Downton Abbey fans out there, will surely be aware of the current controversy surrounding the 'Aviva' adverts during the breaks. Aviva have purchased slots at the beginning and end of the advert breaks throughout Downton and are using them to build their own Aviva story over the course of the series.
The story builds around a motorcyclist who has a crash and has so far featured him crashing, in hospital and with visitors. This has resulted in numerous complaints: on Watchdog last week, on a number of popular news sites and across a multitude of additional platforms, all referring to the fact that the adverts are depressing. Aviva has been forced to justify the adverts, claiming that the feature does eventually have a happy ending as it builds. So the question is, does this process benefit the company or not?
The answer most probably lies in the story being told, the relevance of the story to the programme and the message as well as the gaps in between. So we've looked at the pros and cons of this kind of method in a bid to evaluate the effectiveness of advert 'storytelling'
Pros:
- It builds brand awareness
- Helps the company be remembered, giving the campaign longevity
- Arguably increases the effectiveness of the advertising, by creating a brand association with a programme
- Gives companies the opportunity to showcase their key sales messages, within a feature that people are familiar with and which provides another thread of understanding between the consumer and the company
- Can create an association with the key characters in the advert
A classic example of this process is the well-known advert series for BT; Over the course of a couple of years, the brand built a familiar story with a number of key characters which showed the trials and tribulations of family life and enabled BT to showcase the benefits of their services to the whole family. Indeed, BT even developed a website to interact with the consumer, calling on them to decide the next part of the story. Despite this thread, BT also created stand-alone features, which built into a long term story and which they were able to distribute across multiple channels, at various times, without losing the message or the plot.
Cons:
- If handled badly, the storytelling can have more backlash for a company than a straightforward promotional advert might. If they don't like the story, the viewers are likely to develop a negative opinion of the brand
- The story has to have a relevance. The method assumes that everyone watches all the stories and therefore understands the progression. The brand must ensure that the adverts work as both a standalone feature and a longterm project (as per BT)
- The method costs more - brands have to buy a series of regular slots, that will be seen by the same people. BT opted for a scattergun approach, whereas Aviva has focused on a specific series
- Purchasing alongside a specific programme means that the length of the story will be dictated by the length of the series e.g. Downton Abbey.
- In the case of Downton Abbey and Aviva, Aviva are likely to be reaching exactly the same audience every single time. Whilst this is good for building brand awareness, repeated viewings are unlikely to drastically increase sales and thus this may result in a lower ROI, than the scattergun approach
Given the cost of this type of storytelling, it is unlikely to become commonplace for all brands, however it will be interesting to see more successful and unsuccessful examples as time goes on. Let us know any that you've seen and what you think about them...
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