Search results matching tag 'Offline/Online'

"Insuring" Brands Battle It Out On TV

980070 — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:04:00 GMT

Watching television over the last few weeks I’ve seen a number of ads with clever tactics to drive users to their sites.

Direct Line is telling people to remember that you won’t find them on price comparison sites and that their best prices are found on their site.

I can’t actually remember who the other two are which doesn’t bode well does it?

One refers to itself as a search engine which is a marginal description if you ask me. The other has about fifteen different actors repeating the name of the URL so it gets infused into everyone’s subconscious but mine.

Fascinating how they’re trying to influence the viewer into trying their “route to policy” rather than anyone else’s and thoroughly pleasing that they “get” the relationship between TV ad viewing habits and online behaviour.

I just wish more industries and brands would step up to the plate!

(Apologies about the baseball analogy - I've obviously spent FAR too much time in the US recently!)

Good Online/Offline Customer Service Pays

980070 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:41:35 GMT

I couldn't sleep over the weekend so got up and ordered a USB headset with a noise-cancelling microphone at 3am.....as you do! I need the headset as I'm starting to do a lot more multimedia for the adCenterCommunity.com site - webinars, podcasts, video etc....

.....I asked the company, based up north, to send the headset "next day delivery". Being a small business they were not around at the weekend so processed the order yesterday - a bit tardy me being used to Amazon and the like working all hours.

Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call saying the item had been dispatched and I should get it today. If I had any problems I was to call them straight back.

It was a great example of old world customer service in a new world digital age. They may not have as a sophisticated fulfilment system as some of the bigger players but they made up for it with a human touch.

Just goes to show that small businesses can compete in this online age - they just need to behave a little differently....

BBC Launches New Look News & Sport Sites

980070 — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:10:01 GMT

The BBC's press release here says both news and sport will go live, fully revamped this week.

Seems like they've just switched on the new news site which looks great!

"The new look will include higher profile promotion of the new embedded video service, extra emphasis around breaking news and live events, wider page designs and more ambitious use of pictures."

Blogging In Perfect Harmony?

980070 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:36:05 GMT

Should blogging be taken seriously as a form of news communication? Is it not just a fad that has no legs? How can we be sure of the accuracy of the stories? Are they not cobbled together with little thought or research? Blog now and ask questions later?

Well Danny Sullivan thankfully thinks there's room for both well written blogs and the mainstream media to coexist very happily.

Danny is probably the world's leading authority on Search & Social Media.

Having sold Search Engine Watch and the Search Engine Strategies suite of conferences to Incisive Media a few years ago, he's now head of Search Engine Land, the SMX conferences and Sphinn.com, a hub for online advertisers and webmasters to meet and share tips and stories.

On his personal blog - Daggle.com - he's ignited a debate about how Blogs & Mainstream Media Can & Do Get Along in response to some US kerfuffle about some blogs starting to raise significant amounts of cash in venture capital.

It's fascinating hearing Danny talk about how he left his roots as a journalist behind, discovering the immediacy of the web and what he saw as a publishing revolution.

He agrees that perhaps bloggers don't quite go into the depth of research that mainstream or "traditional" print publications go into, but that they do provide decent enough commentary and analysis to make their thoughts worthwhile. That, coupled with the agility that writers for the web possess in being able to "go live" quickly, does make a good case for their existence and, perhaps, adds some pressure to be accurate and responsible.

Personally, I know a number of traditional journalists who are embracing the web and understand its place.

They're being trained to write articles with SEO (search engine optimisation) in mind, as their print stories will be published online too.

You can't fight the medium as it's now part of our media DNA, but I agree with Danny that there's no need for fisticuffs. The two can coexist and learn disciplines from each other.

The last place I'm going to be on a Sunday morning is in front of my laptop.

Sausages, beans, toast and coffee with a big dose of Andrew Marr and the Sunday papers will do me just fine!

It doesn't have to be all about the internet!

Royal Mail & Direct Mail - Thinking Digital

980070 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:21:45 GMT

I have a love/hate relationship with The Royal Mail I love the way the post people send me is delivered through my letterbox, but I hate all the other rubbish they stick in with it, and I can't figure out how to opt out.

When poking around on their website I found a page called Why Use Mail Shots?

They claim:

"Mail is a boom advertising medium. And it generally boils down to one key point. It works. Mail works because it's personal, it's responsive, it's measurable and it's cost effective."

Erm......no it isn't....it's a pain, it's a waste of paper, and it soaks up large wads of my council tax recycling it.

