All huh, or what?
Advertising: Good teasers build an audience and make life easier for advertisers—but they put a strain on the budget.
Advertising Good teasers create an audience and make the advertiser's life easier - but the budget more difficult. "Euro millions for the Swiss people" is what posters in bright EU blue and yellow have been promising since the beginning of the week. The creator or creators are just as unknown as the message and intention of the poster. Who could be so well-meaning as to announce the gift even with an expensive, media-heavy appearance? Who is behind the posters and TV commercials with wildlife motifs that are supposed to remind us of the alarming decline in biodiversity? At least the sender provides two clues here: the website and the fact that it has been keeping records of species extinction for over thirty years. What is unusual about this advertising campaign is that it is obviously no longer just consumer goods that rely on this hard-selling mechanism before launch. Organizations and associations from the non-profit sector, which use advertising primarily in fundraising, are also using teasers to overcome the ever-higher perception threshold of media consumers. Frank Bodin, CEO of Euro RSCG, sums up the mechanism in simple terms: "If advertising is the unsolicited answer to a need, then the teaser poses the clever question." Good teasers succeed in triggering "huh-question marks" in the audience.
Two Swiss agencies are currently targeting such reactions. For their French clients - two car brands - they want to use the teasing pull mechanism to increase viewer involvement. Be it with the call not to act so grown-up (Publicis for the Renault Modus) or with the opposite statement that it is time to grow up (Euro RSCG for the Peugeot 407 SW).
Even after the recently resolved puzzle campaigns such as those for Parisienne, PartnerWinner.ch or the Basler Zeitung, there still seems to be a lot of potential in the use of curiosity-provoking implementations. "Basically, you can use the teaser mechanism for anything," says Jean Etienne Aebi, spiritual godfather of the "Angie Becker" masterpiece for APG's Poster Performance Index and other witty campaigns. The days when teasers were used exclusively to announce new products are long gone.
According to Aebi, the current accumulation is probably more of a coincidence and he cannot recognize a seasonal trend. Only the technical-media application types have now been explored in all sorts of funny ways: from submarine ads (for Amnesty International), guerrilla campaigns (for the Zurich Theater Spektakel) and SMS appeals, as in the case of Bugsy the rabbit (Swisscom), to cross-media resolution links, as in the case of the wild animal campaign, for which Spinas Gemperle is responsible.
The puzzle game with the anonymous and unexpected alone draws the attention of the viewer and fascinates practically everyone. It is by no means only the advertising material that provides a talking point on the way to work. The public media willingly and above all free of charge support the suspense hype and thus often save the client PR costs. However, this does not mean that teaser campaigns are cheap by any means. On the contrary: "Without sponsorship, i.e. financial support, the teaser campaign would not have been possible for our client," says CD Lorenz Spinas, hinting at the media budget required.
The Big Bang has its price
Although the media budget can vary depending on the type of media, frequency and area of application, it is unlikely to be possible to reach the general public for a national campaign for less than 800,000 to one million francs. Without high advertising pressure, the teaser will quickly run out of steam. However, the question of money does not play the central role. "The success of a teaser depends heavily on the close cooperation between the media and the creative team," explains Monica Jäggi, co-owner of the Konnex media agency.
This is because ensuring that the resolution is recognizable as such and reaches the same audience as the teaser is very challenging. Experience shows that posters are preferred to all other media types for teaser campaigns, despite the high prices. Monica Jäggi: "Depending on the strategic choice of location, the corresponding budget and the clearly defined target group, a poster with a strong impact can usually generate more publicity than other media." If you try to build up the same excitement in other media over several days, you quickly reach your limits. The advertiser often resorts to the trick of dissolving it in the immediate vicinity, a few pages further on. With the inevitable effect that the resolution follows too quickly and the surprise fizzles out.
Martina Schörghofer, consultant at the creative agency Ruf Lanz, points out that the client's willingness is often a question of price. "Even if there really is a great idea for a teaser, the client often has to assume double the costs for production and logistics reasons. In many cases, they then decide against the teaser campaign and choose another idea that can be spread over a wider time frame," she says, summarizing the problem. It is not uncommon to see resolutions that cannot maintain the level of the teaser, evoke the wrong associations or are simply lax. "You only see teasers that really hit the mark once every two years," she concludes.
Greater chance without a sender
Markus Gut, Managing Director Creation at Publicis, is prepared for a similar period of patience. It was under his aegis that the Prinz smash hit was created, which not only received great media coverage. The response and acceptance also exceeded all expectations. After this exploit, "the teaser seems a bit exhausted to me," he says with a grin.
Nevertheless, the teaser always retains one important advantage, says Lorenz Spinas, a specialist in political and NGO communication. These areas in particular benefit from being able to place their messages without a sender. In this way, the statements are perceived more neutrally by the audience instead of being immediately pigeonholed because of the sender. "Target groups react much more openly and neutrally to teasers," explains Spinas. Whether this makes the sender appear more credible and likeable to the audience after the resolution is up for debate in the meantime.
Fundraising and awareness-raising are the focus of the secret client's ongoing campaign. Several sponsors were found for the difficult financing.
