
• 1 in 4 women purchase consumer electronics from a mass merchant as opposed to an electronics retailer
• 6 in 10 women find consumer electronic stores cold and unemotional
• 5 in 10 women indicated they are likely to make their next purchase at a mass merchant
• Overall, women are less emotionally attached to CE than men. Their purchase behavior is more deliberate and considered than men – who tend to purchase the latest, feature-rich products

Opening Night at the Movies… at Home?

Who doesn’t like going to the local theater every once in a while to take in the latest and greatest movie blockbuster? It’s a pastime that’s been tried and true since motion pictures became entertainment in the early part of the 20th century – buy your tickets, get some popcorn, pick out your seat, and settle in for two hours of escapism and relaxation with the latest studio releases. Tried and true until now, that is.

In May of 2007, Comcast Corporation announced their plan to release blockbuster films via video-on-demand (VOD) at the same time movies are made available in theaters. Termed “simultaneous release” by the film industry, this initiative would allow people to view the latest films in the comfort of their own home for a yet to be determined “premium” price, technically eliminating the need to go to the theater. That premium price has been estimated to be anywhere from $30-60 per view.

The emergence of VOD and digital video recorder functionality means that viewers are more likely to watch TV/Movies outside of scheduled times, and to avoid commercials in increasing numbers. In fact, the number of heavy on-demand media consumers has doubled between 2005 and 2006. VOD marketing rose from $282 million in 2005 to $451 million in 2006, an increase of 60%, and it is expected to rise even further in 2007 and beyond.

31% of US residents have watched VOD, and of those who have not tried video-on-demand, 29% are “very” or “somewhat” interested in utilizing it in the future. Many cable operators are now trying to take advantage of this increased interest and offer VOD to their viewers.

Against It

The industry itself is clearly divided on the issue. Major theater chains like Regal Entertainment Group and National Amusements are vehemently against simultaneous release, and for good reason.

“We’re not interested in playing anything that makes its debut in the home and at the theater at the same time,” said Michael L. Campbell, Regal’s Chief Executive (LA Times, May 12, 2007).

Box office revenues have been limited for movie theaters ever since they became independent from the major studios in the 1950s, making theater owners extremely dependent on a high volume of customers in order to turn a profit. For some background, theater chains earn an average of only 10-20% of the box office for the first 2-3 weeks of a films release, while 80-90% goes to the studios. If a film has “legs” and can still draw a significant amount of people after the first 3 weeks, the box office split changes to around 60-40 in favor of the studio. This is why concessions cost so much at the movies – the chains don’t make a significant profit on the box office, so they sell Junior Mints at a 300% markup to try and make up for it. Bottom line- the theater chains need people to come to the movies and come often, video-on-demand poses a significant threat to their existence.

All For It

Along with the cable operators who are carrying the films, the studios themselves would definitely be a large beneficiary of this type of arrangement. Yes, less people might go to the theater to see the film, but there would probably be little to no revenue loss based on the premium costs for viewing the films on VOD. The studios themselves have been very quiet on this issue to date, but it’s clear that the possibility would not have progressed to this point if they were not truly interested.

According to Adage.com on May 14th, Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke feels that simultaneous release would also help to bring new films to those that have grown tired of the movie theater experience (cellphones ringing, talkers, lousy prints) and the overwhelmed (the millions of parents of young kids who can’t possibly get to the movies on a Friday night).

In the end, customers will still be viewing films with simultaneous release VOD – they will just have the option to view new films in a different, profitable way. And the studios definitely like the sound of increasing revenues.

Affect on Advertising

Should simultaneous release come to fruition, it will certainly have a significant effect on in-cinema advertising as a whole. That being said, there is good news and bad news that comes with simultaneous release.

Let’s start with the good news. First and foremost, it is safe to assume that there will be significant demand for simultaneous release VOD among cable TV viewers. Even at the price point of $30-60 for a single viewing, people will be tempted to get the latest Hollywood release right in their homes out of convenience. They might even invite their friends over to watch to help fray the costs, hence even more impressions.

