Digital brand strategy - Ugo Orlando

ESPEME IS A SCHOOL WITHIN THE EDHEC GROUP,
ACCREDITED BY EQUIS, AAACSB AND THE FRENCH STATE.

MANAGING A BRAND STRATEGY
THROUGH THE DIGITAL MEDIUM,
IS IT BETTER DONE IN-HOUSE
OR OUTSOURCED TO A
COMMUNICATION AGENCY?

A REFLEXION ON THE CURRENT STATE AND THE FUTURE OF
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FROM EXPERIENCES
IN NEW MEDIA COMMUNICATION AGENCIES AND IN THE
MARKETING DEPARTMENT OF A SOCIAL GAMING COMPANY

UGO ORLANDO
YEAR-GROUP GRADUATING IN 2011
THESIS ADVISOR: MR. DENNIS DAVY

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
EDHEC-ESPEME degree 2011

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The opinions expressed in this document
are the sole responsibility of their author.

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A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to:
• D e n n i s D a v y , Thesis Advisor, for his time and his precious pieces of
advice.
• F a r i d H u m b l o t , Student at Edhec/Espeme, for the discussion we
have had.
• L . J . , Digital Planner in a large digital company, for the interview we
have had.
• O l i M a d g e t t , co-Founder of We R Interactive, for the discussions we
have had.
• J é r ô m e R é m i n i a c , ex-Head of New Media at TBWAAuditoire, for
the interview we have had.
• F r a n c e s c o T o s a t o , Game Designer at wooga, for the discussions
we have had.
• C é l i n e V e r l e u r e , Founder at Olfactive Studio, for the interview we
have had.
• T h o r b j ö r n W a r i n , ex-Head of Marketing at wooga, for the
interview we have had.

And also:

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“THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE

IS TO CREATE IT.”

PETER DRUCKER
(1909-2005)

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I NTRODUCTION

W
e are all digital brand
strategists. While searching for
a flat, a job or love, we do this
on the Internet: not expecting a
direct response, but managing a
global brand image, involving contacts,
building relationships and showing in different
spheres who we are.
Beyond promoting ourselves, we will see here how to
do this with a real brand: an emotional relationship
between a product and its customer. A brand should
be recognizable and meaningful. Some might think the
digital medium is just another tool to communicate
the brand to the customer.
However, the digital medium itself opens a wide range
of opportunities. In a few years, no brand will be
communicating to consumers anymore, but with the
customer instead. This shift has been happening for a
few years and is turning advertising into a bi-
directional communication-relationship.

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Customers already communicate through brands. If
someone checks-in a Starbucks, s/he is communicating
another message compared to someone who is posing
with a McDonalds hamburger.
The whole issue is then to communicate through the
customer or the potential customer, trying to drive
dialogues and to enhance talkability , constantly giving
him/her the opportunity to be exposed to the brand
image, to enjoy a meaningful brand experience and
eventually to share brand content. Even though the
brand can orchestrate the customer, it will never own
him/her.

Throughout this thesis, we will try to ascertain
whether a company can manage its digital brand
strategy in-house or should call in a specialized
communication agency, and which kind of agency.
First, we will analyze the working atmosphere,
comparing the methods, the processes and the people
at the agency with those at the advertiser.
The next part will acknowledge that the digital
medium is much more complex than the other main
forms of advertising (film, radio, print, event, street).
Therefore, a communication campaign using a
complete set of different digital tools would deserve
the label “360° Digital”, just like one involving film,
radio, print, event, street and digital is currently called
“360°”.

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We will then focus on the future of gaming mechanics
in the advertising world, as well as in the world in
general.
This thesis explores the present and the attempts of
brands in the digital medium, which open
opportunities for talented people to shape them.

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T ABLE O F C ONTENTS

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

I N T R O D U C T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

FOREWORD ................................................................................... 14

P A R T 1 . H O W D O T H E Y W O R K ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8

1 . 1 . T H E P E O P L E I N T H E R E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0

1.1.1. Working Atmosphere ...................................................................................................... 20

1.1.2. Strategy Mindset ............................................................................................................... 23

1.1.3. Product Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 27

1 . 2 . T H E C R E A T I V I T Y P A T H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1

1.2.1. Who Is The More Creative? ......................................................................................... 31

1.2.2. The Decision-Making Process ..................................................................................... 35

1.2.3. Relationship With ROI ................................................................................................... 38

WHO IS WHO? ............................................................................. 42

P A R T 2 . 3 6 0 ° D I G I T A L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5

