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 studiesincluding the one I worked
on for Imperialassume 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 headas you seeto 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 onwardsone
execution.
Posters:scheduled to run in two week
bursts:
first two weeks January.
second two weeks February.
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 iconthe 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 & HedgesBritain'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 peoplea 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 timethe
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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