Resolutions and Predictions

It wouldn’t be the New Year without both predictions and resolutions.

 So, I’ll get the easy one out the way first – Resolutions…

 After failing to keep resolutions every single year of my life – I’m taking a rather more holistic approach. This is partly because 1) I think it is healthier than ‘giving something up and punishing oneself’ and 2) because if I don’t manage it – no-one will be able to tell!

So, my resolutions are:

1. Think not what others can do for you, but what you can do for others
2. Get better everyday
3. Accept that mistakes happen and put them behind you as soon as they have happened

 Onto predictions, if my resolutions are generic and personal, my predictions are marketing specific. We could be here for a while if every facet of life was examined after all…

 So, in no particular order:

 Light a lot of fires and see what catches on

I’ll be honest. I don’t get brand planning for 2 years in advance. The reason being that it is impossible to tell what the world will look like then and what lifestage the brand and consumers will be at. Social media in particular has meant that ideas spread in different ways than before. The idea of a big brand idea every year is nonsensical in many ways and more effective will be seeding a range of different ideas and investing further into those that take off. We may be easing out of recession but many lessons of frugality appear to be sticking and this approach minimises risk and ensures relevancy

 Reputation Marketing

In 2009, lots of brands got a big thumbs up for positive customer experiences…and lots bombed for providing negative experiences. It doesn’t take much for a brand to show that it cares (before a problem often arises in many instances). This is a year when brands will be looking to actively improve their relationships with consumers by providing positive experiences regardless of whether financial transactions are taking place.

 Experiential Marketing

2009 was all about digital. And everyone became so obsessed that they began to believe that every other element of the marketing mix was irrelevant. You can do all the online marketing in the world, but face-to-face is vitally important and nothing really replaces it. And if the experience is a good one, it will merge into the digital arena as people talk about the event on social networks, tag photos, post reviews etc. 2010 is going to be the year of fantastic events.

 Mobile (and Android in particular)

Mobile has been ‘the next big thing’ for ages. I remember going to seminars preaching the benefits of ‘bluetooth’ push messaging 5 years ago that promised the world but until the iPhone 3G came along this wasn’t a reality. This year, with a tranche of new phone releases, we can expect some amazing applications that make use of portability, touch screens and improving network coverage. And if the iPhone looks unassailable in January – my prediction is that android handsets will be in pole position by December

 Mobile (retail)

The immediate opportunity for retailers is not so much in transactional mobile websites, but in getting exposure on mobile portals such as review and price comparison websites, which shoppers will increasingly turn to before making purchases in store. Never knowingly undersold will become more relevant than ever before.

 The second coming of ‘Green’

‘Green’ issues took a back seat last year. Survival became more important than the greater good. This year, the pressure will grow to show consumers what is being  done to reduce your carbon footprint than ever before. Governments around the world are now actually serious about it. Climate change is real and it is going to be interesting to watch companies of all sizes follow suit.

One sign-in fits all
Facebook Connect, Open ID and even AOL to an extent allow me to log in to different applications without setting up brand new user names specific to small sites that I may just want to leave a comment on. I predict these universal log ins will continue to grow and that we might even get to a stage where we can pay for something using a Facebook login.

Uncertainty

The only thing we can be sure of is uncertainty. New technologies and creative ideas will come to the fore that we didn’t imagine possible. Some will sink as quickly as they arrived and some will sculpt the way we live our lives on a day to day basis. Besides, where is the excitement in knowing everything in advance? That would be really boring…

A day in the life of the internet

What we can learn from a wine tasting

Last night, I attended a wine tasting at a wine merchants in Chelsea called ‘Haynes Hanson & Clark’. The tasting was organised by a friend whose father buys wine regularly there. It was an incredibly effective piece of marketing (and a great night) that illustrated how non-traditional marketing techniques that focus on engagement can eclipse the effectiveness of traditional advertising. Here are some of the observations that I made…

Targeting the right people

Enthusiasm is infectious. By targeting the son of someone who regularly buys wine from them – it is likely that the enthusiasm of the father will translate to the son. It also means that the interest will be encouraged and nurtured.

By encouraging the son to invite his friends – you are ensuring that you are opening up the brand to a new but receptive audience. There isn’t any wastage.

Inviting the audience round to yours

Unlike, say sampling at a supermarket or an exhibition centre – you can offer a much more immersive experience by having people come to you. The store was located in a beautiful street in Chelsea and gets you buying into the all round experience.

There is something quite magical about a wine store. Rows of beautiful bottles from different regions, each of which with a story behind them. You see bottles that you don’t know and bottles that you do as well as bottles for hundreds of pounds that you can only dream of.

