Billboard that bleeds...

Apparently this billboard bleeds when raining - to raise awareness of the dangers of driving in wet weather conditions.

Found via Billboard and Outdoor advertising.

Stunning piece of advertising here

Stunning piece of advertising here. Only to be surpassed by this. Give it a moment or two to load but you'll appreciate such creativity. Sure, turn up your speakers to get the most out of it.

Disclaimer: Yes, I was involved, but unfortunately, I can't take any credit for such genius. That is all Brando.

Beautiful TV ad from Samsung

Barry from Brando posted this. I thought from the opening couple of seconds, that it was going to be same ole cliche stuff that we saw everywhere after Sony's bravio balls ad.

I was wrong.

"This is not a sales letter"

Been talking to some marketers recently on loyalty programmes. We all know the stats about the lower costs of keeping existing customers compared to finding new ones. So it makes sense to keep in touch with the good customers. You know, drop them a note or call and see how they are doing - make sure the brand is delivering on its promise.

I know lots of brands have CRM programmes. But how often do we try and up-sell or cross-sell in our customer letters or emails?

This is the challenge: To resist the urge to always sell them something. I'm not saying you can't sell ever. I'm presuming most brands have loads of stuff that their customers want to know about. But if you try and sell something every time you contact a customer, then it's not really a loyalty programme, is it?

It reminds me of the friend or colleague that only calls when he needs a favour. It's hard to genuinely like these people.

I appreciate that brands are dealing in transactions, not friendships. But how refreshing would it be to open an occasional letter (from a brand you buy from) that starts with "This is not a sales letter."

This is a wonderful little story (about doing)

This is a wonderful little story. Found via eatbigfish who make the point about the power of doing versus just talking. This is a central idea behind Cindy Gallop's Ifwerantheworld project. And one of the main points in Seth Godin's book - Linchpin. You don't need to have official authority to do something.

44 marketers signed up in six days. Thanks.

Last week I (eventually) kicked off an idea that had been hanging around in my head for some time.

The plan was this: Help charities, by finding them smart, enthusiastic, hardworking and motivated (marketing) student grads. Charities generally can't afford to hire extra employees. So in return for working for six months for free, the grads would get six months of high-quality marketing classes and workshops from some of the best marketers in Ireland. See here for details.

The first part was to find marketers. I posted about it last Saturday.

And in the past six days, a staggering 44 marketers have signed up to teach. Such goodwill is so impressive. I'd like to think we can double this number.

The next step is to find a number of charities that can benefit from extra help (it doesn't have to be marketing help, just help in the office). And then to find and choose the right kind of student grad - smart ones that see the value in picking the brains of the best marketers in the country, while getting a chance to impress them. If you are one, or know one, please drop me a mail.

At a glance, we've got some really top marketers that can teach and help grads learn about the following areas - segmentation, pricing, strategy, planning, insights, research, proposition development, creating advertising, media planning, media buying, creative, brief writing, IMC, direct marketing, brand management, sponsorship, behavioural economics, fundraising, PR, copywriting, account management, client handling, digital, social media, community management as well as workshops from marketing recruiters on what marketing managers look for when recruiting grads.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank the following for volunteering their services so quickly: Una Herlihy, Brian Ross, Lucy Masterson, Cormac O'Shea, Gordon Newman, Arabella Judd, Piaras Kelly, Geraldine O'Neill, Lisa Domican, Nick McGivney, Conor Byrne, Rob Reid, Daragh Byrne, Emer McCarthy, Elaine Knowles, Jonnie Cahill, Helen O'Rourke, Aidan Green, Michael Clancy, Stuart Mathews (thanks Helen), Aisling Campbell, Maria O'Dowd, Ed Conmy, Kay McCarthy, John Dunne, Darren McGrath, Brendan O'Flaherty, Lindsay Browning, Gary Mullen, Patrick Meade, Pat Stephenson, Gordon Newman, Kevin Dunne, Michelle McEnroe, Lynne Tracey, Brendan Hughes, Darragh Doyle, Sarah McDonough, Liam Pender, Damian Crowe, Dave Pepper, Lisa O'Dwyer and Derek Hobbs.

Thanks also to Damien Mulley, Conor Prendergast, Naoise McNally and Sinead Duffy for blogging, tweeting, offering to help and to project manage it.

Hope I didn't miss anybody. If I do, I'll add in the comments.

I'll update next week. If you know marketers, charities or students - please pass on the message and ask them to contact me.

If the twitter community were 100 people

Stumbled onto a fascinating website called Information is beautiful. Represents loads of different information bits in very creative ways. There is a book too. There are about 40 comments about the twitter graph above.

Marketers, students and charities wanted

If you're a marketer, student or non-profit, please read on.

I've been kicking around an idea for a while and am finally doing something about it.

Non-profit organisations are generally understaffed. They could really benefit from having an extra one or two enthusiastic, smart, hard-working student grads helping them out. I've worked with some marketing grads over the past few years who have been really impressive. They bring energy, fresh thinking and ambition to any project.

But charities generally can't afford more people. But what if these students could be paid in something other than money?

So, here's the plan. Ambitious marketing students work for free for 20 hours a week for a non-profit organisation. In return, they get training and teaching from some of Ireland's finest marketers. I'm talking about high-end training and workshops that would cost many thousands of euro if clients were getting them.

The aim would be to fast-track these students so they are as prepared as possible to pick up marketing jobs. As there are not many marketing jobs around at the moment, brand managers will pick only the best. This training will give these individuals the edge. And of course, it is not just the training, but access and a chance to impress some of the best contacts in the marketing industry.

Students volunteer 20 hours a week, giving them hopefully enough hours spare to work in a paying job at the same time.

So non-profits get extra help for free. Marketing students get fast-tracked into the profession they want to work in. What's in it for marketers? Well, I've spoken to about 10 colleagues or friends in the industry and every single one of them said they'd help. Of course, the more I find, the more we can help.

If you're a marketer, student or a non-profit and want to help, pop over to IfweRanTheWorld and look through the details. I'll talk more about IfweRanTheWorld itself next week.