Consumer engagement: creativity to stand out

As we are all well aware, us (as consumers) are bombarded with constant communications and messages from organisations. In the 1970’s people were exposed to about 500 messages per day. Now, the daily figure is about 5000! As a result, we have become subconsciously adept at filtering or screening these direct communications out. It is believe that a commuter is exposed to 350 messages within an hour journey, yet can recall only 1 brand or message unprompted!

So, brands and organisations needed to become starter. Advertorials are one way of sneaking under the radar to a certain extent, or focusing on PR activity. I’m not going to talk about those more traditional functions, but merely getting more creative and interesting mediums to get their messages across.

I’m just going to discuss a few effective ways to engage consumers, that will cut through all of the clutter and noise and leaving a lasting impression.

1: Escalators

Back to one of my favourites, ambient marketing – this time in conjunction with advertising. Similarly to my snow post, natural surroundings are vast with opportunity to draw attention to brands or retailers. Albeit less opportunistic and more controlled, hand rails or escalators offer a fantastic platform to gain attention. Being relatively new, this is a good talking point and stands out due to novelty. Furthermore, for local businesses, how great to say turn right at the bottom directly close proximity football to your store or offer!

However, I do feel this is a short term tactic, as once becomes more common on escalators, im sure people will frown more upon this, either ignoring it and drawing negative feelings towards the advertiser.

For more fantastic examples visit Escalator Advertising

2: 3D Holograms

I have seen this carried out in numerous ways, usually to draw footfall into the location of show. Passers by are intrigued and drawn to the shop, only to find out its not real. It creates excitement and great viral and PR potential. Not to mention is transportable or highly flexible (as opposed to constantly employing or transporting real people!) 

Don’t feel this limits its potential though... Imagine brands or users visible in prime locations and tourist destinations doing stunts or exciting activities, only to magically disappear or reveal a brand name. Someone stripping on the London Eye only to reveal branding, celebrities hanging out with your clothing on, or drinking your drink, even a montage of clips... You get the idea. Better still, imagine retailers replacing traditional manikin shop window displays with moving, interacting hologram models or a catwalk.

3: Product Placement

Whilst on the rise, especially due to new legislation in the UK, product placement offers great potential for brands. It draws stronger and usually more discreet brand associations and perceptions.

 Im not going to talk much about this as it speaks for itself, but merely leave you with provocative thought on it to hopefully stimulate some thinking... Will product placement replace TV advertising? Take the recent Britney spears latest song ‘Hold It Against Me’ (no, im not a fan!) but it is rumoured to have made $500,000 due to various product placements including Plenty of Fish and Sony. My point being, music video’s arguably have longer lifespans than ads, they connect with more specific target audiences and detailed segments than TV commercials, is more subconscious, more emotional and grows stronger preference and associations than TV ads. So, why shouldn’t certain brands focus on placement within suitable pop stars videos, as opposed to TV?

4: Good old fashioned publicity stunt (and now virally applicable)

I could list one of many, but i’ll stick to one old, one new: Gail Porter on the Houses of Parliament / Big Ben for FHM, F*** OFF with the lighting on Harrods. Before the days of social media, the FHM stunt was covered in almost all national tabloid and press, not to mention television and radio media discussion and reporting. It portrayed a cheeky playful image and risque personality - perfectly matched to the brand.
The Christmas lights were rumoured to be engineered by a disgruntled employee to show his feelings - it wasn't in fact real, but some smart image editting. It become and twitter and google trend, gained physical media coverage and sparked  great interest in Harrod's over the festive period. Although not inline with brand image and repuation, the effect of free national exposure and publicity and stimulated word of mouth activity provided a timely boost to business. It is not even clear if Harrods was at all involved with the stunt, or someone who thought it would be funny! Once it was released that the story behind it was not actually true, no long term malice or repuational impact was felt by Harrods.

The point here is to be creative, original and contain elements of surprise or shock in order to grab attention. (Note: Swearing or nudity isn’t vital)! Oh, and once again, notice the use of the surrounding environment and location to engage more!  

These are a few ideas how to be the 1/350 that consumers do remember! Next time your out all day, try and remember what messages you actually saw and notice which ones had a lasting effect. It will probably only be a select few, and from brands you adore or were considering to purchase at the time of seeing the communication anyway. As marketeers, we have to realise these challenges, and manage to engage and cut through everything else!

Could Robin Hood just keep on robbing?

What have Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and a popular BBC TV drama got in common? - they all have a love for dancing around in green tights.

Now, you probably know what i'm on about, but lets set the scene... 15^th century England on the outskirts of Nottingham. A heroic outlaw robs from the rich, to give to the poor. I’m sure you’re familiar with the folklore stories, or the modern day cinematic interpretations of Robin Hood. While all remakes have differences, the idea remains the same.

