Knowing your audience…

Understanding your target market has never been more vital.  All of us, whether at work or at home, have become savvy to ways of marketing and therefore expect more when receiving communications from any given company.  For some this is not an easy task especially as marketing budgets have been slashed.  So while many companies are looking to review creative treatments, the wise companies are investing heavily in data.  

Understanding your customers

We are all aware that history has shown that it is cheaper to retain existing customers than to attract new ones. Therefore the retail community should be focusing remaining marketing budget on consumer retention to ensure the most profitable customers are rewarded in a bid to entice them back. Over the next five weeks I will be discussing the five principals that retailers should adopt in order to allocate marketing budgets wisely and ensure that the business prospers even in these challenging times.  

It’s the winning not the taking part

That awful line ‘it's taking part that counts, not winning' reminds me of parents consoling their kids at sports day and politically correct types misguidedly believing that they are going to bring success to the majority by avoiding competition. I bet if we used that sentence with Ricky Ponting at the moment he'd wince and scowl, and we'd quite possibly have to locate the nearest exit.

The problem is that I can't think of a single occasion when ‘just taking part' or ‘being second best' is good: lost the bid, lost the contract, lost the customer. Who remembers silver medallists? Who came second in the F1 championship in 2008? Which political leader that has lost an election has gone down in history? The way I see it, taking part and not winning is no fun at all.

But winning creates energy, team spirit and momentum. At work and at play it makes us feel good, positive and pushes us on to greater things; and knowing your market, and your opposition, is a key part of the winning process. That's why good data strategy is a key to success. If you've got the data, make good use of it. Have a proper customer strategy driven by insights, get your trigger campaigns sorted, ensure you have a proper management dashboard to support decision-making.

A solid platform can make a huge difference and be a springboard for success. Just like the world's priciest footballers wear the highest-quality boots and F1 stars drive the best-performing cars, data experts need to have the best tools for the job. For example, we've seen a customer improve retention rates by 30% and lower the cost of acquiring new consumers simply by using a combination of Alterian's platform and existing customer data in the right way to improve campaign performance. It's a win-win for both the client and the customer.

Like all winners in life, data practitioners and their technology suppliers should constantly strive for new heights. Look at Usain Bolt: he wasn't satisfied with his 100m and 200m world record-shattering performances at the World Athletics Championships, saying he can shave more tenths off of the times! The best Enterprise Marketing Platform providers share the same characteristics. Alterian recently announced it is addressing the new social media market by acquiring Techrigi to move into the social media space. Clients have every right to expect their suppliers to be on the ball with this type of progression, helping them win greater market share.

There's no doubt that times have become tougher and clients are harder to satisfy. But if you can demonstrate expertise, partnerships with the best technology vendors around, in-depth analytic capabilities and transparent marketing practices, you'll begin to instil confidence in existing and target clients.

So it's not just about giving a great presentation and congratulating yourselves on doing your best even if you don't win the business. You need to get everything in place to answer the brief, demonstrate your ability to handle the work once you've won it and show how the systems you have chosen for the job will underpin that. After all, who wouldn't want to be part of a winning team?

Alan Thorpe, commercial and operations director, G2 Data Dynamics

An instant tap on the teen market

In a week when record numbers of teenagers have been biting their nails in anticipation of their A Level results and pundits are predicting that students will leave university with an average debt of £17,500, leading brand and marketing response agency, TheAgency, has been conducting research into effective sales and marketing to teenagers.

 
Instant is best.  Whether it is instant messaging, video sharing, social networking or online shopping, it’s happening ‘now’.  According to IABuk.net 81% of teens (aged 12 – 24) say instant messaging is an important online service and 83% use MSN to keep in touch with friends.

 
However, there is a lack of teens twittering.   Under 25s make up 25% of the twitter audience, but the 13 - 17 audience is already using facebook/bebo to keep up to date.

 
Key services that teens use are ones where they can contribute and communicate with one another rather then make purchases. For a brand to be successful in these areas they must make communication and contribution a key objective, sales second.  Two-way communication is essential.  Even better, brands should meet face to face with teenagers and keep in touch on a regular basis.

 
Being a teenager is a time of opportunistic endeavour.  Exciting and changeable it has always been tricky to tap into ‘now’ trends.  With the right tools and spaces in place to target them, brands have to form a deeper understanding of the teen psyche and engage with them at a far deeper level than ever before.

