Wax, the agency that masterminded Sainsbury’s Active Kids, has delivered another socially responsible promotion, this time for Waterstone’s, aimed at encouraging primary school children to read and share books as part of The National Year of Reading.

The Big Book Bank initiative, which has received excellent feedback at pilot stage, will give children at participating schools a voucher for a new, free book from Waterstone’s in return for bringing their own books in to school and depositing them in ‘The Big Book Bank’.

Pupils will be encouraged to write a review of their book before it is put in The Bank, and then sent to the school library for other children to share.

The scheme launches in September 2008 when 23,000 primary schools across the country will receive a leaflet, telling them how to sign up for The Big Book Bank scheme online at thebigbookbank.co.uk.

Those schools who sign up will then receive a Big Book Bank display kit including posters to use in their school, illustrating how The Big Book Bank works, as well as recommended reads leaflets and vouchers for the children.

Teachers will be able to download lesson plans and activity sheets and a letter to send home to parents explaining the scheme, from the website.

There will also be fun games for the target audience of 8 to 11 year olds to play on the site.

Sophie Boston, Senior Account Manager at Wax, says:

“The scheme has received fantastically positive feedback from teachers, children and parents where it has piloted and we are sure it will be a huge success nationally.

Having created and developed the Active Kids promotion for the last four years for Sainsbury’s, we have gained extensive knowledge, know-how and resources to create and deliver engaging and community focused promotions that deliver brand building kudos to the company behind it.

The Big Book Bank is a great example of how everyone can benefit from a well-conceived and executed promotion.”

Waterstone’s Children’s Marketing Planner says:

“Waterstone’s wanted to create an initiative to encourage kids to read for fun and to share their love of reading with their friends in a practical way.

The aim is to encourage their further interest by offering a new book to enjoy.

We are delighted with Wax’s all- round expertise in masterminding and delivering this comprehensive scheme which we are confident will prove popular among teachers, kids and parents.”

Marketing Week | By Jo-Anne Flack | 11.09.08

Budgets are being squeezed and procurement departments are demanding evidence of ROI, but live marketing agencies are rising to the challenge to make the impact clients desire.

Is it possible to cut marketing costs without affecting the quality of the output?

If not, then the quality of the work being produced now must be bad because costs are being forced down like never before.

It is usually fairly obvious when an agency has been asked to produce work on a shoestring; however the evidence seems to show that good campaigns, in whatever medium, can be produced with budgets that are being squeezed.

Finding the best deals and comparing the market can be difficult with live marketing because in many ways it is a relatively new discipline, encompassing more than field marketing and events and including the latest hot ticket – experiential marketing.

How can marketers ensure they get value for money in a discipline that is quite new to many of them and can involve several different elements?

Live event providers

Mark Wallace, managing director of WRG, an integrated live events agency, says the industry remains highly competitive and is roughly divided into two areas: hardware providers – those companies that provide lighting, sound, staging, etc – and bigger, more integrated companies that consider themselves guardians of the brand they are working with.

“In the past five years, the hardware companies, or box shifters, have found it harder getting margins from just renting out gear.

As a result, some of them have developed creative teams and are providing a one-stop shop for clients.

That may be the right approach for some clients: if you have a clear idea of what you want to do for an event, using a small supplier is fine.

But the difference between a good event and a bad event is based around the communications, not the staging. We consider ourselves communication conceivers,” says Wallace.

Wallace says some clients have been lured down the cheaper, smaller road but maintains they have returned pretty quickly.

More significantly, the live events industry is being affected by increasingly powerful client procurement departments that have already made an impact on more traditional agencies.

He adds: “In the past month we have had nine request for information (RFIs), which is unheard of.”

These RFIs are electronically delivered documents that demand information on everything from financial status to green credentials.

It means that smaller suppliers which cannot meet the benchmark set by the bigger clients won’t even get a look in.

Wallace adds:

“Organisations that are serious about communications are filtering out companies by using these RFIs.”

Start of bidding wars

In response to critics who say RFIs also filter out nimbler, more creative agencies, Wallace says: ”

RFIs are not necessarily about size. They are also about process and knowledge. Later you still have to go through the normal pitch process.”

He does admit, however, that some clients are starting to introduce a bidding process whereby a creative brief is distributed and agencies are invited to bid for the work – the lowest bid presumably winning the work. Wallace says WRG refuses to get involved in bids.

“All clients want premium, but there is a balance between cost, premium and delivery,” he says.

The live events sector is also under great pressure to perform because, as Alison Berkani, head of production experiential at live events agency Exposure, notes:

“Experiential marketing is often taking money out of a pot that was earmarked for advertising which would be reaching millions of people.

Internally, the client has to go back to their people and make sure any experiential work provides a similar return on investment (ROI).

As agencies, we have to provide that ROI any way we can get it, for example through data capture.”

Berkani also believes that larger, more integrated agencies offer clients much better value for money, even if it does mean they are spending more.

“The live event landscape has changed a lot and you must have a three-dimensional perspective including design, planning and strategy.

We look at every brief in the same way an ad agency would, including brand values.

