37,000 comments on one post

Read this by Mark Collier on MarketingProfs daily fix and had to share this along. This post by Heather B. Armstrong offered her blog readers a chance to win one of five Nintendo Wii Fit systems.

It generated a massive 37,000 comments...yep, that's right. 37,000.

Mark Collier's post asks how much this must have been worth to Nintendo?

Cyberbullying - Talentshow

Saw this and reminded me of a tragic story I read last December. It's actually hard to believe this even happened.

'Megan (13, St. Louis) had a MySpace profile when a cute boy "Josh" (16) begins courting her. All is well until Josh breaks up with her online by sending cruel messages about how she hurts her friends, is fat and a slut, and "the world would be a better place without you."

Shortly after reading this, Megan commits suicide. Josh turns out to be a fake profile created by Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's former friends.'

I know this kind of thing can happen offline too. Still scary and very sad. I've lifted it directly from Danah Boyd's post. You'll find a fair bit of discussion there.

Found video via toddand

Why business people speak like idiots

Found this via Helge Tennø

Fight the Bull is a website dedicated to eliminating business jargon. Some nice stuff here.

You can even download a toolbar that will scan your document and take out all the bull. With the Bull Composite Index, you can see how jargon-filled your Word doc or Powerpoint slides are.

The bit I like best is their Mystery Matador. If you get an email from a colleague that is full of bull - you can paste it into the Matador and anonymously send your colleague's email back to them from this site, with a score on how much bull was in their original email.

Let the fight begin.

Roger Federer + Nike

Posting this one especially for you Elaine K. I like it.

Via Toddand

Darth Vader plays golf

One of several spots, made by the agency, Mother, promoting all the Star Wars movies on Spike TV.

Via adland

Compromise is not always a good thing

This is a very insightful video for anybody that works in marketing communications. While each small additional message can be justified on its own merit - compromise is not always a good thing.

Thanks to Kevin for sending onto me.

For anybody that uses Focus Groups

For anybody that uses Focus Groups. If you like this, watch the groups for Apple's famous 1894 ad.

Found via Helge Tennø

Top 3 results get 79% of the clicks

Eye tracking results from Cornell University show that the top three results get 79% of the traffic. Worth a visit to seoresearcher.com - there were over 60 comments, many querying the validity of the research, but worth a quick read regardless.

Found via Jeremiah Owyang

The 'crucial bit' is coherency

While I'm not overly fond of the actual executions (except this outdoor ad), I think Club Orange's latest advertising campaign is pretty solid.

'Some bits are crucial' is consistent with many of their previous advertising campaigns during the years. They have actually been talking about the 'bits' for a long time. With good reason, as this is linked to why we should all drink Club Orange. As explained on their club.ie site: "it’s all in the bits!! Club uses over 11% fruit juice and contains real orange bits, making it a premium and great tasting product".

But for me anyway, the idea itself felt a bit weak in the past.

For example, a previous TV ad, Club Steam, shows a guy dancing naked in a steam room with his bottle of cold Club Orange, only to notice at the end that a few girls are in the steam room watching him. And we're told "It's a Club Orange thing, when the bits kick in". This feels a little vague to me.

However, their "Some bits are crucial" idea is stronger. No ambiguity here - choose Club Orange because it has bits of oranges in them, and this is the crucial part to a quality orange drink.

But it has also given them more scope to play with very different executions while having a coherent campaign.

• For example, their TV ad, produced by McConnells, is about a guy 'Jumping Jack', that tries to jump a load of trucks on a honda 50, but forgets the ramp. The ramp is the 'crucial' bit.

• Their online video, produced by vstream, is a video about a couple of dolls trying to get it on, but they can't because the male doll is missing some 'crucial' bits.
  
  
• I spotted this clever outdoor ad in Ranelagh, where the 'crucial' bits are the large bolts keeping the billboard up.
  

The TV ad, online video and billboard look nothing in common - and this is perfectly ok, as the idea is coherent across them all. This coherency is in fact the 'crucial bit'. The lazy route might have been to copy and paste a scene from the TV ad onto the outdoor ad and host the TV ad online.

The online presence is not as seamless as it could be.

• For example, there is a (nice) site dedicated to this campaign called somebitsarecrucial.ie which shows both the TV ad and the online video but doesn't have any info about the '11% fruit juice'. I found this at the club.ie site. Is there a need for two sites?
  
  
• And if you go to Club.ie, there is no reference to the campaign at all. In fact, an older TV automatically plays as soon as the page is loaded. Which is a pity. But these things happen, and I'd say this is result of internal processes, as opposed to just not thinking about it.
  
