For Internet start ups it is getting harder and harder to make an impact with the fickle computer savvy consumer. You really need something to make you stick out, you need a 'draw card'.
My best mates dad used to love a good garage sale. He said the key to a good garage sale was to make sure you had the 'draw card', then the punters would come in droves. One year it was the Bob Hawke Memorial Yard Glass, the next year it was fake Ivory Elephant Tusks.
Well Web2.0 start up Imcooked (a youtube for cooking enthusiasts to upload themselves cooking there favourite dish) got their 'draw card' with Christopher Walken cooking up a roast chicken. Check it out, this has definitely helped to drive traffic to the website. Check it out. Slow server speed is disappointing.
Check it out here
E-Cultural Hijacking Part 2
Here is another e-cultural jacking that I came across today for Advertising Agency West Wayne. Make sure you read the whole page.
http://www.westwayne.com/
http://www.westwayne.com/
Power 150 Aussie Bloggers on the sidelines
They have just released the 150 most influential blogger in marketing and advertising. Unfortunately i did not make the list however there were a number of Australian bloggers who got in the top 150 and top 350. At 63 was Servant of Chaos written by Sydneysider Gavin Heaton, at 111 Better Communication Results written by Lee Hopkins freelance Communication Business Consultant, at 262 Media Hunter the blog for Sticky Advertising about Media in the Hunter Valley, at 290 PR Disasterswritten by Gerry McCusker author of the Public Relations Disaster, at 312 Young PR at 327 written by Paull Young an Account Exec at Converseon, The http://jasonrecliner.blogspot.com/ one of my favourite blogs written by Vando, at 346 The Marketer, at 350 Insight which is Jim Antonopoulos who runs a the startegy brand insights company Igloo.
Rolling Rock beer gets boob bottle feedback
Rolling Rock have got some really good little ideas. Here is another funny viral.
Did someone say Gold Cannes?
I have found my new early Gold Cannes favourite. Hieneken Rugby World Cup Ad. It has hints of the Big Ad and a really shitty tie into the product. But boy do i get excited when i see a war-esque ad with a huge wad of cash thrown behind it.
E-Cultural Hijacking Youtube and Spanish Bloodbank
This is a nice steal of a e-cultural icon (yeah i just made that word up) of the youtube skin. Spansish Blood Band have done really well with attaching their message to an item that is looked at several times a day by me and now for at least the next couple of days I will think of the Spanish Give Blood Ad.
Click here to see that Ad
Now easier to comment
I found this widget on a the blog The Amber Theatre. Very interesting blog about audio branding. Back to the widget, this widget now makes it easier to leave a comment about my posts. All you have to do is choose one of the icons.
Watch this video for more info.
Watch this video for more info.
100 Posts!
Well, I finally reached 100 posts. Thank you to everyone who has commented back to me about the blog. I really do enjoy writing this blog, I feel it helps me proactively stay on top of the latest trends. I hope it is enjoyable for you too and if there is any suggestion please feel free to email me.
Viral Carlsberg and Mentos
This is a great viral, capitalising on the success of the viral coke and mentos youtube videos of last year.
Quoted in Digital Media B&T
The latest edition of Digital B&T features an article that I was quoted in for Online Social Networks. 'Social Networks' Page 12 Katie Cincotta
Head-cams for Planners
This from MIT Adverlab "Police officers in the UK are to be given head-mouted video cameras to film incidents and arrests, the footage of which can then be used in evidence. The 'head-cams' can store up to 400 hours of footage with soundtrack on their hard drive." Looks like something marketing ethnographers and planners could use, no?
Couldn't agree more!
Update: Blendtec
Update
Blendtec have been able to climb up the Youtube ratings again with their latest stunt of blending a iPhone. I commented on Blendtec in a post last year here
Blendtec have been able to climb up the Youtube ratings again with their latest stunt of blending a iPhone. I commented on Blendtec in a post last year here
The future consumer
Another interesting Video on the changing consumer, highlighting the rate of technology adoption and the effect this has.
Marketing Today Podcast; Issue Consumer Involvement
You can hear me on the Peter Wagstaff Marketing Today Podcast, In this Podcast I chat with Wags about the new trend of Consumer Involvement, which links quite nicely with what I have been talking about with the Myfootballclub.co.uk and also the Durex Sexecutive Position.
