Losing the fear of co-promotion...writing the future of marketing

On Monday night, after the England Mexico game, I saw the full Nike advert ‘Write the future.’ It was the first major example, that I can recall, of a brand co-promoting competitive brands by tapping into the passion of the audience. The advert starts with Drogba in his orange Ivory Coast kit (Puma), before cutting to Wayne Rooney in his white England kit (Umbro) before moving to Brazil (Nike). Interestingly involving competitors did not dilute Nike’s positioning but rather positioned it as the leader of the pack.

Visit Britain...go on you know you want to...

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Well perhaps you don't, but I guarantee that now the new site for VB has gone live you will genuinely feel inspired about wanting to travel around Britain.

A personal success story for me this. Having led the initial pitch team over a year ago, developed a truly innovative strategy for how to re-market the UK overseas and in the UK itself. Based on the powerful insight of "Bragging rights" and specifically using the web /social to help potential visitors to discover the unique and individual stories of others across their travel through Britain as a way of helping people achieving their own "Bragging rights" when talking to their friends about where they go on holiday, and ultimately aid them in the expression of the kind of person they are.

The site itself takes a beautiful simple design approach and using technology to the max to make a rich experinece. From long scrolling pages, video/photo widgets (see above)to bringing to life holidaying experiences and the use of behavior recommendations in the search functionality to help people plan from inspiration through to the travel experinece itself.

And all just in time for the Olympics....

Should make a whole lot of Chinese tourist very happy indeed.

Fingers crossed

Small steps, big potential...

Today was a very exciting day for us all, Finally released a nifty tool that can help people take simple small steps, but with potentially big consequences. Produced for the Energy Saving Trust (EST), the water saving calculator suggests ways that users can save water and energy, as well as cutting their carbon footprint. The Trust says CO2 from energy used to heat water in UK homes accounts for 5% of the nation's total carbon emissions. Yet, it adds, water use is the "forgotten energy saving opportunity" by homes, businesses and policymakers.

We produced this tool for EST as an interactive, "easy to understand" tool for people to make the link between water efficiency and energy efficiency. Energy used in the UK water sector accounts for about 6% of the nation's total CO2 emissions, 89% of which is a result of homes and businesses heating the water. Figures from the Trust estimate that heating water accounts for about 30% of the average household's energy bills. The calculator provides each user with a personalised report that tells them how much water their household uses, the related carbon emissions and the cost of the water and energy used.

The report also offers a series of tips that can help reduce the amount of water and energy consumed. "For example, it will say that if you took a minute off the time you spend in the shower then you could save 'x' amount.

Not only has the tool had great feedback from consumers and in initial user testing, but the BBC were so impressed with the tool the have decided to a news piece on it. Hopeful this will drive even more people to use this simple tool to make a real difference.

What does it take to make a successful iPhone application?

Before answering what does it take to make a successful iPhone application we have to define what makes an application successful. Sapient always asks why are we building something, what are we trying to achieve, and how are we going to measure it; so starting from top down, what are the business objectives, the key performance indicators, and all metrics. iPhone applications usually serve one of two purposes: drive brand or drive revenue.

Objective: Drive brand
Applications that drive brand most likely are free since they have to target a broad reach. Objective is usually increase awareness, brand recall, or word of mouth, and is traditionally measured based on simple downloads, usage, and extended with how many share with friends, stickiness, and engagement levels. A good way to take it one step further is tie in social media monitoring and analyze share and velocity of voice, general sentiment, and overall impact of the application within social conversations.

Now that we understand how to measure it, what will the application do? Nowadays brands cannot push messages to the consumers, they have to provide value and we generally call it brand as an enabler. Applications that drive brand usually fall under one of two categories: be entertaining or be useful. Entertaining applications usually have a wider adoption, more downloads, but less engagement as users open it just a few times before they get bored. Useful applications have a smaller reach but higher engagement; less users will download the application, but they will use it much more than simple entertainment applications. However the key for both types is simplicity.

Objective: Drive Revenue
Revenue can be driven directly by the application, or indirectly but multi-channel tie-in with retail and stores. Indirect revenue usually aims to drive users to store fronts, partners, or provide reasons for the user to purchase products or services. Whereas direct revenue is generated by the application. Measurement towards these objectives are always dollars.

Direct revenue can be generated from advertising or downloads, and both have different strategies. Revenue from advertising is similar to brand-driven applications: it aims to reach as many users as possible by providing free entertaining or utilities, and collect revenue through 3rd party advertising. However, download revenue can be a little more complex as it involves pricing strategy.

The secret to maximize download revenue is pricing. The most popular paid applications are priced between $0.99 and $3.99, with predominant 99 cent applications. These applications are what we call the big-fast-sales. Most users download them and use them once or twice; they’re predominantly entertainment and provide small value to the consumer, but the mass download provides great initial revenue and then stops. The most grossing applications are actually priced between $4.99 and $9.99 at 44% and account for 44% of revenue. These applications are downloaded less, but used much more often as usually they do provide value.


Conclusion
So what does it take to make a successful iPhone application? You need a strategy, know what you want, how to get there, and how to measure. Keep it simple, make it engaging, and provide means to share and pass-along

Building brands through digital :Engaging consumers through Brand Utility

Classically when we think of how you build a brand we think (or the old school ad men do at least) of solely using communications.

This is the old way, today the world of digital means that brands deliver their promise/ positioning more and more through their service. Service has always been key to many brands, but now technology means that nearly every brand can now deliver a service through the use of technology (websites, applications and the such like).

We have all herd the word "engagement" banded around, but what does it truly mean for brand marketers. Well simply it means that making a piece of communications that is entertaining and hoping it has a positive effect on consumer behaviour is no longer enough! Brands must attempt to provide real value (nothing new here), but what is new today is that the power of digital means that brands can easily and affordably, deliver this “value” through the creation of engaging content; however, simply providing content is not enough - the old media adage of "content is King" no longer holds true - this content is simply at best an excuse to make "contact with consumers" it is what happens afterwards that is really key.

To deliver real value brand marketers must build on this initial "contact" through using digital technology to provide new and relevant services to their consumers which will ultimately help make their daily lives simpler /easier / better. This is what we call “Brand Utility”.

Indeed, the real value of "Brand Utility" comes not just in the new service provided to the consumer, but in allowing brands to move out of their traditional markets and into new ones; delivering new rewarding experiences which should ultimately help build on the original brand positioning / promise.

To support my perspective on building brands through digital, here is a presentation I happened across. I truly believe is one of the most conscience, powerful and apt representation of my perspective on digital for a long time – a must read for all those truly interested in brand marketing in the 21 century!

Enjoy, and please do let me know your thoughts on this fascinating subject :)

What's Next In Marketing & Advertising

View SlideShare presentation (tags: digitalthinking accountplanning planning strategy)