First Meeting: Luis, Nanna Mexico

Notes taken from meeting with Luis:

• Open to any ideas

• Needs more graphics/posters - has space for them

• Social media - needs to increase awareness

• Does a deal on Tuesdays on Twitter - currently not very popular due to lack of followers in comparison to competing restaurants

• Offers are effective when they work well, but there's no guarantee they'll work as their normally not very popular

• Already has a loyalty card

• Did a charity stunt for Magpas charity - was on Cambridge News

• Tried to make an appearance on Radio

• Taco suit + tasters during the week (tuesday, wednesday, thursday - lunch time? When it is busy but not ridiculous)

• Advertising board being held by employee around town - but would need to be more interactive than just holding a board

• More visual - ie. banners (on social media?)

'Initial Creative Review' of Ideas and 'The Brief'

Nanna Mexico

Idea 1: Outward Marketing (above-the-line campaign)

- Somebody in a taco suit offering burrito tasters to attract the attention of passers by and to increase footfall and passing trade
- Offering to take photos with the person in the taco suit and to share their photos on Facebook/Twitter to increase awareness via social media
- An employee/volunteer can stand next to the person in the suit handing out leaflets (that we have produced as part of the campaign)

The chart shows the costs of Option 1. Nanna Mexico have not set a budget for our advertising campaign, however the price for this option is very reasonable in terms of generating profit when comparing the advertising expenditure costs with the potential increased revenue created with this idea.

Risk Assessment:

As this idea involved a worker of Nanna Mexico to be walking around Cambridge, it comes with potential risks:

• If a physical attack was made on the colleague, they would potentially make an insurance claim on the company, this could cost the business money in terms of compensation
• The colleague could trip and fall, causing an injury to themselves or others
• Avoid dogs and watch for traffic

Idea 2: Discounts (leaflets)

- Buy 1 adult meal and get another half price
- 10% student discount - this will be effective because the locations of the two restaurants (Petty Cury and Regent Street) are areas that attract a lot of students, both international and local, who would benefit from discounted fast-food and will appeal to them more
- Refer-a-friend discount - by referring a friend (i.e via social media) and then you can get a discount off your next meal
- Loyalty cards - buy any main dish and get a stamp. When you collect 5 stamps, for example, you get a free main dish (drinks and desserts not included)

Risk Assessment:

No risk involved with this idea


Idea 3: Social Networks (online advertising)

- Online offers to boost social media/brand awareness - relates back to discounts but more on-line based

Risk Assessment: 

No risk involved with this idea


Idea 4: Banners

- Facebook/Twitter banners
- Posters - transport
               - toilets
               - shop windows
- Boards (direction boards that somebody holds in Cambridge)
- Newspaper ads

Risk Assessment:

No risk involved with this idea


Audience and Market Research

The audience that Nanna Mexico are trying to attract are shoppers and tourists around Cambridge. Nanna Mexico are looking for an integrated campaign that will appeal both to the cold and warm audience, tapping into the new customers whilst still bearing in mind the audience that has already been brought into the brand.

Initial Creative Brief - Nanna Mexico

Contact: Luis Navarro
Email Address: luis@nannamexico.com

1. Background/Overview

What's the big picture?

Fresh fast food in touristic and shopping area

What's going on in the market?

The food market is now over saturated and it is tough to survive and make a profit. Quality and good service are the best tools to succeed in the term term, but bringing the casual (as opposed to regular) customer is in key

Anything happening on the client side that the creative team should know about?

Local growing company

Who is the ad talking to, and what is the one main thing we want to say?

Shoppers and tourists. We want to say this is fresh and healthy food that we can all afford

     2. What is the objective, the purpose of the ad?

We want the shopper/tourist to make the decision of entering our restaurant when they pass in front of our premises

     3. Target Audience: who are we talking to?

Shoppers and tourists. Usually, shoppers and tourists are people over 30 that have the power to spend money and travel

     4. What's the single most important thing to say?

Fresh and healthy food made your own way

     5. What are the supporting rational and emotional 'reasons to believe and buy?'

-Fresh and great food at fast food price

-Better than any other option around

-Fast and convenient

-Only real Mexican in the UK

     6. What else will assist creative development?

See website and online comments

     7. Schedule: What do we need from the creative team? When do we need it?

See website

     8. Proposed timetable

W/C Monday 19th January 2015:

Stage 1: Initial creative review of ideas and brief

W/C Monday 26th January 2015:

Stage 2: 'Concept stage' ideas worked up into campaign for client feedback

W/C Monday 2nd February 2015:

Stage 3: Visual and First Copy

W/C Monday 9th February 2015:

Art work for print ready campaign

Client Research

The 3 clients myself and Katie are going to be researching further are:

• Nanna Mexico
• Jemporium Vintage
• City Cycle Hire

1. Nanna Mexico

Nanna Mexico is an authentic Mexican take away and fast food restaurant in Cambridge, with restaurants in Regent Street and Petty Cury. Offering home delivery and corporate catering, Nanna Mexico aim to stand out from their larger competitors such as Chiquitos and Las Iguanas. Nanna Mexico's online presence helps to spread the word through their social media sites, posting photographs on Facebook and Twitter and offering online-exlusive deals to encourage people to spread the word and create a buzz about their restaurant. The logo is bright and modern, but still minimalist with just the lettering making up the logo. They offer authentic Mexican food, e.g burritos, tacos, enchiladas, and they offer student discounts to encourage younger local students with disposable income. They lay out their menu by letting you choose your 'item' (for example, burrito, quesadilla) and then you choose your filling (for example, chicken, chorizo, vegetarian), so there is a wide variety of choice.

Main Website

Menu

      2. Jemporium Vintage

Jemporium Vintage is a clothing and accessories store based in the Grafton Centre , Cambridge. They primarily focus on low cost vintage items, for example Levi's. They sell a range of clothes from XS to XXL, and specialise in unique clothes from the 50s to the 90s. Jemporium Vintage has quite a few competitors in Cambridge, from charity shops such as Oxfam, to other vintage outlets like Rosie's Vintage, Romsey Retro and Rehab Vintage. Their logo is simple and reflective of the type of fun, retro store they are, and their branding is representative of the 60's era, with bright colours and stand-out lettering on their website.

Main Website

      3. City Cycle Hire

City Cycle Hire is a Cambridge Cycle Hire company. They let you hire out bikes for a period of time for a price, and you can choose between mountain bikes or city hybrid bikes. Their main competitor is Station Cycles. Their logo is simple and traditional, making the company appear reliable and well-established, and the logo is easy to remember and recognisable. City Cycle Hire also offers the opportunity for long-term hiring, which is especially appealing to students both international and local. Starting at £7 for four hours, City Cycle Hire cater to a wide range of customers and their individual needs, and even offer group rides and speciality bikes such as Tandems and Fixed Gear Bikes.

Main Website

Prices

Selecting the Advertising Client

I'm going to be working on this project with Katie Turner. I am going to be taking responsibility for the graphics and the design, as the art director and copywriter. Katie will be taking on the role of the digital manager and and media planner, organising the marketing strategy for the campaign.

There are six companies that we are going to look at when deciding who to work with. Nanna Mexico (food), Scrimshaws Guerrilla Kitchen (fast food), Backstitch (fabric and materials/fashion), Jemporium (fashion/retail), City Cycle Hire (sport), Repeat Records (music/publishing).

• Nanna Mexico
• Mexican fast food restaurant and take-away
• Offer home delivery
• Authentic restaurant
• Corporate catering
• Twitter @nannamexico
• Facebook www.facebook.com/nannamexico
• There are other mexican competitors, for example Las Iguanas and Chiquitos, but they're the only mexican take-out company in Cambridge

• Scrimshaws Guerrilla Kitchen
• Pop-up fusion food outlet in Cambridge
• Sells gourmet pork in steamed buns
• Street food
• www.guerrillakitchen.co.uk
• Twitter @guerrillakitch
• Facebook www.facebook.com/schrimshaws
• Cooks in a number of locations, including Cambridge Foodpark and The Free Press Pub

• Backstitch
• Fabric and haberdashery company
• The shop was originally an online-based company in 2010 until 2014 when they opened a store at the farm shop complex Burwash Manor, just outside of Cambridge, in March
• They sell contemporary patterns, books, fabric, and growing selection of classes from the Burwash shop, mainly for the beginner stitcher
• www.backstitch.co.uk
• Twitter @backstitchshop