It is also safe to assume that this will be a captive, audience for messaging. Consumers ordering VOD will be enthused about the newly released film they purchased and excited to watch it. Hence, as long as the pre-show advertising is a forced exposure and can’t be fast-forwarded, it will be that much more effective than regular television advertising. Not as effective as movie theater advertising, of which Arbitron’s 2007 study claims that two-thirds of adults 18 to 34 say they don’t mind cinema ads. But probably not that far off, either.

The bad news is the hit that in-cinema advertising will take as an effective medium for engaging the consumer. Although the in-cinema audience will likely remain captive, there will simply be less of an audience to talk to. Costs for on-screen advertising will certainly be reduced, but so will the relevance of the medium.

Cable companies are taking advantage of VOD by offering advertisers a shorter lead-time for ad changes, which can ultimately provide direct feedback from consumers. One successful example is Cablevision. Cablevision signed automobile makers in the beginning, but now has signed close to two dozen national advertisers, including Sony Bravia and US Navy. Even though online videos are very popular, they’re meant to be viewed by one or two people. For a family, watching a video at the time they want without running to the video store is a great incentive for them to choose video-on-demand.

Where does the Industry Go from Here?

It appears that Comcast might have been a bit ambitious announcing its plan for simultaneous release so early on in the game. The major theater chains have dug in their heels against it, and the movie studios do not appear ready to fight the battle just yet.

If one were to venture a guess as to the outcome, I would say that eventually some sort of deal gets worked out to cut the theater chains in on the revenue generated from VOD. In reality, this is the only way that the new model becomes palatable for everyone.

With implications for consumers, advertisers, and obviously to the entire movie industry, this will be a great story to follow over the next few years – with no clear-cut resolution.


Jed Michaelson, Account Supervisor Brand Strategy
&
Ted Kim, Media Investment Strategist
Cheil Communications New Jersey

Good-bye, Luke Sullivan. Hello, Cecil B. DeMille.

Do you remember the first time you sent an email? The first time your did a research on Google? The first time you ordered from Amazon?

Who can even imagine life before? Well, there's a new paradigm shift (to use that Web 1.0 cliche). It's YouTube. Internet video. Life will never be the same.

After all, why make the effort to read something when you can have it spoon-fed to you?

Doubt it? Well, how many hours this past week did you read a book as compared to watching TV?

Enough said.

Over the last year I have been watching YouTube daily. I guess it qualifies me to be as much of an expert as anyone. Hey, who would have guessed Google would be the company to rival MicroSoft?

Over those lost hours, I have seen patterns emerge in videos. Certain themes seem to return again and again.

I think this is important. To take advantage of YouTube, you have to know its audience. Frankly, it's no different than being a network programmer.

Here are some of the themes I've spotted in no particular order.

1. Sex: Amazingly enough, it still seems to be a strong motivator of the human race.
2. Mishaps: Some are funny. Some are bloody horrible. Watching your fellow man writhe in pain never goes out of style.
3. Comedy routines: The sketches are frequently funnier and questionably more profane than regular TV.
4. Vlogs: The video version of the blog. The most successful are generally from women.
5. Sport clips.
6. Tech clips: Shots of computer games or short deminstrations of electronic products.
7. Music videos.

Maybe this list isn't all that earth-shattering. But I think it's part of the big picture. (Forgive the pun.)

This isn't TV made small. It's different content from TV altogether.

The content is racier. More amateur. More intimate. It leans to the bizarre. The outrageous.

YouTube viewers don't want to see things they can already see on TV. After all, it's already on TV. The sole exception might be sport clips.

And there's the catch. Bizarre, outrageous, anti-establishment content is not what advertisers generally gravitate toward.

Some advertisers have had some initial success. Dove did a great job showing the manipulation of women in modern media (anti-establishment). Blendtec has breated David Letterman-like demonstrations for itselectric mixers (outrageous). Samsung has had great success with its UpStage contest (bizarre, or at least quirky). These ads are neither serious nor sentimental, the two favored sentiments throughout the advertising industry.

Others have failed. The most notable is BudTV. Millions were spent creating content that no one cared for. Bor-r-r-ing. Anheuser-Busch failed to realize that they are not competing against Miller beer, they are more competing against Jimmy Kimmel.


That's right, advertisers will be competing against the entertainment industry-not against other advertisers.

Think about it: Tivo. Shrinking TV viewership. Collapse in newspaper and magazine readership.