2 . 1 . T H E C O N T E N T I S I N T H E H O U S E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7

2.1.1. The Corporate Website ................................................................................................. 47

2.1.2. Who Should Be The Community Manager? .......................................................... 48

2.1.3. Pushing & Pulling .............................................................................................................. 51

2 . 2 . M A S T E R T H E T O O L S F I R S T ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6

2.2.1. Community Management: Let The Conversations Start .................................. 56

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2.2.2. Social Media Advertising: Facebook Ads ............................................................... 58

2.2.3. Dedicated Websites: A Personal Experience ....................................................... 60

2.2.4. Viral Films ........................................................................................................................... 60

2.2.5. Mobile Apps: Brand Content At Your Fingertips ................................................ 65

2.2.6. Flashcodes: Connect To Real Life ............................................................................. 67

2.2.7. Captchas: To Transform The Existing Tools ........................................................ 69

WHO IS THE MORE 360° .............................................................. 71

PART 3. THE GAME LAYER ON THE TOP OF THE
A D V E R T I S I N G W O R L D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6

3 . 1 . I N - G A M E A D V E R T I S I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 8

3.1.1. The Old Schools ................................................................................................................ 78

3.1.2. The Social Era ................................................................................................................... 80

3.1.3. Which Structure? .............................................................................................................. 83

3 . 2 . A D V E R G A M I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5

3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: The Perfect Match ................................................................................ 85

3.2.2. “If You’re Going To Crash The Party, Bring Some Champagne” ................ 89

3.2.3. This Is Real Life ................................................................................................................ 91

3 . 3 . T H E G A M I F I C A T I O N O F T H E W H O L E B U S I N E S S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3

3.3.1. Great Gaming Mechanics ............................................................................................. 94

3.3.2. Under Construction ........................................................................................................ 96

WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? ................................................... 99

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS .................. 103

T A B L E O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 9

L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1

APPENDICES ................................................................................. 119

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Agency-people have different
mindsets than their clients.
Let us compare the atmosphere at
the advertiser with that at the agency
and see which process is the best fit
for which communication issue.
Who are the people in there?
What is creativity going through?
How are decisions made?

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1.1. THE PEOPLE IN THERE

Let us compare the workforce and methods of the agency with those of the
client (=advertiser). Pragmatism versus imagination? Fun versus formality?
Jeans versus ties? Some statements given are just clichés, other ones are
quite true, but are agency and advertiser people so different?

1.1.1. W ORKING A TMOSPHERE

What is a good working atmosphere?
Digital-communication-wise, a company offering a welcoming working
environment would be:
• All-ears to best practices
• Open to new ideas
• Not stuck in old-fashioned corporate offline communication
• Ambitious about its brand equity
• Stable enough to build a long-term strategy
• More into PowerPoint than Word
• More into Instant Messaging than Emails
• Understanding of the product and the communication tools.

Do we have more fun in the agency?

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comparing revenues after a few weeks should design the perfect data-
driven user funnel.
This is very easy to do in IT industries, as you can give two different users a
completely different version of your product, which can hardly be done for
a brick-and-mortar retailer. Amazon is commonly known as the inventor of
the A/B tests.

“We don’t mind testing a lot of weird ideas. At the
end of the day, numbers tell you how good your
idea was.”
Interview with Thorbjörn W.

Coming from Sweden, Thorbjörn Warin was hired
at wooga as the Head of
Marketing. He then moved
moved onto a new startup
in Berlin: Hitfox.

More and more companies do not try to understand facts any more, they
just run tests and figure out what to do next. This is the case of wooga, on
the startup landscape, but some advertisers from the old economy are
finding out the benefits of the “trial and error” method.
A/B tests are a very common thing to do in the IT industry. According to
Tim Harford, a British economist, this is spreading out to the whole of
society 7.

7
Watch Tim Harford’s TED Talk, 2011: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

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In these situations, the advertiser does not need a bunch of surveys before
creating a campaign: one less field to take care of for the agency - one less
reason to be needed.

1.1.3. P RODUCT K NOWLEDGE

We know what we are doing
The advertiser’s marketing people work, have lunch and attend meetings
with their co-workers - the ones who make the products. They know about
every aspect of them, they know about improvements, potential new
products, they know about the strategy and the most valuable sectors to
target. They can see the product growing and often suggest improvements
to it.

