Consumers are using more and more different media. They watch TV, chat on the Web, watch video clips on their cell phones while they’re away from home. At the same time, a digital world offers advertisers a chance for more and more points of contact between brands and consumers. Both of these factors have consequences for professional brand management. Ultimately, the success of a campaign isn’t determined by its creative concept alone. It’s just as important to include new media in the concept, alongside TV ads.

That’s why it’s best to work with a specialist. With SevenOne AdFactory, ProSiebenSat.1 founded a new subsidiary in July 2009 that offers creative, cross-media concepts for all platforms. 360 degree communication solutions can build custom combinations of up to twelve different media – from TV to online to cell phones, from licenses to special events to testimonials.

So advertisers can draw on a full range of services – and get a creative media concept tailored to their individual needs. Which allows advertisers to achieve two important strategic goals at once: they get a competitive advantage, and they can reach consumers where consumers are already living their day-to-day lives – in a multimedia world.

THE BEST SETTING FOR BRANDS

Malte Hildebrandt helps brands show themselves at their best. The Managing Director at SevenOne AdFactory reports on the new company’s challenges and goals.

How have the market’s needs changed?

More and more, advertisers are looking for something special – which is why the demand for customized, special forms of advertising and networked campaigns has risen sharply in the past few years. Advertisers want to stand apart from their competitors, and to reach their target audiences efficiently but also creatively.

What has the ProSiebenSat.1 Group’s response been?

We wanted to offer the market a strong answer to this need for individuality and creativity. That’s why we founded SevenOne AdFactory. As an affiliate of SevenOne Media, we take up where conventional sales leaves off – we put creative concepts onto the market that network up to twelve different platforms, and thus offer our clients the best possible setting for their brands. And for that we work hand in hand with SevenOne Media, which already has long-standing connections with most of our clients.

So does SevenOne AdFactory view itself mainly as a consultant – including as a way of distinguishing itself from creative agencies?

We aim not just to develop creative concepts for our clients, but also to stand by them with practical support. With our brand and media background, we can provide our clients with expert advice. Can a campaign’s goals be accomplished best with a special form of advertising like a split screen? Or would a contest combined with a licensed product for a TV program make better sense? We also provide advice on media law and point out state-of-the-art developments in each of our media. That represents a good complement to the work done by creative agencies and our clients themselves.

How has the market responded – clients and agencies?

The response has been consistently positive. You can see that, for example, in the fact that on the whole we’re developing more concepts than we have in the past. And of those additional concepts, we put about 50 percent into action jointly with the client and the agencies. That’s a terrific track record. We’re very happy about it, and we intend to improve on it even further in 2010. Ever since we were founded, we’ve been able to expand even further our cooperative efforts with many long-standing clients of
SevenOne Media.

What challenges will (networked) marketing face in the future?

The main challenge is to incorporate the latest media developments into networked communications, and to use them efficiently for our advertisers. For example, we’ll be adding product placement as a new element in 2010. But the increasingly professionalized market in mobile Internet will also be playing an ever-larger role in cross-media concepts. We have to mine the creative potential here for our clients.