Enhancing your brand

Crossmedia is an integrated, synchronized concept that aims to reach defined target groups via different marketing channels and media categories. Traditional advertising channels such as press, television or radio can be combined with online measures.

To speak of cross-media, the media used must be coordinated in terms of time, content and design.

The advertising industry is faced with the trend towards individualized, personalized use of media.

The fragmentation of offers makes it more difficult to reach target groups without loss of distribution.

What’s more, consumers are becoming increasingly critical, reacting by decreasing brand loyalty and changing their values.

To build long-term relationships, consumers need to be considered as individuals, and products and services need to be tailored to individual needs.

Customers are also able to compare prices and services (e.g. via the Internet) without exception.

Only clear, credible communication can prevent customers from turning to the competition.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for advertising communications to make the most of target groups and build consumer confidence in the brand.

To cope with these changes, advertisers, agencies and marketers are striving to apply new approaches, integrated concepts and smart, global, networked communication strategies.

The customer and the communication measures to reach target groups as part of an overall corporate communications policy are at the heart of these efforts.

One way of adapting the communication mix to the new communication conditions is by cross-media networking of different media categories (online and offline).

Strategy and concept are about linking not only the media, but also the story elements that convey the campaign message. ¬

It’s content that holds the different communication channels together.

Cross-media communication is appropriate when the aim is to deepen the understanding of a theme over the long term, or to win the loyalty of target groups over the long term.

The current problem of measurability

Cross-media produces synergistic effects, a fact that communication specialists have no doubt about.

However, there are only a handful of studies on the Swiss market which demonstrate these effects.

In practice, however, we can see that these new strategies and concepts have not yet really entered the real world. Linking and, above all, synchronizing the various measures and advertising channels is still very difficult, due to the lack of technological development of measurement and evaluation tools.

Media agencies strive to develop and define strong, effective strategies that take into account and integrate the current situation in terms of both consumption and supply.

So-called “multi-channel” campaigns, i.e. campaigns using several types of media, are primarily aimed at reaching different target groups or achieving more effective reach development. This efficiency can be relatively high thanks to the simultaneous use of several channels.

For a neutral strategy and an objective recommendation, the agency must take into account all media categories available on the market (TV, radio, online, out-of-home, print, etc.), as long as they are relevant to the defined media and communication objectives and target groups.

The strategy to be developed is based on the fact that all advertising activities must reach the defined target groups as effectively as possible, and with the greatest possible impact.

To achieve this, planning is specific to target groups.

Target group segmentation is based on socio-demographic, behavioral and consumer characteristics.

The aim is to achieve the lowest possible diffusion loss.

Personalized (target-group-specific) advertising is in principle relevant for all types of advertising (for image campaigns, for advertising specific products, etc.).

At the outset of an advertising campaign, it’s important to consider which media are best suited to reach the target group. This is done by means of an intermedia comparison, which compares the suitability of different media and thus reveals their advantages and disadvantages.

The decisive criteria for the final choice of media to be used are as follows:

Coverage criteria

Scope (regional, supra-regional), contacts, affinity, geographical priorities.

For campaigns with a national focus, advertising channels that provide greater supra-regional coverage and therefore also have an economic advantage (e.g. TV, out-of-home, online) are generally preferred.

The combination of several regional or local advertising media is recommended for a regional or local campaign. They enable more targeted geographic use. The use of local advertising media for a national campaign should be avoided, as it is associated with higher costs (the addition of numerous low-coverage advertising media increases total costs).

For regional or local advertising, preference is given to regional and local advertising media, as they allow geographic delimitation and avoid loss of circulation.

Communication skills criteria

Function and specificity of the medium (e.g. visual on TV, only auditory on radio), image of the medium, possibilities for implementing the message, place of use, environment of the message, time of use, duration of use, frequency of use…

Technical and economic criteria

Frequency, print quality, availability, legal restrictions, absolute costs, costs per thousand contacts, CPP…

The advertising channels analyzed in depth and definitively defined according to media and communication objectives then have a specific complementary role to play in the mediamix, and are difficult to interchange.

The intramedia comparison starts at a lower level and evaluates the advertising effect between media of the same genre, for example in the print media 20 minutes, Blick, Berner Zeitung or NZZ.

By way of example, the parallel use of different channels, e.g. TV / Online.

“Second Screen”, the parallel use of a second screen (usually a smartphone) is just one of the many current consumer habits that need to be integrated into strategic thinking.

Media consumption behavior has changed dramatically in recent years, adapting to new technical possibilities and technologies.

This combination of two types of media (in the example TV and Online) and the corresponding advertising media is completed by the definition of the necessary disciplines:

– TV: spot campaigns, program sponsorship, special forms of advertising, etc.

– Online: Adwords, video, programmatic advertising, social ads, remarketing, etc.

The main reason for the diversity and richness of the media in Switzerland is its political, cultural and geographical situation.

The three language regions strongly influence the media’s image.

It’s not just linguistic differences, but also cultural and political differences that shape geographical distribution. In Switzerland, we actually have 3 countries in 1.

This fact is of vital importance for the structure of the media.

Compared to our neighbors, Switzerland has no classic national media, whether in print, radio or television.

Germany, for example, has national TV channels (ARD, ZDF, RTL, Pro7, etc.), national radio stations (Deutschlandfunk, NRJ, RTL Radio, etc.) and print media (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit, Bild, etc.).

Traditional media are structured on a regional or local level, at the level of cantons, towns and even communes. The result is a large number of individual media, which together provide regional or national coverage.

In the case of national planning (print, radio or TV), all individual titles, stations and transmitters must be planned and booked individually.

The planning and buying of advertising space within the defined media category is based on the technical resources available on the market (planning tools).

For television, but also for classic out-of-home, online and press advertising, agencies have planning tools that enable detailed planning and booking.

– For TV, the various channels must be booked through the sales houses (Admeira, Goldbach, etc.).

– For radio, it’s possible to go through the sales houses (Swiss Radio World, Admeira) or book the various radio stations directly.

– For print media, directly with the publisher or through the sales houses.

– On line, directly or through the sales houses.

– For Out of Home, go through the various companies (APG, Goldbach Neo etc.).

Economic aspects are decisive for the “direct or indirect” choice (when directly possible).

If a direct booking gives better conditions, the agency will give it preference. Otherwise, the role of the advertising sales house, the link between the advertiser/agency and the advertising medium, is extremely important. Particularly when it comes to streamlining administrative planning burdens, but also the core competencies of different media categories.