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Archives for October 2010

Time Warner Cable Sticks with Eye and Ear

In March 2009, Time Warner Cable became its own, independent company.  Since 1990, the eye and ear symbol used in the Time Warner brand identity has been an important element.  In fact, in 1993, it began being used exclusively for Time Warner’s cable brand — Time Warner Cable.  Throughout 2010, there have been rumors around the branding world that Time Warner Cable might do something drastic with its logo, possibly ditching the eye and ear entirely.  Turns out there was no need for speculation at all, because the new identity released recently — complete with the logo, color palette, and eye and ear symbol — doesn’t veer very far from the previous version.  You can check out the old and new logos below.

time-warner-cable-logo-old-new

Time Warner Cable worked with The Brand Union for about a year on the new brand identity project.  The new logo features a brighter and lighter blue, a heavier sans serif font that integrates “Cable” into the name rather than making it stand out, and uses a lighter, airier version of the eye and ear symbol.  These are fairly subtle changes that don’t make a big difference to consumers but do help retain consumer perceptions of the Time Warner brand and provide a sense of security and longevity.

According to Time Warner Cable and The Brand Union, the eye and ear symbol is now at the center of the brand’s new visual system.  Rather than a rebranding, the new logo and other identity elements are being called a brand identity refresh based on standards of simplicity, including minimizing sub-brands.  In fact, the goal of the brand refresh, “was to convey simplicity and ease, removing any obstacles from doing what you love.  Moving people forward to bring them back to having more time for what they love.”

What do you think of the Time Warner Cable brand identity refresh?  Good, bad, indifferent?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 29: History Provides Context

Although sometimes not within the investor relations area of a company’s website, a section on the company’s history can help investors understand the company better by providing insights into a company’s culture and past. Many large capitalization companies have been around for quite a few years, and as a result, have gone through a number of permutations, either with respect to the products they offer, the markets they serve or as a result of mergers and acquisitions.

Take, for example Rolls-Royce. The image that immediately comes to mind when the name is mentioned is that of a luxury automobile. Yet the company has not produced automobiles in quite a long time. This is where their company website proves quite helpful in understanding how they got to be a producer of engines and power systems, by providing a history timeline that goes back over 100 years. This allows you to step through in chronological order and understand when Rolls-Royce entered and exited major portions of their businesses. Doing so lets you start to understand the company and its emphasis on engineering better.

Rolls-Royce timeline

Another good example of a company that provides background to help people understand its long history is Imperial Tobacco. Although the modern predecessor of the current company was founded in 1901, the roots of the business go all the way back to 1786. Much has occurred since then, and the company provides a section on its history that gives you an appreciation of how it came into being.

Imperial Tobacco history

I would be the first to admit that this type of information resides in the “nice to have” category rather than being absolutely critical to making a decision as an investor, however, culture and context are important in how companies operate. The more companies can provide investors with such insights into the company, the better investors can make informed decisions.

In this series:
Previous post: Analysts
Next post: Language

Mad Men Delivers $3 Million in Free Exposure to 74 Brands

The Emmy Award-winning AMC series, “Mad Men,” tells the story of an ad agency in the 1960s.  As you might expect in a television program about an advertising agency, each episode includes multiple mentions of real, fictitious and defunct brands.  On Monday, Joyce Julius & Associates published a press release detailing research into those brand mentions, and the results are very interesting.

According to the research, the fourth season of “Mad Men” included 13 episodes and a total of 225 brand mentions.  74 brands (not including the fictitious and defunct brands) were included in that tally with several getting multiple mentions across more than one episode.

You can see the list of brands with the most frequent mentions below:

  • Clearasil: 12 mentions in 3 episodes for a total exposure value of $160,000
  • Honda: 10 mentions in 1 episode for a total exposure value of $133,335
  • Life Cereal: 14 mentions in 3 episodes for a total exposure value of $186,665
  • Lucky Strike: 27 mentions in 8 episodes for a total exposure value of $360,000
  • Ponds: 16 mentions in 4 episodes for a total exposure value of $213,335
  • Samsonite: 14 mentions in 4 episodes for a total exposure value of $186,665
  • Vicks Chemical: 11 mentions in 6 episodes for a total exposure value of $146,665

You can follow the link to see the complete list of brand mentions by episode.

Joyce Julius & Associates estimates that the total exposure value of the 225 brand mentions during the fourth season on “Mad Men” equates to a over $3 million (determined in comparison to the cost of traditional advertising to reach the same audience).  That’s a lot of free exposure!

Not only do brand mentions on television shows equate to exposure value without investment but the growth of online video and long-form online video opens the doors even wider for brand mentions.  The key to success is allowing these brand mentions to happen, so more people hear about and talk about your brand.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Transmedia Storytelling, SEO and the Corporate Site

communication-networkFor many, the main take-away from the Social Media in a Corporate Context conference in Manchester this week will have been the importance of setting proper, targeted, objectives if you’re planning to venture into social media.

That was certainly emphasised by many of the speakers who were sharing their experiences. As an example, at the follow-on workshop, Cision asked ‘how many sales from a page with 7 likes?… with 203 likes?… with 2037 likes?’

The answer, of course, was zero in all three cases, because Facebook likes don’t easily translate into sales. You do need to be using the right measures, and aiming for suitable targets – which won’t be the same for all companies.

There was a lot of great material shared at this conference; if you weren’t there, make a note to check out the next one. This was my third, and I still came away full of ideas triggered by people sharing their perspectives and experience.

