Select Committee on Health Minutes of Evidence


3.  CDP (TB 39)

  The topline findings from research into the "Gold" campaign are as follows:

    —  People don't like the campaign as the images are inconsistent with their image of B&H.

    —  For them B&H is still classy, aspirational, special. "Gold" teaser poster is the only execution that matches these expectations of the brand.

    —  Most of the other executions are disliked for being incomprehensible, unenjoyable and uninvolving.

  It would appear that the surreal campaign did the job for them, although the research didn't explore this in any great detail.

  Creatively, we believe we now have two options:

    1.  A surreal campaign for the 1990's. Simple, beautiful images reflecting the aspirational qualities of B&H.

    2.  Taking the current core idea of the "allure of gold" whereby the gold is the pack rather than a gold object.

  A brief for the above will be with the creative department this morning. Any new work will be researched by Gallaher, given the reaction to the current campaign and the desire to get the advertising right assuming we only have 18 months (max) before a permanent ban.

  In the meantime, Phil wants us to review the Special Filter media plan, and come back, with a recommendation. We therefore need to consider the following:

POSTERS

  Reduce the number of bursts to two (from three).

GRATIS II

  Look at deferring the July poster burst until last two weeks of August for Gratis II. By including the regional upweight (seaside towns), is 3,000 sites possible?

  Look at deferring the October burst until November/December for the "revised Gold" campaign. Is 3,000 sites possible?

NATIONAL PRESS

  Look at deferring the July national press to last two weeks in August to coincide with Gratis II poster.

YMSP

  Given the Formula 1 sponsorship, I believe we have already rationalised where possible. Therefore, the onus is on us (the account team) to recommend an existing execution ie. "3D Glasses" to meet the commitments in July/August/September. A bridging ad may be required in October before the "revised" campaign kicks off.

MISCELLANEOUS & CHARITY

  Once again, the onus is on the account team to recommend existing subjects to fulfil these commitments.

 BENSON & HEDGES: THE IMPACT OF AN ADVERTISING BAN

  We started looking at this question by seeing whether we could arrive at a calculation, that would indicate the likely rate of decay of B&H advertising, post ban. In fact this is one of those questions that you either answer in a very complex way or very simply. The complex way is to examine historical tracking information, with the advantage of some advertising gaps, and calculate how recall falls, over time. Our tracking information and advertising history, doesn't really allow us the opportunity to do this. This brings us to the simple answer. What you can do is merely apply a standard advertising decay factor. Many advertising tracking studies—including the one I worked on for Imperial—assume that, on average, you keep 95 per cent of your awareness, from one month to the other. If you start with spontaneous awareness of 100 per cent, then stop advertising, you should have 95 per cent awareness in the following month and then 90.25 per cent, then 85.74 per cent, then 81.45 per cent, then 77.38 per cent, etc, etc.

  In the case of the proposed cigarette advertising ban, even this simple methodology is difficult to work with. This is because the situation we are planning for has no precedent. The standard 5 per cent decay rate is used in situations where a brand is not advertising but the other brands in category continue. The situation we are trying to plan for, where the whole category stops advertising, is one that no theory has yet had to cope with.

  Leaving the search for formulas to one side, the exercise of thinking post advertising ban, has still been very useful for us. It has allowed us to develop hypothesises for how B&H might fair in the future and role that advertising has historically played for the brand. Within this I think we can use the data we have to back up our views with some figures, although as we go into these unchartered waters, one has to accept that hard and fast calculations are always going to be impossible.

HYPOTHESIS: B&H POST ADVERTISING

  Due to its consistency as an advertiser, the quality of some of its historical advertising and the size of the brand, we would expect B&H advertising to be effectively around for longer than that of our competitors. In the immediate term, post ban, this might be seen as giving B&H an advantage over the competition.

  However, our view is that this comparison is misleading. This is because due to to this history, B&H is more reliant on advertising, to support its sales, than the other brands. The loss of advertising will therefore be harder for B&H to take, in the long run.

  In the medium to long term, the better established Focus scheme of Embassy/Regal will give these brands more protection from the ravages of price competition. These brands also have the advantage of having brand images that more easily fit with collection schemes. Gratis has done many good things for B&H but it has also caused some smokers to lower their overall opinion of the brand.

