Pre-loaded with the first live augmented reality mobile phone app, IBM Seer, the phone acted as a real-time guide to what was going on across The All England Club, from live scores and the length of the queue at the bar to the nearest toilets or transport disruption that might impede the journey home.

 

But the development of the Wimbledon app was led not by the helpful boffins at IBM or in-house marketers hoping to showcase products. It was driven by an advertising agency – OgilvyOne London. It seems the application was one of a new breed of innovative corporate advertising methods that looks beyond traditional old media channels in order to promote the corporate brand.

 

Together, IBM and OgilvyOne aimed to build awareness of IBM’s corporate brand among a niche but valuable audience of key business decision makers, including British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh, who loved it so much, he wanted to take it home.

 

While Ogilvy says the interactive campaign was developed using a tiny part of IBM’s corporate advertising budget, thanks to additional attention that it also garnered online through a YouTube demonstration and tech bloggers, it generated a return on investment of 1:156.

 

Kevin Whitlock, communications manager for WPP Group-owned Ogilvy Group UK, Ogilvy Advertising and OgilvyOne London, adds IBM wanted to reinforce its cutting edge credentials and, as Wimbledon’s long-term data partner, the event gave them a compelling story and setting in which to do that. “It is corporate brand advertising that works over the time and it is the long-term benefits that are the ‘real’ return on investment.”

 

Corporate brand advertising has traditionally been limited to adverts in the business press or on billboards in airports; the IBM campaign shows new media channels are not just limited to consumer campaigns but can also be used for targeting stakeholders and potential investors.

 

Financial reporting regulations have always dictated that companies have to speak to their investors on a regular basis but, in many cases, this had been pared back to little more than the hard figures, a review of the period and forecasts. However, the rise in smaller shareholders and a broader range of stakeholders means companies are increasingly looking to build and maintain corporate brands beyond their earning statements.

 

Thom Newton, managing partner at specialist corporate advertising agency 35 Communications, which works with clients including Tesco and drinks giant Diageo, explains: “There are two main areas of work in corporate advertising – the required shareholder communications and the corporate brand drive, which highlights the company’s values and what it stands for.

 

“Many companies are now using both types to build an active and interactive dialogue with all of their stakeholders as part of an ongoing relationship, but companies that have a lot of small shareholders, who may also be their customers, have to nurture that relationship.”Companies were previously only forced down the advertising route during a flotation or to limit the damage caused by a crisis or to inform or reassure – or, says Tim Aston, founder of advertising agency Antidote, because “the chairman’s wife complained she couldn’t see the company in the paper”. But, increasingly, it is being used as a tool to support a range of corporate issues such as garnering shareholder and wider analyst support for a merger or acquisition (or, indeed, to fend one off); supporting new corporate social responsibility initiatives; advocating the company’s stance on an issue or recruiting new employees.

 

“It is not about crisis management, corporate brand advertising should be done to show what you stand for and make sure you are top-of-mind for customers and investors,” adds Newton.

 

All the signs suggest that companies are willing to start investing in brand advertising again rather than focusing spend on short-term, direct response work, a trend seen particularly in the financial services sector last year.

 

The days following the credit crunch highlighted that, in unprecedented times, an advertising campaign can be used to target both the corporate world and consumers. Margaret Johnson, chief executive of advertising agency Leagas Delaney, which works with clients including Nationwide, points to the high profile reassurance campaigns launched by a majority of financial services companies at the start of last year.

 

“It became such a massive topic that touched everyone. Most of the banks ran something at that point that aimed to reassure all of their audiences about their financial strength.”

 

Fast forward a year and half and there is a suggestion that confidence is returning to companies, which means they are beginning to slacken the tight rein on the advertising budget. Global ad spend rose by 12.5% to £73.18 billion in the first quarter of 2010, according to the latest figures from The Nielsen Company although the Institute of Practitioners In Advertising (IPA)’s quarterly Bellwether report, released at the start of July, showed the 20% of marketers were revising budgets down in the second quarter fearing a double dip recession.

 

Antidote, the agency behind the Anya Hindmarch/Sainsbury’s I Am Not Plastic Bag campaign, has been working with Shell Brands International for the past three years on its corporate advertising business culminating in the launch of its The New Energy Future initiative at the Copenhagen Climate Conference last December.

“Shell’s corporate work is not about selling stuff, it has never sold the idea of using more fuel but, as a very significant pension fund, it is important to give key stakeholders compelling reasons for remaining with the company.”

 

The New Energy Future work is aimed at what Shell identifies as its “special publics”, a group of no more than 20,000 people including environment ministers, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), academics and journalists. Ashton says: “It is essential to be up to speed on the environment and sustainability. The first important thing we needed was a story or organising principles so we started with the idea that Shell needed to generate more energy but less CO2.”

 

The then chief executive Jeroen van der Veer invested in independent research and analysis around the idea which led to it developing the “Three Hard Truths” – that the population will rise from 6.4 billion to 9.6 billion people by 2015; that fossil fuel can’t keep up with that growth and that the amount of CO2 generated by those two things will have a significant impact on the environment.

 

Ashton says the research was shared with a number of very special interest groups and was adopted as the “skewer” that ran through Shell’s corporate work and led to the creation of The New Energy Future, which has become Shell’s point of view on the environment and the future.

 

As a research piece, it aims to encourage discussion and work on finding solutions for CO2 management and renewable and more efficient energies. It was launched through a roadshow and through keynote speeches. This was supported by outdoor work, including digital panels at airports to catch the business traveler, and a sub-section on the Shell corporate website.

 

“The web is crucial,” says Ashton, although he adds, that if you are going to send people to the website, it must be regularly monitored. “Whilst the old model doesn’t work, if you want to have a conversation with your audience, you have to be around to have it.

 

“It is very easy to kick a big corporation, although many have been found wanting by new communications and media. They don’t manage the conversation properly because they are so used to be being in control so they don’t even try; then it gets even more out of control.”

 

Corporate advertising is waking up to the capabilities of online and digital media channels, which can deliver significantly more personalised and targeted messages for a much smaller spend than traditional media.

 

According to James Engel, account director for Deutsche Bank at B2B advertising agency Doremus, the explosion of new media is helping corporate advertising build on the traditional print work with new marketing tools.

 

“There is a lot more opportunity through digital and, increasingly, we can use the methods that were previously confined to consumer marketers such as TV ads, we can now create video content for online,” Engel adds.

 

Newton agrees that brand advertising can help to create a more pro-active and interactive relationship with the corporate audience. “Where as in the past companies may have taken an ad out in The Times, if the audience is now reading The Times on their iPads we need to re-think that ad and make more interactive so we are building an ongoing relations and getting more data.”

 

That said, the traditional media outlets are still very much part of the schedule. Whitlock says print is still used widely by its clients, which also includes Barclay’s Wealth Management, but it is no longer confined to the business press.

 

“Interestingly, they are also using publications such as Conde Naste Traveller, Tatler and Vanity Fair. Ads can have an impact with those titles because investors and business people do not just read for practical reasons. It is a less obvious approach and you are reaching a lower circulation but it is the quality of that audience.”

 

The cut in consumer advertising spend means that the corporate budget has likely followed suit and the rapid development of online corporate advertising, which is notably cheaper than traditional media, suggest that it is also being squeezed. Progressive companies will understand digital can be used in a more personal and targetted way to create ongoing conversations, rather than allowing lack of budget to create silences in their communications.