  
• Finally there is a facebook page set up, which is a nice idea in theory, but I wonder if this will be maintained? Maybe it will.
  

Overall though, I like it.

Website usability rap

Website usability rap. Not bad. I preferred the Search Engine Optimisation rap.

Found via Viralblog.

Do premium brands need expensive ads?

Do premium brands need expensive ads?

I suspect most would agree that they do not. Perhaps fashion brands need them, but I wonder. Or cars? Again, I'm not sure. If the answer is no, then why do expensive advertising? Sometimes the brand has been built using expensive, high end advertising and this is what is expected. Catch 22?

Doritos are happy to do it cheaply, having recently spent just six pounds making this ad.

Given the opportunity, I think any new brand should consider how to do cheap advertising - without looking cheap. Easier said than done. Red Bull seem to have managed this balance I think. Their ads clearly cost very little but they don't seem to have damaged the brand perception, going by the prices they charge.

Innocent Drinks and The Economist also come to mind...

Content Marketing

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Found this via Paul Isakson. Worth a flick through. If you like it, you'll enjoy Paul's own slides here. Good quote from CP+B "We think the future of advertising is great products with marketing embedded in them".

This is also one of the themes within this book.

Most creative use of press advertising I've seen in a while.

Most creative use of press advertising I've seen in a while.

It might be a bit difficult to see here, but they've used the numbers at the top of newspaper pages to illustrate stark statistics on AIDS. So for example, on page 6, they've written "6 million people in South Africa are living with HIV".

I'm sure you couldn't help but read these when flicking though the paper. Very clever.

Via Ads of the World

Billboard ad in airport

The copy says "Uninterrupted talk with the best mobile coverage in Sweden".

I like that they used the five billboards as one canvas. Nice.

Sandals with bottle openers

Sandals with bottle openers. I love this innovation.

I suspect that Reef really understand their customers - and have found that lots of them are young men and women with a fondness for beer.

Perhaps recruitment sites can learn from P.Diddy?

A friend of mine works for a popular online recruitment website. It is a good site, gets shed loads of traffic and I believe it does a decent job matching employers and applicants. But I reckon they are missing opportunities.

Online recruitment is a competitive enough industry with several big players in Ireland. But are they all the same? There are probably some differences around usability, features etc but do we choose one site over another? And if we do, why? And do we have any loyalty to our recruitment sites or are they all seen as commodities to help with our job search?

Of course, if we have no loyalty to a recruitment brand, this is their fault - not ours.

Recruitment was one of the first big (and profitable?) sectors that embraced the internet. It feels though that they haven't moved on much in the past 5-10 years? For example, should we still only be applying for jobs by uploading template-driven paper CVs?

Perhaps recruitment sites can learn from P.Diddy?

Cheering on Spain tonight

My girlfriend Marta is spanish and a big football fan. So we will both be cheering on Spain this evening...

Blink and it's gone

Sunday morning and I can see the sun breaking through the clouds. It's not going to last though. Sporadic. Reminds me of this charming ad. Very insightful.

Adopt a Designer

Image courtesy of is1313

Making it as a successful designer is not easy. There are lots of talented designers around looking for their first break.

But if you know your fashion and think you can spot up-and-coming talent, you might be interested in "Adopt a Designer", an initiative from an Irish company called Catwalk Genius.

In a nutshell, you buy shares in a designer to help her design her new collection and get a cut in the profits. And you even "get an exclusive limited edition design from your designer as a reward". Pop over to their site to see if there are any designers you might want to adopt. You can be part of it for just €15.

Nice idea. Another example of using crowdsourcing or crowdfunding as trendwatching.com called it in their recent free report 'Innovation Avalanche'

TV + Online is better than just TV on its own

Research firm Advertiser Perception recently surveyed 25,000 people and found that consumers are more likely to buy if they are exposed to ads across more than one media channel.

So for example, TV + Online is better than just TV on its own. Nothing new, but it is always good to have recent research to back up our comms strategies.

Via Brandeo

Why do marketers dumb down communications?

Why do marketers dumb down communications?

The worst examples are 'enter to win' competitions. You know the formula...we're asked a simple question and given three possible answers, but two of them are not only incorrect - they're often not even real words.

Why do brands do this? Is it because:

(a) They think we are not up to a difficult question
(b) They want as many people as possible to enter
(c) They are lazy

Which is why it is refreshing to see the above. Google did this when recruiting. They wanted smart, curious people - so they made their competition difficult. Those that figured out the problem were directed to a webpage asking them if they'd like to apply for a job with Google.

