pauldervan: random thoughts on marketing

The real role of advertising?

2011-04-22T16:34:00.004+01:00

Measuring the success of advertising is not easy. It really isn't. We sometimes overly focus on the measures we have, even if they are not the best ones. For example, we can measure clicks on banner ads, so we judge success by click-through rates or cost per click. This information is useful, but is only part of the picture.

When I ask students (and colleagues) what is the purpose of advertising, they generally end up with "sales" as an answer. I think it was Hopkins that said the only objective for advertising is to sell. Or was it Ogilvy? Correct of course. But as Paul Feldwick said, that is like saying the objective for a football team is to score goals. It is - but we know the game is not as simple as that. Neither is advertising.

The complexity of measuring advertising is a problem - as it can lead to poor business decisions. If we do not see immediate increase in sales, we may jump to the conclusion that the advertising is not working. Worse, we may decide that 'advertising' itself doesn't work and we may decide to not reinvest in any more advertising.

This is dangerous.

Bryon Sharp has some interesting research showing that the effect of not-investing in advertising can be a slow burn for brands. While not obvious or immediate, over time we can see the negative impact on sales.

Often, advertising is a defensive play, protecting market share by keeping your brand top of mind. Legendary planner Stephen King once wrote that the effect of a lot of advertising is on profits rather than sales - "through making consumers disinclined to try lessor brands for the sake of 2p off."

Do we stop and think enough?

2011-03-27T13:35:00.005+01:00

I walked by a billboard (a 48 sheet) for VHI Healthcare last week. It is their campaign that talks about being cheapest for couples, individuals, families etc. The ad is fine, and is presumably ticking all the boxes in the brief.

But about one fifth of the ad is dedicated to a large call-to-action - a 1850 phone number. My early marketing days were rooted in direct marketing (big fan of Hopkins, Caples, Ogilvy) and I fully understand that we marketers sometimes trip ourselves up persuading people to buy something but then don't help them along on the final "how to buy" bit. So I'm not saying don't bother with a call-to-action - it is always worth considering and thinking about.

So do we genuinely believe that the folks walking or driving by this VHI ad will stop and take down the number?

I don't.

Perhaps there was a time when it was the most obvious way to get the number. It was easier to try and remember it from the billboard instead of getting out the golden pages later and looking it up. Perhaps there were conversations in the car "Did you see that ad. Can we go once around the block so I can get those last 3 digits?"

But surely now this happens less and less. Is the objective simply to persuade us that VHI have good deals (I'm a customer by the way) and if we want to find out more, most of us will have shortcuts to getting more info - visit their website, google VHI, ask a friend that is good for this stuff or, for the more social network savvy of us, ask on twitter.

But so what? Can there be any harm in having the number? Well yes actually. Everything that you add to the ad takes away from the ad. It clutters out the most important message. Those in the advertising business know how much time and effort goes into trying to move around the extra logos, call to actions and other mandatories in the brief. Mandatories that might have made sense at one stage but perhaps don't now.

P.S. This is not a VHI ad bashing exercise. Far from it. I'm as guilty of this kind of thing with our advertising as the next marketer. It is just the most recent example I noticed. And perhaps VHI responses prove me completely wrong too.

Our Publisher channels

2011-03-05T16:02:00.005Z

One of the things that I spent time on, late last year, was how to structure our team to get most out of social media for our brand and marketing communications. We use social media for other stuff beyond marketing (such as customer service), but I thought I'd share the marketing bit - in case other marketers are working on this.

For many years, we divided our marketing communications into two main areas - advertising and direct marketing. I now wanted us to formally acknowledge that social media activity was different, with different tasks and a slightly different mindset.

So at the beginning of this year, we split our communications into three areas and divided out responsibilities and budget among the team to give us this:

Advertising
Direct Marketing and
Publisher channels (blogs on our website, facebook, twitter, our forum)

While it is early days, I'm happy with how it is working. When we take a brief, we look at each area and the appropriate individuals figure out how they will treat the brief with the channel they are focused on.

For example, we've found we can use social media to keep a campaign message alive longer at a relatively low cost - but requires more people time. And we may not get the reach that advertising gets.

Practically speaking, we might decide to (1) advertise on TV to get fast reach to a mass audience, (2) send an email to existing customers to let them know about the offer and (3) have a competition (connected to the offer) on our blog or facebook page for say two weeks. We know we'll get higher engaged people on our facebook page but won't get the reach of advertising or the micro-targeting of an email. So each is used for what it is good for.

While the activity is not new or different, the team structure is.

And internally we talk about what will turn up on our publisher channels or what will be advertised or communicated directly. And we know that our publisher channels are not broadcast media for repeating a sales message every day and are therefore should not be treated that way. Similarly we acknowledge that our direct marketing is not really conversational or a real dialogue with our customers (even if the ambition for DM is a dialogue), but we actually do have a bit of a chat with customers on our publisher channels.

Socialisation of brands - wave 5

2011-02-21T19:10:00.001Z

Wave 5, the socialisation of brands

Uploading this for my class: Test on Wednesday guys.

Social media - time to implement like hell

2011-01-30T10:26:00.005Z

Social media clearly remains a hot topic.

Not just among the evangelists - it crops up everywhere, in lots of conversations, presentations and meetings. Last week alone, I met with a guy doing his dissertation on social media, filled out a survey for social media for the marketing institute and fed into another survey trying to get an understanding of salaries for digital marketers.

Last September I outlined O2 Ireland's new social media strategy. Perhaps in another post, I'll explain in more detail what the strategy looks like - as we've some good stuff and an well-thought through structure (I think anyway).

From a practical perspective, the decisions we made included: (1) what activity we would do, (2) how we would do it, (3) who would do it (4) how much money we'd invest and (5) what success would look like.

I'm happy with it. It will evolve of course. And tactical mistakes will be made I'm sure. But the important thing for me is that we are clear on our strategy - thus no more lengthy discussions or time wasting debates on what we should or should not do. Rather, we're into execution.

In the words of Jack Welch "In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell".

If you buy one marketing book this year - buy this.

2011-01-23T15:50:00.004Z

I buy the books for our marketing department library (well, less of a library, more like a load of shelves). So I'm always on the look out for the good ones. Every now and again, you stumble across a book that really makes you think. Like this. Or this.

