Fancy getting a little closer to Kylie....

A bit of a shameless plug for my agencies work, but here at Haygarth we have been developing a fascinating integrated campaign harnessing digital, sponsorship, sales promotion, experiential and trade activity to help Nokia bring their European consumers “closer to Kylie”.

In a bid to underline Nokia’s association with music the campaign includes the development of 12 websites across Europe and special Kylie box sleeves, in-box collateral and point of sale. Nokia aims to demonstrate the audio quality of the Nokia 5310 and 5610 XpressMusic handsets, which are also being offered as exclusive Nokia Kylie handsets featuring pre-loaded, exclusive video and music content.

Consumers will be able to download the full album and additional content from the new website and will have the opportunity to win ‘meet and greet’ tickets to one of the dates on the KYLIEX2008 tour.

Not bad, even if I do say so myself….

http://www.nokiakylie.com/

Hilarious antics from Auntie's original big DOG!

Just loved this - such a simple idea; take a well know character and place him in a silly situation = absolute hilarity amd great promotional opportuinity!

It's yet another example of the BBC getting things right. It's a small, almost throwaway thing. But it's new and surprising, it's entertaining and engaging. And people can and have been distributing it.

Well, it could be a little more distributable, if there's such a word. The only potential criticism of this is that I've had to do a cheeky grab, rather than embed a link. Sending a URL in an email is a bit 2003 when it comes to online video, isn't it?

In fairness, the iPlayer is beginning to allow embedding, like this Foals clip (via OU). But it just feels a bit wonky. Perhaps someone could put us straight: it's not about placating advertisers so is it a rights thing? In which case, why not offer embedding across the board (from the beginning) and disable it where necessary?

Interesting data from Ofcom's comms report 2008 - guess what online is big business!

Ofcom's 2008 communication report covering the UK’s £51 billion communications industry was released this week. Its key finding was that people in the UK are spending more time using communications services than ever before – but interestingly paying less!!!

In 2007 we spent an average of 7 hours and 9 minutes a day using communications services - up by 6 minutes from 2002.

The UK's mobile and internet usage not surprisingly increased by the greatest amount.

Between 2002 and 2007 the time spent talking and texting on mobiles doubled, up from 5 minutes to 10 minutes each day.

Meanwhile, time spent on PCs and lap-tops grew fourfold between 2002 and 2007 - from 6 minutes to 24 minutes per person every day.

Using more, paying less
Despite the growth in communication channel usage and take-up, consumers are paying less with overall average household spend on communications services falling 1.6% to £93.63 a month in 2007, a saving of £1.53 on the average spend compared to 2006, and since 2004, a saving of £4.31 (4.4%). There are three main reasons behind the fall in the price of communications services:

Bunderling for saving:

Consumers are increasingly buying bundles of communications services - paying one fee for multiple services, which is generally cheaper than buying individual services from different providers. The number of households buying bundles of three or more services – for example landline, broadband and pay-TV – has almost doubled up from 18% in 2006 to 32% by March 2008.

Broadband on the cheap:

The average household spend on internet and broadband services fell from £9.87 in 2006 to £9.45 in 2007.

Bargain hunting:
An increasing proportion of consumers are switching between providers in order to get the best deal. By March 2008, 27% had switched internet provider at least once; 37% had switched landline provider and 41% had changed mobile provider.

At home and on the move - broadband anywhere!

Take-up of broadband through a landline grew from 52 per cent of households to 58% in 12 months, mainly as a result of consumers upgrading from dial-up access to always-on broadband. Increased sales of laptop dongles enabling internet access via a mobile network nearly doubled from 69,000 to 133,000 a month between February and June 2008. As a result, there were 511,000 new mobile broadband connections in the UK.

60% Growth in 3G mobile connections:
More than one in ten mobile phone users have accessed the internet on their mobile phone with the number of 3G mobile connections growing by 60% in 2007 to reach 12.5 million subscribers – an increase of 4.7 million in 12 months.

Online and on-demand

Whilst there has been a small increase in the number of minutes spent each day watching the TV (218 minutes in 2007, compared with 216 in 2006), there is an increased trend for consumers taking control of TV viewing.

