• by May 3, 2004

Ford Motor Co., ING, Universal Studios, and Verisign are poised to release the results of cross-media optimization studies (XMOS) at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Leadership Forum today. The studies mark the latest in a series of media analyses organized under the auspices of the IAB and conducted by Marketing Evolution, an independent brand consultancy.

The purpose of the studies--which began more than two years ago with Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Unilever's Dove brand--is to bring attention to the question of determining the optimal media mix, reach and frequency, and budget allocation. The studies also have gone to the heart of return-on-investment--often they have highlighted the fact that a brand would have had a better return on investment if it had increased online media weight, shifting dollars from offline media.

Online media is getting a lot more attention these days as traditional marketers begin to shift dollars away from network TV and into cable, online media, and a host of below-the-line media vehicles including public relations, event marketing, product placement, and branded entertainment programs.

Ford Motor Co. was set to offer a detailed look at its launch of the F-150 pickup truck in late 2003 as an example of a successful use of online media for a major vehicle launch. Ford used TV, radio, print, outdoor, direct mail, and online media. Online media used included leaderboards, rectangles, and skyscrapers that ran on leading auto-related sites. The online effort, via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, employed page takeovers of major portals and auto sites and portal "roadblocks."

"The online roadblocks literally shook the screen--exactly the type of creative reinforcement of 'rugged and tough' that the F-150 was after. Online was by far the most cost-efficient media, and presents a very attractive opportunity going forward," said Rich Stoddart, Ford Division, marketing communications manager, in commenting on the breakthrough campaign.

Ford, through partners Marketing Evolution and Insight Express (for data collection), found that while TV generated the greatest level of absolute reach and purchase intent impact, it was much less cost-effective compared to other media. The online ads on auto-related sites were the most cost-effective at raising purchase intent, and the portal roadblock ads and magazine ads were the most expensive in raising purchase intent compared to in-market online ads--but both represented a good value in terms of cost-per-impact compared to TV.

"From a TV standpoint, you can see how quickly TV's effect can decay," said Rex Briggs, principal, Marketing Evolution, recalling data from previous cross-media studies. "You have to spend more to stand out. It's a challenge and a problem ... The price of television has been bid up so much, there are challenges and tradeoffs."

Briggs conceded that Ford, a big TV spender, "didn't really see diminishing returns in television. Instead, what we saw is that you spend and spend and spend and your brand levels go up; the second you stop, it drops," he said, adding: "[TV] has a very fast decay-type pattern."

Notable Ford Results: *49.6 percent of all Internet users were exposed to the online ads during the course of the campaign: 39.2 percent to the portal home-page roadblocks and 8.5 percent to the ads on car sites; 1.9 percent were exposed to both, according to data from comScore Networks.

*Overall, 6 percent of F-150 sales could be tracked directly to online ads (without click-through) during the study period. Click-through tracked sales were responsible for a large number of additional sales beyond the 6 percent.

*The return on investment for every dollar spent online was more than double the return on investment of any of the offline media.

*Research found that 10 percent of all buyers of the F-150 had visited MSN's Auto Section.

For the Ford study, Marketing Evolution examined more than four months' worth of sales data on the F-150, representing more than 30,000 buyers, and merged it with online behavioral data from more than 360,000 members of comScore Networks' panel of Web users.

Universal Studios' "E.T." Universal Studios released a DVD version of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and TV advertising was 94 percent of the budget, with only 6 percent spent on banner ads and less than 1 percent devoted to rich media units.

Universal found that of those target consumers who were exposed only to the TV ad, 19.9 percent said they would probably buy the DVD, versus 22.7 percent who also saw a banner ad and 25.4 percent who saw the TV and the rich-media ad overlay. Key brand messages were mostly likely to be remembered by viewers who had seen both the TV ad and the rich media executions. For example, 39.4 percent of TV viewers knew that the DVD included never-before-seen footage compared to 43.5 percent of TV and banner-ad viewers. And that's compared to an even higher percentage--48.1 percent--of viewers who saw the TV ads plus the rich media overlay.

The upshot--Marketing Evolution recommended that Universal could have achieved even better results by allocating its media budget to reach 25 percent of its target audience via the rich media overlay ads, 2 percent via banners, and 72 percent by TV. The revised plan might have increased purchase intent by two points and awareness by 12 points without adding more dollars, according to Marketing Evolution.

"There were quickly eroding expectations and a lack of sustainable position," Briggs noted. "TV creates an expectation, but doesn't generate as much goodwill as we would have expected. Some of the effect of TV is a lot more ephemeral than we previously thought," he added in reference to the Universal finding.