Archive for February, 2009

Lastminute.com just sent me an email. They’ve invited me to tune into their latest advertising campaign this weekend.

For those of you that haven’t seen the email, I’ll let lastminute explain the concept…

“On Saturday 28 February at 9.50pm, watch us (lastminute.com) on telly and win a big bundle of good stuff.

We’re creating a television first – and we want you to be part of it. Tune into ITV on Saturday 28 February at 9.50pm. Three 60 second adverts will be aired, straight after each other, starting on ITV, moving to Channel 4 and then ending on Channel 5.

It’s going to be the world’s first Mexican wave of thumbs up”

I love the idea, A novel and interesting approach and perfect for the target audience. Something fun and easy to engage with, but I can’t help feeling like they’ve got their choice of launch day a little, well, wrong.

I see their target audience, as (after a quick straw poll) most people do. As 20-35 somethings with reasonable levels of disposable income and an appetite for travel. The type of audience that are out on a Saturday night, in restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs. The type of audience that won’t see this advert this coming Saturday.

Of course lastminute.com have access to reams of consumer data, and have fantastic insight on their typical consumer profile, but I can’t help thinking that the advert break at 1:30pm between Hollyoaks, the Eastenders omnibus, and re-runs of Friends on ‘lazy’ sunday might just be more appropriate.

Maybe this is a clever ploy to capture the attention of a whole new audience? Which begs the question, how have lastmintue reached them to let them know about the 3 adverts, 3 channels idea?

This Gerbil was not eaten

O.k so the title is a little misleading. This isn’t a blog post about the new Ozzie Osbourne, no popstar has eaten any furry animals of any description and I promise no animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.

The reason for the ambiguous title is to demonstrate the power of blogs when it comes to search engine rankings.

After my latest blog post “Let’s talk about Fridges”, (didn’t see it? It’s a must read). I noticed that Google had indexed the post in less than an hour and it was proudly sitting at position number 1 in the Google rankings. I hasten to add that I wasn’t vainly searching for my own blog post, a colleague had pointed this out to me, honest!

My point, blogs work, I don’t mean I’ve finally found a whole new audience to talk about fridges too, but that google and other search engines, like blogs. Which means they should be an integral part of any SEO strategy.

I’m reliably informed by Pancentrics very own SEO guru that my blog post success is only the start, it’s actually possible to set a blog to “ping” Google every time I make a post. Google then crawls the site and my new post can be on the first page of Google for relevant searches within minutes.

Paul, our SEO guru says,

“No other form of SEO activity can deliver results this fast.

Google treats blog posts like this as they are current up to the minute pieces of content and deserve to be at the top of search results at that time.

The flip side is that, without additional SEO activity to support them, blog posts can drop down the rankings for exactly the same reasons. However, this is just one more reason to keep your blog up to date; keep blogging about your subject area and you’ll be able to appear at the top of the search results permanently.”

Thanks for that Paul.

Now for the Acid test, type ‘A popstar ate my gerbil’ into google. Look who’s top.

(This phrase will only be top for about the next 72 hours, performance after this cannot be guaranteed, your home may be at risk if you don’t keep up repayments)

O.k I’ll admit it, I can’t resist a good quote, a sound bite if you will.

They can provide inspiration, help question commonly held beliefs, and always help illustrate a point in a presentation. Which is why I thought I’d share my current favourite from the legendary Jeremy Bullmore of WPP.

“Why is a Good Insight Like a Refrigerator?”
Because the moment you look into it, a light comes on.

An old quote, yes, but timeless and absolutely true I’m sure you’ll agree.

Q: What’s a brand without a personality?
A: Nothing

If you’re a new brand, or an old one for that matter. How do you let your customers and prospects know about your personality?

How you communicate with your audience says as much for your brand as the beautiful logo and pretty creative you wrap it up in.

Brand experience occurs every time a consumer comes into contact with your brand. This audience experience must communicate equally on all levels, if the brand fails to connect on any of these touch points – albeit offline or online -  it affects the way your brand personality is perceived.

A customers digital experience can make a huge difference to the quality of interactions individuals have with brands and their services, but the quality of these interactions are often mixed.

Understanding how digital communications and platforms are going to be received by your audience goes a long way beyond the most elaborate brand guidelines documentation. It’s more complex than pixel width, or where your logo sits on the page.

In the digital realm, usability, user experience, content, copy and tone of voice can have a huge influence on brand perception and all contribute to driving that all important consumer advocacy.

The other day I was emailed a copy of Clive Humby’s ‘Brand is dead. Long live the customer’ – not another marketer telling us what we already know, I hear you cry. Well yes…. and no.

Humby’s approach on this ever popular subject is not revolutionary, but the way he conveys his message is.

