Advertising the Laneway Festival in Australia - Case Study Example

Advertising Campaign Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 22nd January, 2012 Name of Advertising Campaign Advertising the laneway festival in Australia Campaign objective and Tracking The laneway music festival presents new and revered music to its customers; the Festival strives to present live concerts of the current urban music. Its settings in the streets make it unique to other music festivals. The festival began in 2004 in the Caledonian lane of Melborne. It has since grown to be staged in several locations across Australia. The current campaign objective is meant to double the awareness of the of the LaneWay music festival in Australia for the coming 12 months. According to the DAGMAR theory proposed by Colley in 1961, advertising goals should be set in such a way as to make sure that the effects of advertising is measurable (Doraszelski and Markovich 2007). The marketing objective of any advertising plan plays a great role in determining the success of an advertising campaign. The laneway festival advertising objectives are not vague and therefore are unlikely to be unsuccessful. By setting a period of 12 months as the period which they will achieve the marketing objectives of doubling awareness Laneway ensure their objectives are time bound. Secondly, measurability of advertising income is ensured by the setting an objective of doubling awareness of the laneway festival in the Australian and South Asian market. According to advertising objectives should be measurable, specific and realistic. According to Arens, Weigold and Arens (n.d.), the overall objective of an advertising campaign is to increase the sales of a firm, but advertising cannot shoulder all the responsibility of increasing revenue for a company. Marketing plays a greater role in increasing sales revenue and it is their ultimate duty to ensure growth in sales margins. The advertising Pyramid is one of the instruments used to set appropriate marketing objectives for any product. The levels of the Advertising Pyramid enable the setting of effective advertising goals. At Level one advertising goals are meant to create awareness of a product (Assmus, Farley, JU and Lehmann 1984). Awareness objectives are set where a product has no prior visibility in the market. Similarly, Laneway has set their advertising goals as doubling awareness in the South Asia and part of Australia where people do not know about the festival. Other levels of the advertising pyramid that are used to determine marketing objective are the comprehension level, the conviction level, the desire level and the action level. Target Audience, Customer insight and Targeting According to Darrel (1976), for a product to be successful in the market it cannot be purported to target the whole market. The Laneway music festival is targeted at the 18-24 years old demographic group who constitute the largest number of concert attendees in Australia. This demographic group is particularly interested in the young and fresh artistes who present their act in the lane fare festival. The Festival strives to provide an offering to this specific market segment by presenting to it a differentiated product offering. Key campaign messages and offers Any campaign messages should be based on who the messages are targeted and what it is supposed to communicate to them. Any advertising message for the campaign is likely to reach many different audiences. Images, logo and look are some of the elements of an advertising message that enable the creation of brand awareness. The advertising for the laneway festival should include an easily recognizable image or Logo. The logo should be dominated by the company theme colour of pink that its uses to in its events. Pink is widely used as the theme colour of Laneway festival and together with the pink dominated logos of the festival will bring about a perception of Laneway festival into the mind of anyone who receives the advertising message. Laneway should collaborate with local designers to come up with an effective marketing communication. The advertising messages for any major festival like the laneway festival must include some essential information. This information include date, time and location which otherwise would make the advertising ill targeted (Pricken 2008). It is imperative for the organizers of the Lane way festival to include in their advertising message what is unique about the laneway festival to convince them to attend upcoming laneway festival events. Media mix and Strategy The Laneway festival can use various media channels to pass on the marketing communication. Among the media channels available for use by lane way include various web-based communication channels, local newspaper, radio and television advertising channels. Advertising on the Laneway website The laneway official website will be the most important avenue of advertising the laneway festival offering. It is therefore important that the website ties in with all elements of the advertising communication including the colour theme (Vakratsas and Ambler 1999). Other than carrying the company’s adverts the website should contain information about upcoming events, timetables, ticketing, parking, enquiries and contact information. An important advertising strategy on the company’s website would be to drip feed the audience with information instead of giving information all at once (Felton 2006). Drip feeding information about upcoming events will create a suspense and momentum towards the event. Information should be readily available on the site to avoid users going through the effort of finding what they want. Brochures and press releases on the website are distinctly different from those released in print format. Web users need to scan information looking for snippets of information that interest them. While presenting advertisement content on the laneway site it should be concise, informative and relevant (Egendorf 2006). It is very important for Laneway to link its site to that of other internet sites so user can navigate to their site from this other sites. Advertising links can be located on the sites of the festival sponsors, ticketing sites, radio station sites and other sites where the target demography is likely to visit. Advertising on Social Networking sites Laneway can advertise their services