 
The recent £4m account win from BSM required TheAgency to make BSM more relevant to the core learner youth market.  Its ‘Lessons for Life’ campaign stood out from those of other driving schools by focusing on the learner rather than the car.  Youthful visuals dominated right down to the colour palette and teenager’s clothing.

 
The result is a 20 per cent uplift in learner bookings and ‘Lessons for Life’ has been extended across the brand experience.  BSM has also ended its 16-year relationship with Vauxhall to swap the Opal for the über-trendy Fiat 500 , reflecting yet another facet of the driving school’s desire to connect with the youth market’s interest in green credentials.

 
As teenagers tackle exams, debt, disenfranchisement, world politics and global warming, so brands have to grapple with the right message, tone and creative relevance that will inspire, engage with and activate this youth audience.  And that’s a lesson in life that many brands will have to take.

 
TheAgency top 5 tips for targeting teenagers

 
1)      Engage – with the power of social networks two way conversation is key. Invite responses and allow contribution.

2)      Give them something back– a free download, a discount, an amusing video. Think of it as a friendship, you can’t just take and never give back.

3)      Be honest – don’t lie, don’t pretend to be something you’re not and encourage honesty in return.

4)      Language - don’t use marketing jargon, use language that teens use and make sure you’re up to date – Groovy does not count.

Don’t just sit back – don’t wait for them to come to you, go out and find them and once you’re there join in the fun!

 
Saman Mansourpour, partner at TheAgency.

Age is no firewall

According to recent research, only 20 percent of people aged over 55 feel that advertisers treat them as intelligent or discerning customers and more than half feel that advertising aimed at them is patronising.  A swift glance at daytime television (if you’re brave enough) reveals nothing but ads for walk-in baths or for funeral insurance policies that come with a free carriage clock.  It makes you think that perhaps those numbers aren’t high enough.

But alongside this world of faintly distasteful silver advertising is the revelation that there are some 10 million plus mature internet users – a demographic that is growing incredibly rapidly.

A lot of work and research has been done on how young people – teenagers, tweens and twenty-somethings – use the web.  However, while these demographics are undeniably significant, the fastest-growing online group is actually the over 55s – popularly known as ‘silver surfers’.  This is also the group with the highest disposable income.

A recent survey carried out by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) revealed that a quarter of over 55s consider online to be the media channel that most influences their buying decisions.  A hefty 83 percent also regularly use email and search the web, with nearly two thirds checking online news sites.

The research also found that 74 percent of this group shopped online, spending an average of £575 in a six month period – well above the average online shopper who spends £520 in the same period.  One in ten silver surfers now even visits social networking sites – that supposed stronghold of teens and twentysomethings – at least once a month.

And as online technology and its users grow up together, the proportion of older computer-savvy people will increase exponentially. With no mortgage and a steady income, this older group is spending more time and money than ever before online.  So if the proposition is right, digital can be hugely lucrative.

Given these opportunities, you’d think that most marketers would have worked out how to make their online activities more appealing to the mature market.  However, older users are painfully aware that websites in general are not designed for them (a recent Webcredible survey revealed that only 19.9 percent thought they were).  Most 50- and 60-somethings, in particular, don’t see themselves as ‘old’ and actively resent the suggestion that they are: June Whitfield’s talk of funeral expenses is, after all, still twenty years too soon for most of them.

But there are lessons that should be taken to heart by any marketer keen to get a slice of this particular pie.  Most silver surfers are huge fans of email – with browsing a close second.  So any brand looking to engage this group needs to go back to email basics to make sure that messages do not look like spam and are easy to read, with no clumsy graphics.

It’s also extremely important to make silver surfers feel like valued customers from the moment they arrive on your website. This means making an effort to be relevant, promoting items that a mature audience would be interested in and avoiding the excessive use of ‘web speak’.  Just as they don’t want to be seen as nearing Death’s Door, they also don’t appreciate a wave of jargon that only the most web-savvy teenager would understand.

As with many other groups online, silver surfers are constantly on the hunt for websites offering bargains and better-than-High-Street prices.  As a group that has grown up with traditional in-store shopping, senior users often prefer a ‘sales section’ with all the bargains in the same place. Placing a large ‘Sale’ button on a homepage can make things a lot easier in this regard.

