Let’s Be More Than Friends…

As someone that’s spent a long time working in digital, I am well aware that there’s a certain contingent that doesn’t like TV advertising and some that continue to bang on about how “TV advertising is dying”. Let me start by saying that I’m not in that contingent, nor do I believe that TV advertising is going the way of the Dodo.  I actually think that TV advertising is incredibly powerful and I think that digital and TV advertising are pretty good friends these days. In fact, one of the main reasons for setting up Lowe Epic was to bring standout creativity together with a deep knowledge of technology. 

Even though we’re doing great work as the newest member of the Lowe universe, I do have a wish for the wider industry. So, in 2014, my wish is for digital and TV adverting to be more than friends… If there’s one thing I’d love to see more of in 2014, it’s true integration of TV adverting and digital.

Let me give you an example of one of the things we’re exploring at Lowe Epic. If you’re a regular viewer of Sky Sports, chances are that you’ve probably seen a lot of the “live odds” ads. The thing is, the data displayed in those ads (the live odds) can actually come from anywhere and display anything, so it doesn’t have to be live odds at all. What about using that space to display real-time social data?

Imagine a set of two ads, one running at the beginning of the break, the other at the end. In the ad running at the beginning of the break, we have a simple call to action, say, “tell us at @yourbettingshop who you think will score next and the first 100 correct predications will get their bet for free”. It’s simple, it taps in to what they are already doing (talking about the football match), taps in to second screen behaviour and it’s a simple ask – we’re not asking them to go to this website, download an app, we’re just asking for a tweet.  

At the end of the break, the second ad comes on and announces the 100 lucky punters and displays their tweet, their handle and their profile picture, all pulled in form Twitter, AND, we then display the live odds for the player that scored to score next. It’s simple, it’s effective, it taps into their consumers behaviour and it’s REALLY integrating TV advertising and digital to drive engagement.

At Lowe, we’re already doing a lot of work on integration of the different disciplines. In fact, for a number of Unilever clients we have a number of things in the pipeline across traditional advertising, digital and Shopper Marketing. But the trophy that we have our eyes on is producing that first piece of social TV advertising.   

 

To my advertising and digital colleagues out there – please, let’s stop slapping Facebook logos on end frames that consumers see for one second and let’s stop asking them to go to branded websites to “find out more” – more about what exactly? Let’s start asking them to do things that they actually want to do, let’s start a movement through the true integration of digital and TV advertising. In 2014, let’s be more than friends…