Social Media Starter Course

Chi Chi, from Real Fresh TV, is giving a workshop, explaining social media - why it is important, the tools and how to make your budget go further. Here's the details.

What: Social Media Starter Course
When: 10th October, 9.30am - 12.30pm
Where: One Central Park, Northampton Road, Manchester, Lancashire M40 5WW
How Much: £100 (lunch and refreshments included)

More here.

Good enough to not need a headline

Thought this was striking. Good enough to not need a headline. The product is Purell Hand Sanitizer.

Stumbled onto this at flickr at Kanuliutai

Second Jerry Seinfeld ad

The 2nd spot in a series staring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, part of a Microsoft $300m ad campaign. Made by CP+B.

Mini Rocket

Another striking mini ad. Found via Adland.

See more great mini here.

A marketer's guide to understanding Facebook's population

Matt Dickman has a new presentation on Facebook. Good stats on growth numbers by demographic and country. While most are under 30, they are seeing some growth among folks aged 3o-40. Worth a visit.

"It's not easy being Green"

Watching TV the other night I saw three 'green' ads in a single ad break. Are they right to advertise their green ambitions, aspirations and plans? Or are they guilty of 'greenwashing' - talking up their credentials so we like them more and buy from them?

First up was a nicely shot ad for ESB explaining they are investing €22 bn into renewable energy. Next, Lyons Tea tell us they are on a 'journey to sustainability', followed by ad by Topaz keen for us to know that their fuels make our car engines more efficient.

I've seen a few other green ads floating about too - a second ESB ad for making Croke Park carbon neutral, one for EDF Energy and this (nicely executed) outdoor one for Ford.

As marketers, we try to simplify messages. That is what we are trained to do. So under the normal rules, the Ford ad above is a great example of cutting away the clutter and communicating a simple message. I'm guessing something like "Our cars are good for the environment" is the consumer message.

But the difficulty is that 'green' is not simple. Far from it.

If there is one thing I've learned from my limited exposure to green + marketing is that this is a complex minefield. Simple "we're green" messages can backfire quickly. Unilever, (who own Lyons Tea), found themselves under attack from Greenpeace about their Dove soap.

My question is not whether they should be green or not. Rather, should they be advertising their green activity? And I'm not necessarily saying they should not. But as marketers, we need to ask ourselves, why are we communicating this? Why are we spending money on a tv ad to talk about our green activity?

It might be 'we're doing our bit for the environment' and or a company feels strongly about green issues and believes its shareholders and customers do also. Or they have a new green product. Or they want customers to change their consumption behaviour.

Whatever the reason, the company needs to be clear about why it is communicating. It can't be as simple as "we want to be seen as green so let's find a way to position something we do as green". And you definitely need to be green before you can say it. The concern is ending up with something like this.

John Grant has a very comprehensive book - The Green Marketing Manifesto - on how various brands are implementing their green communication strategies. If it's ok with John I'll expand on the strategies in another post. And I'll show if the brands mentioned above are using any of these (they seem to be). It is well worth a read for any brand thinking of doing a bit of 'green' advertising.

As Kermit the frog said (and later copied by EDF Energy) "It's not easy being green".

Not your typical 'No smoking' sign

Not your typical 'No Smoking' sign. Found via PSFK

Does anybody actually talk like this?

Saw this sign in Dublin Airport at the weekend. Does anybody actually talk like this? I think we should ban the words "To ensure...".

A nicer, more effective message could be "Tired after your flight? Please use our trolleys. Just drop them back to where you found them - so others can use them too. Thanks so much."

Another example of how business people write like idiots.

Communication breakdown

Haven't been online much as been away this last week. Found this on my travels.

Truely arresting advertising

I think all advertising should aim to arrest the reader. To make her forget what she was doing for a moment. Stop her from turning the page.

Most fail. Not this ad.

Via AdsoftheWorld

Audi Grip

Audi are talking about 'grip' in their latest advertising. Nice use of the page here to demonstrate it. Presume it is a magazine.

Found via Adsoftheworld.

