New Drench Ad
Thanks to @lilly_rabbit @VCCP for tweeting this.
After the first ad featuring Brains from Thunderbirds and the iconic track ‘Rythm is a Dancer’ the team running the Drench account at CHI knew they were onto something.
So, the recipe is simple… striking visuals and heavy hitting, well known soundtrack – Cue a a rodeo rider mounted to an enourmous pheasant, charging around a bull ring to the sounds of Black Box…
Watch this and you’ll see what I mean:
Vodafone Rolls Out Mobile Advertising to 18 Markets in 18 Months
It would seem that operators are starting to get it. Partially.
I have been reading with increasing frequency that decent ad opportunities are being made available by the people that have traditionally viewed their role as the ‘owner’ of the consumer – the networks.
Until recently, this dated (and often incorrect opinion) has led to minimal contact from advertisers directly to consumers via the networks because of the unappealing communication opportunities offered as so called ‘products’.
This is all about to change.
Vodafone have just announced:
Zonal marketing trial – This will allow opted-in customers to receive promotional messages from brands relevant to their profile and their realtime location. As they enter a pre-defined area they will receive an MMS or SMS message from Vodafone containing the promotion.
Incoming voice/text alerts advertising trial – Full screen advertisements from a range of advertising partners will be shown to opted-in customers during the moments before they answer a call or view a message. Customers who choose to join the database, and who go on to view adverts will be rewarded with points that they can redeem against goods or services.
Branded applications and widgets trial – Assessing customer acceptance of and interaction with, as well as brand marketing effects of, branded mobile apps.
Location based advertising trial – Vodafone plans to trial customer acceptance of and engagement with branded Points of Interest, (locations of – for example – stores, restaurants and petrol stations) and branded locational search.
Trial of an enhanced mobile internet browser – Vodafone is looking at how to simplify and enhance the mobile internet browsing experience for opt-in customers as well as investigating opportunities for mobile publishers and advertisers.
Vodafone myCampaign – An online self-service platform for mobile advertisers. Currently in development in Germany and Czech Republic, with further markets planned, this tool will allow small businesses to set up and run cost-effective, and local mobile advertising campaigns. The service is designed to be simple, quick and easy to use – combining creative, reporting and online prepayment via credit card.
Sounds like they have been very busy indeed – Now they need to scale their media operation so they can represent themselves to brands and agencies as a knowledgeable media owner, capable of understanding and executing based on capaign objectives rather than a network operator with enourmous reach and the ability to frequently contact/SPAM users.
The strength of Vodafone’s media business lies in the data they will collect from each campaign – It will not only help to make communication more relevant for users but also to increase effectiveness of spend across the Voda portfolio but as well as any other mobile activity the brand/agency is involved with. Let’s for arugments sake call this research.
Therein lies the real value of what they are doing.
Making cash from a bird: Twitter Revenue Model Long Overdue
The ‘Long Overdue’ part of the headline to this post actually relates to my MASSIVE lack of activity on the blog recently – I have been meaning to write my thoughts on Twitter’s opportunity to generate revenue for absolutely AGES!
I think their considered (or delayed…) approach to making cash is at worst, interesting and at best, incredibly wise.
They have their funding, they are mapping their run rate VERY carefully and they have a whole load of options.
My interest around the whole ‘Twitter making money’ saga doesn’t centre around the company itself but more around the countless journo’s, bloggers and so-called ‘industry experts’ who have been speculating, in my opinion wrongly, about how this rising star of new media will make its billions.
So many who should know better have gone away and written poxy attempts at modelling revenue based on a display ad model – Whether they talk about indescriminate banners, buttons and MPU’s or ‘contextually relevant’ PPC ads placed in and around tweets.
The models around paid subscriptions are even worse – This is all SO WRONG.
Twitter needs to play to its strengths – Users like the service because it is free and doesn’t carry any ‘clutter’… no ads confounding you into accidentally clicking or encroaching on your privacy by seemingly ‘reading’ your tweets and marketing accordingly.
Twitter does not offer a new platform which creatives can use to pioneer exciting brand campaigns, actually quite the opposite – Twitter uses a simple user interface to enable and encourage short (and often opinionated) comments, conversations and information exchanges.
Ultimately, the service carries massive amounts of real-time data, which if put into context, can be invaluable in providing research in the form of customer feedback, user reviews, word of mouth spreading (+ve/-ve) and much more.
