Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Budget is ca. 2 mil
Not sure - I need to propose methods which would measure awareness post campaign
Audience is in a few countries in Europe
Relatively low awareness
This is what I am asking the forum? : ) not sure

Which countries, which languages - there are huge demographic differences in awareness. Most people are so comfortable here in Holland and they're so content with their life - and tolerant of all the things that go wrong (like missing traffic signs ... )

Any suggestions on the actual tools and promotion methods that can be used to target young people (18-25) and older people (above 65)?

When you say "Not sure - I need to propose methods which would measure awareness post campaign Audience is in a few countries in Europe"

Relatively low awareness.

I live in Europe and even with the legislation in place that ensures decent consumer rights - especially after my experience with a US based firm who's idea of consumer rights was that I could look after the problem better myself - the attitude here is one of "someone will look after this for me".

This goes two ways: I had an experience with the Dutch railways recently. I wanted to upgrade my travel pass and their systems don't allow this. In order to have a higher grade pass, I must first voluntarily relinquish my consumer rights to my old contract. Personally I see this as outrageous - everyone I speak to just shrugs their shoulders and says "there's nothing we can do". When this is the attitude of responsible adults - responsible adults stating clearly that they have no responsibility - are these same people going to turn around and start complaining?

Then you get the absurd situation of the website for European travel that you can't book 50% of stations with. it's crazy. Yet nobody can do anything because that's how things are. Nobody cares, nobody does anything!

Now as a professional copywriter, one thing usually strikes home, and it's a good story. It should work here in Europe, but my experience of people here is that they'll read it as a story ... and that's it. No connection, no nothing. Then I turn to Jasper and say "that's you" and he jumps! This guy's a university don ... the real problem I see is systemic. Nobody needs to take any responsibility because everything's taken care of. The problem comes when people who are supposed to be responsible have this attitude too. They need "facts" - and so I wrote a story about my imaginary uncle Moriarty who's a professor at the Erasmus. His sideline is wining and dining EU bureaucrats in Brussels, making sure that they find the right academic papers to support "their" views (which just happen to be the views of a nefarious organization).

None of this has helped you save to outline the immensity of the task facing you.

Another story: Hotel Stadt Aachen, Naumburg. We sit at a table near the window and the waitress goes ballistic. It was set for six people, and it is implicit that the table is for six people not two. Where are my rights? Where are hers? That is Germany, former DDR - it's as German as was Breslau before it was renamed Wroclaw.

We are talking changing entire cultures here. The Germans expect, the Dutch don't care, the Luxemburgers have closed for lunch, the Greeks are asleep for the afternoon. You can't change that. It's how they are, and consumer rights have to fit in with the fact that the restaurant is closed for lunch. Yes, that's Luxembourg. The cafes close for lunch. If that makes sense, anything will. Oh, and the British have everything sorted because everyone speaks English to them.

So: what is your reaction to this, and if we can meet in the middle, it might just be possible to sort out a strategy that'll get you somewhere. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin , all of them and more - but they are of no use unless you're saying the right things to the right people.

Thanks guys.

Any ideas on communication channels which can be used in order to reach the target audience over 65.

Many thanks,

Google/Bing display network (targetable to the over 60s for sure) and Facebook (also targetable by age group, even now in Europe). All of these channels can give you valuable information on who is interested, where they live and what magazines/periodicals they read online.

With this you can set up effective offline advertising campaigns. It's not the answer you're looking for, but that's the marketplace for you! You've got a crowded railway station, thousands of people each hour and you're only wanting the over 65s ... and they're not there because it's rush-hour and they're at home. Would this make a good campaign at this time of day? Probably not. Yet on a Sunday it could be that it would be more effective to advertise there - you can only find out by trying it out.

Finding out if radio and TV work well is extremely hard to do, magazines likewise - unless you copy the techniques of the 1920s. So start the easy way, work it upwards and outwards when you know where the interest is coming from.

Without sensible information, you really are throwing darts in a dark coal cellar. I don't have it. You have the funding to find out extremely quickly.