Creating conversations online

I came across an article today that showcased the a few good examples of brands creating conversations online. And i was shocked to see the Little Chef. In celebration of their 50th Birthday they are creating a campaign about bringing back stuff from the good times! Wuite retro but i'm sure its been done before.....

Anyway the website - www.littlechef.co.uk/bringback is ok. Not really at the forefront of digital technology but more than i expected from the Little Chef! They have a few interactive sections, games and a community area. One thing i really think it's missing is the ability to share with friends. It would have been nice to get a community feel around past experience etc....

Nice to see that even brands like the Little Chef are exploring marketing in the digital space....

Bags for rent

I came across this interesting site while looking through brands in Mysapce -

The idea was also referenced in the SATC film...

Quite a cool idea for those who want designer but cant afford it...

Check it out http://www.designerhandbaghq.co.uk/

DM down

Direct mail spend down nine per cent

Spend on direct mail fell by nine per cent in 2007, according to The Top 100 Direct Mail Spenders report published by Marketing Direct today.
The report, based on a survey of more than 6,000 consumers by media consultancy Billetts, reveals that declining response rates, a shift to digital and environmental pressures are behind the decline in budget being allocated to direct mail.

Financial services companies cut back spend on mail as the first effects of the credit crunch were felt half way through 2007. The top five users of direct mail - BSkyB, Saga Group, MBNA Europe, Lloyds TSB and Halifax - all registered double-digit decreases in spend in 2007 compared to the year before.

In the same period, the online advertising market, including display, classified, email and paid search grew by 38 per cent to £2.8bn.

It really is all going digital!!

After the success of the first Sex and the City movie those at Warner and HBO have just confirmed that there WILL BE another movie! I'm not ashamed to admit that i loved the first movie and the build up to it. The teaser videos that went online were great to get you into the movie.

I was also a fan of the online engagement idea they did (see below)...Will be interesting to see if they have a bigger online promotional campaign thsi time? It clearly worked before and so would be interesting to get invovled in again....

Let's just hope the movie lives up to those big expectations!!

In line with their new "I am" strategy orange have created a specific website that brings the idea to life in the digital space.

I am actaully a fan of Orange's insight that who we are is dictated by who we know. That's why i was shocked to find no aspect of community on the their dedicataed site http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/. For such an inspirational message the site lacks any real feel of community or the ability for people to join together to make something bigger.

Maybe this will be a big push in social networks this year? I could see the strategy fitting quite well within the social space. Will be interesting to see....

Sex and the city

As a massive fan of sex and the city i was very sad when i came across this - because i had missed it!!

As a way to reach a younger audience and promote the launch of SATC Users were given ‘faked’ access to Carrie’s Macbook (If only it was real). Users then had to complete a series of challenges by snooping around in Carrie’s files These challenges were set and completed through a series of chats with Carrie’s friends which the user can participate in. When users have completed all assignments, they unlock the hard drive and can access exclusive content.

I think this is a great way to really get people interested in the film! and also shows how online can realy bring static ATL things like traielrs to life via engagement!

A real star!

Orange social networks

Bebo, MySpace and Facebook members on Orange will be able to access their profiles from a single destination later this summer.

The operator, which was the first to tie up deals with all three tier-one social networks in April, is now bidding to increase their usability.
Subscribers to several social network will be able to view updates from each network on one screen.

Orange is preparing to launch a service dubbed My Social Place, which is already live...

Orange really seem to upping their game when it comes to online - will a time come when they overtake O2 as the leader? I think this could be a real possibility....

Vodafone creates web 2.0 music experience

Mobile operator Vodafone and MySpace have teamed up to create an online interactive community for music fans in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The new platform, Vodafone Music Reporter, hosted on MySpace, builds on the collaboration between the companies that began last year with the launch of MySpace on Vodafone mobile internet.
Vodafone will use the profile to promote its existing music initiatives, including summer festivals such as Music Unlimited Cologne in Germany, and Vodafone TBAs in the UK. The Vodafone Music Reporter profile will also feature user-generated content to help create music communities.