They go on:

"Mail has the power to change the way people think and feel about you because you can make it so personally relevant.

Mail is engaging. Consumers spend on average 10 minutes reading mailshots. Compare the cost of that length of exposure against other media such as TV. (eh???)

Mail is a tangible form of advertising. It gives you a physical presence in your customers’ home or office, and can literally put your product in their hands.

Mail can be targeted to reach very specific audiences - almost every individual, household and business in the UK can be reached by mail.

Mail can support and deepen relationships with your customers, building awareness as part of integrated campaigns, or involving customers with your business as part of ongoing, two-way communications. It can provide one of the few opportunities for people who actually use your product or service to tell you how they use it, why, and what else they would like from you.

Doordrops (unaddressed mail) offer you the chance to talk to people you don't know. You can profile and target lists of likely customers - either in broad geographic or lifestyle bands, or through the use of highly specific street-by-street or even door-by-door data."

Swop the word "mail" with "digital" and you have a much more compelling marketing channel.

BTW - It's 10.16am and the postie still hasn't been :(

Making All the Right Moves

980070 — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:33:14 GMT

I'm having a running dispute with my postman. He keeps shoving direct mail in my letterbox along with my mail. When I've asked him to stop he claims he can't and there's no way to stop it, so I post it back in the box at the end of my road :-)

It's the usual untargeted rubbish - loans, double-glazing and stairlifts but yesterday I got a surprise....

Rightmove.co.uk have an A4 flyer doing the rounds and what caught my eye was the intelligent way they're driving people to their site.

It's targeted to Londoners
It has an article on how to maximise the value of your home
Talks about their Search Tools - a new mobile site and functionality to search by proximity to a tube or train station plus a criteria-based agent search filter
There's a competition for a £25k kitchen
A X-promotion with Big Yellow Self Storage
A Landlord's checklist
A Seller's guide

All neatly laid out with pretty pictures over 8 pages, the leaflet may not be of use to me now as I'm not looking to sell, but I'll remember the brand and shove it in a drawer for when I am looking.

I'm forever spotting where companies miss opportunities for offline to online traffic generation, and this is a great example how to do it well and in a non-intrusive way.

Sony Makes Chas 'n Dave Proud - Rabbit Rabbit!

980070 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 08:50:49 GMT

Sony's proving they've "got more rabbit than Sainsbury's" with the next installment of their new Bravia Ad due out on the 5th October.

I've been talking about Sony and the ads for 18 months now with reference to their target demographics.

Currently the adLab Demographics Predictor has "sony" at 62% male and the slight edge going to 25-34 year olds.

The keyword "sony bravia" however, leaps to 69% male orientation with nearly 70% going to 35+ age range.

Makes sense seeing a 32" TV would set you back £750 these days.

I predict a swing once the ad goes live for the term "sony" up to the 35+ age range though...

Hope I'm not sounding too much like Peter Snow!!!

Online Research Tools Reaching Offline Small Business

980070 — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:02:02 GMT

Saw a great article in The Sunday Times yesterday encouraging the use of online data to drive research efforts when setting up a small business...

I had said last week that I was surprised that the Facebook/BNP row had got so much airtime in the mainstream press, especially the BBC, but this piece - Don’t start up without research – took me by surprise as well.

A great advocate for using tools like Google Trends, Microsoft’s demographic adLab tool and Overture’s (Yahoo Search Marketing!) keyword inventory widget, the article backs up what a lot of us have been trying to hammer home for a long while.

Online consumer activity, and especially search patterns, can give great insight into how offline businesses might fair or in which direction they should be pointing.

They can also demonstrate how offline advertising campaigns are doing or show gaps between the campaign’s aims and objectives and stark reality - as anyone who’s seen the famous “Bleach Case Study” are only too well aware...

Great to see this kind of advocacy of digital marketing in the Sunday papers...

Free Paper Distributors.....Need a Widget Please

980070 — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:06:23 GMT

Every day my offline world is being physically attacked by a dreadful adware program...

In the 300 yards from our offices at Cardinal Place to Victoria Station I regularly have my personal space invaded by up to 12 viruses that pop up and block my path. They prevent me from navigating where I want to go and thrust their un-targeted, us-solicited messages in the form of paper, images and colourful ink at me, registering a disdainful frown when I respectfully decline.

Does anyone know of some add-in, tool-bar or widget that I can install to block such unwelcome advances?

In recent years the digital industry has gone a long way to make online advertising less intrusive, more targeted and better aligned to users interests and behaviour so how long before these newspapers catch up?