Riposa beds: While eye-catching, the resolution was misleading for many.
Parisienne: The campaign as a puzzle, but not the new product.
PartnerWinner.ch: Angelo Prinz looked for one and found thousands.
Attracting attention as a goal: teaser poster.
So that the world may finally be shaken up: teaser campaign to be launched shortly by an unknown client >> page 7
The year of the teaserMysteries have a tremendous attraction for people's curiosity. Segments that would otherwise not even be reachable for the advertised product also get involved in mystery games. The success of a teaser in 2004 remains a question of budget and an astonishing resolution.
Luca Aloisi
Two Swiss agencies are currently targeting such reactions. For their French clients - two car brands - they want to use the teasing pull mechanism to increase viewer involvement. Be it with the call not to act so grown-up (Publicis for the Renault Modus) or with the opposite statement that it is time to grow up (Euro RSCG for the Peugeot 407 SW).
Even after the recently resolved puzzle campaigns such as those for Parisienne, PartnerWinner.ch or the Basler Zeitung, there still seems to be a lot of potential in the use of curiosity-provoking implementations. "Basically, you can use the teaser mechanism for anything," says Jean Etienne Aebi, spiritual godfather of the "Angie Becker" masterpiece for APG's Poster Performance Index and other witty campaigns. The days when teasers were used exclusively to announce new products are long gone.
According to Aebi, the current accumulation is probably more of a coincidence and he cannot recognize a seasonal trend. Only the technical-media application types have now been explored in all sorts of funny ways: from submarine ads (for Amnesty International), guerrilla campaigns (for the Zurich Theater Spektakel) and SMS appeals, as in the case of Bugsy the rabbit (Swisscom), to cross-media resolution links, as in the case of the wild animal campaign, for which Spinas Gemperle is responsible.
The puzzle game with the anonymous and unexpected alone draws the attention of the viewer and fascinates practically everyone. It is by no means only the advertising material that provides a talking point on the way to work. The public media willingly and above all free of charge support the suspense hype and thus often save the client PR costs. However, this does not mean that teaser campaigns are cheap by any means. On the contrary: "Without sponsorship, i.e. financial support, the teaser campaign would not have been possible for our client," says CD Lorenz Spinas, hinting at the media budget required.
The Big Bang has its price
Although the media budget can vary depending on the type of media, frequency and area of application, it is unlikely to be possible to reach the general public for a national campaign for less than 800,000 to one million francs. Without high advertising pressure, the teaser will quickly run out of steam. However, the question of money does not play the central role. "The success of a teaser depends heavily on the close cooperation between the media and the creative team," explains Monica Jäggi, co-owner of the Konnex media agency.
This is because ensuring that the resolution is recognizable as such and reaches the same audience as the teaser is very challenging. Experience shows that posters are preferred to all other media types for teaser campaigns, despite the high prices. Monica Jäggi: "Depending on the strategic choice of location, the corresponding budget and the clearly defined target group, a poster with a strong impact can usually generate more publicity than other media." If you try to build up the same excitement in other media over several days, you quickly reach your limits. The advertiser often resorts to the trick of dissolving it in the immediate vicinity, a few pages further on. With the inevitable effect that the resolution follows too quickly and the surprise fizzles out.
Martina Schörghofer, consultant at the creative agency Ruf Lanz, points out that the client's willingness is often a question of price. "Even if there really is a great idea for a teaser, the client often has to assume double the costs for production and logistics reasons. In many cases, they then decide against the teaser campaign and choose another idea that can be spread over a wider time frame," she says, summarizing the problem. It is not uncommon to see resolutions that cannot maintain the level of the teaser, evoke the wrong associations or are simply lax. "You only see teasers that really hit the mark once every two years," she concludes.
Greater chance without a sender
Markus Gut, Managing Director Creation at Publicis, is prepared for a similar period of patience. It was under his aegis that the Prinz smash hit was created, which not only received great media coverage. The response and acceptance also exceeded all expectations. After this exploit, "the teaser seems a bit exhausted to me," he says with a grin.
Nevertheless, the teaser always retains one important advantage, says Lorenz Spinas, a specialist in political and NGO communication. These areas in particular benefit from being able to place their messages without a sender. In this way, the statements are perceived more neutrally by the audience instead of being immediately pigeonholed because of the sender. "Target groups react much more openly and neutrally to teasers," explains Spinas. Whether this makes the sender appear more credible and likeable to the audience after the resolution is up for debate in the meantime.
Fundraising and awareness-raising are the focus of the secret client's ongoing campaign. Several sponsors were found for the difficult financing.
Riposa beds: While eye-catching, the resolution was misleading for many.
Parisienne: The campaign as a puzzle, but not the new product.
PartnerWinner.ch: Angelo Prinz looked for one and found thousands.
Attracting attention as a goal: teaser poster.
So that the world may finally be shaken up: teaser campaign to be launched shortly by an unknown client >> page 7
The year of the teaserMysteries have a tremendous attraction for people's curiosity. Segments that would otherwise not even be reachable for the advertised product also get involved in mystery games. The success of a teaser in 2004 remains a question of budget and an astonishing resolution.
Luca Aloisi