Viewers are watching programmes when they want and how they want, rather than just relying on the TV schedules.

Growth in online TV watching:

The proportion of people with an internet connection who are watching TV programmes online more than doubled from 8% to 17% in twelve months. The BBC iPlayer, which enables viewers to watch programmes up to a week after they were broadcast, delivered more than 700,000 daily video streams in May 2008.

Growth in online video and webcast viewing:

Nearly a third of internet users (32%) watched video clips and webcasts in 2007, compared to a fifth (21%) in 2006. The number of UK internet users who watched YouTube, reached 9 million in April this year, nearly 50 per cent more than a year ago.

IM preference over email for Generation Y:

Instant messaging is more popular than email amongst children with 62% of 12-15 year old sending an instant message, compared with 43% of them sending an email. Adults prefer to email – 80% of adults sent an email compared to 34% who used instant messaging.

Increase in online radio listening:

The number of people listening to radio via the internet has increased to 14.5 million by May 2008, up 21% from 12.0 million in November 2007.

Slowdown in VoIP usage:

The number of people using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) fell from 20% in 2006 to 14% in the first quarter of 2008.


Mobile telecoms

By the end of 2007, there were almost 74 million mobile connections serving a population of 60 million in the UK. This was an increase of 3.7 million connections since the end of 2006. The total number of mobile connections increased by 48% in the five years from 2002.

Mobile preference over landline:

Seven out of ten people with a mobile phone and a landline use their mobile to make calls, even when they are at home. One in ten people with a landline at home said that they never use it to make calls.

UK text messaging addiction:

In the UK, nearly 60 billion text messages were sent in 2007 - an increase of 36% since 2006 and up by 234% since 2002 when 17 billion texts were sent. The average mobile phone user sent 67 texts per month from each mobile compared to 53 texts per month in 2006.

Generation Y gender channel preferences:

The majority of children have access to the internet and most have a mobile phone but there is a gender preference. Boys aged 8-11 are twice as likely to use the internet every day compared to girls of the same age (45% compared to 22%). Meanwhile girls aged 12-15 are more likely to use a mobile phone than boys of the same age (74% compared to 65%).

Generation Y mobile phone dependency:

When asked which media activity would be missed the most, 42% of these teenagers said they would miss their mobile most. Watching TV came next at 20%.

Television and Radio

Digital television and radio penetration continued and by July 2008, nearly 9 out of 10 households had digital television (87.2%) compared to 7 out of 10 twelve months ago. By March 2008, 7 million households (27%) had a DAB radio set, up from 17% on last year.

Increase in DVR penetration:

More consumers are now able to choose when to watch, pause and rewind live TV. At the end of 2007 nearly 6 million households (23%) had a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) up by 53% in a year.

Broadcast advertising reach affected by DVR consumer behaviour:

The vast majority of people (88%) said that, when they use their DVRs, they use them to fast forward through advertisements.

HD television becoming the standard:

By March of this year, nearly 80% of all TV sets sold in the UK were High-Definition (HD) ready, up from 50 per cent in twelve months. The number of HD subscriptions more than doubled to reach 829,000 over the same period.

Television most-missed media channel overall:

More than half of consumers (52%) said watching TV would be the media activity missed the most, up from 44% in 2005. The next highest ‘most-missed’ activity would be using a mobile phone at 13%, up from 10% in 2005.

Advertising

Internet advertising spend greater than broadcast:!!!

Online advertising spend is up by almost 40% year-on-year reaching £2.8 billion in 2007.

For the first time, more money was spent on internet advertising than the combined advertising spending on ITV1, Channel 4, S4C and five (£2.4 billion).


Paid-for search advertising spend domination:

Paid-for search advertising spend was up 39% during 2007 at £1.6 billion. Classified advertising saw the largest increase in 2007 – up 54% to £600 million while display advertising grew by 29% in 2007 accounting for a further £600 million of advertising spend.

