Posts Tagged ‘advertising’

The less social networks and their challenge for marketers

Published on Apr 10th, 2011 by Chris

Based on the recent buzz at SXSW, the festival that young wannabe Zuckerbergs go to party, showcase their new social media app/ecosystem/way of life and receive billions from salivating venture capitalists, 2011 will be the rise of the less social network. Spurred-on by continuing discontent over Facebook’s desperate attempt to sell as many details of its members as possible, new services are offering a more intimate way to communicate with a select few recipients.

This clearly presents a problem for marketers as the holy grail of massive insight into consumer’s activities and social interactions slips further away. Previous Northstar research has shown less concern about privacy amongst current teenagers, however the rise of less social networks on the back of privacy concerns amongst older age groups means that the golden age of marketing could be further away than the industry hoped.

The industry has to act responsibly and carefully manage the use of social media based advertising. If managed correctly the idea of relevant adverts could be a benefit to consumers not a hindrance, location based adverts likewise.

Location based special offers (Foursquare, Facebook places) are a good way to introduce consumers to these ideas as the benefit is clear to them. The idea of using your Facebook friends’ images without their knowledge to promote a product might be a bit too far on the creepy side though.

How marketers use these new opportunities could have a big impact on the extent to which people look for alternatives to Facebook. These are the less advertising friendly competitors to watch out for in 2011.

GroupMe/ Beluga

Fed up with sharing everything that you do with everyone? These text message/ app based services allow you to setup groups and then send messages visible only to members. The addition of SMS means that you don’t need a smartphone and good data connection. If you are using a smartphone app you get the added features of location & photo sharing and conference calls. Sensing the potential threat Facebook snapped up Beluga shortly before SXSW.

Glympse:

Want to send you location to someone quickly, easily and without telling everyone else where you are? Glympse lets you send your location (for a limited period of time) out via a link in SMS or email. The recipient can then view your location and speed. Ideal if you’re running late, meeting someone in an unfamiliar place or just want peace of mind.

Path:

With the average Facebook ‘friends’ with 120 people the idea of sharing everything becomes a bit daunting given that your parents/ colleagues etc could well be watching. Path aims to offer a more intimate experience with the intention of a smaller network of friends around 50.

Some information sourced from: http://mashable.com/2011/03/09/startups-to-watch-sxsw/

All Adverts Want For Christmas Is…

Published on Dec 15th, 2010 by Jack

One of the key features of the Christmas period is the amount of time we spend in front of the television. To advertisers, this is a Christmas present in itself as consumers are the willing victims of their seasonal TV campaigns – more so than at any other time of year. Accordingly, many brands roll out special festive messages to their audiences – some better than others. Ads like the Coca Cola truck commercials have become an appreciated part of the festive season. Others, like Iceland’s 2009 effort starring Jason Donovan and Coleen Nolan were less well received. This poses the question – what makes a good Christmas TV ad? Whilst not the ‘complete recipe’ here are three top tips:

Communicate Via Festive Traditions

When speaking to consumers at Christmas, remember what might be considered a cliché or artifice if rolled out at any other time can be used without fear of embarrassment at Christmas. This is the time when you really can have your Christmas cake and eat it!

Witness the Irn Bru effort of 2006 when Scotland’s favourite soft tipple entertained consumers to the tune of ‘Walking in the Air’. By doing so, they identified with an element of Christmas culture familiar to many consumers whilst communicating that Irn Bru is so tasty it is worth stealing from a small child (snowmen are not bound by British law it appears). Additionally, this form of communication helps to show that brands know what people do at Christmas (like watch The Snowman), nullifying views that all brands are just nakedly commercial enterprises, because like everyone else they like to celebrate Christmas themselves.

Work In Progress

Christmas ads need to be built upon in a consistent manner.  Look no further than the iconic Coca Cola Santa Claus who has been plying his trade since 1931 for a successful example of this. Is it any coincidence that arguably the most recognised Christmas advertising campaign is the one which has had the lengthiest life cycle? Supermarkets too are catching up with this idea, often delivering similarly themed festive adverts year on year but featuring different celebrities. For example, M&S have used celebrities ranging from Demi Moore to James Nesbitt to front similar festive TV campaigns. More latterly Peter Kay has joined Twiggy’s gang to deliver the Christmas fun. Why is this important? Firstly, at a time of year when consumers are faced with many difficult choices, recognisable communications may have a greater appeal vs. the unknown. Reassurance and familiarity take on an extra importance. The Christmas loving consumer will associate certain things with the festive spirit – such as a familiar ad. For the advertiser this familiarisation status is a double edged sword – needing to feel fresh YET familiar, needing to achieve year on year recognition by being consistent, progressive AND recognisable in their delivery.

Timing is Everything

Brands face a tough decision regarding when they should release their yuletide advertising campaigns. This is balanced judgement with those which launch too early, such as Tesco in previous years, risking being seen as cashing in on Christmas. Conversely, those that wait too long might find their message buried in the Christmas communications onslaught. This is critical. To avoid wear out, brands need to identify when consumers start thinking about Christmas – a question with a myriad of answers – to know when is the optimum time to start communicating their offerings. Until an answer for this problem appears, brands will just have to keep on guessing, hoping that they do not come across as exploiting Christmas or, even worse, not come across at all.