on social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. Creating a page on the facebook the most popular social network website is a great way to create awareness about the product offering of Laneway festival. Laneway can create group of made of its followers especially those who attend the group’s concerts. Social network presence will enable Laneway interact with their customers in an interactive and the organizers get immediate response from those who are likely to participate. Magazines and other Printed Press The printed press can be used in the Laneway festival advertising campaign include local, national and international entertainment magazines (Wells 2011). Entertainment magazines are preferred as they are the ones the youthful population targeted by Laneway advertisement is most likely to read. As the campaign targets mostly Australian youth advertising in local and mostly urban publication will make sure the advertising message reaches the targeted audience. Local newspapers are sometimes willing to support cultural festivals like the Laneway festival. LaneWay must make sure it informs the various Entertainment magazines of its intention to advertise on their publication at least 6 months prior to placing the advertisement. Entertainment magazines can help to create a fabulous anticipation for concerts under the Laneway label. By adopting a strategy where you release periodic information to the press great anticipation is possible as it creates a sense of curiosity among readers who want to know more. Posters Posters are some of the most effective methods of creating awareness about event like the Laneway festival. Posters are necessary to make people who do not read newspaper or use the internet aware of the Laneway festival. Laneway can create awareness by coming up with a poster that highlights their various events throughout the year (Sethuraman and Tellis 1991). These posters can be posted in all major Australian urban centre and places where the target audiences congregate. University, shopping malls and public transport centre are good places to place posters for advertising campaigns. Banners Advertising Banners can be valuable tool for advertising the 2014 laneway festival. Banners ads are targeted at road users both pedestrian and motorists. Banner ads may be subject to regulations in most urban centers and it is important for Laneway to obtain the approval of local authorities before using banners ads. In the marketing of events such information as dates, times and location are very important. Banner ads are a short term advertising tool and can only be used to TV & Radio One of the most effective advertising media for an event like the Laneway festival is Radio and TV advertisements. A television ad should be designed in a way it communicates the unique value proposition of the laneway festival. Laneway can create a unique advert to air on local and national TV that features the new stars who have presented their acts in past Laneway festivals. To make its advertisement more appealing the festival organizers should produce a unique ad that really raises the interest of the audience in the campaign. Moreover, the advertising of the laneway festival on TV should be timed during times when the target audience of 18 to 24 is most likely to be watching TV. It should be timed in breaks in between programs that are known to be popular among the target age group are airing. Advertising on exclusive music channel may also be a more effective marketing strategy than placing ads in TV stations aimed at general audiences. Radio is another great advertising tool Laneway festival can be greatly advertised. Local Radio stations near the location of the festival are for creating awareness about the festival. Radio stations that have cut a niche in playing the kind of music presented at the festival can greatly benefit the laneway festival as they reach the specific audience targeted by the festival. Conclusion An advertising campaign that follows the theory of advertising can be an effective tool in creating awareness of a product offering in the market. A good marketing campaign starts by setting a good advertising objective which is specific and measurable. An effective advertising strategy should be based on the targeting strategy of the firm showing recognition of the firms preferred market. The message to be passed across in advertisement should be carefully considered as it plays a huge role in determining whether an advertisement will be successful. The message must align with the way the targeted demographic group prefers to communicate. Where advertising is for events it must contain essential information such as location for it to be effective. The channel to be used for the advertising is also very important as it determines the number of people among the targeted audience who will get the message. References Arens, W, Weigold, F and Arens, C n.d. Contemporary advertising / William F. Arens, Michael F. Weigold, Christian Arens. n.p.: Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, Assmus, G, Farley, JU & Lehmann, DR 1984, “How Advertising Affects Sales: Meta-Analysis of Econometric Results,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 21 (February), pp. 65–74. Darrel, C 1976, “Econometric Measurement of the Duration of Advertising Effect on Sales,” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 13 (November), pp. 345–57. Doraszelski, U & Markovich, S 2007 “Advertising Dynamics and Competitive Advantage,” RAND Journal of Eco-nomics, vol. 38, no 3, pp. 557–92. Egendorf, LK 2006, Advertising: Opposing Viewpoints / Laura K. Egendorf, Book Editor, n.p.: Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, Felton, G 2006, Advertising: Concept and Copy / George Felton, n.p.: New York: W.W. Norton Price Discounting, " Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 28(May), pp. 160-174. Pricken, M 2008, Creative Advertising: Ideas and Techniques from the World's Best Campaigns / Mario Pricken, n.p.: [London]: Thames & Hudson, Sethuraman, R. and G. J. Tellis 1991, “An Analysis of the Tradeoff between Advertising and Vakratsas, D & Ambler, T 1999, “How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 63 (January), pp. 26–43. Wells, W 2011, Advertising: Principles and Practice / [William] Wells ... [Et Al.], n.p.: Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia Read More