“In some gaming companies, we really feel the
influence of the marketing department on the
products. Working close to each other is very
precious. The agency, on the other hand, doesn’t
usually come up with very relevant ideas of
improvement. But they come in with completely
fresh eyes!”

Advertisers know exactly what they are selling and whom they are selling it
to. They are not bothered by other accounts from other industries. At the
same time, they are less experienced at selling different kinds of products.
They know their market extremely well but are less in touch with trends on
the global market. Nowadays, almost any kind of product needs to be new!
Every product launched needs to be innovative and every old product needs

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to receive a new image once in a while. Sometimes these products are sold
by old industries, and in this specific case, the company needs to hire people
who are more up-to-date with the current trends - but not too much.

Over-trendy people in the agency?
Agencies tend to apply a “winning” and “trendy” communication
recommendation to any kind of advertiser. This sometimes works, but
people from the agency sometimes become too comfortable with this and
think a magic recipe can work all the time. They want to be first to share a
set of photographs, possibly a day or two before the usual trendy blogs -
which their co-workers check daily - do. This unfortunately does not make
them efficient ad-men & ad-women. In reality, light painting + Facebook
connect + street art + blog activation does not result in an “epic
advertising win” all the time.

This is good for an agency to keep a constant eye on trends. It is a threat
for them to be too focused on “what’s hot” – for egocentric purposes - and
to forget about marketing basics: linking the product and the customer.
Agencies need both people with egocentric drivers (often juniors) and other
people with ROI and customer satisfaction drivers (often seniors).

This way, juniors will tend to be innovative and follow trends - for the heck
of it - and seniors will put this into the customer’s perspective - for the good
of the business. Agencies need to balance their workforce this way. A lot of
them do. Those who do not, do not stay alive for long, as advertisers can
not see any added value in asking them for digital communication
strategies.

Different People, Different Areas of Expertise

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• A woman is more likely to find benefits in lipsticks. In the illustration
below, secretaries from the fictional agency Sterling Cooper were
asked for inputs, as the Creative department was only run by men.

Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007)

In addition, everyone feels very useful to the company and involved in a
final creation. In the end, feeling creative , even if one is not part of the
creative department, is very important, from an HR perspective.

…And at the Big Agency?
Bigger agencies tend to be less flexible and to involve only the most
relevant people in the process. Reasons are simple:
• As there are more accounts, someone who would like to attend every
brainstorming would not have time for his/her regular job.
• As there are more employees, brainstormings would be very messy.
However, if you have heard about a project, nothing prevents you from
sharing an idea with the relevant people. This process is partly the reason
why Jérôme Réminiac believes what follows…

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“Some agencies with aging management are giving
very valuable communication advice, but are
bringing no added value on digital topics. Smaller
agencies are usually more dynamic and more
relevant to get involved with digital topics: their
consultants being digital natives.”
Inteview with Jérôme R.

Jérôme Réminiac was the
founder of the New Media
department at TBWAAuditoire.
He has now moved to
freelancing projects.

1.2.3. R ELATIONSHIP W ITH ROI 14

Pragmeativity at some advertisers
In ROI-oriented companies which do not need advertising agencies,
creativity is only a nice-to-have bonus: pragmatism being a more valuable
competence.

“In our field of advertising, creativity is important,
but if it comes down to a creative person or an
analytic person, I would rather hire an analytical
person. It is fun making assumptions, but in the end,
data will always tell you where to go. So it’s good

14
ROI = Return On Investment

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WHO IS WHO?

Advertisers may have the knowledge - agencies have to know how. At this
point, a few things are obvious:
• Old-fashioned companies need small and dynamic digital agencies or
independent consultants to carry out their digital strategies.
• Modern companies can either hire an agency or build a whole digital
communication department with disruptive people, who are getting
the right budget (as La Redoute did).
• Old-fashioned agencies need to hire persons who understand the
digital landscape.
• Startups do not need (and can not afford) anyone.
It all is a matter of culture and flexibility. Would this mean that
entrepreneurs and small companies are better able to do business?

Here is a comparative SWOT chart summing up this first part. This shows
Strength and Weaknesses of In-house employees in carrying out a digital

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brand strategy. The second part shows Opportunities and Threats in
outsourcing to advertising agencies.

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The digital medium is so rich and important
that no brand can possibly do without it.
Let us announce it: a communication
campaign can be called “360°”, even
though it is 100% digital. In fact,
the digital media are plural.

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2.1. THE CONTENT
IS IN THE HOUSE

A brand has to be present on every relevant digital medium and to deliver
its message in a specific way, but it is not about focusing on the tool. From
the in-house perspective, the corporate culture is the most important, as it
helps to bring brand content.

