When Good Contextual Ads Go Bad…

by Keith Browning
 
The highly targeted nature of Contextual Advertising makes it very attractive to advertisers.

If I’m reading an article about travel and I’m then served an ad about hotels or flights, you would expect a relatively high click thru rate on that ad, certainly compared to a more general ad about buying a watch for example.

Contextual Ads work in a very simple way and this is a big reason why they are so attractive.  An ad network, such as Google, will trawl a web page’s content, determine its topic from keywords within the content and then serve up ads relevant to the page’s topic. Many times these ads are text based but they can also take many other forms, like a traditional banner style ad.

Below we see an example of Contextual Ads in action. The article is about skin care, specifically face creams. This is the content that the visitor to the site is consuming. The ad network, Google in this instance, then serves ads related to skin care.

Relevant & highly targeted – a perfect example of Contextual Advertising in action.

However, sometimes Good Contextual Ads Go Bad…

This is an ad that was just served to me on CNN.com. It’s a story about a horrific incident including a death inside a storage container. What am I shown next? It’s an advert for me to buy a storage container – right in the middle of the article. Though you can argue it’s “relevant”, I’m probably unlikely to be in the mood to purchase a storage container. In fact, to most people it would seem that CNN and / or Buyerzone have done something in really bad taste.

A quick Google search reveals this seems to be happening quite regularly, as we can see with New York Times below. Here an article about a tragic ferry accident means I'm being served an add about winning a Cruise! This is definitely something all marketing managers need to be aware of, particularly if you're the publisher of content but also if you’re the company being advertised. 

Not exactly the PR you'd aspire to for your brand!

Why Being Just ‘Ethical’ Is Not Enough…

by Keith Browning

The advantages of ethical branding are quite apparent. Highlighting the ethical quality of a product can provide an important means for businesses to differentiate their product and add value in the consumers’ eyes over that of the equivalent commodity.

So it's probably no surprise that many Ethical Brands position themselves in such a way that their entire identity is based very much on an ethical appeal. It's easy to spot these brands - they'll be the ones talking about how they pay fair wages or how their products are not tested on animals or their approach to the third world – or maybe how they're carbon neutral etc. They’ve really become a global phenomenon in recent years.

The problem with basing your entire identity on this ethical appeal is that by itself, it's just not enough for most people.

In fact, most people that are motivated to consume these ethical brands tend to have other reasons to do so besides the ethical motivation. The more savvy ethical brands are brands that have another dimension - another brand position, a deeper identity.

In a seminal piece of research for the Journal of Brand Management, titled “Integrating ethical brands into our consumption lives”, Isabelle Szmigin identified a number of dimensions that are regularly incorporated in to the really successful ethical brands that elevate them to the point where they're saying more than just “Buy us because it’s the right thing to do”.

Here we take a look at three dimensions that have proven successful for a large number of ethical brands:

Distinction  

We know that people like to distinguish themselves from others, so here the brand tries to leverage this by making people feel like they are distinguishing themselves in some way by consuming your brand over others.

So consuming this brand shows that you are more educated or more sophisticated or more enlightened than all of these other people who “just don't get it”! 

One way people are distinguished is by having lots of money i.e. financial capital.

I think Fiji Water leverage this beautifully. Fiji are a 'natural artesian water' brand that first appeared in high end stores and restaurants. They were initially seen in New York on the menu at an elite restaurant called Jean-Georges – at a price of $10 for a litre bottle! It was presented to diners in a solid-silver Fiji Water serving case. In the UK, the brand retails for £1.95 a litre – significantly more than you would pay for other brands, like say Evian. How can Fiji achieve this? They are appealing to us to distinguish ourselves by consuming their brand that is "natural", "untouched by man", "artesian" and of course exclusive.

Yes Fiji are involved in conservation, yes they have a charity (Fiji Water Foundation) etc. But these ethical appeals are secondary elements.

Hedonism

Consumer purchases are often driven by the anticipated hedonic experience, the feelings of pleasure we’ll get from using the product. This insight has been leveraged by many successful brands over the years, including very successful ethical brands.

The organic skincare / tanning range "TanOrganic" do this extremely well. Their marketing makes reference to the fact that they are organic of course, particularly through the name but that is not their only appeal. In fact some would say it’s not even their primary appeal. TanOrganic instead go out and say we will give you "flawless, streak-free tan with the perfect fade". They offer a promise of "revitalising tired and dry skin during the harsh winter month" and then finish by saying "made from natural and organic ingredients".

This is a much better brand position than just saying organic make up is the right thing to do.

Love

This is a really popular one among ethical brands and I think the great Irish brand Glenisk do a great job positioning their brand based on 'love'. Love is rarely mentioned in marketing, which is quite a surprise given that love is such a strong motivator for so many people's behaviours. 

