Search results matching tag 'andrew roberts'

Don't hate the player, hate the game.....

812253 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:06:00 GMT

I have waited for months now to write a post with that title and when I saw a campaign that Nissan ran recently I found the perfect excuse. In short to promote their new car, the Cube in their words "they avoided the usual mainstream quadrangle of TV, radio, print and billboard to trumpet their car launch" and instead used a social media led campaign targeting the creative classes to spread the word.

According to Jeff Parent, Nissan Canada's vice-president of sales and marketing "The creative class is what's motivating everything these days they are the ones that other people coalesce around. Creative people make their art to infect others. For us, it was a natural fit."In short five hundred finalists were assigned a blank webpage on Nissan's hypercube.ca website and invited to creatively "audition" for their chance to win a free vehicle - one of the winners award winning Canadian artist Greg Sczebel ended up generating more than 4,000 votes and 21,000 profile views.

So what is the point in the title ? - well the point here is not the campaign - it is not particularly innovative or different - but rather that a huge company chose the launch a new car in this manner and spent (according to them) a third of the amount they would normally would for a car launch of this type as PHD's Rob Young says "The thinking here is that you could spend $5 to reach 1,000 people in a TV commercial at a relatively low level of involvement, or spend $5 reaching 10 people at a high level of involvement. The high level of involvement – if you get the right consumers – is a better payback." My issue is that that this is not a UK based campaign (it is from Canada) and it is by no means normal and the reason is not because of agencies not presenting these ideas (I am convinced that any agency worth its fee will be pushing social media activation wherever relevant) but rather that Clients at best do not understand the opportunties afforded by this approach or at worst are not willing to embrace the myriad of opportunties that are available in the new media landscape and "think outside the cube"

So the conclusion has to be fairly aimed at Clients to raise their game - and the although the risks are high so are the rewards, as Ice T says in the aforementioned song "If you out for mega cheddar, you got to go high risk" but I am sure the rewards will be worthwhile.

How much do your friends mean to you...and to others ?

812253 — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:02:00 GMT

The latest edition of Business Week carries a fascinating article about the value of friendships not only to us but also to companies how by analysing the closeness of friendships and associated behaviour a great deal of useful information can be gleaned about that person and the opportunty they represent.

One part that particularly struck a chord was from a study that is being carried out by Cameron A. Marlow, a research scientist at Facebook, who has studied social media communications including wall posts, shared photos, pokes, and friend requests among 200 million people to determine how close we are to our friends online. According to the article "They looked at how often people clicked on their friends' news or photos, how often they communicated, and if the communications traveled in both directions. Studying this data, they determined that an average Facebook user with 500 friends actively follows the news on only 40 of them, communicates with 20, and keeps in close touch with about 10. Those with smaller networks follow even fewer". The conclusion to this is obviously that in order to make sense of the opportunity to drive WOM then the focus should be on the closest friends ignoring the wider group - as they say "By focusing campaigns on people who interact with each other, they'll likely get better results".

I think the opportunity does differ by product as I know I have a small group of close friends with which I will discuss certain brands and products in detail I also have a slightly larger group of friends who are experts in certain areas - wines, holiday destinations, bikes, technology etc. BUT I also have a much wider group of acquaintances with whom I will discuss either very specific issues with eg a new laptop or music system (as they are perceived to be experts in these areas) and this is is where it becomes an awful lot more complicated.

I guess as a brand or company trying to tap into this the key is coming back to the traditional method of understanding your consumer and their decision making journey and where and what degree of influence the friendship group carries on this journey.

Ever wondered how often you "get busy" with others ....or yourself ?

812253 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:39:00 GMT

I blogged in the past about weird social networks but when I saw this site things really can't get any weirder !