Music fans can click on www.myspace.com/vodafonemusicreporter_uk to upload and download content, including pictures and videos related to Vodafone Music Unlimited events. Members of the community will be able to interact with their fellow users through a blog featuring regular updates on Vodafone Music Unlimited activities.

Users will also be able to enter a competition to demonstrate their gig review skills across the Vodafone Music Unlimited events this summer, and win the chance to become part of an MTV show episode online and on mobile. The MySpace Vodafone Music Reporter profile will showcase winners from each round of the competition.

I think this is some cool work - but has some flaws and is a bit unimaginative! Has it not been done before?

Cash-strapped consumers switch to pay-as-you go pricing

Until recently, mobile pre-pay pricing deals have appealed mainly to adults with credit problems or no bank account, and children. However, as the economic climate worsens, consumers in other demographics are also beginning to turn to such propositions as they, too, find themselves short of cash.
Last week, Sony Ericsson's UK marketing manager Dave Hilton revealed that the handset manufacturer is dedicating more of its marketing budget to the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) market.
Mobile network Orange has followed suit by extending its 'animals' tariff packages to the pre-pay sector to target customers tempted by the flexibility of PAYG. Meanwhile, O2 customers can sign up for the network's 'Simplicity' flexi-contracts, which allow consumers to bypass the added cost of a handset up-grade, and change tariffs or even cancel their deal at any stage with only 30 days' notice, without incurring any extra costs. Vodafone runs a similar deal called SIM Only.

At the end of March 2008, Orange had 15.7m active mobile customers. More than 10m were on PAYG, and 5.7m on pay monthly.
O2 is the UK's biggest mobile network in the pre-pay sector. It had 11.4m PAYG customers in the first quarter of 2008, compared with 7m on pay-monthly.
Vodafone has a total of 18.4m consumer and enterprise customers; 60% of its consumer business is PAYG.

How will the influence the ads we are creating? More DR and less creative?

T-Mobile looks to the afterlife for £17m campaign

LONDON - T-Mobile is launching a £17m marketing campaign, based on its latest strapline "Life's for sharing', featuring a TV spot where a relative searches in the afterlife for more minutes.
The mobile network said the new campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, is the first to guarantee that its customers will always have an unbeatable minutes allowance (a big bonus in the current credit crunch climate).
It reaffirms the company's positioning as the best value for money mobile network, by challenging consumers to find more minutes for £30.
T-Mobile is the latest mobile network to unveil a new strapline as customers become increasingly price-focused in their decision-making when purchasing mobile phone tariffs.

T-Mobile said its new campaign is based on the proposition that it will match or beat the amount of minutes offered on a like-for-like basis by the other four operators.

Karen Phipson, head of brand and communications at T-Mobile, said: "'Life's for sharing' really cements our focus on relationships, in a way that's energetic, dynamic and involving.
"It's apt that we launch the new strapline in conjunction with our minutes promise, which is all about supporting our customers lives through every-day unbeatable value."

Paul Silburn, a creative partner at Saatchi & Saatchi London, added: "Everyone loves a bargain and people will often search high and low to find the best deal. The creative brings that to life."

T-Mobile certainly have been doing their home work - jsut read the article above on the current preference for Pre-Pay in the credit crunch!!

Orange puts £30 adspend behing fresh positioning

LONDON - Orange has unveiled its latest global marketing campaign and revealed it is to spend a record £30m on the UK advertising push.
The telecommunications brand has confirmed that ‘I am' will be its new strapline for the global campaign, which breaks in the UK on 5 July.
The campaign, created by Fallon, uses lines such as ‘I am who I am because of everyone' and ‘I am all the boys I've kissed and the ones I will'.
A heavyweight TV, radio, print and outdoor campaign will encompass 120 different global executions. Outside the UK, the global signature for the campaign will be ‘Together we can do more'.
This is a reassertion of Orange's point of view and will highlight what differentiates us from other brands.'