How Brands Grow is one of these. It is honestly a thing of beauty. If you already work in marketing and are involved in any decisions around brand management, acquisition or retention strategies, you'll find this thought provoking.

Future of ad agencies?

2011-01-07T22:39:00.004Z

It's been on my mind a lot recently. What is the future of advertising agencies? We still need agencies to make ads. Especially good ads. Like this one. Or this masterpiece. And if you believe that advertising cannot drive profitable growth, spend a few minutes enjoying this.

That is not what's on my mind. No, rather, it is the business model I wonder about.

There was a time when there was a distinction between the advertising, direct marketing, promotional, digital and PR agencies. Not these days. If you are doing an email campaign directing folks back to a landing page, with maybe some online PR linked driving people to Like us on facebook - who gets the work? The digital agency? The direct marketing? PR firm? The ad agency?

And where is the profit on these? In the past, perhaps you could pay some agency wages from selling in a microsite? Especially if the marketing folk don't have control of the big corporate website. But no need for one of those. A wordpress blog page will do or a facebook page. But you won't make much margin creating one of these.

If you're a fan of Helge Tenno, you're probably of the view that digital is less about what brands say. It is more about doing stuff that creates value in our lives, often offline. Like Couchsurfing (something I admit I find just fascinating, although not sure it's for me).

So surely producing digital stuff that makes our customers' lives better is worth paying for? Like a useful app or something. Yes, but for some reason, we kinda feel anything internet-related should be cheaper. We've got used to a google-docs, youtube view of the world - the internet wants and deserves to be free attitude, including apps.

Throw in some serious cheap ways for clients to outsource creative, design and development - (yes, the world really is flat) and there goes the bread and butter work too.

I don't have answers. But guessing I'm not the only person asking these questions.

P.S. I read a very interesting book a few years ago about future of agencies called Space Race.

Social Technographics Explained

2011-01-03T16:48:00.001Z

For class on social media.

Social Technographics Explained

View more presentations from Josh Bernoff.

Direct Marketing links

2011-01-03T13:08:00.006Z

For my class. Here is some stuff I find useful / insightful in relation to digital direct marketing:

Seth Godin's email checklist.
Using (long) copy to sell.
Free email marketing resources from mailchimp including a practical guide on how to create an email marketing plan.
marketingsherpa.com has lots of email marketing resources, including top ten email newsletter mistakes.

Usability useful links

2010-12-29T16:36:00.006Z

I teach a class once a week on digital marketing. It mostly covers the promotional 'P'. I thought it would be a useful exercise to share the links, resources and others thoughts here.

This week's is usability. I think I first came across website usability when working for Interactive Return - now owned by Radical.

Some links:

Two to the most popular books back then were Jakob Nielson's Designing Web Usability and Steve Krug's 'Don't make me think'. Both still popular.

Top Ten mistakes in web design by Jakob.
Strong feedback
Ten tips for a usable website
Sample usability test script here if you were going to test a website's usability. Via Steve Krug (Thanks).
Good example here of a website (facebook page actually) with one clear objective. And their views on this.
Another fine example of a website here with a clear objective. This website leads us into a our next class about direct and digital marketing.
A good experiment / test here.

I'll write at a slower pace

2010-12-19T21:30:00.006Z

For a number of reasons, I've been blogging a lot less.

Partly lazy. Partly because I've been using internet on an iPad which while amazing for reading and watching the internet - is not so great for typing. So I wasn't writing much. And Google Reader doesn't work so well on the iPad, so wasn't reading many blogs either.

I was still looking around for all the wonderful things I'd been finding on blogs by folks like Dave Trott, Grant McCracken etc but found myself using twitter looking for these nuggets. The other thing I realised is that most of my blog posts were simply sharing stuff I stumbled onto. Stuff I liked. Not very much of my own.

Consider this. If I saw a TV ad I liked, I could share it by grabbing some youtube video code, embedding into a blog post and adding my own thoughts. I considered this a fast process. In fact, at the time, I was amazed at how easy it was to share.

Today, sharing is a Retweet.

So. I'm going to continue blogging. Because I like writing and a blog is a good place to articulate a viewpoint. But I'll write at a slower pace. (I already am actually). Not once a week. Perhaps only once ever few weeks. This is not considered best practice blogging. Not by a long shot. But this is my plan. And I'll use continue to use twitter to find and share stuff. Different tools for different needs I guess.

By the way, I found an iPad app called Reeder as a way to read the blog posts, so am back reading them. And happy about that.

How to build a brand Like Corona

2010-12-18T13:30:00.002Z

I'm a fan of the Corona brand. Think their advertising is very smart. Here is some analysis on how they've managed to position it as premium beer. Found via HBR

100 Million Page Likes on Disney's Facebook

2010-12-05T20:38:00.002Z

Impressive. Interesting to know how they went about it - people, budget etc. Found via Snorre Martinson

More strong outdoor: lottery of life

2010-12-02T21:44:00.001Z

Found this via Chris Wiggins

The 4 most common types of role ambiguity

2010-12-01T18:57:00.003Z

We're near end of year, which means reviewing individuals' performance objectives for next year. The four big areas (according to expert Charles Handy) where employees feel ambiguity about their role are:

1. About how their work is measured and evaluated
2. Around their role enhancement
3. Around the scope of their responsibility and
4. Uncertainty around others' expectations on their work.

As managers, we could find worse ways to spend our time than on figuring out and clarifying the above for our team members.

Nice outdoor ad for IKEA

2010-11-28T15:33:00.002Z

Found via here.

Damn. Another fine ad by John Lewis.

2010-11-21T18:20:00.004Z

Damn. Another fine ad by John Lewis. I guess they are onto a successful formula that works (for me at least): a popular relevant pop song, strong scenes that manage to steer away from cliché, all emotion.

They don't forget what we all know to be important at xmas - demonstrating and showing we care about friends and family. And they do a good job reminding us to buy from them.

I'm jealous.

Why 'like' is the perfect word.

2010-11-14T11:48:00.004Z

The word 'like' comes up more in marketing discussions these days.

Of course, in these discussions, 'like' has a very specific meaning. How many 'likes' does the brand have? For example, over 14m people have liked Red Bull's facebook page. Naturally, there are loads of questions on the back of this e.g. if a person 'likes' a brand, are they more likely to buy from it? Or were they already into the brand in the first place, and the like is a result of this, not a lead indicator? And does it matter if so? Brendan shared some research on this recently.

