Blog – Page 2 – Digital Marketing | Tim McKane Communications

Anatomy of A Television Advertisement

Television ads, or commercials, or spots as they are known in the States, were the heartbeat of advertising and ad agencies for through the golden years of four-channel UK broadcasting. If you talked about advertising, people thought television, if you wanted to make a name in the business, making a great tv ad was the fast track. To make money – production and media buying for TV.

So I thought it might be an interesting addition to my series on advertising to take you through the process of how an agency gets to make a big production ad.

In 2001 at FireIMC we were on the government roster for ad agencies. Just before Christmas 2000, we got the invitation to pitch for NITB (Northern Ireland Tourist Board, now Tourism NI). So I got thinking about the strategy we would pitch, how would we win this, what could we do to stand out in a very competitive pitch list.

Core to our first meeting in our Storm Room was the idea that we should not pretend that the Troubles had not existed. We should use the recent history to, in effect, do a Judo move and overturn the expectations of gloom and despair that were a part of the NI brand. It would literally be a surprise attack.

The line I proposed was “Where? Northern Ireland!” Said in total disbelief that the places and activities that we would be promoting for short breaks could be in Northern Ireland.

The creative team, led by Adrian Power and Chris McKeown, took the brief and worked, hard, on developing it.

Some of my best moments in advertising were when I put a brief in and received in response ideas that had never crossed my mind. Getting an idea pitched that really excited me, and completely fulfilled my hopes. Adrian and Chris brought back just that.

We were going to pitch with “Add a Splash of Colour to Your Life”.

Benefit driven, showing people, who had been on a short break in full colour, revived and happy. Everyone else grey in a grey background.

Add in the “Where? Northern Ireland” and we had a campaign, which was developed across other media, but TV was the important piece of the jigsaw, the one that would win or lose the pitch.

We won.

We had pitched well. The team had all dressed in black and white, and I had put on my most colourful shirt and tie. They noticed. Gillian McGee, who had just returned from a job in London, loved it. We were thrilled. This was big. Big money, big TV production, big ideas, big kudos.

We got started.

We developed three full ads.

So now it became like making three short films. A five-day shooting schedule, shooting on 35mm film, that requires a full crew. Sparks, gaffers, lighting cameraman, director, sound man, key grips, the lot. And the budget? Advertising budgets were the most expensive per second on TV. We would have 120 seconds for £120,000.

As an agency, we didn’t charge for our services or the time for our team. We marked the production invoices we received up by 25%, as per industry practice. This covered all the scriptwriting, art direction, time on set, agency producer,, account management and more.

We cast the main parts and then the extras. We arranged the shooting schedule, getting to and from the places that were locked down to allow us free access without people film bombing the shot.

The shoot started early. The crew arrived with the equipment, lights, rails, cameras, film,

The cast arrived, were dressed by the wardrobe manager, made up by the makeup people and got ready for their rehearsals.

It all sounds exciting.

It isn’t.

A film shoot is boring. Not a little bit boring, Really really boring. You have no idea how boring.

Film production people are amazing. They all have an incredible attention to detail. They take hours to set up the shot perfectly, making sure that the light is right, there are no unwanted shadows, no hairs out of place, the camera angles are the best possible to tell the story. This can take a couple of hours. Then:

“Speed” which means get the camera rolling.

“Action” the actors start moving.

“Cut” the action stops. Having lasted a few seconds.

They do it all again. A couple of times, then it is all over, move on to the next set-up.

There is nothing to see. No really exciting bits. It is so dull that the agency always has an account executive on hand to keep the client, who has insisted on coming, entertained. By the third day, the client has realised, this is too boring, and stayed away.

But we are happy. The rushes look great, we were lucky with the weather. We get the film graded (putting the colour balance right) and we were off to the edit.

This is where we put the bright colour onto the key actors and washed out the rest. Where we spent hours discussing the cuts, the shots to use, the length of each shot. Our attention to detail, as the team that had developed the idea, came into place.

I was in the edit and Adrian called.

