Graham Rust at Rust Klemperer in Prague just sent me a link to this film and I thought that it was worth highlighting. Its just a nice, simple, inexpensive and clever solution with excellent copywriting that suits the character of the brand and that makes you think. There’s not enough of this kind of thing around a the moment.
The film was made by Khaki Films and, thanks to the producer Zoe Uffindell who has added the details to this post as a comment, we now know who contributed.
Its customary at this time of year for folks to publish predictions, so, not to be left out here are mine.
The fundamental changes that have come about in everybody’s lives in the last year and which continue to some extent, have demanded a new approach to marketing – “New Model Marketing” – and for a few years now I have been just one of many people propagating four mutually-dependant ideas that are at the heart of this new Paradigm.
Insights and new kinds of data management and analysis are essential if we are to achieve the necessary levels of efficiency and new ways of communicating with members of our brand community – that’s employees, investors and partners as well as customers – will be essential to the development of these relationships and the growth of any business. I have always included IT people in my Full Effect project teams, but until recently we have been struggling like everyone else with Heath Robinson adaptations of tools designed for accounting purposes. Now, at last there are early signs that the IT guys are on-board and applying their skills to the kind of solutions we need.
My predictions for 2010 are:
1 – 2010 will herald the arrival of the first of a new generation of data management tools that will really make a difference. Its not that the nerds have been slow to do their job, but that marketers failed to get their brief in on time and the direction that the treadmill has taken ever since was dictated by the bean-counters who beat us to the draw. However, the computer guys have hung around their new marketing mates for long enough now, the penny has dropped, they’re on the job and the potential of the great hardware that we have been developing in recent years will finally be realised with the emergence of a new kind of software that will bring us closer to the reality of delivering unique and compelling messages to individual customers rather than bludgeoning (and frequently pissing-off) broad segments.
I’m not one of those people who believes that there are aspects of marketing that cannot be measured. I’m looking for a return on every dime my clients invest, which means I don’t get a lot of Xmas cards from the old PR school that seems to me to exist in a kind of mystical, non-accountable fug. This year I’m counting on the arrival of tools that will enable me and other marketers to more clearly understand the influence of every communications tool in our integrated strategies.
2 – This year we’ll see someone new step in and show us what “new media” is really all about. I despair at the failure of traditional media to respond to the opportunities (yes I did say opportunities!) presented by the arrival of on-line. The paid for v. free debate continues, but we are still at the starting blocks as far as either option is concerned. Steve Davies’ Skiddmark looks like a promising model, but there’s more out there and the race is on. Hold on to your hats!
3 – Someone is about to get their act together and deliver a real user-driven experience that combines attractive programming, quality production and quality delivery. I have been very disappointed recently by a few mobile content providers. Perform Group look as though they might be getting there, but where are the others?. Let’s see who turns up for the party.
4 – Social networking will come into its own with the first of a new generation of communities driven by intuitive computing that more closely reflects the kind of judgements we all make about the people we mix with – another step closer to the deep and meaningful “Brandships” that have been at the heart of Full Effect Marketing for years. I don’t belive that FaceBook is a panacea. I’m all for social networking (Its what my Brand Discovery programme is all about), but there are millions of businesses for whom the current social networking venues and resources don’t add up to anything, but a distraction from the real game. Web 2.0 is a blunt instrument, but if you aren’t already involved you’ll not be ready to make the transition to WEb 3.0 which is where the real benefits will emerge.
2010 – new levels of accountability, relevant media, the content we want and real understanding of our customers. – Bring it on!
Posted in brand, Brand promise, branding, brands, brandships, communications, community, data, data analysis, efficiency, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, integrated marketing, integration, media, on-line, on-line publishing, phil darby, promise, publishing, Social marketing, Social networking, The Full Effect Company, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, Web 3.0
I have never been able to resist a bargain. That is why I love guerrilla marketing – Hey its usually free or almost free, who could say no? Especially when you can build it into any integrated strategy to such good effect. I have never understood why so many organisations look down on guerrilla as though it was appropriate only to small businesses. I was working with an on-line publisher last year and came up with a neat little initiative that demonstrates just what can be done.
Our target was English-speaking businessmen with an interest in Central European markets. The problem was one of awareness and the need to increase subscriptions. I’m not a great fan of trade shows normally, partly because the cost of running a stand that is professional enough to give the right impression, more often than not, makes the idea non-viable. However, if you don’t need a stand …
There was no doubt about it, major Central European trade shows were the most likely places to find the people we were looking for in any numbers, so we identified those with the highest visitor numbers from the most appropriate sectors of industry and called the organisers with a simple proposition – We would run advertising for their event in exchange for a free go-anywhere pass for our group of promoters and the go-ahead to distribute a card promoting a free offer that was bound to enhance the value of the show (In fact we ended up with a whole lot more than that). The offer was a free limited period subscription to our publication (providing local CE market intelligence), which, if people signed up to it, would give us a great database and the opportunity to up-sell to paid-for subscriptions or just add permanent free subscribers with limited access who would add value to our offer to advertisers and sponsors. The show organisers, to my surprise and delight, nearly snatched our hand off!
