In the 12 months since the Hyde Park PR firm acquired BMC Communications in February 2003 turnover by the promotions, space bartering and product placement division has grown by 81.6%.
"Masstige works for us," says Johanna McDowell, MD of Integrated Communications-BMC. "Corporate communication remains core competence and is the reputation or prestige end of the business.
"Bartering a client's product for magazine space to add readership value creates mass appeal and brings us closer to consumers. Corporate communication plus PR plus product awareness gives us one foot in the boardroom and one in the consumer's lounge or kitchen - with media owners in-between. Synergies are huge."
BMC divisional clients include NV Perricone (cosme-ceuticals), FoodState (food-based technology), Nicorette (the Pfizer brand that helps smokers kick the habit) and Kodak.
Integrated Communications-BMC addresses demand for more value from media consumers by providing products as competition prizes. It's not only the consumer who gains. So does the media owner as product prizes can help boost circulation, listenership or viewership. At the same time, the brand benefits through exposure in a desired environment. "A strong creative concept in the right medium will move the product right off the shelf," says McDowell.
Average entries for a consumer competition top 115 000, though some contests are structured to tighten the filter by focusing on specific needs or demographics. Responses help participating marketers enhance their customer databases.
Two factors are expected to drive further growth of divisional business in 2004:
McDowell notes: "Many clients want to make their brand a TV star. In the US, this drives the embedded marketing trend on both TV and film. These developments will attract increasing interest locally. We're positioned to respond."
Integrated's masstige strategy is deliberate. McDowell explains: "Clients are diverting other parts of the communication budget to PR. To be ethical, I caution clients 'PR does lots of things for you, but it can't sell product'; at least not in the sense that cash registers ring the moment you get a press release into print.
"You then ask yourself 'if PR won't move cans off the shelf, what will?' Product awareness and media contra-deals on the BMC model certainly do - our clients confirm it. We put the two together. We have corporate, reputation-management plus a heavy sales focus.
"Some people sneer at consumer competitions as the dirty-fingernail end of marketing communication. While they're sneering we're growing."
Integrated Communications.bmc
Johanna McDowell
Tel: (011) 880-8820
