Open ID

The more lifestyle, shop & social community sites I sign up to - the more passwords I collect.

And the more I forget.

NO MORE...

Now I may be late to the game, but Open ID is proving a life saver.

A bit like having a magic key that opens all doors.

Nintendo calling...

Just read that Nintendo are releasing their latest hand held console the DSi in April. Apparently this allows users to listen to music and take photos.

This aligned with other features such as 'brain training' and the ability to purchase & read novels over the DS will no doubt help to continue building appeal beyond it's predominantly youthful audience.

This extension beyond it's core functionality of gaming brings to mind the expansive development of mobile phones.

Which then got me thinking...Nintendo already has the capability to connect people together.

Together with its widening utility and appeal, could Nintendo be seeking to become the ultimate 'hub in the hand' device by entering the mobile phone market?

Undoubtably it won't possess the same 'know how' of existing mobile operators but the same could have been said of Apple...and just look at the response to the iPhone.

A Nintendo mobile phone device with all the qualities and capabilities of the existing product has the makings of widespread appeal.

A time for the hunter to be hunted perhaps?

Existing mobile operators beware.

Much ado about something

I stumbled across a great blog from Dave Trott, a leading light in the world of marketing and also the 'T' in GGT a great ad & dm agency of old I'd previously worked for.

Never worked with the man himself, but reading his blog I wish I had.

'Nuff said.

Compelling ideas

As a planner how do you persuade clients to 'buy' your proposed strategy or idea?

Let me share with you the overlapping viewpoints of two well known planners:

#1 You can't bore people into buying an idea - you need to be interesting
#2 It's better to be interesting than it is to be right

Now let me add into the mix an extract from another well known planner, Malcolm White:

'...planning today is more about interesting ideas than it is about the right idea...[however] as Jeremy Bullmore put it: "we need to be intuitive, instinctive, scared and lucky AND we need to be rigorous, disciplined, logical and deductive".

...we need more of these sorts of people and less of those who are just interesting'

Coming back to planner #1 and #2. It is absolutely right to 'be interesting ' in helping gain a clients attention and buy-in. However this mustn't be to the detriment of ensuring those ideas are also robustly developed. After all the best ideas are those that not only see the light of day, but that also deliver.

So as planners it is our duty to be compelling. In other words we need to provide both the sizzle AND the sausage.

To borrow interest or not borrow interest?

That is the question that popped into my head last weekend triggered by my kids. Or to be more precise, it was triggered by the Madagascar film-based toys they were clutching excitedly in their hands after a rare trip to McDonalds.

By borrowed interest I mean the marketing tactic of ‘borrowing’ properties external to the brand in question to capture consumer interest, such as McDonald’s tie-in with DreamWorks.

Borrowed interest is often the main component of sales promotion activity where there is a tangible merchandise tie-in. As in the case of McDonalds this can work handsomely (well based on the straw-poll reaction of my kids…!).

There are also cases when borrowed interest is a necessity to attracting consumer attention such as in commoditised and/or low interest categories. Just think of the insurance market which employs a variety of mnemonic devices from dogs, phones and geckos to name but a few to help build a stronger narrative.

But outside of the above scenarios does borrowed interest have a legitimate role?

Not so, according to a very senior Creative I recall from the dim and distant past. According to him borrowed interest was an absolute ‘no-no’ when it came to developing marketing strategies.

His argument went along the lines of…

1. Borrowed interest falsely lays claim to consumer attention. It acts as a supportive crutch, when surely the focus must be to find something directly interesting to say about the brand in question that would help grab relevant consumer attention
2. Borrowed interest relies upon people making a contextual connection, without which the message isn’t taken on board.

I can agree with his thinking to a certain extent but not in his black and white assertion that all borrowed interest is bad. Agreed, borrowed interest done badly is more likely to lead to poor results. For example gratuitous references that don’t help reinforce the brand narrative in some way, will ultimately make any initial attention garnered somewhat hollow.

Also, while Wonderbra’s ‘two cups of joy’ viral homage to Cadbury’s Gorilla campaign paid off, a campaign risks failure if people don’t make the connection to such popular cultural references, especially when being used as a route into comprehending the overarching message. Of course the other risk is that even if people do ‘get it’ a brand won’t get the differentiation and attention it desires if it has lamely jumped on the ‘me-too’ brand band-wagon of following the latest fads (think of the initial splurge around Google map mash-ups).

However, it is my belief that borrowed interest as a strategy can attract attention and strengthen a brand’s appeal if done well.

Two very different examples help prove this.