For me, though, there were three slightly different angles of interest in this conference.

SEO and social media

The first is the increasing significance of SEO in using social media for corporates. Now this is probably a conference subject all of its own (and if it isn’t it should be) but I got the clear impression that more people were carefully crafting their uses of social media for search engine optimisation than they used to. And not as an add-on, either, but as an integral part of their communications strategy.

As an example, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance explained that most of their traffic came in from searches using their brand name, indicating that these visitors were already at the bottom end of the Awareness / Interest / Desire / Action sales funnel: aware of them and ready to buy. Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance decided that they wanted to increase the number of people at the Awareness stage, and developed a tactical plan to derive social media content suites from each press release (e.g. 50 tweets, 5 Facebook updates…). Great idea.

And I loved Cision’s suggestion of a ‘keyword bible’, to be used for all communications (yes, including press releases) and to stand alongside the style guide, tone of voice guide and social media policies.

Transmedia storytelling and corporate messages

The second is the importance of transmedia storytelling to convey corporate messages: using all channels available to convey elements of the corporate story, using each medium as appropriate, and telling a consistent but not repetitive story, revealing corporate culture by showing rather than telling, and using each medium to reinforce the story and move it on.

A good example here was Reckitt Benckiser who shared their Powerbrands Facebook game story with us: they use the game to raise awareness of the company among their target audience of students and people in their early careers, while conveying the corporate culture of high performance and innovation through the game. Astonishingly, they have 161,000 monthly users, of whom 60% are in their target audience (and 20% will be in the target group when they’re a bit older). The fact that the game reinforces the corporate culture while their audience is in ‘play mode’ (rather than ‘career research mode’), is a brilliant move.

Journalists and corporate communications

The third is the the changing relationship between journalists and the corporate communicators. Some of the key points made in various different sessions over the last two days included:

  • designing the corporate site’s media section for journalists, considering:
    • availability of multimedia
    • simplicity and speed
    • breadth of content
    • range of stories
  • being aware that journalists might:
    • have to create two versions of a story, one for online, and one for print – and that often online comes first, and needs different elements
    • source stories from social media (your social media stream and that of others), including taking quotes from social media
    • be posting stories during your press conference, so providing them with content (links, images) in advance is helpful

And there were more… We all know that the business of journalism and publishing is changing; it was very interesting to hear from journalists in the field about how the changes were affecting their work day to day.

Expect us to come back to these three topics again, because there’s a lot to unpack in those three alone…

Sustainable Stock Exchanges Break Cover

Aviva InvestorsThe other day I was watching The Simpsons … I blame it on the kids, but thankfully they don’t always understand the bits I chuckle at.

Anyhow, the episode in question was “My Fair Laddy”, a wonderful rip of My Fair Lady complete with parodies which you feel ought to be violating copyright somewhere along the line.

For example, the elocution lesson: “The Snot .. From My Nose .. Shouldn’t Fall .. Upon My Clothes”.  I know it’s a long way from Spain, but lets not get into a debate on elongated vowels here!

Now, a few weeks ago I read something (I forget what) about Aviva Investors agitating strongly for increased responsibility within companies.  I think I reread it several times, just to make sure I’d understood correctly, looked genuinely surprised and made a mental note to look out for Aviva in the future.

Lo and behold, up they pop again, pressing for stockmarkets to include ESG criteria in their listing rules.  Did you just reread that sentence? I know I reread the article several times, remembered to close my mouth and thought “well this I gotta see!”

[Read more…] about Sustainable Stock Exchanges Break Cover

11 Months Left for the Oprah Effect

oprah-winfreyIn November 2009, Oprah Winfrey announced that after 25 years she would be leaving the Oprah Winfrey Show behind on September 9, 2011.  At the time, I wrote a blog post wondering who Oprah’s successor would be.  I wrote:

Who can fill Oprah’s shoes?  Who can step up to the plate and build a similar brand position?  Let’s face it.  Oprah Winfrey’s power and influence transcended the afternoon talk show circuit.  She became a global influencer of everything from the beef industry to publishing, entertainment, and many areas in between.

There are just 11 months left until the Oprah Winfrey Show closes its doors, which would lead one to think there are only 11 months left for businesses, entertainers and individuals to benefit from the Oprah Effect — the guaranteed brand awareness and buzz that comes from an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show or even a simple mention by Oprah herself.  Thousands of brands, companies, and people have witnessed the Oprah Effect in action with little-known writers turning into best-selling authors and small entrepreneurs watching their businesses grow beyond their wildest dreams after a single mention by Oprah.

So who will take Oprah Winfrey’s shoes in September 2011?  Will there be another person capable of providing publicity, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand-building comparable to the Oprah Effect?

It’s an interesting concept to consider.  When Oprah speaks on her talk show, there is a large segment of the consumer population that listens, and many of those people are the primary purchase decision-makers for their homes.  Who will that audience turn to in Oprah Winfrey’s absence?  And how can your business and brand get on that influencer’s radar screen?

What do you think?  Is there another influencer that captures the same audience and has a similar effect on that audience’s perceptions?  Has there been another person in history with the same type of reach and influence as Oprah Winfrey has garnered over the past 25 years?

Furthermore, the Oprah Winfrey brand itself is extremely powerful.  It’s interesting to hypothesize about what’s next for the Oprah brand just as much as it is to wonder who the next big influencer will be.  Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the Oprah Effect and successors to the Oprah Winfrey brand.

Image: Flickr