Subtle and not so subtle advertising - which works best?

1 hour ago
6 min read

"A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself." David Ogilvy

On the left an actual ad albeit Coles promoting itself in its Magazine and on the right what looks like the next recipe(s) it is publishing but which in effect is a page advertising several different things - some in-house, some from suppliers. Yes there is a recipe - and yes this is a discreet section of pages in the magazine. But it is also an ad albeit for a number of different things.

Coles Magazine is a gift that keeps on giving as far as I am concerned - mostly in the context of writing this blog - because there is always something to be written about. Similar in a way to looking at the contents of your dinner plate and putting your brain to work on all the different things you could say about them - from the plate itself, to what you put in your mouth. I should also say, that the magazine also generally provides me with at least one recipe that I would like to try - and often do. Today, however, I'm going to try and isolate some of the different ways in which it advertises in its pages. The whole thing, of course is one giant ad for Coles - an image maker for the company - but there are different ways in which it does this.

Before I get to that, however, just a bit of pondering on who is responsible for it all. Coles ultimately of course, but there is an extensive list of people from the Head of Content down to the Junior Accountant at the back of the magazine plus the statement (with a logo) that the magazine is published by Medium Rare Content Agency, who on their home page states:

"We partner with brands to build powerful, engaged and sustainable audiences through content strategy, content production and owned media, delivering tangible business outcomes." Medium Rare Content

I get that they probably put the whole thing together in a publishing kind of way, but who actually decides what is going to go into it and why? After all - in that statement above they talk about 'content strategy', so what does Coles' 'Head of Content' in the 'Content team' do? Or the Coles Commercial Content Director and Manager come to that? As to 'content production' - Coles also has a whole list of creative associated roles in their 'Content Team' list. Maybe I've got the question sort of round the wrong way and Coles' team does most of the work, and Medium Rare Content, actually just assemble it all together and perfect the layout. before printing it Who employs the magazines top flight food stylists and photographers who are all freelance? We know that the recipes are written by Sarah Hobbs the Coles Food Director but are her helpers Emma Knowles, Jessica Brook, Emma Braz, Tracy Rutherford ... Coles employees or freelancers too? And we only know these things if you read the tiny print in the inner margins of each section. And I have written about all of that before.

But to return to advertising, which I particularly noticed in this month's edition because of the 11 page promotions section - the first page of which is shown at the top of the page. Note the style of the photography and the styling, which is very similar to the previous section - the focus of this month's magazine - Global Dinners.

There are differences between the two sections. Beginning with that small print. At the beginning of the above section the small print on the left tells who the creative team were. It also begins with a big title for the section, which is actually a subtitle for the bigger section What's for Dinner? plus some words of explanation, and one tiny ad for the Tawa pan that you can find in store together with 'more in store.' Each recipe picture in this section also features some of those cooking items - but with no reference to them, although most of the dishes have a small drinks match recommendation from either Coles or Liquorland. And each page is numbered.

Compare the pair!

Below is a recipe for Pork carnitas tacos from the Global Dinners section on the left and one for Mexican chicken and beans with soft tortillas from the Promotion section.

An overview - lots of advertising in the Promotions recipe and none in the 'real' recipe section. But they are both just as professionally styled and photographed, but with no acknowledgement, however tiny as to who did everything. Moreover both recipes' recipes are both included in the magazine index and have the recipe online. Which to me means that the recipes themselves were both devised by the Coles team and probably photographed by one of their usual photographers. There is also a tiny difference in that none of the 11 Promotion pages is numbered, even though they appear in the index. Also the recipe is always included on the same page but not necessarily for the 'real' recipes. However, none of the Promotion recipes has a nutrition guide at the end, as all of the 'real' magazine recipes do.

The most obvious differences are the ads on the Promotions page however. At the base of the page of all of those recipes are two products with a few words of praise, that are used in the recipe. The products are not related however - they do not come from the same companies - I checked on one or two - in this case - and generally too - we have a well-known company and a smaller one - Edgells and Capsicana. So it's unlikely that the recipe comes from either of them. Elsewhere in the magazine you will find isolated pages such as this one which are dedicated to one particular product from one of Coles' suppliers, although whether the recipe is supplied by the supplier or not I do not know - again the style of the photograph is similar ...

Back to our promotions section with its two products being advertised per recipe. Within the recipe you will also find a number of Coles products in the ingredients list - and this also happens in the 'real' recipes in the magazine, generally to a lesser degree. However, in addition on these pages there are also a number of Coles products - not ingredients - which are highlighted - for example the tray in which the katsu chicken for these Katsu chicken sandwiches, is resting and the bowl for the sauce. Interestingly this recipe cannot be found online.

I guess another difference between the two types of presentation is that with the Promotion you get a recipe - often just as good as any others in the magazine, and a whole lot of ads. With the magazine recipes you may also get information about ingredients, tips and tricks, variations - information about the growers of their produce. However, they are not free from advertising either products of their own or others, or charity efforts on the part of Coles - in this edition a mini focus on broccolini and potatoes was associated with the Eddie Betts Foundation which "aims to empower Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander youth through community sport". Buy some broccolini or Carisma potatoes and money will be donated to the Foundation. Isn't Coles good for doing this is the message.

My overriding questions about these two different ways of advertising are twofold. The main one, of course, is whether one is more effective than the other. Certainly from an income perspective for Coles the Promotion ones must give them more money as the companies whose products are being promoted must have paid for this. The standard of the recipes for both is generally high - higher than those in Woolworths Fresh Ideas Magazine for example, and occasionally of a standard that can be compared to many well-known celebrity chefs, and, of course, the choice of Curtis Stone as the face of the magazine - and various other promotional ventures is crucial. I'm guessing that the general house recipes in the magazine are of a standard that makes you think of Coles as a superior food offering. Well that's the aim anyway.

My other question is just a curiosity one. Who does all this? Coles in-house, or Medium Rare Content - or is it a joint production? After all Medium Rare Content is not just a printer, although I'm sure they at least do the printing. They are an advertising agency, so surely they have some creative input. Does that creative input begin with them or with Coles? And who chooses which products will be advertised? Do producers lobby for inclusion - or do the Coles food team choose according to what's in fashion and what's in season?

Below - two spreads just to whet your appetite and to show how culturally diversified we are all today. Italy and India here.