As Springwise describes it "Bedpost is an entirely personal application, password-protected from the prying eyes of others, and stresses that it offers absolutely no social networking features. Rather, it is a way for consumers to keep track of the sexual encounters they've had by logging in and entering some key details after each one. Users begin by creating a profile for the partner involved in their most recent encounter and then clicking on the calendar to indicate when the encounter happened. Then, they enter not just the time it happened, but also how long the encounter lasted, some descriptive tags and a star-based rating of the experience. The site then records all that information and presents it in a map of activity for the month on the user's dashboard. For a historical view, Bedpost tracks summary statistics including frequency, average rating, and totals for the month and year so far.

Hilariously "Solo sex" tracking is also available ! Sensibly (and I guess pretty integral) they have been very specific about privacy and data and instead of hiding the privacy policy in a link at the bottom of the page they have made it very clear on the home page. There is a point that all the data is kept by third party companies so they cannot absolutely guarantee that your closest darkest secrets don't end up in a skip or worst still in the inbox of your closest friends !

And your chosen subject is ...."The Bleeding Obvious"

812253 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:43:00 GMT

Basil Fawlty famous remark "Next contestant, Mrs. Sybil Fawlty from Torquay. Specialist subject - the bleeding obvious" sprang to mind when I read ft.com's recently published article entitled "Social networks threaten advertising growth" following the The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, “Social Media Futures” report warning that advertising agencies face growth of just 1.2 per cent a year by 2016 if the industry fails to tackle the changes to the media created by sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

What was more interesting was that Moray MacLennan, IPA president and chief executive of M&C Saatchi Worldwide cites in the report that “The current downturn will accelerate these trends in agencies as everyone is looking to innovate and stand out from the crowd” - showing that one of Peter Kim's predictions of 2009 - as per the entry on 23rd December 2008 is already coming true !

Of course the bigger point is that all agencies that claim to provide marketing services to Clients should be considering social media as a matter of course and not just as a media, as this report suggests, but rather as a method of communicating with their target audience and that can only be done effectively by (paraphrasing Kevin Roberts in Lovemarks ) - telling a great story - and in turn contradicting him ;-) - that does not always have to be via a "great 30 second commercial"

We look forward to the year ahead !

Social media predictions for 2009

812253 — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:55:00 GMT

As a regular reader of Peter Kim's blog "being Peter Kim" I came across his paper entitled SOCIAL MEDIA PREDICTIONS 2009 which is a collaborative selection of various points of view on the industry and its potential for 2009. For me 4 immediately stand out namely:
- Recession will mean the huge potential to achieve a lot with dwindling budgets will mean that social media will be expedited - as per the entry by Ann Handley " - or rather as she puts it "low cost social media (will) look like the pretty girl at the ball"
- Metrics are to become essential to prove the affect and stave off the critics as per article by Joseph Jaffe "We're going to develop a set of better metrics to help guide, direct and validate 'commitment'."
- Leadership - as Rohit Bhargava says "you may not always start the year as a leader, but you can certainly finish it that way" so we are all now pioneers and adventurers !
- Finally I also found Todd Defren's article to be interesting - as he points out "the tipping point has not only been reached but could still tilt away from social media" - this is an area that we strongly believe in - namely that social media needs to be integrated into all the campaigns that we conceptualise and create if it is to be accepted and taken as seriously as it should be - after all if we really just trust each other as this chart from Forrester shows then the future surely has to be (as Josh Bernoff touched on) to focus on energizing using word of mouth and supporting customers to help each other –rather than what most brands do - namely just talking and telling consumers!"

I have been Satan, Beelzebub and once I was Asmodeus

812253 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:34:00 GMT

No it is not my weekend activities but rather a reference to the 7 deadly sins of social media article published by James Clark co-founder of Room 214 and featured on their website called capture the conversation

It is worth a read and I am sure that very few involved in the area of social media can read it without a shiver of recognition and regret and a "note to self" to ensure that they reform before the note (or post) comes from someone else !

It would have been good to see a few moore examples of where companies or indivuduals have strayed, in order to make the sins come alive, but maybe he does not want to incur the wrath of those people or show his own greed .