• Jemporium
• A vintage Cambridge-based shop
• Sells a wide range of vintage clothes and accessories at low prices
• They have an online shop on Ebay
• Facebook www.facebook.com/jemporiumvintage
• Unique pieces from the 50's to the 90's
• Blog www.jemporiumvintage.tumblr.com
• www.jemporiumvintage.co.uk 

• City Cycle Hire
• Cambridge based cycle shop specialising in cycle hire
• £40 deposit which is fully refunded
• Varies from women's and men's bikes - mountain bikes and city hybrid bikes
• Offers group hires for city tours
• www.citycyclehire.co.uk

• Repeat Records
• Independent record label, fanzine and music promoter based in Cambridge
• R*E*P*E*A*T fanzine was first started in 1994 by Cambridge schoolteacher Richard Rose. The fanzine began as a homage to the band the Manic Street Preachers, but it quickly grew to include articles about the local and national music scene and socialist issues
• Has released records from artists such as Miss Black America, The Dawn Parade, Chris TT and The Resistance
• www.repeatfanzine.co.uk

Understanding How Advertising is Distributed and Promoted

1) Where and how my print advertising campaign was distributed

Russia was the target audience for this campaign, as it primarily focuses on the struggle with parking and congestion with their large cars, so the advertisement was distributed around Moscow, Russia. This way, BBDO would be targeting directly the area where most people would benefit from seeing the advertisement. Looking at the Russian BBDO website (http://bbdogroup.ru/eng/wedo/works/type/media/) it shows that the whole campaign was a multi-platform media based campaign. By using a video and two print-based ads, this made up the main bulk of the campaign. However, BBDO further spread awareness through advertising across various multi-media platforms such as Facebook, where the test drivers wrote about their experiences driving a Smart car. The print advertisements would have been given to the consumer once they've test driven the car, so they can look at the reasoning behind the campaign.

The campaign was primarily focusing on Moscow and it's traffic jams, congestion problems and parking issues, however since it is a media based campaign it's actually an international campaign, because it will be shared worldwide across all media. These issues are also present in cities such a London, so this campaign will also be appropriate for large congested cities outside of Moscow.


This is the video advertisement for the campaign.


This is the print-based advertisement that would have been used on billboards and in magazines in order to promote the campaign.


This is the print-based advertisement that would have been handed out to the Smart car test drivers and other members of the public to inform them about the reasoning behind the campaign and to educate potential buyers about the issues surrounding Moscow's parking and congestion problems.

http://www.pixelonomics.com/mercedes-smart-unexpected-test-drive/ - This link shows how the campaign's awareness has been spread online, by 'sharing' and talking about the campaign.

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/05/15/mercedes-unveils-campaign-let-drivers-test-out-smart-car-after-their-own-was-towed - This is a news article on the campaign, which is a form of advertising as the word is being spread about Mercedes' campaign, and the added benefit of being mentioned on 'The Drum' is that it is the UK's largest marketing website.

Although there no solid evidence, it is most likely that Mercedes Smart advertised their campaign by putting up the main print advertisement on Billboards in Moscow, Russia, and this is known as outdoor advertising. The average price of advertising on a billboard is around 3500 GBP, which is the equivalent of 333465.71 Russian Rouble (RUB).

2) Can you find what cross media presence your campaign has had? How was social media and other platforms used to create community of develop the product/campaigns reach?

The video ad for the Smart campaign was put onto YouTube (video is above) so it could be viewed worldwide. The video campaign so far has 15,000 views. It was also advertised across multi-media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, where people talked about the campaign and spread awareness through word of mouth/sharing/liking comments and so on.

Presentation of Case Study

Legal and Ethical Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues: 
BBDO - Mercedes Smart Car: The Unexpected Test Drive

a) The advert's impact and effect on the audience

My research shows that the advertising campaign made the audience more aware of the issues surrounding parking and high congestion in overcrowded cities, and appreciated the benefits people who live in the city would get out of having a substantially smaller car. However, the conclusive evidence shows that small cars are just not practical for the individual for personal reasons, ie. it's too small for a family. By carrying out further research in areas such as London, I feel that Smart cars would be of more interest.

b) Relevant issues of representation

The advert represents issues surrounding parking in Russia, representing the situation of not being able to park in large cities. BBDO focussed on Russia because they appeared to be having the most problems with high congestion charges, parking, and getting their large cars towed away. The audience will generally all interpret the campaign in the same way, as BBDO has made it clear that they are using Russia as an example because they are facing particularly bad problems with parking etc, and that Russia represents all cities.

c) Relevant legal and/or ethical issues

There are no current ethical or legal issues regarding this campaign. However, one thing to consider is the opinions of the drivers. In the advert, for example, BBDO shows some reactions and buzz surrounding their campaign, and how the word spread via social media. In the video ad, it says that the campaign created $150,000 of earned media. The test drivers also claimed to all be very satisfied and posted about their experience on Facebook. Would could be questioned is whether they were the true opinions of the drivers, or whether they have been encouraged to add positive reviews, by BBDO to further push the idea of Smart cars being the best cars, and to make the audience believe that they are.

