Ask the Experts: A Break Down of Three Pureplay TV Commercials
Many Australian pureplay retailers have taken to TV to showcase the brand - Power Retail asked media experts to discuss three of the most popular advertisements from pureplay retailers in Australia.
As the online trend continues to boom across the country, a myriad of new customers comes along with it. For pureplay retailers, it’s the perfect opportunity to capture a whole new audience.
Adore Beauty
The online beauty retailer launched its first TVC in mid-May, featuring two members of the Adore Beauty team. The TVC aims to ‘celebrate culture’ and highlight whatever makes ‘you, you‘. You can watch the ad below.
“Adore Beauty ad is attention-grabbing, fun and honest, it mirrors its brand positioning online and brand identity. The TVC is true to their brand while being relatable, energetic and fast-moving,” said Simon Terpstra, the National Marketing Manager at CDK Stone.
Is this TVC effective?
“Critical first three seconds, grabs your attention, relatable to the current environmental factures of isolation and is effective in reflecting their target market,” Terpstra explained.
“However, the text can be hard to read with the fast overlays and use on translucence text. A TV viewer is classed as having “partial attention” and this could lose them. While we know Adore Beauty is a pureplay retailer in the industry, their URL only shows in the last two seconds and is hard to catch – this was a technical mistake on execution. This ad would be actually best suited to Cinema advertising as you have the viewers complete attention.”
Would you shop with this retailer after seeing this ad?
“This ad is clearly targeted towards females. So obviously I wouldn’t but this ad is cleverly done to show different female demographics and social segments within society, I believe it would appeal to their target market and encourage engagement.,” Terpstra told Power Retail.
Adore Beauty’s concept behind the TVC aims to emulate the beauty struggles of living in isolation, with footage of women cutting their own hair and experimenting with makeup to pass the time.
“[The TVC is] a fun, humorous ad that is fast-paced tone, the organic clips also make it feel more real and relatable,” Terpstra told Power Retail. “Adore Beauty is an Australian success story that has grown substantially, generating over 52 million dollars in revenue last year and their deep digital presence, tracking over 102K keywords on Google their next marketing medium to conquer would have to be TV to further grow mass awareness and brand ID.”
For consumers who have never shopped online at Adore Beauty before, this TVC may drive further awareness of the brand identity and online product offering. “It will help drive further brand awareness for Adore Beauty and introduce consumers to the brand personality,” Terpstra explained. “However, it is not direct enough to encourage online activation to their website.”
Kogan
The Aussie online retailer has chosen to create short, sharp and eye-catching advertisements for TV. The e-commerce platform launched the three 15-second TVCs in late April, showcasing three major categories (food, fitness and family). These are the first TVC shared by the retailer, who worked with Hardhat to complete the ads. “Without the option of picking up a camera, our creative director team, Andy and Hincey did what they could do – pick up their pens and write their way through it. And have a few laughs along the way too,” said Glenn Dalton, the Executive Creative Director at Hardhat. The ‘Quick Smart’ ads can be viewed below:
“It’s entertaining and has strong brand consistency to their e-commerce site. The copy is swift, easy to follow and leaves you feeling upbeat. I believe it is well-executed,” said Terpstra.
Is this TVC effective?
“The ad is cleverly executed, open and closing frames highlight the website URL as a call to action, brand consistency is powerfully accomplished. It is engaging while clearly outline the product offering,” Terpstra told Power Retail. “This is an effective ad based on marketing science and clever creative. The ad balances both entertainment and information to engage the audience.”
What makes this advertisement stand out to you?
Even the smallest aspects of a TVC can make it memorable, such as clever copy and punchy humour. “Clever copy that engages and draws you in, complimented with simple visual graphics with a touch of humour,” said Terpstra. “This ad is memorable.”
The ad is ‘clean, simple and fun’, said Mark Salzmann, the Marketing Manager at Click Frenzy.
“The branding is strong and the ad reinforces two of Kogan’s strongest value propositions; their huge range of products, and the efficiency of online shopping by using the ‘get it quick smart’ tag-line,” Salzmann told Power Retail.
Another aspect that may appeal to customers is the lack of pricing along with the content. “It’s a reminder of everything I can get at Kogan and I like that it doesn’t mention pricing in any way (low pricing is already heavily associated with Kogan),” Salzmann explained. “For me, it ups the value of the Kogan brand.”
As Kogan continues to penetrate the shopper demographic, it will need to increase its awareness to the mass market.
“The ad shows that you don’t need to break the bank on expensive production costs to put together a highly effective ad. Commercial TV reaches 92 percent of the population each month and over 13 million Australians tune in every day,” Terpstra explained. “It is the next logical step and we have seen similar patterns from Uber, Amazon and Google.”
For Aussies who have never shopped with Kogan before, this TVC can help the audience understand the broad product offering, without overselling it.
“[The TVC] will demonstrate the broad offering from Kogan, drive the credibility and awareness further,” said Terpstra. “As it will be part of a larger integrated approach with an online campaign, it will be effective in driving new consumers to the e-commerce site.”
PetCircle
Pet Circle is one of Australia’s leading pet e-commerce platforms. The retailer aims to promote a healthy lifestyle for Aussie pets, and shares advice from vets on product pages throughout the site. You can find the latest Pet Circle TVC below:
While the pets are cute to look at, the TVC itself is not as effective as it could be. “It’s a cute ad but boring, packed with information, many messages and scene changes,” said Terpstra.
Is this TVC effective?
While shoppers who aren’t aware of the retailer will be well-informed about the brand, the jam-packed messaging may struggle to recall all of the information provided.
“It will introduce you to the brand, but as the messaging is congested, consumers will struggle to recall all the information,” Terpstra explained. “As Pet Circle fall substantially behind the market leader in their category, they run the risk of losing traffic to competitors as their key call to action is lost.”
Would you shop with this retailer after seeing this ad?
“Highly unlikely, the messaging was complex and too fast-paced to fully appreciate their unique point of difference,” Terpstra told Power Retail.
With leading competition such as Pet Barn and Petstock, there is a clear market for the TVC. However, the content-filled advertisement may become too muddy for the consumer to remember. “Pet Circle has a huge opportunity in the TV advertisement segment to run an integrated brand campaign that would directly take on the market leaders Petbarn and Petstock,” Terpstra said.
“It could be a powerful method to open new markets for the business, but this ad doesn’t hit the mark.”
For shoppers who haven’t shopped at Pet Circle before, this is a great way to become accustomed to the brand itself. “It may open up some price-sensitive consumers to their operation, but I believe the return on investment could have been substantially greater if the ad was more direct and had less congested content,” Terpstra told Power Retail.
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