Brand autocracy; give way to democratisation of communication, oh and a little love please :)

Nice little video that won a bronze Lions at the Cannes Ad festival recently (by MS Ad solutions) - depicting the changing nature of communications in the digital age!

Clients - pay attention, and pleases stop shouting and start listening :)

All i want is a hug and to feel a little bit loved!

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)

Aunite's Monkey see, Monkey do (well)

Here is a desktop reader that the BBC have produced to keep people up to date with what's happening in The Olympics.

The BBC commissioned Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn from Gorillaz to produce some on screen idents for the games, based on the opera they had written called Monkey - Journey to the West.

These are now available to see online, plus to download for mobile, and as the widget.

Overall this is a great user experience - very simply / quick download!!!!

Amazing usability - can easily select the sports your interested in, and set up alerts so you don't miss anything

And it looks great!

All in all a great creative idea, which is masterfully transferred across the idents / music and into the technical execution, ultimately providing users with the added value of helping them make the most of so much exciting content - well done auntie!!!

Ten top virals

2007 was the year that viral became truly ensconced in the mainstream marketing mix. And YouTube, whilst not a scientific measure of effectiveness, certaily became the platform of choice for distribution.

The following ten films share the accolade of being the most viewed branded virals on YouTube through last year, according to viral marketing agency Go Viral. Nine of the ten are advertisements, either ending up on YouTube because they are great TV ads or as a true viral element of a wider campaign. And amongst them we find an eclectic mix of films for vodka, surf gear and food blenders, led by a Gorilla air-drumming in the name of Cadbury's chocolate.

The overall lesson we can take away from all these examples is, unsurprisingly, that good branded content is challenging, disruptive and entertaining, just like good TV ads. Unlike TV, however, the lower production values that many of them possess are a deliberate ploy to lend an authentic feel.


1. Cadbury - Gorilla Drummer (5m+ views)
Launch: August 2007
Agency: Fallon

Although officially launched as a TV commercial, the Cadbury's Gorilla quickly found its way online. The combination of a simple idea and great attention to detail make this an execution that won repeat viewing and inspired countless re-edited versions with other music tracks.




2. Smirnoff - Green Tea Partay (3.4m views)
Launch: August 2007
Agency: JWT, New York

Smirnoff's "Green Tea Partay" stands apart from many of the others in this list because it's a music video. Specifically, it's the west coast boys' reply to the vodka brand's successful and much talked about 'East coast rap' in 2006.




3. Ray-Ban - Catch Sunglasses (3.2m views)
Launch: May 2007
Agency: Cutwater

This combination of authenticity and entertainment is part of a wider integrated campaign for Ray-Ban in the US, created with a true understanding of its role and environment. It also sparked a lot of user generated content.




4. Blendtec - Will it Blend? (iPhone film) (2.7 m views)
Launch: July 2007
Agency: In-house

A viral more typical of the genre. 'Will it blend? is a question posed and answered by Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, who feeds a range of items into his blender including the new Apple iPhone. The film series as a whole has attractived 20m+ views.




5. Lynx/Axe - Bom chicka wah wah (2.6 million views)
Launch: May 2007
Agency: BBH, Copenhagen

This is yet another clever idea from a brand that really understands how to exploit viral to its full potential. The "Bom chicka wah wah" girls form part of a larger integrated campaign (including TV, online and I-Tunes) led by several clips and a music video.




6. Wilkinson - Fight for Kisses (2.4m views)
Launch: September 2007
Creative: Akama

"Fight for kisses" was launched as a TV and online campaign promoting Wilkinson's QuattroTitanium razors and blades. The extended online ad is a rather disturbing execution and a far cry from the normal creative treatment in this sector.




7. Quiksilver - Dynamite Surfing (1.9 m views)
Launched: February 2007
Agency: Saatchi, Copenhagen

The Dynamite Surfing viral brilliantly captures the obsession of the wave, and has proved hugely successful amongst the surfing community and a broader audience. This execution can only further strengthen the credibility of the Quiksilver brand amongst surfing aficionados.




