1. Panasonic Case Study

2. Background and Aims A four week advertising campaign to promote the Panasonic ‘icon’ vacuum cleaner launched on Sky One and Sky movie channels in October of 2000. The campaign was additionally supported with advertising on the Open platform and a ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ hosted and built by Open. In addition to monitoring sales, Panasonic set out to gain an understanding of the potential for the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ to increase consumer product understanding and brand awareness. Panasonic commissioned with the help of Open, a research study designed to establish these additional key benefits.

3. ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ - Summary A triple purpose ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ which featured a brochure request and a competition to win a year’s free cleaning courtesy of Molly Maid. In addition viewers were able to purchase the Panasonic icon by jumping from the service direct to the specific product area within Comet for the first two weeks of the campaign and then Argos for the remainder. Panasonic were keen to test different incentives into the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ to assess the impact on response rates. Therefore advertising alternated between promotional and non-promotional weeks.

4. ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ - Summary During promotional weeks the opportunity to win a year’s free cleaning was advertised on all banners and Interactive Advertisements. During non-promotional weeks the incentive for viewers to jump through to the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ was the opportunity to ascertain more information about the product.

5. Promotional Non-Promotional

6. ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ – Entry Points Interactive TV advertisement Directional Banners within Open….

7. ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ - Structure Brochure ordering Competition Product purchase Product Information

8. Methodology Interviewees were recruited from those known to have entered the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location.’ The interviews spanned 15 minutes and the questions were designed to evaluate both the Panasonic advertising campaign and consumer reactions to the Open service. 192 successful telephone interviews were conducted.

9. Results

10. Quantitative Measures Overall the campaign was a resounding success with sales up year on year by a staggering 300%. On line response levels to the ‘dedicated advertiser location’ both from the interactive advertisements on Sky and banner advertising reached 29,000. A response rate 3.5 times greater than the average of 0.05% for DRTV. Respondents spent a long time in the service, on average just over 3 minutes 30 seconds.

11. Quantitative Measures The competition was extremely successful and was entered on average in 93% of cases. It held viewers attention for 68% of their time in the service. During promotional weeks the competition was more successful in terms of delivering audience, 73% of responses. During non promotional weeks viewers were more likely to watch the promotional video on the entry screen of the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ (38% longer) and use the product information section (250% longer).

12. Qualitative Measures From the qualitative research conducted Panasonic were able to conclude that brand and product recall was outstanding with 63% of those asked, spontaneously naming the ‘Icon’ as the product they had recently interacted with. In addition the viewer experience of the ‘Dedicated Advertiser Location’ and Open in general was very positive.

13. Spontaneous Brand Awareness Brand Name What was the name of the product? Icon Manufacturer’s Name Who makes the product? Panasonic 77% 63%

14. Depth of Communication (unprompted) What messages were given about the product: Style76% Power80% Hygiene47% Unique technology76%

15. Future Intentions Considering Purchase Are you considering purchasing a vacuum cleaner in the near future? ‘Yes’ Likelihood to Purchase an Icon After having visited the interactive TV advertisement, would you now be more likely to consider purchasing an icon? ‘Yes’ 70% 83%

16. Summary “ Customers stay on the site for between three and four minutes, this is an extremely valuable brand mechanism for us, with no parallel in any other medium”