Farewell to the strangely familiar man in the mirror

Anyone old enough remembers where they were when they heard that Kennedy was assassinated. In 1977 I was in a coach car park when people shouted – literally wailed – over the death of Elvis Presley. I remember the assassination of Lennon, Kurt Cobain’s ‘official’ gunshot wound to the head and the loss of Freddie Mercury. Last week I first heard the rumours about Michael Jackson whilst watching TV. My fears were soon confirmed via my fellow lost souls on Twitter. At least for Presley, his family had the dignity of learning the news in private, before it being announced to the global plebs by a local celebrity gossip website.

As with Presley and Cobain, once the news was out the media became preoccupied with stories related to the King of Pop’s career and conspiracies surrounding alleged addiction to drugs. Radio talk shows moaned with people lamenting Jackson’s loss. (The same chattering classes who years earlier phoned and texted radio shows to criticise Jackson’s penchant for sharing his bed with children).

Listening to the collective grief over the radio and watching the endless televised and YouTube footage of Jackson’s story, reminded me of the loss of Diana, Princess of Wales. Tales of her selfless devotion to charities and cruel marriage to Prince Charles were broadcast around the clock. We were told of a beautiful, simple girl thrust into the public gaze, hounded to death by commission earning freelance paparazzi press.

In Jackson’s case the stories related to a man with the child in his eyes. He was the reported protégé of a demanding father prepared to sacrifice his son’s childhood for the chance of family fame and fortune. Unlike Diana, Jackson’s image was far from perfect, his Dorian Gray face had been twisting and bending this way and that for years before our eyes. Nobody knew how he would die, but given his appearances in wheelchairs and displays of public mania, many suspected that the lifeline etched in his palm had always been short.

Just as with Elvis, Freddie, John, Kurt and Diana, the story of Jackson is destined to become a legend of a person who enjoyed external excess but was crippled by internal anguish and loss. A familiar tale that is the bread and butter hard luck story of just about every modern celebrity or Britain’s Got a Chutzpah wanna-be.

The day after Jackson’s death, in London, the Sony award-winning radio broadcaster, Nic Ferrari spoke to a typical middle-aged female caller who, within 45 seconds broke down into tears. “I am so sorry,” she said. “Are you crying because Michael has gone?” asked Ferrari. “I am crying because he was such a good man, so misunderstood.” “But you never actually met him”, replied Ferrari. “I know. It’s that I just feel that he was part of all of us. He was part of my growing up and what happened to him is a kind of morality tale – especially in these days of the world being what is.”

The lady hit the proverbial nail on the head. Jackson, Mercury et al, were not simply titillating celebrities. They transcended the level of casual entertainer to become spiritual kins people –providing a soul-partnership that was lacking in real life.

That depth of attachment to an audience is precisely the aim of brands wishing to paint perceptions of being more than recycled plastic: not just phone but a way of life… not just a running shoe but a training mentor. Not just a dress – a stylish statement about you. Not just a financial institution – a partner for your future…

Our planet is heaving with 65 billion people bombarded with visual perceptions of what constitutes success. In the face of overwhelming odds, most either capitulate to mediocrity, and celebrate the fact that they are honestly doing what they can and make the most of it or opt to take the easiest advertised route towards making any kind of impression on someone. This has made the pursuit of celebrity a key currency in the quest for recognition and self worth. Even Jackson himself – at one time one of the world’s richest men – craved greater recognition and regard, literally carving it out of his own public face.

Mercury’s passing away from AIDs and Presley’s death on a toilet evacuating the rotting excesses of his all-consuming consumerism were indicative of an era. Jackson too was definitely a person of the moment. His reckless spending on worthless trinkets was legendary. But perhaps just a lavish version of what most ordinary people do when depressed – go shopping for advertised branded items promising just a little bit of momentary self-esteem. His manipulation by more powerful authorities, including Arab sheiks who toyed with him as a play thing, magnified current divisions between the ‘haves’ and ‘once-hads’. His reported yearning for simple innocence, whilst questionable and definitely uncomfortable, was for older fans, tired of the double standards offered in adult life at least understandable.

Jackson’s death has seen shelves of his music at Amazon warehouses emptied overnight. Doubtless, his songs will now find a brand new market with teenagers revelling in 80s retro.

However, Jackson’s core audience resolutely remains the middle-aged who recognise the notion of taking a second chance as a means of escape from the insanely ordinary or increasingly ordinarily insane. Like any middle-aged ‘once-had’ man he planned a final Don Quixotic lunge at life. In his case the plan was to try and balance his ridiculously unbalanced books, resurrect his former glories through no less than 50 full-on concerts that most half his age wouldn’t even dream of delivering. In addition to earning him $150 million, the gruelling gigs could have helped fill the deafening silence left after he left ’stage right’.

