Canadian AdWeek - IAB Canada’s Annual Canadian Media Usage Trends Report

As part of AdWeek the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) presented a trending of media habits for the past 8 years and made a minor prediction of internet usage 8 years forward. The presentation was compiled by PHD Canada and presented by Rob Young, Senior VP Planning Services. The IAB also used this presentation to launch a new “tool” to the industry.

The basic thrust of the presentation is that internet usage – both in time spent and reach – is increasing, while other media are trending either flat or down moderately. This is not ground-breaking news. It also showed the total time spent across with media is increasing.

The overall trends were illustrated using a cross-section of syndicated studies – PMB, NADbank, BBM RTS and comScore. The analyses were completed using NADbank (Newspaper Audience Databank), which is the industry standard for measuring daily newspaper readership on a market-by-market basis. I am not questioning the veracity of NADbank for its stated purpose, but it does have limitations for use. Firstly, it is not a national database – it is an agglomeration of individual markets into a single data source, and NADbank itself cautions the use of it as a representative national sample. Secondly, not all markets included in a NADbank release are newly measured each year – some markets are only measured every three years, but the data would be included in all of the study releases, so in effect by trending NADbank release in these analyses, the IAB is trending a portion of data to itself.

The “tool” has been placed on the IAB website which allows for the input of internet/television media imperative levels using PMB data which outputs a radar (or spider). The graph can then be copied and placed into other documents. Currently coding of the media imperatives must be undertaken manually, but will be available in PMB 2009 with simple coding.


-- by Sharon Dixon | Manager: MediaLab

Canadian AdWeek - Advertising in a Recession

As part of Canada's first AdWeek CARF (Canadian Advertising Research Foundation) presented a seminar on advertising in a recession. The first of two speakers was Nigel Hollis, Chief Global Analyst at Millward Brown. Mr. Hollis presented data on what happens to brands that increase advertising spending during an economic downturn, comparing them to those that don't.

The brands that are always discussed when this topic comes up, were covered once again – Kellogg's, and Chevrolet. During the Great Depression both these brands outspent their competitors and had not only better results during the downturn, but also had residual positive effects for up to five years after the recession lifted.

While these cases are interesting, the world has changed significantly since the 1930's. PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) a project begun by General Electric and refined by Harvard Business School is the amalgamation of years of data looking at brand share comparisons during economic cycles. This analysis also shows that brands which increase or maintain their advertising spend have positive brand effects. This is true of downturns prior to and after 2001 – with the post 2001 brands showing greater positive effects.

Mr. Hollis' added in data from BrandZ analysis (a WPP database available through Mediaedge:cia) which backed up this study. His position is that in order to be successful throughout tough economic times you should follow the 4 S's:

• Solvency - have healthy margins for your brand
  
• Spirit - encourage the will to win
  
• Satisfy Customers - deliver of consumer needs
  
• Spend Wisely - support your brand
  

The second speaker of the morning was Dhan Kashyap, Director of Strategy for Diageo. Mr. Kashyap took the audience through three case studies of Diageo brands which resulted in sales and profitability growth despite already being brand leaders, and being premium brands.

The brands illustrated were Bailey's, Guinness and Smirnoff. Each of the brands are leaders in their respective markets and had significant support across multiple media. In the case of Bailey’s the campaign was developed around increasing the occasions for consumption of the brand as it had 57% of the target who were either Adopters or Adorers (the final two levels in the Diageo purchase funnel). The campaign creative positioning and media placement had a spectacular effect – the brand grew market share with sales growth of 22.6% in the first year.

The other two brands utilized test markets for concepts in Toronto. In the case of Guinness, the traditional sales season is over the winter. In order to stretch the season a campaign was developed around a Hallowe’en theme. This increased sales 24% in September and October of the 2008.

Smirnoff used a takeover of the Windsor Arms Hotel with support across multiple media including social networks to generate 17,000,000 impressions leading up to the takeover in December 2008. No sales data are yet available.

-- by Sharon Dixon | Manager: MediaLab