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.

Follow @AndrewPCBarratt

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!

Follow @AndrewPCBarratt

Hello – I’m really pleased to be a contributor for the H+KStrategies UK London Blog. My name is Andrew, and I have recently started at H+K on the graduate scheme. I will write a couple of blog entries about the graduate scheme – students and those starting a career who want the best start to the PR + Communications industry watch this space!

The majority of my posts however will be on behavioural economics. Behavioural economics is delivering very interesting insights and is something I find exciting and topical. As means of an introduction, behavioural economics is somewhat an umbrella term for a range of approaches that seeks to understand and explain the effects social, cognitive and emotional factors have in influencing the choices and (economic) decisions of individuals and institutions.

Behavioural Economics - an umbrella term

Why I find behavioural economics so interesting, and why it is so popular across the advertising, marketing and PR service industry, is that it provides the framework and insights to better understand people and the way people behave. Therefore behavioural economics can be an incredibly useful tool because it can assist in better understanding the ‘public’ and provide the structure in which to devise the most effective strategies to shape and influence conversations.

There are various ways in which social, cognitive and emotional factors influence choices and decisions – such as loss aversion, framing, status quo bias or simply not putting in the mental effort to make the right decision!  Check back here for my blogs, which are going to give a range of examples to show how these different factors and behaviours influence choices and (economic) decisions.

Follow @AndrewPCBarratt

Every so often a cultural spoof comes along that is eminently watchable and shareable.  Or a song that is so catchy that it gets stuck in your head – an ‘ear flee’ as The Today Programme so elegantly phrased it this week.

And sometimes the stars align and a catchy spoof is born – as with the boys from Eton’s ‘Eton Style’ homage to Psy’s hit track and video Gangnam Style….  1.6 million views to date and counting….

Now I love nothing better than the sound of plummy voices  rapping – my three all-time favourites are Smirnoff Ice’s Tea Partay, the Yeo Valley rap from 2010, and (showing my age now) the 1991 French hit Auteuil Neuilly Pass by Les Inconnus – it helps if you speak French, but even if you don’t you’ll enjoy the video and  the ‘Salut tu vas bien’ chorus.   But ‘Eton Style’ is something else, it’s  genuine, it’s joyful – no brand has interfered in the making of this video – and it’s very very silly.

If you haven’t watched it, you need to do so now.

A marvellous glimpse into the hallowed cloisters of Britain’s most famous boys’ school.  And what an awesome dance move that little horsey trot is.  The Eton boys don’t quite pull it off, and the production is a little slick for a homework project, but just how charming is that video?  In case you are wondering they are six formers –  apparently this is recognisable from their ‘white tie’ (there are occasional information advantages to living with an old Etonian…).

You probably recognise the tune, but have you seen the real thing? Quality at 531 million views, give or take a million or so. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I’m mostly being inspired by:

Cannes case studies.  There is just so much to soak up and learn from this year’s Festival of Creativity, I’m gutted I wasn’t there, and  I’m spending time every day watching case study videos.  My favourite so far is ‘Steal Banksy’, a campaign by Naked Communications for Art Series hotels in Australia.  I love this campaign because it takes an insight (people steal stuff from hotels) and rather than do the obvious (8/10 guests steal bathrobes) the agency turned it on its head and made it into a brilliant challenge:  book a room,  try to steal the Banksy painting on the wall – if you get away with it, you get to keep it.    A one off campaign, it’s been so successful that they’re running it again.    I also love the Wimpy Braille Burger from Metropolitanrepublic in South Africa for its simplicity and loveliness.

And there’s plenty more there for inspiration – be quick as the videos will be taken down soon.

Continuing the Cannes theme,  I’m  reading Edward de Bono’s  Lateral Thinking at the moment. It’s a text book, it’s a teacher’s aide, it’s original thinking, it’s a bit dry and it’s fascinating.   Ever since hearing Dr de Bono talk at Cannes I’ve been a convert, but it’s taken me a year to  get into the nitty gritty of how lateral thinking differs from vertical thinking and what blocks creativity.  Lateral thinking is provocative, it’s about generating ideas for the sake of it, with no ‘right or wrong’ filter… but as we’re pre-programmed from a young age to get our spelling and sums correct and not make mistakes it can be a leap of faith to generate thinking that feels wrong.  According to de Bono you need to suspend your judgement to have those breakthrough ideas.

And finally where there is lego there is gold.  An awesome campaign from Google Chrome and Lego Australia  ‘Build’: you can build 3D lego buildings onto a map of Australia.  Watch here.

As always please share your inspiration with us!

The Spark /Annouchka

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

Another week, another set of people yapping away at each other on the internet in the mistaken belief that what they say matters. Earlier this week, the web watched AGHAST as two sets of people pitted themselves against each other in a BITTER WAR OF WORDS, in what turned out to be a massively unedifying spectacle both for the journalist involved and, frankly, for everyone else who participated.

I am, of course, referring to this – oh, Barbara Ellen, what were you thinking?

Read the rest of this entry »

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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Hey you! Yes, YOU! You there, slack-jawed, disinterested white collar worker! DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE BAD THINGS HAPPENING OUT THERE IN THE BIG WIDE WORLD???

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