Procter & Gamble is one of the largest advertisers in the world. It's committed to building its brands and sees print ads as key to doing that.
P&G is the headline sponsor of the upcoming Australian Magazine Awards (AMAs). The AMAs recognise best in class magazine brands, editors, marketing and more. Get your entries in now - they close today.
AdNews asked P&G about building brands over the long and short-term, traditional media and innovation and tailoring global messages for the Australian market.
Why does P&G believe print advertising is so integral for its brands?
With P&G’s well-known global brands such as Gillette, Pantene and Olay, our marketing needs to drive more than awareness. We need to connect with our consumers and convince them to try our products and print advertising plays a significant role in driving this consideration. Print gives us the ability to tell our stories via bespoke executions that help us better serve our consumers in Australia.
Based on the size and scale of P&G’s global brands, driving reach is always going to be an objective. There is no point in having great assets that nobody sees. The ability to share our message with hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, is key to the success of our business.
What makes a strong print or magazine brand - and why is that good for advertisers?
Great brands put the consumer at the heart of everything they do. Product superiority is the foundation on which P&G’s great brands were built and we continue to deliver superior consumer experiences through innovation. I believe the same applies to media brands. The strongest media brands are in touch with the evolving needs of their readers and innovate to meet these needs better than the competition. It’s what makes the brand credible and relevant to its readers, withstanding the test of time.
A strong media brand is incredibly valuable to advertisers as it has strong connection and trust with its readers and the power to influence them and encourage trial. We’ve seen great success in partnering with print and magazine brands on bespoke campaigns to drive trust and advocacy of our brand benefits and promise.
How does P&G look to tailor global brand messages for this market?
Marketing and advertising is the key channel for building relationships with our consumers and long term brand growth. It enables us to recruit new users by connecting our brands and brand benefits to consumers in a way that’s both meaningful and relevant. Advertising enables us to speak to a large audience at scale driving awareness and consideration of our portfolio.
At P&G ‘Consumer is Boss’ – so we take the global brand messages and couple them with local insights, market trends and shopper needs to bring relevant messages for Australian consumers.
As well as supporting traditional channels such as print advertising and TV - P&G is also a strong advocate for innovation. How important is innovation and experimentation for P&G's marketing?
Innovation is the lifeblood of our business and it has enabled us to grow for nearly 180 years. We are committed to be the innovation leader in every category where we compete, and we innovate in virtually everything we do. Our marketing is no exception. Our culture of innovation means that we are always striving to ‘test and learn’ through informed experimentation across all of our marketing channels.
Marc Pritchard, P&G global CMO, has recently talked about the need to swing back to marketing that achieves mass reach after a period of investing a lot in targeted digital ads and communications - is this something P&G is doing more of in Australia?
P&G brands are focused on growing more users. When it comes to media, we follow the consumer and invest where we can reach them. We consistently optimise our media plans, to get the right reach to help brands grow users.
How does P&G balance the long-term outcomes of brand building with the short-term need to impact sales with marketing activity?
We don’t see these as mutually exclusive concepts. Effective marketing brings new users into our brands and categories, delivering sales and building our business over the longer term.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.