It's in the game

A twenty something male strolls down the street before making a sharp turn through an inconspicuous red door. Lionel Messi is waiting at the entrance with a cheeky smile to welcome the new arrival and before you know it they are engrossed in a game of EA’s widely popular Fifa franchise.  The frequency and breadth of EA’s television advertising for Fifa 13 across multiple channels and continents, as well as the presence of celebrity endorsement from several footballing personalities throughout the advert goes a long way to expose the cost of this campaign. But is it a cost which is justified when measured against the return?

At the same time the advert airs a 50 something single female in an affluent neighbourhood with an above average income sits down on her sofa and turns on the TV. There is no doubt she has assets at her disposal however within 5 seconds of viewing Fifa’s advert she has lost interest, changed channel and the message is forever wasted. But don’t just take the 50 something female as an example… think of grandpa, the mother with a new born, and other consumers who don’t even own a games console in their household!... the list goes on and on.

This of course begs the question of what value EA can truly drive from mass advertising of a brand such as Fifa? You would find it hard to believe the Ad Exec who made the decision on the marketing investment didn’t know their target demographic in finite detail. For Fifa it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess the target ranges anywhere from 6 to 35 year old males across continents and across ISBA regions with some sort of access to, or interest in gaming. With so much information on such a large group of consumers why would EA need to waste money on television advertisings to a mass audience?  If you were to measure the return against all who were exposed to the advert you would find a weak and frail comparison of value compared to other methods of targeted marketing communication.

The above scenario has long been the catch 22 of television advertisements. When the industry was less refined and volume of the message was the main objective, mass advertising such as TV was seen as the weapon of choice. However, in 2013 it is not about who shouts the loudest but who articulates the message in the most effective manner. The world of broadcasting and the way in which we consume media content has changed. We now live in an environment where data is more readily available than ever before. In this environment there are no excuses for wasting marketing investment when there are so many opportunities to reach the truly relevant audience. And don’t underestimate the power of relevance. Translated to companies like EA relevance equals profit to the bottom line.

This explains why an online banner campaign will yield more measureable value than a mass media production and why more and more companies are shifting investment into social and online advertising. After all these channels give you access to numerous data points on your consumer such as, but not limited to…

·         How old they are

·         Where they live

·         How much they spend

·         When they spend it, etc.

But all is not lost for those who work in television advertising, or for those looking to invest in the good old fashioned audio visual display on the telebox. Of course it’s almost a certainty that the significance of such investment will be scrutinised in much greater detail as the years roll on. However network and TV advertising executives are beginning to take best practice evaluation techniques from other marketing areas to help measure the value of investment. Take for example AT&T adapting online targeting tactics to inform when and where TV ads should be aired (http:/www.technologyreview.com/news/510186/att-brings-online-ad-targeting-tactics-to-tv-commercials/).

Through readdressing the ye olde strategy of casting your ‘marketing message’ net far and wide to instead focus more and more on significant data points, TV and broadcast content could begin to play a much more significant role in reaching the consumer thus creating relevance for the products featured within the campaign. This way companies like EA can ensure expensive investments such as the placement of an international soccer celebrity is properly recognised as Messi and not a messy waste of resource.