I think most consumers are wondering how these massive sums being thrown at the financial markets are going to effect their own financial positions. No one is quite sure. I have heard local agencies in Sydney stopping any recruitment; laying off staff; waiting for the storm to come or is it pass.
Local retailers are hurting and the news from the UK is one of doom and gloom with Woolworths failing and many more rumoured to be up against it. Xmas has not been great and the Boxing Day sales have started today. There is optimism that the rush to pick up a bargain is going to be massive. I hope that is the case for everyone.
How much of all of this is a knee jerk reaction? I honestly think there is a long way to go yet. We havent really seen the knock on effect really show its ugly face yet. Very soon folk are going to realise that they cant get a well-paid job and that they are going to have to sell their house!
I cant think things are going to change for us, however. We help clients sell more stuff. We help them shore up their P&L. We are lean and low-cost and can demonstrate real results. We laugh in the face of weak-willed, lily-livered brand campaigns! If things are going to get tougher and the consumers wallet is going to get harder to open, then surely clients are going to have to be smarter with how they get to deliver on their own sales objectives. Sure I think budgets will be cut and I am sure folk will lose their jobs, but wont the smart agencies be working with their clients to have a bright way of approaching the bear market?
Now is the time to be bright and confident. I will not let us change our approach just to chase down the dollar. There will be clients spending and wanting to do so with the agencies offering the best value.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Brave & bollocks
Brilliant opportunities destroyed by incapable marketers. I read it today. In The Australian. I struggled to understand what they meant.
After a while I began to ponder. What if every time they looked in the magical creative marketing crystal ball they were faced with something that would challenge the norm? They did want something different. But they also didnt want to take any risk for fear of failure.
Well listen here, loser! It aint going to happen. Bite the bullet. Get some balls. Have a go. Strategy is just a series of experiments. Remember?
What you goin to lose? Your inadequate, unfulfilling job in some lame fmcg business? Take it by the balls. Shake it really hard and then come see us for a brilliant promotional marketing career if it doesnt work out.
Boom.
After a while I began to ponder. What if every time they looked in the magical creative marketing crystal ball they were faced with something that would challenge the norm? They did want something different. But they also didnt want to take any risk for fear of failure.
Well listen here, loser! It aint going to happen. Bite the bullet. Get some balls. Have a go. Strategy is just a series of experiments. Remember?
What you goin to lose? Your inadequate, unfulfilling job in some lame fmcg business? Take it by the balls. Shake it really hard and then come see us for a brilliant promotional marketing career if it doesnt work out.
Boom.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Post Olympic Fever
We are being bombarded with briefs at the moment. Now that clients have blown their budgets on their Olympic sponsorships and seen a zero uplift in sales or consumer interest, we are once again called in to be the surgeons of change.
Don the rubber gloves. Administer the anaesthetic. No pulse governor. Clear. 1,2,3,4,5. Clear. What are we supposed to do? The clients have run out of money but will search high and low for more to help them recover from the failure of Beijing to deliver a heap of interest.
The British cleared up. Where the bloody hell were the Aussies? As London 2012 looms we can hear the echoes of Boris Johnson's speech.....Ping Pong is coming home.
I do wonder if by 2012 things will be different and that clients will embrace a new way of leveraging large scale and expensive sponsorship opportunities. Maybe it is time for something new. A paradigm shift. Rather than giving $20m to the IOC, this year we will be giving a tonne of monies to help the Sydney homeless. Buy any can of Hockey Cockey Cola and help our local community support those folk that are on the verge of losing everything. This year we have decided to ignore those lycra clad folk who are good at swimming and rushing around and are only on the verge of possibly losing a medal.
Brilliant. Copyright Bamboo!
Don the rubber gloves. Administer the anaesthetic. No pulse governor. Clear. 1,2,3,4,5. Clear. What are we supposed to do? The clients have run out of money but will search high and low for more to help them recover from the failure of Beijing to deliver a heap of interest.