But 'like' is the perfect word in the broader sense. As the need for brands to be more human, to be more transparent and be more interesting becomes more apparent - it becomes very clear what brands must do: They must focus on persuading customers to like them. Not just facebook like, but genuinely like them.

Sounds a bit simplistic. Probably. Yes, we need better, more insight led products and services, a competing distribution, decent share of voice and all the rest. But the wrap around all of this is a brand that people like. If you like somebody, you'll forgive the mess ups, the drops and the mistakes. (We're only human, right).

Same with a brand. This is where the need for brands to become more human comes in. Let's see the people behind the logo. As Don Tapscott explains in his book 'Grown up digital' - we no longer trust or like big, faceless corporations.

Also, 'like' is not as strong as 'loyal'. It is an easier goal. A more realistic one. A smaller step for brand managers. I like lots of stuff, but I can walk away from them. All brand managers would love absolute loyalty from customers - but perhaps having them (genuinely) liking the brand is a worthy goal.

Ad for homelessness

2010-11-14T11:43:00.001Z

Indifference kills. Nice idea and strong execution. Can't remember where I found this. I grabbed it a few weeks ago. Probably adsoftheworld.

I forget to read in my rush to share

2010-11-02T22:02:00.004Z

Sharing is in overdrive. We just love to share. And the internet is a sharing machine. We get it. No surprise - the smarter folks have been saying it for a long time.

I hate to admit it, but partly why I'm using twitter so much these days is most of my blog posts were simply sharing other people's stuff. I do this now with far less effort on twitter. There are other reasons, but this is a big one. I'll continue to blog, but at a slower pace.

More worrying is I find myself sharing stuff even before I've finished reading it. How stupid is this? It is almost like I'm in such a rush to share something that I'm forgetting to enjoy, well, the thing. I've re-tweeted things with links that I haven't even clicked on. Oh god. I know there is intrinsic enjoyment in sharing with people but the sharing shouldn't take over the content, right? Is it time to slow down, switch off and read a book?

Well, apparently we're not good at the whole book thing anymore. Nicholas Carr wrote one recently called The Shallows, where he spoke about how the internet changes the way we read, think and remember. And how we struggle to read books without the distraction of hyperlinks jumping off the page.

All sounded too familiar.

Congrats and thanks to the digital team for pulling this off.

2010-10-31T18:14:00.006Z

Congrats and thanks to the digital team for pulling this off. We've redesigned our o2 website. And we did it at speed. The result is very single minded and looks stunning. (I know, bits still to fix). Thanks again guys.

Now the fun begins.

Isn't this wonderful?

2010-10-26T19:05:00.004+01:00

Emotional advertising wins over rational. Or as Bill Bernbach said "you don't persuade people through intellect".

Really like this. And like the overt cultural movie parody.

Simple. But so effective. You like?

2010-10-25T22:32:00.000+01:00

Two month contract for marketing grad

2010-10-20T21:00:00.002+01:00

If you are a business or marketing student grad - you might like this.

Return 2 Sender are looking for somebody to work with them for two months. It is hands on. So expect to get stuck in, doing bits of everything. Good chance to get some agency experience. Nice folks there too. With good clients. Visit here to check it out. And ask for Mags when you call.

Social media facts & figures, shown visually.

2010-10-10T20:41:00.002+01:00

Click on image to see it properly. Might be a good one for presentations. Found this via insideview.com

Audacity to win

2010-10-10T11:57:00.004+01:00

Audacity to win is written by David Plouffe - Obama's presidential campaign manager. If you work in any communication or campaign role, you'll should enjoy this.

Clearly their timing was right, having a candidate like Obama at a time when the country was hungry for change. So they had a better product. And we all know they did innovative stuff using the internet.

But Mr Plouffe's book was wonderfully insightful on other stuff too. For example, they were crystal clear on their strategy and stuck to it even when things got tough. This meant they didn't waste time stalling on decisions. A lot of the book was about decisions. If a decision to do something supported the strategy, they did it. If not, they let it go. How nice is that? And rare. Many teams don't even know that they are making decisions.

They were also so sharp on execution. What good is strategy if execution is poor? They worked hard for their win.

I'll come back to this again with specific examples. But if you have time, read it.

Effective press ad for autism

2010-09-26T22:33:00.000+01:00

They say a press ad should stop you in your tracks. Interrupt your reading. This worked for me.

Don't Save. Save

2010-09-23T22:29:00.000+01:00

This works. Assuming it was an online ad. Found here.

What your facebook photo says about you?

2010-09-19T21:33:00.003+01:00

How do you choose your profile photo for facebook? Most of us do not just throw up the first photo we have. Research by Nina Jones provides some interesting results.

For example, her research found that folk under age 30 are twice as likely to have a profile picture showing them at a party, while those over 30 and those in a couple were far more likely to have a child's photo as their profile picture.

Would it surprise you to know that more men than women retouch their photos?

The BBC article is here. Thanks Alan for forwarding on.

Design matters

2010-09-15T22:40:00.000+01:00

Thought this was pretty sharp. Apart from the obvious ones (Apple, Google), not sure how many brands really get into design as a way to differentiate. This had me thinking about Tropicana's 20% drop in sales after changing its packaging.

Ikea cats ad

2010-09-14T22:47:00.003+01:00

We were just talking the other day about how all ads are hanging off 'happiness'. And perhaps the push for happiness is a bit over done at times. But...I do like this. I look up each time it is on.

Nice ambient ad

2010-09-10T22:31:00.000+01:00

Found here.

Another Google doodle

2010-09-07T22:30:00.002+01:00

Found via mashable. It's animated. Go take a look here.

Which companies are most social?

2010-09-05T22:17:00.000+01:00

Found an interesting link showing which companies have the most social employees. They use social network profiles to figure it out. Microsoft lead the way.

(Funny when you consider there was a time where spending all your time on a computer was considered 'anti-social'.)

Domino's profits helped by social media

2010-08-29T22:02:00.000+01:00

Much of the stuff I've been reading about in relation to social media is how marketers struggle to justify putting budget into their blogs, facebook, twitter etc. Charlene Li (of Goundswell fame) published a new book recently called Open Leadership, that covers this pretty well. It is worth a read.