Even if the brief is for a one-off event, we see it as a long-campaign.”

Berkani refers to the work Exposure has done for cigarette paper brand Rizla for the past five years, which began as a one-off event that aimed to make the best of the restrictions around tobacco-related advertising.

“Clients are not only asking that we be more cost-effective.

They are much smarter now – many clients have come from the agency side.

It is no longer just about cost, but also reliability and the ability to deliver on time.

Deadlines are much shorter now than they used to be,” says Berkani.

But it can still be difficult for clients, especially those new to live events, to know how best to get the most for their money. Andrew Davey, business development director at The Liquid Way, says:

“For the past couple of years there has been a buzz around experiential marketing, which has had a number of effects.

Many new entrants can talk the talk but can’t necessarily deliver.

Also, what really constitutes experiential has become diluted as each agency presents ‘experiential’ as they want to deliver it rather than looking at what the client needs and working back from that.

Experiential marketing is an increasingly flabby term with agencies describing themselves as experiential ranging from PR or field marketing to pure experiential.

“Experiential marketing is an emerging and increasingly important part of the marketing mix and as a result there are increasing expectations on the medium as people expect to get as much bang from their buck as they would out of any other medium.

Detecting bias

“Clients need to understand what an agency offers and why. An agency rooted in field marketing will always tend to offer a brand ambassador-based solution.

The key to sourcing an agency is not based on its size but more on its ability to deal with the issue of reach – how do you ensure that the people who are engaged have a sufficiently profound experience that they act on it and also talk to their friends about it?”

It does seem that if clients want to get the most from a tight budget, the solution is far from obvious.

The more integrated, and often the larger, the agency, the better.

Advertising agencies, under pressure from clients, paved the way in the Nineties by proving that size didn’t necessarily mean extortionate mark-ups and Berkani notes that transparency is one of the elements that marketers are already demanding from their live event suppliers.

Going in house

Lucy Pearce, experiential director at Wax Live, says:

“It is often more cost-effective to go for an agency with an in-house production and staffing resource as the client is not having to pay mark-up on mark-up from outsourced suppliers and facilities.

“More importantly, clients retain much more control when working with an agency that has an in-house production facility where both the production workers and the account handlers build up a deep knowledge of a client’s needs.

Ultimately it means quality, control and cost efficiencies, which are anything but cheap.

“Many agencies that are jumping on the experiential bandwagon think it’s just a case of getting on the web, sourcing a few suppliers and it’s all done and dusted.

But experiential specialists who were there at the start have a deep understanding of the discipline and know there’s a lot more to the discipline than that.”

 Promotions & Incentive, James Quilter, September 2008

The word ‘integrated’ has become something of a cliché in marketing, and its definition can vary from practitioner to practitioner.

However, one thing is certain: multi-channel campaigns are held in high regard by clients.

Media fragmentation, coupled with a desire by clients to create campaigns across a variety of disciplines, has given rise to integrated agencies and encouraged specialist consultancies to offer services beyond their traditional field.

But there are signs of a backlash against this industry development. For instance, Sainsbury’s agency, Wax Communications, which until recently described itself as integrated, has repositioned itself as a sales promotion specialist.  Managing director Matt Tabb says that despite the agency being able to offer a variety of disciplines, he wants it to focus on a single practice.

Industry insiders say the strategy could help Wax to bring in new business. Tony Spong, head of DM and sales promotion at the AAR, says agencies can alienate themselves from big clients by flying the integrated banner.

“It’s driven by the client’s size,” he explains. “If a client has several departments, it will ask for individual agencies to work for each of them. The more specialised the client’s departments, the more specialised the agencies they want.”

Tony Walford, senior consultant at Results International, suggests that while it is natural for groups such as WPP to present themselves as integrated, it is more difficult for smaller agencies to do so. He says that many clients are seeking specialist skills and require able to implement campaigns across a number of channels, it should not obsessively position itself as integrated, because doing so can obscure its area of expertise.

Of course, there are plenty of agencies that would passionately argue the case for being integrated (see table). Inferno founder Tim Doust says integrated agencies have some big advantages over specialists.

“Being an integrated agency enables us to do the right thing for our clients,” he says. “If you go to a big ad agency, it is likely to sell you TV work; a DM agency will offer you direct activity. As a through-the-line agency, we offer what’s best for the client, not what’s best for us.”

Doust adds that it is cheaper for a client to use a single integrated agency than a roster of specialist ones. However, Spong argues that clients do not prioritise low fees when seeking an agency, and that prices are negotiated later in the appointment process. Having said that, he does see future success for integrated agencies if they evolve their business model.

There is also an argument that sales promo-tion has itself become an integrated discipline.

What was previously typified by an on-pack promotion can now be carried out online or via mobile phones – all of which is within Wax’s offering. Andrew Edwards, chief executive of Arc, says:

“Wax is integrated, it has just decided that the best way to get business is through a sales promotion message.”

So, the integrated model looks set to have a strong future, although there could be disagreement over which agencies are integrated, and which are specialist. 

