CDS develop local TV ad

Cosmetic Dentists of Australia (CDA) continue to boldly go where no dental practices have gone before in their endeavours to market cosmetic dentistry in Australia en masse.

The conglomerate of dentists who pool their resources under a common banner and budget to promote their services commenced with TV advertising in late 2003 and have since supplemented this with full page ads in high circulating glossy magazines. A total of 11 are currently running.

Marketing for the group is coordinated by Integrated Dental Marketing who have been carefully analysing the effects of the various activities undertaken so far. The next phase is further television advertising, this time with the original American "Empress" TV commercial being replaced with a locally produced version.

"The original TV commercial was a great start for us, as it was beautifully produced and had a track record in the States," explained CDA founder and spokesperson, Carl Burroughs. "We were not overly concerned that the ad was American as we were primarily showing it during the American version of Extreme Makeover, so it fitted quite nicely. Many of the top 'cosmetic' messages we see on TV are also American, such as make-up and hair products, so again, it wasn't necessarily out of place.

"The ads were 30 seconds in length and two different versions went to air. We've have been satisfied with the results so far, however, we felt it would be desirable to move to a 60-second format in order to talk about the benefits of the cosmetic aspects of dentistry in more detail and therefore produce better qualified enquires for our members.

"We are breaking totally new ground with the advertising we're doing and rapidly learning what works and what doesn't.

"This next round of promotion is a reflection of what we have learnt to far. The new Australian ad will feature former Miss World and the face of CDA, Belinda Green (pictured). Ms Green, whose profile has been lifted of late following another Australian winning the Miss Universe pageant, has agreed to star in the ad and that it should be finished and on air by the end of July."

CDA is now fully operational in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne and according to Mr Burroughs, is becoming synonymous with the general public as the premium supplier of dental procedures. As with most new ventures persistence, he believes, is the key.

"When we formerly launched CDA in February, our Ad Agency in Sydney explained that the general public take time to respond to new brands being advertised. They said sure, you will get a response straight away but the more regularly a person sees your message, the better results you will get. The agency claim that until a person has seen your message at least nine times, you are not a brand. This is certainly coming true with CDA as we are getting a far better response from our advertising today than we did at the launch and that is only four months ago! We are all very excited about going back on TV in a new format and seeing what results we can achieve. We are now actively trying to attract a slightly older patient and our market research shows that Belinda is well known, well liked and trusted with the over 45's. This, coupled with a longer commercial, should get the results we are looking for."