  After an advertising ban therefore all premium brands will quickly be exposed to oppressive price competition. B&H will need the protection of advertising based, positive image attributes for as long as possible while it grows Gratis and hopefully starts to feel the image benefits of Formula One sponsorship.


B&H SPECIAL FILTER

  This is to confirm that we (B&H account team) have asked Noel to come up with some implicit branding options for the Jordan Formula 1 cars for the French Grand Prix. The reason being that all branding must be removed to comply with Government regulations.

  We have supplied Noel with three shots of the B&H car which have Jordan's suggestions re: alternative branding on the wing, nose and behind the driver's head. Gallaher think these are very weak, hence why we have been asked to come up with some alternative ideas.

F1 CAR DESIGN

  First of all can I thank you for a really quite superb Marketing Conference last week. The quality of the hotel was, as ever, magnificent, the food tremendous and the quality of the debate very stimulating. Both Andrew and I, certainly felt that we had achieved a great deal in a comparatively short period of time.

  You will remember that we briefly discussed the B&H Jordan (unbranded) colour scheme over lunch on Wednesday. Please find enclosed a suggestion from our F1 "friendly" creative team.

  As you will see we have had a couple of thoughts:

  1.  We feel that if we can legally say the words "Special F1" then we could utilise the area behind the drivers head—as you see—to attempt to get a little closer to more "overtly" implying the brand on the car.—Do you think we could get this past the various legal bodies? If Rothmans can get away with "Racing" in the brand type face, I think we may have a case!

  2.  We wonder if you could slightly corrupt the Jordan Logo to include a large "ampersand?" (—I think that this would be sailing very close to the wind). Our reasoning for suggesting it, is that the ampersand is not actually part of your logo, though if it were to appear, I believe people would recognise it as being so.


PROJECT M TRIAL AD

  The attached ad is a trial generating ad for the launch of Hamlet Extra Mild.

  The idea is to trick Castella Classic smokers into applying for a free pack under the belief that they will receive Classic back.

  In fact, they will receive a pack of Hamlet Extra Mild and Gallaher will have captured their name for their database.

  Stepping close to the legal rulings, this technique has proven to be very successful for Gallaher recently when they have run the attached two ads to generate trial for "King 6" and "Sobranie" respectively.

  With this clarification, can I please ask you to sign the ad.


HAMLET POSTER

  Further to our conversation yesterday, below is an explanation of the Hamlet Client's view on the various poster concepts that we have been presenting over the last two weeks, which has culminated in them wanting to run Photo Finish in January.

  As you are aware, at our last meeting with Hamlet on Friday 25 October, we presented Bungee Jumper as our only poster concept, having agreed that Slaphead was a press execution rather than being suitable for posters.

  The difficulty with Bungee Jumper from the client's point of view was that if the public followed through the logic of the execution, they would assume that a bungee jumper landing in concrete would most likely result in fatality. This as you can imagine is something of a taboo area with a tobacco manufacturer, and whilst they could therefore appreciate the fact that it could be considered a Hamlet Moment, its connotations were too grave if anyone had made the mental leap.

  This left us with Photo Finish as the only concept which the client was happy with, although they, like Adrian, didn't think it was the best we could do. With the posting date looming, and with Adrian, not particularly happy with Photo Finish, we bought the agency another week to try to beat Photo Finish.

  Yesterday, because we had Direct Line blown out by Direct Line (didn't want to be associated with tobacco/didn't want to see their car crashing), once again we went down with one poster execution (Invisible Man) to beat Photo Finish. Again, the concept was on brief in that it faithfully communicated a Hamlet Moment, but they felt that, because there was no facial expression (a look of resignation by the smoker), it was impossible for the concept to fully portray what the subject (ie the Invisible Man) was really feeling. Without this element, the ad was felt to fall short of the necessary portrayal of the true emotion of that moment, thereby reconciling the idea to be merely an observation on a twist of fate. We argued that once consumers had recognised that it was the Invisible Man, they would draw the necessary conclusion that this was indeed a Hamlet Moment as far as the Invisible Man was concerned. Where Photo Finish beat this was in the fact that the jockey could actually portray this, rather than relying on the consumer to make the link.

  Unfortunately, time has run out on us because we still need to be up on 1 January. We therefore had no alternative but to take the most appropriate execution that was available to us at the time.