Now, let’s look at this in a very abstract manner – Robin himself as a business. He is the brand, and is the MD as well. The organisation is effectively Robin alongside his band of Merry Men. Quite simply, his business was stealing from the rich... with the mission to pay ransom for the release of King Richard ‘the Lion Heart’.  (Note: Depending on which Robin Hood story you read, this may not be the case.)

So, could Robin just keep on robbing?

Lets start bringing in some marketing implications of the above. Contrary to most modern day firms, Robin would not want word of mouth to spread – this could potentially harm his revenue streams with the rich knowing where he resides and operates! Similarly, he does not want to reach a tipping point to quickly whereby the following him and attempt to join suddenly. This growth would be vastly unsustainable, and being unplanned it would be very awkward to manage. 

Lets explore why this would be the case;  Firstly, lets face it, he only has limited rich people to rob! So, more employees in his Merry Men does not necessarily mean more income. Secondly, after inspiring the poor, his Merry Men would have an influx of interest to grow too quickly, he can’t feed them all – this can be seen as modern day mission creep. Finally, a larger group of Merry Men increase the risk of loosing control and accountability over individuals behaviour. So, looking internally at his company, Robin must unconditionally trust the honesty and loyalty of a select family like team. These reasons highlight the key as to why Robin desired an air mythicalism and definitely wanted to appear unreachable, by both the poor and the rich alike.

Many of Robin’s public rescues Maid Marian and the defacing of the Sheriff of Nottingham can be seen as publicity stunts. In the same way as many modern day publicity stunts or viral campaigns, they engaged people on an emotional level building loyalty and following.

Additionally, his actions fail to straddle between of rational and emotion. His relationship with Lady Marian and The Sherriff of Nottingham affected his decisions and actions, making them very emotive and personal, not planned rational business decisions or strategic judgments. Quite accordingly, these regularly ad hoc actions pose the greatest risk to himself and his allies.

If Robin wanted (or needed to as a result of personnel growth) to expand his income, how would he do it? A simple solution would be how many modern day organisations look to expand – by moving into new markets. Robin could take his successful model, and transfer it to another forest. Alternatively, he could follow Ansoff’s diversification model and develop a new product. Maybe the poor pay Robin in commodities for his continual services, or he could try to negotiate an almost subscription fee from the rich so as not to rob them!

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail”

So, to summarise, whilst Robin is very aware what his business and income streams are, he lacked long term visions and planning. His lack of plans and spontaneous emotional decisions placed great risk on his organisation. So while this may seem a strange, crude, analysis... it is clear to see the value of emptying your mug viewing things from a different angle. It open your thought process up and broadens your understanding from restrictions placed on it. Why not see Indiana Jones or Superman a business?!

Back to the real world applications: This scenario highlights the need for all decisions to be planned, based around solid research and understanding, and that all tactics fit within the indentified long term strategy. Next time rapid growth is achieved by an organisation, do not solely focus on the visible success, but also consider problems encountered and potentially forthcoming as a result.  

Thanks to @EliotStrategy for inspiring this post. Join his twitter and newly launched blog for more strategic discussions. 

What happens in 2 hours online!?!

So, exactly what does happen in 2 hours on the internet?

Petra Neiger, a Cisco employee and blogger, spent 2 hours travelling from San Jose to the San Francisco International Airport last week. The journey was so painful she felt inspired to find out what happens on social media - and not surprisingly, reported some enormous findings...

So, in just 120 minutes: 396,000 million searches on google were done! 5.4 million fresh tweets and 5 million new status published on Facebook published. 1.6 million Facebook applications were installed, and 25,000 new users joined Twitter. Not to mention the 167 million videos on Youtube were viewed. Oh, and itunes sold ONLY 334,000 tunes!

So, the real point to these findings is... how do companies cut through the noise - and get the right communication messages to the right audiences. Here the clear distinct winning strategy is to be creative and encourage interaction from consumers.

Anyone in marketing knows simply, how subjective the word 'creative' is. So, here are a few of my favourite campaigns and tactics that I feel have been creative in capturing and engaging their audience.

LaSenza and it's cup size choir combined musical notes, with busty beautys. An interactive viral campaign grew accross social media and even transcended across both genders!

Ikea with its facebook tagging to promote its new store in Malmo. Simply, the store manager had a profile created, and uploaded pictures of 12 showrooms. Whoever was tagged first on a product, won it for free. The pictures (and Ikea) spread like wildfire accross profiles once tagging and word of it spread. You can see below how it worked...

Finally, a mention for American Express. This highlights that social media isn't just about young products, but can just as effectively reach high end consumers. In launching the Open Forum that focused on business needs and tips, renowned bloggers were left responsible for content on the site. This created a win-win-win. Minimal cost as bloggers updated and generated content, and directed traffic via their existing blogs. It was targetted at the target audience and again, the correct audience was directed from related blogs. Finally, the content (being business focused) reinforced the brand image of American Express.

