The Art of the Trench is an awesome site by Burberry. On first glance it looks like professional photos of lots of people, models, children in their Burberry trench coats. It is actually user generated content of good looking trendy peeps and their kids, fabulously photographed, looking really cool in an eclectic mix of locations. I'd say this goes further for the brand image and says more about style than staged shots of models. I recommend that you take a look, I really like this site http://artofthetrench.com/.>
The Made in China brand campaign to improve the image of things that are made in China is a tough one. Tip of the iceberg in improving image, there are many things to be addressed - like the quality, conditions, breadth of products made under the Made in China label, length of time negative perception has been around. I do like the Made with the World line though. Interesting to see how this campaign pans out. Skoda did it.
Anyone remember the original car parking video when the BMW drove over another car in a car park? Well the other car was a Hyundai and this is Hyundai Canda's response. Great move for the brand. Great use of social media and PR. Great win for the customer.
This is the latest campaign by Wilkinson Sword supporting Movember.
I have a love hate thing going on with Movember. I love the work the charity is doing, the campaigns are excellent, the way that Movember has has taken off all over the world is amazing. The only thing is, that men all over the world, in every office, every bar, walking the streets spend a whole month looking freaky, scary, like they should be avoided at all costs. And to go with the mo - seems to come the accompanying dress sense.
I love this vision. The future of marketing and advertising is: - Collaborative - Generous - Experimental - Helpful - Playful - Personal - Honest - Participatory
Weird. Creepy. The point of creating something like this completely escapes me. Yeah any publicity is good publicity and all that - and the Microsoft 7 Launch Party is getting talked about - but seriously....?
Quite a pointless exercise really but still great to see AR working in advertising. Think my little brother and sister would love to see themselves online though. Will definitely get them interacting with this banner.
Strong claim. I'm inclined to think that the majority of people will think that this is too extreme as there is plenty of evidence to show that a balanced diet which does contain meat is perfectly healthy and has been for centuries. I don't think that this message will resonate.
The love of a chocolate tasting club. Eagerly awaited each delivery. My mum has been in The Chocolate Tasting Club for a couple of years now. This time, they were for me :)
The Chocolate Tasting Club is the loyalty club of the famous and delicious Hotel Chocolat, which has shops all over the country including an outlet in Harrods. The whole experience is really indulgent and true to the whole concept of tasting. With your much anticipated delivery of chocolates, you get your tasting menu and scorecard. Although it's also nice just to eat them!
The Kent Cupcakery make truly beautiful cupcakes. The designs are honestly so pretty, almost as the cliche goes.. too good to eat. I love getting updates via Twitter on what's just been baked. Such a great idea and use of social media. Here's the blog http://thekentcupcakery.blogspot.com/
I definitely think that advertisers have a responsibility to spell correctly. Advertisements are made to be seen and read by the general public and with the decline in writing ability, I think spelling correctly becomes even more important. Yes there is the argument about using language which is appropriate to the target market - 'round Essex' possibly works colloquially but in print, I have my doubts if this is right.
The Guardian followed up the campaign and avoided the 'round/around' issue by using 'cycle' through Essex. Whereas Google's 'Did You Mean' got it right with a 'Did you mean cycle around Essex'.
Today a friend asked me what Online PR was. Here's my topline summary:
Online PR is the process of using digital channels for communicating messages about a company, brand, product, service or person. This includes influencing online news channels, search engines, bloggers, forum discussions, social networks and video channels.
Before you can consider any of this, you need a home for your online PR efforts. This is your website and/or blog. A place that people hopefully want to visit, that people can find easily... and of course a place which is interesting, inspiring and useful for the people that visit it.
Making the most out of your website
Make sure that your business and marketing strategy is executed through your website. Ensure that your website communicates your messages in a consistent way but uses creativity to deliver the message so that it doesn't get tired. Create content that your target market wants to read, find out through other business channels such as customer service or site search statistics what that is for your company. Make regular content updates and create more reasons for people to keep visiting your website.