The real value Twitter has to offer brands and agencies and therefore where it would make most money in the shortest possible time is strongly centered around providing timely insight on any given subject – I am well aware that there are 3rd party tracking services which you can set to monitor certain key words and similar but what I am talking about is a Twitter-built dashboard enabling the simple monitoring of words and trends with the ability to drill into more complex detail at the click of a button.
Think about mapping +ve/-ve user commentary against their twitter ranking (those with more followers being more powerful), assessing the value of a tweet to a user (the more frequently a user tweets, the more diluted each tweet becomes) and perhaps most importantly, being able to apportion location to a conversation – It’s great that people are talking about your product positively, but if they are all in NYC and you’re launching in London then perhaps you should reasses your strategy… see where I’m going with all this?
Once you have isolated the users you want to target based on their tweets/followers/locations, there is then a value in using display/direct marketing opportunities to communicate with them – But ONLY once you have assessed the data first.
There are clear signs that research and insight tools are becoming more crucial to the way agencies and their clients conduct their campaigns and that means more money for companies providing these services – Sir Martin Sorrrell’s recent $25M investment into Omniture stands as testament to this trend.
So, let’s stop all this silly talk about banners, buttons, text links and alike – The display model was nowhere near perfect to start with, why impose a legacy concept onto an emerging platform when you could totally revoloutionise the way brands view the value of a conversation.
Rory Sutherland talks very highly of an innovative service called Fizzback, I say Twitter is already carrying the information marketers so desperately seek, they are merely lacking the tools to collate and interpret.
Twitter, go forth and innovate.
Onwards and upwards.
Durex making a squeak
Big shout to Katie J (@KT_Johnson) from VCCP for tweeting this.
Durex have released a new vid that’s going viral – 28,000 views and 220 favourites is not a bad effort.
Rucku – Virtual clubhouse for rugby fans
Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love rugby. More to the point, I love watching my brother play rugby even more than playing myself – His standard is a little higher than mine, having been part of teams that toured Canada, South Africa and won the National Championships… twice.
Couldn’t resist an action shot.
Anyway, I was delighted to find that Will Carling is on twitter (follow him here) and he’s launched a new rugby website with loads of great new stuff like RuckTube… you got it, kinda like YouTube for Rugby.
As the old skool content portal model collapses (just check out Yahoo’s share price) and the creation of niche professional web content increases, advertisers have to figure out how they are going to make the promotional opportunity of the longtail wag the way they want it to.
Rucku.com has brilliant content and is crying out for relevant advertisers to make full benefit of the audience that will undoubtedly form around and within this great platform for rugby fans – Skins, Under Armour, Gilbert, Nike, Reebok, Shock Doctor et al, Mr. Carling and the folks at Rucku.com have done their bit, the onus is now on you.
Anyway, Will Carling is a legend, Rucku.com is cool – If you like rugby, check it out.
‘Buzz’ factor? What a load of ‘Muff’
I got up at 3:30am to catch the Eurostar to Paris – You do these kind of things when you start a new job. Its all about enthusiasm J.
I shouldn’t moan about my travel arrangements, if you want to see a ridiculously hectic schedule just join Dopplr and have a look at Jonathan MacDonald’s itinerary!
Anyway, I got up bloody early and worked for most of the journey on presentations, managed to finish with 15 mins to go and rewarded myself with a read of the latest MediaWeek. An article entitled Brand Barometer is published frequently and works as follows:
- A different piece of media activity is chosen to analyze – This time it was BT’s consumer campaign featuring Kris Marshall and Esther Hall.
- YouGov provide statistical data collected by surveying members of the public.
- Metrics tracked and reported on are ‘Quality’, ‘Recommend’, ‘Index’ and ‘Buzz’.
- A conclusion is drawn as to whether or not the campaign was successful based on the above factors.
Here is the graph published by MediaWeek:
OK, now here’s the rub – In the past I have always turned the page and chuckled inwardly about what a ridiculous set of data to collect, let alone to take seriously enough to comment on and publish… but this time was different. Due to my early wake-up and therefore distinct lack of sleep from the night before, I felt compelled to publicly and explicitly state that what they are doing is FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG.