I also came across an article here on Mashable where Domino's CEO points to social media and its foursquare promotion as reasons for its profit increase.

Have you seen this flyer?

2010-08-25T21:26:00.003+01:00

Apologies. My writing has been lacking of late. Been doing some decent reading though if that in any way redeems me. I've also re-joined twitter. It may sound odd that I've been so bad at blogging this past while yet started tweeting. Well it is a combination of reasons.

I've been using flipboard on the iPad for my internet stuff. And while amazing for surfing, it is less handy for writing a blog post. I've also found twitter useful for saving content (into twitter favourites). And it is very easy and lazy of me to simply tweet or retweet something.

Liked this ad. Found here.

Brilliant business books

2010-08-16T21:06:00.003+01:00

Harvard Business Review posted an article last week about managing versus leading. They are often seen as different, with managing somehow coming out as tactical and less important. Robert Sutton disagrees. As do I.

As does Larry Bossidy. So nice to see his book here picked as the panel's favourite. Execution is well worth a read in you're in the business of leading (thus managing).

Fast lane - lovely

2010-08-12T09:12:00.000+01:00

Google Gravity

2010-08-09T20:19:00.002+01:00

Found via here with a few other bizarre websites to kill time with style.

Creative ambient ad

2010-08-07T18:51:00.002+01:00

The caption on the billboard says "Our potatoes are grown closer than you may think". I like. Found via here.

Insight into men, their girlfriends..and drinks with the lads

2010-08-01T11:04:00.000+01:00

This is good. Watch till the end. I promise you'll enjoy.

Found via adpunch

Flipboard - when amateur and professional mesh

2010-07-31T21:04:00.006+01:00

So I went off and got myself an iPad this week. Very exciting. At the moment, it is more like a big phone than a small computer. I like it. Videos look great and it is wonderful for the internet, although I'm missing firefox and a few other bits and pieces. No doubt these things will catch up.

So far the best app I've downloaded is called flipboard. This is a reader that aggregates stories, articles, videos and other stuff from a variety of sources - Wired, The Economist and loads others. When reading it, you literally flip over the pages like you would a magazine. Very very impressive.

But here's the most interesting bit. It also aggregates your facebook and twitter feeds. And formats them professionally with quote marks, proper headlines and page layouts like a magazine. Suddenly I'm flicking between paid journalists from top media sources and comments from mates' blogs. All looking very professional. Elegant is how others call it. I agree.

And you can reply and comment through it to twitter and facebook. In fact, this has me using twitter again, at least as a way to favourite articles and reply to good stuff. Damn.

List of 500 social media marketing examples

2010-07-28T14:45:00.000+01:00

Peter Kim has a list (a wiki actually) of 500 company examples of social media marketing. Nice place to see examples of good and bad practice from lots of brands. Very useful reference

Is there way to favourite something so it turns up in my LinkedIn page?

2010-07-24T14:30:00.004+01:00

Is there way to favourite something so it turns up in your LinkedIn page?

I see lots of good stuff that I'd like to share and pass along. There is the facebook connect 'Like' button but I don't really want to put marketing-or-business-type stuff on my facebook page. Wrong audience really for me anyway. But I might like to share on my LinkedIn page.

Anybody know if that's possible?

Fallon presentation on digital planning

2010-07-21T21:17:00.004+01:00

Interesting presentation by Fallon on digital planning. I particularly like this quote "The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect" by Tim Berners Lee, founder of the world wide web.

Found via PSFK

Movie about the origins of Facebook and their stories of betrayals

2010-07-14T16:40:00.000+01:00

Movie about the origins of Facebook and their stories of betrayals. Written by Aaron Sorkin (of The West Wing) and directed by David Finch (of Fight Club fame among others).

by Found via Wired.

Wall mounted laundry baskets

2010-07-10T09:34:00.002+01:00

This is a bit different. Laundry baskets that you hang on your wall, and clip off when you need to empty into the washing machine.

Found via psfk.

Smart bus shelter ad

2010-07-08T21:09:00.000+01:00

Found via adland.

Marketing Manager job up for grabs

2010-07-01T21:48:00.003+01:00

Plan Ireland are looking to fill a new marketing manager role. Plan is a children's development organisation that operates in 48 countries. Read the spec. The job looks good. Challenging and exciting.

July 9th is closing date. Click to read the job spec.

Become part of their ritual.

2010-06-23T13:44:00.001+01:00

Did you know that putting a lime slice in your corona bottle only dates back to 1981?

I didn't. I always thought it was something to do with killing the bacteria that might be around the bottle when in storage.

Nope. According to famous brand guy, Martin Lindstrom, the ritual started as a bet by a barman and his mate to see if others in the bar would do the same. Clearly they did. Lindstrom makes the point that the lime slice ritual had contributed significantly to Corona's success.

We use rituals as a shortcut. We perform lots of rituals every day. Often without thinking. Lindstrom places them into different categories. For example, 'preparing for battle' is all the stuff we do each day from brushing our teeth, showering, checking our email or buying a coffee in the morning from the coffee angel when we get off the bus.

In his book Buyology, Lindstrom points to other brands that inject rituals into the way we buy or use stuff. Guinness turned a potential weakness (waiting for slower pint) into a ritual that is expected and appreciated by proper Guinness drinkers - good things come to those who wait.

Become part of their daily ritual and your brand is in a good place.

The 1% windfall

2010-06-16T19:28:00.000+01:00

Been working on a project recently that requires a bit of proper thinking around pricing. I've written about pricing before. Although not often. It doesn't get the same air time as other areas within marketing. But it is so important. Look at this simple, yet powerful example:

A 1% increase in price could deliver a 20% increase in profits.

How? Let's say you sell something for a price tag of €100. And after operating costs, you walk away with €5 profit per unit. Now, if you increase your price by just 1%, your new price is €101. Your profit has now jumped from €5 to €6 - a 20% increase.

Of course, we need to assume that customers will continue to buy in the same amounts as before. This assumption clearly needs testing. But it is reasonable enough. Think of any product or service that you value and are willing to pay €100 for. Would you still value and buy it if it cost €101? I'm guessing you would. I would.

The point is that price decisions affect the bottom line immediately. The example above is from a good book called The 1% windfall.

Asking for just a penny can increase donations.

