Complex media landscape challenges advertisers

12 September 2013

Complex media landscape challenges advertisers to develop cross platform ideas

Rather than fretting about media fragmentation, advertisers should embrace the opportunities it provides for developing great ideas integrated across different campaign elements.

This from Clemenger Sydney creative director Rebecca Carrasco who is the guest speaker at the News Works 2013 Newspaper Advertising Awards on September 19.

‘The Big Idea’ is Ms Carrasco’s topic at the awards where $10,000 is up for grabs for the newspaper ad of the year.

Speaking from her Sydney base, Ms Carrasco – who has worked in New Zealand – says strong integrated ideas are where the real opportunities lie among the plethora of cross-media platforms.

“The key to getting the best out of news media when it comes to marketing is to harness as much as possible of that incredible readership with an idea that pulls in an audience.

“I’m talking about ideas that have different campaign elements integrating with one another to form a more interesting and inter-related whole. That’s as opposed to mixed media where one piece of creative is simply reformatted for different media channels.”

Ms Carrasco cites a noted Virgin Mobile campaign that ran in Sydney in the mid-2000s.

“The press ad was simply Jason Donavan's mobile number. But the broader idea across the integrated campaign was that Jason's number had been released to the public 'accidentally' and Virgin was encouraging people not to take advantage of their low mobile rates by harassing him.

“It was a really strong idea and a really engaging use of a mixed-media platform – and it went viral in a huge way too.

“Too many ads in too many media – you can’t even take time in the bar’s loo without being exhorted to try this hair colour or that moisturiser – means consumers are going out of their way to block out ads.

“That presents a great opportunity for advertisers to produce work that is engaging. And that is where a great idea comes in. Ideas present things to us in ways we haven't seen or heard before.

“If an ad is going to demand some of the time I have set aside for my own leisure, then it had better make it worth my while or I'll tune out or turn the page. That's exactly what the best ads do. They compete for my attention.”

Ms Carrasco cites MediaWorks’ FOUR’s ‘Home of not rugby’ campaign as a stand-out creative idea.

“With Rugby World Cup at fever pitch the channel quite simply pitched itself as an alternative to the blanket rugby coverage across mainstream channels. Really smart, really engaging.

“They even used the program schedule to highlight what the options were to watching the games. It was an overt channel promotion, but done in a way that I wanted to read. I’m told FOUR was the only mainstream channel to increase viewership during the period – which is no surprise.

“It’s just another example of a really engaging creative insight being used to create strong marketing ideas in newsprint.”

The 2013 Newspaper Advertising Awards are on Thursday 19 September at the Sir Paul Reeves Building at AUT. Register for a free ticket at http://www.newsworksnz.co.nz

About News Works
News Works NZ promotes newspapers and their digital platforms. News Works represents all the interests of the newspaper industry and provides free, current and unbiased advice and information. In addition New Works provides advice and useful tools to help plan and execute print campaigns. News Works NZ is a commercial entity of the Newspaper Publishers' Association (NPA).

ENDS

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