We all know
that communication is key to effectively running a business, and it is
imperative for all moving parts of the marketing mix to be dispersing the same
messages. In their review The Strategic
Communication Imperative, Argenti, Howell, & Beck explain that
communication must be aligned with the company’s overall strategy to enhance
its strategic positioning (2005, p. 83). I’m sure most of us agree that
communication between constituencies is necessary for any successful marketing
campaign. Not only is it important for the company to effectively communicate
with their customers, employees and shareholders, but it is equally important
for them to listen to feedback and adjust strategy accordingly.
Let’s look
at a real-time example of how a company values strategic communication today.
As always, the Super Bowl featured highly anticipated advertisements from some
of the country’s favorite products. The commercial with some of the most significant
pre-buzz was the H&M ad with David Beckham. H&M ran a commercial spot
during the Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 that introduced David Beckham Bodywear line
of men’s apparel at H&M (Elliot, 2014). H&M is the only retailer to run
advertisements during the Super Bowl, and they believed that their 2012
commercial was very successful in driving awareness for the Bodywear line.
However, the spot was outshined by heavy hitters like Anheuser-Busch, Audi,
Chevrolet, Pepsi and GoDaddy. H&M listed to this feedback and learned that
they need to do more to communicate and engage with key constituents through
the commercial.What resulted was one of the most talked about Super Bowl advertisements of 2014. If you haven’t seen the ad yet, you can check it out on YouTube. Consumers were invited to vote for one of two endings to the Super Bowl commercial by tweeting #covered or #uncovered.
The
communication strategy also extended to e-commerce, where viewers watching the
game on certain Samsung smart televisions could actually buy pieces from the
David Beckham Bodywear collection through a “T-commerce platform” powered by
Delivery Agent, an ad-technology company (Elliot, 2014). CEO of Delivery Agent,
Mike Fitzsimmons, said “This is a game-changer for the advertising industry. We
are collectively redefining the power and effectiveness of television
advertising” (Hellar, 2014).
With so many
moving parts to this campaign, it was so important for H&M to follow the
framework for strategic communication to ensure consistency across all
platforms. What do you think? Do you like the ad? Do you think the messaging
was succinct and memorable?Kristen
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References
Argenti, Howell, & Beck (2005). The Strategic Communication Imperative.
MIT Sloan Management Review Retrieved on February 3, 2014 from https://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/communicators/fall08/reading/Sloan_MIT_Strat_Comm_Imp.pdf
Elliot, Stuart (2014, January 22). Lessons Learned, H&M Returns to Super
Bowl With New Beckham Spot New York Times. Retrieved on February 3, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/business/media/lessons-learned-hm-returns-to-super-bowl-with-new-beckham-spot.html?_r=0
Heller, Laura (2014, January 31). David Beckham and H&M's Super Bowl Ad
Could Change Advertising Forever Forbes. Retrieved on February 3, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2014/01/31/david-beckham-and-hms-super-bowl-could-change-advertising-forever/
Interesting post, Kristen.
ReplyDeleteI agree the H&M ad was well done, and the social interaction it generated was a valuable "win" for them. Thinking back to our question of the week, though, how did this effort enhance the company's strategic position?
Are viewership and social interaction volume the goal, or was this ad contributing to a more clear understanding of who H&M is a company and who its customers are? This year's ad was more humorous, and human, than the simple ad they did last year. Why might that be? Is there evidence of their rationale that we might be missing?
Mike
The reason I chose this example in speaking about communication strategy is because this campaign was flawlessly consistent across all of their many communication channels. The goal of this campaign is to drive greater awareness to H&M’s Bodywear line with David Beckham. I believe they were successful in creating a playful, memorable ad that also prominently features their product. So, yes I do think this enhanced the company’s strategic position as a leading brand for men’s sports and undergarments. Do you agree?
DeleteI think H&M had two goals with this ad. First is to communicate a clear and consistent message about their Bodywear men’s line. Their second goal was to make sure that people saw and remembered it. So yes, I do think that viewership and social interaction volume are an important goal. Ensuring that people see and digest the information is an important part of the communications strategy. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it and who you say it to.