For the middle-aged audience Jackson’s greatest cache is nostalgia for a world that, like his Neverland ranch, perhaps never was, but in their minds, may possibly become.

So in the end, the immensely talented Jackson ended up another brand full of capacity but ultimately empty of fulfilling his complete promise. His death will no doubt make the ‘MJ’ brand even more evocative and so profitable to his under-financed (reportedly to the tune of $330 million) estate. In return his accountants can anticipate strong sales of books, movies and rights to his legend. Like Elvis, he may have left the stage but his name will still add digits on credit card payments.

The question of whether any brand – commercial, sports, entertainment, academic political or personal, should play on emotive issues to espouse the notion that happiness and worth comes from exploiting consumerism is a closed one – the answer is sadly resolutely ‘yes’. And arguably from a commercial point of view why not? Throw in highly publicised corporate social responsibility initiatives on the part of the brand, and any misgivings over-indulgence on the part of consumers even during a recession, become much more palatable.

Beyond the pop group, The Jackson Five, Michael Jackson’s hey-day was during the self-assured Eighties. Today for some, it may seem that the world is neither as certain of itself or united in identity and social purpose. In the UK at least, rather than offer employees genuine support during difficult times – far more valuable than money alone – many conceited organisations in one way or another, use the current recession as an excuse to cut jobs, slash pay rises and ‘rationalise’ or ‘streamline’ organisational structures.

Too many hard working cultural heroes like Jackson have been replaced by a society demanding more substance for less sustenance.

For many, values in every walk of life are different than during the 80s. Then, success and talent was rewarded. Today it is viewed as a threat against the status quo of blandness for all. Less jobs with more people chasing them is creating a society of over-qualified candidates being eventually remunerated as if they had no qualifications at all. Everything is accepted without question by workers because of the new mantra of “Well we could get it done for half the money.”

Unsurprisingly looking at the horizon that like Jackson’s appeal is neither definitively black or white, many- especially the young – turn to precisely what drove and eventually helped bring down the King of Pop – celebrity. Talented people walk as if zombies in the Thriller video, hand in hand, two-by-two with clearly talentless people towards an ark of promised respect, doomed to be sunk by a flood of demands for instant gratification and disposability.

No wonder as I listen to Jackson over my iPod and read the headlines of his family removing all his assets from the family home before the bailiffs get to them, I pause to reflect over and remember the man whilst contemplating the lyrics of one of his songs: “What have we done to the world, look what we’ve done. What about all the peace that you pledge your only son...?"

What indeed – and what can responsible brands and custodians of brand icons of every kind do to improve?

Want to solve credit crunch brand challenges? Go Back to School With Your Marketing

As the recession continues to bite it’s clear that consumers’ trust in brands has been badly shaken. This consumer faith crisis, triggered by loss of confidence in the financial sector, has strengthened distrust in brands across other sectors like energy supply where brands are perceived to be passing on costs to consumers through unprecedented tariff rises.

It’s clear that brands, particularly in these sectors, need a recovery strategy in place before plummeting trust causes irreparable damage.  So, the big challenge, over the next eighteen months at least, will be how to reach consumers and transform negative perceptions into positive ones.

A savvy marketer will recognise that when trust has gone it cannot be rebuilt easily. Which begs the question of how to approach an increasingly cynical and credit crunch weary consumer in a way that won’t be rejected out of hand?  Does the answer lie in familiar marketing channels such as traditional above the line campaigns, sales promotion, direct marketing or public relations?

Whilst all of the above have their place, today’s marketing literate consumer is capable of spotting a heavy handed "campaign" at a thousand yards, especially one that overtly sets out to achieve a double whammy of repairing  trust fences and building brand value at the same time.

The good news is that there is an alternative - Social Partnership Marketing, a blend of Social Marketing and Cause Related Marketing. Whilst the latter disciplines have not always been seen as a profit opportunity Social Partnership Marketing offers a way for business to make an important contribution to a social cause whilst improving consumer relationships and profits.

Social Partnership Marketing allows brands to either create or link  with activity that is key to welfare and development within the community, thus delivering an improved brand image and  sales. The best marketing channel for this activity is in partnership with the UK’s 30,000 schools which offer a chance to address 10 million pupils and 15 million parents plus 1 million people employed as teachers and support staff.

There are some good examples that epitomise the activity such as the ‘Let’s Grow’ project carried out by the UK’s fourth largest super market chain Morrisons.  The activity was triggered by research carried out by the retailer which highlighted that a huge number of schoolchildren had never grown anything in a garden, plant pot or allotment. It also showed that 8% of children thought bananas grow in British gardens – while one in ten had no idea that potatoes and carrots can be grown in a garden, at home or at school. More importantly it showed that 75% of children were not eating their recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.