The key all of these examples focus on it clear identification of the target segment. Who they wanted to communicate to, and what the objective was. LaSenza wanted to increase awareness and promote a new range. Ikea wanted to promote a new store launch. American Express wanted to strengthen its image within the business community and engage potential new customers. All of these were achieved, with the additional benefit of reaching a global audience.

Another important factor that should be considered is, how do companies keep track of all the various touchpoints of possible 3rd party consumer communications about them! Well, quite simply they can't! I think i'll save this topic for another post, another day ;)

Watch out!

Hublot have launched a controversial advertising campaign featuring Bernie Ecclestone, the boss of F1. Ecclestone was victim of a mugging in London during November 2010 in which, his Hublot watch was one of the items stolen. He consented to his battered and bruised face being used in their latest advertising campaign, seeing it as a "protestation against violence that we are all afraid of today".

While many say it is insensitive towards victims of crime that do not share Bernie's mentality, I like the fact it makes light to the incident. Whether Hublot believe this to be a moral stand is not important. In making light of an event traumatic to most, Hublot evolves the brand generating more personality, in almost a quirky playful nature. It offers a questioning ironic tone - moving away from its straight, rigid communications of the past. Importantly, it still communicates emphasising the desirability and quality of its products.  While not the most creative of campaigns, it certainly engages and attracts attention.... needless to say, it has created much more interest and publicity than past adverts. So, next time you are faced with adversity, think how you could spin the situation, create an opportunity and make everyone watch out for you!

What type of blogger are we!?

I came accross this, thought it maybe interesting. It made me think exactly what type of blog we are... 

Empty The Mug is the sharing of thoughts, projects and insights from our collective; be it academic, competition based, professionally or just informal ideas. It's partly a log of thoughts and hopefully will become a useful resource for inspiration, ideas, knowledge and advice.

 

 Evolution of the blogger is provided by Flowtown, one of the leading social and digital marketing tools.

No marketing, like snow marketing...

While sitting at home snowed in, I cant help feeling that many companies are missing a trick. Our usual urban, bleak landscape is covered with this magical, fluffy, white material - we call snow. In snowy times, potentially even more people take to the streets replacing their comfy cars with rubber soled boots and scarfs; be it through walking part of the journey to work, taking their kids to school, or just visiting a supermarket to stock up the cupboards (Yes - panic buying!) Lets face it, we all still look at the snow with wonder, as if we were a child. (Even if if the wonder if how unprepared our country is to deal with it!)
Anyway, the long and the short is that companies could be using this gift of a tool far more effectively to reach customers in a quirky, fun, memorable way - that is almost free!
Some companies have embraced the snow in ambient marketing, but only a handful.

This snow tagging campaign was run by Curb, a natural media company for the Extreme Sports Channel. It perfectly fits the alternative, exciting and sometimes snow based events on Extreme. 

JWT created this for Polo Mints. Again, a smart tie in with the freshness and cool feel of a Polo.

 

Lynx launched this mating game advertising print campaign in winter 2009. Could they not have physically mocked up the siuations in real life to gain increased exposure?!

Finally, not sure who this is for, or why... but it shows off how simply, yet eye catching doing something different in the snow can be.

Obviously big companies can use the snow, but i'd like to see it on a street level more; The self-employed, local shop owner, or a small fanchise owner. How effective would an Avon logo and maybe contact info at a local school gate, a Slimming World emblem outside a gym, or your local butcher writing fresh meat with arrows pointing to his shop outside a supermarket! While the snow won't last too long in the UK, the impression it can make on ones mind has the ability to everlast. So, while you're cozy indoors, looking outside at the white landscape, think of the opportunities it presents, and fill up your mug!

Steel Charitable Trust Bursary

Greg, Alin and Lex were awarded the Steel Charitable Trust Bursary for academic excellence and to help financially in their final year studies.

Steel Charitable Trust Bursary

Hello...

I'd just like to open up and say thanks for passing by. I just wanted somewhere I could keep track of thoughts and projects i've been working on within the marketing field... So here it is!

I invited Alin and Lex to join me, because quite frankly, I'm boring :D No seriously, the more we all have to share, hopefully the more you get from it. We believe in innovative, integrated, creative campaigns that offer holistic solutions to business problems. 

In order to constantly redfine our knowledge, we strip back what we know, approach things with a clear empty mind, develop a new understanding then chip away with our fresh tools until its polished.

So, over the coming weeks, months and years (hopefully) we'll be sharing some of our thoughts, interests and projects with you. Enjoy!

Flux500 Winners!

We're extremely happy and delighted to all be members of the winning team of Flux500 2010! The University Of Bedfordshire beat close to 40 other UK universities for the title! As if the accolade and experience was not enough, we each pocketed a cool £500 (invaluable as students!) ;)

The 2011 website will be live soon: Flux500
The main sponser of the event was Experian, it was held at Nottingham Trent University and based around a business solution for Remploy.