8. Mentos and Carlsberg Experiment (1.3m views)
Launch: July 2007

The original Mentos and Coca Cola experiment was one of the most talked about virals of the year and is much copied. This version cleverly uses the anticipated hype of the original to great effect and, just like its forerunner, neither Mentos or Carlsberg produced it.




9. Snickers - Get Some Nuts (1.3m views)
Launch: April 2007
Agency: AMV BBDO

This made-for-TV ad quickly found its way online. It establishes cult character "Mr. T" from the popular 1980s TV series, The A-Team, as the new spokesperson for Snickers.




10. Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty (1m views)
Launch: October 2007
Agency: Ogilvy Toronto/Vancouver

Dove's global "Campaign for Real Beauty" manifesto has become a benchmark for corporate social responsibility. The online debate (part of a much larger multimedia campaign) was started with the ubiquitous Evolution viral. The 'Onslaught' creative here is based on the fact that half of girls aged 8-10 years worry about their appearance.

"Play well together" the building blocks for a long lasting brand

I genuinally find Lego a really interesting case study of a company sucessfully evolving in the modern business environment. Not only did they create a brilliant toy all those years ago, based on the simply and worthwhile principles of enjoyment through learning (It's name coming from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well"), but they have genuinely seemed to thrive with the on set of the digital ecosystem and not die as so many might have expected,or indeed as so many old world toys have done.

Firstly, they created the Legofactory.com which is a brilliant example of creating platforms for inspiration to engage and enthuse the most influential consumers "Creators". Not only does this collaborative approach ensure that they can deploy great WORM, but more significantly it places Lego's NPD firmly in the hands of the consumer. Leading to the possibility that one day Lego will effectively be outsourcing its NPD to the consumer! Another case of democratisation of creativity? Me thinks so!

If that wasn't enough (and apologies for those already aware, but I've only just come across this) Lego is now a media company apparently! Taking the indomitable Lego characters and recreating memorable TV /film moments with a decisively Lego twist!





And to boot, the unmistakably friendly appeal of Lego means that consumers feel empowered to have a go themselves to......

"He's got the whole world in his hands..."

At haygarth we love technology. And we love it even more when somebody figures out a way to make it accessible, fun, informative AND mind-blowing at the same time. Step forward the evil geniuses at the BBC, who have come up with this staggering augmented reality application to promote their live event, One Big Weekend. We looked at doing something similar for Nokia's sponsorship of Kylie's X tour but could never get the finacial backing to proceed- shame as looks like Aunite has stoloen a march on the world's largest handset manufacture!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/bigweekend/2008/feature/bandinyourhand.shtml

"I do" Simple ad that caputres the changing face of society

I really like this execution. Very simple. About real people and their real lives and how the product (Motorola) fits into them. Now the cynics will say its unscrupulous, but this idea can be rolled out to include all sorts of experiences that all start with using your mobile phone.

Or may be it's just becuase of the silly romantic in me:)

Will be interesting to see if they do do any more?

Cut through or alienation. When strategy and creative execution don’t work together!

A really interesting risqué approach from Philips in promoting their new epilator product. In a category dominated by Gillette and its huge marketing budget, promoting the virtues of the “inner goddess in you” with its all American clean beauty positing, it’s genially nice to see a different tact. Philips as a brand has been positioning and reinforcing itself around a softly, softly, simplicity mantra for years now, the question is, is this departure towards male androgyny a step to far to quick.

In principle, I like the strategy behind this campaign. How do you compete with the likes of Gillette on a limited budget – the answer is cut through and this will surely achieve that! The campaign idea around men’s intolerance to pain, and in particular hair removal is a nice one. Surely if a man can put up with the pain of using an epilator it must not hurt too much; and to boot if it can help a guy remove body hair and look like a girl, it surely can do the same for a women. A simple, but powerful analogy!

So both the strategy and campaign idea seem right on target, but for me there is still a question around how the audience will react in terms of purchase intent. My guess is that the concept of ‘androgyny’ is a difficult, and almost unpalatable concept for women. Having worked in this category I know that women’s motivations for hair removal revolve (to a significant degree at least) around jealousy. They want (biologically need to) compete with other women. The thought that a man can be beautiful (which I reluctantly concede she/he does look good) must be a strange concept for women to process. What is the implication for the brand in such a scenario? Will women identify or be repelled?