'Let's Grow', was launched with thousands of packets of seeds being sent to participating schools to enable teachers to encourage pupils to have fun with food and start planting. Enough free seeds were distributed to grow around 1.5m salad leaf plants for six million salad bowls. The campaign supported the Government's 'Healthy Schools’, 'Eco Schools’ and ‘Learning Outside the Classroom' initiatives and was fronted by well-known garden designer and TV Presenter Diarmuid Gavin.

Parents, friends and families were able to get behind the scheme by collecting 'Let's Grow' reward vouchers from their local Morrisons and schools could redeem these for free gardening equipment, including everything from seeds to spades, composting bins to planters and even a greenhouse.

The nationwide campaign involved18,000 plus schools and millions of 'Let's Grow' vouchers were collected by parents to give children the opportunity to grow their own food in their school grounds.

Through the scheme children learned valuable skills by growing their own vegetables and fruit at school, and got the inspiration to follow a healthier lifestyle. The campaign was fully supported by advertising, PR, and teaching resources (written by qualified keystage teachers) that helped to provide stimulating lessons for children in a wide variety of subjects

The Morrisons campaign, which has now become a yearly fixture for the brand, illustrates that schools make great partners because they are forward looking, enthusiastic, innovative and welcome original links with businesses and non-commercial organisations.  Social Partnership Marketing offers a ‘winning line’ solution for both participants.

From their partnership with brands schools can benefit from financial support, approved curriculum supporting materials, creative thinking and ready made focal points for tackling social issues such as obesity.

From the brand’s viewpoint the channel gives direct access to a vast number of parents who are happy to support the brand to achieve something worthwhile. The ‘Let’s Grow’ campaign illustrates the huge support and enthusiasm that parents and friends are willing to bring to a social partnership campaign that shows tangible benefits. Footfall increased within the voucher collection period, contributing to Morrisons achieving a bigger growth in market share than any of the other big five supermarkets in 2008. Altogether,  the brand  increased  its share in the grocery market by 9.7% in the last quarter.
 
Although Morrisons ‘Let’s Grow’ has been in existence for only one year, a survey of teachers has shown that it has been better received than Sainsbury’s Active Kids campaign, which is no mean achievement given the time scales.

Right now brands should be thinking how they can solve their trust problem by reaching the community with projects like this. Working with the right marketing partners, who can create campaigns that deliver suitable and exciting benefits for schools, social causes and families, will reverse negative perceptions and increase sales.

However, before embarking on a project like ‘Let’s Grow’ brands should understand the territory and be prepared to abide by some clear cut ‘school rules’ to make sure they tread the right path.  For example, activities should provide a clear benefit to participating schools who should always have the choice to opt in, or out, of any activities.  It is also vital that levels of branding should be appropriate to the activity and that schools are made aware of the social or commercial objectives of the activity, after all with honesty comes trust.

Mark Fawcett is Founder and Chief Executive National Schools Partnership

Database marketing: are we really listening and asking the right questions?

I'm one of the hundreds of thousands of people who travel up and down to London for work each day. And about four years ago, I got into a bit of a strop.

Upon carrying out the monthly ritual of car-park season ticket renewal, the attendant announced: "The system's changed, sir.  Aside from the £140 per month, you now need to pay £10 for the privilege of using one of our new card keys:  and that must be in cash."  This seemed a little odd since she had already given me the new card.  "Why cash? I haven't got any on me," I responded.  The attendant did a lot of mumbling and after an unconvincing discussion I stomped off home without a ticket, deeply satisfied at having hung onto my £10 but left with the slight problem of how to complete my five-mile round trip to the station each day.

A bright April morning dawned and my pedal bike reappeared into the daylight after years gathering dust. Summer's approaching, so why not, I thought.  Four years later I'm still cycling: every day, all year and I love it.  It's free exercise, with entertainment thrown in (the day a university rowing crew all fell into the river as I cycled past raised a titter) complete with massive savings which I can't help mentioning simply because I want you to realise your opportunity.  Station parking £1,680, car insurance £400, car tax £150, car service / tyres £200, petrol £200, vehicle depreciation £2,000. That's annual savings amounting to £4,630 or the thick end of £20,000 for four years' pedalling.  Or a quite memorable holiday each year.