You can hear me on the Peter Wagstaff Marketing Today Podcast, In this Podcast I chat with Wags about the new trend of Consumer Involvement, which links quite nicely with what I have been talking about with the Myfootballclub.co.uk and also the Durex Sexecutive Position.
Team Buying - 2007 version of the Horse Syndicate!
Myfootballclub.co.uk, is an online community that's gathering 50,000 football fans to buy an English football team. Each member must commit to putting away 35 pounds if they get 50,000 members. Then the members get to make all the decisions from what team to buy, to who to trade and at what price.
This has also been happening in the Music Industry with Sellaband.com which lets people buy shares in upcoming musicians. If they get enough shares they create an album of which you get to see the profit from.
Another one to just launch is VIPBandmanager which allows people to be the Music Manager.
This would create a great brand community and the WOM from your new found brand loyalist would be massive. I think it is only a matter of time before a Corporate Brand open up their processes and let their consumers take hold of a brand extension.
Myfootballclub.co.uk, is an online community that's gathering 50,000 football fans to buy an English football team. Each member must commit to putting away 35 pounds if they get 50,000 members. Then the members get to make all the decisions from what team to buy, to who to trade and at what price.
This has also been happening in the Music Industry with Sellaband.com which lets people buy shares in upcoming musicians. If they get enough shares they create an album of which you get to see the profit from.
Another one to just launch is VIPBandmanager which allows people to be the Music Manager.
This would create a great brand community and the WOM from your new found brand loyalist would be massive. I think it is only a matter of time before a Corporate Brand open up their processes and let their consumers take hold of a brand extension.
Sexecutive Position
In need of a job? Durex has just launched their search for Condom Testers 'Sexecutive Positions'. There is 200 unpaid positions here.
I like this alot and think it has got alot of good elements. It is getting a core group to trial the product and then a clear Word of Mouth idea to carry the message. It is also taking advantage of the new trend of consumer wanting to 'get involved'.
However it does not seem to offer much in terms of embracing social media. Pretty standard 'enter your friends email address here' launched off a Microsite. '
I would of suggested hitting seek.com.au, mycareer.com.au and hippo.com.au with these positions advertised. I would also of liked to of seen some embrace of Myspace and Facebook networks. The website is pretty boring and does allow the consumer to engage on a deeper level with the product either.
Good idea, standard execution
Not too far away from the Toohey New Beer Testers idea either.
In need of a job? Durex has just launched their search for Condom Testers 'Sexecutive Positions'. There is 200 unpaid positions here.
I like this alot and think it has got alot of good elements. It is getting a core group to trial the product and then a clear Word of Mouth idea to carry the message. It is also taking advantage of the new trend of consumer wanting to 'get involved'.
However it does not seem to offer much in terms of embracing social media. Pretty standard 'enter your friends email address here' launched off a Microsite. '
I would of suggested hitting seek.com.au, mycareer.com.au and hippo.com.au with these positions advertised. I would also of liked to of seen some embrace of Myspace and Facebook networks. The website is pretty boring and does allow the consumer to engage on a deeper level with the product either.
Good idea, standard execution
Not too far away from the Toohey New Beer Testers idea either.
Mentos Intern
Mentos have got an intern and they want you to set him work. You can get the intern to do anything for you from making restaurant bookings to proof reading your assignment. I love this idea
However
This seems to be very close to Gold Winning Cyber Lion idea of the Diesel Girls. I am struggling to see the link with the brand. Mentos does not seem to be the best brand to execute this. This seems perfect for a product targeting busy mothers or businessmen. Just cant see the strong message hitting home for Mentos.
From cosmedia.co.za/;
'According to Google Operating System, last year Google sponsored a social networking project, called Socialstream, at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute.
One of the project’s main goals was to investigate how social networking could be improved to bring more value to users. What came of this - and what I like about SocialStream - was a “unified social network (USN)”, which translates in simple English to an aggregation and consolidation of various social network data in a single place (see video below). As Mashable states, this is a more user-centric rather than network-centric approach to social networking.