2010-06-11T11:02:00.000+01:00

Image courtesy of sally monster

Last month, Conor wrote an interesting article about charity donations raised through text message. One of the assumptions that Conor questioned was this: If you ask people to donate through text, they will give less. You might get more people to give (higher response), but overall you will collect less cash for your efforts.

I don't know the answer. I understand the logic but think Conor is right to at least question this.

There is an interesting experiment from the American Cancer Society with surprising results. While not related to text messaging, it is related to asking for less. It may not hold up over text donations, but worth at least challenging the assumptions.

As part of a fundraising campaign, Robert Cialdini and the American Cancer Society went door-to-door asking for donations.

One half of the those they spoke with were asked the following question "Would you be willing to help by giving a donation?". For the other half, they added the following line "Even a penny will help".

The results? Almost twice as many people gave when told that even a penny would help. While not surprising, this might lead to one type of strategy over another. So instead of aiming to raise as much money as possible in one go, you might aim to get as many people as possible to show an initial interest, collect their details and then work on this group over time to turn them into advocates.

Here's the surprising bit from the experiment.

Despite being told that 'even a penny would help' the donation sizes were no smaller than the first group. So overall, by telling people that 'even a penny would help' increased the number of donations and the total amount collected. Nice eh.

Lots of behavioural economics examples like this in Robert Cialdini's books.

Change the environment to get co-operation.

2010-05-31T21:54:00.004+01:00

I wrote about this a few weeks ago in one of my behavioural economics pieces.

We tend to believe that change is difficult because people resist change. And to change their behaviour, we need to change their minds.

Not always. Sometimes it is easier to simply change the environment.

For example, sales and marketing do not always get on. There is often a natural tension between these teams. This is not always a bad thing. However, it can sometimes get out of hand, and become destructive. The first response to fix this is to do workshops, talk through issues, align objectives, ask for respectful behaviours etc etc.

All good. An easier way might be to simply sit these two teams beside eachother. Yep, move a few desks.

Social Psychologist Leon Festinger and his colleagues found that a leading indicator of relationships in work is how near they are to eachother. You've probably seen this in action. Your best mates at work either work on your team, near your team or you used to work with them. Propinquity is what they call it.

More behavioural economics - framing

2010-05-26T18:00:00.001+01:00

Image courtesy of BigBeaks

I mentioned anchoring the other week - where our decisions can be overly influenced by a piece of information.

Another similar topic is framing.

In a nutshell, the context and way situations are described can influence our decisions. This bias is called framing. Credit card companies are good at this. In the 1970s, many retail stores charged separate prices for stuff. One price for cash payment and a slightly higher price if consumers paid with a credit card.

Now, we consumers don't like to pay premiums for stuff. It bothers us. (I think this is loss aversion at play?) So, instead of calling the 'credit' price a premium, the credit card companies recommended that the retail stores call the 'credit' price the normal price. And if a customer paid with cash, she was actually getting a 'cash discount'. Smart stuff. Words are important.

Google 'framing credit cards' to find a pdf about this called 'The Framing Hypothesis'. Better still, buy Nudge.

Smart expandable ad

2010-05-24T21:15:00.000+01:00

This is clever. An expandable ad that you re-size for your room measurements. Click here to see in action.

Nice VW online ad.

2010-05-19T16:06:00.000+01:00

Click here to see it in action. Found via bannerblog.

A bit more on: free versus almost free

2010-05-18T17:36:00.000+01:00

After my amazon story, Kevin Kavanagh sent me this graph demonstrating the difference in uptake when price goes from almost free to free. One for my behavioural economics presentation.

Source is Todd Slattersten. He gave away a free ebook recently on pricing. Worth a download.

Nike TV ad - I like.

2010-05-15T15:47:00.001+01:00

Thanks Rory, for sending on .

The difference between 'free' and 'almost-free'

2010-05-14T19:32:00.001+01:00

Some more on behavioural economics (for my presentation).One of the stories I like best is from Dan Ariely's now-famous book predictably irrational on how customers reacted to free shipping from Amazon.com.

Several years ago, Amazon.com started offering free shipping of orders over a certain amount of spend. Ariely explained that if you bought a single book for say $16.95, you might pay an additional $3.95 for shipping. But if you bought another book, for a total of say $31.90, you'd get shipping for free.

The result? Sales rocketed everywhere - with the exception of France. In France, there was no increase in sales. Were the French more disciplined than the rest of us? And were able to resist something free?

As it happens, no.

Amazon in France were actually charging one franc for delivery as part of the deal. I believe there was a clause in the France legal system that meant they could not give free shipping on books. But a franc is only about 20 cents. It is nearly free.

In the end, Amazon decided to make it free in France and pay the daily fine for the privilege. And sales jumped dramatically like every other country.

Why such a big difference between free and almost free? Chris Anderson in his book Free: The future of a Radical Price offers a feasible explanation. When stuff is free, you don't need to think. You don't need to put your brain through any mental exercise to consider if this is good value or not. No risk.

Email marketing position with Concern

2010-05-13T22:02:00.003+01:00

If you are in the market for a new job in digital - drop over to Concern. They are looking to fill an email marketing position. Sounds very worthwhile.

More information here.

Choice architecture

2010-05-11T21:30:00.005+01:00

Dave Trott posted an example of behavioural economics the other day. I quote direct (lazy of me I know):

Rory Sutherland gave me a brilliant example of choice architecture. At a school in the USA, the girls in their early teens had just discovered lipstick. They would go into the female toilets to apply it. Then, giggling, they’d leave the imprint of their lips on the large mirror. This made a lot of extra work for the cleaning staff. The head teacher asked the girls to stop. Of course they ignored her.

So she took the girl’s to the female toilets for a demonstration. She said, “It takes a lot of work to clean the lipstick off the mirror.” She said to the janitor, “Please show the girls how much work it takes.” The janitor put the mop in the toilet, squeezed off the excess water and washed the mirror. Then put the mop in the toilet again, and repeated the process. From that day on there was no more lipstick on the mirror.

Authors Thaler and Sunstein give many other examples of choice architecture. For example, when taking out money from ATM machines, lots of us mindlessly walk away, leaving our bank cards in the machines. So instead of putting stickers on the ATM screen reminding us not to, they simply change the process so we must now take our cards before the money comes out.

Smart stuff.