First off, is the Diesel sex cartoon viral (SFW XXX Dirty 30). This video helps celebrate its 30th anniversary, using actual porn footage with the rude parts censored out by cartoon overlays. The WOM this created without a doubt helped amplify and reinforce its risqué and rebellious credentials

The second case is from Intel. Talking about microchips powering computers isn’t a terribly appealing way to reinforce the ‘Intel inside’ brand positioning to a youthful demographic. However harnessing the ‘Powered by Intel’ thought to their shared passion for music is. This led to Intel developing the 'Intel powers music' campaign to encourage MySpace users to install a branded widget, which let them increase the amount of music storage space within their profile page.

What’s lovely about this approach is that is takes a passion and turns it into a social object that provides real utility in a way that credibly underlines the brand credentials while building its reputation in music. And it does so in a way that gives a permanent presence that helps shake off Intel’s stuffy image. Genius!

We’ll save further discussion on social objects for another time.

In the meantime - borrowed or not - a penny for your thoughts?

Crunch time for brands

It’s not just consumers who are suffering with the recession.

Hardly a day goes by without fresh news of another brand’s woes. MFI and Woolies have gone; Whittards is going…and news today that even the luxury brand Chanel isn’t immune to the economic downturn in being forced to lay off 200 staff.

However with the credit crunch biting further, brands must resist the knee-jerk reaction of making carte blanche marketing cuts as a means of slashing costs to protect profit margins.

To quote Sun Tzu - the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

As past evidence shows from a 1998 PIMS consultancy survey, brands that hold their nerve tend to win out. Research amongst 1,000 consumer- facing brands showed that during the 1991-93 recession that while those who cut marketing spend made higher profits during the recession they then went onto lose market share after this. Converse to this those brands that maintained spend or even went on the offensive and increased their marketing activity achieved higher brand vales after the recession.

Of course maintaining marketing spend by itself won’t necessarily attract customers or drive sales if the category as a whole is afflicted by the recession.

Instead marketers must seek to adapt the marketing mix. However while price reductions and special offers can drive traffic (think of M&S 20% ‘one-off’ sales days before Christmas), mid-to-high level brands need to be wary of doing this too often or for sustained periods as it could cannibalise revenue and/or erode brand equity.

The smarter brands will look beyond price discounting in matching their product offering towards consumer needs within the present economic climate. One example is the Morrisons supermarket chain which ran a high profile celeb driven advertising campaign before Christmas. While I’m not a fan of the ads per se they have been part of a concerted effort to make Morrisons more appealing by visibly and better communicating their offering of “freshness and value” just as the recession was kicking in.

This message has been supported by additions and amends to their product lines (including re-launching their value range) and refurbishing their stores to accentuate strong points such as allowing shoppers to see that bread was baked on the premises.

Like Morrisons, brands who invest in reinforcing their brand values and maintaining their marketing spend in the right areas will stand a better chance of emerging unharmed. Ending with another quote that echoes the thinking of Charles Darwin - it’s a case of survival of the fittest.

A rock’n’roll way to smashing away stress

Sounds like there is a more fun way to relieving the pressure of life’s trials and tribulations beyond squeezing a boring old stress ball.

Out in San Diego, comes news of ‘Sarah’s Smash Shack’ where stressed out customers pay to smash plates and even whole rooms. As their website states ‘because sometimes...you just need to break something!’

Their goal is to allow people to let go, let loose and go home with a smile on their face. The inspiration for the Smash Shack came when co-founder Sarah Lavely was at an especially low point in her life. She literally woke up one day and thought "I wish I could just go somewhere and break some things. I should open a shop where people can come and break stuff!" And, so the Smash Shack was born.

So perhaps rather than wanton vandalism, those old rock’n’roll stars might just having been smashing up hotel rooms as a means of helping blow away life’s shit storms.

Finally, (slight tongue in cheek thought) could there be a Web Shack version of the Smash Shack? Possibly a brand sponsored area where online users get to erase their frustration through the destruction rather than construction of a website?

Slogans of the Century

Following on from my last posting, a strong slogan can help strengthen a brand's positioning and presence in the mind of consumers. In fact the word 'slogan' derives from the Gaelic word sluagh-ghairm (pronounced slua-gherum) meaning 'battle cry'.

In line with the above, I discovered an Adage poll of the top 10 brand slogans of the century that puts De Beers 'Diamonds are forever' introduced in 1947 at No1.

The Top 10 list is as follows:

1) Diamonds are forever - De Beers
2) Just do it - Nike
3) The pause that refreshes - Coca Cola
4) Tastes great, less filling - Miller Lite
5) We try harder - Avis
6) Good to the last drop - Maxwell House
7) Breakfast of champions - Wheaties
8) Does she...or doesn't she? - Clairol
9) When it rains it pours - Morton Salt
10) Where's the beef - Wendy's

Some of these are surprising from a UK perspective which makes me think the audience polled was most probably from the States.