The British cleared up. Where the bloody hell were the Aussies? As London 2012 looms we can hear the echoes of Boris Johnson's speech.....Ping Pong is coming home.
I do wonder if by 2012 things will be different and that clients will embrace a new way of leveraging large scale and expensive sponsorship opportunities. Maybe it is time for something new. A paradigm shift. Rather than giving $20m to the IOC, this year we will be giving a tonne of monies to help the Sydney homeless. Buy any can of Hockey Cockey Cola and help our local community support those folk that are on the verge of losing everything. This year we have decided to ignore those lycra clad folk who are good at swimming and rushing around and are only on the verge of possibly losing a medal.
Brilliant. Copyright Bamboo!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Starting the Conversation
We are spending more and more time with clients who 'want to do something on facebook'. It is a fantastic brief to have, primarily because it is an open invitation to be as creative as we can without having to suffer any of the consequences of the ideas failing. What on earth does that mean?
As we manage to simplify or categorise the depth of our relationship with consumers, so we can qualify the complexity and duration of any conversation we have with them through the Social Media channels. The longer and the more meaningful - the better, is my guess. But to get to that space we have to experiment. The experiment goes from the start of the conversation, through to playing around with what you hear and then responding accordingly. If we get it wrong, we are rejected. We can try again or we can simply come back and start a new topic. The conversation can take on any number approaches or subjects but our goal is to engage and learn.
The dancing elves at Christmas had 12 million downloads over 5 weeks. It was 1 of 20 applications created by the same business - all designed to do nothing more than engage. The other 19 failed.
A buddy once said to me....."mate, strategy is just a series of experiments"...and no truer is it than within the context of digital community marketing in 2008.
As we manage to simplify or categorise the depth of our relationship with consumers, so we can qualify the complexity and duration of any conversation we have with them through the Social Media channels. The longer and the more meaningful - the better, is my guess. But to get to that space we have to experiment. The experiment goes from the start of the conversation, through to playing around with what you hear and then responding accordingly. If we get it wrong, we are rejected. We can try again or we can simply come back and start a new topic. The conversation can take on any number approaches or subjects but our goal is to engage and learn.
The dancing elves at Christmas had 12 million downloads over 5 weeks. It was 1 of 20 applications created by the same business - all designed to do nothing more than engage. The other 19 failed.
A buddy once said to me....."mate, strategy is just a series of experiments"...and no truer is it than within the context of digital community marketing in 2008.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Mobile Rewards
As we sit and consider what effects the current recession is having on the sentiment of our Australian consumers, we begin to guide our solutions in the direction of value and savings rather than luxury and excitement.
Fuel savings are the standard at the moment and cashbacks have always featured heavily in the appliance market. With 100% mobile penetration of the adult population, there is now a way to deliver cross-telco mobile credit to consumers - both prepaid and post-paid.
Have a look at Mobux and see a couple of interesting new propositions. Here is a cross-telco solution that can be offered as a promotional incentive. Furthermore, the site owners have started to offer a points program that can then see the points redeemed for more credit. You collect points for clicking on ads. You collect points for recommending buddies. You collect points for purchasing.
Bravo mobux! To me this is a wonderful solution that brings ad funded solutions to life at a time when consumers are searching for greater value and a reason to switch from their telco. Surely everyone wins. My question is of course whether the solution is capable of being bolted onto other platforms so that other clients can benefit from its application.
Fuel savings are the standard at the moment and cashbacks have always featured heavily in the appliance market. With 100% mobile penetration of the adult population, there is now a way to deliver cross-telco mobile credit to consumers - both prepaid and post-paid.
Have a look at Mobux and see a couple of interesting new propositions. Here is a cross-telco solution that can be offered as a promotional incentive. Furthermore, the site owners have started to offer a points program that can then see the points redeemed for more credit. You collect points for clicking on ads. You collect points for recommending buddies. You collect points for purchasing.