It’s also advisable to maintain a constant trail leading back to the homepage, particularly if the website has a lot of depth with pages linking to pages and so on.

One obvious area is usability. In spite of modern accessibility laws, many sites still employ tiny buttons, hidden links and complex navigation.  It all makes online shopping a chore rather than a pleasure.  It’s also important to bear in mind that silver surfers often use older ‘hand-me-down’ equipment and tend to not update their software as frequently as younger users. This means they may not have the largest monitor running the latest version of IE. So web designers should make sure that sites targeting silver surfers are designed for smaller monitor sizes than average (800x600 is ideal) and are tested on older web browsers.

And even though 68 percent of all European internet users aged 55 years and older now also use broadband, it’s advisable to not to make the site a ridiculous file size – it might even be wise to test it on a 56k modem (if you can find one – we advise looking under the pile of cables at the back of the supply cupboard).  Mature users can lose patience quickly with sites that are slow to load, particularly those who have retired and moved out of the city to smaller towns and villages that might not have the fastest connections.

We’re rapidly reaching a point where there will no longer be ‘silver surfers’ and ‘everyone else’, but just ‘internet users’ – a single group of people who want to use websites to find what they want in a simple and straightforward way.  Some sites are beginning to realise this – but not enough of them and not swiftly enough.  The sooner things improve, the better the experience for everyone, not just those over 55.

The Printable-coupon revolution

Printable coupons and vouchers have never been so popular, but marketers using them solely for discounting are missing a trick if they want to grow market share during the recession and beyond.

The shift in consumer behaviour seen in the current recession is the most marked the retail industry has witnessed in many years. Liberal spending has ceased; frugality reigns. So much so that it is no longer seen as embarrassing to haggle for purchases, buy cheaper brands or use coupons to get a better deal. While many retailers have been hit hard, there are ways of working the trend to their advantage through clever promotions, as a number of the grocery giants have shown.

Behavioural shifts

Entrenched consumer habits that have built up over time and become habitual consumer behaviour are now being challenged: shoppers are switching supermarkets, using different criteria to drive their choice of purchase – in short, they are re-evaluating the way they shop. For brands and retailers battling it out for a diminishing share of consumers spend, this is a rare opportunity to challenge consumer loyalty with cleverly-targeted promotions. It is no coincidence, then, that sales promotions are bucking the trend of current marketing cutbacks.

Online promotions

Online printable coupons and vouchers (those that appear on the web but can be printed off to be redeemed in store), have seen a particular surge in popularity - the acceleration of a trend that has been building over the last two to three years.  From the marketer’s perspective, this is a genuine opportunity. Online printable coupons can be extremely effective and offer unparalleled speed to market (a campaign can be turned around within two weeks, in contrast to a direct mail campaign which could take several months to roll out). They can be applied extremely creatively too, as part of an integrated campaign - both to help convert awareness and interest to actual consumer purchases, or to measure a campaign’s effectiveness. What’s more, because consumers are able to select which coupons they print, the redemption rates are typically far higher than those of more traditional coupons.
 

Sales fatigue

Marketers who use coupons and vouchers simply to extend their sales are missing a trick. Today everyone is having a sale; it has become the norm. Not only is this unsustainable from a profitability perspective, protracted discounting also risks damaging the brand – it smacks of desperation and falling value. For the retailer, online printable coupons offer a way to get new customers into a store. For FMCG brands, they provide a means of offering an incentive or discount without compromising their long-term market positioning. Take the example of Kimberly-Clark’s recent Huggies Newborn promotion, exclusive to Sainsbury’s.

Eager to influence the earliest purchases of expectant and new mothers, Huggies has been running an online-printable coupon promotion with the supermarket chain. This offers visitors to a parenting web site (bounty.com) a free Mother-and-Baby Bundle gift set when they purchase a pack of Huggies Newborn nappies at Sainsbury’s. The strategic value of such a promotion to both Kimberly-Clark and Sainsbury’s is clear, especially when weighed up against the relatively low cost of implementing the online printable coupon scheme and the tight targeting via the chosen web site. Sainsbury’s has been able to attract mums-to-be into its stores to browse its babycare category, while Huggies has been able to get its brand in front of new mothers at a critical time in their purchase decision-making.   

