Make Real Connections

We are studying it How did it happen Why did it happenThere were the motivations conscious and mostly subconscious of the recipient There were the motivations in the ad again conscious and mostly unconscious The interaction of those two streams caused the resultWait some will cry Okay persuasion is hard amp8230 but awareness is easy We have all tacitly agreed to awareness as what we are mostly sellingInvite job candidates to apply live during the Media and Advertising Communityamp8217s Black Talent Outreach Week at MediaVillagecom and AdvancingDiversityorg October 1720 Apply for jobssubmit your resume hereUnfortunately most of the money invested globally in advertising is directed by that settlingforproxies mindset Accepting attention awareness and recall as enough I thought we had laid that to rest when the amusing but not sales producing Bert ampamp Harry Piels commercials were taken off the air in 1960 and the advertising industry began its seismic shift to measuring persuasion instead of recall The socalled revolution from recall to persuasion turns out to have been largely performativeNevertheless marketing and advertising have increasingly been getting better with the evolution of measurability addressability and interactivity as I promised in the Media Science Newsletter back in the 20th Century Direct marketing knowhow has been integrated into brand marketing thinking over the past two decades We are starting to achieve the Hegelian synthesis of the false dichotomy of brand equity and sales performanceBut there is still work to be done Further we must goThe essence of the Big Idea has been lost What is that essence One of the most consistently successful ad executives of all time Bob Schmetterer explained it in a single word quotPsychologyquot Bob went on to add quotMarketing and advertising are all about psychologyquotWe must put that back in The latest findings of the science of psychology are well discussed in academia but not in the C suite That must change Peter Drucker said the same thing a long time ago and no one was listening then eitherChallenge and reward creative teams to integrate science and art to create experience moments where your brand actually connects with a person Not just recall but an incremental degree of new bonding with the brandThose counts will not correlate as highly as you might suppose with the impression countsFor years many of us put in long hours of pondering how to cause advertising to become more authentically natural and human in communicating with peopleThere have also been bribevertising schemes that paid people to watch ads The execution of such ideas has always demeaned the brand There39s that psychology thing againMy own idea has always been sponsored uplifting miniprograms in commercial pod inventory and PampampG39s quotThe Talkquot epitomizes what I recommended in my newsletter last centuryIn addition to this idea my friend Sue Fennessy the genius who brought you the first accurate media spend data on the planet with Standard Media Index is today taking into reality a brainchild of her39s WeAre8 This is a totally new form not fitting into any preexisting pigeonholes and it39s aimed at real connections Real connections matter Other impressions are breakageThe quotadquot experience is changed in WeAre8 A community has been formed with great support from distribution partners including British Telecom and EE BT39s mobile arm and 80 advertisers have already experienced using the system People opted in to be able to make a positive difference in the world They would be paid to watch ads and answer quick questions and beyond what they are paid the brand makes a charitable donation every time an 8Citizen watches a sponsor videoIn each WeAre8 campaign the brand provides a video and a few questions the community is offered the opportunity with a short description of the subject the individual decides whether or not to look at it and a minute or so later enjoys the good feelings of what hisher minute accomplished to help the world where the donation went and the impact it had Citizens can choose to click on to find out more from the advertiser This clickthrough is not incentivizedOn average 97 of the time the WeAre8 user accepts the voluntary viewing of the brand ad or other video content and 30 of the time the user also clicks through to additional content that is not incentivized Each brand specifies the metricsquestions it uses The averages so farConversion 58Purchase Intent 72Increase in Brand Favorability 66Increase in Brand Awareness 83These high scores based on questions specified by the advertiser are obviously much higher than we are used to seeing for normal intrusive media advertising About an order of magnitude higher Suggesting that these are opportunities for brands to have a true human connection with people while cooperating to help the world Implication every advertiser should test this medium within an ROI framework in synergy with normal media and other altruistic media eg altruistic brand messages in ad podsdisplay and decide future allocations accordinglyAdvertisers who are already using WeAre8 are enthusiastic Jimmy Hughes Social Media Lead of Heineken says quotWe39ve run three campaigns already with WeAre8 and the performance results we are seeing are truly groundbreaking We know exactly where our media spend is going how much is going to 8Citizens how much is going to WeAre8 and how much to the chosen charity The platform is completely aligned to our Inclusion Diversity and Sustainability agenda at Heineken and we cannot wait to continue working together3939Laura Godsmark Brand Manager of Fairtrade says quotWeAre8 is a natural partner to Fairtrade as we are both on a mission to change the world for good The team members are fantastic to work with and Fairtrade are very proud to be supporting them on this journey We can39t wait to see where this collaboration takes us in the futurequotMillennials and Gen Z exceed the rest of the population in their expectation that advertisers are going to use their leverage to make the world a better place but this expectation is spread widely across all demos too and is increasing over time I predicted this to the heads of J Walter Thompson and Grey a half century ago They agreed it was going to happen but felt their clients at the time would not be ready to lead it Here we are Time to test the new tools and create your own new ones which cause real brand engagement not just the appearance of itClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Make Real Connections

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Bill Harvey

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