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.
Thursday, August 21, 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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