2.1.1. T HE C ORPORATE W EBSITE

Content is King
In a corporate website, a user-friendly interface and some well-written
content are very important, but it is not only about a campaign or a
smooth shopping experience. A corporate website’s main strength is its
opportunity of giving valuable information. The content is king and the
advertiser knows this better than anyone else.

The Old-fashioned Ones are Not So Demanding
Old-school advertisers will believe they absolutely do not need advertising
agencies to write content for them. They know their company better than
anyone else and they disagree with the saying “ It’s not what you say, it’s
how you say it ”.

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Either not asking professionals or buying very bad work from one, led until
a few years ago to really bad websites, precisely for brands that are worth
a lot more, and deserve a lot better.

The New Cool Kids Know How To Do It
SEO 16, Inverted Pyramid 17, fast-browsing, user funnel, social features, …
some people know these words, some do not. Hiring people who do and
are used to making good corporate websites is always useful, even in the
B2B area. Yet, these competences do not have to be at the agency, as
creativity is really limited on these kinds of jobs. Internalizing web designers
and content writers is totally fine: their decisions would not lose much of
their meaning going though validation processes - while creative insights
might. The main reason why editorial agencies exist and have work is
mainly because of the lack of dedicated workforce at the advertiser’s.

2.1.2. W HO S HOULD B E
T HE C OMMUNITY M ANAGER ?

At the Agency: a Professional
New jobs such as community management evolve within agencies, as
conversations are about innovative tools.

Digital agencies are specialized and the community manager has been
present for a few years already. Over time, agencies have tended to offer
more and more permanent contracts.

16
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
17
Inverted Pyramid = Web writing technique enabling efficient user-catching and an enhanced
user-experience

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2.2. MASTER THE
TOOLS FIRST!

The content is king, and the king of content is in-house, but what would
great content be without the right tools to wrap it, diffuse it and even sell
it? If advertisers can usually deal themselves with content, agencies remain
the kings of the tools. Let us analyze what a 360° digital approach could
involve.

2.2.1. C OMMUNITY M ANAGEMENT :
L ET THE C ONVERSATIONS S TART

Virality
Virality is not just a buzzword for qualifying YouTube lolcats 22 or a lot of
senseless retweets. Virality can be orchestrated for communication
purposes; you only have to add a secret ingredient called talkability 23 to
your master recipe!

22
A portmanteau from "lol" (laughing out loud) and "cats". This defines a YouTube trend,
because the most watched and shared videos involve cats in funny situations.
23
Ability for a story, film, campaign or brand to be shared and talked about. This factor is
essential in today’s advertising landscape.

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Below are the key performance indicators for one campaign managed by
the agency Buzzman for Tipp-Ex 24 “a hunter shoots a bear” (2010). These
KPIs are all about sharing, the creative key being talkability.

Source: Buzzman’s case study (2011)

Almost any product can be sold and benefit from a great digital
advertisement. Buzzman did it for Tipp-Ex, apparently rather boring
products (correction fluids, pens or tapes). Another KPI – the ROI – was
also very positive, as sales increased considerably a few weeks after the
launch of the ad: 30% up, compared to the previous back-to-school period.

24
Tipp-Ex is a brand from the Société Bic (France). The « a hunter shoots a bear » campaign
will remain an innovative best practice and still earns awards (in fall 2011).

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Talkability can also be sustained from the offline side 25, but will always take
place online.

Influence
This is also a key competence at advertising agencies. Relationships with
influencers are very valuable, and agencies often have to organize fairly
expensive events or clever set-ups to perhaps obtain a blog post about a
product launch, for instance. This is called, activation or influence. As
advertisers typically do not have enough ideas, do not have contacts, did
not identify best practices and do not have time for influence purposes; an
agency is therefore totally indispensable.

2.2.2. S OCIAL M EDIA A DVERTISING :
F ACEBOOK A DS

The Place to Be?
Facebook Ads are known to be the most valuable and best targetable
advertising solution, in almost any industry, not exclusively online, but in the
whole physical world.
In the other hand, Facebook ads constitute with flash banners the not-so-
noble and not-so-creative side of digital communication. Consequently, if
one wants to bring traffic to a website from a dedicated audience, Social
Media Advertising is the right thing to use, but activities which require more
commitment, and a less direct call-to-action probably will not always opt
for Facebook ads.