Brands communications that involve us more can often leave us feeling more rewarded.

More creative media by McDonald's

Via The adBlog

Seinfeld + Marketing

George Contanza is a hero of mine. I love his honesty about his insecurities and his selfishness. He says the stuff we think but don't like to admit.

So I was excited to hear somebody had written about how the show 'Seinfeld' can teach us about marketing. Bill Gammell uses scenes from the show to demonstrate marketing lessons - although not just George scenes. Definitely worth a read if you are a marketer and a Seinfeld fan.

I am jealous that I didn't write this first to be honest. Thinking about it now, I'm going to make a conscious effort to to link the occasional post to a Seinfeld insight - I'm convinced there are loads to pick from.

You can download it for free here.

The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect. Their website is well worth a visit. These guys really know how to communicate. They captured my attention, kept me interested and persuaded me to share here - which was one of their 3 key goals. Learn. Change. Share.

Do take a look.

Found this via Deborah Schultz

McDonald's 'Fresh Salads' ad

I thought this was eye catching - part of McDonald's Fresh Salads campaign. Leo Burnett are the agency. They took silver in the Media category in Cannes for their campaign where they actually planted and grew salad on a billboard over a 3-week period. You can see the video here.

Found the ad at Scamp's blog. There was a bit of chat going on about the awards if you are interested.

Free 'Word of Mouth' book

Image sent to me by Emer.

Seth posted earlier in the week about Dave Batler's new book. I read Grapevine, Dave's last book, and admit I found it facinating. He specialises in Word of Mouth marketing and has built up a unique agency around this.

In true WoM style, Dave is giving away his new book for free. Read Seth's post and download the book for free here.

How to get your first job in advertising

A live chat with Dave Trott on Scamp's blog generated some good discussion on planners, copywriters, art directors, agencies, good ads, bad ads, lazy ads, lazy students, good students and advertising in general. They racked up an impressive 245 comments.

The original topic was whether Mr Trott's classic "How to get your first job in advertising" is still relevant today, 30 years after it was first printed.

Most people felt the answer was yes.

I had not read the booklet before, so downloaded it for free from here. It is concise and drenched in commonsense. You'll enjoy it.

How do you win in the bottled water market?

I like this ad. It is beautifully shot, the music track is great and I think the "Bodies never lie" sign-off works. It's good stuff. I'd be proud of it if I were involved.

But I can't help thinking that positioning a water brand is a tough gig.

My girlfriend buys a couple of bottles of water each week. When we shop, there always seems to be a 'Buy one, get one free' offer. One week is might be Ballygowan, the next it's Volvic. Either way, the brand on sale gets our vote.

So if the fight for market share is at retail level, why spend on TV advertising? Is it needed at all?

Well, the strategy may be to use advertising to keep the brand top of mind, and then run a promotion in-store to clinch the sale. Research by author, John Philip Jones, shows that this combination can work. Interestingly, his results show you don't necessarily need to talk about the sale in the TV advertising either for this dual strategy to work. So no need for Ballygowan to talk about their two-for-one sale in their brand building ad.

Also, the brand manager can use this investment in advertising as leverage when negotiating the best shelf space in the stores.

Perhaps Ballygowan and Volvic are happy to fight it out between themselves, as long they don't lose share to other, smaller brands?

Either way, building a premium water brand when there is nothing obvious in the product to differentiate it can't be easy.

Heineken Concert

Heineken Jammin Festival...

Via Ads of the World

The most popular online ad format

Read some stats from brandeo that the 'Leaderboard' ad format accounts for 61% of online banner page impressions, according to the centre for media research. Although this format is the most popular, this doesn't mean it is the most effective.

I'm pretty sure the MPU format gets more clicks.

I'll have a dig around for some research on this to make sure.

Inspiration, anyone?

"If this didn't work last time, why is it going to work now?". This is the story of an advertiser losing his consumer. More here.

Via Chroma

Rewind City

I think it is their story-telling that makes their advertising so appealing. Nice pace, building up slowly.

I especially like that they have resisted jumping to the brand or product till the end. Very confident. Although you'd almost guess the brand from the tone and style. Tell me you can walk away without waiting till the end to see what is going on. I couldn't.

I loved the barber scene.


Thanks to Adblog for original post.

Interview with Drayton Bird

I've mentioned Drayton Bird a few times on my blog. Drayton is one of a few individuals that most influenced my thinking in my marketing career.

For anybody not familiar with Mr Bird, he is best-known for his massive contribution to the discipline of Direct Marketing.