Have a read and decide if you are "Saint or Sinner"

Who would you slydial ?

812253 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:53:00 GMT

I was recently introduced to a new service that initially I found fascintating but on reflection (and at the risk of sounding like Jeremy Clarkson) it makes me despair for humanity.

The service is called Slydial, a new technology that allows you to leave voicemail messages for people without them knowing that you've called.On the site they give a few different situations where they thought that the service would be useful including the practical "When you are short of time", the spineless "when you want to avoid an awkward conversation" and the crafty "when you want to avoid someone" - they also proffer some scenarios such as when you want to play the field more effectively and leave all your conquests a VM rather than an impersonal text message !

Slydial looks like a great new technology that is mostly designed to bring out your inner coward and take over another sacred part of your space - so I am sure it is only a matter of time before we start getting messages from brands on our voicemails - maybe Nike asking me how my last run went or Innocent reminding me to stock up next time I am at the supermarket.

Anyone have any ideas how brands could use this to their (and their consumer's) benefit ?

"POMBOMB" or "POMGREAT" ?

812253 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:21:00 GMT

I was intrigued when sent a link to this site where i was introduced to the latest high tech "iPhone killer" - nameed the Pomegranate (Blackberry?) Phone - the clever and slick animations are fantastic - the phone claims to shave your legs, brew coffee, project video in full HD, translate and even turn into a harmonica - the interesting reaction I had was that whilst I knew it was a fake viral I wanted to see more about what the phone did and have a guess as to what the pay off for the "the ultimate all in one device" - we even had a vote in the office - was it a soft drink ? a business service ? a website ? a new "Rampant Rabbit" ?

It turns out it is a site to market the wonders of Nova Scotia featuring video vignettes telling stories about residents and why it is a great place to live / visit etc. Apparently this cost the Canadian tax payer over $300k and there is lots of debate and costernation from Canada's bloggersd about whether this will pay back - although judging by the number of peopl talking on Twitter and Alexa shows the site to be growing in visits daily (it is currently ranked 68,000th from 290,000th) so in my book this is $300k well spent and a creative way of getting interest and attention to something that I would other wise ignore - especially as visits are coming from countries as far afield as Germany, Italy and India plus the US and we all know they don't travel anywhere let alone Canada !

Have a look and let me know what you think ?

Never ending friending with John McCain, Sarah Palin and Stephen Fry

812253 — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:07:00 GMT

I have recently made friends with John McCain, Sarah Palin and Stephen Fry - none of this reflects my political persuasion or sexual orientation but rather shows how pervasive, democratic ('scuse the pun) and voyeuristic social networking has made society - it is fascinating seeing that 30 people have recommended John and only 1 (that is one)- who incidentally is John McCain, has recommended the lipstick'd pitbull AND I know that Stephen (first name terms now we are "friends") is currently filming in Africa and loves F1 and Lewis Hamilton. This anecdotally backed up some research I read last week from TNS, TRU & Marketing Evolution called "Never ending friending" which shows how social networking has caused a quantum change in how we interact – with each other, with bands and brands, and with the entire media landscape. Perhaps most importantly it also details a
set of best practices that will govern behaviour in this new world - this should help me understand how I interact with my new found friends - I am just waiting for Obama, Hilary and the original "6 degrees guy" Kevin Bacon to accept my "friendship" - Who would you connect with if you had the chance ?

Viral Care Bears, Smurfs and Barney "Jacko" the Dinosaur

812253 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:03:00 GMT

Generally virals have become a bit old hat and have largely been overtaken by more technically complex and interesting solutions but every now and then you come across one that works brilliantly to not only engage the viewer and hold their attention throughout but also to get the point, send it on to everyone they know would love it too and be intrgued as to why it was done and who did it - and this did all those things for me - I LMAO (especially at the Barbie part and the credits "all of the toys featured in this film were played with" ) and sent to all my other thirty something friends and colleagues and I am hugely intrigued as to who did it, why it was done, what and when the follow up might be?