Hill+Knowlton Strategies

MINDSPACE (Dolan et al., 2010)

+  +  +         #2  Incentives         +  +  +

Incentives can be a powerful tool in harnessing the power of the public – engaging people and motivating behaviour change. The impact of incentives clearly depends upon factors such as type, magnitude and timing of the incentive. In a competitive economic environment brands are increasingly using incentives to attract consumers and stand out from the competition.

The power of incentive

Brands in the service industry – such as high-street banks, mobile phone network providers – are using incentives and rewards to become more attractive to consumers. However, the behavioural economic insight loss aversion is important in order to understand how best to use incentives in marketing. Loss aversion is used to explain that we dislike losses more than we like gains of the equivalent amount. What this means, for example, is human beings feel the loss of losing  £1 more than we feel the elation of being given £1. Therefore, brands that emphasise the money (or reward) that people will lose out on by not taking an action/purchasing can have a more powerful impact and motivation on people’s behaviour, rather than simply highlighting the amount they could be given if purchasing.

Brands in the fast-moving consumer goods industry consistently have to compete for consumer’s attention. Unilever’s Magnum icecream is an example of a brand currently (April 2013) using incentives as a marketing strategy to drive sales and engage consumers. The incentive Magnum is giving consumers is the chance to win a designer handbag worth £800 every day. However, now understanding loss aversion, if Magnum had framed the incentive in a way that consumers feel that they are losing out if they do not purchase, then this could have a more powerful impact on people’s behaviour to drive sales. Although, the type and magnitude of the incentive of a £800 handbag could be significant enough in itself to demand attention from some consumers. Furthermore, people have a habit of over-weighing small probabilities – for example lotteries – and so consumers may over-weigh the small chance of winning the handbag.

Magnum - win a designer handbag everyday

Another example of using incentives to engage a community is ConAgra Foods. In order to increase engagement on it’s Healthy Choice Facebook Page, users who “liked” the brand received a coupon for 75 cents off their next Healthy Choice purchase. ConAgra then coaxed more consumers to join its Facebook page by dangling a “buy one, get one free” coupon offer. In other words, the coupon’s value grew as more consumers joined the page.

However, a fundamental problem with using incentives, is that once an activity (such as buying a Magnum) is associated with external reward (chance to win a handbag), then individuals are less inclined to participate with the activity in the future without further incentives. Furthermore, and worst still, is if a brand fails to deliver on a reward/incentive – an example would be Red Bull’s VIP trip of a lifetime to the Belgium Grand Prix Competition. Red Bull was censured and criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in February 2013 after sending competition winners on a budget trip across three countries, making them share a bed and then sending them home early after they were barred from entering the race’s VIP enclosure.

Incentives - influencing behaviour and engaging consumers

In summary, incentives can be a useful tool to engage people’s behaviour – and the impact of the incentive depends upon type, magnitude and timing. People have a habit of over-weighing small probabilities, meaning competitions can be effective. Losses loom larger than gains, and so framing incentives to consumers in such a way that they feel the loss if they don’t participate can be a powerful communication and marketing tool. However, if brands become associated with external reward/incentive then consumers can be less inclined to participate in the future without these external rewards/incentives.

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This is the first in a series of nine blog posts which takes inspiration from a Cabinet Office commissioned report entitled MINDSPACE. The report sets out nine of the most robust (non-coercive) influences on our behaviour, which is captured in the simple mnemonic MINDSPACE:

MINDSPACE (Dolan et al., 2010)

The vast majority of government public policy aims to change or shape behaviour – changing or shaping behaviour and inspiring or engaging people is often a perquisite of many of the work we do for clients at H+K. “Hard” instruments such as legislation or regulation is the most effective way for policy-makers to compel us to act in certain ways. However, these instruments are not readily available, of course, to PR professionals aiming to change people’s behaviour and attitudes towards detergents, gin, football boots and the like – “hard” approaches are not appropriate. Policy-makers are increasingly turning to less coercive measures, such as incentives and sophisticated communications techniques, to change and shape behaviour. These less coercive approaches, summarised by MINDSPACE, are directly applicable to the work we do in marketing, advertising and communications. My series of posts in the coming months will work through each of the influences outlined in the MINDSPACE framework, giving examples and explaining how the framework is applicable to our industry.

+  +  +         #1  Messenger         +  +  +

The way we respond to information depends greatly on the reactions we have to the source of that information.We are heavily influenced by who communicates information. Whatever our considered judgment about the value of a message, we automatically give it more or less weight according to the messenger. For example, we are often swayed by authority that has associations of expertise: public trust in expert public sector workers like doctors and teachers is much higher than for politicians.