“Music, I don’t think we should use diddle-de-de”

“Neither do I”

We were working pretty well together then.

So we didn’t. The reasoning being that we didn’t just want to be another part of Ireland, we wanted to be separate, to differentiate ourselves, our product, to stand out. So jazzy music was in.

The ads were finished.

Meanwhile, the media was booked, on UTV and Channel Four in Northern Ireland and RTE in the South. Our brief was to sell short breaks to the people on the island. About £200k was spent to launch the campaign on TV, press, radio and outdoor. A promotional tour was also underway, with large inflatable golf clubs and fishing kit.

The agency return was sizeable. Every TV spot returned us 10% of the airtime cost. That’s how ad agencies make their media money, on commission. So if you buy an ad for £100, we will also charge you £100, but the media will bill us £85, in normal cases, but with the public sector, we gave back 5% of our revenue. Part of the value pitch. So when a TV spot cost £3k, we got £300. So you can see how TV is a great media for agencies. An ad in the paper could be a one-off for £3k, TV had ten at that price and more at lesser rates due to audience size. It is all to do with ratings and the cost per thousand eyeballs. So the TV budget took up the huge bulk of the total, and every time it was on, kerching!

So you are now thinking, that’s all very well, but did it work? Does advertising work?

Of course it did.

The research showed growth in both the number of visitors from the South, more short break bookings by residents of NI, more nights booked across Northern Ireland in all ranges of accommodation and an increase in spend per visitor. Around £11 return for every £1 spent on the campaign, over three years.

A successful campaign, for all involved, and that included ice cream vans, golf clubs, B&Bs, National Trust facilities, shops in Belfast and elsewhere, and an overall improvement in the opinion of Northern Ireland as a place to visit, a mere four years after the Good Friday Agreement. Job done.

The 5 Steps to Audience First Marketing

Audience First Marketing is the system I have developed to create successful marketing campaigns in the modern media world.

It has been developed through applying a lot of experience and research into people and how they behave.

Here are the 5 Steps to Audience First Marketing

Identify the target audiences. It is not one, it could be 8, but to get started you should be able to think of four types of people that you want to talk to, and who are the most likely to buy from you. Use your experience of existing customers.
Workshop the audiences into personas. Get together with a few friends of colleagues and think about the people, not your product. Who are they, what are they interested in, what is their status regarding age, income, interests, gender, l ocation. Do they like sport or music, are they interested in walking or travelling, do they have children or are they downsizing?

Once identified, then you do a simple process: “I want – so that”. What do they want out of buying from you , and step beyond the purchase into their lives. I wrote an ad once for a software company “Once we introduced Uibol Software, my golf handicap went down to 10”. The benefit to the purchaser was that he had more time, less stress, and more happiness. Not that he had some software.
Use the So-That answers to create content for your audiences. Here is an example:

I want an E-Car – So that “I have less impact on the environment” – Content – Easy ways to help

the environment.

I want an E-Car – So that – “I spend less on fuel” – Content – Ways to reduce your fuels bills.

The call to action on these pieces of content takes the people to the next step of your sales
process – a button that has further specific content – ie – Five things you didn’t know about e-
cars.

Host the content you create on your website. When people click on the link on their social media
feeds they will be brought to your sitge and then they can browse other pages and find out more
about you.

Finally – promote the content – not the product. Share your content on social with organic posts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin. Pay to promote the content to your target audiences.

The Outcomes

Audience First Marketing works. Here’s why.

Your audiences have engaged with you
They know who you are
They have spent time with you
You will never be unknown to them again.
You have shown that you are more interested in them than your sale.

If you want further information, drop me a line.

Learning from Your Mistakes – It’s An Improvement Process.

How many times do you say to someone these days, “the world is going mad” or words to that affect.

Trump, Brexit, the amount that footballers are paid, the impact of social media on young people. We live in a world of constant disruption.

I was doing a talk recently and asked the 40 people in the room how many of them had watched a TV programme live the evening before, that wasn’t sport or news? One hand went up. One person had not been timeshifting or streaming. Our viewing habits have been disrupted. We no longer need to be in front of a TV at a specific time to watch anything.We don’t even need to record it.

