MEDIA & MARKETING:Berocca is one of the few brands with an increased marketing budget this year, writes SIOBHÁN O'CONNELL

MARKETING IS an investment, not an expense, is a common refrain uttered by the marketing boss to the finance director when looking for budget sign-off on a new campaign. But while it is easy to spend money on advertisements in a booming economy, it’s a different ball game to keep spending as the economy tanks.

Despite the recession, some brands have increased their advertising budget this year.

Berocca is a vitamin tablet manufactured by Bayer that was launched in Ireland in 2001. In its first year on the market, turnover was €500,000, according to Peter Offerhaus, the brand’s country manager in Ireland.

Eight years on and turnover is topping €4 million, thanks mainly, says Offerhaus, to the investment in marketing.

For Offerhaus, the marketing strategy was to start small with the advertisements and grow big.

“A brand has to have a certain turnover level before it makes sense to invest money in advertising above the line,” he says. “Our strategy was to win over the pharmacies first so that they recommend the brand. Once that acceptance was there, we took our advertising to the next level by going on TV.

“Berocca has 40 per cent market share in Ireland and is one of the best markets in the world for Berocca on a per-capita basis. We have grown turnover this year from €3 million to €4 million, with the launch of Berocca Boost.”

Berocca Boost is on TV screens again next week with a four-week campaign, while a new online viral campaign went live in the past few days. It is targeted at a younger audience than the traditional 30- to 45-year-old Berocca customer.

Berocca is consistent with its advertising investment, with the spend amounting to about 25 per cent of annual turnover. Initially, the marketing focused on trade press advertising. As turnover increased, the advertising spend was directed to mass media.

The first advertisements for Berocca showed a man running faster than a train. In more recent times, the TV advertisements depict a man sprinting faster than a cheetah on the African plains.

According to Offerhaus: “These ads have helped to distinguish Berocca from other vitamin products. It is a mental stamina and physical task to run against a train, and that is the same advertising message in the cheetah commercial.”

To launch Berocca Boost, Offerhaus and his advertising agency changed tack and came up with the idea of an animated Green Ninja character who scuttles around the table giving one of the executives a kick in his rear end as he sips his Berocca Boost.

Bayer used Ireland as a test market for Berocca Boost and the advertising creative developed by Dublin agency YR will be deployed when Boost is launched in Spain, Switzerland, South Africa and Finland next year.

Offerhaus is a believer in the merits of producing advertisements locally for a local audience. But he says it is not always easy to do because of the high production costs of making them in Ireland. “Our ad agency knows that it’s more expensive to make ads in Ireland and they have found ways for us to save costs. For example, they used our boardroom as the location for the Green Ninja ads and for the cheetah campaign they used available stock footage,” he says.

“In a smaller market it is always more critical to develop your own advertising. But the ratio between media spend and production costs is not very favourable in Ireland.”

YR director Stephanie Coates says: “We have very talented production companies in Ireland. The benefit of using an Irish company is that all the meetings are here so there is no need for travel expenses and you have much more flexibility.”