P.S. Mr Sutherland is speaking tomorrow morning in Dublin on behavioural economics. I won't be there, but looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Anchoring charity donations

2010-05-10T13:09:00.001+01:00

More on behavioural economics.

Anchoring is interesting. When we are buying stuff, we're overly influenced by one particular piece of information we are exposed to. There are lots of subtle examples. In their fascinating book Nudge, Thaler and Sunstein explain that charities can influence the amount donors give by how they present the donation options. People will give more if the options are €100, €250, €1,000 and €5,000 than if their options are €50, €75, €100 and €150.

Barry Schwartz gives more anchoring examples in his book Paradox of Choice. If you walk into a suit shop where the suits displayed are €1,500 each, and you see a nice suit for €800, this may seem like a good deal. But walk into a different store where suits are displayed at €500, and the same €800 suit seems very expensive. The pricing information is anchoring your views.

Schwartz gives more examples. For example, a high-end catalogue seller of kitchen equipment was selling an automatic bread maker for $279. Later on, they added another more expensive deluxe version for $429. While they didn't see too many of the deluxe makers, sales of the $279 machine almost doubled.

More behavioural economics - tweak the environment

2010-05-05T11:53:00.000+01:00

As I scribble down my notes for an upcoming presentation on behavioural economics, I decided I'd post the good examples here.

Getting people to do something new can be difficult. It is not easy to change behaviour. We often assume it is because they resist or fear change. But sometimes this is not the reason. Sometimes you can be successful by simply changing or tweaking the environment.

Losing weight is a popular one. Most of us at one stage or another have wanted to lose weight. One relatively simple technique to lose weight is to use smaller plates. I know, this sounds a bit obvious and overly simplistic. But it works. For those of you that know me, you'll know I've lost about 2 stone in the past six months. Part of this was simply eating smaller portions.

Watch Brian Wansink's video here and you'll hear that the difference between using small and large plates equates to 15 pounds in weight in a year.

Why is this important to us marketers? If we want to change consumers' behaviour, we need to know why they're doing what they're doing in the first place. We tend to assume that people are doing things because they want to. Or won't change because their resist change - it's simply the way they are. This is known as the fundamental attribution error.

The result of this thinking is a lot of energy spent trying to change their mind.

However, often change can be achieved without changing the person's character. Instead, just change or tweak their environment.

More examples later. Good books on this include Nudge and Switch. And Brian Wansink and colleagues have articles you can download here.

People shot in face with cupcakes in slow-mo

2010-05-04T14:36:00.000+01:00

Saw this on gizmodo. Somebody rightly commented "I've said it before...Slow-mo makes everything better"

Like this.

2010-05-03T22:29:00.000+01:00

Found via 2dayblog.

The wisdom of behavioural economics

2010-05-01T10:43:00.007+01:00

At the time, I wasn't familiar with the term 'behavioural economics'. But have found this stuff interesting ever since I randomly picked up a copy of The Wisdom of Crowds in Hughes & Hughes several years ago. A signed copy from author James Surowiecki, no less.

Not sure if Surowiecki's book is technically considered behavioural economics actually. It is more pop-culture stuff, like Freaknomics or Gladwell's Tipping Point. (Both wonderful books if you haven't read them.)

The basis of his book is that the combined intelligence from a crowd of people is higher than that of any of the individuals in that group. This feels at odds with what we'd expect. And as a culture, we look to the hero, the individual that can fix everything. There are lots of books about finding the smart leader that will get bring companies back from the brink.

The book title itself is a word-play on the 1841 book 'Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds' by Charles Mackay, a collection of stories about herd mentality. Surowiecki's premise is that as long as each person's decision can be made independently (so no social pressure to conform), the combined result will be better.

For example, if you ever find yourself on the gameshow 'Who wants to be a millionaire? - you have a better chance of getting the right answer by asking the audience than calling the smartest person you know. The 'Call a Friend' option delivers the correct answer 65% of the time. The audience pick the right answer 91% of the time.

This area is becoming more popular and mainstream within marketing. So I'm pulling together the most interesting learning, experiments and stories from this area to present to my team. I'll post them here as I scribble them down. Feel free to send me relevant blog or article links if you have them.

Billboard that bleeds...

2010-04-29T21:45:00.002+01:00

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

2010-04-23T19:49:00.000+01:00

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

2010-04-20T20:15:00.004+01:00

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"

2010-04-19T21:36:00.004+01:00

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)

2010-04-18T13:41:00.005+01:00

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.

2010-04-09T19:32:00.008+01:00

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

2010-04-08T12:41:00.000+01:00

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

2010-04-03T00:51:00.005+01:00

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.

How to write an (inspiring) creative brief

2010-03-26T23:53:00.002Z

How to write an (inspiring) creative brief. This is really good. Trust me on this one. Created by Nick Emmel.

Sell your by-products

2010-03-25T20:23:00.003Z

Thought this idea was interesting.

Jason Fried, founder of 37signals wrote a book called REWORK. He talks in it about the fact that when you make something, you always make another thing. There is always a by-product. Sometimes you can also sell the by-product. His book itself is an example of a by-product from creating something else - his company. And I suspect the book will create another by-product in the form of seminars, workshops and consulting perhaps.

Dave Trott did something similar. His (wonderful) book is a by-product of blog posts. His blog posts are a by-product of all the teaching and advertising he has created over the years.

You don't persuade people through intellect

2010-03-21T20:38:00.002Z

Bill Bernback "You don't persuade people through the intellect. You do it through the passions". You'll enjoy this.

Found via Drayton Bird.

Economics explained simply

2010-03-19T08:55:00.000Z

Thought this was brilliant. Apologies to whoever originally posted it. I truly can't remember what blog I found it on.

Youtube - musicians wanted

2010-03-17T10:32:00.003Z

Youtube have launched a partner program for musicians. Artists upload original videos to youtube and get a cut of any money from advertising that youtube (Google) make. Good for unsigned bands. Not so good maybe for Myspace. Only available in the US so far.

See article in wired.

More templates for blogger (and other stuff)

2010-03-14T22:37:00.003Z

Blogger team have come up with new templates and other stuff. So if you use blogger, you might want to play around with it. I changed my template background while checking it out. No doubt I'll get bored of it and change again soon. More info here.