Legally, when a company makes a claim about their product, they have to be backed up with scientific evidence. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations means that you (as a company) can't mislead or harass consumers, in this case by including false or deceptive messages. BBDO have made sure to include scientific evidence to back up their claims, saying that there was a 70% conversion rate. Whereas with the comments on Facebook, there is no way to provide solid proof that the drivers who tested the Smart cars actually are true believers of the cars, which could raise possible issues.

d) Role of relevant regulatory bodies

All advertising is regulated by the ASA - Advertising Standards Authority

The ASA is a self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the UK. It's a non-statutory organisation and so it cannot interpret and enforce media laws. However, it's codes of advertising practice reflects the principles of media law often.

The advert has to be:

• Legal
• Backing up claims with scientific evidence
• Honest
• Decent
• IE no nudity in adverts, eg shower gels
• Truthful

"The UK's Independent Advertising Retailer"

• Advertising is affected by the changing concerns of society
• Growth amongst multimedia platforms
• Campaigns that go across a multiple number of platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Radio, Television)
• Sophisticated and visually literate audience
• Aware of the line drawn between truth and fiction

Ad Bank: Non-broadcast ads

Misleading Ads

• No advertisement should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise
• Marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove all claims, whether direct or implied that are capable of objective substantiation
• Marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such

Harmful Ads

• Ads must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society
• Ads for age restricted products like alcohol and gambling must not be targeted at or likely to appeal to an audience under the age of 18

Offensive Ads

• Advertisements should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
• Particular care should be take to avoid causing offense on the grounds of race, sexuality, gender and disability.

Audience Research

As part of my audience research, I asked five members of the public to read and watch all elements of the Mercedes Smart Car: The Unexpected Test Drive campaign. Following that, I asked for the opinions about the advert and the car, and whether the advert has changed their opinions.

Campaign and Video Analysis - BBDO

Mercedes Smart - Unexpected Test Drive
(BBDO Moscow, May 2013)

Mercedes wanted to create a campaign that targeted the middle class people of Russia, who own and drive large, expensive cars (such as Range Rovers). BBDO Moscow planned and launced the 'The Unexpected Test Drive' campaign after Mercedes realised that this middle class group showed no interest in Smart Cars, however they were struggling the most with their large cars being towed after parking illegally near the centre of Moscow. BBDO offered stranded drivers the opportunity to try out the Smart car when they most needed one.

In Moscow, illegal parking is a big issue, one that leads to having many drivers have their car towed to a location an hour away from the city centre. In response to this, the Unexpected Test Drive campaign evolved, where Mercedes offered the chance for drivers with large towed cars to try out the Smart cars; to try and encourage them to switch from the larger cars that they're used to, to a smaller car that would be significantly easier to park (exploiting their issue of having their cars towed after failing to find a space to park their larger cars).

In conclusion, 40 Smart cars helped 623 car-less drivers over three days. 400 saved drivers became true believers of Smart cards, and Mercedes say that the conversion rate was 70% alongside countless positive reactions from the drivers. Overall, Smart car sales increased by 300% in the last two weeks of the event.

Frequency
Mercedes has created a multi-platform campaign to advertise their Smart cars. The Smart Car advertising campaign has both print and video elements to the campaign, creating a wider effect frequency. Effective frequency is the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message before a response is made. For BBDO and Mercedes Smart, this means that more people will see the advert because it will be distributed across more than one media platform, creating more of an awareness for their campaign. For example, the video advert element of the campaign will allow people across the world to become aware of the campaign as it is on YouTube, and then they can talk about the advert across a variety of other social media sites, e.g. they can 'share' the video from YouTube onto Facebook, or they can talk about it on Twitter. Additionally, the print element to the campaign will allow people in Moscow to be targeted specifically (as they are the target audience for the experiment), because they will see the advert up on large billboards around the city and will get leaflets regarding the test drive experiment.