Instead of tracking ‘Recommend’ or ‘Buzz’ or ‘Muff’ or any other ridiculous metric you care to dream up, it is actually just about four things (hint: none of them are listed above):
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Interaction
- Sales
I am hardly surprised that brands and agencies have not reached the same conclusions. Let’s stick with BT as the example, a brand that is meant be positioned to embrace technology, understand consumer trends and insight etc, etc.
So, in the past 12 months BT have spent £77,494,991 (I’ve done my homework) on traditional broadcast media – AKA: Paying to push a message to an entire audience regardless of whether they want to hear it or not, and then when it gets there your current/potential consumer base do not even have the most basic ability to communicate back and begin a dialogue.
Let’s put this into context with a simple analogy – Your current/potential consumer (note how I refer to them as an individual… something the brand in question has not done) is walking along the street on his way to work, minding his own business thinking about something a world away from what you would like to sell them.
As they round a corner they are confronted by someone screaming a product offer from the rooftops, obviously hoping that someone will pay them attention This loudmouth is paid £30 for every thousand people that walk within earshot (not that it can be tracked) – Just in case you think I’ve gone mental, this person is a billboard.
You won’t be surprised to learn that your consumer continues walking and pays no attention to the words being shouted, in fact the noise blends into the background hub-bub made by the rush hour traffic.
Needless to say that this person will not buy your product, in fact the majority of the public simply filters out your irrelevant and quite frankly, offensive communication.
MISSION FAILED.
Now, let me give you another analogy.
The same consumer is walking on the same journey to work, he sees someone stood there with a BT logo on his T-Shirt and a placard handing round his neck which reads
‘I can get you the cheapest TV, phone and broadband package, I’ll be here every morning between 8am and 10am and would be happy to talk about the various different packages that might suit you – In fact, I’ll even put you in touch with lots of my current consumers who are happy and you can ask the about the benefits and drawbacks yourself’.
The consumer cant stop at that moment because he has something else on his mind but makes a mental note to stop and chat to the man from BT the next day.
Tomorrow comes and he starts talking to the BT man, he is impressed that the man listens to what he wants and makes tailored recommendations based on his needs. The consumer is almost ready to buy but wants some reassurance, so true to his word the BT man arranges for the consumer to meet some of his current clients and discuss.
Even though a few of the current customers had some negative feedback it became clear that BT had the best product for the money, the current clients had mentioned they used to be with competitors but changed and haven’t looked back – Needless to say that the customer went ahead and bought the most suitable package for him.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
OK, a little bit like Jackanory but here are the salient points:
Advertisers:
- Stop TELLING and start ASKING. Broadcast is dead, your consumers want DIALOGUE and if you won’t facilitate a conversation where you take it in turns to talk and listen then someone else will – YOUR COMPETITORS.
- Please, please, please for the love of anything logical, DIVERSIFY YOUR SPEND, EMBRACE INNOVATION, PUSH THE CURVE.
- And when you do, make sure you are monitoring activity using sensible metrics. Everybody knows the world is going through tough times right now and I am absolutely certain that sales are more important than ‘buzz’. Don’t believe me? Just ask your shareholders.
- If you do not feel 100% comfortable with this it is not a problem, just contract in experts. I would be like a fish out of water fixing the carburettor on my car so I pay a specialist, do the same with your agency selection – If you would like a recommendation please drop me a line on cranealistair at gmail dot com. At the very least invest in some light reading and educate yourself: Every Single One Of Us: The Communication Ideal by Jonathan MacDonald and The Power Of The Network by David Cushman
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing this post but my train has just arrived back at Kings Cross – I am outrageously tired and therefore must sleep before I get the next topic in my digitally telescopic sights.
This is the second ranty post I have written in a short space of time – I promise to write something positive/inspirational next…. I even know what it’s going to be about – Anyone have any thoughts about a centralised profile resource for all of the online communities that you belong to?
Got an idea for an interesting blog post? Leave a comment and I will put the best ones as a vote and work with the winner to publish something we can be proud of J.
Onwards and upwards.
How do you make a boring subject into an interesting, interactive and engaging promotional opportunity?
Get the peeps at Ogilvy on it for a start and be as brave as their client, Nova Scotia - This could have been a massive dud but instead is genuinely brilliant.
As blogged initially by Jonathan Macdonald, this is a great piece of promotion, just make sure you definitely ‘get it’….. unlike someone who will remain nameless, sending me an email asking if they could actually buy the phone in the UK yet – NO, idiot.
Just check it out here.