  The good news is that, on the other work, Literary Review is being re-presented internally to try to get "fuck" through, we are continuing to speak to Oasis' management to see if they will do the ad, and Slaphead is going to pre-production to appear in the Style magazines in January.

  It's always disappointing when we are not able to sell the work that we think should run, but there are two more poster bursts next year (February and August), the cinema ad, at least one further style press insertion, and a number of tactical opportunities, and these are real opportunities to produce some absolute belters.

  Please thank everyone for their contributions. We should look forward now to producing a really good poster for Photo Finish and start work on the brief for February.

 


HAMLET-1997 ACTIVITY

  Hamlet Planned Activity for 1997 is :

  Budget 1997 is:— £3,180 million (inc media and production).

  Cinema:—scheduled to run 1 February onwards—one execution.

  Posters:—scheduled to run in two week bursts:

    —  first two weeks January.

    —  second two weeks February.

    —  two weeks in August.

  Young Men's Style Press:—scheduled to run in March and May publications (on the shelves in month prior-February and April).

  Tactical:—not scheduled to run, nor any budget given. But Gallaher historically are prepared to find extra monies for tactical ads as long as costs are kept to a minimum.

  Notes:

  They tend to find more monies during the year as the costs for other projects come in and hopefully budget costs for these are over the top. We are the likely recipients of any extra money, so we may get another press ad away later in the year.

  This activity schedule is very much subject to any change of government and therefore the possibility of a ban. If this occurs the reaction from the Client is unpredictable, but we would hope for more money in order to get away as much advertising as possible prior to the ban.


B&H BRIEF

What do we want this work to achieve?

  Historically B&H has always had a cool, classy but somewhat distant image. This helped to push it away from people when price really started to become an issue in the early nineties. Executionally we want to move the campaign along a more humorous, warm and quintessential British direction, which tries to move the brand closer to people. Very much in the vein of executions such as Weighing Scales, Trawler and Pond. These are sort of surreal slices of life, the quirkiness coming from the juxtaposition of the Big Pack and everyday life.

Who should the work speak to and how do they currently view the brand?

  Primarily we are talking to existing B&H smokers, who are 20-45, mass market with a male bias. They currently see smoking B&H as slightly indulgent because they know it is now considerably more expensive than other brands. What helps to keep them loyal is an irrational belief that in some way B&H is better than other brands. This basically comes down to image. The B&H image is about classy aspiration. Historically this has been built around one core icon—the Gold Pack. This has been supported by great advertising that manages to glorify the pack, in imaginative, clever and witty ways. At times, however, this image has been too rarefied and too distant from peoples' real lives. This is what the Big Pack campaign needs to address in 1997. B&H is the biggest selling brand in the UK and needs to gain more of the kudos which comes from being the peoples' favourite.

What is the single minded proposition?

  Benson & Hedges—Britain's favourite cigarette.

Are there any mandatory inclusions, legal restrictions."Sacred Cows", other relevant comments?

  To get the advertising as right as possible we should try to ensure that all executions carry certain elements. They must feature an interplay between the Big Pack and people. This is what people like about the campaign because they put themselves into the position of the people who have come across this huge pack of Benson and Hedges and imagine what they are thinking. This is one of the elements that adds to the wit and style of the campaign and should be embellished further. Likewise, the fact that the advertising idea is very surreal but the executions are very real, must be retained as an integral part of the campaign. This is again a feature that consumers appreciate and it adds to the witty, intriguing personality of the brand but also brings it closer to people—a slice of real life, with the pack inhabiting the smokers world. Remember this campaign has its origins in a very simple truth, that smokers of B&H, when they put their pack on the pub table, will always have it noticed by their friends. It is their badge and all we are trying to do is celebrate it.

  Executions must follow the ASA cigarette code. Only ASA approved concepts can be presented to client.

  The next burst of poster activity is scheduled for 1-15 June. "Security Lighting" and "Carousel" (once resolved) are possible subjects for this time—the latter being particularly pertinent to the Summer. Although these could run later in the year. We would like to maintain the momentum and present the best five new concepts at the end of March.

  Thought should also be given to style press specific concepts as Gallaher are keen to develop a B&H conversation with this target. Therefore scenarios and people (as young as we can push them with the ASA) to appeal to 20-25 year olds should be considered. The requirement is three new style press concepts.





 
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