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There is a vast amount of research that has been conducted recently regarding the consumers' preferred method of receiving marketing communication. A recent study by Forrester Research, and commissioned by ExactTarget, highlights that the majority of consumers today still have a strong affinity towards email.
The important take out: Consumers prefer email at a rate of three-to-one when compared with any other avenue for marketing communications such as social media, Instant Messaging, phone and SMS!
Despite the abundance of research that all points towards email being the marketing method of choice for consumers, why do marketers continue to ignore this?
Despite the spike of Internet users using social media, for example three quarters of Australian online adults use social technologies (Forrester: Australian Adult Social Technographics Revealed 2008), consumers in general are NOT open to receiving marketing communication via this channel.
As social media continues to boom with new channels for communication being created everyday with new social networking sites and the like popping up, there is an overreliance and tendency to use this medium for all-purposes in order to reach the masses.
Unfortunately we forego the very fundamental principles of Marketing 101. We need to stop, think, plan and go back to basics:
- Who are our customers?
- Where are they?
- What are their preferences for receiving marketing messages?
- What are the right messages for each customer segment?
- What channel do we use to reach them?
A quick Google search and some top line research is enough to reveal where our customers' preferences sit. It's all very simple. Follow the basic principles of marketing and target the appropriate marketing messages to the appropriate consumers based on their preferences using the appropriate channels!
Sadly, we are missing the point! We're frustrating consumers and, ultimately, not getting the outcomes that we desire!
Should anonymous commenting on blogs, forums, social networking sites and microblogging sites such as Twitter be allowed? Is it ethical?
I'm inclined to lean strongly towards the negative argument. l'd suggest that anonymous posting goes against the very fundamental principles behind social media and the importance of authenticity and transparency when operating in online communities. It's therefore very interesting to see that there are new online tools and services popping up that encourage this very behaviour.
Two of the latest examples are as follows:
The company's tagline is: "Anonymous Tweeting: For what has to be said, just not by you"
One of the services implies tweeting for 'good' and the other for 'bad'.
I'll be interested to see the sorts of tweets that get shared on both of these services. I'm particularly interested to know what sort of tweets make it to the 'Tweet From Above' service. If there's something good to share - a fabulous CSR initiative by a company, something great that a colleague has helped you with, your love of Sunsilk shampoo - why not put your name to it and share it with the world?
I can understand the reason for not putting your name to posts that comes from 'Tweet From Below', but surely this is just another service that has the potential to flare up cyber-bullying!
Are there any valid reasons for commenting anonymously? The assumption would be that one would only do so if they have something to hide. Perhaps what they are posting is factually incorrect or perhaps they are simply gossip mongering. Whatever the case, I don't agree with it.
I'd be keen to hear if anyone has any thoughts on when anonymous commenting would be permissible.
Nate Cochrane pens his rules for social media etiquette on iTNews. And in a style true to the very fundamentals of social media which encourage active sharing and participation, he has made a point to list the rules he outlines as a work in progress and has opened it up for discussion on the site.
One of the rules that he points out is one that we tend to forget: ‘Quality NOT quantity’. Too often PRs get flack for doing a last minute dash to sign up as many people in their network to become friends/ fans on their clients’ Facebook groups and pages or on their Twitter handles.
As PRs, we need to continue to educate our clients that the real value does not lie in the sheer volume of people we sign up but rather in the quality of the people we engage (even if it’s only a handful!).
Consider who your target audience is, where do they frequent and how to reach them. Who is in your fans/ friends extended networks. Are they the right audience to target?
Using Twitter as an example, it’s important to do the analysis and drill down into who the person is that you want to connect with, get to know them, follow them for a while and find out what they write about. Also have a look into who follows that person, are they the appropriate person for your client to be reaching out to or is there someone in their Twitter network that is better?
The following tool can help you determine the most appropriate people to follow:
http://flowingdata.com/2008/03/12/17-ways-to-visualize-the-twitter-universe/
If we want to get some real and long lasting results for our clients, the key is to make sure that we’re speaking to the right audiences!
An Indian mobile service provider, Aircel, recently did some very clever and whacky guerilla advertising in Mumbai, India. The company created and erected a giant outdoor billboard that had a branded boat vessel on it with the tagline: "In case of emergency, cut rope".
Why is this so clever? Mumbai is known for its monsoon season this time of year. Would it be likely that a scenario like this pop up where a boat was needed to get people to safety? Well, yes.
Not only was this an innovative way to promote Aircel as well as a media-stealing publicity stunt to generate word of mouth for the brand in a high traffic area, but it also received widespread media attention as an actual emergency arose which lead to someone needing to cut the rope and make use out of the vessel.
Springwise reports that on July 15, monsoon floods made the Milan Subway virtually impassable. "The rope was cut on Aircel's billboard, the boat was released, and stranded pedestrians were ferried to safety."
What a clever outdoor campaign. It's just a shame that this wasn't executed by the local Government of the day!
I want to explore the notion of people 'trimming the fat'. I think we are increasingly seeing people explore different avenues and ways to improve their lives, and 'trimming the fat' provides a good platform for people to do so.
