28 November 2008
	EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING - OGILVY, Johannesburg Why pretty is not enough By David Furlonger Sales, profits and brand image determine if a campaign has worked

The best advertising campaigns are pretty, effective. No, the comma is not a mistake. Creative advertising may bewitch consumers but that's only half the job. To succeed fully, it must also persuade them to buy the advertised product. It must benefit the client's brand and bottom line. It's a message with which Ogilvy Johannesburg is familiar. Not only was it the top points scorer at this year's Loeries creative awards, but it also walked away from the Apex awards for effective advertising with a gold, two silvers and two bronzes. The agency is the winner of the inaugural AdFocus Award for Effective Advertising, for its campaign on behalf of German luxury car company Audi SA. Our definition of effective differs slightly from that of the Association for Communication & Advertising (ACA), which runs Apex. Its decisions are based on case studies detailing campaigns' measurable effect on clients' business. Apex awards are offered in three categories: Launch - for brands that are new or have no significant history of advertising; Change - for new campaigns for established brands, which result in significant short-term effects on sales and behaviour; and Sustain - for campaigns benefiting a business by maintaining or strengthening a brand over a long period. We have only one category: holistic success. AdFocus also looked at the case studies, but then added requirements of its own. Campaigns for the client should have been rewarded creatively and be recognised by consumers. In other words, they should be effective in every arena. Not only did Ogilvy's Audi SA work win gold in the Apex Change category, but elements of the campaign have won several creative awards at Cannes and the Loeries, as well as finalist status at The One Show in New York. As a bonus, an Audi TV ad is fourth in the list of consumers' Top 20 best-liked ads, as measured by Millward Brown. Ogilvy narrowly beat out a handful of contenders. Net#work BBDO ran it particularly close. Its case study on repositioning the Nedbank brand won a gold Apex; the brand won a gold award at the 2008 Sunday Times business marketing excellence awards. And Net#work's advertising has won several creative gongs including a Cannes grand prix for its solar-powered Power To The People billboard, which provided electricity to neighbourhood buildings. Other finalists included Draftfcb Johannesburg for its Toyota Yaris campaign, and The Jupiter Drawing Room for MTN Going To Town. Julian Ribeiro ACA CEO Odette Roper is delighted to see so many high-profile agencies featuring at Apex. "Attitudes are changing. At one time, most Apex winners were small agencies. The bigger ones were concerned only with creative awards. But now clients are demanding more for their rand. Creative directors realise they also have to do something that benefits the client's financial bottom line." But it's a slow realisation. As Ogilvy Johannesburg MD Julian Ribeiro points out, the 200 or so people who attend the Apex awards are a far cry from the thousands who troop to the Loeries. Even acknowledging the events are so different, it's sometimes hard to persuade the industry's creative hordes of the importance of someone else's profitability. Nevertheless, realisation of the need for effective advertising has persuaded Apex organisers to double the frequency of the awards - from two-yearly to annual. New awards will be added, including one for campaigns in other African countries. "Development across the African continent is one of the priorities for 2009," says Roper. Clients, as well as agencies, will receive awards for successful campaigns. "We want to encourage a new mindset in the industry and among clients so that when agencies pitch for accounts, it's with financial results and brand awareness in mind," says Roper. "That means also being aware of all the new communications mediums that are coming through. The whole world is looking to integrated marketing. You can't just look at traditional above-the-line. Consumers get their information from multiple options. You have to be in touch with where the consumer is." Says Ribeiro: "There's much more support, impetus and interest behind Apex. I think it is taken seriously now in all the major agencies. We are delighted at Ogilvy that we came up with gold at Apex and the Loeries. Both are important. Campaigns must make business sense." He says products don't have to be sexy for campaigns to be attractive and effective. "It's how you approach the product. Sports shoe advertising used to be boring. One brand has changed the whole sector. It's the same with airline ads. They all used to be atrocious. Now it's a sexy category. There aren't inherently bad products for good advertising." The seven gold and silver Apex winners included two cars (Audi and Yaris), a bank (Nedbank), cellphone provider (MTN), drink (Savanna), fast-food (KFC Streetwise) and bookshop (Exclusive Books Homebru). So how do companies prove the effectiveness of their campaigns? Until relatively recently, Audi was perceived as the poor relation of the other two premium German car companies, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. For a long time, this was with good reason. Car quality did not match that of its competitors. When it started to catch up, it needed to communicate the fact and improve its brand image. Ogilvy's campaign kicked off in 2002 with three TV commercials featuring a frog that used other frogs as stepping stones; a snail that rolled downhill to its food; and a baby turtle that tunnelled under the sand to avoid predatory birds. All three underlined the value of innovation and unconventional thinking. Subsequent presentations built on that message. Independent market research has shown that in recent years, Audi's brand image has grown consistently, while that of others has not. The brand statement "Vorsprung durch technik" - advancement through technology - is the most recalled slogan in the premium car category. Most important of all, until the 2007-2008 collapse of the SA new car market, Audi's annual sales grew faster than any other premium car's. "To put this in perspective," says the Ogilvy case study, "in 2002 Mercedes-Benz and BMW were outselling Audi by 3:1. By 2007, this ratio is 1,5:1." Net#work BBDO, arguably, had an even tougher message to put across, By 2005, Nedbank was a distant fourth in the SA banking hierarchy. The former Nedcor group name had been abandoned in favour of Nedbank as part of a single-brand strategy. The decision was taken to move from the previous niche, elite brand image to one for the mass market. Or, as a Net#work planner put it, "from unashamedly not for everyone to proudly for everyone". To achieve its goal of becoming the most aspirational brand of the big four banks, Nedbank needed to broaden its profile and appeal. Net#work's role was "to use advertising to project a fundamentally new brand image and to drive market awareness, understanding and acceptance of the 'new' Nedbank". Messages like "Make things happen", "Nedbank: exclusively available to everyone" and "If Nedbank is so exclusive, why are we so affordable?" began to make their mark. Brand awareness, loyalty, relationships, industry recognition and financial results all hit new highs.