Anyway, a few weeks ago the annual letter from the marketing team at the supplier of the car arrived reminding me of its need for an MOT and service - the same car I sold four years earlier. The garage letter got me thinking about my day job in database marketing as I pootled along the river bank to work: are most databases optimised to be able to keep up with changes in personal behaviour and deliver ROI? And if we add in the rapid economic changes and Web-based ways that we increasingly use to browse and purchase products, it looks like the useful lifespan of data could have just shrunk.  Is ‘disappearing up the database' now a serious risk for many, not just the local garage? Does this partially explain why offline DM has fallen so out of favour?

I prefer the counter view: it's a marvellous opportunity.  Since consumers are sharing so much more about themselves via the Web, we should be much better placed to provide meaningful ways for consumers to engage with brands. We help our clients use this mass of data to maintain regular conversations between them and their enquirers and customers. In doing so, we create opportunities for sales: a process we call Mutual Marketing.  By providing useful material of perceived value to their supporters, they gain significant value, maintain relationships and allow more questions to be asked.  

One of our clients increased loyalty by 30%.  We didn't recommend anything complicated, we just gave them data insight and asked them to recognise that within four weeks of initial purchase of a 12-month contract, their marketing database was out of date and chances were their customers would not renew.  We advised the client to ask each customer a couple of simple questions and, hey presto, the 30% was a reality. It was a mutual win for both client and brand, brought about by agile database marketing combined with a willingness to engage with customers outside of what was traditionally their sales window.

So back to my letter from the garage: are databases and DM dead? I don't think so: it's just that databases need to become more agile and complete, leveraging data from every channel and placing consumers literally at the centre of communications rather than technically (as in the Single Customer View).  Offline DM also still has a role generating interest and awareness, but only if the offer is compelling and creates opportunities to engage, and the brand recognises that the recipient is just as likely to respond via Google as to the intended channel.

Alan Thorpe, commercial and operations director, G2 Data Dynamics

Top Tips for Viral Game Success

Viral games are fun engaging mini-games that can be played directly in an internet browser using the flash plug-in and free to play they have mass global appeal. There are currently thousands available, many of which are presented within game portals and blogs such as gamenet.com and inboxjunkies.com. 

A good game will get promoted editorially by website and blog owners and spread from portal to portal with relative ease. Through this method, really good quality viral games have been known to attract tens, or even hundreds, of millions of players.  This is where the 'viral game' - also referred to as advergame, casual game, online game, mini game or widget game; as a marketing concept was born. 

Any piece of engaging online content that users will interact with for long periods of time is always going to be a great marketing tool, but if you can get this game distributed to tens of millions of people with minimal media spend, then it becomes incredibly powerful. But to be successful it’s vital to execute the various elements of the campaign – strategy, creative, seeding and technology; correctly.

It’s very easy for an expensive viral gaming campaign to fall flat if simple rules aren’t followed. Here are some tips for ensuring viral success:

1. Getting the strategy right There’s no point in getting 5 million players on a game, if it’s not going to achieve your marketing objectives. Viral games can be a very effective tool for delivering branding messages, collecting opt-in registrations and driving click throughs to external websites but, if a game is over branded, or forces registration, or too clearly drives people away from the game portals, then your success will be limited. The key is clever integration of these elements into the game itself whilst meeting the interests of the gaming community 

2. Getting the creative rightSecondly, you need to make sure that the game itself is good enough. The online community won’t editorially promote a game for you it isn’t fun for its users. The simple rule is, the better the game, the more free exposure you’ll get. And the only way to build amazing online games is simply to keep building them and learning from each one. A game might look beautiful, but its playability might let it down. The goal is to create a game with very high quality content, addictive features and real depth.

3. Getting the seeding right Peer-to-peer spread is an important part of a successful viral marketing campaign, but in terms of delivering numbers and success, friend to friend/tell-a-friend functionality contributes very little.  The real big player numbers will come directly from the hundreds of online game portals, websites and blogs in the online gaming community. Collectively, these sites form a network that has editorial influence with, and access to, hundreds of millions of online gamers around the world. Some of these portals are larger sites that operate as legitimate businesses, but the majority are smaller sites that webmasters run out of their garages as a hobby.

The best way to get your game out there to both of these groups is to use a seeding agency that: - has strong relationships with the big portals and can deliver cost effective 'cost per player' placements- has a good reputation with (and a database of) the many smaller blogs, sites and portals in the network.  All 'switched on' media agencies will be able to deliver the 'cost per player' buys with the larger portals, but won't have the access to the real community that eventually drives the multiple millions of players which come from having launched hundreds of viral games and building up these relationships over time. A good viral seeding agency should offer extremely cost effective cost per player rates, but also a proven record of launching good games into the free online gaming community and delivering multi-million player numbers.

4. Getting the technology rightViral games can potentially consist of large media files that utilise complex database connectivity to manage functionality such as data collection, leagues and global ranking.  By their very nature viral games are unpredictable and hugely expandable.