Knowing your audience

There were ten people in total. All of us were probably late 20s. We simply aren’t going to be spending big money on wine. The tasting was around the premise of buying clever and buying at the lower end of the wine scale. They won’t make as much money on these bottles – but they are beginning the process of locking us in as wine lovers which can translate into sales further down the line.

Gaining consumer trust

We tried a 2009 Malbec that was available at £5.70 a bottle and perfect for parties.  We also tried a 2008 Chardonnay for £7.30 a bottle. These are the same as, if not cheaper than the late night drunken purchase of Jacob’s Creek from the local off-license. The fact that I could see they were trying to provide value – meant that when we moved on to more expensive wines – I trusted their choices. 

Word of Mouth

I asked how many tastings they performed and it appeared that it depended on demand. Because it is a deep experience with a high level of engagement – I’m more than likely to recommend it to my friends. In fact, with something like wine, everytime I look at a wine list in a restaurant or bar – there is a chance I will talk about the tasting sessions when making a recommendation.

Keep developing the relationship

The fact is I like these wine merchants. I’m going to buy some wine from there. Over time though, I could forget about them. What they are doing though is having regular sessions on different styles of wine every month or so. That keeps them at the front of my mind and increases my propensity to purchase.

Return on Investment

We tried 7 wines. One sparkling, two white wines and 4 red wines. Based on the cost per bottle – this equated to £71.25 in total. Divide this by ten for each person and this equates to just over £7. Based on a 25% margin (no idea if that is correct for wine), we would individually need to buy just three ‘ten-pound’ bottles of wine for them to recoup their money. If we bought a case each, then you are looking at a 400% ROI. If we told 3 friends who bought a case then the numbers swell. The reality is that we’ll all buy a case or two over the next 12 months and as our knowledge of wine grows and hopefully our earning potential – the ROI looks pretty rosy.

Compare that to taking out a 6-sheet at the nearest tube station – Sloane Square or South Kensington. The numbers just wouldn’t add up. Of course this is a niche store but the likes of Oddbins or Threshers could certainly take tips from this model.

Just in case you are interested, the wines we tasted were as follows:

Sparkling:

1. Cremant de Bourgogne Brut, Cave de Lugny, Non Vintage – £11.90

White:

2. Chardonnay Vieilles Vignes, Luc & Jerome Choblet 2008 – £7.30

3. Reuilly La Raie, Domaine Claude Lafond 2008 – £10.20

Red:

4. Malbec Alto Pampas del Sur, Mendoza 2009 – £5.70

5. Domaine St Andrieu Rouge, Coteaux Varois en Provence 2007 – £8.35

6. Chateau Grand Maison, Cotes de Bourg 2006 – £11.20

7. Chateau de Gironville, Haut Medoc 2008  - £90 per case in bond (shipment in 2011)

Wine Merchants: Haynes Hanson & Clark. 7 Elystan Street, london, SW3 3NT,

020 7584 7927

Temp to Perm

There’s a rather unhealthy dissatisfaction with just about everything nowadays. Job, car, house, partner……. if you’re tired of it, change it. Everything moves at such a speed that nothing is permanent any more.

It’s the same in marketing. The 30 second TV commercial, the 2 minute vid on YouTube, the one-liner on Twitter. Now even retailing’s gone temporary. HMV are launching ‘pop-up’ stores for Christmas. Apparently they are looking for vacant premises, and with Woolworths, MFI, Adams, Zavvi and The Pier in administration or liquidation there’s no shortage of outlets with landlords desperate to do a deal that will put a bit of cash in the till…theirs, not the retailers’.

A few years ago clients put their trust in agencies and focused on building productive and mutually profitable long term relationships. Now, it’s all too often simply about another brief and another round of pitches from whichever agencies’ creds are on file.

Perhaps Procurement Departments could focus more on improving the efficiency of the relationship between their brands and their existing agencies instead of spending so much time on pitches. After all, better briefs lead to better work, which with an agency that knows the client’s systems well, can often lead to great work produced more cost-effectively.

As in life, client/agency relationships are often seen as transitory and as a result have become too temporary. As the great American country rock band Lonestar (now sadly, and ironically, split up) put it in one of their biggest hits….. Whatever happened to going the extra mile?

