Lastminute viral
May 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
OK so this isn’t the funniest viral in the world but it still made me smile. Set in Stansted Airport, characters such as airport staff, cleaners and policemen perform a song and dance to unsuspecting passengers. The viral is to promote their half-price theatre ticket deal currently running on their website.
IKEA offer furniture to The Sims players
May 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
IKEA have teamed up with The Sims 2 creators EA Games to enable users to place IKEA products in their virtual homes. The offering will be brought out as an add-on software package later on this year and will offer products such as beds, coffee tables and sofas.
Do brands feel my love?
March 30, 2008 | 4 Comments
Recently I have been pondering how brands treat their consumers and measure their own successes given that it is now harder than ever for a brands to really command any brand loyalty. It is a thought that I have been discussing in person with some of my fellow likeminded Twitterers (Joseph Jaffe, John Dodds, Mark McGuinness to name a few), as although of course I would love to think of myself as the font of all knowledge, I am interested to hear other peoples views on this subject. Kevin Roberts describes consumers showing their loyalty to a brand in Lovemarks, where a consumer will happily buy a product because they love the brand. However what I would like to know is, are any brands starting to look at a consumers Lovemark when it is not associated back to a sale?
So to put it into context here is an example. If I had a choice I would prefer not to drink Becks beer. I find it too bitter and I don’t really like the taste so in that respect Becks would not acknowledge me as a consumer. However, Becks created Becks Fusions a really great series of events covering music and the arts. This series enabled me to see The Chemical Brothers (i’m a big fan) play a gig in Trafalgar Square. My feelings for the brand in creating these experiences although I never had any real negative thoughts towards it, changed. The brand speaks to me in my areas of interest and at my level, therefore my feelings for the brand are very strong and I will happliy place my Lovemark against it for creating these rewarding experiences for me. Although Becks do not see my love within their sales, they will see it through secondary sources for example; I excitedly shared my feelings and recruited new lovers to the Becks brand by telling a lot of people within my network (Becks audience) about the great experience. I purchased Becks at the events and didn’t mind drinking it as they had already won me over. I will always be on the look out for future events that Becks lay on and will undoubtedly want to be a part of it and show Becks how I love them so. I am now openly endorsing them within my own blog.
So what do I mean to Becks? I would hazard a guess at `bugger all’ since I probably wouldn’t feature within their marketing presentations showing sales going up on a colorful bar chart, but should this be the case? Do brands quantify their success based purely on direct sales or, do they actually look at their Net Promoter Score to see who is recommending the brand? Are they reading what is being said about them amongst consumers?
As we start to see more and more brands fighting to win us over by entering into new territory and offering us experiences as a way of saying “thank you”, is the outcome of these experiences being measured and fed back into the organisations long term objectives? I have given this topic much thought and would really love to hear your views so over to you. Photo
Diesel create outdoor spaces
March 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Diesel are supporting the art world by launching a competition for designers win the chance of exhibiting their work on the side of buildings and giant walls within city centers. The winners will be displayed in Manchester, Barcelona, Zurich and New York. The campaign was developed to cut through the thousands of advertising messages we are faced with, to “salvage what precious public space is left and fill it with something worth saying.” The words “pot” and “kettle” spring to mind Mr Diesel but I am interested in seeing the results from the competition. Via: PSFK
New ActionAid campaign asks who pays?
February 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Nonsense London have just created this fun game for ActionAid inviting users to digitally dress up and make their own animation. It is to support ActionAid’s Who Pays? campaign who are lobbying for tighter regulations of how UK supermarkets deal with producers in developing countries. The game features voice overs from comedians Bill Bailey and Katy Brand, and allows people to upload a photo of themselves, and in the form of a banana, cashew nut or pear, fight (in the style of their choice) with some supermarket trollies. The user then has the option to send their campaign to others via the usual channels with the added inclusion of providing the code to embed within your blog/MySpace (nice tactic to get your campaign viral).
Nielsen buys into Neuromarketing
February 21, 2008 | 1 Comment
Nielsen Company has announced that it has invested in NeuroFocus a firm that uses brainwave, eye-tracking and skin conductance measurements to measure consumer reactions to ads and products. The companies are joining forces to bring new science-based products, services and metrics to clients in consumer packaged goods, television, film and emerging media. “At the same time, Nielsen will integrate NeuroFocus’ techniques into existing services to better understand the elements of successful consumer engagement”.
Trends that will grow for 2008
January 6, 2008 | 1 Comment
A lot of people are posting their predictions for 2008, so I thought I would get mine in too. These trends are not ground breaking as they are already occurring, but these are all factors that brands will need to start taking into account when planning communications to consumers. These are in no particular order so enjoy.
Moshi Monsters
December 11, 2007 | 1 Comment
London-based gaming agency Mind Candy have developed a new social-networking sites for kids called Moshi Monsters. Instead of creating their own user profiles, kids can adopt their own monster. Users can choose the colour and name of their monster before taking it home. Every monster has a personality that changes and develops as you play with it. Treat it badly and it will misbehave, treat it well and you will have a very happy little monster. Kids can play puzzles and feed their monster and they can also customise the house that it lives in. Users can also make other monster friends and communicate with them by leaving messages on a regulated pin board. Source: Cool Hunting.
Barcode revolution
December 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment
This is not new, but it is still cool which is why I am writing about it. Design barcode are a collective based out of
Critics hit back at Unilever
November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Unilever are under scrutiny as activists, journalists and bloggers have criticised the company for being hypercritical through the latest Dove “Onslaught” campaign where Dove show the ugly side of beauty, whilst building a brand in the form of Axe through the use of beautiful bikini-clad women.
The video was made by Rye Clifton, a Senior Strategic Planner who claims he didn’t realise that both brands fell under the Unilever umbrella and when he found out his immediate thought was “that would make a perfect video on YouTube.”
Unilever have issued a statement saying “The Axe campaign is a spoof of ‘mating game’ and men’s desire to get noticed by women and not meant to be taken literally”. With the ever growing popularity of Social Networks becoming an educational tool, I would really like to see Unilever use this medium to communicate with their critics and look at how they can address this issue.
