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brand participation

Tempt Engage Build

Mercedes-Benz and The Natural Confectionery Company are two brands to benefit from a three-stage approach to brand participation
s media becomes increasingly fragmented, we need to move to a place where brands can create integrated campaigns across media and time. We need to create ideas through collaboration across disciplines so that the complete customer journey is joined up. to help start this journey, at Weapon7, we have developed a model called: tempt, engage and build. this is an open-source model to help all agencies involved understand the role of their communications within the overall plan. the model is both predictive and descriptive, and helps everyone work together to achieve true integration. We think splitting communications into three unique, but interlinking, phases helps us unlock thinking on how people can engage with brands. it does this by bringing clarity to the role of communications and channels in each of the phases.

the model simplifies and clarifies the marketing process from a practitioners point of view, but we also wanted to validate using research. in order to have real benefits for brands themselves, it has to make an impact on the bottom line by making consumers want to act. So we asked the communications research agency 2cV to take the framework into the real world and find out from consumers whether brands tempt them, engage them and encourage them to build. 2cV piloted a study and then took it out to 1,575 nationally representative consumers, covering a test market of 50 brands these included absolut, Xbox, Hovis and Herms. to test the model robustly, 2cV set out two hypotheses that would need to be rejected: l tempt, engage and build are not distinct consumer take-outs from marketing. l communications that deliver on these elements have no greater impact on brand. only through examining and rejecting both of these hypotheses can we say that the model has a genuine benefit to brands and marketers. the study asked consumers about a number of brands that they were familiar with, and measured endorsement on 15 statements about each brand. the difference in endorsement among those who had recently seen comms versus a matched sample (in terms of brand use/familiarity) who had not was measured. across the 50 brands that comprised the test market, the

by Mark brown, Weapon7 and ollie Willis, 2CV

Why tempt? brands can tempt people to get involved through incentive, intrigue or information, thereby maximising reach using broadcast channels and pr. Engagement delivers on the expectation created by that temptation, and could include entertainment or utility in the real world or the digital space. We believe the principle of build can be applied by either amplifying the message or pushing people to purchase, often through social media, word of mouth and crM. thinking about communications as three phases not only allows us to be media neutral, it can also inspire us to think about how we are encouraging consumers to engage with the brand, allowing them to interact with it and then ensuring that we build from that interaction. the idea comes first, then media and channels can be identified in a content plan designed to build participation. We can also use this model in real time so we can move away from campaign-based thinking to create ongoing brand participation.
ADMAP DeceM ber 2011

b r a n d pa rt i c i pat i o n

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differences in endorsement that could be attributed to marketing fell into three distinct and significant factors: l communications delivered information that was wanted or worth acting on (tempting); l communications that made consumers want to spend time with the brand (engaging); l communications that made people want to talk about the brand, or get personalised information from the brand (building). 2cV found that the way consumers feel marketing impacts their perceptions does fall into the categories of tempt, engage and build. communications that impact whether a brand is seen to be tempting, engaging or building all have a significant impact on a brands overall consideration when compared to communications that dont deliver in that area. across the brands in the test market, messaging that is tempting or engaging adds another 50-65% to a brands uplift in purchase intent. if a brand can make consumers want to talk about it, or move into a more personalised channel, the average uplift in purchase intent is 150% over marketing that doesnt build. While there is measurable benefit to a messaging that is tempting, engaging or building, it is when the journey fits together that the greatest impact on consideration is gained. brands that communicate just one stage of the journey see the increase in purchase consideration double when compared to communications that fail to deliver on any

of the three factors. However, if a brand can entirely join up the journey and deliver on all three stages, then the uplift in purchase consideration is 3.6 times greater. consumers believe that 78% of our 50 brands are currently tempting, engaging or building with their marketing communications. However, only 14% of brands are seen to have a joined up strategy. So this is the theory, but how does it work in practice? the model has been used in a number of categories including automotive, gaming, FMcG, charity, b2b and alcohol. two recent campaigns illustrate the

126 participants surveyed, the net promoter Score increased by 17% versus the national population. For the natural confectionery company, brand participation has always been central to its communications plan since launch in 2008. the strategy has since evolved, but the ambition has always been to facilitate time together between parents and their children. at the heart of the communications strategy are the sweets that are featured in the talking sweets campaign created by Fallon, which acts as the primary tempt activity. the launch campaign kicked off with the

Splitting communications into three unique phases, helps us unlock thinking on how people can engage with brands
model well. the first is for Mercedes-benz for the launch of the new SLS aMG Gullwing and the second for Kraft Foods-owned the natural confectionery company. the SLS aMG is a rare car, from looks to performance and most certainly availability. Working with partner agencies, we created a rich online, traditional, mobile and social media campaign that led to rare chances to experience it. this included exclusive videos, blog content, an interactive Google Map that pinpoints places to see the car and experiential activity involving Gran Turismo 5. the campaign used outdoor, banners, poS, email and a tie-in with Top Gear magazine to reach its audience and encouraged them to engage. We achieved outdoor coverage of 8.3 million, press coverage of 3.5 million and 25 million online impressions. this tempt phase invited people to visit the hubsite or contained hidden UrLs which led people to an entry form for a rare experience like driving the car around famous circuits such as Hockenheim or the Top Gear test track. More than 470,000 people engaged with the hubsite,Youtube, blog, Facebook, the mobile site and 750,000 people in pubs watched the 7.5 minute 3d film on the Sky pub channel featuring david coulthard racing around the isle of Man. over four months, there was a constant flow of content including news and reviews, film of the experiences people had with the car and pointers to new experiences. this led to the build element where we encouraged discussion both online and off-line. among television ads supported with community relations seeding links to the site in various mums forums. banners were then created to tempt mums to interact that led to rewards. a mini soap opera, Packetlife, was shot to run on video-on-demand channels. this led to the website which acted as a hub for all the content and offered people a free trial sample which included some dinosaur footprints to add to the fun at home and encourage people to talk and share, therefore building on engagement. We also encouraged those asking for free sweets to opt-in to a crM programme for more fun later in the year and 49% chose to. twelve weeks following launch, the brand had engaged with more than 1.5 million interactions, built a database of 32,000, achieved 12% penetration and an roi of 11:1. More recent campaigns have included is yours the natural favourite? where people were tempted to help make their favourite sweet the most popular across social networks, and a friendly competition between different sweets to be considered the Flavour of the Month. Since launch, we estimate the brand has engaged a total of 4.4 million online, had 85,000 Facebook likes and 2.7 million views on Youtube. awareness has been 52% and penetration 28%. achieving an integrated approach to brand participation can take a large amount of resource. We believe that this open source model tempt, engage, build can help by providing a common language within which agencies can effectively collaborate.

Mercedes-Benz: the launch of its SLS AMG Gullwing engaged audiences with news and reviews, online and in the press, and experiential activity involving Gran Turismo 5

A D MAP Dece Mber 2011