25
This operation from BMW China was very unexpected, but a bit awkward. The media
coverage was negative as the culture is not used to very disruptive advertising techniques, the
audience did not appreciate being orchestrated: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/31/bmws-
crop-circle-marketing-campaign-confuses-chinese-media/

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“The vaguer the action, the more creativity is
required in its marketing. We only require simple
action.”

This quote appears in this thesis for the second time - but it is worth being
highlighted twice.

The End of Demographics
Targeting an audience according to their beliefs, behavior, connections,
likes and interests is totally new in the advertising landscape and goes far
beyond typical demographics. According to Johanna Blakley 26, “ shared
interests and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings
than demographic categories. I’d much rather know whether you like Buffy

Source: Johanna Blakley on TED (2010)

26
The Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center (California, USA).

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The product not being present at all in the movie, only the advertising
world noticed that Absolut produced it. Specialized blogs talked about it,
but the video was then shared just like any other beautiful and well-
produced short movie. Of course, outcomes in terms of sales will not be
worthwhile – but is not a KPI for this kind of campaign. However, the
results in terms of brand image are not even guaranteed.

Just Like the Other Ones
Commercials that are alike are not new in advertising industry. However, to
a certain extent, brands blend into the trend and lose their identity:
consumers forget about a strong brand image and just see the same trendy
films.
A poem, catchy and fast-paced pictures showing youth and energy,
products all through the movie without them being really noticeable, a
“duty” tagline and a pure logo in the end. It seems that Nike 29 and Levi’s 30

29
Cf. Nike’s commercial “Vive le football libre” (January 2011): http://vimeo.com/18911762
(French) & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH06ltXfhvA (English)
30
Cf. Levi’s commercial “Go forth“ (June 2011): http://vimeo.com/27525961

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have found a winning technique there: it indeed guarantees them a lot of
exposure.

However, their respective agencies (Leg Agency, W+K) were of course
aware of the power of these short films, but they were probably not afraid
of losing some brand uniqueness in the long run.
Adidas Originals 31 somehow played on the same field, which has been
confirmed by Magic Garden Agency , on its own fanpage.

Source: Magic Garden Agency’s fanpage

This mindset can be held for a while, but will most likely lose effect over
time. Worse still, it may make the brand equity weaker, because of troubles
for the target to recognize the brand amongst all the other ones

31
Cf. Adidas commercial "all originals” (September 2011):
http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B5-fFNMXiLU

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2.2.7. C APTCHAS :
T O T RANSFORM T HE E XISTING T OOLS

A captcha is a little box that asks users to type what they can see in an
image in order to verify there are not robots. See a typical example below.

Examples of captchas - Source: Public Domain

Over time, some other forms of captchas have been seen. Sometimes, you
had to answer a very easy question or solve a very simple operation, which
actually made it interactive. Users had to pay attention to this “2+3”
operation – mixed into random curves and rings in order to confuse robots
– and finally type 5 into the text field.
This might soon be taken over by advertising 37 – it was crazy leaving this
attention and engagement unused for so long – here as well with some
gaming mechanics, to put a minimum amount of fun into it.

As shown below 38, the user has to interact with a brand in order to enter
the website, either by just typing a slogan (engaging and memorizable), or
by playing a mini-mini-game interacting with an image.

37
Source: http://www.techi.com/2010/04/captcha-advertising-coming-soon-to-a-website-near-
you/
38
Examples from the provider http://www.adscaptcha.com/ (based in New York) for the
advertiser Philips.

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Source: Adscaptcha.com (2011)

Adcaptcha’s business development seems oriented to agencies, as they may
want big brands to advertise, they want their agency to pitch this idea first.
Agencies are a great intermediary when it comes to canvassing something
innovative for the company.

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WHO IS THE
MORE 360°?

The right content without the right tools will not reach the right audience.
However, the best tools with no content are just empty Twitter accounts.

Of course, both have to evolve hand-in-hand: clients have to surround
themselves with social-media-aware people. Agencies and consultants need
to understand communication issues beyond the scope of the tools.

“The social networks do not have a good image
with advertisers. I would say small agencies and
freelancers are the best ones at understanding the
marketing impact of a great Facebook strategy.
This has to be explained to the advertisers.”
Interview with Jérôme R.

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Lots of banks 39 have now made it possible to open an account via Twitter.
They were most likely advised by a consultant or an agency to make it
possible and known.
However, if community managers are needed for debugging or customer
care issues, changes have to be followed up quickly by product managers,
and community managers need to have a deep understanding of how
products are made. Therefore, gaming companies or e-business websites
need to hire in-house community managers. No matter how large they are,
it matters how large their userbase is – and it often is indeed large.