Another great thing about initiatives like this is their flexibility. We had no idea how this would perform so we opted for a two-month test-phase with an extended programme set up and ready to go the first month looked good. Buoyed by the enthusiasm of trade show organisers, we decided to test a secondary target – employees of international firms that congregate in the large office complexes that you see around major Central European cities – and approached the largest property management companies with an offer similar to that we had made to the trade show organisers – free advertising in exchange for access to the lobbies of their buildings at peak times. Same result!
That gave us two full months of promoter activity, with the office complex element filling in between the trade shows, which made maximum use of the promoters that we hired and trained for the client specially for the campaign. Of course, the design of the material that the promoters were handing out and their sensitivity in selecting targets from the thousands of visitors to these shows and offices were critical factors in the efficiency of the first level of the campaign, but from there by funnelling responses through a carefully constructed CRM programme, we could generate revenue from subscriptions, boost readership/site visits and therefore enhance our value to advertisers, as well as sell ongoing advertising to show organisers and exhibitors. Every card we handed out carried a unique promotion code designating where and when it was handed out, respondents entered the code to sign up for their trial, which gave use useful data too and we used that to strengthen our argument to the trade show organisers and exhibitors when we sold them advertising. We also included all respondents in our new “recommend a friend” promotion, which caused a snowball effect. We did the whole thing for the kind of cost you could cover from petty cash – literally and the payback was way beyond anything that marketers would expect from a traditional campaign.
Guerrilla marketing definitely isn’t the reserve of small businesses and I’ve used all forms in many different ways over the years. Taken seriously and partnered with the capability in other areas that large organisations always have, the effect of any investment can be magnified many times over. Elements such as those that we used on this initiative have such a high pay-back level anyway, that they can’t help but improve the average ROI of any marketing strategy.
Posted in below-the-line, business development, business strategy, central europe, communications, CRM, efficiency, Full Effect, Full Efffect Marketing, Guerrilla, Guerrilla marketing, integrated marketing, integration, marketing, on-line publishing, phil darby, publishing, strategy, The Full Effect Company, Trade shows, Training, Uncategorized
The common dilemma of on-line publishers has always been whether they should derive revenue from subscriptions or advertising. The choice for most has been the arguably simpler advertising route. But times have changed and some at least are being forced to question that wisdom. Is it too late?
Early in the on-line publishing revolution proponents appear to have developed a consensus that said it wasn’t possible to have a model that generated revenues from both subscriptions and advertising. Its easy to see how they arrived at that decision, the criteria for ad. sales is, after all, site traffic, but traffic is limited when payment is required for access.
However, with advertising revenues falling and costs escalating, more than a few publishers are wishing they could go back and start again. Readers are happy of course, and its a brave and optimistic man who will hang his reputation on persuading them to pay for what they already have for free. Besides, while free access, will broaden your visitor profile, advertisers expect tight targeting and to some extent that’s what the web is all about. So, is there another solution?
Maybe its time to change the way we view publishing? That’s all types on-line and off. Last year I was involved with a number of publishers who were all, internally at least, questioning their traditional understanding of the business they were in. All healthy stuff.
To me, publications have always represented the epitome of a brand. I have said many times in this blog and elsewhere that brands are communities, held together by common interests, beliefs and values and publications, especially specialist press, are just that.
Mature operators in other sectors have come to recognise that selling anything is a whole lot simpler and requires far less investment if everyone you approach shares the same perspective. That’s why brand development is so important. The problem for publishers is that so few of them have leveraged their communities as, say an fmcg brand might do. Basically, they have set up a really great store, but it has a very limited offer. My belief is that now is the time for publishers to recognise that their business isn’t necessarily publishing, but that this is merely the means they have to gather an audience to whom they can make revenue-generating offers of pretty well any products and services that might appeal to their community members.
I’m not the only person who is thinking this way. One of the UK’s biggest publishers (it wouldn’t be fair for me to say who) are developing a new strategy on this basis already and others are certainly discussing it. I am working with another right now whose future clearly lies in diversification. Of course, there is always the danger that diversification stretches resources and distracts managers from their core business, but we are developing a model that overcomes that and I can see a number of alternative routes to the same objective.
You don’t need me to tell you that times are hard and they’ll get tougher yet. If your business is struggling now you are likely to be among the millions of victims of the economic downturn, so what better time (I guess you could have done it already) to take a radical look at your business model.
There’s a silver lining in every cloud and if a publisher sees their future in owning interests in diversified businesses that could be fed by his community, there are a whole lot of struggling businesses with great products who are open to a very favourable deal right now. And, once you get your corporate head around the paradigm shift, a switch like this isn’t that difficult to bring about, and it can happen very quickly.
I realise, that there are publishers who have so far been able to perfect that balancing act between subscriptions and advertising. The result is usually a really great, tightly defined and high value community that advertisers prize. But it is a balancing act that’s going to get tough to carry off and this doesn’t exclude these publishers from the opportunity. In fact, it could be even more lucrative when starting from a base as stable as theirs. Worth a thought I think.
Mailto: phil@thefulleffect.com