Wax Live, experiential experts and part of Wax Communications, has won a pitch to promote Cars, the Disney/Pixar blockbuster film and franchise, throughout July, as it completes the Euro leg of a trans-world tour.

The initiative is part of a drive to maintain interest and excitement around the film ahead of the launch of
Cars 2 next year.

Disney has also recently launched The World of Cars a new magazine aimed at 4 – 7 year old boys which features comic strips, games, puzzles and activities.

Wax Live was invited to pitch by Disney and impressed on the day with its creative ideas and ability to deliver.

Lucy Pearce, Experiential Director at Wax Live, says:

“This is a real coup. Disney is a world class brand and one that is synonymous with providing great family experiences and we are delighted and excited to be part of that. Our aim for this project will be to create a buzz round the Cars franchise and deliver memorable experiences that will excite, attract and engage our target audience with plenty of interactive mechanics and ideas.”

Wax Live will deliver the Cars experiences for families at the Motor Show and five retail events around the country in July when the ‘stars’ of the film, including,  lovable Mack the truck, tour England, giving fans the chance to meet them.

Experiential marketing earned its stripes from edgy, young brands wanting to be seen as ‘different and unique’.

But over the last decade or so experiential has become mainstream, and is leading from the front in many campaigns.

Increased spend

Some 75% of marketers recently surveyed by Jack Morton Worldwide in the UK, Europe, the US, China and Australia  say they will increase spending on experiential marketing in 2008.

And as more brands demand it, of course, the more it is supplied – agencies are fast jumping on this ‘brand- wagon’ and developing an experiential offer to add to their list of services, with which to challenge the specialists.

But are they really equipped to do so? By definition, offering experiential as an ‘add on’ is to show true ignorance of its very nature. To tack it on as an after-thought, either to an agency’s offering or to a campaign, is to miss the point.

Experiential marketing earned its stripes from edgy, young brands wanting to be seen as ‘different and unique’.

Mainstream

But experiential has become mainstream, and is leading from the front in many campaigns.

Its power to drive other awareness channels, for instance, needs to be planned in right from the beginning as an integral part of a campaign or it could be lost.

Carlsberg Experiential Marketing Campaign

Carlsberg demonstrated how well experiential can kick start other channels with its ‘money drop’ campaign last year.

The socially responsible guerrilla  ‘we don’t do litter’ campaign saw £5000 worth of £20 and £10 notes, each bearing stickers with the  campaign message, dropped randomly on to London pedestrians who literally clamoured to get involved.

It spawned a dynamite PR campaign that exploded across the world setting traditional and non-traditional media alight with talk of it. For £5000, it had ‘probably the best ROI in the world!’ – who says experiential is hard to measure?

Dorito’s Experiential Marketing Campaign

Doritos’ recent ‘You make it, we play it’ competition, which invited consumers to generate their own digital adverts for the chance to win £20,000, has enjoyed similar success.

Which goes to show: in experiential, budget size is not important – it’s how well you use it that matters.

If the creative and strategy is right, smaller brands can make as big a splash on a budget using experiential methods as those event sponsoring giants such as Virgin, Tennants and O2.

It’s almost made for helping niche brands grow awareness.

Superdrug’s Experiential Marketing Campaign

A campaign Wax Live did for Superdrug sun cream last year used four gorgeous ‘firemen’ to rub said cream on sun-soaked festival goers at T4 on The Beach, T in the Park and the 02 Wireless events.

The campaign allowed Superdrug to literally touch end users in a way that above the line advertising can only dream of.

It delivered added value, fun, and allowed the topless ‘brand ambassadors’ to interact with consumers on a one-to-one basis to talk about the product.

For many, those festivals will always smell of Superdrug sun cream and remind them of half naked ‘firemen’ – a powerful ‘feel-good’ association!

So clearly, experiential now consists of a lot more than just handing out samples from a pretty stand. When done well it can engage consumers and enhance brand equity in a way that no other medium can match.

But doing it well is no walk in the park.

Creating these live campaigns that work in the field presents a logistical minefield and depends on deep knowledge, hard-earned experience and well-trained staff to make them work in practice.

Staff must learn how to ‘live the brand’, locations must be just right, health and safety risks have to be covered … for when experiential goes wrong, it can create a nasty  mess and ultimately do more damage than good to a brand.

Snapple

Snapple learned this the hard way. Their 25ft tall frozen treat melted and flooded Union Square, New York on the first day of summer, and left them fielding a barrage of complaints.

Remember, when you run an experiential campaign you are ultimately inviting customers to talk about the brand; the real job is making sure you create a positive buzz.

Which is why experiential must surely be the preserve of specialists. It’s worth noting experiential agencies tend to stick to their specialism; it requires real understanding, focus and the resource to deliver it.

Only those who know it inside and out, and who can make it work effectively in the field as an integral part of a campaign, can truly deliver a brand enhancing experience.

Anything less than a whole-hearted, integrated approach and experiential risks becoming a meaningless aside, token add-on, or worse, a potentially brand damaging event that people will talk about for a long time.

See our work at www.experientailessays.com

Lucy Pearce

Experiential Director

Wax Live