


	IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2008 projects





	Company: Verdens Gang AS
	Project name: Gunvors Påske

	Topical category of the project

	C: Cross media communities for special interest groups (e.g. travel, young audience, gardening), that are a platform for new advertiser target groups

	General information about the publication

	Verdens Gang AS media house publishes Norway's largest newspaper, VG, Norway's largest website, www.vg.no and Norway's 3rd most viewed web-tv service, www.VGTV.no. VG's goal is to be Norway's foremost supplier of news, entertainment and useful articles throughout the day. By this is meant that VG is to be the best at the topical news in which people are interested. VG aims to be a leader in publishing its own news and to be innovative and make new platforms popular, accessible and profitable. VG Multimedia AS wrote press history in 2007. In the first quarter, VG Nett (www.vg.no) surpassed the VG's print edition to become Norway's most read news medium, with 1 293 000 readers daily. VG's channels reach more than 50 per cent of Norway's population over the age of 12 daily. In the 20-39 age group, VG reaches almost 60 per cent of the population.

	Project description

	"Gunvors Påske" Gunvors Påske is a comedy/entertainment concept developed exclusively for VG's platforms. Through 14 web-TV episodes at www.vgtv.no/gunvor (each 2 minutes) and 14 guest cartoon strips in VG's print edition, we introduce our audience to the colourful (and fictional) character Gunvor Isachsen and follow her preparations to the Easter holiday. VG and a Norwegian production company, Feelgood Scene, developed the concept together with the famous Norwegian actor/comedian Jon Øigården, who also features in the series as the main character Gunvor Isachsen. "Gunvors Påske" is an edgy, funny and some what controversial comedy concept, mostly due to the behaviour of the main character. She is an old lady, resident in one of Oslo more established addresses, but that’s were the similarities with other members of her generation stops. Gunvor Isachsen drinks a lot, has a foul language, strong opinions on controversial issues and a strong appetite for men. Needless to say she does not reflect the behaviour you would expect from a sweet old lady. It is this contrast in appearance and behaviour that makes both the web-TV episodes and the cartoon very funny. The advertisement space was integrated into the content in numerous ways, and included product placement, pre & post roll video advertisement, banner ads and print advertisement. In march 2008 "Gunvors Påske" was the first professionally produced TV-concept developed exclusively for web-TV in Norway.

	The basic idea of the project

	What is the basic idea of your project? Develop a cross media concept in the entertainment genre, and through this strengthen VG's position as a media house who offers advertisers attractive solutions, and generate growth in revenue from an unexploited customer segment. What was the purpose of implementing the service? Connection between media channels is an important focus in VG, with a stated goal of making new platforms such as mobile and web-TV popular. This was also the case for "Gunvors Påske" where we wanted to use of the full strength of the media house. The concept also creates a new value proposition for our advertisers, and strengthens our commercial opportunities. In addition it will improve VG's knowledge on how our channels influence each other. Which audience segments do you want to target? Gunvors Påske targeted a young audience segment, and this is reflected in both the nature of the content as well as the choice of distribution channels. Our web-TV platform and the cartoon pages in VG's print edition both appeal to a young segment of our users. This is well documented through demography analysis. In addition "Gunvors Påske" enabled us to target our audience in a new mode. Our website is primarily a news service where people go for a quick update on what's happening. They visit our product with a high frequency but tend to be "in a hurry". With the combination of a web-TV series and cartoons in the print edition, we created an ad space directed towards an audience in a "coffee break" mode; they have more time to consume both content and advertisement. Do you intend to attract new customer segments or is it more a tool to retain existing customers? Attracting new advertisers to the media house is an important motivation for this project. Basically we want to create a viable product for brand advertisers (with no direct online distribution channel), and become more relevant for "traditional TV advertisers". Do you integrate sponsors and advertisers into the services? We give potential advertisers a voice in the process of developing the concept. This enables them to influence the direction of our ideas and make suggestions on how to integrate the advertisement message in a relevant manner. Possibilities include product placements, pre and post roll movie clips, logo exposure, as well as integrated banner ads.