Within the UK you'd definately expect to see Tescos 'Every little helps'. What makes this slogan extremely powerful is the fact it acts as a brand promise in highlighting the company's ethos and alignment of efforts to deliver against this. And especially given the current credit crunch times we are now embroiled in it provides a timely and pertinent reminder of Tesco's focus to deliver consumer value.

Now, lets hear it for your personal favourite...

Power of the ad slogan ;)

It’s interesting to note in these times of increasing consumer resistance to broadcast advertising messages a news snippet (Metro 08-12-08) suggesting that the powers of a good ad slogan can pay dividends.

The slogan in question is the famous and enduring Dogs Trust’s ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas’ which is just turning 30.

It claims to have helped reduce the tradition of giving puppies as presents from 1 in 5 present in 1978 to 1 in 50 today (though that’s still a yapping 130,000 puppies facing this fate).

The anniversary celebration offers the opportunity to remind people that dogs are not disposable items to be upgraded or discarded after a few months.

What’s strong about this slogan is that it isn’t a bland shout-at type message without depth or credibility. Whilst being hard-hitting there is also a rich tapestry of meaning within this that draws people to conjure up their own vivid interpretation – and make some of those people think twice.

Or course for every great slogan, there are 1000’s that, ahem, fall well below the gold standard. Such as a certain automotive manufacturer…

The Death of the Destination Website?

I’ve recently been involved in a debate about 'The Death of the Destination Website'.

This was sparked by the fact that more and more internet users are pulling content of interest from sites via RSS feeds, widgets, podcasts and the likes so reducing the need to visit specific websites. Such tools are in effect acting as filters. In addition to which we are also seeing more and more people subscribing to the curated behaviour, views and opinions of other people – in effect trusted ‘tribe’ leaders. So it’s not just tools that are acting as filters but also people themselves.

So let’s get back to the debating point about destination websites. Do brands need them? Or is it better to focus marketing spend and efforts on being in the flow of consumer conversation thereby negating the need for a website presence – or at the very least a ‘front-of-house’ version of this?

If portable content enables brands to meaningfully engage consumers without ‘forcing’ them to visit a destination website, perhaps it’s more profitable for brands to invest more of their marketing £££s on ‘fishing where the fish’ are.

However there are still many people who prefer, want or need the total brand experience (perhaps akin to say the different consumer shopping experience of buying the latest iPod product from Curry’s versus the Apple store).

So what if the construction of a brand’s website became truly ‘modular’ beyond the current RSS et al capabilities? Within this concept all content would still exist holistically within the website (giving the full brand experience) but it would also thin-slice into a variety of consumer driven content typologies that exist outside of the website. In addition, this portable content could have intelligence built into it (semantic web apps) to help anticipate and meet peoples’ needs in being really interesting, relevant or useful. This could be further strengthened through brands adopting an ‘open’ philosophy of encouraging consumer content collaboration and making it easy for them to pass on to others.

Take for example someone that exhibits search and browse behaviour particular to booking a holiday. Just think of the possible benefit to both consumer and brand if British Airways could serve an ad within the browsing site that gives this person the choice, in situ, to either purchase tickets; request further specific details; set up a mobile phone price alert; IM friends with the details; as well as visit the website for fuller information.

So to end, I believe it is both simplistic and folly to sound the death knell of the destination website. Instead it is better to suggest that the concept of the monolithic website is dying out. Perhaps this will lead in the not too distant future to the evolvement of the modular website – where consumers engage with content in its assembled or disassembled states according to their individual needs.

Importantly with the above scenario it’s not really a question of website content versus portable content; but one of developing ubiquitous content that co-exists independently or interdependently to a brand’s website.

Creating brand warmth

Report fromTruemors today: you can enjoy a flickering Yule Log on your Apple gadget without the hassle of tracking down matches. iPhone or iPod Touch users can download the Virtual Yule Log app courtesy of record label EMI from iTunes and enjoy hours of holiday cheer sans any fire risk or Christmas-y aromas.' Makes you feel all warm inside.

Hello - is anyone listening to me?

I saw a blog on http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/index.html entitled: 'Actor Robot Takes Centre Stage in Japan'.

It showcased a robot 'acting' alongside human actors in a Japanese play called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker) premiered at Osaka University.

As one of the few examples of robot-human interaction on stage, the robots were programmed to speak their lines as they moved about on stage. The robot used was the 'Wakamaru' from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, designed primarily to provide care for the disabled and elderly. It runs Linux operating system, has limited speech and speech recognition abilities.