Capturing new customers

This example highlights so much more than simply the potential to discount on price, or to cement the loyalty of existing customers. It is about influencing new customer behaviour, and expanding market share, while enhancing rather than devaluing the brand of both the retailer and the product manufacturer. For the online printable coupon, this is just the beginning. Once a ‘nice to have’ element to a marketing campaign, marketers are now realising their strategic value as part of a well thought-out campaign, particularly as they strive to demonstrate a return on investment on their promotional spending. 

Consider a brand which has just spent £1 million on the launch of a new product. The online printable voucher’s role here, as part of an integrated campaign, might be to encourage consumers to try the new product – thereby taking them a step closer to buying it; or encouraging them to buy it again, turning a one-off purchase into habitual behaviour. Then there are the huge customer databases in which the brands have invested so heavily.

Online printable coupons offer them a chance to go back to these customers time and again, with targeted offers – not merely at Christmas or some other significant date in the calendar. The key to sustained success is to think laterally, and apply coupons and vouchers creatively. While price sensitivity during a recession is inevitable, marketers must be mindful of the fact that the economy, however dire now, is cyclical and will in time recover. Those who too heavily favour discounting now over more strategic, brand-supporting initiatives may find they have devalued their brand irreparably, hindering business recovery when the upturn comes.

Waitrose… Pizza Express … does aggressive discounting destroy the brand value?

It seems like all people want at the moment is the cheapest deal, and that lowering prices and putting huge sale posters up is the only way to entice consumers into a shop/business. But with sale savvy shoppers and the help of internet comparison sites how far can this go? Have prices finally reached rock-bottom and how has this aggressive discounting damaged the perceived value of these items/services? Have we allowed the financial panic to reduce brands’ value? The possible recession solutions have raised so many questions for marketing professionals and as we start to see light through the economic gloom the answers are starting to become clearer.

In hindsight it seems short-sighted of businesses to look at aggressive or competitive discounting as the complete recession solution, for example will Pizza Express ever be able to return their prices to the level they were 2 years ago? Many people only visit Pizza Express if they have a 2 for 1 voucher because there’s always an abundance of vouchers online and you can basically download them whenever you like. A lot has changed from 2 years ago when the brand was known to belong in the upper level of high street chain restaurants, to now when you might think of it as a discount Pizza restaurant. It has not only changed our perceptions of the price but also with it the type of people who eat there – in many people’s view it’s not the experience it once was. By heading such an onslaught of discounts, this recession solution has effectively but gradually and probably unintentionally rebranded their business and the brand value has suffered.

Another example of this recession solution is Waitrose, who introduced their Essentials range, giving customers the opportunity to buy quality produce at a low price. This was in response to reports that supermarket shoppers were switching to own-brand goods to save money. Waitrose has always been known as a more exclusive supermarket and this is surely the primary reason people are brand loyal and choose to shop there; so if people are prepared to pay a premium for your products why change that? Waitrose positioning themselves using the same marketing techniques as less aspirational brands was always going to pose the risk of missing the target market. It’s still early days but isn’t it potentially damaging to long term profits if the brand were to be devalued any further or reach the point where their identity was forced to change as Pizza Express’ has? 

These are just two questionable aggressive discounting decisions but they are definitely not alone. Is it therefore possible to give customers what they want whilst marketing your business out of the situation? Reducing the price does tap into the mood of the nation but there are ways to do this which make the discounts appear exclusive rather than the norm. Surely this is less damaging to perceived brand value?

Discount hunters often belong to externally managed loyalty and membership programmes or discount clubs that offer their members’ discounts on a variety of products and services. The discounts offered are seen by members of the discount club as a privilege and the brands’ value remains higher than the discount price. 

A good example of this is Champneys Health Resorts which is a company offering premium pampering breaks. It’s important that they remain as an elite product because that’s what makes the product/services appealing, so to aggressively discount them would damage the perception of exclusivity. This doesn’t mean that the recession does not hit their business as it has other businesses but they have to approach discounts in a different way. Champneys have chosen to put a select few offers on their website but also offer a discount to members of The Rocket Marketing Group’s loyalty and membership programmes. The brand is still seen as luxury because the offers are presented in a way that makes customers feel like the discount is special.  The 15 % discount they offer The Rocket Marketing Group’s loyalty and membership programme club members is a great offer and has prompted a number of redemptions.