Good-bye, Luke Sullivan. Hello, Cecil B. DeMille.

It's that old paradigm shift again. Just like the last time you...


Philip Wilson
Sr. Copywriter
Cheil Communications New Jersey

Search Engine Marketing

One of the most powerful marketing weapons in a company’s online arsenal is Search Engine Marketing, also known as SEM. A specialized subset of direct marketing, where SEM marketers promote websites and products by increasing their visibility in search results on search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Ask.com. These search results can be organic or paid.


Organic Search

With organic search, each search engine uses its own proprietary algorithms for returning the most relevant results to a user’s request. The more relevant the result, the higher the ranking on the page. Results of eyetracking studies show that most users immediately scan the top left portion of search results pages or the position of the top organic result.

Most companies use in-house experts or third party experts to constantly tinker with their site’s metadata in order to optimize results rankings. ROI calculations for these activities are measured by the cost of such activities against the increases in traffic post-optimization.


Paid Search

Paid search is one of the fastest growing areas of advertising today. Overall, industry monitors say ad spending will be the weakest since 2001 -- growing just 1.7% to $152.3 billion, a marked drop from its previous forecast of 2.6% growth. (TNS Media Intelligence 6/12/07). Network television is expected to grow only 1.3% and newspaper expected to decrease by 2.9%.

By comparison, while slowing from the meteoric rise of 2003 and 2004, paid search is expected to still grow by 16.4% this year.

With Paid search, return on investment measurement starts with the initial organic search metric of traffic generation. However, unlike organic search, with paid search we can also track leads and conversions directly resulting from our efforts, with a discrete quantifiable cost. Companies purchase keywords, knowing that each consumer sent to the website will cost a specific amount. A retail company can then follow that single user through to sale, providing a hard ROI metric. Generally, paid search listing pass the user directly to a sell opportunity with ROI being the efficiency of online search spend to actual sales.

"To become aware of the
possibility of the search
is to be onto something"
-Walker Percy

In the case of numerous companies today, they direct traffic from paid search links to their company portals and then redirects to channel partners.

Due to the circuitous route to sale, our ROI measurement must include traffic generation efficiency, amount of pages consumed and time spent on the site by users, as well as how many leads are passed to our channel partners. To get to a hard number, a monetary value must be assigned to each of these “soft” metrics.

While the DM function of search is generally the most relevant to a sales-oriented company, recently there has been a rise in the discussion of the branding abilities of SEM. Every result, organic or paid, can be viewed as an ‘advertisement’ for the company or product. The reason to use SEM for branding is that, if done correctly, it can be much more efficient than display advertising. By using pre/post search campaign Dynamic Logic studies we can understand any supplemental branding component our search campaigns provide our marketing efforts.


Search and Measuring the ROI of Offline Campaigns

An interesting aspect of search is that it can also be used to benchmark success of offline campaigns. These ‘success metrics’ can be seen in the traffic resulting from organic search, paid search and even social media.

Successful offline campaigns should cause an increase in the number of searches for brands and/or products featured in these campaigns. With geo-targeted advertising (eg. Spot TV, radio or billboards), we can study traffic sources to see if there is a rise in searches from those specific geographic areas.

Offline campaign success will also be evidenced in our paid search results. The number of impressions our paid search terms receive will rise as we gain top of mind status with consumers. Our clicks should rise proportionately and we can measure increases in pages viewed and time spent to provide a pre/post campaign metric.

Search engine marketing can be an extremely efficient traffic driver & sales tool for any brand - used effectively; SEM can provide the most accountable ROI marketing program.


David Glitzer
Director Interactive Services
Cheil Communications New Jersey

Teen Marketing in the U.S.

More than any other time in history, today’s teens are considered a highly desirable target for marketers. Yet this sought-after segment is one of the hardest groups to reach. So why do so many companies bother going after them? The reason is in the numbers:

There are 33.5 million teens in the US today. If they were a country, they would be the 38th most populated country in the world – bumping Canada to 39th.

Last year US teens spent a whopping $179 Billion. Add to that amount the great deal of influence they have over what their parents purchase. For example, the average adult with a teen in the home spent $1,752 on consumer electronic products in the last year, more than $500 over the national average .