The advertiser had better use an autonomous agency but must be willing to
communicate with the people in there on a daily basis, delivering
information, validating their communication choices but also reacting
quickly to their feedback from the community feeling.
If the advertiser plans on communicating via the digital medium over the
long term, then they might consider hiring a creative, autonomous and
experienced person to carry out 360° projects. This person should then be
able to have an influence on the company’s product. The top management
indeed tends to trust agencies rather than in-house people, and in-house
people tend to pitch fewer out-of-the-box ideas than an external
workforce.

“Clients have become much more aware of the
importance of digital marketing, even more so in
the last few years - as we can see in the shift in how
marketing budgets are allocated.

39
At least Bnp Paribas or La Caisse d’Epargne in France, many more all over the world.

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“But most of the big clients - with aging
management - still need to be advised on the best
way for them to use digital and that knowledge
comes from agencies.
“The agency expertise can vary a lot as well: the
traditional agencies may not know enough about
digital to come up with the best social media
strategy, and some digital agencies do not have in-
house technical knowledge to make a good mobile
app, for example.
“However, it is not rare to have 3 or 4 creative
agencies working for the same client: 1 main ATL 40
agency which is responsible for the main brand
strategy, a digital agency, a direct agency and
possibly a small keen start-up mobile specialist
added in if the digital agency is too expensive.”
Interview with L.J.

The following comparative SWOT chart aims to sum up this second part,
showing how helpful and harmful can in-house or outsourcing solutions be,
in the scope of how they use the whole set of digital communication tools.

40
ATL for Above The Line: an advertising strategy targeting mass media to deliver messages to
a large and mainstream audience - typically an offline TV + Radio campaign - while BTL (Below
The Line) investments are usually less expensive and their ROI is much more accurately
mesurable - typically a 100% digital campaign.

73

Games and gaming mechanics
are playing a bigger and bigger
role in advertising campaigns.
Beyond this, a whole “gamification”
of the business is happening.
Will advertisers need agencies to
make this “mutation” happen?

Seth Prietsbach’s TED talk (which will be introduced in this 3 rd part)
called “The game layer on the top of the world”
has to be given credit for the title of this part.

77

3.2. ADVERGAMING

Any advertising operation that aims to fool the consumer will be a serious
failure in the long run, if not also in the short run. Lots of advergames are
in the form of a Facebook application, gathering personal data and trying
to “ make the buzz happen ”, but simply moving a canvas from a website to
Facebook does not make a game “social”.
Some other developers or agencies advocate respectful gaming mechanics
and end up offering a quality brand experience.

3.2.1. I AM PLAYR:
T HE P ERFECT M ATCH

I AM PLAYR is a game on Facebook which is about living a footballer’s life,
literally through his own eyes, as it mixes game sequences, with POV 47 film
sequences.

An Innovation
What the British developer We R Interactive has done with I AM PLAYR 48
(2011) is to make it fun to play, and moreover to make it fun to play with
brands.

47
POV for Point Of View. Movie technique showing what the character is looking at.
48
Know more about the game: http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/11/i_am_playr.php
Play the game: http://Facebook.com/iamplayr

85

This game is definitely fun, disruptive and innovative. Even though it does
not look like any other social game, several characteristics definitely make it
a social game:
• It is more fun to play with friends
• You can purchase virtual items with real money
• It has daily rewards
• It is evolving and has an undefined lifetime
• Users evolve along with their avatar.

86

Without losing any fun at all, the player visits Nike stores with his girlfriend,
and he has to struggle to get a sponsorship contract with Nike – his agent
puts pressure on him to score in key games and become famous.
To make the user interact a lot with the Alfa Romeo brand, for instance,
one has to select one by one the desired options for the car, as shown
above.

All this brand content is put into a very high quality game, with customized
film sequences. The product placements are not annoying any more,
because the consumer is respected, with expensive design.

3.2.2. “I F Y OU ’ RE G OING T O C RASH T HE
P ARTY , B RING S OME C HAMPAGNE ”

Respect the Consumer
This is a very popular saying amongst agency people. The French agency
Buzzman has made it one of its mottos, acknowledging anyone a brand
tries to interact with, should enjoy a high-quality experience.
This was originally a quote from Bob Thacker, senior VP – Marketing &
Advertising at OfficeMax: “The secret is respecting the consumer. You are
interrupting their life. All advertising is unwanted, so if you’re going to crash
the party, bring some champagne with you”.