H&M did a similar ad with David Beckham in 2012. It was really successful in promoting the H&M Bodywear men’s line, which is why H&M decided to extend this campaign for a year two. The men’s line is still relatively new to H&M, so the company is smart in leveraging a key moment in time where their intended new core demographic is most present. David Beckham is an athlete, so using him as a brand ambassador during a football game makes sense as they are linking the brand to those with an affinity for sports.
What do you think? Was H&M successful in promoting their Bodywear line?
I think I still have the same question for you. How did this fit into their overall strategy? I agree the ad was successful in garnering attention and also agree it was done well across all platforms in use.
DeleteHow, though, does it relate/tie-in to non-Super Bowl related marketing? Is this reflective of their other efforts or a one-off to get notoriety?
Answering those questions might tell us more about how successful they were (or weren't) in meeting the standard outlined by Argenti, Howell, & Beck.
Let us know what you think/find.
Mike
Hey Kristin, thank you for providing the H&M example. I think this was an excellent social media strategy as it got consumers engaged and talking about the brand without it feeling forced. I don't agree with throwing around hashtags just because you can. H&M clearly thought through this strategy. What better way to showcase the winner then during the Super Bowl?
ReplyDeleteNow that they aired the commercial, do you think H&M should end this campaign? If not, how do you think the campaign can keep growing in order to stay relevant and consistent?
-Amanda
I agree that H&M was very successful in developing a strategic communications plan that included a thorough social media activation that leverages consistency with hash tags. I think that having two has tags, #covered and #uncovered, was an interesting concept and really made fans feel like they were voting for something. I thought it was interesting that they didn’t brand the hash tags – something like #H&Mcovered. Why do you think they kept it more generic? I don’t think people will see this ad and think it’s for Gap or Macy’s. I think the tie to H&M was strong and memorable, event without the branded hash tag. What do you think?
DeleteI think you ask a great question about the future of this campaign. Generally, I think marketing campaigns that are “one-and-done” is not a great strategy. So much time and resources is put into developing a really strong communications plan, it should be used as much as possible. The good news is, there is so much that can be done with this campaign. What else can H&M “#cover” and “#uncover?” I think this campaign could be extended to other clothing lines, including their women and kids clothing (Did you know they have a kids line? They do!). They could roll out new products on social media with the hash tag #uncovered to launch these items in a fun and consistent way. There are lots of opportunities here, and I think H&M will continue to see success with this program if they continue to keep clear, consistent communication strategy across all platforms.
Hi Kristin - definitely agree that the H&M ad was memorable, but maybe more so because David Beckham was in it (swoon). First, I think it was genius that they partnered with a successful and global sports icon to create a product and image that was reminiscent of a Calvin Klein underwear ad. Second, even more genius that they chose a major sports event to air this commercial as they got the attention of both men and women. Lastly, they integrated simple, yet whimsical hashtags to engage consumers. Also unique and different was the way they integrated a direct purchase option with Samsung smart TVs. I agree with Amanda, the strategy was strong but not forced. It was a good demonstration of fusing traditional media with digital media.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they could extend their other celebrity featured lines during events such as the Oscars and the Olympics to keep momentum going? What do you think they should do different?
Hey Tara, I definitely think H&M can continue to grow this campaign during high-profile events like the Olympics. It would be interesting if they did something similar where the commercial told a story with two different scenarios for the "ending" and they asked people to choose the alternative ending by tweeting the hashtag. This helps build momentum for the ongoing campaign.
DeleteTara,
DeleteWhat other endorsers does, or should, H&M use in your estimation?
An interesting offshoot to consider is what makes an endorser valuable.
Charlie Sheen just popped into my head. When he went off the reservation a few years ago, many companies dropped him yet at the same time car-maker Fiat took him on and made a campaign based on some of his behaviors.
He wasn't popular, but the campaign moved the needle. This proves that, while likeability is a factor in choosing a celebrity endorser, it's often not as important as others (Erdogan, Baker, & Tagg, 2001).
Is marquee value the most important? Or is it better to have an endorser who somehow reflects the values of the company?