For me this ad has a really powerful strategy behind it which will lead to creating cut through and ad recall. However, for me the creative execution lends itself to alienating its female audience and ultimately leaving Gillette very much in control of this category. Although the advertiser in me applauds DDB and the client for its boldness, perhaps it is just too much to quick for such a clean and beautifully simply brand?

What are your thoughts about female motivations around the beauty category? Do you think this approach will work?

Forget Mac Vs. PC

One of the stranger things I've come across on youtube recently

Web 2.0 marriage and divorce...

MSN has just published a heart warming story of web 2.0 love. When Bernie Peng, a financial software programmer from New Jersey, decided to ask his girlfriend to marry him, he popped the question in a rather unique way.

Bernie reprogrammed his girlfriend Tammy Li's favourite video game, 'Bejeweled', to ask for her hand in marriage when she reached a certain score. When Tammy reached this target, a ring and a marriage proposal appeared on screen. Wooed by this romantic, but uniquely nerdy, proposal Tammy Li said yes.

Peng posted the good news on his blog, along with details of what he had done. The news filtered out, and now PopCap games, the company behind Bejeweled, will fly the couple to Seattle as part of their honeymoon. In addition, the company is supplying copies of the game to hand out to wedding guests. PopCap claimed that, while most games companies would disapprove of manipulating their code, it didn't mind in this case. "It won him a woman. As a bunch of geeks we have to say, 'Bernie, hats off to you,'" said a spokesman.

Conversely YouTube is becoming the next battleground for divorce cases! A YouTube video, in which one Tricia Walsh-Smith angrily explains the details of her upcoming divorce, has been spreading around the Internet. The Register reports that the video is worrying lawyers, who have described Walsh-Smith's video diatribe as a "scary new step" in acrimonious divorces.

It really is the kind of thing you have to see to believe, as captions such as 'Nasty, Evil Stepdaughter', 'Mean, Bad Husband, and 'Poor Vulnerable Tricia' pop up on screen. Walsh-Smith's lawyer claims that she was acting out of passion, and that she is a "victim who is holding her head up".

Her husband's lawyers say that they are "kind of appalled", and other divorce specialists believe that the footage is unlikely to be well received by the judge. It's quite easy to see why.

Really interesting use of digital reinforcing the ATL brand messaging for Cravendale:

Cravendale are doing some great work at the moment! They have just realise an new viral / microsite http://www.makethetea.com/ I really like the campaign idea around "milk that matters!" the TV was done by W+K. Am sure you have all seen the TV execution, which in itself has created quite a storm, and has been taken onto social media sites such as Facebook where quite a bit of interest is gathering http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cravendale-Milk-TV-Ads/8255968305?ref=s

What I really like about this site and the campaign creative execution, it is around the age old consumer problem of who makes the tea. This site attempts to provide the perfect solution, whilst reinforcing the comms positioning of "Milk that matters", and nurturing a tea drinking sub community.

Very simple, but very engaging overall, and a very nice way of getting you're audience to recruit and spread / reinforce the ATL brand message for you!

Heart felt message? Not so sure

British heart foundation online creative from eyeblaster. The brief to get kids to stop eating junk food!!

Not an easy one!

http://www.eyeblaster.com/newsletter/archive/08/january/demos/BHF/start.htm

Nice creative execution, and a good example of using online to physically demonstrate a story to help drive reappraisal amongst the target audience?

Would like to know what was at the other end of the banner though, as by itself its a bit flat!

Lets come together at my party!

http://www.o2blueroom.co.uk/theO2/Indigo/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Although the site design is truly uninspiring, I thought the campaign idea was a really nice one; assuming the brief was to reinforce 02’s credibility of its brand positioning around music as part of a CRM strategy.

I really like the idea of having your own party at the 02, and giving the consumer the feeling of being the organiser (as I’ve often thought that this is the real kudos people want in relation to music events, not just free tickets).

