Dr Pepper digs up some trouble
Dr Pepper issued an apology for hiding a gold coin in a historic burial ground in Boston as part of a larger treasure hunt promotion, and planned to make a donation to the cemetery, as reported by PROMO Xtra’s Patricia Odell in February.
City officials were alerted to treasure hunters looking for the coin when the players called to complain that the cemetery was closed to the public and they couldn’t get in. The hidden coin was part of the Hunt for More contest, in which 23 gold coins worth $1.7 million were buried in cities in the U.S. and Canada. “The coin should never have been placed in such a hallowed site, and we sincerely apologize,” Greg Artkop, a spokesman for Dr Pepper, said in a statement.
City park officials shut down the graveyard and posted security there. Dr Pepper canceled the Boston part of the promotion and then announced the following day that the top prize, a $1 million coin, had been found in Sam Houston Park in Houston.
In addition to issuing an apology, Dr Pepper is covering the costs of the additional security at the Granary Burying Ground, estimated at $500. The company is also making a $10,000 donation, the value of the coin hidden there, to the cemetery for its time and trouble, Artkop said. For those players in Boston, a separate drawing was to be made to award a $10,000 prize.
The coin hidden in the cemetery was retrieved by a private investigator hired by one of two marketing agencies involved in the campaign, Promotion Watch, based in Livonia, Mich., according to news reports.
In the wake of January’s disastrous Cartoon Network promotion, which caused bomb scares and set nervous residents on edge, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said alternative marketing can continue in the city, but not without the knowledge of City Hall. Boston officials were not notified of Dr Pepper’s or Cartoon Network’s plans, according to news reports.
“Dr Pepper Says Sorry for Botched Boston Promo, Donates Money,” PROMO Xtra, February 27, 2007
Pharma MR workers less comfortable with Web
Market researchers who work at research agencies are more comfortable using the Internet for their research studies than their corporate counterparts, says a report by New York research firm Medefield America.
In the study, comfort and perceived credibility of online research both ranked higher among research agencies, which conducted 63 percent of their quantitative research online, while manufacturers, during the same period, used the Internet for 43 percent of their surveys. In addition, agency professionals credited the Internet with providing higher quality data than phone interviews.
The new report is based on a comparison of the 2006 Market Research Trends Study - which analyzed responses from 122 market research executives at 20 global pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers - and a separate study, conducted simultaneously, with 107 professional market researchers at agencies around the world.
“We wanted to see how perceptions and attitudes at agencies differ - if at all - from those of their counterparts at pharmaceutical companies,” said Elys Roberts, president of Medefield America. Comfort level, while greatly improved on the company side, is still about 14 percent lower than at agencies, a figure that appears to correlate closely with experience, Roberts said.
“Agency people tend to have been in the field longer. Often they’ve made a career of research, with relevant graduate qualifications. On the pharmaceutical side, the researcher is more likely to come from a background in one of the other disciplines, such as marketing or sales, and be serving a relatively brief rotation in research.”
Some pharmaceutical staffers are motivated to continue using the phone - even when they are aware of the benefits of Internet data collection - in order to keep their studies consistent. One way to make the transition, suggested Roberts, would be for pharmaceutical researchers to take a test-and-control approach, using both an Internet and phone sample, to see whether the two methodologies yield any differences in response patterns. Typically there is very little difference and when researchers can see this kind of comparative data they tend to be more comfortable making the switch.
The bigger the ad, the better the impact?
According to the report, Do Spectacular Ads Generate Spectacular Results?, by New York-based GfK Starch Communications, both recognition and readership of ad copy rise as the number of pages increases.
The study, commissioned by Time Inc., reviews the average readership of “spectacular” ads including multi-page units, gatefolds, inserts and scented strips and offers insights into their performance across three key categories: noted - the percentage of readers who remember seeing the ad; associated - the percentage of readers who recall seeing the name of the advertiser or product; and read most - the percentage who read half or more of the copy.
The report features readership data on several innovative ads that extend beyond the two dimensions of the typical print ad. For example, a hair conditioning ad for Clairol Herbal Essences with Hawafena is a four-page insert. Upon opening the ad, the reader is greeted with a brief audio clip of Handel’s Hallelujah chorus, employing the name of the new product ingredient, hawafena, in place of hallelujah. According to the report, “Readership scores for the hawafena ad are extraordinary and 100 percent of the publication’s readers noted, associated and read some of the ad.”
“It’s clear that sheer tonnage does matter - increasing the number of pages or altering the size and weight of the page increases the probability that an ad will be seen and read,” said Philip W. Sawyer, senior vice president and director of GfK Starch Communications. “When that added weight is combined with technological innovation and creativity, the results can be truly spectacular.”
The study also investigated the extent of reader recognition and involvement with scented-strip ads, used primarily by fragrance companies. The report reveals that although recognition of scented-strip ads is only slightly higher than comparable two-page spread ads without a scented strip, readership of body copy of scented-strip ads increased by 136 percent. “The data strongly suggests that women tend to be highly involved with scented-strip ads,” Sawyer said. For a complete copy of the report send an e-mail to info@gfkamerica.com or call 212-240-5300.