 

Marcomms Man

Editors hijack Google Maps

Here is a neat concept whereby, from the  official website you can explore the streets of London that inspired the songs  of the band as well as preview the tracks. Just a pity the new album isn’t up to much…

The Rebirth of Marketing

Here is a column written by Jamie, our Managing Director  at INITIALS. It appeared in Marketing Week on the 8th October…

Check it out:

Marketing Week 8th October - Jamie Matthews

Constant Partial Attention

How many tabs do you have open in your browser at any one time? It’s quite scary but by the end of the day with my computer processing slower than the bumper to bumper traffic outside on Oxford street, I could potentially have 20 or more tabs open. Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia entries, numerous blogs, Google mail, Google reader… the list is endless…

The way we interact with our computer has changed. Real time interaction has become more important than ever. Things can’t wait – you’re input into dialogue is required NOW. All of this is because information is updated at such speed now. I’ve always been a proponent of this seismic shift in the way that we disseminate and interrogate information. The more the better. Greed is good – as long as it is for information; knowledge is after all a currency that we trade in that makes us feel good about ourselves.

A friend of mine though recently bought the subject of ‘constant partial attention’ into conversation. It is a relatively new concept that I hadn’t really given much thought too before he explained it – I was probably too busy clicking and skimming . In short, the idea surrounds our situation whereby we are overwhelmed with data and cognitively suffering from multitasking. Constant partial attention looks at the information surplus that we now have and suggests that too much digital information use is in danger of dumbing us down.

Constant Partial Attention

As human beings, we have limited information processors and the problem with obtaining all our information online is the constant temptation. It is now incredibly easy to be led off down tangents whether it be from a word that has to be looked up or an inviting looking link. In short, our attention span is becoming ever smaller.

I recently started an after work course that is 3 hours after work twice a week. Now, these three hours are split in half with a five minute break. For the first few sessions, it was incredibly difficult to concentrate fully for the entire period of time…and this was only an hour and a half. It demonstrated that the way we interact with information has changed significantly as the internet has developed. Our attention spans are reducing as our exposure to information increases.

So what does this shift mean for marketers? Well, to remain relevant today brands need to realize they increasingly have to create valuable utilities that consumers ‘pull’. These need to seamlessly integrate into the hubs where consumers are investing their shrinking attention. Useability is set to become the new ‘awareness’…

And what does it mean for consumers? Start allocating some time firmly away from your browser and revel in the opportunity to work things out for yourselves…

The Birth

THE BIRTH                                                                                            

White paper blank. Mind                                                    

focused but empty. Try

associated images, trends, influences,

yet still no inspiration.

 

Then, out of the blue, an idea forms,

developed, nurtured, honed and sharpened,

loved.

And there it is on the page,

Turning white into colour

vibrant, living, breathing,

a thing of beauty.

 

Mined, refined……mine.                

Roger Hyslop                        

Product Placement

So, the big news for the advertising industry this week is the expected decision that will allow commercial broadcasters to show sponsored products for the first time. If, as expected, the decision is passed, there will be another avenue for brands to promote their wares. The days of fictional products will disappear and pints of ‘Newton & Ridley’ in the Rovers Return will be replaced by Stella, Heineken or A.N.Other highest bidder.

Soon to be Wetherspoons?

In some ways, our soap operas will return to their routes. The name ‘soap opera’ stemming from the original serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate – Palmolive and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers targeting weekly daytime slots when mostly housewives would be available to listen.

Not that that product placement in itself is a new phenomenon. We seem to know a lot about the spending habits of our favourite fictional screen stars. James Bond’s preferred watch is an Omega (the Rolex brand manager was obviously gazumped), while ¬ Spider-Man likes a drop of Dr Pepper. It’s difficult to forget the cringe worthy scene in I, Robot in which a character compliments Will Smith’s character’s shoes to which he replies “Converse All-Stars, vintage 2004.(the year of the film’s release).

Product Placement Overkill...

I, Robot was ranked “the worst film for product placement” on a British site due to overt placements for Ovaltine, Audi, FedEx, Dos Equis, and JVC among others, all of them introduced within the first ten minutes of the film. A classic example of overkill if any was needed.

So, advertisers will need to tread carefully. Over the forthcoming months, no doubt there will be checklists developed as how to create a successful product placement. We know that relevancy will be the key. Execution will also be critical. Extreme close ups of freshly poured lager or glinting accessories are going to be a massive turn off. Logistically, it will also be incredibly interesting to see how these product placements will be managed. Will brand managers be on set to ensure that their product is shown in the perfect light? Will scripts be passed through the marketing departments of FMCG brands to check that the correct product cues are being communicated? The process promises to be a complex one.

The essence of advertising is often confused as an art form. Primarily by creative departments. The simple fact though, as communicated most succinctly by David Ogilvy is that advertising ‘has an obligation to sell’. The ultimate aim is to move product – not produce aesthetically outstanding work. Of course, the two frequently go hand in hand but they are not mutually exclusive. It is going to be the marrying of the commerciality of advertising with the simple aim of televisions shows – to entertain, that is going to create friction.