The play is about a young couple with two housekeeping robots. One of the robots complains about its "demeaning" work and that leads to a discussion about the role of robots in human lives.

It made me think about the rise of the semantic web and computers gaining 'human-like' intelligence. Perhaps it's not too far off before we are seeking to converse with our laptops in the same way as the Wakamaru. Of course with the rise in computers chattering amongst themselves, could us 'the consumers' find ourselves in the same situation as brands are today online? In other words, to be in the flow of conversation we need to ensure 'we' meaningfully engage 'them' in a way that adds both relevance and value!

Engaging with Baby Boomers

I came across a recent report from eMarketer stating that baby boomers make up the largest US generation, both online and offline.

They are also big communicators, while trusting recommendations they hear in conversation. A year-long survey found that WOM is a strong influence to buying decisions among boomer women. Some 68% of boomer women rated information they heard in conversations as credible; 56% passed along the information to others; 39% sought additional information; and 55% said they made purchases based on their conversations.

However what really got my attention, was the fact this group are less brand-loyal than younger people. Some 61% agreed that “in today’s marketplace, it doesn’t pay to be loyal to one brand,” according to a 2008 AARP/Focalyst survey.

You’d think WOM media would be an ideal opportunity to engage with and influence these people. However the problem is they aren’t as enthralled with the internet in the same way as younger people who view it as an intrinsic part of their everyday lifestyle. Instead boomers are more likely to see the web as a functional tool to ‘get things done’. So when it comes to social media, many boomers do not see the point. Writing blogs and participating in social networks lead the list of Internet activities that do not interest boomers. Instead, respondents were most interested in e-mail, staying in touch with family and friends, reading articles and researching PR.

So how can loyalty be cultivated amongst this large and important economic group online group?

As all good marketers know, effective marketing begins with the gathering and application of insights across their target audience base. On the back of this, any mass market brand should develop a multi-targeting approach that reflects the diversity of user needs and behaviour across the entirety of this spectrum. Of course in considering this we must ensure the likely payback > the required effort in generating a positive ROI (where I = investment and/or involvement).

At a practical level brands need to become more ‘open’ and less ‘closed’ in terms of their communication points of entry and inclusiveness in seeking to engage with consumers (and facilitating chatter amongst fellow consumers). This starts by respectfully allowing consumers to choose how they wish to interact as an ‘entry point’ (such as RSS, blogs, widgets, email etc) rather than forcing them down the brands preferred route.

To help illustrate the above point…given it takes at least two people to start a dialogue (schizophrenia excepted) then for brands to increase the opportunity of starting a conversation with consumers requires them being at the same party and in the same room. No matter how interesting a brand may be, talking to an empty room won’t get the conversation very far.
Subsequently having achieved a consumer’s initial attention it is then imperative to actively listen and involve consumers to understand their needs in order to deliver ongoing relevance & utility. Sticking with the party scenario, brands ignore this at their peril. After all, nothing vacates a room quicker than a self-serving party bore!

Coming back to baby boomers, by getting the above right brands can not only enrich their relationship with these consumers but may possibly also help evolve over time the nature & level of their digital interactions. Getting back to the party scenario – I’ll drink to that!

Where all digital planners should hang out

A report from Springwise caught my attention.

Adour, a restaurant in New York recently opened an interactive wine bar that lets guests explore for themselves the wide variety of wines available.

The 4-seat wine bar is made from gold and bronze and covered in luxurious goat skin with built-in interactive technology. This helps customers to browse and choose a wine from Adour's complete wine list by wine type, country and varietal. Computer menus are projected from the ceiling onto the bar, and patrons make their choices by pressing on the bar's surface.

When a customer selects a particular wine, a rosette-shaped image is projected with information about the wine on each of its five petals, including details about the producer and the grapes.

I wonder if they’ll be bold enough to allow consumers to rate and post their own reviews and to vote wines on or off the menu. Oh, and also to be able to order wines you like direct from the producer.

As a planner working in a digital agency, I think further field research is required :)

Bytes that give away a dog's bark

In today's The Daily Telegraph was an article loosely relevent to my previous 'Barking Mad' posting:

Scientists have developed a computer program that "translates" dog barks.

The program analysed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations: 'stranger, fight, walk, alone, ball and play'.

Researchers, who describe their findings in the journal Animal Cognition, hope the advance will lead to a computer that could be operated by a dog's bark.

The team from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungry, plans to compare the barks of different breeds to find out what they have in common.

Barking mad

The evolution of language fascinates me. Not just derivations of the same language just a few miles apart geographically, but across countries (eg. 60% of English is said to derive from French). Now here is a trivial question (or is it?) A dog barks in Sweden. Another dog barks in Germany. If they were to meet would they understand each others bark?