It won't be long before free Wi Fi is everywhere. But until that happens, you'll still pay for it on a UK train and in most UK airports. Why?
Given that 3G access is at it's worst in these environments, you would have thought that all sorts of brands could be taking this opportunity to add value to the travelling experience up and down the country. While train operators and airports continue to charge upwards of £4 an hour to access their wi fi networks, it seems like an obvious opportunity for brands to step in and help. The rail operator can still make their money by selling the 'package' to a brand, while the brand can then add some genuine value to the consumer, a consumer that has plenty of time on their hands and may be more receptive to accompanying messages as a result.
A rarity: Free wifi in an airport
On the train lines, it could be a High Street bank targeting daytime travellers in a bid to help travelling SMEs and start ups that choose not to travel 1st class. It could be coffee brands in the morning, or entertainment focused brands in the evening helping commuters get more out of their journey.
Or it could be linked more directly to purchase - at airports, proximity retailers could supply the service, enabling them to showcase products, or even drive footfall by distributing the passcode in the store itself. Or maybe global campaigns such as that one by 'the world's local bank' could do more than just plaster the walls with posters and add some tangible value to the international traveller who is less likely to be using 3G abroad. The 'media' is in place, there's a desire from the audience, so why hasn't it happened?
Bridging the gap from a nudge in perception to a shift in behaviour isn't easy- it's what 'shopper marketing' is (or ought to be) founded upon. But for FMCG brands in particular, trying to do it at point of purchase, in the store, is often unrealistic for a number of reasons; a repetitive entrenched routine isn't conducive to trialing something new, the environment is often heavily regulated by the retailer, and the price discounting mindset of both retailer and shopper can often undermine any attempt to add (or even retain) value for a brand. Of course there's a role for retail based commuications, but too often it's a default reaction from brands that stands little chance of being effective without broader support.
It makes much more sense (particularly in these straitened times) to address the shopper's predisposition, to change their behaviour upstream.
Take the weekly grocery shop. It doesn't start in the shop, or in the car park outside the shop, it starts in the kitchen where people write their list for their next visit to the store. In fact recent IGD research suggests that over 61% of us now shop from a list, with 44% buying less food as a result of this planning.
The kitchen sits at the heart of the household, it's where you'll be when you realise you've run out of cereal or olive oil, or baby belles. It's a place for triggering ideas as well, thanks to the rise of tablets and smart phones, the kitchen is no longer detached from the inspiring thoughts and ideas of the web. And from a brand's point of view, it could be argued that the kitchen is also a better place to communicate; you have a more captive audience, you can add value, you don't need to pay the retailer tens of thousands of pounds to be there, and you don't need to look yellow and red and discounted all over.
By setting the communications challenge in the context of the shopper's wider life - brand teams (together with product innovation depts and agencies) are much more likely to generate innovative media neutral ideas that do more than just nudge perception. For example, asking your agency to 'connect with mum in her own kitchen to get on her shopping list' could lead to all sorts of communication opportunities, be that through packaging, partnerships, DM or mobile. Even the humble banner ad could have a crucial role to play as this example from Fairy illustrates -communicating in context, to the target audience, for the entire weekend - and helping to bridge that gap to purchase as a result.
A Fairy Banner ad takes pride of place in the kitchen
Driving into town this week i saw this on the back of a bus...
Simply step right behind this bus and scan away...
Interesting use of a QR code on this ad. Apparently the success of the campaign will be measured by the number of casualties found under said bus, still wielding their smart phones.
Sport doesn't get any better than Sunday night. Poults, Rose and the rest of the Ryder Cup team had a nation (or continent) of golfers on the edge of their seats for an entire evening.
I could go on about the golf now but instead, i'll talk about the viewing experience. It was, for a change, a viewing experience that involved commercial breaks. A live sporting event that simply couldn't be sky+'d for fear of getting a text or tweet through that would ruin the delayed viewing pleasure.
And unlike your typical football match, this action lasted around 7 hours - that's a lot of ad breaks. In fact you can assume that by 9pm, a lot of sports fans are going to be getting a little frustrated with yet another interruption to the real action.
So what do you do if you're a brand that wants to take advantage of this prime time audience?
1. You could take a few slots to avoid wear out and hope you time it right abd get remembered
2. You could play the same ad in every break to really guarantee cut through, the downside of which could be wear out and annoyance, resulting in the Sunday night viewer even taking a negative perception of the brand away with them (thank you very much citi bank).
3. Or you could make a virtue out of the regular breaks. Deliver a bit of unexpected entertainment. Mix it up a bit through each break. Maybe even integrate with the conversation on twitter, or even better, tie it into the live action itself.
Step forward Paddy Power.
They used five stunt planes to "write" tweets sent by members of the public in the sky above the Ryder Cup course in Chicago. The twitter messages were more than 200ft tall and served to "redress the balance" against the vociferous home crowd backing the US team.
It did the trick over the weekend. The stunt itself generated huge amounts of PR for the brand, even Rory was impressed...
But it was more than just a PR stunt, it gave the fans themselves a voice from this side of the pond. User Generated Content can often mean brands asking way too much of people with little or no incentive for them to bother, often resulting in a select group taking part with little impact on the wider audience.
Paddy Power on the other hand utilised a mix of channels to ensure that rather than a select few participants and live fans seeing it (as is typically the case with similar ideas such as Nike Chalkbot), the brand engaged hundreds of thousands more people through their clever use of mass media to invite participation throughout the event itself.
On the night, Paddy Power seemed to be the only brand thinking about their communications from the consumer's point of view; how people felt, what people were doing and what they would be likely to do if encouraged. On a night like sunday,well worn incentives go out of the window. People don't want cash rewards or prizes for getting involved. They just want to show their support and feel part of the event itself. So making the output a physical reality at the course itself was inspired.
A slightly more controversial example adorning
the wallpaper of the Paddy Power Twitter feed
A one off guerrilla stunt in the skies of Chicago would have been a nice PR story (and it certainly achieved plenty of that). But by broadcasting an invite through TV and encouraging people to get involved by doing very little differently (approx 60% will have been online while watching the action anyway), they were able to produce a much more effective piece of comms. Something that didn't just engage a minority of participants but entertained the viewing majority as well.
A Paddy Power tweet gets live coverage on Sunday night