Use your blog to publish your own news releases, offer feeds to RSS readers and by email and provide ShareThis functionality to allow readers to share or bookmark your content. Make it useable.
Getting your story picked up by news channels
It is best to use an online PR distribution service to help you get your message to all the people that might be interested in seeing it. This includes journalists, international news sites, bloggers and various special interest groups. Popular newswire site PRWeb manages your press releases so that they don't get missed in the masses of PR that gets released every second of every day. PR Newswire is an alternative service that offers similar services. The following video explains in plain English how PR Web's newswire works:
Writing influential press or social media releases
It's not enough to just write a release and expect it to be of interest outside your company. Make sure that you find an angle and keep it concise and focused and keep it to about 400 words. If you make it timely to your audience it will be more relevant. Also use relevant examples that support your message. Don't forget to include images, quotations, video, or audio files as these add interest to the story. A short background on your company at the end creates context but doesn't detract from the main message.
Your press releases should not be the same as your advertising and they should not sound the same. Think about what people want to know, provide them with the facts and keep it objective. Marketing campaign headlines and copy are a definite no-no. Transparency is key in social media channels. See what PRWeb has to say about how to write an effective press release.
If you want your press release to be shared, make sure that it includes tags and links to the relevant news sharing and bookmarking sites such as Technorati, Digg, Delicious.
Optimising press releases for search engines
To be found by the search engines, your press releases need to be optimised for the web. This means that the press release needs to have search friendly headlines. The number of characters in a search engine friendly headline varies by source Jacob Neilson says on average 5 words, Digg headlines are 60 characters. It's important to include relevant keywords in the headline, in the description or summary and also in the body copy. Don't forget to include keywords on your images, video or audio files as these will be picked up too. SEO is important for online PR because this is how your content is picked up by the search engines to be found by potential readers.
Influencing bloggers
To be considered as part of the blogosphere you have to participate. That means, write a blog, comment on other people's blogs, link to other bloggers' posts. Not only is a blog the best place to update your content on an ongoing basis, it’s a permanent place for content on your brand to live on your website. Once you have your blog, make sure you keep it updated with relevant content that your target audience want to engage with. Interact with other bloggers, link to relevant stories that they have written and they will do the same if it's of interest.
Be warned that sending a press release randomly to a blogger that you have no relationship with, my result in a negative blog post. Or at the very least, amount to nothing. Also be aware that bloggers can now get fined up to $11,000 by the FTC by not declaring financial incentives they may be receiving for blogging on a particular brand, product or service.
Influencing social networks
Social networks are the new buzz in marketing. Neilsen report that social networks are now more popular than email. There are many different kinds of social networks; the most popular ones include Facebook, My Space, Twitter, Friendfeed and Linked In. More and more businesses are finding ways to integrate with social networks, providing reason for people to link with them. With 96% of US online retailers say that they either have or will have a Facebook Fan page and 91% will be using Twitter in the next year, marketers need to start focusing on the quality of their social media interactions. See more emarketer stats on social media adoption.
Presence on social networks needs to be engaging. What does your audience want and expect from your brand. Will they subscribe to you for news and information, like Mashable on Facebook and Twitter? Will they become a fan because your brand is cool and provides entertaining content, like Rubberduckzilla on Facebook. Are they interested in a new campaign you've created, like Lucozade Energy on Facebook? Do they want to know about offers, like DellOutlet on Twitter? Whatever your message is, you need to be delivering value in your social network activities or it will not work. Social networks are consumer spaces and they will link with you if you provide reason to, not just because you're there.
Becoming part of discussions
By monitoring what people are saying about your brand, your company, your products or your competitors on the web, you are more likely to be able to engage in real-time conversations. Buzz monitoring let’s you know who’s saying what, where they are saying it and when it was said. Social media monitoring services such as Radian 6 track real-time conversations and enable you to act quickly on the buzz whether you are responding to a sales request, customer service issues or reputation management issues.