With teen spending and influence projected to stay strong, marketers are desperately trying to target this elusive population. There are several factors that have made reaching the teen target difficult:

1. Growing cynicism to traditional marketing methods. Teens want to be entertained, not marketed to.
2. Ability to filter messages aimed at them via electronic devices such as DVRs, PCs and mp3 players.
3. Tremendous rise in online activity from watching user-created content to social networking to shopping online.
4. Going mobile - having a cell phone is essential for most teens.

Finding Teens

Before marketers can reach today’s teens, they have to find them first. Not surprisingly, more and more teens can be found online. It’s difficult to overstate how the Internet has revolutionized what it means to be a teen. From music downloads to blog postings to social networking sites, the Internet is now as much as a destination as is TV. The Internet continues to build influence in every area, taking over the top spot as “Most Informative” and approaching TV as the medium teens “can’t live without.”

Online Teen Facts
92% of teens go online during an average week
86% of teens have access to a home computer
66% of teens have high speed Internet connections

The question becomes,” where are teens online and what are they doing”? The top 5 sites for teens are:

• My Space
• Yahoo
• Google
• Facebook
• YouTube

The top 10 things teens do online:

1. Send emails (69%)
2. Listen to music clips (58%)
3. IM (56%)
4. Visit personal homepages or profiles (53%)
5. Research for school (50%)
6. Play games (45%)
7. Surf for interests and hobbies (45%)
8. Look for stuff to buy (45%)
9. Get daily information (horoscope, weather) (36%)
10. Read an ad (36%)

The key to understanding teens’ online activity is not to think of any of their activities as standalone. Rather, these are all part of teens self-expression and are intricately connected, with YouTube links embedded on blogs alongside “check this out” viral endorsements. Many marketers are turning to “influencer” teens to help spread the word about a product using viral endorsements. Others have turned to providing entertaining content to teens that is “sponsored by” the company. The Internet will continue to become stronger with teens as broadband enables teens to upload and stream their content of choice in their Web 2.0 world. Coupling broadband growth with the introduction of online content over wireless networks means that true interconnectivity has really only just begun.

" Last year US teens spent
a whopping $179 billion"

The rapid wireless adoption among teens has made marketers turn more toward the third screen as an attractive and easy way to reach them. There has been a rapid expansion of basic “extended” mobile activities like taking pictures and downloading ring tones. Now teens have reached a point where they are ready to jump into more robust activities like music and video.

Wireless Teen Facts

• 66% of teens own a cell phone
• 88% use it to tell time
• 72% send text messages
• 60% take photos, 27% send photos
• 23% shoot videos
• 9% bought something

With more teens wanting to use their cell phones for more vigorous online activities such as search, purchasing and mobile social networking, expect to see a rise in smartphone purchases among teens. However, marketers should be aware that teens are even less tolerant of wireless spam than their parents.


Innovative moves by brands trying to reach teens:

Sprite, the third most consumed regular soft drink among teens is making a push into the world of mobile social networking. Its new initiative, called Sprite Yard, will be a full-fledged branded mobile social networking site featuring all the usual elements like profiles, photo sharing and messaging – along with mobisodes & animated shorts. However, Sprite Yard stands out in the teen market because it will be a mobile social networking site. Users will be connecting using their cell phones rather than their computers.
A brand’s bold move into the world of the teen mobile social networking.

Dunkin' Donuts, the number two coffee chain with teens and college students is launching a new website called MyIcedCoffee that allows users to plan road trips and map out its stores along the way. In addition to offering trip planning capabilities, the site features a sweepstakes and user-generated content.


Today’s teens are more connected than previous generations which means they have more messages flying at them from all directions. Marketers have to be smart about how to reach teens today. Whether its’ content wrapping on the CW network, creating a product profile on Facebook or planning a road trip via Dunkin’ Donuts - marketers are continuously searching for new ways to engage teens and to make that brand connection.


Rules for Marketing to Teens:

1. Teens expect to be entertained by advertising, they love to laugh: be engaging!
2. Teens won’t work overtime to get the message (they’re really busy and efficient about messages they consume): get to the point!
3. Teens love the spotlight and they want to feel the message is being sent directly to them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean using teen speak (which most adults really can’t do credibly): be relevant!