Social network research – a path to excitement and anxiety?

Published on Sep 22nd, 2010 by Jeff

Social media and social networking analysis…easily the hot topic in the market and social research fields in the past year or two.  This mingling of millions online provides the option to analyse a wide swath of any particular population without (at least theoretically) the cost or effort levels of traditional research approaches.  And as this idea has spread, so to have new tools and methodologies aimed at harnessing this opportunity.  At the moment however, the tools available to most researchers remain relatively rudimentary.

A recent article in The Economist* however provides some hints as to where the social network path could lead – paths that certainly should raise excitement in the research industry, but possibly also some concerns.

Already, mobile phone companies are analysing records to identify opinion ‘influencers’ – for instance, those who receive quick callbacks or many calls on Friday afternoons and evenings – who in theory should be the best means of targeting key social groups.  It’s both easy and exciting to think of how more nuanced tools could allow researchers to uncover these same people via social networking and blogging.

Gaining a more accurate and complete image of a country or a society will only become easier as well – no longer does such network analysis require time-consuming interaction and observation of great numbers of people.  For instance, a large-scale analysis of Lebanese websites (newspaper, social networking, etc.) has managed to accurately predict many Hizbullah rocket attacks.  While market research may be a world away from such life or death issues, if terrorist behaviour can be predicted, why not the buying interests of, say, middle class teenagers?

However, some of the possibilities in the article could raise some moral red flags if they proved effective in marketing.  The point is made that once a society has been mapped, it becomes easier to set in motion the spread of a specific idea or opinion in the same networking sites.  Already, the US government has provided grants to explore how democracy can be most efficiently and effectively encouraged in non-democratic regimes through the use of such national mapping.   While this may be all well and good for future global security, what if a company, say Apple, were able to harness the same tools to promote their products?  As marketing has become ever more nuanced, the line between advertisement and more subtle ‘conditioning’ has become more blurry.  Could these new network analysis possibilities finally push us over the line?

*Untangling the social web, The Economist (September 4-10, 2010)

The advertiser’s view of workmen: Can they fix it? No they can’t!

Published on Jun 24th, 2010 by Chris

If you were to ask a tradesman what they think of people that work in advertising, what do you think they would say? Do you think it would be anywhere near as out-dated and patronising as the view that those in advertising hold of tradesmen?

Advertising for men has often been pretty poor and with a World Cup upon us we’re inundated with the same attractive women/bad jokes based adverts we’re used to. When the agency came up with the cider slogan “maximum refreshment, minimum effort” they could have been talking about their approach to male focused adverts not just the cider in their advert.

Whilst there has been some improvement in male advertising in general, one group are stuck with the caveman image, so far as ad agencies are concerned are tradesmen. Turn on the radio and the local DIY store is advertising a new trade counter…By a few men singing badly to the tune of ‘Vindaloo’, visit the website and discover that the same chain is sending women on motorbikes round to building sites to dish out free cups to builders!

Another example is the battlefield/ cathedral based adverts featuring tradesmen for a popular cider brand. Utterly patronising no matter how ironic they claim it is! It’s made even worse by the fact that the brand is only targeting tradesman because they think they’re too cheap to buy the premium Irish competitor which everyone else seems to prefer.

So why are ad agencies so out of touch with tradesmen? Perhaps it’s their educational background, social circles etc. If that is the case we can’t expect any real change soon. Regardless It is already too late for the current world cup, but with the London Olympics expected to cause a deluge of advertising, perhaps two years is a reasonable timeframe  for ad agencies to learn how the other half live.

The Love/Hate Relationship

Published on Apr 22nd, 2010 by Ian

One thing missing from the advertising view of research these days is good old fashioned dissent. As the ad business struggles to reposition itself as relevant in a new collaborative world the previous default position of “hating all research” has become one of “supporting the constructive application of better consumer understanding”. It’s a pity and not just for its entertainment value. True, in days of yore the specially bunkered attack team whose mission was to provide a cast iron demolition of the Millward Brown AI was probably taking things a bit far and stories of hijacking groups, getting the focus group monitor “on your side” and looking for something, anything that didn’t add up in the charts were mostly fantasy there was a sense that it was an advertising agencies’ duty to dismiss research.

Now it’s not just agency chiefs mouthing supportive platitudes about the “immense help they get from the brand tracker” (often as part of some “research today” feature in Campaign Magazine) but wholesale collaboration and cuddly togetherness.

Of course it makes sense, insightful research can make a good idea a great one and listening to the consumer is usually a sensible thing to do – even Henry Ford’s maxim “the customer wanted a faster horse” came AFTER the millionth Model T rolled off the line. But the devil’s advocate can be a good friend, criticism can sharpen your game, may be the old agency position helped improve the research business.

Besides which for the film to be fun there has to be goodies AND baddies.