Brands understand the importance of ‘the messenger’ with regard to influencing consumer choices and driving sales. Celebrity brand ambassadors are effective marketing techniques, because who communicates determines the consumer response and engagement to brand messages. Marketing spends are increasing in budget for the celebrity brand ambassador - PepsiCo struck a $50 million deal with Beyonce to be Pepsi’s brand ambassador.

Beyonce - Pepsi Brand Ambassador

Of course there are plenty of notable examples in UK/global brand marketing campaigns, and include Walkers veteran Gary Linekar, Marc Jacobs and Taylor Swift for Diet Coke, and Blackberry and Alicia Keys. However, sometimes brands can get it wrong – Alexander ‘Hooray Henry’ Armstrong was dropped in 2009 after 7 years as Pimms brand ambassador, reportedly for being ‘too posh’.

Brad Pitt - Chanel No. 5

In order to quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns it is important to evaluate their awareness, appeal, and relevance to a brand’s image and the celebrity’s influence on consumer buying behaviour. Advertisers are using celebrities for voice overs, and public relations + communications agencies understand the importance of influential celebrities to engage and shape behaviour. Harnessing the power of celebrities social media platforms can be a very powerful marketing tool. We saw that this week at H+K in which Ricky Gervais and Stephen Fry’s Twitter accounts generated a huge amount of consumer engagement with a hashtag campaign for our client Aviva.

Post your comments below on which celebrity brand ambassadors you think are the good, the bad and the ugly!

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Fresh from watching the stunning (and stunningly long) part one of The Hobbit movie extravaganza, I am reminded of the lasting power of amazing content. I know every word of the book, so will happily stand online for all the movies — despite the fact that Peter Jackson’s version is way more gory video game than the novels I love.

Brands have been content publishers for even longer than The Hobbit has been around. The first infomercial was broadcast on the radio in 1922. I don’t know what the storyline was, but I’m guessing it was no sequel spawning epic. Yet if I make just one prediction for marketing in 2013, it’s this:
Brand content will compete with top shelf entertainment.

Like most year end predictions, this is of course already happening. And the reason digitally savvy brands put Hollywood levels of talent, craft and love into what they make is because they are competing for the limited attention of the very same people going to the movies, playing the video games, and yes, even reading books. Sticking ads around the entertainment is giving way to being good enough to be the entertainment. Hello Red Bull, Will it Blend, new style advetorials and every Facebook Page actually worth a Like.

What will content marketing look like in one year? We asked a few smart people for their sharable soundbite.

Many thanks to Claire Candler, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked, Seb Bell and Brendan Hodgson for their views in the clip above. And thanks to our other D2 Content speakers who gave us some excellent Top Tips for Successful Content Marketing and Advice for budding Contentrepreneurs. Happy Holidays everyone and see you in 2013.

While content has been king on the Internet forever, there is no doubt that it is getting an ever increasing amount of attention. (Even if not everyone likes the term.) For me, I love to see brands offer real value in their communications, rather than just pushing out another empty ad slogan. But it requires an honest mindshift for corporations to become Contentrepreneurs. So we asked some of the bright minds at our most recent Demystifying Digital conference, D2 Content, for their insight and advice.

Top Issue or Barrier for Brands: Cultural Change

Alex Hultgren of Ford, Jon Steinberg of BuzzFeed, Steve Webb of Google, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked

Top Tips for Brands: Take risks. Emotional hooks. Don’t forget about relationships.

Seb Bell of H+K, me, Simon Langford of GE, Johanna Virtanen of Kiosked, Richard Fletcher of the Telegraph.co.uk, Richard Millar of H+K, Jon Steinberg of BuzzFeed, Alex Hultgren of Ford

1. Value Creation.

2. Commitment.

3. “Create Once. Distribute Everywhere.”

Prior to our Demystifying Digital conferences, we survey our client delegates to measure interest in online platforms. Google+ always ranks in the top three results. Launched in June 2011, in the now familiar invite-only to build buzz mode, G+ opened up to everyone soon after. Brand pages were officially added in November 2011, although early adopter Ford famously got to keep their Page. Last month’s redesign and last week’s new mobile app, show the love and importance of G+ to Google overall. Admittedly a fan of the Circle concept, I think now is a good time to highlight some key points about the platform. Perhaps it was inevitable, but imho it was a major PR mistake to allow Google+ to be defined by the media as a competitor to Facebook. I believe it is something quite different.

