Everton Vs Liverpool (revisited)

Check out this little film that our agency has produced. The client was upset about Tic Tac's inadvertent involvement in the missed FA Cup goal last week (Everton Versus Liverpool). As a result they wanted to help make it up to the football fans. This is the result. Rather sweet, I think. And still delivering on the brand message....




I've always liked Russell Brand ever since I saw him on the inspired MTV "Dancefloor charts" . I thought his musings on the whole Everton goal screening (or lack thereof) debacleand the role that brands play in football were particularly lucid.

Genius or madness?

AND

I spotted this a while back but didn't get a chance to blog about it.

I've been in awe of the raw energy that Red Bull's marketing appears to have. They are a fantastic case-study for how a brand can successfully place innovation at the heart of their marketing. But this constant experimentation clearly has its misses ("The Art of the Can")as well as its hits (Flugtag)

So it was that last year I chanced upon the fact that Red Bull had entered into a brand tie-up with Bishop's Move relocation business. This partnership aimed to provide moving packs (including cans of Red Bull obviously) for those in need of a lift while going through the exhausting process of moving.

This is so random I think it might be a stroke of genius. Moving has got to be one of the most stressful things you can do in modern life (it's the closest my wife and I have ever got to divorcing). For a brand to offer unexpected advice and free stuff to make it just a little less painful, just imagine the goodwill that this would garner.

And yet, it's fairly untargeted and a bit of a stretch from Red Bull's extreme sports/ give you wings positioning...


So what do you reckon? King George III or Stephen Hawkins?

Audience Planning - WTF?!

Last year TBWA\Chiat\Day New York has announced the appointment of Shane Ankeney, formerly EVP, Chief Media Office, Doner to the newly created role of Executive Director of Audience Planning.

So what on earth is Audience planning?

According to Mr. Ankeney; "Audience planning is born out of connection planning, and there are some similarities. However, instead of looking at it through a lens of where the connections are, it’s about fuelling creative brand ideas. We start by forgetting the touchpoints, and coming up with something that will truly resonate with our target audience. Every aspect of a brand’s behaviour should start with the creative idea, and then help to inform the media as well."

Sounds like "good planning" to me.

Evaluating online display advertising

After years of the responsibility for evaluating advertising falling at the feet of the planner in the creative agency - it feels odd that the responsibility is with the media planner when it comes to online display ads. This is partly because evaluation is so much more complicated.

There are 2 main "engagement mapping" tools to help just the effectiveness of ads at generating a response.

1) Engagement ROI (from Atlas ad server, Microsoft)
2) Exposure to Conversion Reporting (from DoubleClick, Google)

These are important if display advertising is to continue to grow. In the first half of last year in the UK, paid search grew by 28% and display ads grew by 16%. Rich media is most expensive to buy and least measured. But many media agencies claim that they are already able to track the effectiveness of different ads with existing and bespoke reports.

Is it worth getting involved in this I wonder?

Online research comes of age

3 of the 5 fastest growing research methodologies in North America are;
1) online focus groups
2) bulletin boards
3) Social networking

There are still problems with accurate recruitment. iD Factor/ iCD Research recently reduced their online panel from 130,000 to 90,000 in order to gt rid of duplication and people posing as in multiple personas.

However, it is now becoming reputable and estimates are that you can save up to 40% using online versus face-to-face qual.

Bulletin boards are particularly convenient for busy respondents as they can get involved and comment whenever they want to. They can do sorting exercises, highlighting keywords, photo/video posting, homework assignments (like shopping, looking at POS, scoping out competition) and then reporting back to the group with observations.

These types of research need serious consideration.

The rise of "Paravision"

Has anyone else noticed how television is evolving? There's a whole raft of episodic dramas that have been designed to be viewed via the internet. In fact there are so many of them that they are currently finding it hard to get funding. Here's a quick list;

1) Thmbnls
2) Parentshood
3) The secret world of Sam King
4) I love Chieftown
5) Sofia's diary

I was wondering whether these new shows were different enough from regular television shows to deserve a different moniker. It struck me that the etymology of the word "television", meaning "distant viewing", was inappropriate for this sort of interactive, intermittent and intimate drama. Aren't we in the process of creating a new art-form (like the novel in 1700s)? I thought the term "Paravision" (coming from the Greek for "near, beside, with, alongside") was much more apt. What do you think?

Opportunity knocks for "traditional ad agencies"

So 80% of clients see digital as a core part of their strategy (claims the recent RA&M study). And a whopping 90% believe it's increasing in importance within their business.

And yet digital agencies don't appear to be in a position to capitalise on this. According to the same study, digital agencies scored an average of 5.7 (out of 10) for quality of service while "traditional agencies "scored 7.0 (not glowing but considerably better).

What these figures belie is that there are of course digital agencies who service their clients well (the likes of Dare, Glue and Poke). These agencies are likely to continue to exist and thrive. It is all the smaller, less profession agencies that will miss out as trad agencies increase their digital expertise.

I've found clients more than happy to give a traditional agency like WCRS more digital work. We are trusted to deliver great creative ideas and strategic thinking (whatever medium), on time and on budget. That is a great position to be in.

Honda's PR strikes again

So Honda have launched the first branded VOD channel on BT Vision. MAD article

A car brand launching a TV channel doesn't sound very innovative to me (Audi did this with Sky over 3 years ago. In fact, Audi moved into VOD almost 2 years ago ).
What is interesting is how late-movers into a channel (like Honda) can avoid expensive experimentation and still get coverage for being an innovative brand. The trick is to launch in partnership with a new platform that everyone is interested in.