Supermarkets' TV budgets are hard fought for by the big advertising agencies. And TV campaigns are increasingly pivotal in retailers' marketing strategies ­ even screen-shy Marks and Spencer has got in on the act. But do all supermarkets' small screen executions make the grade? As global brands such as Guinness bulldoze previous spend levels injecting imagination and kudos into their TV personalities, the stakes are getting ever higher for brands wanting to make an impression. Get it right and consumers will take your message to heart; viewing your 60 second slot as entertainment as much as a hard sell, and freely generating word of mouth publicity. The next installment of a campaign can be as eagerly awaited as a new film release ­ at least that is what the industry tells us. Retailers have responded with a variety of TV offerings. And all have a different take on why their campaign's style and content beats the competition ­ a famous face, an anonymous everywoman', a 20-year-old campaign, or an original short burst ­ and there's always a focus group somewhere to endorse their opinion. Today supermarket campaigns are a given (with the exception of chez Carlos where Safeway's cute talking toddlers fell foul of a frenzied leafleting campaign). But they do tend to be a bit less controversial or daring than their fellow advertisers ­ apart from the Sainsbury's John Cleese ad that dare not speak its name ­ in a bid to keep themselves in the public gaze and affection. Whether they do the job ­ boosting sales and improving the brand's image ­ is the subject of much long and protracted debate. However, every multiple insists customers are falling over themselves to praise their campaigns. And none doubts the value of their TV presence. But for how long will the current rash of commercials prove effective? However loveable the character or vehicle, shoppers will eventually tire of the familiar presentation and switch channels ­ or worse still, store ­ if they don't like the messenger. Even the most popular ad of all time ­ the Smash martians ­ hasn't kept the product at the forefront of most kitchen cupboards. Some industry pundits are somewhat sniffy about the use of famous faces, believing the cult of celebrity is an excuse for a lack of creativity. Yet Dotty, the irritating but loveable shopper who routinely tests the patience of dutiful daughter Jane Horrocks and ever-indulgent Tesco staff, is still going strong after six years. The ad underlines Tesco's price and service initiatives, while Tesco's visual and aural strapline, Every Little Helps, is drummed home. Dotty follows in the wake of Tesco's fondly remembered Dudley Moore campaign where the diminutive actor chased chickens round French woodland. Running since 1995, Dotty has given us eight to ten new installments a year. Last year Prunella Scales' character won the Institute of Advertising Practitioners' Grand Prix award for advertising effectiveness, an award which aims to define the link between advertising and results and prove how advertising contributes to topline success. It also beat off competition from Levi's, Budweiser and Rolo to scoop the viewers' award for the year's most popular TV ad in the National Television Awards. Despite the accolades, is Tesco's cuddly granny reaching her best-before date? Chief executive of Tesco's advertising agency Lowe Lintas, Paul Weinberger, recoils at the thought. "The trouble is, it's actually far too easy to throw away advertising campaigns," he says. "There are few enough good ones as it is. If you have a campaign which communicates well and is affectionately regarded you have a responsibility to work at keeping it relevant, likable and fresh. "That's what we're doing with Dotty and I hope we're succeeding." The agency constantly monitors response to the campaign and reports that it's going from strength to strength. Research has shown that more than 90% of people like Dotty, with 24% saying they like the ad "very much". Independent research by Mintel rates it the advert most admired by other retailers, and it recently topped a chart of the number of people who could recall an ad. Weinberger adds in understated fashion: "It is definitely in fairly rude health." Most advertising agencies are pretty impressed too. Tim Broadbent, strategic director at Bates UK, concurs that Dotty is a brilliant campaign which could run for years yet. He cites PG Tips' chimps ­ going strong since the 1950s and still popular with viewers ­ as evidence of the longevity of a truly successful campaign. "People in the industry get bored of adverts much sooner than consumers do," he says. Broadbent reckons the Tesco campaign is a profitable investment which has increased sales, strengthened the brand and allowed the chain to move into new areas, such as financial services. He puts it down to the recognition and ensuing trust that consumers have grown to have in Dotty, and therefore Tesco. "Dotty is the shopper from hell and people think that if Tesco can cope with her, they can cope with you or me." A fair sentiment, but one Asda's corporate marketing director Richard Hodgson says only works to a point. He believes that while Tesco's adverts are excellent, they're not credible. "They're like the Gold Blend couple ­ great, but they don't tell you much about the product." And he would be surprised if Tesco kept the character for much longer, adding that while entertaining, like nearly any ad, it doesn't have the necessary longevity. Longevity is something the Leeds-based chain can claim for its 18-year-old pocket patting' campaign. Celebrities Molly Sugden and Leonard Rossiter launched it as "the people in the know about value" before Asda shifted the emphasis onto staff. There was only a short and misguided deviation in the late 1980s, to the theme of Fairground Attraction's ditty "It's got to be perfect". Hodgson admits bluntly that this was a mistake and says its new slant ­ featuring customers rather than colleagues ­ is a brave move for the chain, albeit one that has been successfully employed by Wal-Mart in the US for many years. It made the swap a month ago after other chains, such as B&Q and Comet, decided to jump on the staff testament bandwagon. Hodgson confesses: "We were quite nervous about customer reaction, but it's been great. Although we never want to move away from the low price message, we are talking more about service, and we will be featuring quality too in the future. It is a significant step forward, but we will be keeping the pocket patting and Asda jingle." With