Communication campaign
In 2016, the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (EDCOM) held an international Ad Venture Competition. In this competiton student teams from all over Europe worked on a solution for a certain problem. The problem this year was the popularity of AdBlock and the client the European Media Alliance (EMA). This alliance consists of the media industry in print, on TV and online across all platforms and devices. This includes the press, comprising newspapers and magazines, the commercial television companies and the digital industry. In common, they all rely on advertising to be able to provide free access to online content and services for consumers.
The problem: The freedom of the internet, what has become accepted as an everyday right for society, is only possible because the online content is supported by digital advertising revenues – in the same way that offline newspapers, magazines and TV are funded by advertising. The recent surge in usage of Ad Blocking technology, however, had highlighted a fundamental issue for consumers and providers of digital content alike. According to the EMA, all digital platforms and all online publications can only survive if they either allow advertising or charge subscription fees for all or part of their content – a choice which is not often understood or appreciated by consumers, who take free access to information for granted, particularly if they are digital natives.
Our mission: to create a communication campaign to inform the public of the critical role played by advertising in funding the provision of free high quality, online content and services, using digital channels and including research, strategic approach, tactical measures and creative executions.
Problem Finding
We started doing research about AdBlock statistics, reasons for downloading the app and about our target audience: generation Y, the computer generation. Interestingly, we found that 77% of our respondents answered that they were not aware of the consequences of AdBlock usage for internet websites. We also found that almost no one was willing to pay for website access. For our target audience, we read that digital marketing was the best medium to reach them. This generation also appeared to be very socially concerned and wants to do useful work for society.
Ideation & Concepting
As we found out more about the problem, we came to the conclusion that a digital awareness campaign about the effect of AdBlocking was probably the best way to decrease the amount of AdBlock users. In order to achieve the right effect on the viewers, our message had to stay positive towards advertisements and negative/shocking towards AdBlocks.
Our campaign strategy consisted of three elements. The first is a central website with information about the problem. The second is a video for sharing on online platforms and through popular internet intermediairs, who are happy to help in the fight against AdBlocking. You can view the video down below. The third element is a guerilla campaign in a crowded area. This last part is the most interesting one: we would place a large glass box in the middle of a public place where many young (generation Y) people walk by. We put a timer on it to evoke curiosity. When the clock hits zero, the box would go open and a ticket dispenser would be accesible inside. When people scan their phone with NFC technology and accept the pop-up, their internet history is scanned. What they then get is not a ticket, but a receipt. The receipt shows the different websites that they recently visited and the amount of money that it would have cost to acces them if there were no advertisements. At the bottom, there is a 'discount of advertisements' which brings the total sum back to 0. In this way, we wanted to make people aware about the importance of advertisements. The reactions of people when they read the receipt would also be filmed and spread over the internet.
We won!
With the presentation of our concept, our team was chosen by the jury as one of the four teams (out of the 33 teams in school) to join in the international European competition. Unfortunately, we didn't make this next round, but we were happy taking the 27th place (out of 92) against all sorts of European Universities.