Humby illustrates his point by way of a simple fable for business today. His Fable, ‘A Tale of Two Kings’ uses the language and metaphor of a child’s ‘once upon a time’ story to explore what happens when an organisation relies on the wrong measurements to determine brand value and fails to listen to its customers. This unique approach to conveying the importance of insight and understanding of audience is very entertaining, easy read, and provides an excellent format for relaying this message back to others.

The paper is brought to life with a series of original drawings of Kings Talkandtell and Askandhear and exposes the fatal flaws in conventional marketing strategies. A subject we digital strategists hold dear to our heart here at Pancentric, so I encourage one and all of you to have a quick read.

And live happily ever after (I’m sorry I couldn’t resist)

THE END (Sorry, I’ll stop)

Find a copy here – A Tale of Two Kings

As an avid reader of Seth Godin’s blog (not seen it? Check out http://sethgodin.typepad.com/) sometimes you just have to sit back and nod your head in total agreement at some of his posts.

After reading his latest post about the rational marketer and the irrational customer I thought rather than try to explain this frustration myself, I’d simply relay the words of Mr Godin.

“The most common frustration I see, and I see it daily, comes from marketers who can’t figure out why more people won’t buy their product. This particularly afflicts b2b marketers, who ostensibly have rational customers.

Let’s say, for example, that you have a service that can deliver leads for five percent of what it costs to get them via a trade show. Why would any rational business, particularly one that says it wants qualified leads, spend that money on trade shows and not on you?

I mean, you can PROVE that your system works. You can guarantee it. You can provide testimonials and real-time evidence. And yet, the person you’re calling on won’t give you money and will spend it on the traditional system, which is a total waste.

You know that your car is more aerodynamic. You know that your insulation is more effective. You know that your insurance has a higher ROI.

You’ve thought about it a lot because it’s your job to think about it. It’s your job to make those charts and tables and graphs and brochures. So you know it.

The problem is that your prospect doesn’t care about any of those things. He cares about his boss or the story you’re telling or the risk or the hassle of making a change. He cares about who you know and what other people will think when he tells them what he’s done after he buys from you.

The opportunity, then, is not to insist that your customers get more rational, but instead to embrace just how irrational they are. Give them what they need. Help them satisfy their needs at the same time they get the measurable, rational results your product can give them in the long run.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

The, dare I say it, Credit Crunch (hate that phrase) has forced the general public to tighten their belts of late. No more visits to restaurants 4 times a week, no more shopping for clothes unless they offer an 85% discount on the purchase price.

Tough times call for tough measures and highest on most peoples list seems to be money saving tips. The explosion in e-vouchers, online discount codes, and “friends and family” discount emails has been phenomenal, but only yesterday when I stumbled upon a website by Martin Lewis did it highlight to me how the credit crunch has seen the emergence of a true ‘influencer’.

Martin Lewis the brains behind website Martins Money is a well respected web commentator, unconnected to any brand, service or organisation, influencing huge numbers of consumers with his opinions & tips. Surely the perfect examples of many a marketing gurus ‘influencer’.

Imagine the following scenario – You visit Martins website because you’re looking for a discount voucher for dinner that evening, which restaurant will you visit, you haven’t decided yet. But, you can bet it will be one of the restaurants he lists vouchers for! How’s that for influencing consumers decisions?

Welcome to another James who joins our ranks (that’s three now!). James Bruce joined first thing in 09 and is heading up our Creative operation. He was formerly with the BBC working as Creative Director (User Experience & Design) and before that Deputy Creative Director at Cimex. In the few weeks he’s been with us he’s overhauled the structure of our creative operation and recruited additional senior creative talent. James brings over 10 years digital creative experience and a host of award winning work that includes a BIMA, IVCA Clarion award and a Webby. We’re hoping his award-winning track record will continue at Pancentric.

Interesting to hear John Micklethwait the editor of the Economist on the BBC Today programme this morning talking about his readership.

He says that rather than thinking about them in terms of Income, Intelligence, etc. they have started thinking in a more psychometric way and asking “how curious they are”, and whether they would be interested in Australia. This opens up a whole new way of thinking about audiences.

Part of what we do is consider personas, and by adding these aspects into the mix you could end up asking better, more informative questions like; how connected are they; do they evangelise; will they scan or dig through my content?

This leads on to better ways of communicating and engaging as well and raises the question as to whether one should consider using NLP techniques when writing copy. Ensuring that there are trigger words aimed at eliciting responses in the different types of personality.

I for one remember downloading Seth Godin’s e-book “Permission Marketing” way back in 1999, and what a fabulous tome that was.

So it’s both sad and joyful to see that he is still beating the same drum, 9 years later as this link to his blog shows http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/email-campaign-case-studies-one-good-one-bad.html

About time we ALL got this methinks