Chris Moyles could start ranting about your game on prime time radio and kill your servers or Stephen Fry could 'tweet' your game and send 5,000 players simultaneously to your game. So you need to carefully consider the hosting infrastructure that your game sits on. When choosing an agency there are a number of technology issues to consider – you need to be looking for one that that can offer high quality bandwidth at a reasonable cost (1,000,000 downloads of a 5 meg game can get expensive) and that has proven experience in hosting games that have truly gone viral and hit millions of players in a short period of time.

And, if your campaign is global, you should be looking to work with an agency that uses 'the cloud' CDN technology to distribute your game locally to your users. There’s nothing worse than creating the perfect viral campaign that goes amazingly viral, but then fails because of the technology was not up to the job. 

 Author: Paul Stevens, Media Director, ViralNet, www.viralnet.com -  a division of Digital Marketing Group plc

Cost-effective marketing during recession

Advertising is expensive and whilst it is essential, it becomes increasingly difficult for a business to advertise through the traditional mediums when advertising budgets are being slashed. Companies are looking for more cost-effective ways to promote their brands. There are lots of marketing options and some can prove to be just as effective. This is in part due to the changing times (people absorbing media in different ways) and the improvement of the channels for advertising online etc. This is compounded by the fact that most people now spend time looking for the exclusive discounts available not just the brands they are familiar with.

In a report researched and compiled by the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) on behalf of the Advertising Association (AA), it was found that the total UK adspend fell by 3.9%, but when separated and analysed by medium it revealed that while newspaper expenditure fell the most (12%) and spend on every other medium also fell, internet expenditure was up by 17.3%.

Internet advertising is an attractive media choice and marketing option at the moment because it can be more cost-effective than other forms of advertising. The rise to stardom of sites such as Facebook and Twitter just add another dimension which is yet to be completely and successfully tapped into.

Another cost-effective option is to look at the free marketing options. Loyalty and membership programmes offer a way to market a brand for free and are operated by a third party, meaning minimal human resources for the business involved. All the business has to do to feature in a loyalty and membership programme is offer an exclusive discount to the club members. This also answers the public’s demand for exclusive discounts on the items/ services they purchase. The members use a directory and/or website featuring all the businesses and their exclusive discounts to look through when they want to shop or plan an experience. The Rocket Marketing Group operates a number of different loyalty and membership programmes including The Big Savings Club, The Entertainment Club, The Home and Garden Club and JML VIP Club. These clubs collectively have a membership base of over 100,000. The captive audience is considerable, so surely this is something that most businesses offering products and services would benefit from?

Contact The Rocket Marketing Group if you would like to discuss how a loyalty and membership programme can be a good marketing option for your business.

Developing one story

It’s a turbulent time in the retail industry.  Trust and loyalty are harder to come by as customers are increasingly demanding and sceptical about what’s on offer. The Economist calls it ‘mass intelligence’, the trend towards wising up rather than dumbing down and retailers and brands need to recognise that in the way they talk to their customers. 

Customers are saying that shops have to try harder to get them to part with their hard earned cash.  It’s never been more important for retailers to engage the hearts and minds of their strongest brand advocates – whether they call them their staff, team members or colleagues.  Great retailers understand the importance of investing in internal engagement and recognise that engaged teams are a lead indicator in above average financial performance. 

Described as ‘a heightened emotional connection that makes you want to give more to your work’ it’s vital in making sure your customer-facing team understand what your business believes in, know what it means for them and can see that what you say to all your stakeholders – be it the city, consumer journalists or your internal messaging – all line up and tell one clear and coherent story. In my experience, however complex you believe your business to be, you can create ‘one story’, the picture on the front of the jigsaw box that helps everyone see where their piece fits. 

Communication as an act of leadership rather than a business function, integrated communications planning, clear messaging endlessly repeated, result in people who know where you’re going and how they can play their part in getting there.  The acid test: press coverage about your latest results, new initiative or store closures?  What will your sales assistant say when a customer asks what’s going on?  If you’re not sure, just try it on one of your competitors next time they’re in the news.     

In these times of erosion of trust and ‘wised up’ customers, retailers should invest more than ever in getting this right.  Customers want to buy from shops they feel comfortable in – ill-informed whispers about job losses or store closures get passed on to customers with potentially disastrous consequences.  It’s never been more important to keep your organisation connected in an authentic, adult-to-adult way. Here are five simple questions to consider

1. Do you really know what your internal teams currently think, believe and understand about where you’re going and why?   
2. Have your created ‘one story’ for your brand or organisation – a clear ‘line of sight’ so that employees can see how they fit into the big picture?
3. Do you see employee communication as an act of leadership or a functional discipline in your organisation?
4. Do you tell all your stakeholders the same story, consistently and repeatedly?
5. Is there a clear employer brand and tone of voice, consistently used in your business?

