Case Studies

Client: British Museum

Campaign: First Emperor Exhibition

Campaign Background:
Our task was to create a dynamic media campaign promoting advance ticket sales, build awareness, drive footfall and market the biggest exhibition at the British Museum in the past 30 years in terms of profile and expected attendance.

Response: Our communications plan was holistic with saturation and longevity at its core. The activity consisted of PR, third party associations and multimedia advertising, all working together to drive footfall to the exhibition.

We wanted to draw upon a wider target audience than just the traditional London & South East arts regulars, with incremental audience development a key objective.

We front weighted the campaign, with significant presence prior to launch - unusual for an exhibition. This was designed to drive advance ticket sales and to enhance the extensive PR that the British Museum secured. Group Travel press was used for the first time, in combination with Outdoor advertising. Targeted Online activity drove traffic to BM website for ticket sales.

A constant Outdoor element sustained presence throughout its run (reaching commuters and tourists alike), with selected National Press supplement cover sites, adding a premium high profile feel. All LU activity was bought as exclusive TM packs, providing heavily discounted rates at highest footfall stations. To maximise the positive association, future BM exhibitions were promoted alongside the First Emperor.

Results:
The campaign generated record breaking advanced ticket sales (150k before opening vs. a 10k target) and high walk-up demand resulted in the exhibition being full to capacity. Opening hours were extended to help accommodate the extraordinary demand. Final ticket sales were more than twice the target.

Chinese New Year saw the largest attendance for one day in the Museum's history – over 30,000 people. This Terracotta Army exhibition made 2008 the British Museum's most successful year ever, and made the British Museum the United Kingdom's top cultural attraction between 2007-08. The campaign was awarded Best Marketing campaign of the year 2008 by VisitBritain

Client: Maximuscle

Campaign: Normalising the brand

Campaign Background:
Maximuscle is the market leader in the sports nutrition market, they produce a range of premium products which include protein shakes, fat loss products and energy drinks. The products , when used by people who exercise regularly, help to deliver a greater level of performance.

The huge hurdle faced by the company when targeting a broader audience has been the inherent mistrust of sports nutrition and its misplaced associations with steroids and drugs in sport.

Our challenge for this brand was to “normalise” the brand and grow the business across a wider consumer base so that it attracted a broader gym going audience.

Making it Happen:
We chose to normalise the brand reaching consumers through trusted media and educating potential customers about the real benefits of sports nutrition and Maximuscle in particular.

As London was a key market we chose outdoor formats with long dwell times ( 16 sheets cross track and tube car panels) to provide product information and to educate people on the benefits of sports nutrition.

We ran a series of advertorials in Sport and FHM demonstrating exercise and nutrition regimes to help the readers achieve their body ambitions. This also helped to establish Maximuscle as an authority when it came to fitness editorial.

The use of retail trade magazines such as Boots, Holland & Barrett Healthy and Tesco magazine helped support the trade distribution team, which in turn helped normalise the brand by appearing on the shelf and in everyday retail environments.

Our TV sponsorship of Five’s rejuvenated “Superstars” ran for over two months across a key period in the campaign. It gave us a fantastic presence with an iconic sport and fitness brand as well as association with its high profile sports personalities giving us a further platform of trust.

Across all of this activity there was a marked difference in the creative treatments which were softened somewhat using less technical heavy text format ads and more celebrity sportspeople especially women.

Results – where we are now:
Maximuscle is now being featured frequently in the editorial pages of mainstream magazines and newspapers as an authority on health and fitness. There has been a marked increase in levels of awareness across the new target groups.

Maximuscle have exceeded all financial targets across the last financial year (May 2008 – April 2009) which is a remarkable achievement given the current financial conditions. June and July 2009 have just recorded record sales.

Client: New Zealand Lamb

Campaign Background:
New Zealand Lamb were seeking a targeted advertising campaign that would enable them to communicate in an effective and relevant way with their target audience of ‘foodies’ and ABC1 women. The main objective of the campaign would be to create awareness of the New Zealand Lamb brand amongst the target audience, whilst also driving brand interaction through increasing the number of visits to the New Zealand Lamb website and generating sign ups to a New Zealand Lamb run competition.

Overview:
In order to meet all their objectives Total Media suggested an Advertiser Funded Programming sponsorship led approach for the campaign as the sponsorship would allow New Zealand Lamb to reach their core audience through highly impactful creative around highly relevant content.

Total Media negotiated a deal with the telegraph.co.uk whereby the Five Minute Food programme was commissioned by Telegraph TV for a New Zealand Lamb sponsorship. New Zealand Lamb took complete ownership of all ad units surrounding the Five Minute Food Leaderboard including: MPUs, Skyscrapers, Pre-roll, Post-roll, InSkin and Additional run of site activity.

As part of the sponsorship several press insertions were negotiated to gain further awareness of the programming with all promotion being done in association with New Zealand Lamb. This has helped drive further volume to the programming and increased New Zealand Lamb’s brand association with the Telegraph and Five Minute Food.

Results:
The campaign has been successful in increasing awareness of the New Zealand Lamb brand amongst their key target audience and has also been successful in prompting strong interaction between them and the New Zealand Brand, with the campaign delivering over 3.1% CTR from the InSkin and an 18% conversion from click through to competition sign up, compared to 2% site average.

Client: Random House

Campaign: Prime Time Crime Sponsorship

Campaign Background:
Looking at the strategic opportunities for Random House in 2008 it became clear to Total Media that an umbrella campaign property might be developed across a range of their major crime thriller authors.

Response
Total Media conceived and developed with SKY, a new long term, station dominant sponsorship for Random House across all Prime Time Crime programming on the FX channel. This allowed 10 books to be supported over 10 months with tailored creative work under the umbrella of Prime Time Crime.

Results
The campaign created massive exposure against the key target audience and total domination of any competitive activity. It reached over 4.9m individuals over 6 months, representing an over-delivery of 10%; and has provided a platform for future sponsorship deals on FX for crime thrillers. The campaign also won Bronze at the PromaxBDA Europe Awards 2008 for Best Sponsorship Sequence.

Client: Renault Retail Group

Campaign: Centralised Media Buying

Campaign Background:
When Renault Retail Group came on board they were letting each of their 21 branches buy their own media. Many branches were overpaying for media with rate card pricing being paid unknowingly in some areas. This was obviously a real waste of resources but we knew that diplomacy was integral to our job.

Response:
We worked with existing branch managers using their local knowledge and experience, coupled with our knowledge and analysis of local media to produce strategically sound media plans. We clearly communicated our media plans and rationale to all parties and re-assured branch managers regarding their existing relationships with media owners.

Using the combined volume of all dealer advertising budgets, Total Media were able to use this as leverage to negotiate with sales houses to provide considerable discounts off rate card costs and achieve a larger share of voice in the already cluttered motor dealership marketplace.

Results:
Since our centralisation of Renault Retail Group we have become an extension of their marketing team and have produced a consistent media strategy across all branches. We have booked across all media including Press, Specialist Magazines, Outdoor, Radio, TV and Online. Renault Retail Group have regularly saved up to 70% against rate card and in the first year alone we bought £12m worth of media against a budget of £3m.