Orange have also said that they intent to increase spend in social networks and focus on search online. Offering new widgets to drive acquisition. It seems all O2 compeititors are really increasing their game and all telecoms are going to have to keep their eyes wide open to spot the most valuable opportunities

Facebook - which apps rule?

As we approach the looming Facebook Profile Redesign, Inside Facebook has listed the top 50 Facebook applications by daily active user count.

Some interesting observations from the list are:

Professional network LinkedIn has the 4th biggest app on Facebook. (I wonder if that affected their recent $1 billion valuation? lol)
5 of the top 10 and 21 of the top 50 apps are games.
Social network MyYearbook has the most popular game on Facebook, Owned. It is a copy cat of Serious Business’s Friends For Sale, which is only slightly behind at #2.
3 of the 4 apps with over 1 million daily active users are quite similar (FunWall, Super Wall, Bumper Stickers).
Playfish is a rising star with 3 out of the top 10 games. Their engagement rate as a company is also at 13%, the highest of any large app developer on Facebook.
Zynga has 6 apps on this list, and is the 3rd largest developer overall in terms of DAU, behind Slide and RockYou.
Even though SGN has only 1 app in the top 50, it is the 7th largest developer overall in terms of DAU.

Hmm will be interesting to see what apps top the list over the next few months....

Laterz

Orange Balloonacy

So today the Orange Balloonacy project launched...

And being super excited about the launch i logged on at 12 lunch time exactly to find the site was still not ready...

Then once it was opened my Balloon did not work and i could not do anything with it!

After weeks of being excited about it this was a big let down and has put me off from engaging with the campaign for the rest of the week! I wonder how many other consumers have been put off?

I would have thought getting this right would have been a huge bobus for Orange esp in the digital space! Better luck next time Orange

In-game - Out-of-game

Brand engagement with Wii

It seems that every day we read about the declining effectiveness of advertising. How viewers skip through the adverts, can switch off to the marketing noise, no longer respond to our messages.

Thus i was highly interested when i read an article in e-consultancy about how brands should be using the Wii to interact with consumers. Brands are increasingly looking at more diverse ways to engage consumers in their products, and the Wii could be a great way to do this!

The Wii, for those who haven’t become addicted to this little white box, is a games console but one that is very different to what we have seen before.Instead of sitting fixated to screen with a confusing 76-buttoned controller, the Wii detects your body movement to control an on-screen character in a variety of scenarios.

The number of games that can be played on the Wii is now huge! And it has taken the country by storm! With such huge popularity and powerful technology, there is great potential for brands. Allowing the user to test products in a virtual world would certainly be a highly engaging experience.

You could do this with hundreds of brands -

Center Parcs could build a virtual experience of its holiday park. You could choose a room, take a dip in the pool, explore the restaurants and entertainment.
Diesel could showcase its new season range. The Wii could measure your dimensions and weight, building a virtual model of yourself onscreen.

Smirnoff could enable users to mix cocktails and play bartender cocktail style

The list could go on! And due to its link to the internet all of these applications could be downloadable! I wonder who will be the first to get their hands on this cool idea!??!

Heinz - pulls "gay" ad

Yesterday i blogged about Heinz new ad by BBDO. Due to an even larger quantity of complaints Heinz have decided to pull the ad 4 weeks short of its release time.

In my opinion the Ad itself did take the "gay" issue a tad far - the same message could have been conveyed without the kiss. Still the ad has got alot of PR - and all PR is good PR right? I defo will notice Heinz when i next walk into store...Will you??

The internet is addictive and its got its own disorder!

Obsessive internet use is a public health problem which is so serious it should be officially recognised as a clinical disorder, according to a leading psychiatrist.

British psychiatrists have previously reported that between five and 10 per cent of online users are internet addictsSufferers spend unhealthy amounts of time playing online games, viewing pornography or emailing.

