How Beano Became the New Social Currency for a New Generation
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HOW BEANO BECAME THE NEW SOCIAL CURRENCY FOR A NEW GENERATION 2018 Marketing Society Excellence Awards: Brand Revitalisation HOW BEANO BECAME THE NEW SOCIAL CURRENCY FOR A NEW GENERATION Executive Summary This paper tells how a much-loved children’s comic transformed itself from a dormant heritage brand into a contemporary entertainment brand for a whole new generation of digital-native kids. Please note: highlighted content is not publishable due to confidentiality. Objective Campaign To relaunch Beano to a whole new generation of kids and parents Beano Studios partnered with communications agency Red Brick in a time of declining print sales and rising digital opportunity. Road to redesign their digital offering and create a brand, and a Specifically, to spark a huge increase in the Beano’s online users message, to launch it. The result was a unique one-destination from just to – the threshold for successful future entertainment platform for kids, and a campaign driven by a simple monetisation. yet powerful insight into the audience – which informed everything and even found its way back into the comic. Scale of the task The rewards of traditional print publishing were declining, but the rewards of The insight was this: children are simultaneously both digital and online success seemed very far out of reach. Beano’s sister comic, the Dandy, binary. They are technologically-sophisticated, but have a launched a paid online edition that closed soon afterwards. Meanwhile deep-seated need for yes-no, good-bad answers that help them Beano’s own online presence hadn’t tapped into the significant audience of understand where they fit in the world. kids online over several years. Even the Walt Disney Corporation, with all its vast resources, was unable to achieve sustainable commercial success with Club The campaign was all about seeing the world through a kid’s binary Penguin. lens, summed up as So Beano! (awesome) or No Beano! (rubbish). Results Penetration leapt to over Awareness jumped from 50% to 75%1. And even the Beano’s traditional print sales went up, increasing by 10%. 1Source: Panelbase survey kids aged 6 – 12, January 2018 (519), March 2017 (516), May 2016 (556) BEANO: A NATIONAL TREASURE Published by DC Thomson, since July 1938 Beano is the UK’s oldest, best-selling, most popular children’s comic. It’s been read by over 27 million living Brits, selling 2 million copies a week in its heyday. Beano continued to stay at the top of its market, with a number one annual for 19 of the last 20 years. Regardless of market share, media The second event was a demographic Meanwhile, parents were tearing their consumption was changing cliff-edge. For decades, love of the hair out trying to monitor usage – only dramatically. It was a problem. Beano had been handed down from 18% of parents felt the internet offered 3 Since the late 1990s, the ‘engine room’ parent to child. But by the mid-2010s, enough safe places for their kids . of the Beano brand, the comic, was the slow decline had reached a suffering from the long-term decline in ‘tipping-point’ where a critical mass of print media sales. parents had no longer been Beano readers in their own youth. There was nothing to pass on2. Various initiatives were developed to counter this – a TV show; a theme park tie-in; even a Royal Mail commemorative The third event was a technological Combined, these added up to a stamp. But there was no consistency milestone. The iPad was launched in seemingly unsolvable problem for and no overarching brand vision, no 2010. From 2015 onwards a generation Beano’s traditional model - but also a greater role in consumer’s lives. of 5+ kids had spent their whole lives huge opportunity with digital. in a world driven by tablets and other devices. Little by little Beano was becoming a How do you feel about the Beano? brand of the past. How do you feel about the Beano? Love this/ favourite Like a lot How do you feel about the Beano? Love this/ favourite Like a lot Adults 14% Love this/Favourite26% 17% 24% 4% 15% Brand affinity decreases withHow age do you feel about the Beano? Love this/ favourite Like a lot Adults 14% 26% 17% 24% 4% 15% How do you feel about theHow Beano? do you feel about the Beano? 