Wait-Marketing and Contextual Advertising

In two years, TomTom has become the leader of GPS navigation in Europe, with 60% market share, and is already #2 in the US. Alexander Ribbink, COO of TomTom, and brand management guru reveals the key factor of success of advertising campaigns.

First of all, let's review the 4 questions companies need to answer before they start a campaign:

1. Extensive or intensive?
The objective of an extensive campaign is to reach as many consumers as possible. An intensive campaign's aim is more to be memorized by consumers, thanks to repetition.

2. Continuous or one-shot?
A campaign can be permanent to encourage re-purchase or one-shot to support a promotion or a seasonal product.
In the case of consumer goods, advertising will be continuous.

3. Multimedia or monomedia?
A campaign can be multimedia in order to reach all the targets or focused on a single media if the target is a niche (for specialised products for example).

4. Launch or reinforcement?
Is the objective to make consumers aware of a new product or to remind them of the existence of a product?

Let's take the example of the launch of the GPS Navigation device TomTom GO:
1. Extensive: as the product benefits are obvious and the message easy to remember, the campaign was extensive.
2. One-shot: Due to the seasonality of consumer purchase, campaign was driven in a "one-shot" mode
3. Multimedia: « multimedia communication is the key factor of success for reaching all the consumers», confirms Alexander Ribbink. And as the penetration of GPS Navigation was low at the moment of the launch but the need of navigation is quite universal all the consumers were potentially in the target.
4. Launch: Investment was important but adapted to the launch of a product.

Thank you Alexander Ribbink for having revealed the key factor of success of TomTom's campaigns.

The good news with Wait Marketing is that communicating at the right moment increases consumers memorization of the message so that companies can focus on the number of consumers reached only!
TomTom's campaign in gas station is the perfect Wait Marketing example: consumers are all in the target (they have a car!) and they are receptive to the ad (they are waiting while filling up) :)

Diana Derval
Wait Marketing guru

Sources: Interview with Alexander Ribbink, COO of TomTom, January 20, 2006 / LAMBIN, Jean-Jacques, Le marketing stratégique, Ediscience International, Paris, 1998.

Lacking of adapted measurement tools, companies often consider communication as a cost center instead of an investment.
Marketing & Communications Integration proposes a tool enabling companies to measure the impact of their communication strategy for all communication channels. This method, called Market ContactAuditTM, has already been adopted by many top agencies like Mediaedge :cia, TBWA or Starcom MediaVest Group.
Each contact has a marginal contribution, that may be positive or negative, on the overall consumer experience with the brand.
The objective is then to optimize the contacts portfolio and by doing this to refine the communication strategy in 2 easy steps:
1. Ranking the opportunities of contact depending on their contribution to the overall consumer brand experience
2. Improve the contact portfolio vis-à-vis competitors' ones
Companies can compare at last the return on investment of their communication campaigns with a cross-channel tool, embracing media, promotion, direct marketing and public relations activities.
That's exactly what Procter&Gamble did in Europe for one of its beauty&care product by focusing on the most effective channel: advertising in doctor's waiting rooms!

Diana Derval
Wait Marketing guru

I admire Peter F. Drucker for his publications on innovation. He is also the first one to claim that "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."
I designed the concept of Wait Marketing on the basis of this perfect understanding of customers that allows companies to communicate with the right customer at the right place and at the right moment :)

Diana Derval
Wait Marketing guru

Kotler's 5Ms of Advertising - Mission - Means - Message - Media - Measurement - are the essential steps for a successfull communication campaign.
I built on it by adding the sixth M : the Moment. Due to this ambient overadvertising, the moment of the communication is the key factor of success for your advertising campaign :)

Diana Derval
Wait Marketing guru

Gary Dahl is my guru. This genius advertiser became a millionair by selling tons of his "pet rocks". For $3.95, consumers got in a box a little rock with a user guide explaining how to take care of this pet: for example how to distinguish an ill pet rock from a healthy one (on the picture you just see two identical rocks!).

I decided to broaden the concept of contextual advertising, used by Google to describe an ad displayed according to the key words entered by the consumer, to all advertising implemented according to the context.
Contextual advertising is then not only applicable for the Internet but for all communication channels.
The context aspect of an ad can take 3 forms:
1. The congruence between the media and the message: advertising for Heineken on a bar table is the perfect example of the highest match between media (bar table) and message (beer!)

2. Affinity between brand and consumer
3. Context in which consumer is at the moment of the communication: being in a good mood or while waiting have revealed very positive on advertising effectiveness :)

The best is in fact to advertise when consumers are both waiting and in a good mood!

Diana Derval
Wait Marketing guru

Sources : ZALTMAN, Gerald, Dans la tête du client, Editions d’Organisation, Paris, 2004.

I read a swiss survey that confirms advertising is bothering consumers. I must admit that I feel also concerned especially when ads are interrupting a movie or a TV show.
The survey highlights that television bothers 3 consumers out of 4. Mailings and Internet ads bother more than half of the consumers, same for the radio, even if radio broadcasts 2 to 7 times more ads than television for example.
Ads in magazines and at the cinema bother 1 consumer out of 4 only, and ads in newspaper and outdoor 1 consumer out of 5. It's true that this kind of advertising won't interrupt your activities.