Businesses use loyalty and membership programmes to market their brands to consumers who are specifically looking for a special offer, enticing them to become brand loyal. The idea being, that the members of the loyalty and membership programme or discount club will become brand loyal to the businesses within the savings clubs by giving them what they want in a controlled way. These savings clubs are often offered to businesses as a free marketing option with the proviso that they offer club members a discount on their brand. 

The Rocket Marketing Group operates a number of loyalty and membership programmes helping businesses create brand loyal consumers, driving both retention and revenue. Visit rocketmarketinggroup.com for more details of how a loyalty and membership programmes (discount clubs) can work effectively for your specific businesses.

Offers correct at time of publication and subject to terms and conditions.

Keep it Simple, Stupid

As August has progressed, so my wife’s enthusiasm for the school holidays has diminished quicker than the national finances and our confidence in weather forecasting. Come the weekends, it’s my turn to entertain the kids.   

 
After visiting the pub to carry out a quick bit of ‘research’ I was pointed in the direction of a local farm that has children’s entertainment. Next day, putting aside suspicions about the advice (said farm was apparently in the village of Bucklebury, famous for Prince William having landed an army helicopter in his girlfriend’s garden) off we went: and the place was great.   

 
The farm had an almost total lack of sophistication, staying true to its agricultural roots and focusing on the result – happy families.  Big slides installed in farm buildings; food to feed a few donkeys and goats; simple refreshments (without a burger in sight); a peaceful location; a few go-karts on a rough track surrounded by casually placed tyres; a large playground castle to climb. What made it great was the staff. Even though the farmer must have driven a tractor- and trailer-load of parents and children through his deer park countless times, he remained patient, enthusiastic and entertaining (personally I enjoyed the ‘has anyone got any questions’ moment that arrived as the farmer finished an in-depth speech on the upcoming rut, a small girl sticking her hand up and asking ‘how does your tractor go?’). The attraction is clearly a big success and it’s based upon an honest brand of simple solutions to entertain young families combined with good people; and there is not a fancy hydraulic ride in sight. 

 
I expect that, like me, you’ve sat (or yawned) through many data services presentations given by vendors, proud of the sophistication of their software and insights. I’m willing to bet that we’ve all lost count of the amount of times our interest has been lost in a plethora of PowerPoint software functionality and detailed stats when we only held the meeting to clarify answers to simple questions like ‘can I create a trigger campaign’, ‘how easy is it to add a data set’ or ‘can I identify my best customers’.  The dreaded combination of too much knowledge combined with in-depth software plus PowerPoint has doubtless killed many a valid business initiative. 

 
Recently, I was lucky enough to be a judge for some industry awards. And guess what the common characteristics of the winning entries are? If you’re thinking sophisticated techniques and complex software, then you’re as far off of the mark as a British sprinter trying to catch Usain Bolt. The reality is that the winning entries share a lot in common with the farm entertainment. They demonstrate understandable and often uncomplicated usage of data to solve problems. They are projects that have made real differences to people: the services they receive from companies, charities and the public sector, the ways in which they receive them.   Just like the farm, the winners are companies that have concentrated on what matters, keeping the technical processes simple. They have applied brains over software.  Some of the winning entries are a joy simply because they are so simple, obvious even. 

 
Ten years ago, I remember meeting the then IT director of Norwich Union for him to sign off a major database contract and the visit to the farm brought his words back to me.  “Alan,” he said, “I’ll sign off this contract, but what I really want to know is how do I drive value from a customer data asset?” His simple question has driven my approach to data ever since. 

 
Alan Thorpe, commercial and operations director, G2 Data Dynamics

Confused retail targeting? Blame it on the kids

Many retailers have got their act together when it comes to extending their reach from the High Street into customers’ homes.  If my family’s collective inbox is anything to go by we seem to have most of the big retail names emailing us on a regular basis, with offers in various shapes and sizes.  Some of these are driven by loyalty schemes; some are the result of online shopping and data collection, while others are ad hoc service or sales messages following some kind of customer service experience.
 