On another occasion I was talking to around 250 16/17 Year Olds at a school in Belfast. Line of Duty, the BBC’s most successful drama for several years, was on at peak time, Sunday night at 9.00. It was produced in Belfast. I asked how many were watching it. Around 17 hands went up. Not long ago, it would have been 200. When I asked how many had Netflix, 80%+ of the young people raised their hands, and 65% for Amazon Prime. Who would have thought tha the BBCwould not play a major role in the media lives of school pupils, within one generation.

All of this has led me to look at marketing, and how this new media world has disrupted the way that products and services can get in front of and engage target audiences. You can no longer make a TV ad and rely on it being seen by 80% of your audience withon a week. In television media planning we used to buy 400 ratings because 65% of the audience would see the ad 4 times, and that would have an impact. Not any more.

The underlying disruption of all of this is that we now have complete control over our own media choices. We watch what we want when we want. We can choose programmes from all over the world. We can watch on a bus, or in a queue. We are free.

So if the market is disrupted, how do we disrupt the marketing?

Traditional marketing starts with the product and sells it to the selected audience. What tell them about it, what good will it do them, what price will they pay.

That doesn’t work any more.

Why? Because the audience can choose to ignore you. They work hard to avoid advertising. They can go online when they want to shop. They are in control.

So to meet the media disruption with marketing disruption we turn marketing on it’s head, and rather than start with the product, we start with the audience.

Audience First Marketing.

What doe this mean?

Using publicly available data we can analyse the target audiences We can create in depth personas that we use to build a content plan that first of all engages, then interests and allows us to open a conversation with the person about what they are interested in, not about us. If hte person is a young woman interested in music and socialising, we talk to them about those topics. And when we open the conversation we make a connection with our brand. The same goals are then achieved by very different routes for different audiences, from the social media channels to the style of content, using images, video, stories and lists. The content will appear in their news feeds where they don’t want to see random advertising. A headline that leads them to content that they want, and may even share will be much more productive than an ad with a library photo of a blonde American girl.

Turning marketing on its head, from product first to Audience First does not come from simply wanting to be different, it comes from analysis of how people are living their lives in a digitally connected world.

You are competing for engagement not just visibility. If someone clicks on your content, and spends time reading it, or watching it, you have created a connection, a recognition, and an engement. And that is gold. Follow up with more content, and a free download or competition, capture an email, and then you have a direct connection with a potential buyer.

Too much time is spent in digital marketing simply pushing out ads that don’t click, or content that is not interesting. The tech side of Facebook and Google are buyable commodities, the strategy that drives them needs proper planning.

Disruption is Here! Your Marketing Has to Adapt!

ow many times do you say to someone these days, “the world is going mad” or words to that affect.

Trump, Brexit, the amount that footballers are paid, the impact of social media on young people. We live in a world of constant disruption.

So if the market is disrupted, how do we disrupt the marketing?

Traditional marketing starts with the product and sells it to the selected audience. What tell them about it, what good will it do them, what price will they pay.

That doesn’t work any more.

Why? Because the audience can choose to ignore you. They work hard to avoid advertising. They can go online when they want to shop. They are in control.

So to meet the media disruption with marketing disruption we turn marketing on it’s head, and rather than start with the product, we start with the audience.

Audience First Marketing.

What does this mean?

The Day I Got Fired!

Most posts online are all positive, about how brilliant people are, how well a company ins performing, and a lot of guff.
So I thought you all might be interested in when, why and how I was fired. In 1990. From McCann Erickson Belfast. By a certain David Lyle.

If you have watched Mad Men, you will have a snapshot in your mind of the advertising world in New York. Let me tell you, that it was calm compared to McCann in Belfast in the late 1980s.

My Dad, Rex McKane, had been in the hot seat for around 20 years, running BPA (Belfast Progressive Advertising), part of the Royds Advertising Group, which consisted of agencies in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin and Bristol, as well as Belfast. The competition was fierce, Armstrong Long, RMB, AV Brown and McConnells were all established. New kids on the block included Andersons and Ardmore.

