The Staufenberger Repository

A Communications Primer

For the last ten years, like any self respecting 30-something loft-living urbanite, I've collected mid twentieth century furniture. And nothing gets me more excited than an Eames LCW (Herman Miller original of course). It's hard to avoid the work of Charles and Ray Eames. If you work in advertising you probably sit on a chair like this in meetings

and if you've spent time in an airport you might have sat in one of these

or just simply recognise this

But Charles and Ray Eames are responsible for far more than just great chairs. They are amongst the most important designers of the 20th century with their work spanning architecture, design, photography and film.

Incredibly, they produced over 125 short films, most famous of which is Power of Ten. Charles Eames said of their films "They are not films at all, just ways to get across an idea". It is in their film A Communications Primer (1953), that Charles and Ray explore ideas within communications theory particularly influenced by Claude Shannon and his paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication. The film was an attempt to present architects with the latest thinking in communications theory complete with an Elmer Bernstein soundtrack.

Archival footage supplied by archive.org

Whether you agree with the contents of the film or not doesn't really matter, thinking in the area has moved on in the last fifty years and there are more schools of thought in communications theory than there are kung-fu fighting styles. However, Eames Demetrious in his excellent book, An Eames Primer, recognised what makes this film really interesting:

1. Charles and Ray's prescience that we were in fact entering an age of communication
2. The ambition of choosing film to express an idea that others might have tackled in writing
3. The explicit notion that the discipline of architecture might have a key role in the way communications systems might develop - it wasn't until the recent experience of the Internet that mainstream society recognised the important role of design in communications in the way ideas are presented, the structure of information and the communications experience.

According to Charles Eames:

"One of the reasons for our interest in the subject is our strong suspicion that the development and application of these related theories will be the greatest tool ever to have fallen into the hand of architects or planners"

The Music Biz

A post last week, mentioned PPL in relation to the music business.  This reminded of a presentation I saw earlier this year at a BCMA event. 

The presentation was given by Alexander Ross at Wiggin, a law firm that specialises in media law.  He presented a chart that illustrated the flow of rights in the music business. If you've ever ventured into this world before you'll know what a minefield it is dealing with record labels, artists, publishers, managers and the bloke that happed to be making the tea the day the song was recorded. This diagram should help you get an idea of how they all piece together and impress colleagues with your music business know how. 

Of course if you do actually venture down this road with a client we'd recommend you speak to a friendly lawyer. 

G to the R to the P

A GRP is a Gross Rating Point.  It is basically a unit by which media is traded.  The reason is that it allows for the reduction of advertising activity to currency that can be applied to every media channel in every market. 

GRP is calculated by multiplying the reach of a campaign (expressed as a percentage of people that are exposed to an advertisement) multiplied by the average number of times they are exposed to the ad.  So for example, 100 GRPs might mean 50% of people being exposed to an ad twice, or 25% being exposed 4 times and so on.

The reason we use GRPs in the calculation of budgets is that it allows us to factor in the different country sizes when planning internationally and thereby standardise weights of activity.  Hitting 30m adults in the UK with your advertising equates to quite a high coverage, but the same couldn't  be said for a campaign that hits 30m in China.

Hey, let's sponsor something!

Athletics? Hmmm...
Sponsorship? It all depends on what your objectives are. Why is he keen on this?

If this is for consumer marketing, I would advise against it.

Firstly, I would have a problem with sponsorship in principle if it is simply a question of badging an event, programme, personality, team etc. Everything is sponsored these days and unless you give people a reason to remember you, the sponsor, you might as well take the money and burn it: it’s quicker and easier. Hence, TV programme sponsorship lives or dies on the quality of the “bumpers”: if they are relevant and engaging then they are likely to be appreciated and remembered. If not, they are as good as invisible. Done well, TV sponsorship can provide a cost-efficient means of extending a brand’s presence on TV beyond a burst of advertising. 118 118’s sponsorship of Channel 4 drama is a good example.

Secondly, one might make a very tenuous case for some form of sponsorship as purely an awareness generating measure. But how many people will be exposed to to this activity? Bearing in mind that the BBC (who I suspect are the only channel to broadcast athletics) will strenuously avoid broadcasting any references to commercial sponsors, your audience will be reduced to those present at events.

Lastly, unless you have a cast iron reason to be involved, and that involvement is substantive rather than superficial, it will not make much sense. To take a subject close to mine and Yusuf’s hearts, it makes complete sense for a cycle manufacturer to sponsor a cycling team: their presence is relevant (obviously), substantive (they provide the bikes) and genuinely contributes to consumers perception of the brand (via race-winning credentials and association with star riders).  Unless your brand fits completely with your sponsorship vehicle, you will not be getting value from the investment.

On the other hand, there are instances in which sponsorship of this kind can makes a lot of sense.

The sponsorship of a sports team or competition can provide very good corporate hospitality opportunities for companies where this is important. However, for this to work, it usually makes sense to sponsor a  sport or team that will appeal to the widest group of people. Chelsea football team or The England cricket team, for example.

Lastly, from a purely cynical point of view, it can help to oil the wheels of industry: if your company needs governmental or local authority backing it can often help if you sponsor that body’s pet project. An Olympic bid, for example.