These are communications that we have, in theory, opted in to at some point and so should be of relevance and interest.  But the more we get, the less relevant the messages seem to become and the higher the proportion that hit the ‘deleted’ pile.  Many of these are from brands that used to have a much higher conversion rate to click through or even sale but whose relevance has been steadily diluted over time.  So who should we blame for this?  My money’s on the kids…
 

Effective one-to-one marketing has been the holy grail of many direct marketers for years and the intelligent use of data has played a major part in achieving this.  But for many retailers using online communications, it’s becoming increasingly hard to use familiar methods to target accurately.  This is largely because the roles involved in the buying process are becoming more blurred in households, especially in relation to (teenage) children.
 

Kids have more and more spending power – many also now have their own debit cards and no longer need to rely on parents for online or in-store purchases.  Others, however, are still reliant on parents to act as both banker and buyer which can complicate the targeting of good communications, especially if transactional data is consolidated through loyalty schemes or cards.  Mums end up buying war games and Superdry clothing for sons, as well as ‘young’ make up and Abercrombie and Fitch for daughters, all on loyalty cards bearing their name.  Little surprise that they’re not then interested in messages offering the latest in zombie-killing wargame technology or fashion suited to those 20 or 30 years younger.
 

Understanding the different roles of influencer, decision maker, buyer, banker and ‘loyalty’ member is becoming increasingly important if we’re to improve the hit rate of right person, right message, right time.  This is further complicated by multiple email addresses being associated with the same postal address through transactional data.  Digital marketing can play a key role here in engaging individuals and persuading them to provide richer data – as long as additional insight is used effectively to drive more targeted marketing at both personal and household level, which can only serve to reinforce brand loyalty…and family harmony.

 

Pharmaceutical branding – time for a wake up call?

The winds of change seem fairly constant in the pharmaceutical industry. Complex legislative and regulatory issues, increased competition, complex company structures, mergers and acquisitions all impact on business thinking and practice. 

Add to this a certain cynicism about the sector and consumer concern about integrity, and  you have a real need for a change in attitude to the brands themselves and the approach to communications.

Historically pharmaceutical brands have not really acted as ‘brands’ in the true FMCG sense of the word. An arrangement that, to a degree, has worked adequately within the industry, but it’s one that is being challenged by the business benefits increasingly accredited to brands and the power they wield with consumer relationships.

Many pharmaceutical brands have on the whole, evolved from an original, single, licensed product that has then become available for wider use. The result is brands and ’identities’ largely evolved from R&D departments and drug heritage without addressing the wider issues of consumer benefit, need fulfilment or increased consumer knowledge.

Without realising it much of the ‘brand’ communications is based on manufacturing and product led processes - from R&D to boardroom, from sales force to trade and from trade to consumer, an approach once seen in the automotive industry, who have now recognised the need to move from manufacturing led to brand led.

The need for change is also being driven by the multiple retailers, where dealing in brands is their currency – whatever the category. They are seeking strong brands that can compete, are understood by consumers and that can grow and extend.

In our work on pharmaceutical brands we have recognised that there is an historical shortfall that needs to be addressed when moving from OTC to brand. Afterall, a brand is more than a product in a box with a name on, however efficacious. A brand connects with a consumer or user on more levels than just product performance or even reputation. They connect with consumers by standing for something over and above what they do. They are distinctive, memorable and, most importantly, they represent a promise to the consumer and seem to tap into what consumers want from the brand in terms of their needs - even unspoken needs. In today’s world the strongest brands are now consumer driven. That’s not to say that consumers do it all for you, but in working with them you will build brands on more than product attributes.

Some pharmaceutical brands are there already of course and its easy to spot who is taking a brand approach and consequently taking the advantage. But how many pharmaceutical products have yet to establish a promise that is more than just a functional delivery and therefore able to map their real potential for future growth?

Once defined in this way, a brand can provide the tools and direction for a company to build on, through all its channels. It will provide the focus for future development and communications that are based on what consumers need rather than what companies can produce.

A simple brand health check can be employed:
-    Understand your consumer
-    Exploit your difference
-    Define what your brand can stand for
-    Deliver on more than just product attributes
-    Map the future with a marriage of consumer and business viewpoints

A brand must be cohesive and understood right through the organisation. But once you are delivering on brand values rather than product attributes, your brands will undoubtedly be a greater asset. And an asset that will undoubtedly better meet the future challenges of a changing world.

