Brave work might be the key to cut through, but marketers say they need to take a “calculated risk” if they want to get innovative work over the line.
The importance of innovation was the topic of a panel discussion at Melbourne's PauseFest, led by Colenso BBDO head of innovation and digital Gavin Becker.
Speaking at the panel, DrinkWise CEO John Scott pointed to the brand's recent 'How to Drink Properly' campaign, as an example of the need for risk in business, but risk grounded in research.
“Sometimes innovation is portrayed as coming up with a great idea and just running with it,” Scott says.
“In our case, it's very much a risk calculation. It sounds very sanitary but for us, dealing with such a big issue, it was going to divide people outside of the 18-24 year old target market and, being quite controversial, we need to have that confidence.”
The highly-targeted digital campaign, by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, aimed to show the difference between the 'right' and 'wrong' way to drink, encouraging them to be safe about their behaviour.
Scott says for the first time in the organisation’s history it went out and listened specifically to the target audience, rather than traditional research methods which he says “would have just shown us what we knew already – that they were drinking incessantly”.
“It involved a level of riskiness for the board and the executive in terms of how we're being seen by the Australian community outside of the target audience,” Scott says. “It's a great example of putting a lot of emphasis on research to understand what is working for this age group and how can we mix it up.”
Other panellists including Visit Victoria digital marketing manager Michael Hauser, Transport Accident Commission senior manager, road safety Sam Cockfield and Mars Petcare New Zealand marketing manager Debbie Laing also agree with the premise that getting risky work approved by the C-Suite requires research.
Laing says that some of Mars' recent innovation, including its real-time lost dog app, Found, showed the importance of having a good relationship with its agency, in this case Colenso, when it comes to pushing the boundaries.
“We have a mantra of fewer, bigger, better, so we want a lot of our resources and focus on things that are going to drive growth – so it had to be the right type of risk,” Laing says.
“You can throw 100% into something, but also you have a good feeling that this going to be what drives growth.”
Mars operates on a “test and learn” model where 90% of its marketing budget is on the every day and 10% is focused on going “over and above”. With the latter, the business tests three or four ideas if they think they've got a chance of successful, before scaling up and rolling out a risky campaign.
The Found campaign was an example of a 'test and learn', with the app only launched in Auckland initially until it can see the results.
“What we're trying to do is minimise the risk to know where to throw the kitchen sink,” Laing says. “So test more, think fast, being agile, making it happen and learning from failure.”
“The great thing is because of our track record we've actually earned the right to take risk globally and we have the support from global to invest in things that we’re doing. So we're now looking at scaling up the campaign into other units.”
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