Monthly Archives for December 2010

65% not incentivised by offers for check-ins on location based services

Checking into Facebook Places
Checking-In on Facebook – Photograph by Jorge Quinteros

With more and more people using smartphones, it is unsurprising that location based check-in services such as Facebook Places and Foursquare are becoming increasingly popular. Brands are seeking to capture this interest and raise awareness for their presence on these services by offering incentives and rewards for users who check-in to brand-owned locations – as pointed out in this Saatchi and Saatchi blog post.

We decided to use our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to ask our UK community members how they feel about location based check-in services.

Our questions included:

  • Do you use social networking check-in/location-based services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, etc.?
  • If so, which services do you use to check-in to places?
  • Would you use check-in services more if there were better incentives for checking in to places (freebies, discounts, etc.)?
  • Would the fact that a brand is using location-based services to promote their products or services affect your feelings towards that brand/product/service?
  • Do you see these services playing a bigger role in marketing as time goes on?

Location Based Check-In Software Survey: The Results

Asked if they actually use location based check-in software, a massive 70% of our 1000 respondents said that they do not, compared to only 30% who said that they do. Of this 30%, Facebook Places reigns supreme as the software of choice, with 86.89% of the share, followed by Twitter Places (7.87%), Foursquare (3.28%), Brightkite (1.31%) and Gowalla (0.66%). The staggering popularity of Facebook Places in particular is interesting, when compared with this blog post by Ketchum, which suggests that Foursquare is king.

Respondents were also asked if better incentives such as freebies or discounts would encourage them to check-in. 65.54% of respondents answered that it wouldn’t, compared to 34.46% of people who said that it would. The increasing use of incentivised based check-ins amongst brands (such as a pizza in the case of Dominos) seems somewhat at odds with these results.

When asked whether a brand’s use of location based check-in services would affect their feelings toward the brand, 71.91% of respondents answered that it wouldn’t affect their feelings at all, while 17.83% said it would affect their feelings in a positive way and 10.26% said it would affect their feelings in a negative way.

To round up the survey, we asked if our respondents thought that location based check-in services will play a bigger role in marketing as time goes on. Opinion was split almost down the middle with 55% responding that they don’t think they will play a bigger role and 45% responding that they think they will.

You can read the full survey results here.

What Does This Mean for Brands Using Location Based Check In Services?

The most interesting result in the survey for brands is the percentage of respondents (65%) who claim not to be encouraged to check-in to places through incentives. This is particularly interesting as more and more brands appear to be using this as part of their marketing strategy. For example, the aforementioned Dominos promotion has been running since May, Starbucks has been offering discounts for Foursquare check-ins since May in the US and as mentioned in the Saatchi and Saatchi post, McDonalds in Germany has been running location activated advent calendars for Christmas.

Does this apathy to incentivised based check-ins mean brands are wasting their time and money? Probably not.

The start of the survey found that only 30% of the respondents are currently using location based check-in services, which leaves massive potential for further growth. This growth is inevitable with more and more people using smartphones that facilitate these services, such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, combined with the worlds largest social network, Facebook, offering its own location based check-in service, Facebook Places.

Although 71% of respondents answered that brands using these services wouldn’t affect their feelings towards the brand, it doesn’t necessarily follow that these people won’t check-in to branded locations, or take advantage of incentives attached to location check-ins.

Do you agree with our members’ responses? What are your thoughts on location based check-in services, and brands using them? Let us know in the comments section below.

Over 72% of UK TV Audience Claim to Not be Affected By Product Placement

Cans of Coca Cola
Cans of Coca Cola – Photograph by Nina Matthews

In the run-up to Christmas, advertising on UK television reaches fever pitch as companies vie for exposure on the finite amount of commercial airtime available to them. It is with great interest, then, that the UK TV regulator Ofcom is reviewing its stance on product placement during programming, as discussed in this Edelman podcast.

To help understand the impact that product placement might have on consumers and consumer attitudes, we used our Toluna QuickSurveys tool to ask our UK community members on their feelings about this contentious subject.

Our questions included:

  • Has product placement on television programmes or in movies ever influenced your shopping decisions?
  • How do you feel about product placement becoming more prevalent on our television screens?
  • Would bought/paid for references to brands in television programmes change your attitude or feelings towards those brands?
  • Do you think there is too much advertising on our television screens at the moment?
  • How much of your Christmas shopping are you planning to do online this year?

Product Placement Survey: The Results

Asked if they had ever been influenced by product placement in the past (either in existing imported TV programmes or movies), over 57% of our 1000 respondents claimed that product placement had never had an effect on their shopping decisions, with only 9.6% responding that it had influenced them several times. A further 19.6% and 13.2% claimed that it had affected them infrequently or only once or twice.

When quizzed on their feelings about product placement potentially becoming more prevalent on their television screens, only 10.6% thought it was a good thing. 56.3% claimed indifference, whereas 33.1% expressed strong negative feelings.

Feelings were far more unequivocal when it came to whether bought/paid for references to brands in TV programmes affecting consumer attitudes, with an overwhelming 72.6% claiming that it wouldn’t affect their feelings at all. When the question of whether there was already too much advertising on TV screens was raised, the responses were not quite so clear cut, with 44% responding that there was far too much, and 24% responding “No”.

As we are on the cusp of Christmas, we also asked our members how much of their Christmas shopping they were planning on doing online this year. Interestingly, 21.7% replied with none, and 7.1% replied with all of it. Further to this, 27.9% replied with most of it whereas an overwhelming 43.3% stated that they would be doing at least some of it online.

Advertising
Photograph by Simon McGarr

You can read the full survey results here.

What Does This Mean for Product Placement on TV?

Far from being as clear cut as may have been anticipated, these results show that product placement on UK TV will probably not be greeted with overwhelming negativity. Despite the largest single response to question one showing that product placement has never affected shopping decisions, the remaining response data shows that product placement has worked in the past for 42.4% of people at least once.

Apathy is by far the biggest reaction towards product placement, with a total of 56.3% indicating that they don’t mind it becoming more prevalent – surely a reassuring statistic for those in the advertising industry.

Indeed, despite 44% of people responding that they think there is too much advertising on screen at the moment, an increase in bought/paid for brand references in TV programmes wouldn’t change 72.6% of people’s attitudes towards that brand. Again, this shows that product placement may well be able to slip in without much fuss from the audience.

Finally, with a total of 78.3% of respondents stating that they will do at least some of their Christmas shopping online, this is surely good news for the advertisers who will now have more of a chance to influence their target audience in the comfort and convenience of their own homes.

Do you agree with our members’ responses? Ever had a particular positive or negative experience with product placement? Let us know in the comments section below.