Time for an industry re-brand?

In the old days, things were simple. Advertising agencies did TV, posters and press and Direct Marketing agencies did, well….direct mail basically. But with the explosion of the media universe and a burgeoning tendency for every agency to fly their integrated colours from the mast, we now seem to be in a situation where most agencies’ lists of core disciplines are longer than Peter Crouch’s inside leg measurement. With promotional marketing, digital and eCRM being only a few of the recent, ubiquitous additions to the already extensive line-up of media suspects.

 

 
There is one very crude way of solving this. If any brave agency out there fancied being brutally honest, they could just come right out and say ‘we do anything for money’. Although I’m sure a few people may have already considered this tactic in these straitened times, it would rather put us in the same sort of business arena as the ‘very oldest profession.’  

 
So – how can we sum up the breadth of our new communications remit in a way that makes us sound decent, honourable and professional? Here’s one idea – why don’t we re-position ourselves as ‘brand storytellers.’ We could simply say: ‘we tell compelling stories about brands using the most appropriate communications tools’. With this or a similar, single-minded re-positioning, we could convey the essence of what we do without having to talk slavishly about the minutiae of how we do it.   

 
It would certainly reduce the clutter on agency websites. It might help bring the ‘big idea’ back as the central focus of our efforts. It may even force both ourselves and our clients to take a more holistic view of communications moving forward.   

 
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, it may just help us to come across as a little less desperate. 

 

Mark Blanchard Creative Group Head, Baber Smith  

 
Baber Smith is an independent, fully integrated marketing agency which has been creating brand-led communications since 1995.  The fastest growing communications agency in the UK, Baber Smith has specialisms in the Retail and Financial Services sectors and is the UK's leading agency of choice for 'destination' marketing.

Time for the brand identity business to re-evaluate

Declining income, conflicted managers and demoralised staff. If you’re in the brand identity business, it may be time to re-evaluate your business development strategy.

Recently, whilst out-and-about in the branding community, conducting what I now refer to as the rounds, I have noticed a worrying vacuum or, in the wider context of things, an opportunity well worth exploiting.

It is undeniably tough out there – clearly illustrated by frugal cost-cutting, unpaid leave, head-count freezing and many other cautious, overhead reducing activities. However, I am amazed at how so many senior managers are undervaluing the importance and holistic benefits of a clear marketing and business development strategy.

On mass, agencies already on the verge of collapse have started advertising vacancies for generic new business positions. Their posts command applications from candidates who can guarantee a rolodex of clients and qualified leads. In return they offer little more than the most basic salary, an unclear future and very little, if any, security. They too often rely on badly managed and out-of-date contact lists and assign the task of cold-calling to reluctant if not actually telephobic staff, or outsource it to apathetic third-party telephonists.

How then can consultancies expect to grow, during a time when salaries are cut, morale is at an all time low and unpaid leave is encouraged? The answer, I suggest: Agency leaders themselves need to start thinking outside of the box.

Senior partners and managing directors: Regardless of the current economic situation, if the process of business development is not introduced and encouraged throughout the structure of your business, and its importance promoted through every role featured on your organogram, you really will only have yourselves to blame when you are forced to reduce overheads further. Accountability cannot be outsourced.

Developing new business is itself just one component, one step within a wider business development model – a model that includes effective account management, dedicated client service and creative direction. Business development should sit at the core of every business function, and for it to be implemented successfully, the firm’s leaders need to recognise and promote its importance from the outset.

It can help, too, to go back to grassroots, find out what is it that motivates both account managers and creatives, and take time to define the opportunities that your strategists and planners are dreaming of. Surely, the thrill of working on an exciting brief, or pitching to win a new piece of business is a good starting point. By encouraging and endorsing ‘new’ business development in this way you will unlock potential – be it personal ambition and a chance to shine, newly revealed relationships, other previously hidden assets or a surprisingly innovative solution.

Developing new business should not be a lonely, sit-in-the-corner-and-pick-up-the-phone job. In much the same way that as consultants we help clients to positively penetrate the hearts and minds of their employees, agency leaders should encourage, promote and incentivise in-house the function of identifying and nurturing relationships.

Whether you employ a senior professional, or choose to take it upon yourself, you should treat business development as a well-oiled and well-maintained management tool. Business development should sit comfortably within every employee’s remit – especially in those of your most senior team. Remember, people buy people!

Recruiting in a recession...?