Dad had reached 65, and so was retiring after an illustrious career. He was a superb copywriter, won business writing ads in the Welly Park on the back of fag packets (Peugeot Talbot was moved from AVB overnight after Dad met Phillip Beggs and they had a few sherries, Dad wrote an ad for the new Peugeot estate car set around Brideshead Revisited which was the big TV show of the moment, in the bar, and the account was won). He had written the first order for radio advertising, introduced Free Chips with Crazy Prices and Jim Megaw, and was most famous for getting George Best to eat Cookstown Sausages.

But time was up, and McCann, who had by now bought the Royds Group, had found his replacement, David Lyle.

Now here was a man of passion. He had been involved in Unionist politics while at Queen’s University, Belfast, then switched allegiance to the Church, handing out tracts to people at Christmas parties on the evil of drink (this was advertising lol). He left Armstrong Long to become a preacher, but after two years he was tempted back by the top job in BPA McCann. David’s big claim to fame, his Cookstown Sausages, was a campaign for Northern Ireland Electricity, “So Clean- So Nice”, which ended with an attractive young lady in a headband saying those words.

The first two years were exciting. Exciting and incredibly fast-paced. We did fifteen pitches in 1988. Many of the clients that Dad looked after had never heard of David Lyle and so they saw it as a time to revisit their agency of choice. We won them all. We won Stewarts and Crazy Prices, both owned by Associated British Foods, but they had never been in the one agency before. (I wrote the campaign lines for both, David Lyle developed them). We won Winemark back. We won NIE corporate and Economy Seven through David’s connections in NIE. Our first win was Avondale Foods for Nature’s Best Coleslaw, not a big budget, but it set the momentum, we won, in competition. The agency was growing fast. And I was learning all the time.

David Lyle had brought in the new advertising approach, with media buying now a core part of a pitch. Ratings, cost per thousands, station average prices, hard negotiation and all demonstrating to the client that they were getting great advertising, but also great value. As we grew, we brought in more people. Our big transfer was Tony Axon, in from UTV at a high price, to be Media Director. I had proven my worth and was appointed Board Account Director, with a huge jump in salary, which my old man would never have dreamt of, and a new car, of my own! Dave Johnstone was Creative Director, and wore trainers, to black-tie events.

We were a team, a winning team. We moved to a new stadium, a cool, top floor warehouse, like a real London ad agency. I had an office, and a drinks cabinet. And my own PA. I was 30.

The parties started, the lunches were long.

Roscoff had been opened by a friend of mine, Paul Rankin. I suggested to David that he take the Stewarts people there, as Paul was talking a good story. They came back raving about it, Paul was changing what Belfast thought about food. Fridays become Roscoff followed by the Bot, followed by the Welly Park. You knew the admen in the Welly, they were the ones still in suits from being out for lunch. Johnny and Tony from Armstrong Long would be there, buying champagne all round on expenses. We had a taxi account with Fonacab, so we always got picked up, which in Belfast in 1988 was good.

UTV would be there, buying us drinks because we bought a lot of airtime. The Belfast Telegraph would be there, we bought a lot of space. The Downtown people were there, we bought a lot of radio spots. We were bought a lot of drinks.

We were the first local agency to spend £1million on UTV in a year. Des Smyth, the MD, had the idea of a party for the whole agency in their BoardRoom, which had seen some parties. They never did it again.

We held the McCann-Can party at Malone House, no expense spared, all the media, all the clients, all the taxis booked. A night to remember, if you could.

And we worked, hard. Making ads, pitching, thinking, innovating. Managing clients, doing contact reports, booking production companies, writing scripts, booking media, getting the best deals, writing briefs, researching markets, drinking to keep clients company. I made over 50 TV ads for Crazy Prices in one year, three at a time, every three weeks or so. Radio as well, writing the scripts, being on the set to oversee the direction, giving Jim Megaw support and developing his trust so when I advised him to say things a certain way he would.