Bravo mobux! To me this is a wonderful solution that brings ad funded solutions to life at a time when consumers are searching for greater value and a reason to switch from their telco. Surely everyone wins. My question is of course whether the solution is capable of being bolted onto other platforms so that other clients can benefit from its application.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Promotional Marketing at Sydney's City to Surf
Yesterday saw 70,000 Australians charge at pace from the middle of Sydney out to the legendary Bondi Beach. 14km of undulating cityscape. A lovely experience but for a couple of miserable folk and sadly one death.
I ran it with my 2 daughters and was amazed by the incredible effort both the organisers and participants had gone to.
Interestingly there were a couple of standout brands present. Firstly, RSVP the dating site had smartly nailed a very accurate insight that a lot of single, healthy people spend their time exercising to help them find their perfect match. So cupid had guided their marketing efforts at distributing heart shaped sponges to weary runners. Lovely. Simple. Relevant. Timely.
The other bright sparks were the folk from Skins - the athletes' support wear. With a plethora of brand adoring fans at key points along the course you could hear them recognising anyone wearing their brand. Well done. Congratulations. Simple and easy without forking out a heap of funds on the traditional support of media space in the local newspaper.
I ran it with my 2 daughters and was amazed by the incredible effort both the organisers and participants had gone to.
Interestingly there were a couple of standout brands present. Firstly, RSVP the dating site had smartly nailed a very accurate insight that a lot of single, healthy people spend their time exercising to help them find their perfect match. So cupid had guided their marketing efforts at distributing heart shaped sponges to weary runners. Lovely. Simple. Relevant. Timely.
The other bright sparks were the folk from Skins - the athletes' support wear. With a plethora of brand adoring fans at key points along the course you could hear them recognising anyone wearing their brand. Well done. Congratulations. Simple and easy without forking out a heap of funds on the traditional support of media space in the local newspaper.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Olympic Games 2008
Apparently the games start tomorrow. From an Australian perspective it feels as if there is little or no enthusiasm for it. It does raise the issue of sponsorship of these major events, their cost, their value and how sponsors make more of them to ensure greater value.
Coca-Cola is rumoured to have a rule of thumb...spend $6 telling everyone about the $1 you spend on sponsorship.
Vodafone spent $60m on their Formula 1 sponsorship a couple of years ago....and then how much activating it on a per geography basis?
From a promotional marketing perspective it is getting harder and harder to activate the larger events simply because of the control the event casts over what can and cannot be done. Furthermore, the unpredictablity of our interest in events because of national sentiment leaves them open to fail to achieve audiences on a massive scale. By that I mean Australians lose interest in events that have lost their magic - where's Ian Thorpe; and why has Jana fallen at the last; and there is no point in watching the cycling if Cadel is injured.....I may as well go to the pub and win some money on the pokees to help pay off my credit card bill.
An article in December 2007's Marketing Vox detailed briefly how the larger sponsored events are gradually losing their appeal:
Coca-Cola is rumoured to have a rule of thumb...spend $6 telling everyone about the $1 you spend on sponsorship.
Vodafone spent $60m on their Formula 1 sponsorship a couple of years ago....and then how much activating it on a per geography basis?
From a promotional marketing perspective it is getting harder and harder to activate the larger events simply because of the control the event casts over what can and cannot be done. Furthermore, the unpredictablity of our interest in events because of national sentiment leaves them open to fail to achieve audiences on a massive scale. By that I mean Australians lose interest in events that have lost their magic - where's Ian Thorpe; and why has Jana fallen at the last; and there is no point in watching the cycling if Cadel is injured.....I may as well go to the pub and win some money on the pokees to help pay off my credit card bill.
An article in December 2007's Marketing Vox detailed briefly how the larger sponsored events are gradually losing their appeal:
Lenovo announced it will end its sponsorship of the Olympics at the end of '08, four months after the Summer Olympics in Beijing.The move makes Lenovo the second major brand departure from the Games. In October, Kodak announced it would no longer be the official film and imaging sponsor after the 2008 games.