The right moment, the right medium and the right message are not enough:
a very good production and the right moment is necessary to “borrow”
some attention from the target.

Respecting users by building quality gaming mechanics into a brand
message is starting to be a standard for the industry as it shows great
involvement behaviors. However, this mindset currently is only wide-spread

89

within agencies. The “a hunter shoots a bear” Tipp-Ex campaign
(mentioned earlier) is an excellent example of this 51.

This philosophy goes against all the traditional above-the-line agencies
selling mainstream products by interrupting the consumers during their…
• TV program: film
• Radio program: audio
• Way to work / Way home: billboards
• Information gathering: press
• Internet browsing: banners, pre-rolls, pop-ups.

Here, the consumer chooses to consume the product, which makes the
message considerably stronger, and the brand much more memorizable.
Hopefully, advertising will not be seen as an annoyance again, in the next
few years.

The Role of the Agency
Advertising agencies can certainly reach out to game developers, like
publishers, to get their client’s brand into a game mechanic. However, as
this does not require being embedded in any further communication set-up,
the client can just skip the agency step and go ask the publisher directly.

There are only two prerequisites:
• Knowing about these new advertising spaces and being able to
identify the right support for the desired digital brand strategy
• “Bringing the champagne” instead of being stuck to a short-term ROI
objective.

51
More details in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Community Management > Virality

90

Of course, the agency is able to fulfill those requirements, but if a company
is aware of these objectives, has sufficient skills in-house and has regular
needs, it is perfectly imaginable that it will skip the cost of an agency.

3.2.3. T HIS I S R EAL L IFE

Get the Target to Play, Then Sell Authenticity
The following talk by Jesse Schell - a very influential Game Designer -
(2010) is about how brands manage to get their target into the virtual
world, for the “real” world to feel even better. The strategic insight is
actually about reality , according to this talk (from 10’30’’): in other words,
this is an authenticity driver.

This also gives a short overview of how important the gaming industry is. In
addition, there is a hypothesis about gaming and competition dynamics
becoming closer and closer to our lives, at least in the Western world.

Part of Life
Good games bring an actual service to their players. It is thus only a matter
of time until they get a brand to enjoy it – and pay the developers, as did

91

3.3.1. G REAT G AMING M ECHANICS

The Daily Appointment
In social games, this takes the form of a daily reward: every consecutive day
you log into the game gets you a better gift, so you do not want to miss a
day, otherwise you will get back to a small gift. This daily appointment
makes the game (brand) part of users’ (consumers’) lives.
For business, it can be used in pop-up stores for instance. Showing up at a
certain time, between certain dates, allows you to either meet a star,
receive free samples, get to know exclusive brand content or find help for
your current issues 55.

Geolocation
This has been used since geolocation was made possible, starting for
instance with Geocaching, back in 2000 56. In communication, this takes the
form of city quests, war games, exclusive retailing 57 or Coupons: several
startups indeed offer deals via geolocation.

T h e U n c e r t a i n R e w a r d 58
The uncertain reward is known for being enlightening. Studies have shown
that being unclear about the aim of an action produces greater results than
when it is about a known reward.

55
« Mes colocs »’s pop-up store in the heart of Paris, helping future flatmates to meet and deal
with paperwork. See in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Viral films > Web-series
56
For more information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
57
See vitaminwater France’s iPhone App (by Auditoire, 2009)
58
See Marketing Science/Vol.22, No.4, Fall 2003 > The Effects of Effort and Intrinsic Motivation
on Risky Choice > Intrinsic Motivation as a Moderator of the Impact of Effort on Preferred
Rewards > The Role of Intrinsic Motivation: Discussion (p.487):
http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/centers/mks/articles/51d0762ea0_article.pdf as well as Tom
Chatfield’s (Gaming theorist) TED talk (2010): http://tiny.cc/tom-chatfiled-ted-talk

94

This is used a lot in community management: when a brand is organizing a
mini-contest, users become more involved when it does not say specifically
what is to be won.

The binary call-to-action
Source: Tipp-Ex Experience on YouTube (2010)
Using the same uncertain
reward mechanic, the same
way, the opposite campaign
shows a binary choice at the
end of a teaser video. This
involves an uncertain end,
which is much more
appealing than one simple “continue the experience” call-to-action button.
This minimum amount of gaming dynamics still participates a lot in making
a promotional message both successful and respectful to its users.