Free ebook on pricing

2010-03-14T22:34:00.000Z

Pricing gets less attention on this blog. It is fascinating and I read about it a fair bit but clearly am no expert. Todd Slattersten, however is. He has written an ebook on pricing strategies. It is short and well written.

I particularly liked the bit about how pricing is by far the most effective lever that managers have in affecting profit. He refers to how a 1% increase in pricing can translate to 11% increase in profits. (It is also the easiest lever. I wouldn't advocate just upping the price to hit a quarterly target. Customers are not stupid and will eventually vote with their wallets).

Anyway, worth a download and read. Here. I found it via Seth Godin.

And if you like it, you'll probably also like The Art of Profitability too.

Brand recognition v Brand recall

2010-03-08T12:16:00.001Z

Often both 'brand recognition' and 'brand recall' are needed for brand awareness. But they are different. And you might do different things to boost either. Understanding the customer purchase decision will help.

If customers decide which brand to buy while in store, then brand recognition is pretty important. You want the consumer to make the link between the battery brand they saw on TV and the one on the shelf. Clearly, packaging, logos and cues from the TV campaign are worth sweating over here.

Brand recall is a tougher gig. You want consumers to think of your brand when they are thinking about the category. To recall from memory. If your customers make their decisions outside the store, then recall is the thing to focus on. First anyway.

Online stores and anybody selling a service generally need recall first and foremost. Which is why the advertising for comparison shopping websites focus a lot on their name and website address. They have failed if they expose you to an ad for moneysupermarket.com and you head over to confused.com.

Of course, all the ads for these comparison websites seem a bit the same, with no differentiation - with the exception of comparethemeerkat.com which is proving very popular.

A good book (about digital)

2010-03-03T21:15:00.002Z

danah boyd and several others wrote this book. If your work involves understanding teenagers, and how they interact with social networks, you could do worse than reading danah's blog, papers or presentations. As the book title suggests, 'Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out' describes different ways teens are interacting with digital. They describe "different levels of investment in new media activities".

'Hanging out' is mostly about friends being together. They just happen to do this online, but the focus is about being with their friends.

'Messing around' is a notch up from this. Teens use online to find information. Using search engines, wikipedia, forums etc. Their experimentation and playing with music, images, videos and photos is also included under 'Messing around'.

'Geeking out' is a step up again on this. And is some of the more intense activities teens get involved with online. This might include media fandom around stuff like Harry Potter or the Japanese Anime comics. And also includes gaming.

'Geeking' should not be confused with 'geeks'. The authors explain that these are not "geeks" as we might know the term - but rather kids very enthusiastic about a particular hobby. For example, they could even be sports nuts. And this is not really about digital for the sake of it. It just happens to be their way to get into their hobby and the online communities around it.

Like I said, if understanding digital and teenagers is important to you or your job, you'll learn stuff in this. It is research-led and allows you to get up close into the homes of the teens and their families. Here at amazon.

I've read the reviews. And I clearly don't need one. But I'm getting one.

2010-02-25T21:57:00.004Z

Experts say that many purchases have an emotional and rational aspect. We know that our emotions dominate our rational thoughts. But when selling anything, we need to give consumers the rational reasons as well - not because this will persuade them - but it allows them to post-rationalise their purchase.

Which leads to this "my wooden floors did cost a bit more, but re-sale value of the apartment is now better and they are easier to keep".

Nothing wrong with that. But I'm going on record to say that I have no rational reason to buy the iPad. I can post-rationalise my iPod, my MacBook and my iPhone. They all serve real needs (in my mind anyway). And I don't think the iPad can do anything new or much better than my other Apple stuff.

The other thing we know is consumers often need permission to buy or own something. For example, in the 1990's lots of men liked Porsche cars but didn't like the image Porsche drivers had.

Anyway, at the digital festival yesterday, digital guru Russell Davies said he was going to get himself an iPad.

And that's all I needed to hear - I've pre-registered for mine.

And some people think it's just an advertising campaign

2010-02-24T10:01:00.003Z

I remember this Nike ad 'tag'. And remember liking it. But it wasn't until I read Grant McCracken's lastest book 'Chief Culture Officer' did I really understand perhaps why I liked it.

Wieden + Kennedy made this ad in 2001. At its most basic level, the ad is playful and enjoyable. Who wouldn't want to make their daily city commute less dull or mundane?

Grant points out more subtle culture trends - "Americans were giving up the northern European idea that public behaviour ought to be guarded and expressionless". Street theatre was becoming more popular. Cities were becoming the place for spontaneous expressive events. Grant points towards the influence of Mork & Mindy on TV, with Robin Williams bringing the idea of improv to american living rooms.

Another trend at the time that 'tag' picks up on is the value of simplicity. Physicists were interested in the idea that "complex order could issue from simple rules". Because 'tag' is a very simple game with easy-to-understand rules which bring pattern to the disorder of city life. To quote Grant directly - "At this time, culture that was 'emergent' was more interesting than culture that was organised."

Another trend at work here is what Grant called the 'generous stranger' - the concept of doing random acts of kindness for complete strangers. This was picked up in Hollywood with films like 'Pay it forward' and 'Serendipity'. This was acted out in real life with examples of 'phototagging' - disposable cameras left in a public place where the finder is asked to take one photo and pass the camera on. Grant points out that Howard Rheingold was also on trend at exactly the same time with his 'Smart Mobs' book about groups freezing together in public city places.

This is why 'tag' is genius. Dan Wieden understood these trends and tapped into them early. As a consumer, I loved the ad without really understanding or articulating why. I do now.

To quote Grant again - "And some people think it's just an advertising campaign".

Pick up his book here. Let me know your thoughts if you do.

YouTube page takeover

2010-02-19T19:14:00.000Z

YouTube video where character comes out of video to read a comment. Worth a watch. Here. Found via bannerblog.

Whispurr - a new Irish social network

2010-02-18T22:21:00.003Z

I got an email about a new Irish social network called Whispurr. I haven't looked into it in any real detail but wanted to give it a small push (to all my 12 readers), given it is based out of Ireland. If you join, let me know your thoughts.

More tv ads

2010-02-16T19:03:00.000Z

I haven't been posting many TV ads recently. But will share some over next few weeks. Found this via adpunch.

Embrace Life

2010-02-12T18:32:00.002Z

Embrace life. Found this engaging enough to watch. It is different to the usual way that these messages are demonstrated.

via Adpunch

What do you do when valentine's day falls on game day?

