September 15, 2000
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Amazon's French Ad Campaign
Gets Hampered by Local Laws
By SARAH ELLISON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
LONDON -- Online retailer Amazon.com, which just launched in France, faces a daunting challenge. The company needs to win over customers in a country that prohibits television advertising for retailers and media companies.
Amazon to Launch Site in France; Ready to Compete with the Locals (Aug. 30)
Barred from the most far-reaching medium around, Amazon's French ad agency, a small unit of Havas Advertising SA called Ailleurs Exactement (Somewhere Else Exactly), is doing the best it can to create a campaign that will persuade the French to buy their Balzac online. But Evelyn Soum, president of Ailleurs Exactement, admits it's a tough task. To reach a broad audience and spur people online, the best method is "obviously television, and in the long term that will be a handicap" for Amazon, she says.
Amazon's campaign, which broke last week online and will appear next week in weekly magazines and newspapers, promotes the simple message that Amazon offers a wide variety of books, music and electronics online. "From Alien to Zorro: all the films from A to Z" and "Akira to Zola: all the books from A to Z" are two slogans that are meant to be accessible and friendly enough to appeal to people who aren't used to buying online.
Initially, notes Ms. Soum, the print and online campaign can work because the population that buys books and music online is still relatively small. But in order to drive more people online, a key goal of Amazon in France, there is nothing like a mass TV campaign to get the message across.
"Unfortunately, this is an issue that is still evolving here, and for now, we have to wait for the legislation to change," says Ms. Soum.
Earlier this year, in an effort to promote the Internet revolution among the Gauls, state broadcasting watchdog CSA, or Conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel, said that Internet companies should be exempt from the 1992 law that prohibits television advertising by retailers, media and film companies, publishers and advertising groups.
But the agency is reviewing that decision following pressure from France's culture minister, who sent a disapproving letter to CSA President Herve Bourges. So the advertising ban still stands.
Not that some retailers haven't got lucky. Last weekend, the online division of Cora SA, a Belgian and French retailer, managed to sneak a campaign past industry regulators onto French television station TF1, but the ad was pulled off the air by the CSA, which is now playing it safe after the reprimand from the Culture Ministry.
"The lack of a legal precedent for dot-com advertising is making the situation murky," explains Ms. Soum.
Ailleurs Exactement beat out the French offices of Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather and FCB Worldwide to win the account, which according to people close to Amazon is valued at slightly less than 50 million francs (7.6 million euros or $6.5 million). Ailleurs had the best understanding of the brand and was most in touch with Amazon's "think global, act local" mentality, according to Cecile Moulard, general manager of marketing at Amazon in France. Ms. Moulard said that Amazon would likely explore television advertising if French laws were changed, but declined to estimate any changes to Amazon's advertising budget.
Amazon.fr is facing stiff competition in France from existing online booksellers, including France Telecom SA-owned Alapage.fr; BOL.com, a joint venture of Havas and Bertelsmann AG; and the Internet site of top cultural goods retailer FNAC.
The fnac.com site has countered the Amazon.fr launch with a widely advertised new promotion promising 24-hour delivery of most items in its online catalog. The campaign is focused on newspapers and magazines.
French Internet advertisers spent nearly 1.5 billion francs on campaigns in traditional media in 1999, according to advertising market researcher Secodip. But if online retailers could advertise on television, that number would likely increase dramatically. Of the sectors banned from television advertising in France, retailing is the one with the biggest budget. Last year, retailers shelled out roughly 9.5 billion francs for ads in newspapers, magazines, billboards and on French radio.
From a to z: The new print campaign for Amazon.fr.
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