Out-of-home advertising needs to be simple and direct to be effective. A good example is Calpol’s recent poster campaign, as shown by another great post from Andrew Tindall of System 1 (1). He shares results from research with 300 UK consumers on the campaign from this brand of medicine for children. Below I share some of the key learning from this study.
1. Grab attention. FAST!
Posters get a mere 2 seconds of attention, based on research done by System 1 with JCDecaux & Lumen Research. Incredibly, Andrew explains that half of all global poster exposures fail to trigger any brand at all. What a waste of money!
Successful outdoor grabs the attention of the viewer fast, as the Calpol campaign does. An impressive 90% of consumers recognise the brand within 2 seconds. It has a single, simple and impactful visual that jumps out at you. It makes clever use of the medium, with the impression the girls is squashed against the glass of the bus shelter.
2. Trigger emotion
The Calpol poster does more than just grab attention. It creates intense branded positive emotions, something a mind-boggling 95% of global posters fail to do. These emotions are “key for influencing future consumer behaviour through the affect heuristic and dramatically increasing any chance of fame,” as Andrew explains (1).
The poster tells a positive story with a single powerful image that works with the strapline: Someone’s feeling better.
3. Be bold in branding
There was another interesting layer to the research on the Calpol poster. System 1 tested a second version that was less overtly branded: see below right. It misses the extra copy with the reason to believe and the packshot. You could argue that it is more “creative”, trying less hard to sell Calpol. So, is it a better version of the campaign? How do you think it would score for recognition, emotions and messaging?
Well, both versions actually have the same brand recognition. However, the more branded version on the left creates higher levels of positive emotion. It has a 4.0* rating versus 3.7* for the one on the right. This score is linked to longer term brand building potential.
In terms of messaging, the less branded version builds “Children”, “Medicine” & “Relief” associations. But the better branded ad also builds associations for “Fast Acting”, “For Fever” and “Efficient”, which can help influence choice.
In conclusion, the Calpol campaign is a rare example of an outdoor campaign that grabs attention, creates positive emotion and delivers clear messaging. It also shows the benefit of being bold in your branding.
SOURCES
