I just stumbled across such a simple idea entitled ‘I Wear Your Shirt’. Basically some guy in America will wear any T-Shirt for a 24 hour period. Some of the companies have included Cruise Liners, Tooth Paste Brands, Social Media Websites etc.
The idea is that an advertiser buys the day at face value so, for example, January 1st = $1 and December 31st = $365. All days for 2009 are fully booked however he is planing on teaming up with a mate from a different time zone for 2010 and selling the spaces at double the price (2 people!).
Here is what you get for you hard earned dollar:
This year he will be set to make $67,000! Check the site out at: http://iwearyourshirt.com/
I have noticed that Kingsmill have moved away from generic advertising in their latest campaign ‘Kingsmill Confessions’. The offline creative has a strong call to action which directs users to www.kingsmillconfessions.com. On this site the user is then directed to enter their confessions relating to their hard core bread eating habits.
I liked the fact that Kinsgmill is breaking the mould for a normally boring sector. I then, however, got a wave of ”will this really, ever work!?”. I had a look at the website and one thing that increased by cynicism is the fact that the amount of ‘confessions’ that have been submitted is not obvious. One main thing consumers are pushing for is greater transparency and one part of me felt that it felt like a lot of the confessions had been set up by the agency looking after the campaign.
I guess one main reason why I am so skeptical is due to the fact that, historically, FMCG brands have never encouraged a dialogue with the consumer. This dialogue my be welcomed with open arms or consumers may feel confused as to why they should ‘chat’ to a brand with which they interact with very little throughout their normal day. I feel that expensive goods such as TVs, cars etc. should be encouraging this open dialogue and use it as part of their R&D to help improve goods before they come on the market, consumers also want to to talk about these goods more as they hit their pocket harder and, by extension, the consumer feels more of an emotional attachment.
One can easily argue that I am thinking too much from a DR perspective and I am not fully appreciating the brand engagement that this sort of activity can bring about, especially during a recession where brand affinity is even more important to keep one step ahead of competitors when the better times start to emerge once more.
Guerrilla marketing has been around for decades but these terms always come from some Marketing Exec wanting to label everything. Essentially it is marketing a product in a space that, at first, would not seem to be a contextual fit. It is about ad placement that interacts seamlessly with the environment in which it is placed.
Guerrilla advertising can be very effective for brand awareness and making people think however there has been limited experimentation especially with more DR focused brands as they can not quantify the returns on these advertising stunts. There are also many examples where brands have tried to be ‘hip’ and failed miserably as also happens lot with viral marketing.
Francesco Mugnai has documented an extensive list of successful examples.
It was announced yesterday that Google picked up Admob for a cool $750m. Currently Google has been dabbling with content network ads on iPhone apps and Android phone apps but they have never really had an ad network similar to it’s Content Network on phones.
This buy will allow Google to display small banner ads on the top of applications:
Example of Google Admob
This buy is exceptionally good considering Admob only had an original Venture Capitalist investment of $45m according to Crunchbase.com – not a bad way to beat the credit crunch!
Google are really going to have to think of some innovative applications of Admob as there are already several mobile ad networks in the market currently but one can assume, due to Google’s huge volumes of advertisers, that their new purchase will start gaining strong foothold in the market.
It was clear from the onset of the US Presidential Elections Obama had one of the best marketing teams known to man. Not only was the election historic in terms of the first black president being elected, it was also one of the first that took marketing to the next level and used all forms of medium in an effective manner. Medium used:
Obama’s campaign was also noted for the groundbreaking way in which social media was successfully used to engage and arm voters, not merely as a fad. I have just stumbled upon a report carried out by Endelman which covers Obama’s use of social media in thorough detail - social-pulpit-barack-obamas-social-media-toolkit-109.
Summary:
The whole social media mix had 4 main stages, Crawl, Walk, Run, fly and there was online monitoring through all of these stages to analyse the success (or failure) and optimise towards the best solution for each stage. The succes behind this was very simplistic; it firstly captured individuals and slowly turned them into supporters (obviously this worked due to the strength of Obama’s manifesto and ideals). Secondly once these non-bias individuals became supporters they were then armed with richer content which served to educate them of Obama’s idealism’s. Once this was done these individuals effectively became mini canvassers themselves. This was due to people using their own social media (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) to spread the word. One of humans most trustworthy source of information is through our peer groups as we feel we know these people and what they say we can relate to. The whole backbone of these 4 stages served as a small hook dangling bait to a fish and once converted the individuals themselves became huge trawling nets used to pull in friends and family.
The other key learning companies and politicians can gain from his use of social media is how to make sure the content is not only portraying a message but more importantly is seen to talk with the people not at them. Without this the campaign would have alienated itself as people would not have felt a part of the process. Some ways in which this was achieved was via email updates and more importantly the way Obama was completely open behind ‘closed doors’ such as personal images of him behind the scenes with his family which allowed the people to touch a deeper level with, what in history has been regarded an untouchable figure head, the Peoples President. Essentially what was done during the elections could be set as the milestone for others to follow, learn from and expand even further.
“Oh, must be a bad time for advertising though?” – This is regularly the first thing that gets thrown at me whilst mentioning the career I have chosen to take on. Well…the answer to this is no and to be honest it is a narrow minded opinion amongst most (not just people but also brands).
During a recession obviously people tighten their belts significantly. Whilst this occurs the last thing people want to buy is the unknown especially over a certain price threshold. Your day to day items such as groceries will still get purchased, that’s a given. On goods that are seen more as luxuries, brand plays a more important role than it did before the economic downturn.
Whilst advertising is seeing a slowdown in profits this year it is not the doom and gloom that people first imagine. Short term thinking companies are cutting budgets as marketing budgets are the easiest to claw money from with, supposedly, very little effects. Whilst this is true, the effects are more long term and comes back to haunt companies in longer time periods especially if competitors in their sector carried on pumping money into marketing to re-inforce a ‘trusting’ brand (or whatever image is deemed good by the consumer of that product) as they inevitably will overtake in terms of brand uplift and, consequently, increased sales.
Now this is where my bias comes into the equation. Add this fore ward thinking from companies and combine it with the ‘new’ world of Digital advertising and you have a match made in heaven. The world of the Internet obviously reaches millions but the real advantage is the accountability clients can obtain which allows a far higher knowledge of ROI (return on investment, a standard buzz word thrown about by marketing folk!). This year we are and will continue to see a growth in digital especially as there is a shift from traditional offline adverts to mobile and Internet. Don’t get me wrong; I am not insinuating TV etc. is dead. They have an important role in brand building exercises during better times. With the likes of BBC’s iPlayer and Channel 4 OD how long will it be until TV enters the digital realm?
So hopefully this has helped to persuade some of you pessimists out there that advertisng is still doing well and more companies should be looking at the long term when assessing their brand in the market place.