2010-02-09T21:37:00.006Z

What do you do when valentine's day falls on game day? Puma Hardchoras. Funny stuff.

Found via Paul K.

Nice bit of digital advertising

2010-02-04T22:22:00.004Z

I generally stay clear from writing about O2 here (nobody likes when folk that talk about themselves all the time). But I really like this little piece of digital advertising and felt it was worth sharing.

We have an ad on the recently-launched RTE News iPhone app.

The ad is part of our 'Be the difference' rugby campaign. The campaign is a lovely little idea with a nice fit for the O2 brand. Based on the insight that supporters can actually influence the action and result on the pitch - O2 are making it possible for rugby supporters to get their signatures literally on the back of the players' jerseys.

Well done to Kevin Dunne and our digital agency Brando for their integration of this for the iPhone - so we can sign up directly from our iPhones. As you'd expect I know - but still nice to see it working smoothly.

As there are only so many jerseys, I'm assuming it is a first-come-first-served set up. So if you'd like to show your support - pop over to the bethedifference site sooner rather than later. There is another nice feature there too - you can upload a team talk. The best ones are played to the team. (I'm thinking Any Given Sunday as featured on Piaras' blog this week.)

The RTE app itself is pretty good. I dip into it most days for a moment or two. It's free too.

Website for finding vintage ads

2010-02-01T13:28:00.000Z

Anybody pursuing a career in marketing should know their advertising history, so you know what worked in the past, why it worked and if it could work now. If this is your thing, you'll like this - a search engine dedicated to vintage ads. Lot of VW ads from Bill Bernbach's time. And beer ads, coke ads etc.

Found via Drayton Bird's site.

Is this dark and twisted humour?

2010-01-27T09:29:00.000Z

Is this dark and twisted humour? Ad is for a funeral home apparently. Found via here. Am I missing something?

Internet on phone better than other (original?) internet

2010-01-22T11:06:00.000Z

There was a time (not too long ago) when the internet on our phones wasn't really the internet. It was the "watered down version" as an Apple ad once alluded to. When bebo first became available on our mobiles, it was a big deal. It wasn't as good as the bebo you'd get sitting in front of a laptop - but it did the trick. And beboers used it.

The iPhone changed all this. And put everything on par. It really was the same internet - just on a smaller screen. Grand.

Recently I've found that I'm actually choosing to use the internet on my phone over the internet on my laptop - even when I'm at home and the laptop is within arm's reach.

Not for everything. But certainly for apps like facebook or LinkedIn.

I rarely visit facebook on my computer. It is easier and quicker to dip into the app, have a quick look at what friends are up to and close out of it again. It is a different kind of internet usage. "Snacking" I believe they call it. But it is not just a passive mobile viewing. Even adding comments is possibly easier than doing so on my laptop.

I mentioned the amazon app the other week. Same story there. I'm buying at least as many books through this app I do through their original website.

Again, nothing new here but (I find it) interesting that mobile has gone from poor cousin to preferred option in just a few years. Given how hooked teenagers are on social networks even when they have to use computers, you can only imagine how this is going to change mobile behaviour when all teenagers have iPhones or similar touchscreen phones.

(Disclaimer: Given my job, it is in my interest for everybody and their mother to start using internet on their phones.)

Only 3 reasons why advertising is not working.

2010-01-18T08:36:00.000Z

Often when sales are not coming as planned, the first impulse is to advertise more. While this may be the correct action, it may not always be.

As a rule of thumb - there are generally only three reasons (in my mind anyway) why advertising is not driving demand. The action required is different for each.

Your consumers don't know about your product / offer / solution. This is an awareness play. The action here is actually to advertise more.
They may be aware but don't understand your advertising. This is not about doing more advertising. In fact more of the same will do little for you. You need to tweak or change your advertising, as they don't get it. The benefit (rational or emotional) may be hidden or badly explained.
They don't care. In this situation, they are aware and they understand, but couldn't care less. There can be lots of reasons here - wrong audience, wrong insight, wrong product, wrong timing, no clear reason to buy, no differentiation. Your job here is to find out what will make them care. Whatever the problem is, one thing you know is that doing more advertising here won't help you much.

If you don't know the problem, you can't really fix it.

Digital Breakfast session this Tuesday @ Burlington hotel.

2010-01-17T17:03:00.003Z

Just a quick note to say there is a breakfast seminar on, this Tuesday, in the Burlington hotel, Dublin 4.

"Using the internet for profit and political gain" is the name of the session. The organisers tell me they are going for an 'x-factor' type gig - so won't be stuffy or formal.

There will be a panel and some discussion on Search as well as a review of how Obama used digital in his campaign. I won't be there myself but do let me know how it goes if you are there.

The event is free but you must register beforehand. More info on how to register and on the presentations and speakers here.

P.S. They are serving up a free breakfast too. How generous. Kick off is 8am.

Job - media account director

2010-01-13T10:01:00.000Z

Dublin based digital agency - Cybercom - are looking to fill a new role. To manage a team of four in their media department. More info and a job spec at their site.

Seth Godin's free ebook - what matters now

2010-01-12T18:17:00.003Z

Just downloaded this (for free) the other day. From here. Lots of contributors. Found via Brendan Hughes. Also listened to The Big Moo over the xmas holidays. Also worth a read/listen.

Digital Festival this Feb. Line-up is good.

2010-01-09T15:06:00.004Z

I don't make it to many conferences to be honest. I'm lazy and happy to read the book/blog instead. But I'm going to this one. The line-up is good. Very good....Russell Davies, Peter Kim and Shel Israel (co author of Naked Conversations) among others.

The Digital Festival - Wed 24th Feb. In Berkeley Court Hotel, Dublin 4.

More info here.

Creativity in the banner

2010-01-04T21:42:00.000Z

I think we all agree that an online strategy is more than a suite of banners, some adwords, a facebook page and a preview session with some bloggers. But banners still have a role.

Banners get a hard time. Perhaps rightly so. But they have a value beyond the click-through-rate. I've written before that nobody clicks on outdoor ads - but their value is not disputed. The problem is a lot of the banners are not particularly creative. Then again, most advertising, regardless of medium used, is only average.

But banners can be creative. Click here or on the image to see this Bernardo's ad.