Laura Haynes, Chairman at Appetite, a leading brand, communications and design agency.
 

Everything you need to know about viral games vs viral films

Although it was great to see UK agencies doing so well at this year’s Cannes Cyber Lions awards in the viral categories, most of these accolades were for viral videos. So what, you might ask….The results, judged by ‘traditional’ agency folk, are in line with thinking amongst many clients where there is a perception that ‘sexier’ viral video is more effective.

But take a closer look at what the two deliver for your hard-won marketing buck and you get a different story….All the statistics show that in terms of traffic, dwell time and click-throughs, viral games outperform film every time. Although a massive amount of viral films are produced, only a rare few generate big hits.  People love playing games and they love the fact that they get to play viral games for free. A great viral game creates an opportunity for interaction, brand engagement, education and data capture that can’t be matched by a viral video. 

Once a user has finished watching a film on YouTube they’re presented with recommendations for other films, disengaging them with the brand and taking them off in another direction. In contrast, the best viral games create an opportunity for protracted engagement with the same user playing for hours over a period of months, even years - for example our Draw It game for the Post It brand has notched up 100,000 hours of brand interaction, and the Free Kick Fusion game we created for the Gillette brand is still getting 3 million plays per month, three years after launch.

The interface on a viral game also creates a unique opportunity to get the user to click through to find out more about a product or service, allowing you to track interactions with the game and gather permission-based data for use in future campaigns – our Jelly Jumper game for Logitech saw half a million players click-through to find out more information on the product and enter their details into the competition. And you can update the game with new products and offers over time.  Seeding is crucial to the success of any viral and games are easier to seed than  films. Firstly, there are simply less games out there compared to the glut of film, making it easier for the webmasters to select a game. And secondly with the community controlling content on video sites, a film has to be extremely unique to be selected. 

Viral games also provide a unique opportunity to connect with a global audience. Content can be tailored by region, demographics with language, information and offers edited to match the target audience. And with campaign integration increasingly key for marketers, viral games can be can integrated into social media campaigns, by for example hooking into Facebook to create global rankings, creating data that the client can then add to their database. With budgets still tightly constrained, for as little as £20k a good viral game will deliver a return on your investment that viral video simply can’t promise.  

Author: Oli Christie, creative director, InboxDMG www.inbox.co.uk, twitter.com/inboxdigital  

Mates for life? A strategy to reach Millenials in Social Networks

In 2006 Harris Interactive carried out some research looking at how technology affects friendship amongst Youth aged 8-18. 1  The Harris Friendship Study found that 36% of teenagers have a friend that they have never met. I’m sure this figure will be much higher now.

These friendships will have been formed in various community chat rooms or social networking sites such as Bebo and Myspace. There are even companies that offer to create your own social network enabling more and more defined places to interact. Youth join for two reasons: to PR themselves and to broaden their horizons.

The other interesting revelation from the study is that many feel they can show more of their truer selves online. For some it is possible to create closer friendships when writing than when talking which, in turn, reveals more about yourself and your attitudes and opinions. In this mode, friendships can take on huge significance as this type of communication enables liberating discussion.

Where do brands go wrong?

The problem with brands that appear on social networks is that they act like what they are - corporate companies – pushing their content out, selling their brand image, previewing their new ranges, pushing new products or even inviting ‘fans’ to do market research.

It is insulting to act this way in this space. This is a space that is felt to be owned and valued by so many young people who spend time cultivating relationships through it, investing time in how they can attract friends and displaying so much of their personality in doing so.

So many brands miss the mark, creating one way, bland relationships that don’t respect the emotional commitment between friends that exists in this space. Amazingly successful brands like Timberland and Zara simply create a fan base of millions and do nothing to engage them.  What a wasted medium, what a wasted opportunity to create true alliances with these fans.  

They are not really taking advantage of the relationship they have – which is in fact what social networks are all about – these consumers have created friendships with brands, searched them out and made the effort to say ‘I am interested in you’. In return they are sold to at best, ignored at worst.

The opportunity

This means it is more acceptable to young people than any time previously in history to be friends with a company. Unlike Generation X, young people enjoy marketing because they have grown up with it and understand it. They critique it, feed it back to us in focus groups and mash it up on line!

