» uk-netmarketing: roundup: 16-06-2000

Dotcom ads in the real-world
UK-Netmarketing Weekly Round-up - June 16, 2000

Back in the days when the latest ‘cutting edge innovation’ was getting pictures in the background on your website, there was much talk of how the web would kill off TV, radio, newspapers and any other form of ‘old media’. There is a certain irony now that newspapers, billboards, TV and radio are chokka-block of dotcom ads. Perhaps the Euro 2000 induced rush of subscribers to the TV resulted in the plethora of postings on dotcom advertising this week.

Richard Gale kicked off with comments on Breathe’s latest TV campaign. He wrote, "Great ad, bad marketing? What is the point of having a great TV ad, if you do not integrate the campaign across all the media? There is no PR, the press ads feature a fish, and the TV a couple of trendies ... there is no integration. Therefore the campaign must be seen as a failure, the consumer is getting conflicting branding issues, and is confused about what the product is!"

In general list subscribers seemed to like the actual advert, but there was a debate about whether it was too ephemeral to have a direct impact. Alex Dale, picked up on SmartGroups’ TV ad, "What do people think of the smart groups ad featuring that Turkish ‘I love you’ bloke?"

Mike Butcher responded, "It's another dotcom ad that looks good but doesn't actually tell you what you can do with it, hence confusion. Unlike letsbuyit.com, IMHO, which does."

Dan Calladine added, "I think that the ad falls into the same trap as the Breathe one, in the agency haven't realised that it's a new brand that they're trying to sell ... The ad only mentions Smart Groups at the end, so it's very easy to miss what is being advertised ... why you should use it, and how they differ from anyone else. Whenever you're launching something new it's quite a good idea to focus on what the brand actually does, rather than try to create a mood. When Sunny Delight launched, they showed exactly what the product was, and how people enjoyed it. The only Dot-Com that's currently really doing this is Ask Jeeves, whose ads demonstrate (twice), someone using a search engine. Oh, and Let's Buy it, although their ad is less straightforward."

It’s all well and good describing in simple terms what the brand does, but what happens if it doesn’t? Richard Longhurst pointed out, "The Lycos ad is pretty straightforward in a what-does-it-do kind of way. Man needs underpants. Man searches for 'underpants' on Internet. Dog fetches underpants. Fantastic -- until you actually do a search for 'underpants' on Lycos and find that, when it comes to buying underpants online, the results are (ahem) pants."

Perplexing adverts aren’t restricted to TV either. John Enser picked up a radio ad with a strong message, but ... "What about the radio ads for haburi.com. They have a clear message about what they sell - designer clothes - but they seem to assume that everyone can spell haburi or find it on a search engine without knowing how to spell it."

Nicole Refson had the same problem, "It's fine on television where the web site address is clear, but having heard the radio ad so many times I went on a mission to find the site. The main obstacle was that the 2 voices on the ad pronounced Haburi so differently that it was virtually impossible to suss out the spelling and I found myself trying just about everything! Finally I went to the Virgin radio web site as that's where I'd heard the ad and followed a link from their advertisers section. It may have been a long way around but I got there in the end ... and all the effort for a very disappointing online experience!"

Perhaps over ambitious marketing, and deadlines that are just a little too optimistic are causing some of the problems. Sarah Clelland shared her thoughts on what’s going wrong. She wrote, "The big disappointment with dotcom advertising is that … experience and common sense seem to have been completely thrown out of the window, leading to campaigns which are seriously misguided, not just slightly flawed. And ok, new media ventures need room to make mistakes, we're learning as we go along, etc etc - if I worked for Breathe and someone put a poster in front of me featuring a collie with a very long tongue, my first question should surely be the same as it is for any other product/service - does this communicate our message to our audience? And the answer would be: no - my audience does not at this stage have the awareness to a) know if they should be interested in the product behind the ad and b) be compelled to react to it by visiting the site."

Being a devoted, hard working bunch many London-based subscribers of the list were delighted with the launch of urbanfetch.co.uk and bagsoftime.com. These services deliver a variety of snacks, gifts and videos within the central London area, within an hour of being ordered. Those late night shifts, will just fly by...

Stewart Dean commented, "We may be better at online banking than the US but there's one thing that's been missing. As an avid user of Kozmo and Urbanfetch whilst in New York this is one of the things that could revolutionise (like ADSL) the way you use the Internet. One hour delivery of many many things in London. Other people have tried to do it but..."

Ed Follows did a quick comparison, "I posted my experience at BagsofTime.com a few weeks back (loads of free stuff and delivery within 32 minutes - which by the way, won me a free massage :o)), and so with the launch of Urban Fetch I thought it would be rude not to carry out a comparison test. … If I had to chose, photo finish but Urban Fetch would get it (although that free massage for the quickest delivery is beckoning me back to BagsofTime!). ... my credit card is gonna be Smoking"

Well, given the heat it’s 12 tubs of ice cream for me. I’m off to find a spoon.

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