1. Google+ is not ‘another Facebook’ — it is a social unifier for all Google products

Googler Paul Coffey, speaking at D2 Energy, officially described G+ as a layer, not another channel. Altimeter analyst and Twitterati Jeremiah Owyang agrees, “…all of google is one product.” Google’s recent move to reduce more than 60 privacy policies for their products (like YouTube, Gmail, and Search) down to one main policy is part of their stated intention to ‘treat you as a single user across all our products’. For brands, clearly this helps Google show more relevant search results and ads. And the social layer of G+ means I can look at a Search result page in ‘regular’ Google and see which products my connections have +1 or linked to. Another just announced integration is the ability to engage with G+ content (view, comment, +1, etc) through a Google+ notification email in Gmail. Destination sites are so old web. Google products with G+ functionality will be anywhere on the Internet a user is likely to want or need them.

2. The creative possibilities of Hangouts are ever expanding

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So often in our line of work it’s all about the new ‘new’, whether that’s Instagram, Pinterest or the latest hipster band.  However whilst some areas of life are moving very fast, it seems that there are still lots of things that have cultural currency 10 or even 20 years later.  There’s a huge trend clustering around the prefix “Re” – Reunion, Revival, Rerelease, Retrospective, Rebirth…you get the picture.

First off, the little grey cells in the right side of my brain excitedly twitch when confronted with the still provocative work of Damien Hirst whose phenomenal retrospective can currently be viewed at the Tate Modern, showcasing arguably some of the best art of the ‘90’s and 00s.  Today’s innovator and rule-breaker can quickly become the new establishment.

Pharmacy, by Damian Hirst

And from one drug cabinet to another… Irvine Welsh’s long awaited new novel Skagboys has finally arrived. Set in the ‘80’s with a financial and political climate not unlike the current, it certainly reignites memories of a moment in time when Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie were catapulted into cultural icon status in the ‘90’s. Read at your peril/leisure.

Another group of friends who have reunited again are those lovable manboys of American Pie fame. American Reunion promises to make us laugh one last time (apparently) and judging from their impressive range of social media plug-ins, surely filmmakers are saying Finch’s iconic ‘God bless the internet’ in promoting this final instalment.  There must be lots of other old franchises that could be combined with social media to amplify them in ways they could never have imagined the first time around.

Let’s be honest, most of us probably thought we had seen the last of Boy London however the appetite for the iconic clothing had a resurgence after the wondrous Rihanna paraded its wares on the Jonathan Ross show. Popularity in the brand has soared and so too has sales – a massive 45% increase in online orders.   What other ‘dead’ brands are out there that are just waiting for a boost to bring them back to life?

Rihanna. Not a boy, despite what her cap may tell you.

The label also got an airing from the superstar at Coachella and miraculously, so too did beloved West Coast rapper, Tupac, via an impressive and also somewhat unnerving hologram. The appetite for the old-skool G-funk maestros clearly lives on.  Just when you thought the music industry was in inevitable decline, along comes a new technology that could change the game for the major labels and their extensive back catalogues and publishing rights from dead stars.

Looking at the examples above there is clearly huge potential to re-imagine and reconfigure ideas from the past for today’s markets and audiences.  So as well as looking for the latest new trend, we shouldn’t forget to look back to provide inspiration and new opportunities.

-Ainsley

HSBC Expat Explorer has been nominated for the prestigious Webby award, and is in the running against CNN Money, mint, wikinvest and wonga for the People’s Voice award, in the financial services category.

The Webby awards is recognised as the most celebrated accolade for innovative and accomplished websites. Being a nominee alone means that HSBC is in the top 3% from over 10,000 entries worldwide.

H+K towers and the team, who have been working on Expat Explorer since its inception, are super excited about the news. From its humble beginnings as basic PDF reports, last year, the research results were taken to a new level and became a highly interactive online tool for the expat community. The work has already won a good deal of awards but this is the most high profile to date.

For those who wish to support Expat Explorer for the People’s Voice Award, it couldn’t be easier. Simply visit the website, register your vote using your email, Twitter or Facebook account – it only takes a minute. The closing date is this Thursday (26^th April) so get voting.

The awards will be presented at the end of May in New York. If you fancy getting in the spirit of the Webbys beforehand, you can check out a compilation of the ceremony’s best 5-word acceptance speeches here.

I once read somewhere that the oft-cited factoid about goldfish having a memory of just 3 seconds is in fact a MYTH (yes, that’s right – Web Curios, pulling the scales of falsehood from your eyes one lie at a time!). Interestingly (I use the word advisedly), though, whilst our piscine friends are apparently swanning around their memory palaces, we on THE INTERNET are apparently as amnesiac as they come. How else can one explain the TWITTERMOBSPLOSIONFRENZY (yes, it’s a great word, isn’t it? Yours to use for only a nominal rights payment) that erupted over the latest piece of linkbait to be vomited from the online hellmouth that is the Daily Mail?

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