Mike
Reference:
Erdogan, S. B., Baker, M., & Tagg, S. (2001). Selecting
celebrity endorsers: Tbe practitioner's perspective. Journal
of Advertising Researcb, 41, 39-48.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteGreat example with the H&M ad. It’s certainly fairly memorable (especially for the female set) and I like the innovative use of the hashtag. I agree with Amanda above how many companies throw on hashtags at the end of their adverts for little to no purpose. It feels like an artificial way to generate social media conversation. H&M’s use of the hashtag here is clever with a bit of interactivity and conversation building that doesn’t feel forced.
I am curious about the Samsung smart televisions applications and how effective it was in getting people to buy the product right there when the ad comes on. While innovative and certainly interesting, I would love to see the figures on how many actively purchased through this T-commerce platform. I feel like ads during big events such as this are meant to generate attention and conversation that lasts past the game so that consumers recall the product when out making their purchases. However, I find it rare that people are instantly in a ready to buy mode after an ad unless a special deal or offer is proffered. Whatever the result, it is an incredibly interesting experiment and one worth following through with if the audience is there for it.
Back to the ad, I think it was a clever and combining it with the social element helped it stand out during a typically busy game. Flashy ads connected with social media initiatives were well in abundance during the big game, (I actually wrote about a couple in my blog post as well here: http://bit.ly/MtHe1j) so it always takes a little extra something to stand out from the pack. I’m not quite sure they did though. While they were able to generate some attention and deliver a much talked about ad, it doesn’t seem like they were able to continue generating that conversation after the game or continue their inventive use of the hashtag. I do like Tara’s idea above to extend the campaign through other big events and possibly with other celebrities in a similar manner. That would certainly help to continue the life of the campaign and be able to keep generating that social conversation well past Super Bowl Sunday.
Good response Nash. It would be interesting to see what they sought as outcomes. One of our readings this week pointed out that: "Metrics that show engagement and interaction are good measures of effectiveness as they demonstrate direct interaction with your content" (Navy Office of Informationn n.d., p. 26).
DeleteThe sales via Samsung are certainly a good metric to see whether people responded in what might be the most profitable way. Other than retweets, are there other metrics we can divine from how they ran their campaign?
Mike
Reference:
Navy Office of Information. (n.d.). Social media handbook for Navy PAOs, pp. 25-27. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/USNavySocialMedia/sm-handbook-print
Great point, Michael. As marketers continue to use new communication methods to develop brand messages, we must now look at metrics beyond just sales to figure out the real story and learn what kind of dent we are making in the marketplace. You're right, we need to go beyond simple 're-tweets' and 'likes' to track and learn how consumers are engaging with brands. A new market research company RelishMIX has developed an algorithm to track influence and engagement that can certainly help guide what is working and what isn't in a campaign. Here's a link that I also posted to Facebook on how RelishMIX tracked social media engagement with the big movie ads during the Super Bowl. (http://bit.ly/1fIupLq)
DeleteHey Nashrid, you bring up some important elements. I personally feel that commercials are a great brand awareness and educational tool, but I don't think they drive people to make purchases.
DeleteIn today's society, consumers are on-the-go, so there are definitely more effective ways to get people to purchase items including some great mobile apps like ShopKick. This allows people to enter a store, get rewards for visiting the store and it shows discounts that you might not have been aware of.
Of course this doesn't apply for everything like cars or expensive purchases, but for retailers like H&M, this is great technology.
I agree Amanda - while I really enjoyed watching the Budweiser and H&M commercials, neither compelled me to purchase their products. What they did do was raise awareness and drive me to their websites and Facebook pages to see if they had any promos running. And like the mobile apps you mentioned, I tend to see if certain stores have a mobile app tied to couponing and/or promo discounts that I can use from my cell phone as the POS.
DeleteThanks for the link, Nash.
DeleteI was interested by the way RelishMIX defines engagement in their work: visits, length of time a user watches the ad, on what platforms do they engage and for how long, how does that compare to activity on other platforms.
While it would be interesting to see how all of that gets reported, it is certainly more thorough than simply counting clicks and retweets,.
.