Newspaper Advertising Award Given For Compaq Campaign

By: Tony Case Adweek Magazines named its Media Plans of the Year Monday. The "Best use of newspapers" award went to Foote, Cone & Belding.

How do you promote a computer behemoth among diverse constituencies in a hotly competitive market, in the midst of an economic downturn -- and at a time when the company is going through one of the biggest mergers in business history? Such was the uphill task of Foote, Cone & Belding, which won this year's Newspaper Plan of the Year for its uniquely effective campaign on behalf of Compaq.

As the information-technology field faced never-before-seen competitive pressures, and Compaq and Hewlett-Packard were joining ranks in the second half of last year, FCB's challenge was to instill confidence in the tried-and-true Compaq brand among three distinct groups of customers -- large businesses, small businesses and consumers. The three-pronged campaign ran across such papers as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, and smaller players such as the 19,000-circulation Muskogee (Okla.) Democrat.

Aiming to get through to a large number of businesses, FCB rolled out a series of full-page newspaper ads resembling actual news reports but clearly labeled as ads, featuring testimonials from leading businesses to show that the computer maker had never been more sturdy, more dependable.

Resembling a page from the business section of a newspaper, the ads featured such entities as telecommunications giant Ericsson, leading Mexican bank Banamex -- even the government of Hong Kong -- singing the praises of Compaq in faux "news stories," explaining how the computer maker had given them an edge in their day-to-day businesses. The headline over one piece read "Hong Kong SAR Government Teams with Compaq to Deliver Online Public Services to Hong Kong Citizens." The report told of the world's first-ever bilingual public- and commercial-services portal in Hong Kong, a joint venture for which Compaq provided the technology. The portal allows residents to apply for their driver's licenses and pay their taxes using a single online site.

Getting newspapers to accept ads that look like news gave the spots immediate credibility with readers for sure -- but convincing publishers to go along was no easy chore. "It was the most difficult element of the campaign," says Joe Barone, vice president/group media director of FCB. "There was a real 'church-and-state' issue. Newspapers considered it vitally important to protect their editorial credibility, and we were concerned about the way the ads were designed because we didn't want to pull the wool over the eyes of the reader." Working with Michele Francisco, vice president/associate media director; Mark Hanes, media supervisor; Matthew Berman, media planner; Susan Tinco, media planner; Rachael Lonergan, associate media director; and Emily Bianco, media planner, the agency's determination paid off: All the newspapers it approached agreed to run the ads, which dominated influential newspapers in the fourth quarter.

Another ad, this one aimed at small-business owners, positioned Compaq in major newspapers on particular days of the week, the idea being that the computer maker would "own" particular business-section "real estate" on certain days. For instance, FCB negotiated fixed positioning each Tuesday in USA Today. The top corner of the ad featured an eye-catching logo that read "BT: Business Tuesday from Compaq." More conventional than the "advertorial" pieces aimed at larger businesses, the small-business-tailored appeals pictured particular computer models, included a list of features, and reported the sale price and where-to-buy information. "More room in your office. And in your budget. Just $599," one ad read. It was especially important that Compaq pitch itself to small-business owners, as the brand had little awareness among that group and needed to differentiate itself from the competition, according to FCB. The small-business campaign resulted in "extremely efficient" cost-per-call and cost-per-sale and was so successful the agency expanded the campaign nationwide.

Finally, a third series of ads appealed to the individual consumer. Running a national campaign in local papers was especially troublesome for Compaq, whose products also are advertised locally by the likes of Circuit City, Radio Shack and Best Buy. To avoid such "retail territory" issues, FCB placed its ads in newspapers in communities outside key Compaq retail outposts, concluding that residents living in "C&D" counties were outside the radius of major retailers and more likely to buy directly from the company by way of a toll-free phone number or the Web. Barone reports that the campaign was the most successful consumer-generated campaign in the two years FCB has had the computer maker's business.

As successful as the three-part print campaign, budgeted at $3.6 million, turned out to be, newspaper was not the first choice for FCB, according to Barone. Business magazines or information-technology trade magazines would be the obvious first choice for reaching business decision makers, he says. But the agency went with newspapers, with their "credibility and immediacy," because at the time newspaper business sections were consumed by the Compaq-HP merger. "We took advantage of that environment," Barone explains. "We hooked into that environment to deliver our voice into the fray."