Andrea Gretsky
Account Planning Director
Cheil Communications New Jersey

Innovative Branding Concepts for Events

Events have become widely embraced and accepted as a powerful marketing tool. With traditional advertising budgets decreasing in favor of alternative methods to better target and involve the consumer meaningfully, events have risen to a prominent place in the marketing mix. Jack Morton’s recent research found that consumers cited event marketing, word of mouth and the internet as the top media mediums to learn how the brand relates to them and explain “what the product/brand stands for:” (March, 2007). It’s not surprising given events offer a unique opportunity to interact face-to-face with the target audience and capture their attention for an extended period of time, potentially creating a (favorable) lasting memory.

With the many elements that make up events, there are myriad of opportunities to express the brand’s personality, message and logo. This article reviews branding techniques and innovations found in the event industry.

Obvious event branding at events typically involve:

Step and Repeat

Otherwise known as the press board, this is the photo opportunity area where the brand’s repeated logo or slogan is prominently displayed. It's all about branding and keeping it simple; controlling the backdrop for still cameras and B-roll footage.


Projection Screens

Oftentimes flanking a stage and always at the center of attention, large screens showcase a company’s logo, brand messaging and even bullet point lectures and Powerpoints.

Signage

Enlarged graphics decorate walls, hallways and red carpet entrances aiming to become part of the décor but oftentimes simply blaring the company’s logo in case you forgot who invited you or why you were there.

While these traditional branding elements are fine and sometimes mandatory, there are many more unique ways to seamlessly introduce the brand to the events’ guests.

The Tony Awards, repeated their top hat logo and created branded decor throughout the environment showcasing it as clever: chandeliers, table centerpieces, containers for take-home baubles and hanging light fixtures above the bar.




Target used their simple logo as a design element in their space through projected lighting treatments in their space.

A movie premier placed famous quotes from the movie onto the venue’s walls. Vanity Fair carved their logo into a tall topiary wall.


A magazine Company showcased their major titles by fashioning a live décor model in a custom outfit.

Caterer uniforms are often branded and their bodies are sometimes tattoo-ed.


It seems just about anything (or anyone) can be branded these days. There seem to be few limits on creative branding executions. Of course creativity must be balanced with style and a keen understanding of the brand in order to best judge how a brand should be translated into an environment and experience. But that’s for another article…

Live marketing experiences were also shown to be a valuable way to increase marketing ROI:

• 75% of consumers say that participating in a live marketing experience would make them more receptive to the product/brand's advertising

• 75% of consumers said they would be extremely or very likely to tell others after participating in a live marketing event , extending impact through word-of-mouth

• 8 out of 10 consumers who had actually participated in experiential marketing in the past said that they had told others about their experience

The research supports the value that experiential marketing brings to many companies. Spending on experiential marketing has grown to an estimated $166 billion in 2004, a 9% increase over 2003, according to an influential industry trade publication.


Stella Oh
Brand Amp Supervisor
Cheil Communications New Jersey

What's Hot, What's Not - Trends to Watch for TV and Magazine

As we embark on TV and Magazine planning for the fall/early 2008, it is important to note trends in these mediums to ensure optimal client investment. So what are the “Hot” and “Not-So-Hot” trends? Experts from Media Life and Ad Age give us a peek of what’s to come.

According to Media Life’s “Upfront Report” on fall 2007 TV trends, there will be a decline of serialized dramas due to bad ratings. Among the affected shows are: Fox’s Vanished, ABC’s The Nine, and CBS’s Jericho. Additionally, even long-running hits such as ABC’s Lost and Fox’s 24 are declining. Overall, these hit shows are slipping due to the viewer’s lack of commitment. In essence, viewers are looking for shows with story lines that are wrapped-up within the hour, rather than viewing shows that require a higher level of commitment.

On the other hand, NBC’s Heroes is the only serialized drama that’s a hit show. It successfully caught on quickly with viewers, which allowed it to gain traction. Heroes established a connection with viewers, as it allowed them to relate to the characters in the show through escapism, mythology and overall empathy for the characters.