Getting your message watched on video channels
The usage of online video continues to rise. Video is an effective way of communicating a message, particularly if it's explaining a new service, demonstrating a new product or showcasing interviews. Video is also a great to enhance creatively-led messages or enhance social media campaigns with video blogging posts. Video sites such as You Tube, Hulu, Vimeo and Metacafe provide content providers with the opportunity and network to upload videos which can be search for by hundreds of thousands of online video users.
Skills of a new PR person
In an online discussion about social media today, the skills of an online PR suggested and retweeted as being a mix of branding and marketing, search marketing, blogging, social media and someone technology capable. PR is an all encompassing discipline.
Wish I'd been there to see this presentation. Philip Kotler breaks down modern marketing to getting into the Mind, Heart, Spirit of the INDIVIDUAL by tailoring COMPANY Mission, Vision and Values to Satisfy, Aspire and show Compassion to the Individual.
Resulting in being Better, Differentiation and making a Difference.
To me there is nothing with the values and how to do it but it is the tailoring to the Mind, Heart and Spirit of the consumer that is new. I like this.
When I saw a friend update a facebook status with an open-invitation to join the next T-Mobile ad, I was so excited. What a cool idea. The first campaign was such a great success that it was copied in many different forms across the globe. In Belgium, Vancover, Brighton.
I didn't make it to the event and now everytime I see the ad, I'm really annoyed with myself for getting distracted by another social event and not going. But hey, that's life. The ad is great and the experience would have been even better (even though I can't sing.
The new T-mobile ad aired on Channel 4 on 16th Jan 2009, by 10pm on 18th Jan it had had 690,782 views on You Tube. It is a brilliant ad.
This is the first ad that I've seen that seems to have found inspiration from other You Tube videos. I'm not saying that it's been copied, I'm just noticing the similarity and I'm interested creative inspiration has been found from a new media source. It shows the balance of power continues to move towards the people with the event of user generated content. Judge for yourself if you think there are similarities.
Today I watched an amazing video about the Asics brand story. Thanks to Gabriel Rossi for bringing this to my attention.
This is not any old boring marketing video; what's so engaging is that it is told in origami. If you have ever tried origami or even have been able to make an paper aeroplane fly better than spiraling into the television, you'll appreciate the true beauty of this style of the story-telling.
It's also a great story of how the Asics brand grew, from humble beginnings on a borrowed desk in a single room in Japan. It was a piece of octopus stuck to the bottom of a bowl which created the inspiration for the first pair of basketball shoes, with suction pads on the sole. That was in 1951.
Asics has now got state of the art research and production facilities; it sells 30 million shoes a year, has appeared on the winning podiums at every Olympics since 1964 and is worn by every second runner in the New York Marathon. Pretty impressive. What's really lovely about the Asics story is that still holds the values it held when it started: 'sound mind, sound body'.
The lesson told is that 'it's the beginning of the end when you start to appreciate your own success'. All business and all brands have to start somewhere. Thus begins their story. What's also true is that they need to keep developing their story, their products and keep on delivering on their promise. Otherwise the story will change for them.
I believe story-telling is an art that we are losing over the generations. People don't tell stories as much as they used to, not as many of us have a faith and tv and internet have brought storytelling out of the family. I believe that user generated content is starting to bring story-telling back as people start to wonder about their own story and are now telling it online to thousands of people across the world.
Happy go lucky marketer with a passion for brands. Love shopping, positive people and happy times. I'm new to blogging even though I've been on here for a couple of years, I never got it off the ground. My blogs are an attempt to do something for myself and potentially be interesting to someone else. If not, please be kind.
I aim to build a collection of musings about brands and marketing. Good, bad and indifferent. I am interested in looking at the success and failures of our branding and marketing efforts.
I love the way that marketing is changing and I think that it has more of an impact on our lives everyday. There are some marketers out there who really don't get the full impact of the change and how branding is more important than ever with the impact of social media. The companies that have great products, do branding well and are engaging in social media are the ones that capture the hearts of the world. I love that.
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