The Financial Times reports that Acer, a global computer vendor, will be easing into Lenovo's position as global sponsor for the Olympic Games from 2009 to 2012.Acer will provide notebook, computers and monitors for the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, and the London Summer Games in '12.
12 sponsors are registered for the Beijing Olympics, but only eight have registered for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics so far.
According to The Globe and Mail, grand-scale marketing opportunities like that presented by the Olympics have been slowly losing appeal, thanks to more targeted approaches in online marketing.
It's also just plain expensive. While Acer did not reveal the cost of its sponsorship position, the other global sponsors paid an average of $78 million, with an expected price increase of over 10 percent every four years.
Advertising rates for the Olympics have climbed 20-fold since 1984.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Marketing for a Marketing Business
Interestingly we spend our waking hours trying to help other businesses grow and to achieve more. Doctors smoke. Dentists have bad teeth. Bankers have no money. Why is it so often forgotten that you can exercise your skills and creative thinking on your own business.
As an exercise, we have decided to build a promotional plan for our business, Bamboo Marketing.
In the past we have avoided making a noise and telling the world how good we are. Now? We have set ourselves a bold financial ambition for the next 12 months and constructed a marketing plan to help us get there. Our intent is not to boast or to disrupt, merely to acquaint marketers with what we do, how we do it, and what we are capable of achieving.
By simply putting a plan in place we have seen a greater sense of direction from everyone in the organisation. A business coach once turned to me and said - "if you aint got a plan, you aint got a business".....and whilst I know he was merely trying to stress a point, our recent experience would at least support an arguement that says think positively about the future of your own business and sense the pieces falling into place over time. Recognise the achievements regularly as you kick the goals with bright thinking.
We are in the business of coming up with ideas. Ideas that help clients sell more stuff. So what ideas can Bamboo Marketing come up with to help them sell more ideas? There are 3 simple platforms:
As an exercise, we have decided to build a promotional plan for our business, Bamboo Marketing.
In the past we have avoided making a noise and telling the world how good we are. Now? We have set ourselves a bold financial ambition for the next 12 months and constructed a marketing plan to help us get there. Our intent is not to boast or to disrupt, merely to acquaint marketers with what we do, how we do it, and what we are capable of achieving.
By simply putting a plan in place we have seen a greater sense of direction from everyone in the organisation. A business coach once turned to me and said - "if you aint got a plan, you aint got a business".....and whilst I know he was merely trying to stress a point, our recent experience would at least support an arguement that says think positively about the future of your own business and sense the pieces falling into place over time. Recognise the achievements regularly as you kick the goals with bright thinking.
We are in the business of coming up with ideas. Ideas that help clients sell more stuff. So what ideas can Bamboo Marketing come up with to help them sell more ideas? There are 3 simple platforms:
- Promote our promotions
- Ask for more business
- Drive awareness and engagement
Friday, July 11, 2008
Losing a pitch
The cost of pitching for new business is bonkers. The expectation that we have a chance of winning seems to blind us to the real likelihood of success.
We have been asked to pitch for a new project with an existing client. The pitch will cost us time and money. Rather than just get on with it and build some lovely ideas, we decided to pay the client a visit today to get to the bottom of why the project is even being pitched out.
So here were our questions and indeed the answers.
1. There has been a change of personnel. The new team has brought its own contacts and relationships. Are we being asked to prove ourselves?
Answer: Yes and we just want to know what else is out there. We think your work is exceptional but there is a lot to do and we want to get the balance right! We want creativity, intelligence, understanding, and commitment.
2. We love working with you and indeed the work we have produced together. What could we improve and what could we have done to have avoided this costly and expensive pitch process from happening?
Answer: No. No. No. You have done nothing wrong. The work has been great. The work must now be taken to the next level. We need to evolve and grow. We need to move from a position of category ownership to spelling out the benefits of what we do.
At this point I giggled to myself because I thought it sounded like a lot of nonsense. Come on Mark, concentrate and persevere.
3. Will you pay for the pitch?
Answer: No.
