A great article from Brian Morrissey that takes a step back and takes a long term view of the changes social media are bringing to the world of advertising and marketing. A must read (so read it).
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So Christmas is nearly here - only a few hours left at work before we can starting boozing until the cows come home. Normally at this time of year, there are quite a few agency "Christmas card" websites flying around, but there are a couple that stand out...
Glue's effort, "lets go to lapland" is a work of genius - I was in their office last week and saw this in action - what're you're looking at is one of their meeting rooms they've converted for the purpose, and all of the staff are taking it in turn to do their bit to collectively cycle as far as Lapland (they've got a clever system for recording the mileage accurately), and you can send them little messages of encouragement which appear on the screen in front of them as they cycle. And it's all for charidy...
AKQA have taken a similar live video feed approach, although they've outsourced the hard work to Cheese and Biscuits, two crack performing hamsters (of which there's been little sign whenever I've looked, although it looks like Scamp spotted them in action). They claim the movement of the wheel powers the sign, although a little elf from Glue somewhat uncharitably pointed out to me that there was no way two hamsters could power a neon light (apparently they've done the calculations). Honesty in communications anyone?
Anyway - have a great Christmas and an even better new year...
Sugar have launched a new service, Sugarscape.com, which is basically del.icio.us for teenage girls:
It invites users to download a special SugarScape toolbar, which adds buttons to their web browser. If they see a web page they like, they can click the "Sugar it" button to post a link on Sugarscape.
Sugar is one of the few brands left standing in the teenage magazine sector, which has shrunk as readers have turned to the internet to get their news and gossip. The monthly print title is the market leader, with an average circulation of 187,059 copies during the January-June 2007 period.
Sugar is one of the few brands left standing in the teenage magazine sector, which has shrunk as readers have turned to the internet to get their news and gossip.
The monthly print title is the market leader, with an average circulation of 187,059 copies during the January-June 2007 period.
Nathan covered this subject while I was away in August - now Andrew Walmsley has picked up the baton:
in digital, the lines between creative, content and media have blurred. Consumer insight is no longer the sole responsibility of the agency creating the TV ad - instead it is coming from those who understand how an audience relates to its media. Executing these insights is not straightforward either. Ideas cross between the creation of content - be it widgets, advertorial or social networking - and 'traditional' creative ideas involving ads, and media ideas.
Anomaly's Johnny Vulkan ostensibly on the year in Advertising, but probably more:
we're beginning to see a greater focus on something that is not even a new idea - that the products and services businesses create should be fundamentally good.
This is not some romantic notion of a utopia where only good or useful products exist - it is a business imperative. Where we used to advertise 'at' people, technology now creates more opportunities for people to answer back - not just to the advertisers themselves, but to everyone. If your product is not as good as the competition, or if it fails to live up to your claims, the world will soon know about it and no amount of cleverness will save you - nor should it. Businesses ought to welcome the feedback and dialog. Harnessed correctly, it will make things better for everyone.
This is not some romantic notion of a utopia where only good or useful products exist - it is a business imperative. Where we used to advertise 'at' people, technology now creates more opportunities for people to answer back - not just to the advertisers themselves, but to everyone.
If your product is not as good as the competition, or if it fails to live up to your claims, the world will soon know about it and no amount of cleverness will save you - nor should it. Businesses ought to welcome the feedback and dialog. Harnessed correctly, it will make things better for everyone.
There is nothing else but search. People do not type in URLs, they google your brand name. More than ever before. Deal with it...
Campaign have been at it as well, announcing their Agencies of the year:
Oh, and Fallon's gorilla ad for Cadbury won campaign of the year. Now there's a surprise...
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Marketing's Agency of the Year 2007 supplement was released this week:
Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen Online:
Six out of every ten of your potential consumers will trust the recommendation of someone they don't know when it comes to deciding which of your products or services to buy. They're more likely to trust these than your brand website, ads in magazines, on TV or radio or before movies, more than emails or texts they receive from you, sponsorships you engage in, or search engine ads or banner ads that you place. Brand association maps, which plot language, attributes and issues around a topic, show that, for advertising, attributes like 'false', 'deceptive' and 'misleading' are highly associated.
What people are saying about you can have more effect than all of your marketing activities, so it's vital to understand what's being said and the sentiment behind it - the 'buzz'. Our studies in the US have shown that monitoring buzz can be like a digital version of a crystal ball when it comes to sales. For example, a well-known pet-food manufacturer in the US was consistently cited in the same percentage of blogs until early March this year when suddenly its share of buzz increased 20-fold in just two weeks due to a contaminant scare. This increase in negative buzz preceded by one week a drop in sales, and the buzz spike coincided with a 50% drop in sales. So while it's difficult to control what people are saying about you, by monitoring the buzz it can give you a fighting chance, a window, in which to develop appropriate counter-strategies.
What people are saying about you can have more effect than all of your marketing activities, so it's vital to understand what's being said and the sentiment behind it - the 'buzz'. Our studies in the US have shown that monitoring buzz can be like a digital version of a crystal ball when it comes to sales. For example, a well-known pet-food manufacturer in the US was consistently cited in the same percentage of blogs until early March this year when suddenly its share of buzz increased 20-fold in just two weeks due to a contaminant scare.
This increase in negative buzz preceded by one week a drop in sales, and the buzz spike coincided with a 50% drop in sales. So while it's difficult to control what people are saying about you, by monitoring the buzz it can give you a fighting chance, a window, in which to develop appropriate counter-strategies.
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I've been hearing really good things about Topshop's new Facebook app that Poke have built for them (see Marketing's article) - however, I've not tried it out as I'd face the derision of my male friends. Can any girls out there who've used it leave some feedback in the comments?
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Marketing:
from February, eBay will abandon TV and all above-the-line media. It will therefore no longer need a retained media agency. Digital media buying is handled in-house at eBay.
The DMA Awards, the most prestigious in the Direct Marketing calendar were held on Tuesday night and digital swept the board, with the Grand Prix, half of the gold awards in the Markets categories (IT/Telecommunications, Leisure/Travel, FMCG, B2C), 2 out 3 golds in the Creativity categories (Copy, Art Direction) going to digital campaigns, along with every gold award in the Strategy categories having large digital components (and let's not forget the Digital categories themselves).
Oh, and while we're on the subject, I managed to pick up a Bronze.
David Benady:
Social media is changing the rules of brand marketing. No longer can brands simply rely on beautifully crafted advertising campaigns and clever public relations strategies to influence consumer opinion. These days, they have to contend with 24-hour commentary from blogs, vlogs, online forums, review sites and other social media dispensing opinions about the performance and quality of their products.
Hugh Macleod has been talking about Social Objects for a while, and to be honest, I didn't really get it until Antony Mayfield linked to some of Hugh's thoughts on the subject, along with some explanation of his own. Read them both.
The winners of the 2007 Eurobest Awards were announced on Friday - you can see all of the interactive winners here. The winner of the Grand Prix is worth looking at - a really innovative use of ASCII art in a paid search campaign.
So how did the UK's agencies do? Well, the UK picked up 11 awards which compares quite well to Germany's 8 and France's 1, but is pitiful when compared to Sweden's 16 (especially when you factor in the fact that 7 out of the UK's 11 awards were won by Glue).
It's probably worth us dusting off the debate begun in September by Campaign and Profero's Daniele Fiandaca - is there trouble at the digital mill?
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