“Level Up!”
In business, badges
were widely used by
Foursquare first
(2009), and a lot of
other actors have
been following this
trend, which makes it
die by itself – or will
have done so by the
time this document is

95

WHO WILL MASTER
THE GAME?

The Target Shift
A typical social games paying player is a 43-year-old woman, not a 15-year-
old boy 63.
The usage of the web has shifted in the last few of years from consuming
content to creating and sharing content. On a medium where self-esteem
within a semi-private audience is a more important driver than ever,
sharing positive results – in any game – is a strong motivation to spread
brand content.

Brands should acknowledge this shift, as users have already done. Agencies
are communication professionals, experienced in target definition, who
seem to be more able to drive the change. However, very pragmatic and

63
Commonly known fact in the gaming industry. Read more about it (2011):
http://www.slideshare.net/ctrottier1/designing-games-for-the-43yearold-woman/

99

disruptive advertisers such as small companies in a new market can totally
surprise everyone and innovate in this area.

Advertiser + Agencies + Gaming Company
In addition to their dynamics, game designers should really be watched by
the whole economy as their business models usually are very valuable and
their marketing techniques are most of the time very efficient and
innovative.
Gaming companies are therefore the first ones to efficiently build on this
game layer. It is very strategic for marketing people to observe gaming-
people and perhaps to do business with them.

Just like almost every new trending topic, agency-people are typically more
aware of it and keener to make unusual partnerships than in-house people.
Here as well, startups or flexible companies can easily do it efficiently if they
want to. The future of advertising-people depends on what the gaming-
people are currently inventing. Let us get into the game.

The following comparative SWOT highlights that both advertisers and
traditional advertising agencies surprisingly do not know a lot about
gaming yet.

Just like TV in the 60’s, the web in the 90’s, the social media in the 00’s, the
advertising will most likely take a while before integrating this trend of the
decade to come. Its reactivity is exemplary within the whole economy,
though. What is for sure is that first 360° to integrate gaming layers in their
campaign recommendations will soon master the game, alongside their
clients.

100

This chart shows that agencies need to integrate gaming mechanics – not
only a minimum amount of it – in order to keep providing an added value
to their clients.

101

C ONCLUSION & Recommendations

M ost brand managers
advertising agencies to act on the
digital medium, do not do it for
direct sales but for a brand image
calling on

p u r p o s e 64 . I f i t i s n o t f o r r e p u t a t i o n , i n -
house traffic managers, for instance,
monitor ROI data more efficiently.

“No agency can do user acquisition as well as we
do it. But my department would not be good at
building a brand.”

Partly for the reason described above, 50% of
brands employ social-media dedicated people 65. This
does not mean they do not ask agencies to work
with them, but it still implies that brands give a
growing credit to their digital strategy.

64
Source: Marketing Magazine UK (2011): http://marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1098242/Brands-
social-media-long-term-investment-finds-study/
65
Source: New Media Age (2011): http://www.nma.co.uk/news/half-of-brands-employ-dedicated-
social-media-staff/3030935.article

104

There is work to do for these people, as they
currently are not present enough for members of
their communities on social networks. Too few
complaints and questions are solved (29% on
Twitter 66, 5% on Facebook 67).
It is the agency’s job to advise their clients on
reaching out to their customers. But, once this
educational work is over, it is the advertiser’s job to
interact with its communities.

Below is a summary of strengths, weaknesses of
advertisers in managing their own digital brand
strategy, and of the opportunities and threats of
outsourcing it to an advertising agency.

66
The Drum (2011): http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/10/13/71-companies-ignore-consumer-
complaints-twitter
67
Source: Social Bakers (2011): http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8149-companies-respond-to-just-
5-of-questions-on-facebook

105

Of course, the final advice on whether one should
outsource one’s strategy depends on the
advertiser’s size, budget and objectives, but it also
depends on the agency’s evolution.
In a digital world in which everyone has control
over everything, agencies need to progress by
integrating competences from the startups’ universe,
the gaming universe and the high-tech business
universe.
Advertisers also need to evolve and hire more
managers with advertising backgrounds, which is
helpful when keeping smooth process and good
relationships with agencies.

This shift is exciting. Not everyone will be part of it.

107

“IT IS NOT THE STRONGEST OF THE SPECIES THAT SURVIVES,

NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT THAT SURVIVES.

IT IS THE ONE THAT IS THE MOST ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE.”

CHARLES DARWIN
(1809-1882)

108

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