So, by incorporating print advertising with a video, Mercedes was able to reach a wider audience by providing a variety of materials to illustrate their campaign. For example, Mercedes have created the main bulk of the campaign, the video, and they have created a colour scheme so that all of the different products of the campaign are linked. (analysis of frequency - how often something is seen - effective frequency theory)

The colours that are used across the campaign are yellow, red, black and white. The colour yellow is used to evoke happiness and pleasant feelings, and it captures your attention because it is a bright colour. All of the colours used are complementary to each other, but the red car especially contrasts with the other two black cars, symbolising the fact that it is different to other cars. At first glance, you think that red symbolises danger, but you soon realise that what Mercedes is actually trying to suggest is that the Smart car is bold and stands out, and is as much as a competitor in the car industry as any of the other larger cars.

The text of 'Mercedes Smart, Unexpected Test Drive' is simple and to the point. The font chosen is modern and sophisticated, and works well with the minimalistic feel of the campaign. Mercedes has chosen to get straight to the point with this logo, using a couple of words to summarise the idea of the whole campaign so the audience automatically has an idea of what Mercedes is trying to get across, paired with the simple cartoon-styled images of the different cars.

Advertising Agency Profile: BBDO

BBDO (Batten, Bardon, Durstine and Osborn) is a worldwide advertising agency network, it's headquarters based in New York City. The company is owned by the 'parent' organisation, Omnicon Group Inc., who are an American marketing and corporate communications holding company.

BBDO was established in 1891 with George Batten's 'Batten Company', and later on (September 21 1928), merged with BDO (Barton, Durstine and Osborn) to become BBDO. Bruce Barton was made the chairman of the board, and William H. Johns (president of the Batten Co.) became president of BBDO. The new agency had over 600 employees, with branch offices in Chicago, Boston and Buffalo. In 1986, BBDO merged with Doyle Dane Bernbach and Needham Harper (Omnicom).

Today, BBDO has 289 offices in 80 countries, serving world wide. There are a total of 15,000 employees, with a client list including AT&T, PepsiCo, FedEx, Mars, Campbell's, Hewlett-Packard, Olympus, Emirates and Starbucks. The departments within the advertising agency include: Agency Management (a management team including the chief executive (Andrew Robertson being the worldwide executive officer) and finance director), Account Services (dealing with clients and coordinating the work of the agency's creative and media teams), Account Planning (researching the needs and preferences of the target market for the product or service), Media (planning where and when the advertisements will appear and buying the space/time in a magazine, television etc), Creative Services (consisting of copywriters and designers who work together developing the advertising concepts) and Production (a production department responsible for managing the advertising campaigns).

BBDO have integrated cross platform and new media into their advertisements in subtle ways, for example by adding a # hastag during the adverts to create a buzz and conversation about the advert on Twitter (advertisement through word of mouth). An example of them doing this is the October 2014 Snickers 'You Aren't You When You're Hungry' ad, featuring Mr Bean, where they added #hungry at the end of the advert to get people talking about the product. Additionally, BBDO stepped further into exploiting the use of social media for advertising by getting celebrities to post pictures of themselves eating a Snickers bar and adding the # hashtag.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092561/Katie-Price-Rio-Ferdinand-centre-Snickers-Twitter-advertising-probe.html



BBDO specialises in creating adverts with some of the world's leading brands. They say that 'the longevity of our relationship [with clients] is built on trust, respect, and the impact of what we accomplish together'. Some of their more longstanding clients include GE (partnering in 1921), Procter & Gamble (half a century), and Campbell's. BBDO believe that 'in the absence of great work nothing else matters'.

Market position: What are the main competitors for the agency? Is it a global player? What is it's turnover and profit? Even though BBDO is the world's most awarded advertising agency, it still has competitors, three local competitors being: J. Walter Thompson Company, Leo Burnett Company Inc., and McCann Worldgroup. BBDO is a global player in the advertising industry, with an annual revenue of $1,310.2 million and securing approximately $750 million in published new business wins (including Mercedes, Fiat, Capital One, Starbucks and Sony).

HP named BBDO the global agency for Digital Imaging and Printing Business in at least 50 markets, and Tag Heuer and Hyatt named it the global agency of record.