Another TV trend suggests a rise in shows like NBC’s The Office or job related shows, and less attention to family oriented shows similar to Everybody Loves Raymond. Viewers are gravitating toward work-based storytelling rather than family-based shows because the workplace is considered a whole other family. For most, the traditional family isn’t relatable. Furthermore, another dynamic exists at work where all kinds of drama and tension exist. Hence, allowing viewers to relate more to this type of programming.

Networks this fall are also aiming to support shows centered on women; specifically the women of NBC’s Lipstick Jungle. The introduction of this new drama will be used as a means to attract educated, successful women.

Experts also analyzed an interesting TV trend involving teens. MTV’s TRL (Total Request Live) was once a teen obsession, but is now struggling much like MTV. TRL is down 67% from 8 years ago due to MTV relying on older, fading shows, i.e. The Real World.

Furthermore, TRL has been hurt by Youtube.com, since teens can call-up favorite videos rather than waiting a full hour to see them. In an effort to save money, MTV has also been airing TRL episodes two days a week instead of airing them live; thus losing the show’s essence of capturing the day’s top music video choices. Additionally, this “move to tape” has caused speculation that TRL would be cut entirely.

With regards to Magazine trends, the latest report from the Publisher’s Information Bureau (PIB) notes that “Teen” magazines have been on the decline. This has been due to the demise of Elle Girl and Teen People.

Most titles in the “Parenting” category are down, and unfortunately, the print edition of Child magazine recently folded. Cookie and Family Fun are the only “Parenting” magazines that are showing gains.

Media Life notes that “Teen” and “Parenting” magazine categories are on the decline due to the migration of readers and advertisers that are moving toward the Internet.

According to Ad Age, the “Celebrity Weekly” category is also showing signs of decline, which can be attributed to the rise of TMZ.com, a celebrity gossip website. Additionally, the category has become overcrowded; not to mention changes in reader attention toward the overexposure of the same few stars: i.e., Anna Nicole Smith, Brad-Jen-Angelina, etc. Moreover, postal hikes and price wars may also be contributing to the decline in circulation growth. An example of this is Star Magazine, which has cut circulation by 10% to 1.35 million, down from 1.5 million.

Media Life also outlines magazine categories that are showing gains. Among them are: “Women’s Service/Beauty”, “Fashion” and “Shelter” titles. Such gains indicate vitality and a strong position in the marketplace.

Additionally, certain publication groups are responding to these trends by creating innovative ways to incorporate print brands online. For instance, Fox and Hearst are partnering to make a series for broadband and eventually network TV, based on popular magazine titles. An example is the Cosmo Girl project; a serialized Soap with fans contributing to the narrative by submitting suggestions for what should happen next in the story.

TV and Magazine trends are ever-changing; filled with peaks and valleys. Hence, as part of our daily job performance, it is imperative that we stay abreast of these changes in order to make the most viable and optimal client recommendations to maximize return on investment.


Laura Greenfield, Senior Media Planner
Cheil Communications New Jersey

Campaign Spotlight: P3 Reseller Launch

The goal of this campaign was to increase sales via Samsung’s newly designed, benefit-driven Power Partner Program (P3 Program).

Clear objectives were outlined at the start of this initiative:

1. Reposition & clearly communicate the benefits of the new P3 program
2. Increase activity within existing P3 members-community
3. Attract additional resellers to the program to increase sales of Samsung IT products

Utilizing Print Advertising, Collateral and Direct Response efforts helped this campaign to reinforce the benefits derived from being part of Samsung’s P3 Program.

Samsung is one of the few organizations to offer dedicated sales support for their Reseller partners. There are now 3 levels of service associated with this program. Even if you achieve the first level of qualified sales, Samsung will assign a dedicated inside sales person. This is a proven unique and key differentiating factor for Samsung in the highly competitive peripheral Reseller market.

Campaign Results

• 20% revenue growth for Q1 2007 vs. Q1 2006
• 234 new P3 members in Q1 2007
• Average of 1,025 P3 users per month, surpassing the total average active users of 880 per month
• 25,435 opened P3 email communications in Q1 2007- with continually increasing totals per month
• Approximately 80 resellers moving from Bronze to Silver, 12 Silver moving to Gold, and 4 Gold moving to Platinum in Q3 2007

Chris Georgieff
Account Director
Cheil Communications Irvine