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How to make the most of multimedia advertising
With increasing fragmentation leading to a long media tail, it is usually neces-
sary to use multiple media to reach your target audience. While this makes the
marketer’s life more complicated, it does offer real benefits, particularly in terms
of media-multiplier effects, communicating a richer message, and sustaining the
effect of your activity.
In recent years, due to the proliferation of cable/satellite
channels and TV fragmentation, it has become essential to
use multiple channels to reach all of the target audience in
many countries. Additionally, other channels have developed,
including the Internet and various ambient media, resulting
in a much wider range of options.
There are many differences between the benefits of different
media. In terms of targeting, some channels, such as TV, can
still reach a very wide audience. And while TV fragmentation
causes problems, it does have the benefit of allowing greater
targeting of minority audiences than ever before. Whereas Online advertising can work well in this context. Analysis of
print and the Internet for example, are good at reaching online advertising which was part of multimedia campaigns
highly targeted audiences segmented by interest. reveals that the online ads had incremental effects on aware-
(Individual Knowledge Points on each of the main media ness, favorability and consideration.
discuss the unique features of each media in detail).
REACH
The simplest reason for multimedia advertising is extending
reach. TV remains the best vehicle for achieving reach, but
it is usually helpful to use other media to reach light/non TV
viewers. The example below shows TV ad awareness peak-
ing at 40 percent, but with the addition of print and in store,
this reaches over 50 percent.
Media-multiplier
There can be a genuinely synergistic effect of using multiple
channels. The following chart shows the aggregate result of
an analysis conducted on behalf of the Magazine Publish-
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ers of America, analyzing sales for 13 brands over a three
1 cific media to refresh messages communicated earlier, and
year time frame, and correlating purchase intent with media the power of multimedia advertising becomes clear.
awareness. The analysis tracked awareness and purchase in-
tent on a weekly basis. A statistically significant relationship So, while it can take time and effort to explore the lives and
between a change in advertising awareness and a corre- mindsets of your consumers to understand which channels
sponding change in purchase intent was evident for 6 per- 1 offer the best opportunity for connection, multimedia cam-
cent of the brands. Among those cases where a significant paigns have some major benefits. More information can
relationship was found, the source of awareness that was be conveyed, such as more specific detail, complemen-
driving the change was identified. A combination of media tary messages, pricing information, or variant information.
— both television and magazines working together — was Equally, it can simply build a sense of “noise” around a brand
most strongly related to productive changes in purchase in- and can help trigger the purchase near point of sale.
tent. Clear evidence of the media-multiplier effect.
There are two main forms of the multiplier effect.
MAGNIFY
Where multiple channels are used to reach the same target
audience, we refer to this as Magnify. In terms of a me-
dia schedule, this approach delivers all of those messages
at about the same time. Surrounding the consumer with
an integrated set of messages through different vehicles
causes the overall effect to be greater than what could be
In a project conducted by Millward Brown for the U.K.’s achieved through one medium alone. Specific messages
Newspaper Marketing agency, it was found that a combina- can accumulate into broader ideas. For a complex and
tion of TV and newspaper increased consideration for Guin- multifaceted message with the objective of changing es-
ness by four times as much as the TV alone. tablished perceptions, or eliciting an active response, Mag-
nify is the likely strategic choice.
The media-multiplier effect seems to stem from a number
of phenomena. Magnify was used by one brand struggling to differentiate it-
self in a U.K. utility sector. The marketplace was crowded,and
For some media, e.g. print, attention is paid only to ads that there was one dominant player. The brand launched a cam-
interest the consumer. But TV can add warmth and interest paign, including both a TV and radio execution, around the
to a brand, to encourage a consumer to want to find out same theme using the same music and jingle. The effects
more. As a consequence, they are more likely to read a print of different media were isolated by looking at consumers
ad for it. with different opportunities to be exposed to the various
parts of the campaign. The demographics of each group
Additionally, viewing another ad, whether it is print, online were very similar; any differences in the data could be at-
or OOH, may awaken associations formed by the TV ad tributed to the different media mixes.
— particularly if the same creative approach is taken. The
combination of these two effects can cause a powerful “me- Analysis shows the differences in results between the TV
dia-multiplier” effect. and radio only cells and those exposed to both TV and
radio. The difference between the two is ascribed to the
Add to this the possibilities of using situation and time spe- multimedia effect. The differences are from the stronger of
either the “radio only” or “‘TV only” cells.
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will be strongest when the same creative approach is used
across the media, with the activation advertising awakens
associations from the demand advertising. This is discussed
in further detail in our Knowledge Point, “What are the main
influences on purchase decisions?”
Resonate
In another example, a financial client used relatively low
We use the term Resonate to refer to campaigns where a
weight TV activity in one region but not another, and poster
cheaper medium is used to prolong the effect of a more ex-
activity in both regions with a similar creative to the TV cam-
pensive one. For example, a campaign might run on TV for
paign. The poster recognition levels were similar in both re-
a period of time, then the TV execution is adapted for radio,
gions. However, understanding of the posters was stronger in
featuring a notable audio cue from the TV ad. When the
the TV advertised region, and there was also greater mes-
radio ads are heard, that cue stimulates associations from
sage take out.
the TV advertising. This effectively prolongs the impact of
TV and makes the TV budget go further than it otherwise
would.
Aquafresh used this approach for one of their campaigns.
A national burst of TV advertising was used to support the
brand. Straight after the TV burst, a burst of radio advertis-
ing was deployed in one TV region, using sound cues all
One provider of operating systems included web advertising
based around the brand’s “Fresh energy” platform. At the
within its campaign. Research identified that the campaign
end of the TV campaign, but prior to the radio ad, aware-
was successful; consideration for the brand increased. But
ness and consideration of Aquafresh were the same in the
the web advertising added significantly to the campaign;
radio advertised region as the rest of the country.
those exposed to the online ads were more likely to consider
the brand than those not exposed.
The radio advertising successfully extended Aquafresh’s
media presence, with the extra awareness being misattrib-
uted to TV.
Some advertising is better at setting up demand for a prod-
uct, demand which can then be activated at point of sale.
Carefully planned multimedia campaigns can capitalize on
The indexed growth in any media ad awareness from
this effect. Discount coupons, posters outside stores, in-store
100–1 actually equated to a rise of 1 percent. Assuming
54 3
sampling, or displays can trigger the activation. This effect
general media costs, this was achieved for the equivalent
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investment of 30 TV GRPs.
The real strength of the radio activity was its ability to gener-
ate further presence and purchase intent for the brand.
In terms of profiles, the makeup of consumers in the radio
advertised regions was similar both prior to and during the
radio ad. The differences observed were due to the radio
advertising and not the profile or regional variations in re-
spondents’ behavior.
Creative elements
For the media-multiplier effect to work well, creative ele-
ments need to be shared across the media and these should
be the elements that stand out. This may be a distinctive vi-
sual, such as a celebrity, or character; music, such as a jingle;
or a slogan. The nature of the distinctive element is naturally
important, because it will influence the other media that the
idea can be extended to.
Knowledge Points are drawn from the Millward Brown Knowledge Bank,
consisting of our databases of 80,000 brand reports and 40,000 ads, as well
as 1,000 case studies, 700 conference papers and magazine articles, and
250 Learnings documents.
www.millwardbrown.com
How to make the most of multimedia advertising © Millward Brown April 2008