4. Do you think you really know what you want from the pitch? There is one other agency pitching and they are a very different agency.
Answer: This is a very difficult brief and I think that is why we need a variety of responses.
Look, my gut feeling is we have to chase when we can. If the idea is good enough then we deserve to win. If we dont win with a great idea, then something is obviously not right. We have to remind ourselves that the success of our business is based on relationships and ideas. Clients take us with them and that works for and against us.
I do think we will pitch. I dont like our chances and I am not spelling out my concerns. We will have some great work to showcase our ability next week...ceteris paribus, we will win. Anything else and I will expect someone to buy me a tequila so I can forget about how much it has cost to lose.
We have been asked to pitch for a new project with an existing client. The pitch will cost us time and money. Rather than just get on with it and build some lovely ideas, we decided to pay the client a visit today to get to the bottom of why the project is even being pitched out.
So here were our questions and indeed the answers.
1. There has been a change of personnel. The new team has brought its own contacts and relationships. Are we being asked to prove ourselves?
Answer: Yes and we just want to know what else is out there. We think your work is exceptional but there is a lot to do and we want to get the balance right! We want creativity, intelligence, understanding, and commitment.
2. We love working with you and indeed the work we have produced together. What could we improve and what could we have done to have avoided this costly and expensive pitch process from happening?
Answer: No. No. No. You have done nothing wrong. The work has been great. The work must now be taken to the next level. We need to evolve and grow. We need to move from a position of category ownership to spelling out the benefits of what we do.
At this point I giggled to myself because I thought it sounded like a lot of nonsense. Come on Mark, concentrate and persevere.
3. Will you pay for the pitch?
Answer: No.
4. Do you think you really know what you want from the pitch? There is one other agency pitching and they are a very different agency.
Answer: This is a very difficult brief and I think that is why we need a variety of responses.
Look, my gut feeling is we have to chase when we can. If the idea is good enough then we deserve to win. If we dont win with a great idea, then something is obviously not right. We have to remind ourselves that the success of our business is based on relationships and ideas. Clients take us with them and that works for and against us.
I do think we will pitch. I dont like our chances and I am not spelling out my concerns. We will have some great work to showcase our ability next week...ceteris paribus, we will win. Anything else and I will expect someone to buy me a tequila so I can forget about how much it has cost to lose.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Promotions when there is a recession looming
We are racing towards a massive recession and the prospect of it not improving for a further 12 months
Petrol prices are rumoured to be rising to $2.50 per litre
Over 1,000,000 households are in mortgage crisis
Consumer sentiment is lower than it was in 1992
Interest rate rises are still a massive possibility
The central banks everywhere are being accused of not knowing what to do
Vietnam is out of control with inflation and the worry is that many emerging economies are following suit
Basic living costs are likely to rise as per the UK and US
There are less planes in the air, fewer cars on the road, and more folk thinking about striking for more pay
Credit card spending has plummeted
Retailers are scared - more sales and the sales season brought forward
There is a race for the dollar in a wallet which is harder to open
What the blazes are the brands doing when they show little or no understnding of how dire the situation is. I dont want to win the holiday of a lifetime. I want someone to take the edge off the cost of living. I want someone to get a new pair of shoes for my 7 year old daughter. I want someone to help me not feel guilty about a trip to the cinema.
I want empathy.
Petrol prices are rumoured to be rising to $2.50 per litre
Over 1,000,000 households are in mortgage crisis
Consumer sentiment is lower than it was in 1992
Interest rate rises are still a massive possibility
The central banks everywhere are being accused of not knowing what to do
Vietnam is out of control with inflation and the worry is that many emerging economies are following suit
Basic living costs are likely to rise as per the UK and US
There are less planes in the air, fewer cars on the road, and more folk thinking about striking for more pay
Credit card spending has plummeted
Retailers are scared - more sales and the sales season brought forward
There is a race for the dollar in a wallet which is harder to open
What the blazes are the brands doing when they show little or no understnding of how dire the situation is. I dont want to win the holiday of a lifetime. I want someone to take the edge off the cost of living. I want someone to get a new pair of shoes for my 7 year old daughter. I want someone to help me not feel guilty about a trip to the cinema.
