GoPro's C-suite admits it has been forced to re-evaluate its advertising strategy in the face of slow take-up of its Hero4 Session camera.
Chief financial officer Jack Lazar told the Citibank Media and Telecoms conference in the US that the lesson the brand learned in 2015 was that “advertising was (our) friend” and revealed that the camera brand has begun to significantly ramp up its marketing efforts, particularly in the TV space.
He now says July is “perhaps not the best time to launch a new product” after discussing last winter’s arrival of the Hero4 Session camera.
“We pulled back too much on advertising in the first half of 2015,” Lazar admitted. “So, as we went into Q4, we stepped up our advertising ... if you saw a football game, you were pretty much guaranteed to see one (of our TV spots).”
The company, which has built a strong reputation on user generated content and advocacy will now undertake a series of above-the-line TV campaigns across the world.
For the first time, the company has also started to feature imagery of the actual products in its campaigns.
In a campaign running during the holiday period in the US, snowboarder Travis Rice was featured with the Hero4 mounted on him. The advert also includes a shot revealing the recently lowered US$199 price tag.
“There's a lot of products we're being sold on a daily basis and being aggressive - showing great products, showing the videos - that's how you get people thinking and see action,” Lazar says.
The CFO noted that by including shots of the product itself, it becomes easier to track ROI as opposed to monitoring a campaign purely for brand awareness.
“In every case there is a CFO who likes to see a ROI,” he says, “we're learning and running with it to see what those returns will be.
“Our goal going forward is to not let off on the marketing. We put our foot down on the gas again and we think that was an important step.”
AdNews met with GoPro creative director Brad Schmidt before Christmas. Read this year’s first issue of the magazine to check out the interview and Adnews.com.au for the exclusive video interview.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.