another side-swipe at the credibility of Asda's main rival's campaign and the use of celebrities in general, he adds: "The viewing public is getting cleverer and realise that actors are paid large amounts of money to support brands." According to Hodgson, the best brands retain consistent advertising, and that familiarity is a positive message for viewers: "Repetition is key ­ the more you show something, the more people will understand it." This philosophy is something with which Somerfield's marketing team are familiar. Its Annie campaign ­ an anonymous mum with even more anonymous husband and kids ­ has been running for four years, far longer than the chain intended. The focus of the campaign reinforces the brand's value position. Shopper reaction has proved so positive and recall so good, according to corporate affairs head Jill Rawlins, that the character's shelf-life has been extended. She says: "You keep researching the value of the ads, and ask yourself if they're achieving objectives such as making sales and improving the brand image." Somerfield developed Annie as a corporate campaign, but evolved the character into a vehicle for conveying lines and pricing information. "She's working incredibly well," adds Rawlins. "We have thought about getting rid of her and have studied other storyboards, but we believe she's just too good to drop." So there is no time limit for the admittedly "simplistic" character, and Somerfield believes the two-dimensional element is part of her enduring charm. "The ads are always very short and you don't get much of a feel for her personality. If you did, it wouldn't be good in the long term ­ you'd get bored of her. "She's someone you can empathise with and with whom you can't take offence. If we'd had a celebrity, we couldn't have run the campaign for too long as people get tired of them. There's a lot of value in consistency." Bates UK's Broadbent agrees that celebrities don't always mean kudos (John Cleese springs to mind again), but that Dotty would not have been a success if the part had been played by a jobbing actor. "Prunella Scales is such a brilliant actress that the role really works," he says. According to Oglivy chairman and CEO Paul Simons, the key is to position the retailer in people's minds. This, he says, can be the difference between them visiting the store or not. "With a complex organisation like a retailer, you need to find a way of embodying what a company is about and the easiest way of doing it is by getting in a celebrity. It's easier to focus on a characterisation of an organisation than an intangible idea. It's ok to do that with a single product, but retailers are more complex. Characters give consumers a focal point." So who's right in the celebrity pros and cons debate? While they can work well for a limited period of time, most celebrity campaigns have a limited shelf life, according to John Tylee, associate editor of industry magazine Campaign. Sainsbury ­ wisely or circumstantially ­ only has "pukka" Jamie Oliver for another year of his two-year contract. A move Tylee applauds as he says even the best concepts soon run out of steam. Either the agency can't think of any more decent executions, the company realises the time is right to give it up, or the celebrity decides they don't want to become stereotyped. "If a company's got any sense, it will get a premonition before it sees a drop in sales," he warns. Celebrity-free Somerfield and Asda campaigns allow them more flexibility to chop and change characters, he suggests, and he admires Asda's moniker which effectively "sums up what Asda is about". "You have to be careful with celebrities. Look at what happened with Jack Dee criticising John Smith's, and Michael Jackson and the child abuse allegations when he was working with Pepsi. You're a bit of a hostage to fortune." It's just as well none of the multiples had linked up with Michael Barrymore or the Hamiltons. The Co-op managed to avoid any faux pas in its celebrity families campaign (Peter Stringfellow's son and the like) and gave up while the going was good. It dropped the campaign and launched its cartoons created by Aardman Animations with busy bees Andy and Karen, and sheep couple Colin and Jane. John Bowes, chief general manager of marketing, explains that the celebrity campaign was ditched 18 months ago because it wasn't working fast enough in the Co-op's bid to get over the message of how the brand was changing. It was the first campaign to say something about the Co-op brand in 20 years according to Bowes, who adds: "It was tough to come out of it, but we felt we'd moved on pretty quickly and wanted to move even faster." The chain settled on animation because it wanted to stand out from the crowd, as Bowes believes using celebs is a "well worn process". He adds: "We're very happy with the way it's working and intend to stick with it for a while. If you've got a good campaign ­ why change it?" Paul Cowper, consultant at brand experts Brandsmith, agrees that brands can become boring if they keep telling the same story. "You have to keep people interested and evolve. I bet he drinks Carling Black Label' is a good example of this. They kept it going with lots of different ideas like the bouncing beach towels on the sunloungers. "There's an almost insatiable desire for new stuff.It's not just about saying how white soap powder can get clothes now, people expect those things as a given, so the messages need to be more subtle and dressed up as entertainment." For ad agencies, there is a fine line between raking in the cash for keeping a concept going, and admitting it's looking tired, retaining credibility and telling the client to give it a rest. There's no hard and fast rule about ending a campaign, but industry wisdom reckons on about two to three years, depending on the character. Richard Perks, senior retail analyst at Retail Intelligence, agrees and reckons that Dotty's days are numbered. "People definitely get fed up with ad campaigns and that might make them more amenable to trying somewhere else instead. All campaigns have a shelf life, and some have a much shorter shelf life than others." He adds: "Adverts aren't that important for a high street store, but supermarkets don't have a shop window and you need to persuade people to your store." Some have certainly got some window dressing to do. Despite the awards and the backslapping, could it be time for the hit man to pay a long overdue visit to Tesco? n {{FEAT. COVER }}

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