Denny tries a digital recipe to bring home the bacon

MEDIA & MARKETING:WHEN HENRY Denny started trading as a provisions merchant in Waterford in 1820, selling sausages and rashers was a lot simpler than it is today. Now it's not enough just to produce quality meats – the brand believes it has to be visible on Twitter and Facebook to connect with its customers.

Just how a Twitter presence sells more sausages is anyone’s guess, but Denny is serious in its commitment to online marketing with its new “Home Is” campaign. The campaign, which will run until January, incorporates TV, press, radio, billboard and online ads created by the JWT agency network. As is the fashion these days, the campaign includes a dedicated website, www.homeis.ie.

Denny’s advertising is canvassing people for their ideas on what home means to them, and the promise from Denny is that some of the more interesting stories and homes will feature in Denny ads next year. As a come-on, consumer responses trigger a Denny contribution to the Simon Community, with €40,000 raised so far.

Digital marketing is a small part of Denny’s annual marketing budget, but Phil Chapman, group marketing director of Kerry Foods, believes interaction with consumers is now an essential part of the marketing strategy.

“We want to keep the Denny brand relevant in order to keep its position as one of Ireland’s top brands,” says Chapman. “Therefore, we reassessed our marketing approach, which traditionally focused solely on advertising, and decided to branch out to other mediums.

“Now we are interacting with the consumer in two-way dialogues through social media, experiential activity, PR and digital, in order to create brand engagement. The campaign has been extremely successful to date.”

Denny’s brand heritage is as deep in Ireland as Guinness. In Victorian times, Denny was the country’s leading brand, and the company had plants in Chicago, Sweden, England, Australia and New Zealand. The brand came under Kerry’s control in 1982, and nearly two centuries on from its establishment, Denny is the number one brand in Ireland for sausages, rashers, cooked meats and sausage rolls.

However, the recession is transforming the retail landscape for all big brands, and Denny has not been immune. Says Chapman: “No brand can take loyalty for granted. Marketers have to redouble their efforts to engage and retain the support of their customers. Private label products have become more competitive and in the current economic climate all leading brands have to reposition their brands.”

The renewed emphasis on customer engagement has also prompted Denny to rethink where it directs its advertising spend.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the brand’s media spend year to date has been €4 million, and there has been a shift from print to radio.

Denny’s rate card ad spend on radio was €720,000 for the January to August 2009 period compared with €260,000 in the corresponding period last year. One beneficiary has been Today FM, which was ignored by Denny in 2008 but has received €175,000 in rate card bookings this year.

According to Denny’s media buyer Vizeum, the radio ads are currently favoured so as to reach consumers closer to the moment of purchase and consumption, and for greater frequency of message.

***

As RTÉ television and TV3 plan their pricing strategy for 2010, some big consumer brands are playing hardball with RTÉ. Procter & Gamble (P&G) hasn’t placed any ads on RTÉ since July, while Diageo has halved its advertising spend on RTÉ year-on-year, according to latest figures from Nielsen.

While P&G has been known to play RTÉ and TV3 against each other to secure better prices, the move by Diageo is more surprising. Burger King and 7 Up are two other big brands which now spend more on TV3 than RTÉ.

Commenting on its strategy, Diageo said: “The Irish media landscape has transformed itself in recent years, with a proliferation in the types of media outlets, and also what are consumers reading, watching and interacting. It is so important for Diageo to ensure we know our consumers, their trends and preferences, and to ensure that we are visible where our consumers are.”

The cost of TV advertising has fallen by 25 per cent this year, and RTÉ and TV3 are both looking at ways of firming their rates in 2010. TV3 has signalled that it is increasing rates by 10 per cent, while RTÉ has yet to show its hand.

Media buyer Eddie O’Mahony, of Core Media Group, observes: “Looking for a price increase is one thing, but it doesn’t mean TV3 is going to get it. The key thing we want is value and audience numbers.”

TV3 plans to sweeten the hike with a new pricing initiative that will centre on part payment from advertisers for direct response campaigns. According to Pat Kiely, the station’s commercial director: “If we deliver 80 per cent of the results the client is looking for, we will be paid 80 per cent of the agreed cost. But by the same token, if we deliver 110 per cent, there will be a facility for us to earn 10 per cent more than the agreed price of the campaign.”

Says Geraldine O’Leary, RTÉ’s commercial director: “The argument now has become about price rather than value, and they are two very different things. We are working to expand partnerships with clients across the whole of RTÉ platforms to add value.”

While O’Leary would not comment on ad decisions made by Procter Gamble and Diageo, she noted: “What PG is doing is what clients do. Certain clients are chasing costs and they go for cheaper price. I completely support chasing value, but costs and value are different things. What we’re trying to do is bring added value to our supporting clients.”