We used music. We were pitching for the new campaign for Belfast, which had been Belfast is Buzzing, I suggested: “Let’s Go To the Buzz” using Danny and the Junior’s Let’s go to the Hop as the tune. Stewarts Have It was a jingle written by David and produced in London by musicians from the LSO. We had a Winemark voice over done by Ray Brooks, the King of Voice Overs in UK advertising. We flew with Paul Hunt, owner of Winemark, to attend the session in a Soho studio. Ray gave us six reads, all brilliant, in about 15 minutes, and so we were done, in London, and had to find a restaurant that opened at 10 am.

It was mad.

It got madder.

Egos.

It is a strange thing to get overtaken by your ego. To become a pain in the ass without realising it, and a person that you would hate if you met, but it happened, to all of us.

I have one of those memories that makes you shudder when I think of how I spoke to a friend working at UTV at a drinks party. Thankfully I apologised the next day. But I had become a bit of an arse.

The intensity of the agency grew as well. Drinking had become a daily event. Clients knew if they called in at around 4 pm they would be there until 8, over the limit, but in Troubled Belfast, no-one cared about limits. Tony Axon’s lunchtime menu consisted of two bottles of Pils followed by four large vodkas. No fruit, no ice. I would go for lunch with him once a month, come back and have Jo, my PA, pour me a Bushmills and Ice in a teacup.

It was one of those Axon lunches that started the road to ruin.

“What would happen if David got taken over to London?” he asked me one lunchtime.

“Sure I would take over” was my prompt response.

I didn’t think about it again until.

A few weeks later…

“I hear you’re going around town saying that you’re going to take my job?’ Lyle had called me into a meeting about something trivial, but now we were getting to the nitty-gritty. His attitude towards me had changed, something had happened, and now I knew what. I explained the conversation and thought it was over. Little did I know. About much. About Tony Axon and his office politics. About David Lyle’s low self-confidence. I was about to find out.

I was invited to play golf by UTV at Baltray. We arrived on Wednesday at the hotel. Then I was told there was a message for me to call the office. Caroline, Lyle’s PA wanted to know if I would be back on Friday, David wanted a meeting at 9.15. Mmm, unusual I thought, why would they be getting in touch now. But, the golf course called.

Then it started raining and didn’t stop. Golf was cancelled, and off we went back to Belfast. It was Thursday lunchtime, so I headed into work. Now that was a surprise, not for me, but for them. A presentation was about to start. To Crazy Prices, my main client, without me being there. I walked into Lyle’s office

“What’s going on? Am I supposed to be at this meeting? Why has it been arranged without me?”

He flustered and blustered.

The pitch was to shift from using video to film for the Crazies ads. Mad. About three times the cost, and totally unnecessary. Jim Megaw sat opposite me and looked with a raised eyebrow. I raised mine to show that I had no idea whose idea this was. This was a client that spent over £500k per year. We made a lot of money out of the account, now Lyle wanted to make more, as our production mark up was 25%.

The meeting ended. I went to my office and finished a few things.

The next morning I arrived for the meeting.

There was a lawyer there. Not good. Not good at all.

“We’ve reached the end of the road,” he said.

What road?

He produced a list of things that had been compiled to show that I was now surplus to requirements.

“You signed off Paddy McCormick’s expenses in Saints and Scholars, against my express instructions on a memo sent on such and such a date”.

It was over a year earlier. Lyle had sent the memo because he had booked a table for 8 pm, turned up at 9.30 and then ranted at Sid John about how important he and the client were to his restaurant, and Sid had given the table away!

“You sent a contact report with a spelling error to so and so on such and such a date!”

Yes, but I also wrote the ads that won the effing business! And I had written the new…ahhh …wait…I had written the new Stewarts stuff, and he hadn’t liked it. I had got a lot of credit from the head of marketing. I saw a noose descending. This was nothing to do with facts and everything to do with ego.

“You were late with a prop to a Winemark shoot on Sunday, the whatever.”