From the project’s site, “Socialstream emphasizes improving social connections by making it more efficient to communicate with, share with, and view the social content of all the people in a user’s online social network. Socialstream provides a compelling user experience because it aggregates content across many different networks so a user has a single location to discover new content and communicate. The goal of Socialstream is to present social information in a way that ties it to the person who posted the information, and not the site from which it came.”
While time will tell if this will be launched as a separate or Orkut-integrated service, what is clear is that Socialstream presents a focus on benefit-orientated social networking mashups, which when coupled with Google’s large user bases and extensive application set could become very popular.'
It's all custom.. Especially for telecommunications
The telecommunications industry is one of the fastest moving competitive industries in the globe today.
Mobile phones, internet, landline, VOIP are the main components of the current industry as we see it. However, the focus on landline has long been forgotten. It's all about the mobile.
Why?
Cheaper (cap plans), accessibility to information and friends and the ability to organise your entire life in a handheld device.
With the introduction of the iPhone people are questioning whether it will change the landscape of the industry, with much of its technology already on the market it offers very little different other than the apple name.
Then again, why do all the techno professionals love the idea?
It's all customizable, you can make you do what you want it to do. With PDAs such as the i-mate, options that could not be achieved on normal phones (such as sms forwarding) can be achieved if you have the know-how. With the iPhone, these features are much easily enabled with little technical expertise.
Where did the idea start?
Nokia were the first to fully integrate the concept into their market strategy throughout the use of chanegable covers and wallpapers. This was even taken further with the introduction of the camera phone, whereby you could place your own pictures as the wallpaper. Uniqueness to other brands is an essential KSF (Key Success Factor) for cell phone companies.
It allows individuals to express thenselves, phone organisations such as Sony, Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, O2 and Motorola all emphasise individuality. Even though mass production is the main production method, the software allows individuals to express themselves through the ability to match their phone, to their personality.
So express yourself, it's all custom.
Mobile phones, internet, landline, VOIP are the main components of the current industry as we see it. However, the focus on landline has long been forgotten. It's all about the mobile.
Why?
Cheaper (cap plans), accessibility to information and friends and the ability to organise your entire life in a handheld device.
With the introduction of the iPhone people are questioning whether it will change the landscape of the industry, with much of its technology already on the market it offers very little different other than the apple name.
Then again, why do all the techno professionals love the idea?
It's all customizable, you can make you do what you want it to do. With PDAs such as the i-mate, options that could not be achieved on normal phones (such as sms forwarding) can be achieved if you have the know-how. With the iPhone, these features are much easily enabled with little technical expertise.
Where did the idea start?
Nokia were the first to fully integrate the concept into their market strategy throughout the use of chanegable covers and wallpapers. This was even taken further with the introduction of the camera phone, whereby you could place your own pictures as the wallpaper. Uniqueness to other brands is an essential KSF (Key Success Factor) for cell phone companies.
It allows individuals to express thenselves, phone organisations such as Sony, Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, O2 and Motorola all emphasise individuality. Even though mass production is the main production method, the software allows individuals to express themselves through the ability to match their phone, to their personality.
So express yourself, it's all custom.
iPhone Madness
So the iPhone has just been released in the US. Since following trends I haven't seen this much hype for one product. Apple must be laughing all the way to the bank with this amount of online publicity. However looking at the videos the most blogged about video is of a gentleman dropping his new iPhone and then picking it up and it still working. This has been blogged about over 60 blogs and viewed more than 200,000 times.
In the most blogged about videos, iPhone related videos accounts for 6 of the top 20 blogged videos.
These are the most blogged about iPhone videos of now.
Shawn drops iPhone in Houston
Conan iPhone Commercial
My iPhone Diary
A closer look at the iPhone
iPhone smash
iPhone scratch test
In the most blogged about videos, iPhone related videos accounts for 6 of the top 20 blogged videos.
These are the most blogged about iPhone videos of now.
Shawn drops iPhone in Houston
Conan iPhone Commercial
My iPhone Diary
A closer look at the iPhone
iPhone smash
iPhone scratch test
Fogscreen
As picked up on the MIT Advertising Lab. Fog Screen is a screen which allows images to be projected onto a wall of dry fog.
You got to love the music track they have chosen for this demo video.
You got to love the music track they have chosen for this demo video.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
