NEW ORLEANS -- Is the dizzying array of
new media overshadowing the impact of the creative message in the advertising business?
Mark Pritchard, P&G global branding officer, fears that is the case, as he told a crowd gathered
at the 4A’s Transformation Conference in New Orleans Monday morning.
“We talk a lot about the medium and not enough about the message,” he told the 4As attendees, gathered
at the recently re-opened Hyatt Regency hotel, which underwent a five-year $600 million post-Katrina renovation.
Ideas that get people talking about brands need to “transcend the
medium,” Pritchard said. Such ideas, he said, have been taken “a little bit for granted” of late.
Brands need to become part of consumers’ “shared
experience,” Pritchard said. Creative ideas help that happen, and there’s no reason why media fragmentation should be a barrier.
“Brands can become an authentic
part” of the shared consumer conversation, Pritchard said.
He cited a campaign done recently by subsidiary Duracell to help victims of Hurricane Sandy. Called “Power
Forward,” the company, using branded vehicles, went to areas affected by the storm and dispersed 23,000 packs of flashlight batteries to 10,000 families left without power and lights.
The campaign attracted huge media attention, and the company shot videos documenting the effort and the plight of some of the victims and how the batteries helped. It got people talking about
Duracell, said Pritchard. A “tiny investment,” he said, generated “huge ROI,” with earned media from the campaign more than doubling paid media.
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