MarketingMonitor: 11 June 2001, Vol. II, Issue 3

June. 11, 2001 Vol. II, Issue 3
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1) Intro

2) News: Tiscali Tumbles and Fox Apes Spielberg

3) Case Study: Butterkist Popcorn�s clever contra

4) Info: About the publisher

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INTRO
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INTRO

In this week's issue find out how Butterkist developed a successful online
branding campaign and got 34,000 competition entries to boot.

We thought a bit of reinvention might be called for at MarketingSherpa.
Firstly, the newsletter will now be a fortnightly publication. Secondly we
would like to come up with a new name for the newsletter - answers on a
postcard to [email protected] selected re-brander will win a case of
wine or £50 to spend at Amazon - depending on their temperament.

Don't forget, if you'd like to talk about online marketing issues, you can
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NEWS
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* Fox Apes Artificial Intelligence

Twentieth Century Fox is planning what must rank as one of the most complex
online marketing campaigns for a film to date.

The campaign, 'Project A.P.E.', is for Planet of the Apes, which will be
released in the US in July and comes to the UK in August.

The campaign will tell us that governments are trying to prevent the public
from finding out about evidence - recently discovered by archaeologists - of
a past ape civilisation. To get around the official clampdown, Project A.P.E
has 'hidden' some of the objects retrieved by the archaeologists in a number
of locations around the world (eight in the US and five elsewhere), and
posted the co-ordinates on its website, http://www.projectape.com.

However, in order to play along you'll need a GPS (global satellite
positioning) device because the whole concept relies on 'geocaching',
afficiandos of which share information over the internet about the location
of hidden objects (see www.geocaching.com).

Fox clearly hopes to capitalise on the kind of interest sparked earlier in
the year by the campaign for Steven Spielberg's AI Artificial Intelligence.
A trailer for the film credited a purported AI pioneer, Jeanine Salla, and
when film buffs did an internet search on the name they found a home page
and links to a complex web of other sites, such as that for 'The Coalition
for Robotic Freedom'.

* Tiscali takes a tumble

The axe has finally fallen at Tiscali, which is to halve its 500-strong UK
workforce as it merges the local operations of its three recently-acquired
ISPs - World Online, LibertySurf and LineOne - into a single unit under the
Tiscali UK name.

The redundancies, which will fall across all business areas including
content creation, IT and finance departments, will allow Tiscali to
"eliminate overlap or duplication of roles and operational and cost
efficiency", the company said.

Although job cuts were expected, the scale of the redundancies underlines
the extent to which the UK internet industry has gone from boom to bust in
just eighteen months.

Tiscali has bought Netherlands-based World Online, the French ISP
LibertySurf and LineOne, which was owned jointly by BT and United Business
Media, within the past six months, all at knockdown prices as they lost
their lustre amid the dotcom crash. The acquisitions make it Europe's
second-biggest ISP, after Germany's T-Online. Sergio Cellini, formerly CEO
of Excite Italia, will become CEO of Tiscali UK, while Stephane Huet, until
recently head of LibertySurf UK, will be COO. Simon Preston, who has been
CEO of the UK business, will return to Tiscali's Italian headquarters.

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CASE STUDY: Butterkist Popcorn
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* Butterkist Popcorn: Butterkist nets 34,000 competition entries and hefty
brand exposure through clever contra

Butterkist, Butterkist, Ra, Ra, Ra. Right? Unless you lived the life of a
hermit, Butterkist's ubiquitous cinema advertising will undoubtedly have
left its mark on you. The link between popcorn and film is almost genetic.
You might have not noticed, but Butterkist hasn't been available in cinemas
for years, which has made the option of cinema advertising, less than
desirable. After all, why drive foyer sales of someone else's popcorn?
Combined with the fact that distribution through Blockbusters was not an
immediate option, it was clear that another strategy was required to build
the link with film, particularly 'movies in the home'.

Cadbury Trebor Bassett turned to marketing agency Market Tiers 4DC to
maintain the link between the Butterkist brand and the world of film. The
brief: to make Butterkist the snack to be munching in front of that video or
DVD. A route was needed to develop the link in the minds of the target
audience between the experience of watching films at home and eating
Butterkist popcorn. Given the appetite among movie buffs for the Internet,
an online campaign seemed appropriate, but what sort of campaign would be
effective for a well-established FMCG brand?

## STRATEGY

One option was to create a brand-based website, while an alternative was to
develop a Butterkist-branded film website that could be used as a marketing
tool. An editorial heavy site with such a strong brand association might
have a credibility problem and, illustrated by recent 'downsizing' at many
online publishers, running a content heavy website can be an expensive
proposition. Would the end justify the means?

Instead, why not take advantage of a film site with an established audience?
Market Tiers 4DC, thought this the best route and developed a wide-ranging
sponsorship deal with an existing film website - and one that was
fortuitously named from Butterkist's point of view, Carlton's Popcorn.co.uk.

## CAMPAIGN

Butterkist became a sponsor of the Popcorn.co.uk website. The Butterkist
logo and branding appear on the Popcorn.co.uk video and DVD charts, as well
as on competition buttons that appear across the site. Competition entrants
that correctly answer a film-related question - for example, which singer
appears in High Fidelity (see below for answer)? - enter a monthly draw to
win a DVD player and DVDs.

With the Butterkist logo carrying the line 'Stay home, watch the movie, eat
Butterkist popcorn' there's little doubt what message this piece of
marketing is seeking to communicate. In return, the popcorn.co.uk URL has
appeared on 20m packs of Butterkist popcorn, including all pack sizes and
flavours (Toffee, Maple syrup, Cinema-style and multi-pack). The package
included activity over a period of 12 months, kicking off in June 2000.

## BUDGET

As Market Tiers 4DC director and Head Of New Media, Russell Goldsmith puts
it, this was a "no brainer". The deal was a straightforward 'contra' with
both Butterkist and Popcorn.co.uk benefiting from both from the connection
between the brands and exposure on both sides. Aside from the agency fee, no
payment was involved.

## RESULTS

Both parties were looking for a substantial growth in customer numbers. In
terms of measurable results, there were 34,000 entries to the online
competition between August 2000 and March 2001, of whom 4,000 opted-in to
receive further information, creating a useful database for sampling
purposes. The Popcorn.co.uk site, which has content deals with MSN and
Freeserve, recorded 1.59m page impressions in May 2001.

Prompted awareness of the Butterkist brand has risen to 69% according to
Cadbury Trebor Bassett, and the company believes that web activity in the
shape of the Popcorn.co.uk deal has been instrumental in that increase.

## ASSESSMENT

Karen Rosenstraus, brand manager at Cadbury Trebor Bassett, comments: "The
past year has exceeded all expectations for the Butterkist team. Although
the number of hits and entries we have achieved since the launch of shows
the strength of the link that Butterkist and Popcorn.co.uk share. Beyond
this it has been difficult to measure the success of the online campaign.
Indications are positive that it has maintained prompted awareness levels
for the brand in the absence of above-the-line support. However, it is
difficult to make a definitive link between online support viewership and
sales response."

For Market Tiers 4DC, the key result is that the deal brought Butterkist a
level of exposure that it wouldn't have otherwise been able to secure. The
strategy circumvented the problems of a solely brand-based site and the
expense of a Butterkist-branded film website by working with an established
credible destination website.

For Popcorn.co.uk, having its URL on Butterkist packaging represented an
opportunity to reach a mass audience without the expense of running a major
above-the-line campaign.

Related links:
Popcorn
http://www.markettiers4dc.com

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