Describe and evaluate different cross-media advertising campaigns for consistency of message (P1/M1)

Example 1: Compare the Market.com (2012/2013)

THE PRODUCT

Compare the Market.com is a price comparison site for Insurance, Loans, Credit Cards and other such financial things. The company has had a consistent advertising campaign starring meerkat characters running 'Compare the Meerkat.com', which causes confusion for users, for the last 14 years. In 2012-2013, the company launched a spin-off campaign within the same storyline, starring comedian Robert Webb and Tim Downie.

THE AUDIENCE

As an insurance-related company, the audience for the marketing campaign is essentially all adults, ABC12DE in every psychographic category, as insurance is an essential product for the vast majority of people. However, it can also benefit from appealing to children who will then ask their parents to insure themselves through the company with the funny mascots and the free toys.

THE MESSAGE

While the previous adverts featured the meerkat owners of competing 'Compare the Meerkat.com' becoming frustrated with the volume of traffic coming to their site in search of Compare the Market.com, this campaign shows the other side of the coin: the perspective of the fictionalised leaders of Compare the Market. Throughout the extended narrative of the campaign, the ultimate goal is to entice customers to use their service through this consistent use of comedic and memorable mascots.

CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE

       

          

The storyline of the adverts follow directly from and tie into the previous and following adverts starring the meerkat characters.

It follows Maurice Wigglethorpe-Throom (Webb), founder of Compare the Market.com, revealing him to be the exact human equivalent to Alexandr the meerkat. Spencer (Downie), his assistant and equivalent to Sergei, informs him of the existence of Alexandr the meerkat, leading to Wigglethorpe-Throom becoming enraged at this theft of his intellectual property. The Compare the Market.com website was also rebranded to feature the characters and an introductory paragraph written from the point of view of Maurice. The homepage also prominently featured additional videos in addition to those airing on TV at the time, in which the characters give humorous explanations of different types of insurance, led by Maurice and often causing some kind of humourous physical pain to Spencer.

      

This website is visually near identical to the real-world comparethemeerkat.com at the time, both adding to the comedic aspect of the two being basically exactly the same in spite of the owners' determination that they are completely different, and also contributing to an idea of consistency of message through aesthetics.

It is also likely that both the Maurice and meerkat adverts were both airing simultaneously. The campaign, which already worked alongside the regular meerkat advertising, later went on to become even more intertwined with them, with Maurice sending Spencer to Russia where he parachutes into the Orlov estate grounds to throw a rock through a window with a message attached. This ties into the free meerkat toy campaign which was running at the time, by having Maurice directly tell Alexandr and Sergei in this to cease the promotion and close their website.

 

There then followed a final advert featuring both the meerkat and human characters in which Maurice breaks into the Orlov household to challenge Alexandr to a piano duet. All is well between the two until Alexandr releases his pet falcon which brutally kills Maurice's offering of a dove. This was aired alongside a shorter ad starring only the meerkats in which they sing about the different toys available to customers to a similar tune.

The full, likely extended, version of the piano duet was also made available for download on iTunes.

Needless to say, the extent to which the company has gone with this campaign - and all related campaigns - is all in the name of sending traffic to the real website, either directly, simply by being memorable and sticking in viewer's minds for future reference if and when they come to need insurance, or by appealing to children to the point of them convincing their parents to use the service.

 

 

SUCCESS

 

It is unclear whether the plan was originally for this branch of the campaign to be as short as it was, or whether a mixed reaction from the public caused it to be cut short. News articles from the time report that it seemed the meerkats were gradually going to be axed in favour of these human characters, but the tight integration of the meerkat storyline with this one from as soon as the first advert, as well as a quote released by the company stating that 'as long as peoples are confuse meerkats with markets then I will always be fight the cause with advertisements', suggest otherwise. Regardless, public perception was somewhat negative.

Example 2: O2 - 'Be More Dog'

THE PRODUCT

 

O2 is a phone provider selling various packages of calls, texts and data to customers either on a pay-as-you go or contract basis.

 

THE AUDIENCE

 

While this means they have a very broad audience, they will primarily be targeting Mainstreamers, Aspirers and Succeeders primarily within the ABC12 group.

THE MESSAGE

The campaign follows a cat who realises that there's more to life than being 'so cat' - lazy and aloof all the time, instead adopting a lifestyle of being 'more dog' and living an exciting life. The message to customers is that it's better to embrace new and exciting things, to 'be more dog' - in this case phone technologies specifically - than sticking with what's old and familiar, the 21st century has so many exciting opportunities and aspects open but we are largely too jaded and cynical to be excited about them.

CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE

The first appearance of the cat was in a TV advert introducing audiences to the concept and premise of the campaign. The cat's narrates his change of heart throughout the video. Later adverts then continued this message and story, with the cat now turned dog sharing other benefits of his new life compared to his old one. In all of these adverts, the same musical cues are featured - relaxed, slow-paced music in the start, but a switch to a much faster, more dramatic or more upbeat track when the transformation into the 'dog' lifestyle begins. Though he doesn't voice the cat, Sean Bean still provides his iconic voice to the adverts, often towards the end to explain the actual product being sold, or simply to iterate the line 'be more dog' and the name of the company. He has been a staple of these adverts since 2002 so it is a good iconographic choice to continue to include him, as the audience is likely already familiar with the association between the actor and the company. The colour scheme, logo and other visual elements of previous O2 marketing also remain the same.

 

     

The O2 website was also altered to feature the cat and the general message of 'be[ing] more dog', with an entire subdomain (bemoredog.o2.co.uk) being set up to promote the campaign. This likely hosted all of the adverts as well as other activities related to the concept and starring the 'dog'.

Social Media was also utilised throughout the campaign, with users being offered free frisbees (and virtual ones to throw at a virtual cat - alongside virtual 'dog bomb' messages to friends telling them to be more dog) and bags which they could then share photos with online. This encouraged customers to go outdoors and get involved with 'being more dog' in general life, as well as in terms of embracing 4G and other such then-new technologies and offers.

            

 

The campaign extended to every element of O2's marketing, for example users of 'The Cloud' WiFi hotspots would be sent promotional emails following the conventions of the campaign, with photos of a number of different cats and the text 'stay a sourpuss with your current network', with 'or switch to O2 and be a top dog' alongside the photo of the main cat. While likely mildly annoying, this is if nothing else evidence of the extent to which this campaign covered the company during its run.

 

Reportedly, over 600 staff members were trained to implement the philosophy into their day-to-day work.

SUCCESS

The campaign won a Shorty Award in the Telecom category and was generally enjoyed by consumers, with O2 only axing it in the end when the company felt that it 'had reached its natural end'.

Even some people using it against the company, sarcastically saying things such as 'for a company with a slogan #bemoredog there [sic] having a hard time 'fetchin' my phone back from repair...', still showed that the campaign was very memorable to the customers.