Clients are increasingly turning to Millward Brown Precis and other companies within the WPP family to help them understand what opportunities they have to influence the attitudes of target consumers in relation to their brands. These so-called “touch points” can come about as a result of consumers reading magazines, using the Internet, attending a sporting event, watching TV, visiting a bar or any other activity. Research has also shown that an individual’s mood plays a significant part in determining the likelihood of noticing and being influenced by brand messages.

Millward Brown Precis has access to leading-edge, innovative techniques to help client companies understand what opportunities their audiences have to be exposed to information about their companies' products and services. What is really new about this is that the influence of news and PR can also be captured, along with sponsorship, product placement, viral marketing and other techniques aimed at increasing brand awareness and, ultimately, sales. Why this is powerful is because all the “channels” to connect with target consumers are given equal consideration. The strength of the creative ideas that advertising, PR and promotions agencies/departments develop are then pre-tested and deployed as part of an integrated approach.

For a brand such as WKD, an edgy ready-to-drink alcoholic beverage brand popular in U.K., the final campaign could be a combination of sponsoring a DJ in an up-and-coming club (identified through analysis of message board content using Precis:cubed), some PR around an association with a rap artist, advertising on beer mats and placement in episodes of the television program Big Brother.

A raft of Millward Brown tracking techniques are then deployed that are aimed at clearly identifying which aspects of the campaign worked most effectively in terms of consumer opinion and purchase consideration, thereby helping to frame subsequent communications and determine the ROI for each strand of the campaign.

In placing PR and other “below-the-line” communications on a par with those that have historically commanded the lion’s share of the communications budget, we believe that:

• We shall be able to help clients be more cost-effective and accountable.
• There will be less reliance on “legacy” communications, such as TV advertising, as other techniques will be able to prove their value.
• The role of PR in all its forms will finally be given its place as an effective way of reaching consumers.

Millward Brown Precis has already obtained agreement from two global brands who are sufficiently convinced by this approach that they will be taking a “clean slate” approach to all their marketing communications for a six month period. Using the techniques identified above, the objective in both cases is to deliver an equal or better result for less overall investment – good news for those who have a true interest in ROI on their marketing and PR spend.