Sunday. What happened to the religious man who had been handing out tracts against drink? He was now shooting ads for off-licences on a Sunday. And I had only been 15 minutes late. With a serious hangover, I thought that was pretty good.

Lyle’s litany went on, but within a few minutes, I knew my time was up. I was given three months salary, the use of the car for the same period, and 15 minutes to clear my personal belongings from my, no, their, office.

The McKane connection with BPA/McCann Erickson was over. Dad had retired as Chairman a few weeks earlier, and was on holiday. Oh yes, that suited Lyle too, as he wouldn’t have to deal with Rex, who scared the shit out of him.

I walked into the open plan area of the office. People were looking, there must have been whispers. I walked into my office, Jo was sitting there.

“I’m out!

“What?”

“Out, gone, history.”

I started to pack my things into a cardboard box, just like on TV.

“No, Tim, he can’t, you…”

“It’s done Jo.”
I lifted the box. The word had spread. Shocked faces looked at me, shocked for me, but also thinking, if he can be sacked, anyone can.

I didn’t wait around. I headed to the lift, had a last look at the Coke poster I had brought back from the US that hung in reception, Coke being McCann’s biggest, most famous worldwide account. I thought about stopping and taking it, but, fuck it, I had more class.

The repercussions lasted a long time. I got lots of calls at home, this was all pre-mobile, with people wishing me well, but no job offers. I pitched for Craigavon Shopping Centre on my own, with artwork by John Cooney, on the hush-hush, he still worked in McCann. I won it with Larry the Lough Neagh Monster.

I met people and then was introduced to Lester Manley, who ran a small design and print company, but had huge ambitions. We set up Manley McKane Advertising. And I worked in the long grass. The other three directors, Axon, Dave Johnston and Sharon Platt were gone within a year.

Over the following years, we pitched against McCann for NITB and Ulster Bank and won both. Lyle wrote to them complaining about their decision. I smiled.

We won the Stewarts and Crazy Prices print and design, worth over £500k per year to the agency. And then kept it when Tesco bought them over. I smiled.

We won the PANI Gold Series TV Award for dekko, ads that cost £25k, and Lyle’s road safety campaign, that cost £400k was second.

I laughed.

The last time I saw him was shortly after Lyle Bailie, which had bought out McCann in Belfast, had closed. He was walking out of the Digital DNA conference. I was always civil, I said hello.

“There’s something in this digital,” he said. That was in 2018.

I smiled.

PS.

A few months after the events described I was with a friend from a media company.

“It’s good to have you back?”

“What?” I asked.

“You, not that guy of a few months ago, You really had become a bit of dick. But you’re back, nice Tim”.

I’ve had my moments since, but that was good to hear.

9 REASONS WHY MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS DOESN’T WORK

From my Long Experience!

“Sure, when I see an ad for a Mars Bar, I’ve never got up and got in the car and gone and got one!” (But the next time the car was filled up, a Mars Bar was bought.)
“Advertising doesn’t work on me, I’m sure it works on some people, but not me!” (As he hops into his Porsche, wearing his Ralph Lauren polo Shirt, having played golf in his Footjoys using his Titleist Pro V1x)
“I always thought I would be good at advertising” ( Anyone could do that – and sure if I could do it, anyone can, it’s so easy)
“50% of Advertising works and 50% doesn’t, but no-one knows which 50%” (The person speaking has never bought or sold any advertising, has never had anything to do with marketing but has heard this cliche somewhere)
“I don’t watch a lot of TV.” ( Or listen to the radio, or use Google, or go on social media, or drive the car, or read magazines.)
“I always research the things I buy, I don’t trust those advertisers” (So go to a supermarket never having seen an ad, and tell me how long it would take to do the grocery shopping.)
““I don’t even understand the ads any more – did you see the one for Guinness with the horses in the sea, what was that all about?” (Enough said)
“I’m don’t let advertising influence me. Apple computers are the best, and worth an extra £500. I read about it” (The magic of PR)
“I never watch the ads, I fast forward to avoid them” (Using the Volvo Sponsors Drama on Sky Atlantic as the out and in point for the flick through).

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