I write a reasonably well received blog on graduate recruitment in my spare time, in addition to my day job. One of the things we're most interested in is trying to ensure that people with the right mindset (a positive attitude, an entrepreneurial mindset - in my limited experience), get into the business.

                                           Your next CEO?

Now, I don't necessarily think that the tried and trusted advertising approach of hiring people from the graduate milkround will help this time round. 

No, I think it's this approach that's led us to staid creative work. And what's more, there's so little ballsiness in a lot of work, and a lot of attitudes that are happy to remain silent. I think it's why Mad Men captured the imagination to such a degree; a time where agencies did great work, and were able to make single minded decisions (albeit those which were deeply sexist).

With salaries in other, less creative sectors going up at the same time as creativity decreasing in the communications sector, it's perhaps no surprise that graduates had their heads turned by them. But, with trust and pay being the lowest they've been for quite some time, it's the ideal time for the creative industries to start hiring those sort of grads who won't take no for an answer, and are willing to keep persevering with selling and creating insightful ideas.

With that in mind (and yes, this is a touch of self promotion - disclaimer, I work at Lowe), have a look at this video. Lowe are recruiting, and are after grads who are just like this:

The 'Jigsaw Effect’

‘Hi! I’m TopKat and I just came third in the county’s under-14 cross-country.’

Looks innocuous enough, doesn’t it? Couldn’t possibly be dangerous for the child that posted it, could it? The sad truth, though, is that there is probably enough information in this one sentence for the wrong kind of person to identify the child that made the posting.All of us are sensitive of our duty of care to children and young adults.

Those of us running web sites, social networks, blogs and the like probably take what we think are sensible steps to ensure children are ‘safe’. No real names to be used! No addresses! No emails! We probably screen for ‘purple words’, we may also have the content of bulletin boards and chat-rooms moderated, just to be sure.The unfortunate fact though, is that however careful we are, however thorough, the very tools we so value on the internet can make it a potentially dangerous place.
 
Think about it from your own perspective. You know you shouldn’t, but how often do you use the same password? More important from the point of view of identifying you, how often do you use the same ID, even if it is a nickname?The reality is whilst most of us use the same password over and over, we have some protection because web sites take extraordinary steps to safeguard them, but we happily post our nicknames over blogs, bulletin boards and social networks.
 
Punch it in to Google and there is a good chance someone can find your unwitting web footprint. With a little detective work you’d be surprised how much those disparate and unrelated postings could tell someone about you.Same problem for TopKat! She, or he, probably uses that nickname on a number of their favourite web sites. And sports results are regularly posted to the web. Start sleuthing and you’d be amazed at what you can dig up.

The risk for children and young adults (and the rest of us) is the ‘jigsaw’ effect of data posted across the internet. So what to do? Regulation, both self-regulation and the statutory sort, clearly has a role, but short of shutting down the internet it is unlikely the risks can be eliminated. What we need to work towards is a situation where risks are reduced, and most important children and young adults are educated as to how to minimise the dangers to themselves.
 
The recent Byron Review makes a balanced assessment of the risks and the benefits for children of the internet, and sets-out some excellent recommendations. Taking as an analogy how we teach children to cross the road, Byron advocates educating children and young adults as to the potential risks of the web, with a view to achieving the following outcomes; an ability to manage (or find support in managing) the risks; and an ability to take ownership of their own online safety.
 
That said, Byron is quite clear that there is a responsibility on site owners and content providers to reduce the risks to children, and to encourage and promote safe behavior. So now may be the time to review how ‘safe’ your web site is. To ask the question ‘what more could I do?’, and to see what else you could be doing to help young children appreciate and manage the risks, but still enjoy, explore and grow with the internet. 

Mark Wooding is MD of Soprano an agency that provides strategic consultancy, creative execution and build and implementation for all aspects of digital media. Mark is one of the UK’s web pioneers having established one of the first Internet Agencies – Nexus Multimedia. Mark has run BBDO’s Traffic agency, and helped found Proximity London and establish Proximity in the Middle East. He also ran Electronic Solutions and has consulted widely on user experience and e-marketing issues.

Engaging branded content

So far, the success of digital media as an industry has been largely driven by advertising innovation. However, the climate is changing and digital consumers are starting to ‘reject’ standard advertising formats as they increasingly favour content (whether branded or User Generated Content (UGC)) over other digital media. More often than not, consumers will now just click away from pop ups and entirely ignore banner ads as their viewing habits become more selective. As a result, brands must learn that the hard sell will no longer work as consumers seek safety in their content. Instead, brands need to concentrate on providing content that encapsulates their brand and its messages, while at the same time offering benefits to the consumer.
 