15-24 10% Like15% thisLove a this/ lot favourite14% Like a31% lot 6% 24% Adults 14% 26% Love this/ favourite17% Like a lot24% 4% 15% Love this/ favourite15-24 10% Like a lot15% Quite like14% 31% 6% 24% Adults 14% 26% 25-3417% 7% 15% Neither24% like12% nor 4%dislike 15% 34% 10% 22% Adults 14% 26% 15-24 10% 17% 15% 24%14% 4% 31%15% 6% 24% Adults 14% 26% 17% 24% 25-344% 7%15% 15% 12% 34% 10% 22% 15-24 10% 15% 14% 35-44 31%15% Dislike a20%6% little 24% 21% 22% 2% 21% 15-24 10% 15% 25-3414% 7% 15% 31% 12% 6% 34%24% 10% 22% 15-24 10% 15% 14% 31% 6% 35-44 24% 15% Do20% not like at all 21% 22% 2% 21% Between 2012 and 2015 the brand 25-34 7% 15% 12% 45-54 34%12% 10%28% 22% 20% 23% 3% 13% 25-34 7% 15% 12%35-44 15% 34% 20% 10% 21% 22% 22% 2% 21% found itself facing the convergence of 25-34 7% 15% 12% 34% 10% 45-54 22% 12% 28% 20% 23% 3% 13% 55-64 19% 36% 20% 17% 2% 7% 35-44 15% 20% 21% 22% 2% 21% three hugely significant events. 35-44 15% 20% 45-54 12%21% 28%22% 2% 20%21% 23% 3% 13% 35-44 15% 20% 21% 22% 2% 55-64 21% 19% 36% 20% 17% 2% 7% 65+ 19% 41% 16% 18% 1%4% 45-54 12% 28% 20% 23% 3% 13% 45-54 12% 28% 55-64 19% 20% 23%36% 3% 13% 20% 17% 2% 7% The first was a commercial bombshell. 45-54 12% 28% 20% 23% 65+3% 13%19% 41% 16% 18% 1%4% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% In 2012, the long-term decline in comic 55-64 19% 65+ 19% 36% 41% 20% 17%16% 2% 7%18% 1%4% 55-64 55-64 19% 36% 20% 17% 2% 7% sales finally hit home when the Beano’s 19% 36% 20% 17% 0% 2% 7% 25% 50% 75% 100% 65+ 2Dubit Research, Beano Studios, 65+ 19% 19% 0%41% 41%25% 16% 18%50%16% 1%4% 18%75% 1%4% 100% sister comic, the Dandy, closed its doors. 65+ 19% 41% 16% 18% 1%4% 2015 (Base 1062) 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 0% 25%0% 50%25% 75%50% 100%75% 100% 2Dubit Research, Beano Studios, 2015 (Base 1062) 3Beano Panelbase Survey, May 2016, 500 parents of 6-12s, fieldwork 21st-26th April Beano had to become a success in The birth of a partnership. It wasn’t an easy task: it was to bottle up digital to reach a new generation While the product offering was being the loved Beano spirit of comedy and of kids. developed by Beano studios, independent rebellion into a creative platform that Beano realised succeeding in digital communications agency Red Brick Road would completely redefine the brand’s offered the only sustainable future for (RBR) was commissioned to help create identity across all content and their brand. interest and desire amongst kids. communications in a new, digital age. But the precedents were not good. After closing as a print comic, The Dandy launched a paid online edition. It lasted 6 months. Meanwhile, Beano already had a web presence, supporting the print comic. But it only attracted users – less than 10% of print readership. In 2015, DC Thomson tried a different approach. They set up Beano Studios, a standalone company staffed by entertainment and digital specialists. Their mission was to capture what made Beano a success and to transpose that onto the behaviours of digital-native children in the 21st century. The business objective. In 2016, kids’ awareness had fallen to just The output was to break away from 4 To create a valuable digital brand capable 50% (c/w Lego and Disney at around existing models. Not an online comic, like 4 of a critical mass of reach and 90%). And parents were measuring at 70% . the failed digital Dandy. Not an add-on to attractiveness, in order to be successfully The target for both was an ongoing 5% a print comic, like the current Beano.com monetised at a subsequent stage - through increase YOY. support site. Not even a themed gaming advertising, sponsorship and branded site, like the Disney Corporation’s failing content. It also had to prompt reappraisal of the Club Penguin. brand by driving its ‘trustworthy’ digital The marketing objective. credentials to parents. Instead, build a hub for all of the hottest kid stuff out there (content, games, To achieve the business objective, In 2016 this number was 56% - with a exercises) – focusing totally on ‘the now’, marketing needed to increase monthly target as 60% in the first 18 months. just like kids themselves. It would be website users from just to updated constantly, every day and become the new social currency. This was entry level for successful brand activity and advertising sales. In percentage Importantly, it would reassure parents by terms, this meant an increase of over being a safe place for kids and advertisers. 1,300%. Only by achieving this hugely-ambitious target would Beano The Journey (1): creating a new kind of product.