	Used media channels


	Newspaper		Online

	Web-TV / Video

The implementation

After initial meetings with the production company where we established the framework of the project, we immediately began searching for potential advertisers. VG's Cross Media sales team soon established contact with Nidar AS, they pitched the concept to one of their brand managers (SMASH chocolate) and they quickly decided to jump on to the opportunity. Implementation of the advertisement message into the concept started early in the development process, and was done through numerous steps:
1.A workshop with the production company (writers) where we identified different product placement possibilities. Together with the media agency and the advertiser we decided to give the writers freedom to write the product into the episodes in a funny and unpretentious way.
2.Customization of web-TV player with a new skin specifically designed for the advertiser. Included logo from the advertiser in the heading
3. Integration of a banner ad close to the content in the web-TV player, as well as a 10 second pre roll and a 30 second post roll tv-advertisment. This enabled the advertiser to pre-test their new TV commercial.
4. Creation of a new ad space in the cartoon section of the newspaper. Placed in direct connection with the guest cartoon starring "Gunvor Påske"
5. Cross promotion advertisement in VG's channels. Banner ads online and print ads in the paper driving audiences to both the web-TV episodes and the cartoon. All cross promotion ads exposed the logo of the advertiser seen in the original concept.
Which department is the driver of setting up the cross-media advertisement?
Internally this project was a collaborative effort between VG's business development
department, VGTV and our Cross Media Sales team. Our Cross Media team consists of a print expert and an internet expert. Together they coordinated the different objectives, and remained in close communication with the media agency and the advertiser throughout
the entire project. Our cross media team where the driver of setting up the cross-media advertisement, and thus they enabled us to realize this opportunity.
How do you use and connect the different media channels?
Our objective was to launch the concept with maximum impact the first few days, and by doing so we wanted to recruit as many people as possible to the concept. After the initial launch we knew we where more dependent on the quality of the concept and the viral potential. A key element was to involve the editorial staff early in the process. Here is an overview of how we used the different channels and how we connected them:
VG Print:
- 14 exclusive "Gunvors Påske" cartoon strips custom made for VG. Included references to the web-TV series
- Feature interview with the starring actor from the web-TV series, with numerous
references to the web-TV series and the cartoon
- Print advertisement in the TV-section of the paper
VGTV:
- 14 episodes of "Gunvors Påske" delivered to the audience in a custom made web-TV player. Included references to the cartoon strips
VG Nett (www.vg.no)
- Daily features of "Gunvor Påske" episodes, driving audiences in to the web-TV player.
- Several news stories about the concept, including an interview with the main character
- Display ads on the front page driving traffic to the web-TV player
Recollection of the concept was made easy because of the yellow design that characterized "Gunvors Påske" in every channel.

Image(s)

Gunvors Påske banner ads.JPG (32 KB)

Gunvors Påske VG front.JPG (65 KB)

Gunvors Påske VG print.JPG (176 KB)

Gunvors Påske VGTV.JPG (108 KB)

Links

www.vgtv.no/gunvor

Project results

1. The advertisement campaign generated a net income of 113 000 USD to VG.
2. The web-TV episodes have generated a total of 420 000 viewings, with viewers spending an average time of 2,05 minutes in the "Gunvors Påske universe"
3.Nidar AS experienced a 6% growth in sales of the Smash chocolate during the campaign period
A survey conducted among the audience during the campaign established that 41 per cent of the viewers wanted to try out the Smash chocolate. As for the advertisement conducted in the newspaper, the ad achieved 40 per cent attention in a RAM survey and this is well ahead of comparable results.
Asked why they went for the cross media concept provided in "Gunvors Påske", Nils Martin Tukun (Product Manager at Nidar), made this comment:
"We choose this concept because our brand values connected with VG's concept. This is a youthful way of communicating on an emerging media platform, where we have the opportunity of interacting with our consumers. Exposure of our logo in all communication added extended value to the concept. Moreover, this concept matched our target audience between 15-25 years"
Through this project VG has successfully established ourselves as a provider of entertainment in the web-TV format, and we are now working closely with a range of production companies, media agencies and advertisers in creating new exiting entertainment concepts. This model is ideal in terms of competing for advertisement money earmarked for TV, because we are able to provide brand advertisers with a new exciting way of communicating with their target groups.