Alternative Advertsing

Advertising brief

Flavoured alcoholic beverages are currently associated with young drinkers and are considered too sweet and not as refreshing as other drinks. The ideas below are therefore aimed at the older consumers aged around 24-35 and the ideas are to advertise VK as being refreshing and each bottle contains a specific fruity flavour in order to cater for everyone’s needs. The adverts below are alternative ways to potentially advertise VK that may not usually be considered. The idea is to make people aware of VK and get them to take another look at the product as it has different qualities to its competitors.

Digital outdoor advertising

Digital billboards displaying images could be used in a shopping centre where a large amount of people would see it. The image is eye catching and digital billboards are equipped with a 3G sim cards so they can be updated easily and quickly. This means that adverts can react to the time of day or certain events. Been as the digital billboards can be animated it will attract a lot of attention and give out a strong message which encourages people to recognise VK. Also the digital billboard screens can move between ads which will also grab audiences’ attention. Digital billboard screens are used in places such as the London underground which carries more than one billion passengers a year (Transport for London). VK could strengthen their message and reach out to large amounts of audiences by using these in largely popular areas and will reach out to all age groups. They could use the digital billboards to promote their new 2013 campaign 'Mix up your VKend' so as more people are aware of VK. 

Social media

At the moment VK do not really take advantage of their Facebook page and this is where competitors have advantage over VK. WKD has over 270,000 likes and Smirnoff ice has over 1.3 million likes whereas VK has just over 8,000 likes. Social media is immensely popular so advertising here would gain a large audience and for instants if someone liked the page all of their friends would see that so Facebook is a great way to get recognised quickly. VK could advertise on their Facebook and twitter page using videos, pictures and messages and it is inexpensive to do because VK could do it themselves. Another good reason for using social media is because people can leave feedback and comments and VK would be able to comment back. Being able to communicate with people would give VK the chance to build up good relationships with consumers and sell their brand more effectively. Using social media would still allow VK to reach out to 24-35 year olds as all age groups using social networking sites for work and socialising. Instead of just advertising the different flavours maybe VK could put comments on Facebook about things other than alcohol e.g. football as this shows that they understand their consumers and will engage more people. Viral marketing could be used on social media sites through the use of discussions.

Digital radio

Digital radio is where radio and online are combined. Radio is used to push the message out to a wide audience and online pulls an audience in as people may go online to find out more about a product. Radio and online are the only media predicted to grow audiences in the future, therefore VK should consider using digital radio in the form of their own radio channel to stay ahead of competitors. On their own radio channel they could promote their range of flavours so as people are more aware of them. Radio is very popular with 90% of the UK’s population tuning in to radio every week (Rajar, 2012). Also two-thirds of web users have surfed the internet and listened to radio at the same time and 45% of the population has tuned in via any digital platform (Rajar, 2012). This would be a great way for VK to gain awareness as radio is very popular and is listened to a lot. Radio is even listened to at work so VK would be able to reach out to audiences everywhere. Using Digital radio would help VK target 24-35 year olds as these people are more likely to listen to the radio at work and whilst travelling. However this way of advertising would still reach out to all age groups as many people go online everyday.

References

Rajar (2012). Rajar Data Release – Quarter 1, 2011, May 2012. Available [Online] at: http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?page=listen_market_trends. [Last accessed 1 August 2012].

Transport for London. (No date). London Underground. Available [Online] at: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/1574.aspx. [Last accessed 20th Apr 2013].