Green Advertising is Responsible Advertising

We are all extremely vocal about the ill-effects of SPAM and as users of email and mobiles use all available SPAM-Blockers to save ourselves from this malady. However, do we realize that there is an immense amount of SPAM that we encounter daily in consumption of various media?

 

I am referring to the huge amount of advertising that we see all around in TV, Newspapers, Outdoors, Magazines, Radio, etc which we have not solicited but is being thrust upon us. Just think about the number of advertisements in a newspaper on a typical day.. the number of ads in TV and radio.. the number of ads on hoardings and various other outdoor formats on the way to office.. the number of brand messages you see on internet.. the number of promotional calls/ messages you get on your mobiles.. the amount of promotional material displayed across shops and malls...

 

We have become so accustomed to this Advertising SPAM that most of it has become a blind-spot and we don't even raise our voice against it. This excessive & unsolicited advertising is a form of pollution.

 

The TRAI through its recent Notification on Quality of Service has taken a tough stance against this pollution in TV advertising making way for a pollution-free television media. When, I say pollution-free - I am not suggesting that we should have no advertising; but, advertising within "tolerable limits".

 

It should be the endeavour and responsibility of every stakeholder in the advertising industry to sustain the media environment such that advertising and communication do not disrupt the experience of the consumers. Such, an approach to advertising and communication is what I call as "Green Advertising".

 

The popular adage in advertising of "Jo Dikta Hai woh Bikta hai" has been over abused and there has been an on-going match amongst advertisers to out-shout their competition resulting in ever-increasing "noise levels" in media. Every year, this focus on increasing "share of voice" calls for higher and higher investments which only benefit the media houses but, continue to increase the irritation and pollution in media for consumers. It is also to be noted that ultimately, it is the consumer that pays for all the advertising as these advertising monies form part of the cost of the product/ service.

 

The infatuation of advertisers with their logo has made them blind to any concern whether the consumer wants to see their logo or not. They have forgotten the classical truth that "Size does not matter". It is not the size of the logo that impresses the cosumer but what it does for them. In my post "The Creative is killing Creativity", I have already talked about the excessive want of the advertisers to tell their "Brand Story" often forgetting the story of the consumer in the process.

 

Brands that deliver their communnication in a Green manner ie in a manner such that they do call for the attention of the consumers but not at the cost of disrupting their experience but, instead enhance the experience - are the brands that will be truly valued, loved and patronized by the consumers.

 

Green Advertising requires that every communication idea be evaluated for (i) notice-ability, (ii) relevance and significance to the consumers life, (iii) the leave-behind value for the consumer on interaction, (iv) uniquness or relate-ability to the brand  on the one hand and (i) disruptiveness and (ii) cost of implementation on the other.

 

The reduction in advertising time on TV as a result of the TRAI notification should only worry advertisers who believe that the reduction of volume of advertising will erode their brand opportunity. Advertising in a commercial break is only one form of communication - that is one-way, passive, ridden with clutter, ad-avoidance and weakening credibility. A little peek into the life of the consumer shall reveal many more opportunities to enage with the consumers.

 

Green Advertising is the way ahead. Will we be proactive and adopt it across the media ecosystem or shall we wait for more notifications to come before we stop spamming our consumers.

 

Go Green!!

Share-of-Voice to Share-of-Voices

Traditional brand advertising has often taken recourse to strengthening the Share of Voice (SOV) of the brand in the category. Let us delve deeper into this concept here, in the context of TV advertising as an example.

So, if there are 10 brands in a category and if a certain brand advertising is seen the most then that brand is said to have the highest share of voice. Of course! there are very clear formulae based on the extensive TAM data (in case of TV) that allows one to estimate the share of voice of each brand. An estimation of GRP is essential to arrive at the SOV estimate.

Various research studies over the past have clearly established a relationship between the share of voice and Market Share and the SOV:SOM method of advertising planning is extensively adopted. In the absence of Share of Voice data; the Share of Expenditure (SOE) data too is often used for similar purpose.

Let us understand "Share of Voice" and its context a bit more.

• Traditional advertising mainly had only the brands talking about themselves and hence the sources of "voice" were limited. So, in this case we may say that since there were 10 brands - there were 10  primary sources of  Voice.
• The voice is alien or distant for every consumer. so, there was no effort to measure the "influencing power" of the voice.
• So "Share of Voice" is a "volume measure" ie it just measures the amount of advertising. So, in a volume measure the nature or the strength of the voice is not reflected.
• However, it is not a "supply measure" as "secondage of advertising" but is a "consumer side measure" since, it depicts the "amount of advertising seen". Note, that purposely I have not called it a "demand side measure" since there really is no demand for advertising - it is often thrust upon consumers. Anyways, here let us not get into whether the advertising is really wanted or seen, given the high extent of ad-avoidance behaviour which is rampant.  
• The metric of voice in each media is different and hence complex statistical techniques are required to aggregate share of voice across different media. For those who know GRP would be aware how mysterious GRPs are and how erroneous can it be to aggregate GRPs across media. 

But, the media landscape has evolved so much since the time the science of SOV:SOM based planning was scripted. The emergence of social media has started diluting the control of the brands over their advertising. The changes that have been seen are certainly here to stay and will only get more acute with the accelerated growth of digital media in the country. In such a scenario, we need to look at the principles of Share of Voice - afresh.

• If there are 10 brands in the category today, are their only 10 sources of brand messages. NO. The number of sources of brand messages today are innumerable. Hence,. there are a multitude of voices.
• Each consumer has a unique relationship with at least one of these innumerable voices and hence each voice has a definitive "influencing power" over another consumer.
• Hence, it is not the volume of voice but the number of voices which is more important.
• With the transfer of power moving from the transmitter of messages to the reciever - an exposure to a message is subject to desire and demand by the consumer. Hence, the measure of number of voices seen/ heard can be termed as a "demand side measure"
• Number of voices is a count measure and is additive across media formats - though yes, given the unique influencing power of each voice we would still need recourse to complex statistical methods to arrive at a relationship between these different voices and brand success.

Yes, I admit my thoughts are still evolving on this subject and many arguments are possible on what will happen next. However, one thing is certain that "Share of Voice' based planning as it exists today has to re-invent itself and maybe change itself to "Share of Voices" based planning.

In effect, the media plans should not be targeted to generate the highest "Share of Voice" but rather structured to activate more and more consumers to raise their voice for the brand to maximize the "Share of Voices" for the brand.

Shouting by yourself is easy but getting others to canvass for you requires winning their love and respect. That is the real challenge that the brands have to confront. If a brand wins my heart - I will always raise my voice for it.