This is an intervention

Spend too much time online? Can't leave the room without your mobile? If so, this is an intervention...unplug your friends.

via Paul Isakson

How to increase your fundraising donations.

Did you know that when fundraising, you can increase donations raised if you let people know that even a tiny amount would help?

Robert B. Cialdini, an author and researcher, had an interesting theory. He believed that many people would genuinely like to help charitable causes. But they can't afford to give much. And they don't believe the few cents they could afford would be that beneficial.

To test this theory, Robert and some other researchers went door-to-door, fundraising for the American Cancer Society. They asked half the residents "Would you be willing to help by giving a donation?" To the other half, they added an extra comment - "Even a penny will help".

The results? Those told that "even a penny will help" were almost twice as likely to donate (50% v 28.6%).

Makes sense that more people donated - but did this increase the total funds donated?

Yes. The researchers found that for every 100 people asked, they raised $72 from the "even a penny will help" group, while only raising $44 from the other group.

Interesting stuff. Robert has a book worth a read with other good case studies. It is light and easy reading. 'Yes!:50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive'. I noticed that 58 people have reviewed it on Amazon.com, with an impressive 5 star average rating.

Brand warns us not to buy their product unless...

This tv ad might not be beautiful, but I bet it works. Apologies, I couldn't paste the ad here but here is a link.

The idea, as I see it, is to let us know that this is strong stuff. Potent almost. Not just let us know - to warn us about their drug. It is powerful, and they take this power seriously - "With all power, comes responsibility".

The bit I like is that they suggest Solpa-Sinus might be too powerful for some of us. "If you need something powerful, take Solpa-Sinus. If you don't. Don't".

This honest recommendation that we shouldn't take it unless we're really hurting adds credibility. We expect companies to try and sell their product to as many people as possible. But not these guys. So, we're left thinking - 'this stuff must be mind-blowing'.

And of course, mind-blowing is exactly what anybody with sinus wants. Of course we all want something powerful. Nobody wants mild, medium or gentle. Just hit me with the good stuff.

I like it.

MINI Staples

MINI Staples. Very simple and clean. All that white space. And using tire marks around the magazine staples to give a sense of fun and adventure.

We've come to expect clever advertising from MINI. I'm sure MINI drivers appreciate this - clever people make, advertise and of course drive these cars. Part of a club.

The tiny bit of copy at the bottom reads "Find out why MINI handles the way it does at MINI.com".

Via Adsoftheworld

Cadbury Gorilla: Total eclipse of the heart

Just saw this Bonnie Tyler remix of the Cadbury Gorilla ad on TV. Wasn't sure what was going on. But according to The Guardian, Fallon decided to mix it up a bit because of all the online mixes that were made in response to the original. They felt this was more interesting than just airing the older ads.

See some more here including Nirvana, Guns 'n' Roses and the Bonnie Tyler one.

Some things are consistent in every country?

It appears that regardless of country or culture, men just don't like sharing their chips. If you want some, we'll happily buy you your own. Just don't expect us to share ours.

Genius use of press media

"Storage Solutions" by IKEA. The copy reads 'Slide to open'. Simply genius. More great advertising by IKEA here.

Found via AdsoftheWorld

Amnesty Bullet - my favourite ad this week.

Amnesty Bullet - my favourite ad this week. It is not new, but new to me.

Initially thought it was for PlayStation or another games console. The idea is so strong it doesn't even need a voice over. Found it via Adsoftheworld

Clever use of media in press ad

I like this Land Rover press ad.

Nice use of space and media to demonstrate the idea. Although somebody commented on AdsoftheWorld that paper is not heavy, so pulling it is not really a big deal...

Why don't recruitment brands make ads like this?

I wrote about recruitment websites the other day - on their missed opportunity to ignite conversations or take an interesting position about....well, about anything that might differentiate themselves.

A view on 'employee motivation' is one possible position.

So here's an ad any of them could have credibly done. Surely this is more fun, engaging and memorable than the stuff we see. I'm sure having a sports star aids recall but the ad would work fine regardless I think.