I want empathy.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Stunts and Events
As brands become more and more seduced by planners and strategists who suggest that consumers need to get closer to the brand, I am rapidly losing respect for the numerous executions we end up witnessing in every mall and precinct this side of Wagga. I dont think having a lycra clad student showcasing a digital camera in the main court of Westfield Bondi Junction is doing anyone a favour other than dear old Frank and the family.
Media agencies are challenged to come back with ideas that are out of the box. We want cut-through. We want to be famous. We want to blow the competition away. We want a paradigm shift. Brilliant. So they have repackaged using promotional staff to put the brand in the hand and called it Experiential Marketing. The final chapter in today's media recommendation and by far the most interesting and dynamic is our Experiential recommendation. Right. Think stunt. Think event. Think massive scale. Think inflatables. Brilliant.
It is all nonsense. A list of activities that have little rhyme or reason and certainly no idea behind them.
But what does the consumer want? Does she want some lame stunt holding up traffic on the Harbour Bridge while she is trying to rush back to cook the kids dinner before popping over to Margaret's for an impromptu tupperware party? No. Does he want a seemingly awkward Gen Y thrusting the latest flavour of triple oven baked chips onto his table as he considers his mid-life crisis with his best mate and 12 schooners of Stella?
The whole thing is nonsense. As someone once said...it's like pissing yourself in a dark grey suit.....oh hang on that was me that said it a couple of posts ago. It is contrived. It is trite. It is a waste of money.
My view is have a worthy reason if you are considering a stunt. Sponosring the Wallabies is not a reason to float a footie pitch on the harbour - that's just shite.
Package up your ideas and bring your ideas to life so that it makes our world a better place. 22,000 youths are homeless in Sydney every night. Give them your triple baked chips and help warm them up a bit.
Agencies are to blame. C'mon mate, present one of those stunts, we always rake in the bucks when we do something cool in the city and of course it will get us a couple of pages in Adnews.
Of course there is the exception. I take my hat off to Leo's for Earth Hour. Well done. And of course, everything we do is top notch, smart and bound to get us into B&T.
Media agencies are challenged to come back with ideas that are out of the box. We want cut-through. We want to be famous. We want to blow the competition away. We want a paradigm shift. Brilliant. So they have repackaged using promotional staff to put the brand in the hand and called it Experiential Marketing. The final chapter in today's media recommendation and by far the most interesting and dynamic is our Experiential recommendation. Right. Think stunt. Think event. Think massive scale. Think inflatables. Brilliant.
It is all nonsense. A list of activities that have little rhyme or reason and certainly no idea behind them.
But what does the consumer want? Does she want some lame stunt holding up traffic on the Harbour Bridge while she is trying to rush back to cook the kids dinner before popping over to Margaret's for an impromptu tupperware party? No. Does he want a seemingly awkward Gen Y thrusting the latest flavour of triple oven baked chips onto his table as he considers his mid-life crisis with his best mate and 12 schooners of Stella?
The whole thing is nonsense. As someone once said...it's like pissing yourself in a dark grey suit.....oh hang on that was me that said it a couple of posts ago. It is contrived. It is trite. It is a waste of money.
My view is have a worthy reason if you are considering a stunt. Sponosring the Wallabies is not a reason to float a footie pitch on the harbour - that's just shite.
Package up your ideas and bring your ideas to life so that it makes our world a better place. 22,000 youths are homeless in Sydney every night. Give them your triple baked chips and help warm them up a bit.
Agencies are to blame. C'mon mate, present one of those stunts, we always rake in the bucks when we do something cool in the city and of course it will get us a couple of pages in Adnews.
Of course there is the exception. I take my hat off to Leo's for Earth Hour. Well done. And of course, everything we do is top notch, smart and bound to get us into B&T.
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