They suffer four symptoms: They forget to eat and sleep; they need more advanced technology or more hours online as they develop 'resistance' to the pleasure given by their current system; if they are deprived of their computer, they experience genuine withdrawal symptoms; And in common with other addictions, the victims also begin to have more arguments, to suffer fatigue, to get lower marks in tests and to feel isolated from society.

Early research into the subject found highly educated, socially awkward men were the most likely sufferers but more recent work suggests it is now more of a problem for middle-aged women who are spending hours at home on their computers.

Psychiatrist Dr Jerald Block said some sufferers were so addicted to the internet that they required medication or even hospital treatment to curb the time they spent on the web.
He said: "The relationship is with the computer. It becomes a significant other to them. They exhaust emotions that they could experience in the real world on the computer through any number of mechanisms: emailing, gaming, porn."

He added: "It's much more acceptable for kids to talk about game use, whereas adults keep it a secret. Rather than having sex, or arguing with their wife or husband, or feeding their children, these adults are playing games."

Dr Block, of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, in the USA, first made the claims in an editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry.
British psychiatrists have previously reported that between five and 10 per cent of online users are internet addicts.

Facebook - world useage overtakes Myspace

LONDON - Facebook has overtaken MySpace with its number of unique visitors reaching 123 million people worldwide during May.

During the same period, 114.6 million visitors used MySpace, according to figures from ComScore,The figures show rapid growth during the month for Facebook and is 162% above the figure for May last year. During the same period, traffic to MySpace was up by just 5%.

Gay Media -Heinz

Heinz Deli Mayo ad, featuring a kiss between two men, has drawn 179 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority since it first aired last week.

The spot, created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, opens on a family going about their morning routine, getting ready for their days ahead at school and the office.
"Mum" is making sandwiches for the kids' lunchboxes but "she" is in fact a male uniformed New York Deli sandwich maker.

As the husband is about to leave the house "Mum" reminds him that he hasn't given "her" a kiss goodbye saying "Hey, ain't you forgetting something?"
The two men kiss and the sandwich maker says: "Love you. Straight home from work sweetcheeks."

The idea behind the ad is that Heinz Deli Mayo is so authentic that it tastes as though anyone with a bottle has their own New York Deli man in the kitchen.
The advertising watchdog has received 179 complaints from viewers so far with some complainants saying that the ad is "offensive" and that it is "inappropriate to see two men kissing".

Other viewers have complained that the ad is "unsuitable to be seen" by children and that it raised the difficult problem of having to discuss the issue of same sex relations with younger viewers.

Hmm - must say i think that's alot of plop!

Bluetooh 4 awareness

Channel 4 has sent 87,000 video clips of hit shows including The F Word and Peep Show to consumers' mobiles using Bluetooth as part of a campaign for its 4oD catch-up service.

The week-long campaign, which also saw content pushed for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage series, took place at five London train stations.


Steve Forde, marketing manager of new media at Channel 4, said that using Bluetooth technology allowed a high level of interaction to take place.

"Providing free content over Bluetooth rapidly achieved our objectives of raising awareness of this service, attracting viewers and highlighting key programmes," said Forde.

Facebook - talks more languages

Facebook has introduced Chinese-language versions of its social networking website, marking its first move into the world's largest internet market.

Users in China are now directed through to zh-cn.facebook.com, offering simplified and traditional Chinese language versions, and the social networking site has also added Russian, Suomi, Portuguese, Czech and Catalan offerings.

Launching in China marks a significant step for the site as it aims to compete with MySpace to build a share of the country's internet population, which overtook the US in April to become the world's biggest single internet market.

China has 221 million internet users, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre.

But, unlike the US and Europe, that audience is set to grow rapidly because it represents a tiny proportion of the total Chinese population.

Facebook will need to compete with a swathe of domestic social networking services, such as Xiaonei, as well as the Chinese version of MySpace, which was introduced in April last year.