In this context, ethical brands are saying “if you consume this product, you are showing your love for other people or society in general”.

Glenisk discuss how "you are showing your love for society and for future generations by consuming our product". They promote the idea that we are "custodians of the land" and by consuming their products, you are showing your love for the next generation and helping "preserve the planet".

We also see actually see a hedonic aspect to Glenisk, since they tend to push the idea that all of their products are organic…and therefore they taste better! Of course the fact that they are organic is important and this provides a great way for them to differentiate their product from their competitors and add value. But if they didn't also taste great, they probably wouldn't have a business.

As we can see, ethical brands work on many different levels. Trying to base your entire identity on an ethical appeal is probably not the most successful strategy to achieve mass market appeal. It just isn’t enough for most people.

The more savvy ethical brands get this and that’s why we see the really successful ones developing much deeper identities.

Why Cully & Sully and Keogh's Crisps Get It When It Comes To Branding

by Keith Browning

Every product or service is a brand. It doesn't matter how long the product or service has been around, how big or small the company is or how much money, if any, the company has invested in building its brand. When you think of branding as the sum total of the attitudes, opinions and associations you have about something, everything is, by definition, a brand. Just as Coca Cola, McDonald's or Nike are brands, so too are Snap Printing, UCD or your local pub. Whether you choose to manage your brand or not, however, is up to you.

A common mistake when it comes to branding is that you need a lot of money but while money certainly helps, it's not an essential ingredient. From an Irish standpoint, there have been a few individuals in recent years that have built exceptional brands on a shoestring.

Cully & Sully

Cullen Allen and Colum O'Sullivan, the founders of Cully & Sully, sold their soup company for about €9 million, less than eight years after starting. With Cully & Sully, the soup itself isn't what's amazing. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad but there is nothing spectacular about the product itself compared to the other products in their category. Further, Cully & Sully didn't actually make the product themselves - it was contracted out!

So how did two guys from Cork end up with €4.5 million each for a soup company? It's not because they're such excellent soup makers. They did it by building a strong brand. They didn't have a lot of money but they had a clear vision. It began with the name 'Cully & Sully'. As branding expert John Fanning, author of 'The Importance of Being Branded' puts it, 'it's better to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth than a wooden one' so getting the name right is important. Secondly and crucially, they had excellent pack design. This is an extremely underestimated aspect of branding, particularly in Ireland. At the time, soup packaging all tended to be cartons with lots of bright colors and text. Cully & Sully's oval containers and black coloring stood out on shelves. At that time, choosing black as the color for a food product was a risky move but certainly paid off.

They also have excellent copy, alluding to their Ballymaloe background without going completely overboard with it. They clearly found inspiration for the copy from Innocent smoothies but then Innocent got theirs from Ben & Jerry's. Generally this isn't an issue as long as you're in different industries. As long as you can stand out in your category, taking proven strategies from others and applying them to your own can be a great move.

Finally, Cully & Sully are media friendly guys, who went out to food markets, fairs and shows up and down the country like Taste of Dublin & Bloom. This combined with the name, copy, design, packaging, Ballymaloe background and media friendliness all built the Cully & Sully brand. A brand that consumers bought in to and international firms were willing to pay millions for. And a brand that didn't cost millions to build. The soup itself is not bad either!

Keogh's Crisps

Keogh's set up their crisp brand when they saw the potato market in decline, as Irish people became more and more sophisticated in their tastes. They purchased the necessary equipment and began to produce crisps on their farm. But how is another crisp brand to differentiate in a crowded marketplace, competing against long established firms? They did it by building a powerful brand.

Here we have a group of genuine Irish potato farmers making crisps. What a great story! They actually look quite cool (for farmers!) and photograph well, which is a big help. Producing "hand cooked crisps on our farm", Keogh's crisps are "grown with love in Ireland". They have a fantastic gimmick in 'Spud Nav', which allows consumers to trace their crisps back to the farm based on a number on each pack that can be entered in to their website! They have flavors like 'Shamrock and Sour Cream', which sets them apart from competitors, as it's different and distinctly Irish. The packaging is good and premium, although personally I prefer some of the others in their category like Kettle's.

I think Keogh's are one to watch. They just recently signed a deal with Tesco UK but getting on to supermarket shelves in the UK is only the beginning I feel. After all, if Ireland can't be famous for potatoes around the world, what can we be famous for?!

The point here is that it's very difficult to create a point of difference with your actual product. Products are so easily replicable. But you can do it with your marketing communication. Cully & Sully and Keogh's are just two in a long list of examples of individuals that have built very strong brands without spending millions doing so. And building a strong brand means more customers are willing to purchase from you, more regularly - and are prepared to pay a premium price for your product. What more could you ask of your brand?!