Using a hypothetical brand I will demonstrate how using a friendship approach to marketing can create positive word of mouth and create deeper brand relationships.

My brand is currently present on FaceBook, MySpace and Bebo. I talk in the first person. I use a style of conversation that is intuitively ‘of the people’ and down to earth. I use slang and text speak. I keep my status updated with how I’m feeling, what I’m doing and what I’ve watched and listened to.

I converse with friends publicly, I foster relationships through responding to those that are interested in me – I share photos, I create events and celebrate good news. I discuss my music likes – recent bands I’ve seen and recommend – posting links.

I am seen as supportive and able to understand my friends. I do this by forwarding links to areas they talk about – depending on the issues or problems they face, or the interests they have. I am sometimes provocative, raising a debate that I’m interested in.

However I am not too serious as to be boring. Often I talk about trivial issues and bring a cheery and irreverent style to my friends – surprising them with what I’m doing, how I’m feeling, what’s amusing me, what I like.

Over time I get a reputation for being interesting, or challenging, or daring, or harmonious, or exciting, or liberated, or practical – whatever personality the brand feels is appropriate.

And then, when the friendship has been nurtured, I am able to introduce some of the classic push techniques that are currently employed – content, new launches, openings etc.

However the nature of the two-way relationship should not cease. I also ask for feedback - I am interested in how my wares are perceived, any problems experienced, new designs that are felt to be cool or missed the mark.

The only company to have approached this strategy is comparethemaarket.com, or ‘comparethemeerkat.com’ to be precise.

Aleksandr Orlov currently has 500,000 fans on Facebook. There is an incredible amount of interaction between himself and these people. He has posted his own family album and keeps us updated with his ridiculous activities.

He is clearly loved by his fans. And the fact that he is very closely connected with an insurance aggregator does not in any way appear to dissuade his friends from interacting with him. The brand is clearly communicated in content that appears alongside his profile and his fans are able to buy into his wit and quirkiness, spreading his appeal as they do so to a wider audience.

Of course the nature of cute devices like this always tend to pull in youth audiences – the Levi’s and Tetley puppets were similarly successful in creating awareness. However by their very nature they are transient and are quickly forgotten.  Aleksandr has extended this novelty appreciation and is creating secondary appeal and cult following through social media in a truly through-the-line campaign.

This campaign has shown how companies can engage social communities by being less push or pull, and more friend.

Summary

Today’s youth like to be seen and heard, to receive information and content on their own terms and like to be made to feel interesting and unique. Social networks and communities provide a meaningful route for brands to embrace these requirements when marketing to young people.

They are a great way for brands to differentiate, but currently very few brands are able to understand how to navigate these social structures.

One route brands can adopt is a ‘friendship’ strategy to reach youth in a new and exciting two-way dimension that could develop closer relationships and generate positive word of mouth.

Young people are ready to be friends with companies who are prepared to engage them in this way because what actually constitutes to being a ‘friend’ in this space is blurry. It’s potentially a risky strategy, but if researched and developed carefully the right approach can be introduced and fine-tuned with small communities before extending to a wider audience.

Does it matter if 24% of tweets are created by bots?

This is just one of the interesting statistics held in the recent report, Inside Twitter by Sysomos, which goes into some serious detail about this most loved and hated darling of the social media set.  There are more women twitters than men, 50% of twitterers have less than 6 followers, and Tuesday is the most active day for tweets are just a few of the facts in the report.

Regardless of this, there is a genuine question about how all of this activity is converting into revenue, and how long will it be before Twitter is replaced with the new microblogging kid on the block.  For me, both these questions are largely irrelevant as the important change is not Twitter itself, but the realisation of the value in listening and sharing small things. 

For me, I only began to understand the relevance of Twitter once I realised that it is not about what you say (or tweet), but about who you are following.  Once you begin to find tweets that interest you and stimulate your thinking, then very quickly you begin to extend your range of people you follow, and all of a sudden, it is an indispensable input to your day.  The ability to surround yourself with other people's thinking massively accelerates your ability to sort relecant from irrelevant content - it gives you focus!

So, whether Twitter continues its meteoric growth, or whether it begins to plateau and fall from grace in the style of Myspace, the essence of Twitter will live on for a very long time. 

Follow me on www.twitter.com/rosstmw