There's no denying that times are tough - the current economic climate has impacted us all in one way or another... some stronger than others. Trimming the fat helps people declutter and space-save in order to regain a sense of control over their lives. This can be a cathartic experience.
People are trimming the fat with regards to 'self'. There has never been more low-fat food options on the market, nor have we seen more weight-loss clinics and services popping up around the world (think Jenny Craig, Lite 'n' Easy etc...).
With reference to the 'home', people are decluttering their personal space to free up space in their lives. Spring cleaning has become a more regular year-round activity rather than a seasonal one. Minimalist home design and decor is also becoming increasingly popular.
With regards to 'work', the latest technologies (gadgets, applications, hardware and software) are helping people trim the fat and stay connected to the things that matter (friends, family, colleagues, work).
Trimming out the fat in the workplace helps people work smarter and faster - ultimately encouraging more productive work practices.
Technologies such as smartphones, new ultra-thin notebooks and wireless Internet connectivity are making it easy for us to trim the fat at work - minimise downtime and remain connected.
I'm keen to explore this further. If anyone has any thoughts, please drop me a line.
Are people doing anything else to trim the fat in their lives?
A big thanks to Julian for pulling together the latest blog list - Advertising Young Minds: The Top 27 blogs of people under 27.
Happy to see that I have been bumped up the ranks a few spots from number 25 to number 19 this year. Now I just need to keep up my end of the bargain and make sure that I allocate a decent amount of time to keeping my blog updated.
I promise in between renovating a house and planning a wedding to make ample time to do my blog and my fellow readers well.
Watch this space my friends!
All the best,
Lex
Hey peeps. I have been extremely slack when it comes to keeping my blog updated. I had vowed never to let life get in the way but somehow i managed to do exactly this. Not anymore.
I’d love to start sharing some ideas, insights and random musings with you to give you a little food for thought as you go about your daily life and work. Hopefully these musings can serve a greater purpose than mere entertainment value and that you can extract some interesting nuggets of information that you can use.
I welcome your feedback on this and any other ideas that i share on my blog. I hope you enjoy instalment 1.
Happy reading…
Enterns are the new interns
In the current economic climate, one would expect to see a rise in internship programs as people across a wide range of industry sectors struggle to find paid work and opt for any foot in the door with big brands and firms (something that an unpaid internship offers). On the contrary, could the GFC and rise in unemployment be responsible for a rise in the ‘entern’?
· There is a growing groundswell of entrepreneurs, and they bandy together;
· There are websites, forums, portals and blogs both dedicated to them and run by them;
· Yet again, we are seeing an upsurge in start-up companies by young founders; and
· Today’s business leaders are getting younger (see my247, Danoz Direct, Strike Group Australia, Moi Moi Fine Jewellery, Geekversity etc…).
Today, everyone is an entrepreneur and the art of entrepreneurship is a craft that cannot be taught.
Will we see more people bypass traditional internship programs, education institutions and other formal training programs as they start to hone their entrepreneurial skills and focus their efforts towards developing their own start up companies?
Something for smart companies and formal training institutions to think about…
Check out the news aggregator that Ogilvy PR has created: http://flu.ogilvy.com.hk/latest_news. It houses the latest up-to-the-minute information and news on Swine Flu.
It also includes information on business continuity - so managing through the flu - as well as the latest news alerts and relevant links.
I hope you find it useful!
Adam Ferrier, Managing Partner of Naked Communications, discusses the widely talked about Witchery Man campaign, how it was brought to life, the challenges and key learnings.
Last night marked Sydney's first official Social Media Club meet-up at the Oxford Hotel in Darlinghurst. Despite having our Anzac Day public holiday stripped from us this year, the party vibe last night made me question whether all the other agency folk were still out celebrating from a long bender of a weekend.
Based on last night's huge turn out (close to 300 people turned up), I am assuming that Social Media Club Sydney will continue to run these monthly meetings. The intended forum is to use these sessions to present social media case studies and examples of what has and what has not worked.
There is one rule and one rule only (it's kind of like Fight Club :) ) - "no pitch/ no sell"! What does this mean? Those presenters who are clearly trying to flog a product or a service will have to face the consequences.
Last night's session was about two recent social media events in this country: the success of the Fake Stephen Conroy Twitter account and the Naked Communications Witchery Man campaign. These cases were presented by Adam Ferrier (Managing Partner of Naked Communications) and Leslie Nassar (Telstra employee and the 'fake' Stephen Conroy).
I enjoyed last night's meet-up, particularly Adam's account of the Witchery Man campaign and the seed behind developing the woman with the jacket love story.
A lot of people have been and are still carrying on about the importance of ethics and moral accountability in client service in general and when developing social media campaigns such as these. I have to agree to an extent but Adam made a fair point last night. We are all in a creative game whether it be advertising, public relations or marketing. Our job, for the large part, consists of creating myths and storytelling in a way that makes consumers want to connect with a brand. This is exactly what the Witchery Man campaign did.
Was it successful? Well, yes it was. The campaign objective was to drive talkability and that's exactly what it did. People are still talking (look at me - case and point)! If the client is happy and the agency involved isn't losing business as a result of the campaign, than I think it's fair game.
I'm sure others out there are just wishing they had done it first!
