Your living room is home to one of the world’s largest battlegrounds. The fight between brands, companies and advertising is relentless. Competition is rife; what TV do you own? Is it a Toshiba, Samsung or Panasonic? Competition is widespread; what channels do you watch? Do you prefer Sky, the BBC or ITV for the news? Choosing the brand of your TV will determine the long-term winner in your living room and flicking channels shows a winning preference at a given time for certain content.
But no one in your living room is competing for the most usable system. Brands and companies alike are keen to preserve a consistent(ish) user-experience between their products because consumers are unwilling to learn different paths to connectivity. Instead, your living room is home to a battle about content – who a consumer perceives to produce and “broadcast” the best. With TV channels it comes down to delivering the most appealing content – whoever hits upon a current trend, creates a buzz and entertains. With advertising it is who can create a story that travels across and is connected by multiple channels.
So, the question is: How does a brand leverage content on TV with the aim to engage consumers and cement brand preference?
This is where multichannel marketing comes into the mix. The content with lasting impact is the content that succeeds in integrating consumer interests with a unique brand-centric idea. A great example of this is the well-known Dove campaign. Its ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ extended across multiple consumer touch points: adverts, video, workshops, a book publication, a play and even sleepover events. TV had a big role – but it was not isolated. Other channels amplified the message. The focus was constantly maintained around the notion of ‘real beauty’ versus stereotypical media portrayals. Consumers flocked to participate because Dove tapped into the appealing idea of rebellion, of changing the status quo.
The results were tangible. For every $1 spent, $3 was earned back. In the first six months of the campaign, Dove sales increased by 700% in Europe and the United States. By the end of 2005, sales in the Asian-Pacific market increased from 19 to 26%. Now everyone knows what Dove is and the message associated with it. Branching across channels gave this campaign longevity because it reached people en masse and on a personal level. To this day, competitor brands are still trying to replicate what Dove achieved.
Blog post 6 deals with the integration of connected platforms right in your living room – how brands use second screening to make the most of their TV content.
Davenport Face 