Think of the social power of statements like: "My mate's in the band" or "I am friends with organiser"

The additional functionality of creating a VIP list, and this in tern being used as the competition mechanic will ensure that people go out into social media (online or otherwise) and drum up supporters for their cause, thus spreading the message further that it pays to be with 02 if you like music.

I have to say, O2 have shown a real understanding about how to motivate consumers to do the leg work for them through finding touch points of real inspiration. Am sure you all remember the Facebook competition “battle for the UK’s favourite Uni” that had over 75,000 members and where they could win £50k towards their freshers ball, and where participants where encourage to vote for why their Uni as the best to win!

If not check it out here…

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2341278532

Women the online force!

Just some stats I've pulled together for a client to show how important women are in terms of online!

Young women are now the most dominant group online in the UK, according to new research from net measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings.

• Women in the 18 - 34 age group account for 18% of all online Britons.

• They also spend the most time online - accounting for 27% more of the total UK computer time than their male counterpart (Source: Nielsen/NetRatings. May 2007)

• Women in the 18- 34 category are visiting a variety of sites including those dedicated to fashion, family and lifestyle issues.

TOP SITES FOR WOMEN AGE 18-34

• iVillage Parenting Network
• Huggies
• The Full Experience Company
• BBC Parenting
• Galaxy Radio
• hairboutique.com
• Foxtons
• La Senza
• FCUK
• Pregnancy-info.net

• While sites dedicated to childrearing dominate the top ten, for younger women it is the websites of high street stores such as Miss Selfridge and H&M that are the most popular, along with social networking sites such as Facebook.

(Source: Nielsen/NetRatings. May 2007)


They are more active to:

• 35% of young women blog Vs only 20% of boys in USA

(Source:Pew: Internet & American Life project Dec '07)

• Teen girls are also more likely to use social network sites. Overall, 55% of teen online content creators are girls

(Source:Pew: Internet & American Life project Dec '07)

• 60% of Creators / criticis / collectors are women

(Source: Forrester: Social Computing report, 2007

Hope this is useful:)

Inches from greatness!

I've always had a soft spot for this creative, but I have to say I found the APG presentation on 2007 gold winners really fascinating. Sactchi presented how they reinvigorated the category; away from the over substantiation of "33% better performance" and "isotonic" which had only led to confusion and apathy around a statement that could not possible be true, 33% better performance; unlikely!

Anways, suffice to say they did a lot of research into the product's appeal and what "winning" meant and the ended up with the "Edge" campaign. The presenter showed us the a video clip from "Any given Sunday" which succinctly put across what it takes to win.

Good planners and creatives always take inspiration from all that is around them, but I can't help wondering if in this case someone was simply watching TV with the brief on their lap and a can of beer in their hand and suddenly went "eureka", that's what I'll do"

Regradless, I love the results either way

Together we really can make a difference!

I just stumbled across this - even though its been running for about a year it doesn't seem to have generated much noise.

The I'M Initiative from Microsoft donates a percentage of the advertising revenues it brings in from Live Messenger conversations to social cause organisations.

You sign up, choose a cause, and then everytime you start an IM conversation, some money goes to your cause. Thus far the activity has raised >$850k. Change the world or go home indeed.

One of the blogs that has picked up on this suggested this was hypocrisy - that it locks users into using bug ridden software to give pennies to charity.

And this is something I hear a lot - cynicism about brands doing socially conscious promotions to build their business on the back of 'consumer' desire to do good.

It doesn't matter whether or not you think Milton Friedman was right. That's the way businesses operate - their responsibility is to deliver profit for their shareholders.

The only way I've managed to engage senior clients in a corporate social responsibility discussion is by positioning it as a strategic business function that will deliver long term shareholder value.

In marketing terms it was a strategic point of differentiation and added value - its increasingly becoming a competitive necessity - because we, as a consumer base, are more concerned and willing to move our money to reflect that.

To a degree. As I mentioned before, most ethical consumerism is founded on the idea of Low Impact Ethics - if we all really wanted to change everything we'd, well, change everything.

