Outdoor Dead, Digital On The Rise, TV Still King: Kellogg’s Boss

When it comes to getting the brand message out there TV ads on the commercial networks remain king for breakfast cereal manufacturer, Kellogg’s. meanwhile the company confirms it’s given up on outdoor altogether.

Speaking to B&T on its plans for 2015, Kellogg’s marketing director for Australia and New Zealand John Broome said TV remained its focus while adding its foray into the digital space was slowly bearing fruit.

“TV will still play a huge role in the overall media mix,” Broome said. “It’s still the most effective reach-building medium and by and large the fastest reach-building medium. That said, the ability for social and digital now to drive reach is increasing all the time; it’s a little slower in building that reach, and you have to make some choices around that.”

Broome confirmed that outdoor was no longer part of the Kellogg’s mix. He agreed it was still an effective medium and lauded the players in the market; however, it was no longer part of its strategy.

“It was an ROI decision,” Broome said of the company’s decision to abandon outdoor. “Like a lot of FMCG companies we used a lot of outdoor, namely close to stores and what we found was when we were comparing the ROIs for all our media choices – and I’m not picking on these outdoor guys – the continued use of that media just wasn’t there; certainly when you compare it to other media channels who were giving us much stronger ROI.”

Ten years ago it was all about TV for Kellogg’s. But with so many media choices it’s now all about “following eyeballs to whatever screens they’re watching”.

“It’s all about being agile, particularly when you know a particular screen combination is working better than the previous one; the fact that you can move your budgets around far more quickly,” he said.

“You don’t necessarily have to have a bigger media budget because of supply and demand starts to influence the choices around media. There’s lots of different media going on and that enables you to spread your dollars around,” Broome said.

Kellogg’s eclectic customer base – Fruit Loops for kids, Nutri Grain for teens, All Bran for Boomers – means its strategy has to be equally varied.

Take teenage boys as an example. Broome said TVCs are increasingly less effective in reaching that audience. If you want teens, he says, the campaign has to be mobile. “I can only reach about 40 per cent of teen boys through a traditional buy. You have to find where their eyeballs are going and that’s obviously mobile. Mobile’s a huge opportunity and we can now reach up to 70 per cent of teen boys through the mobile medium.”

Broome added: “We have to translate our creative ideas from one medium to another in a way that works for that particular medium for that particular target. It’s completely different again for a boomer who may be interested in the fibre benefits of Sultana Bran. That demographic is overly indexed in daytime TV and so you’ll find we’ll have a traditional media-led TV buy in that situation.”

And lastly, with such huge R&D budgets and ad spends, what amazing things are coming up from Kellogg’s?

“Things that I can actually tell you about? Broome said. “That’s the point, I can’t actually tell you.”