And commerciality is the sole reason behind this about turn. ITV has championed the lifting of the ban which it said would be “warmly welcomed by the commercial broadcasting industry and advertisers alike”. It has been suggested that it will earn an incremental £100m a year for broadcasters. I actually struggle to see how such a figure can be arrived at. Product placement does not mean marketing budgets will increase. The marketing pot is not dependant on mediums available. Instead, all it means is that other areas of the marketing budget will be cut and re-allocated. If I had to place a bet on where the budget for product placement might come from, I would say it would come from elsewhere in the TV budget. Product Placement is some instances could be a very cost effective way to get awareness on TV screens without spending money on ads with high production values.

My prediction is that the real level of earnings will be considerably lower. It is too early to tell now the full effects. Across the marketing world, clients will be asking agencies to look at the opportunities. Some will do it well and some less well but one thing is for certain – product placement will not be the saviour of the ailing television advertising industry.

Taking the risk…reaping the reward

Here is a piece I wrote for my personal blog http://mattkandela.wordpress.com/, that I thought I would post here as well…

As a marketeer, you get used to hearing certain buzz words around the place. They tend to seep slowly into your consciousness, become entrenched in your everyday vocabulary for some varying amount of time before sloping off again into obscurity. Some stick around for what seems like forever. Some disappear along with the outward forces that created such a need for the term in the first place.

 ‘Credit crunch’ is one such word. You couldn’t move for ‘credit-crunch’ some months ago, but somewhere along the way it paved the way for ‘recession’…an altogether darker more unforgiving descriptor. ‘Credit crunch’ sounded dangerous and powerful. Recession just sounds grey and depressing. And when such words enter the public psyche, we marketeers have to use them more and more ourselves because after all, the consumers affected by sociological goings-on are those people we still have to persuade to buy our products, whatever their economic situation.

 What start of as ‘asides’ in presentations quickly become ‘topics for discussion’ which in turn become presentations in their own rights. And as we grapple with these terms and how to manage these sociological changes, we create terms that tend to go hand in hand with them. Imagine an organogram with the terms that we might associate with recession. You might see ‘hard working’, or ‘cheap’, or ‘quick fix’ and ‘guaranteed results’. It is easy to see why it happens. It happens because money is tight and people start to watch their backs fearing for their jobs and ultimately their source of income. They don’t want to take any risks and give their employer a reason to get rid of them. People become more conscious of doing nothing wrong than they are of doing anything right.

 And this has to be the wrong approach for 2 reasons.

 Reason 1: Look at the facts…

 I just took a look at the unemployment statistics and found this quote from the national statistics site:

 “The employment rate and the number of people in employment have fallen. The number of vacancies has fallen. The number of unemployed people, the unemployment rate and the claimant count have all increased. The number of inactive people of working age and the inactivity rate have increased. Growth in average earnings, excluding bonuses, has fallen”

Now, if that isn’t a bleak picture then I don’t know what is. It’s not a great suprise – the contraction of the economy has meant that there simply isn’t the growth at this moment in time to support the number of jobs created pre-recession. Now, the crux of this argument is the fact is that most of those people were not doing anything wrong. The majority of them were working hard and  trying to stay in employment – trying to not do anything wrong. One thing is for sure though, not many of those people were trying to be different – to be bold or adventurous. It is understandable,  human beings are programmed to try and protect and the fear the loss  is a stronger emotion than the desire to strive for something greater.

 But when you look at the facts,  it doesn’t actually make any sense to ‘be safe’. The reason for this is that ‘being safe’ ensures you stay in the same lottery bowl as everyone else. By ‘doing different’, you at least give yourself more of a chance to succeed.

 Reason 2: The need for change

 The second reason is that when things are bad, people are looking harder than ever for something different. Something to drag them from the boring minutiae of their everyday life into a place where for they can forget about their worries. If we can recognise this as marketers and try and give consumers something different from what is already in existence but at a lower price point, then we stand a chance of engaging them. We need to adjust our psyche to take risks in adverse environments. If we can do this,  then we are more likely than not to succeed.

 Why? Well ,let me quote another blog (in French) ‘envie d’entreprendre’ which explains why an innovator would have a higher likeliness of success in periods of crisis:

“Since financing is more difficult to obtain, those who know how to operate in a low-cost, frugal environment have an edge. Since many people wait and see, even are “frozen”, using the crisis as an excuse not to act or cannot act because of lack of financing, there is less competition. Since there is less competition, the market is easier [and more talents are available].

I like these arguments: less competition + better efficiency = increased likelihood of success. It seems that periods of recession can create opportunites to become MORE entrepreneurial, innovative and push boundaries. So maybe, it’s about time we stopped talking about always delivering ‘value’ and ‘hard working approaches’ and start thinking about how we bring the greatest possible changes to those people who need them most.