Since my departure from the media agency world, I’ve found a whole new crop of digital innovation in the shape of the customer publishing industry. The true experts in branded content, customer publishers have the ability to transfer their skills across various media channels and are currently very successful at leading their clients into unchartered digital content strategies. Customer publishing no longer just accounts for magazines. The industry has now expanded to account for the targeted editorialisation of brands across a variation of channels. Importantly, customer publishers’ main focus is selecting the correct channels and the correct content for the correct audience, which means moving away from heavy sales techniques and doing everything possible to accurately encapsulate a brand. And we’re not talking website design and build. We’re talking social media strategies for blue chip retailers, mobile content and platform strategies for telecom brands, and rich media digital video and TV streaming for FMCGs, Retail and Automotive brands.

Everyone talks about content being the new currency, but what does this really mean for brands? Should creative ad budgets be going into building branded apps and social media conversations between brands and consumers rather than into creating 468x60s and microsites?

Brand editorial expertise and customer engagement strategies have to date been undervalued. However, with ad response rates in decline, and brands finding it harder to win and keep customers in such a cluttered direct response-driven medium, those brands and agencies who truly understand how to engage with customers through the written word, or through richer media content formats such as video, are those who will be successful in the future.   Rather like social media, customer engagement online requires a new set of skills – and new rules apply for brands adopting these strategies. What are these rules?

And how is success measured? It’s time to leave the impressions and the click-throughs to the direct response measurement guys, and time to start building and measuring deeper and more meaningful metrics such as sales uplift, cross-media acquisition and retention and customer life time value. Essentially, audiences are complex and you therefore need to fully understand them. Any misunderstanding along the way can cost, so employing non-experts could endanger a brand’s potential. What’s most important is that a brand is correctly encapsulated and is portrayed in an effective and sensitive way to its audience and it takes more than just a website builder and designer to do that.

Why Isn't Your Advertising Working?

Trademark Wars – Remember Your Brand Values or Risk a Digital Beating

Last year’s trademark bidding change saw ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ swiftly fall by the wayside as it became ‘acceptable’ to bid on competitors terms. In the UK, Google’s plans to allow advertisers to use competitors’ trademarks in the text of their ads, will of course encourage the cowboys. But, before jumping on this bandwagon, I’d strongly encourage any brand to consider exactly how exploiting competitors’ trademarks will give them a competitive edge.

Any brand mentioning a competitor in ad copy should have the clearest of differentiators that doesn’t explicitly denigrate competitor brands.  Supermarkets for example, have been doing this in their TV ads for years, and there is no reason why it can’t be successfully extended into paid search. But it is important to ensure that messages are consistently supported in body copy on landing and web pages, as failure to do so will negatively impact upon quality scoring, resulting in you having to spend more to maintain rank.

Resellers of branded products - brands who already mention ‘cheaper than’ or ‘cheapest’ or ‘best price /range / quality’ in their existing marketing message will be able to generate further stand out and mop-up the traffic around an existing, strong brand. Since they trade off other established, recognised brands there will be little change to their brand or marketing strategy. However, their paid search budgets may rocket as the competition increases to compete via brand association.

As a result, reputable brands may be forced to increase spend to reinforce their brand equity or risk losing traffic to ‘brand representatives’ who aren’t representative of the true brand values, the marketing message nor indeed the brand’s products and services.Brand values should influence every decision that gets made, on- and offline, from paid search creative to in-store plastic bag policy. If a brand changes this approach based on an ‘opportunity’, without looking at the wider picture, then brand messages can be misaligned and misrepresented and advocates quick to judge, blog, comment and tweet, putting the brand at the risk of a digital beating.

At the end of the day the point is to make money and provide customer satisfaction. Consumers usually have a good idea about what they want to buy, so are unlikely to be swayed by a misleading ad. Its therefore worth bearing the customer in mind when using this technique. Saying  ‘our tyres are miles better than Brand X’s’, for example, will certainly attract you clicks from customers who were searching for Brand X. 

But just make sure that any price or performance comparison claims you make is substantiated with research data from a validated source.Its important that direct digital marketing is consistent with other marketing messages and channels. So if mentioning competitors is not something that you would normally consider doing, don’t do it in your paid search ads.  Your digital agency should always to start with a discovery phase in which they take time to get to know your business, so that they can ensure that search content is designed to maximise your budget and ROI. Hijacking other brands’ trademarks could put you at risk of damaging your own brand by convoluting your other marketing messages, by being in direct conflict with the competitor’s messages. And it could harm your brand equity, in which your company has no doubt made a huge investment in building up and maintaining.

Denise Turner, Business Development Director, CheezeDMG

www.cheezedmg.com  Member of DMG www.digitalmarketinggroup.co.uk,twitter.com/cheezedmg