Reports on Carling’s iPint have so far been overflowing (no pun intended) with praise. The most unabashed comes from Campaign editor Claire Beale in The Independent. But ex-colleague and friend Ian Jindal – while also rightly enamoured – points out why the application falls down.
For Beale, the execution (and it’s best to read Ian’s description of how it works) is a complete revelation that “just might point to the future of advertising”. This reflects an utterly traditional, ‘broadcast’ view of ads inherent in a still TV-dominated industry since, while again quite rightly appreciative of the campaign’s brilliant use of the precise medium (the iPhone), she – albeit understandably – fails to see why it’s flawed.
Ian says: “All we need now for ad-based perfection is:
- location-awareness – “you’re next to a pub that’s pouring Carling now!”
- integration with ecommerce (send receive vouchers, iBeerPoints [tm] and such like.”
This hits the nail on the head of why, while the campaign does show brands how execution of ideas has to be utterly tied into the medium (including device) on which it is viewed/used, the world of advertising has still to get its head around how digital, interactive media – enables them to finally complete the circle by tying their work directly back to sales.
Since birth, mainstream brand advertising has mostly been linked to an impact on sales in an indirect way. Modelling techniques such as econometrics have helped formalise this link but the knowledge that direct marketers – and particularly those using digital – have of how ‘advertising’ can actually be directly linked has been diluted.
Digital and direct marketers would argue that, yes, iPint absolutely should offer, first, instant information on the nearest pub with Carling on tap using the Google maps application, and, second, a voucher (via SMS/email/Bluetooth/mobile web/whatever) for, say, a free second pint. The fact that it doesn’t – which is probably related to any number of factors, such as budget, technical knowledge/resource, or the need to get it out in time for the launch of the iPhone apps store – is actually quite fundamental.
The lesson of digital that any ‘mainstream’ advertiser needs to understand is valuing interaction. Interactive channels offer advertisers the ability to link any work they do back to their bottom line. In many cases, this might not be the right thing to do. But you can bet that Carling’s on and off-trade distributors would argue that iPint was not one of those cases. It would have worked a treat; as Ian said, it would have made iPint perfect; and then it truly would point the way to the future of advertising.
[...] mobile allows users to go ‘the next step’ – to lead-generation – in a way that backs up my [small] criticism of the iPint.Through mechanisms like click-to-call and click-to-SMS, we can enable potential customers to do [...]