Some brands that have sprung up since the mass awakening of social consciousness have socially responsible profitability at their core but the mega brands are relics or a less conscious age - they are dinosaurs - perfectly evolved to extract profits from, not help, the world.

Our role is to convince these brands that the best way to make money in the world today is to cater to the growing consumer need for emotional added value in purchases - be it social or ecological - that is reflected in the the brands they buy and the premium they are willing to pay.

Companies that do good need to make more money - then more companies will do good.

Probably the hairest campaign in the world!

Everyman & The Institute of Cancer Research collected a hair-raising £210,000 for their fight against prostate and testicular cance;r and I earned my 1st digital award! (even if I did not get to collect it)

Unique website visitors increased by 81% - the average time each user spent with the TacheBack brand online increased 300% from 3.5 minutes in September 2006 to 10.4 minutes in September 2007 and 98% of participants said they would get involved the following year.

The campaign strategy revolved around creating an enduring and iconic brand identity online for use across all online and offline activity. The creative execution brought nostalgia to the audience with a retro look and feel, and the technological creative solution aimed to bring out the competitive nature of men though a unique head to head voting system.

Tache growers where able to set-up personalised TACHE WARS HQs from which to wage their wars, uploading photos of their progress and going head-to-head in battle with each other. The HQ served as a focal point for the participant and their friends, family and supporters and, crucially, drove more people to sponsor the intrepid Tache growers than ever before. The concept, was taken from the site and ran through all online and offline CRM activity.

http://www.steellondon.com/caseStudies/tacheback07/

Great example of digital campaign for a FMCG brand

Here is another shameless plug for some more of our great work for Gillette, this time launching a youth-focused ad campaign on video-sharing site YouTube that encourages users to post clips of football tricks for the chance to win sports memorabilia and Gillette products.

"Trickstars 08", an integrated marketing camapign, is targeted at 18- to 24-year-old males and builds on Gillette's current above-the-line campaign featuring Thierry Henry, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods.

The digital campaign launched March 13 on Google's YouTube, challenging users to create a trick using any type of ball and upload it to Gillette's branded YouTube webpage.

Participants are entered into a free prize draw to win exclusive signed Gillette Champions memorabilia and hundreds of Gillette products.

All entries will then be independently judged and the winning trick will be aired as an ident during Sky Sports' 'Gillette Soccer Saturday'.

Gillette will also showcase the coolest tricks on a dedicated website.

Trickstars is an exciting development for Gillette. The campaign is designed to connect with and attract the 18- to 24-year-old market, broadening the Gillette Champions campaign to a more youthful audience."

The "Trickstars 08 campaign" also includes targeted email activity and banner advertising, which involves 10 refreshed banner creatives, released over a three-month period across various media sites including Maxim, FHM, Sky Sports and the Video Egg Network.

Got your 118 M8 for life?

Bit of a shameless plug for my agency's work, but I am genuinally proud of this one.

118M8 campaign is based around a mobile application we've developed to help 118 118's customers get what they want, that much simpler.


The strategy was to create a gateway that would provide their audience with the one stop service whilst they where on the go. Thus helping to reinforce 118's new positioning as having a really useful multi service offering, rather than simply providing just numbers.

An extensive concept testing phase and usability research identified specific user needs around cinema information and quick access to the info and purchase of the tickets. The campaign idea was to recreate the 118 118 fun and playfully tone through developing the concept of a whole 118 world on your phone. The brilliant art direction, easy of use of the site, downloading the app and navigating the app itself, really does create a simply, playful and rewarding experience for users.

www.118m8.com

As they say this campaign really has got your number!

Coke Zero blog lies:honest guv!

To appeal to men, many soft drink makers have dropped the word "diet" from the name of their products or introduced newly named products. In Coke's case, there's Coke Zero. A clandestine element of the campaign urging men to consume Coke Zero is a weblog, with no mention of Coke's involvement (Note: apparently in reaction to negativity about this effort, the page is now clearly branded with a Coke Zero bottle), named The Zero Movement on which a guy rants about why life is so full of stuff to do and how it would be so much nicer if there was, well, zero to do. It's written in typical character blog prose, devoid of personality and full of whiny banter which comes off like it's a product of a creative brief. There's even fake, supportive comments to go along with it.

