Client Question: What Types Of Projects Can I Do With GutCheck?

GutCheck to kick-off Advertising Research Foundation conference next month!

GutCheck is excited to announce that we will be a featured speaker to start this year’s Re:think 2012 conference sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). Our session on Monday March 26th will focus on trends and innovation driving online qualitative research and will feature three keynote speakers:

Matt Warta – CEO, GutCheck

Steve Rappaport – Knowledge Solutions Director, ARF

R.G. Logan – Manager Insights and Planning, 360i

The conference is expected to draw over 2,000 insights and research leaders from advertising and media and will be held at the Marriott Marquis in the Times Square area of Manhattan. We hope to see many of our customers – especially those in the New York area at the Re:think 2012 conference. If you haven’t yet registered for this event, or want to learn more information, visit http://www.thearf.org/rethink-2012-program.

2012 Advertising Spend Increase: Will More Ads Make An Impact Or Fall Flat?

Last week, eMarketer published a report that showcased how US Online Advertising sales are projected to increase over 23% this year to nearly $40 billion in revenue.  The other noteworthy element about Online Advertising is that for the first time, it will surpass the dollars spent on print magazine and newspaper advertising combined.  Total advertising spend for print, magazines, TV and online combined will total nearly $140 billion in the US.

Two things struck me about this piece:

1.  The fact that despite shifts in the mix, overall advertising (including print, magazines, online and TV) is projected to increase by over $10 billion in 2012 vs. 2011.  That is a whole slew of new commercials, videos, banners and design work that needs to be produced.  And how many of these new elements will have time for any traditional research or formal testing prior to launch?  With limited time and lean staffs, we are anticipating more pressure for insights and research teams.

2.  With more and more advertising messages hitting the marketplace each year, how will agencies and brands make theirs stand out from the crowd?  GutCheck is seeing customers coming to us each week with their campaigns before creative is finalized to see how audience will react to it before it is too late.  

We argue that if you can squeeze in 48 hours while creating your next campaign, you can make sure that it won’t miss the mark with your target market.

Communiting, consumer participation, and will.i.am’s love of ellipsis

Did you all see will.i.am’s op-ed in Ad Age yesterday? It involved a lot of ellipsis and not a lot of full sentences. It also involved a neo-logism and the phrase “the youth market.” In the most interesting and least meandering of the sections, he writes:

there is a whole new concept of brands and businesses that bring community together…

you don’t have to go about the traditional way of marketing and advertising…

today, you need to turn a moment into momentum and momentum into a movement…

that can’t be done with 30-second commercials…

you need to create conversations with your customers…

so I say, MAKE CONVERSATIONS NOT ADS…

And while I wish I could get my fragmented brainstorming published in Ad Age without having to worry about things like sentence or argument structure, and while it’s hard for me to really understand why will.i.am’s thoughts on advertising are relevant, and while no one is holding will.i.am accountable for all of the Black Eyed Peas’ incredibly intelligent messaging (like, how did this song HAPPEN?) I do think at least he brings up a point. Creating a conversation with your consumers is key. Using interactive platforms to engage consumers in a two-way exchange is the difference between showing and telling.

Reimagining where, how and why brands advertise could also mean less boring, banal messaging and more interesting consumer engagement. Throwing around ideas like “the youth are all on twitter and facebook” is ok, but I’m really interested in the evolution of brand management and market research. Take the wii commercials for Just Dance 2:

Those are real people having so much fun! I want to have fun with them. I want to play Just Dance! (for real I do, if you have it invite me over?).

Nintendo encourages user participation with the brand. They just edit user footage together. And while I guess it’s not exactly changing the world, it is giving people the chance to interact around a brand. Which is pretty rad. Right?

Who else do you think does a good job of creating conversation?

Yoplait gets it: Dads buy snacks too!

I grew up with a single dad, and that always made me hate JIF. You know what I’m talking about:

“LOLwut? Only moms buy peanut butter? My mom hasn’t bought me peanut butter in years. Why don’t they think dads buy peanut butter? I don’t understand!” – was pretty much my train of thought.

I was home visiting my dad and family last week and I got the chance to watch some cable TV, which brought my attention to the latest Yoplait ad for GoGurt, which features the tagline “Dads who get it — get GoGurt.” I nearly cried. Watch the spot here.

Now, granted, it’s still promoting good parenting through buying your kids stuff the stuff that they beg for, which, you know, amen to advertising. And 8BitDad does a wonderful job here of talking about advertising and targeting gender — he brings up the Jif commercials, too (which apparently were still being made in 2009?). He also gives a lot of better examples of agencies and brands who targeted dads without reducing their message to stereotyping.

I still have to give credit where credit is due: The Yoplait spot at least acknowledges that Dads have buying power, too. We’ll see if that means any shift in how market researchers target their audiences — or if we start to see some more DADVERTISING (nailed it!) in the future.

Does marketing by gender or parental roles bother you? Do you think it makes more sense to continue to call moms out in food, laundry and other domestic product commercials?