Creative Ambient Media for Local Retailer Works
August 19, 2010
When Romtelecom (the largest telecommunications company in Romania) needed to tell local customers that one of its brick-and-mortar stores moved to a new location, they turned to Graffiti BBDO out of Bucharest, Romania to help them spread the word. The creative team at Graffiti BBDO decided to make use of a nearby intersection to not just spread the word locally but also cause an online conversation that gave the business a boost from all directions.
Check out the video below which tells the creative story and shows how this clever bit of ambient media grabbed the attention of people on the street and around the world.
The goal for Romtelecom was simply to ensure the local store didn’t lose business after its move, but this creative ambient media got people talking about the brand. In other words, it achieved far more than its original objective by creating a conversation and word-of-mouth marketing that reached a larger audience via the social web and brought the brand in front of more people than a few signs and local ads ever could achieve on their own.
What do you think? Are you (or should I say, is your leadership) brave enough to use creative ambient media like Romtelecom? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
4 out of 5 Consumers Verify Product Recommendations Online Before Purchasing
August 17, 2010
A new study of U.S. consumers from Cone LLC called the 2010 Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker reveals some interesting statistics about consumers’ dependence on word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations. As you might expect from your own purchasing behaviors, four out of five consumers go online to verify product recommendations friends, colleagues, family, and acquaintances give them offline.
The Cone report found that 81% of survey respondents said they go online to verify product recommendations. The breakdown of what they do when the go online is as follows:
- Researching product/service information = 61%
- Reading user reviews = 55%
- Searching ratings websites = 43%
The Internet gives people more access to information than ever, and having that kind of access at their fingertips has changed the way people make purchase decisions. The Cone research also found that 77% of respondents claim to be more likely to purchase a product that has been recommended to them if they can find additional recommendations online.
Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the Internet has become a source for product research and recommendation verification not just for high-ticket items but also for lower priced items. However, as you might expect, the research also found that people are more likely to search for additional recommendations for products they plan to own for a long time.
Following are some more specific results related to the types of products consumers seek additional information and recommendations about online:
- Low cost: 72% of Americans would go online to do additional research about recommended movies or restaurants
- Moderate cost: 85% would go online to do additional research about recommended computer equipment
- High cost: 82% would go online to do additional research about a recommended car
The part of this study that marketers and brand managers need to be aware of is the fact that managing online brand reputation is absolutely critical to business in the 21st century. Furthermore, consumer product research is no longer limited to comparing products and learning about features and pricing. Today, consumer product research also encompasses reading opinions from people around the world, which can occur very late in the purchase decision-making process. Marketers need to make sure the right kind of information is available online to help consumers make final purchase decisions, and marketers need to make sure that information is easy to find amid the cluttered Internet landscape. As the Cone research shows, consumers are looking.
Image: stock.xchng
Conveying Credibility and Corporate Strategy
August 16, 2010
There is a company known to nearly everyone in the US –Campbell’s. The company has been in business for 140 years. Quite an accomplishment.
Campbell’s website is indicative of a well run company. First, on the Our Company page we see a reference to their “Success Model”, but notably there is even a link to a rare product problem. This is unusual indeed, and contributes to the visitors perception of credibility and trustworthiness.
Next there is a separate page for the “Success Model” (going to the Annual Review, integrated into the corporate site).
Noteworthy is the visibility and commentary from the two top executives.
There is also a further discussion on the three components of the success model; click on each component and more information is displayed. Nicely done: the company does a good job explaining how this model drives corporate strategy.
It is interesting to note that there is another display of the success model in the Corporate Social Responsibility report for 2010–
Integrity is added and a link to a comprehensive comprehensive Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is provided. While this addition is laudable, I suggest it should be prominently displayed with the other three components throughout the site.
In sum, Campbell’s conveys credibility and transparency as well as an engaging way of communicating their success model.
The Second Life of Social Game Advertising
August 13, 2010
Remember when having a brand presence on Second Life was the “it” thing for companies and marketers? Well, the concept of marketing through social games is far from dead. Today, the increased focus on brand advertising in social games like Zynga‘s Farmville has become the new “it” marketing tactic. Companies like Zynga and Playdom offer social games through multiple sites and devices such as Facebook, MySpace, iPhones, Androids, and more.
According to a report by eMarketer, it is predicted that marketers will spend $220 million on worldwide advertising in social games in 2010. That number is expected to rise to $293 million by 2011 — a 60% increase over the $183 million spent on advertising in social games in 2009. Keep in mind, the eMarketer investment predictions don’t include mobile aspects of social games, so the advertising dollars spent will actually be even higher!
Given the broad audience of social game users (who doesn’t know someone on Facebook who plays Farmville or Mafia Wars from Zynga?), there is certainly huge potential for advertising in social games. The challenge will be finding the types of ads that actually drive consumers to action rather than cluttering their enjoyment of the games they’re playing. Obviously, ads in social games need to add value to the user experience rather than simply interrupting those players’ experiences.
Another question relates to the longevity of these social games. How long will people continue to play them before they’re lured to the next online or social fad? It’s probably safe to assume that the lessons marketers learn from placing ads in social games won’t be for naught. Surely those learnings will be applicable to future marketing initiatives, so testing the waters and experimenting with messages and tactics in today’s popular social games hold value. The question is which types of products and brands will fare the best through advertising in social games. I’m looking forward to watching the statistics and analyses that comes from these efforts.
What do you think of brand advertising in social games?
Virgin Atlantic Gets a Makeover
August 12, 2010
It has been five years since Virgin Atlantic launched a new corporate identity. Despite the continued struggling global economy, the company invested a significant amount of money on a new logo and a new design for its fleet of airplanes that launched recently.
According to the press release, Steve Ridgway, Chief Executive of Virgin Atlantic says:
“We’re a dynamic and innovative British company and our new livery will really make us stand out from the crowd, both in the sky and on the ground at airports all over the world. Despite the most challenging economic conditions that we have encountered for some time, this is just one of many design projects that Virgin Atlantic has invested in. We have been working behind the scenes with British designers to re-ignite our brand and are developing new designs for the entire fleet of A330s due to come into service next year. Virgin Atlantic has a strong history of investing during downturns and we believe that our new livery and the forthcoming delivery of the Airbus A330-300 signals another period of growth for the airline.”
The new logo is shown below:
And here it is on an airplane:
The coolest part is the logo wordmark on the underside of the plane, as shown below:
The new logo is described as more modern while staying elegant and simple at the same time. Planes will be repainted to show off the new logo over the course of the next 12 months using a special paint described in the press release as follows:
“The new livery uses an entirely new paint system which is unique to Virgin Atlantic – a first on commercial aircraft. It has been specially developed to achieve a highly reflective depth of metallic colour. The painting process has been simplified, using fewer maskings and applications for a drastic reduction in materials used. Over 450 litres of paint was used and took over 3,000 – 3,500 man hours to paint. The new paint is more durable so aircraft will only require re-painting once a decade.”
The logo might not be a huge departure for the brand, but the video that’s floating around the Internet showing a time-lapse of the 3,000-3,500 hours that it took to repaint one plane is cool. You can check it out below.
Virgin Atlantic plane livery time-lapse movie from johnson banks on Vimeo.
What do you think of the new Virgin Atlantic logo and plane design? Love it? Hate it? Can barely tell the difference? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Source: Brand New
Get our updates
 |