Let me give you an idea of scale here. A few years ago, I read an article in Precision Marketing, naming him as the person who has made the biggest contribution to direct marketing in the previous 15 years.

Campaign Magazine also named him one of the 50 most important individuals in UK advertising during the previous 25 years – "the only universally acknowledged point of creativity in the direct marketing world”.

So I am very grateful that he took some time out of this day to answer a few short questions for my blog....

Me: What is the single biggest change you noticed in direct marketing industry in the past 15-20 years?

Drayton: More people are doing it, less well.

Here are some of the things that have had significant effect on the marketing industry over the last four decades:

• The computer and particularly the speed with which data is available.
• Databases. Now all organisations want databases because they realise the value they hold. They have seen how easy it is to capture data via a website.
• Direct marketing attracting more investment than general advertising
• Personalisation and customisation has allowed more relevant communications to be produced.
• The decline in educational standards, especially literacy and numeracy
• The internet
• The way in which the idea of the brand has come to seem important, even to people who have nothing to do with marketing – and who misunderstand it
• Inflation, especially in media costs, where it has far outpaced general inflation, leading people to seek new ways of marketing
• The greater desire for individual expression, frustrated by the move among those in power towards ever more centralisation. This mirrors what has happened in politics – e.g. the European Union.
• Compliance – and the obfuscation of language in the pursuit of covering the corporate rump.
• Changes in attitudes to sex – greater openness, particularly in advertising imagery.
• The increasing use of marketing techniques – usually badly and often dishonestly applied – by government.

Me: There seems to be a blur between direct marketing, ATL advertising and digital marketing. Do you find this?

Drayton: Yes there is. This is a good thing. This is not a difficult business to master and people should be able to understand and practice all three, since customers switch happily between them. Customers and their motivations do not change even if the media do. Actually as I point out in the new edition of Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, the word “digital” is a misnomer. We have digital TV and radio, but marketers don’t think of them as digital.

Me: Is the future of direct marketing looking bright?

Drayton: Yes. My former colleague Shelley Lazarus, now CEO of Ogilvy Worldwide said at the DMA conference not long ago that today, all marketing is direct. This is because of the internet, which is accelerated direct marketing.

Me: What are the common mistakes made by marketers?

Drayton: Here are some I listed recently for another interview...

• Too many amateurs in a business that calls for professionalism.
• They fail to study the past – or read.
• They “seek applause instead of sales” – Claude Hopkins said that over 80 years ago.
• They forget it’s just salesmanship and imagine it’s a branch of the entertainment business. Entertain, by all means, but make sure it’s relevant.
• They invest before testing – why guess when you can know?
• They don’t measure. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. What sane person invests in anything without measuring return on investment? Marketers do every day. Why? Because firms see it as an expense, not an investment. That’s why they cut marketing expenditure in recessions.
  
• They believe research will supply the answer – when it is only indicative.
• They don’t study business as a whole - all they think about is marketing.
• They fail to explain clearly to their colleagues what they are doing – maybe because many don’t really know.
• Over-optimism and a naive belief that marketing, especially advertising will solve business problems.
• Hiring marketing directors and senior agency people without checking their credentials. There is too little due diligence in our industry.
• Uncritical acceptance of “gurus” who are often just recycling old truths. Me, for instance.

Me: What advice would you give anybody starting off in marketing?

Drayton:

• Read. It’s a very agreeable feeling when you walk into a meeting knowing more than anyone else.
• Study people. They are the only profit centre in your business. If you really understand your customers you multiply your chances of success.
• Constantly ask yourself: “What if?” - that is how ideas are born. You need an inquiring mind to succeed in this business.
  
• Take an interest in as many things as possible outside marketing, which is a very dull subject. If you think about nothing else you will end up a tremendous bore – to others and yourself.
  

Drayton is author of several excellent marketing books, including Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing and How to write sales letters that sell? and he also blogs.

I bet you haven't heard all the excuses.

I see this is back on air. It's not a bad ad in fairness. Comprehension is very clear. There is a story and I'm sure there is no doubt after the first watch what this is about. Job done.

Wouldn't it be nice however if they built on this? And asked consumers to suggest their own excuses? There is an element of fun or cheekiness in this already. They get it - we don't like to pay. So why not have a bit of fun.

At the moment, this is the classical one-way message from RTE to us. But it could be more. How about we text in our excuses, and the best ones are used in future ads or the one with most votes get their TV licence paid for?

Honest advertising stands out

"Text messaging while diving prevents you from seeing what really matters". This was shortlisted for a Clio award. Found via adpunch

A few bloggers have commented (rightly) on the boldness + honesty of a mobile phone comp