While the blog's archives indicate the site's been up since June, 2005, Whois information tells a very different story. Not only does the information reveal the site is a product of Coke, it clearly states the domain for the site was registered November 21, 2005, a full five months after the site, according to its archives, launched. On top of this, blog monitoring service BlogPulse has little to no information on the blog. Had The Zero Movement blog been pumping out posts since June 2005, BlogPulse would have had a sizeable profile for the site. Blog search engine Technorati, aside from some recent referrals, doesn't have much either. In creating The Zero Movement, Coke has lied, misled and misrepresented. Some would call this reprehensible and irresponsible. We'll just call it stupid.

While digging around for this story, along with the other negative comments about this effort, we even found a blog called The Zero Movement Sucks on which The Zero Movement blog is ridiculed and Coke is called out for its patronizing marketing tactics. Following backlash after backlash, it baffles that marketers still attempt to pull wool over people's eyes with these lame cool hunting endeavours. It's as if Coke is purposefully stupid just so they'll get press on this idiocy.

Another examples of democratisation of creativity! Where will all the TV creatives go at this rate?

We have all seen competitions offering "create your own" TV spot for so and so brand.

This American milk brand is no different, although I do really like aspects for the site, even if the usability is a bit flawed in some areas.

http://www.getaloadofmilk.ca/

I really like the strange flash video animation and I really like their idea of the "3" second clip and the editioring software they provide users with to complete the task.

Overall, a strange but interesting site

Your loss, is my pain: we suffer together?

Funny viral video to drive reappraisal of deforestation. I like the campaign idea, that by focusing on the loss of a single tree (and the associated pain) it can help to contextualise the impact we are having on society.

In terms of the execution, I assume this was meant for the male consumer. The art direction is good, playing on several male stereotypes which help to exaggerate the point. But also women (having to wax constantly) are probably more impervious to the loss of a single hair and I wonder if it was not only meant for the male market then does the analogy still hold true across the gender divide?

Anyone for a game of monopoly?

Big day for Yahoo! In addition to tentatively agreeing to serve Google ads on its search pages, Yahoo's apparently in talks with Time Warner to fold AOL into itself, in exchange for 20 percent ownership. Time Warner will pay in cash.

Microsoft, always one to take a crappy bluff, is now in talks with News Corp. to lob a joint bid at the company anyway.

Is anybody else uncomfortable with this escalating state of affairs? Imagine if Microsoft and News Corp. end up buying Yahoo -- freshly plush with AOL's traffic and Google's search ads. We'd have a hydra controlling search, online advertising, web content and even social networking. (News Corp. owns MySpace; Microsoft owns a whoppin' 3 percent stake in Facebook.)

Search boxes! With recommended search terms!

In Japan they don't use URL's on advertsing, but instead have search boxes displayed with the releavnt search term. It makes sense, right? All the good domain names are gone. Getting people to a specific page in a big site is difficult (who's going to write down anything after the first slash?). And, most tellingly, I see increasingly more users already inadvertently put complete domain names like "gmail" and "netflix" into the Search box of their browsers out of habit — and it doesn't even register that Google pops up and they have to click to get to their destination.

But, could this be done in the here. Wouldn't search spammers and/or "optimizers" ruin this within seconds? I did a few tests with major name brands and they're almost always the top hit on Google (surprisingly, even Panic). But if Nabisco ran a nationwide ad campaign for a hot new product and told users to Google for "Burlap Thins" to learn more, wouldn't someone sneaky get there before they do?

For me this is all really about culture and how it effects peeps relattionship with technology.Most japanese people I know search for things instead of entering the URL manually. Sometimes they even search for the URL itself!

I think one of the biggest reasons for this is because URLs are in alphabet and Japanese just doesn't translate very well.

I did a quick test and as long as you use the japanese google page, they all show up as no 1. Mostly as Google sponsored links though. (web standards haven't really made it big in Japan yet)

Using search to promote your site is something that should be tried in the west too I think.