Budapest, Budapest, de csodas (how wonderful)

A very creative look at the capital of Hungary by Zsolt Molnar, and through 365 photographs.
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On a much needed holiday…

In Vanuatu till the new year, and I can hardly believe it…

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Word of mouth

I had a chat with a friend the other day and as the topic of restaurants came up, I found myself being recommended about 3-4 of them in only a few minutes – all with genuine enthusiasm on her side. And that covers the definition of word of mouth, which is ‘traditionally achieved by creating products, services and customer experiences that generate conversation-worthy "buzz" naturally’ (Wikipedia).

Of course there are some people who recommend often and with ease. As for the rest, they need to be convinced by the product or service and what they are getting makes them feel.

The challenge? Not to get more people talking. Well yes, that, too. But first, to create an outstanding product or service. Positive word of mouth will follow.

Why? We all know it’s valuable, but here it is in numbers: because, according to a recent study (released by Waggener Edstorm, PR firm) it ranks three times higher in influencing power then standard advertising.
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2010: the focus will continue to be on digital media

With only days before the decade is over, a myriad of articles, blog posts, comments have been posted recently, about the last ten years that was, and the future of media, with particular attention to digital.

Sure, marketing is still what it always was. That is figuring out what the audience wants and what the business is capable of to make a profit (Batchelor), however a structural change is underway in the messaging, the platforms and product-user interaction in today’s marketing campaigns.

Advertisers always follow audiences and not the other way around. So with the audience’s continuous shift to online, marketers are following steadily. Digital as part of any marketing mix can no longer be ignored. Whether that component is a viral campaign, an application, social media, microsite, mobile, display or search – or a combination of these.

That covers paid media. How about all the information that is being said about the brand, the company or the product that we may represent. Well, this is why online presence is critical. Marketers, have long lost control of what is being said about their brands in the digital world, which is why it’s ever more so important to continuously interact, engage and converse with consumers. And in 2010, digital will still be the best way to do that.
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A decade in news photographs

The “two-thousands” (has anyone come up with a better alternative yet?) were a ‘dramatic and often brutal decade’. Great and thought provoking photos from Boston.com here.
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technorati tags: news

Hungary in Winter

Hungary in Winter.

Love it, miss it.

(photos by a good friend, Viktoria)


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The way forward: magazines on tablets

Here is something clever I read today on NYtimes.com: a growing number of magazines are considering some sort of digital platform to distribute their contents and some of the big publishers in the US are only months away from launching the first issue.

This is a change I’m personally looking forward to and applaud for many reasons. People are changing, lifestyles are changing. Yes, technology is developing fast, but we are also adopting fast. The human mind and capacity is amazing and we are certainly ready to embrace the glossy iconic magazines in digital. Or are we?

Many of us buy magazines for the sheer pleasure of looking at (and I’m primarily thinking of fashion magazines here, but this applies to many other categories as well) fabulous advertising executions,  high quality photos and images. Is technology truly ready to move that all digital?

After watching this brief video presentation (embedded below) by Sports Illustrated in the US, I really think it is. This will be so much more than a magazine as we know it. It will allow for more interaction, better content, customisable layout, and more of what most people want (photos and short form videos), just to name a few.

But then how is it different from getting this all on the web? Well two key things come to my mind: convenience and quality. You will be able to enjoy the content in the living-room, in transit, in a work break, or whenever and wherever you want – much like a magazine – once,  of course, the content has been downloaded. Which then takes me to quality. Once an issue has been downloaded, it will be on the tablet to enjoy in all it’s glory – no buffering, no waiting, no flickering: pure magazine quality.

As for advertisers, while the ad space, and pricing isn’t clearly defined yet (judging from the video presentation), I would imagine, that this new technology will allow for a plethora of new ad formats and execution options, as well as smart audience measurements, which should mean better targeting and higher yields. All in good time though, as with any new technology, it takes time to gather momentum and scale – both of which are essential to attract ad dollars.

But for now, let’s embrace at least the concept of the way forward: magazines on tablets.


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Bloggers of The Year 2009, by Nicholas Bate

A big thank you to Nicholas Bate! I’m honoured that my humble blog made the list (see here).

About Mr Bate’s blog… For all your business advice, thoughts on stuff that matters, for inspiration, and if you ever need to be motivated – and we all do – read this every day, better yet, subscribe now! And make sure to check out his fabulous books!
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‘Threat marketing’ – bad marketing

Two young men set up a stall in the mall the other day to promote their newly opened natural therapy centre in the city. I stopped, chatted, and after only a few minutes I made an appointment for the next day.
Upon arriving to the building’s lobby, at first I hesitated, as there was no signage at the downstairs elevator. I ventured upstairs eventually, found the place, but there were still no signs anywhere in sight. White walls, reception area. I must have been surprised, as the apologetic therapist explained they just opened up this second centre in the city and are using all their signage at the promotion at the mall.
We went through some routine checks and my therapist eyes grew larger by the minute telling me how important it was for me to sign up to their programme to avoid any further damage…
Ten minutes later the chat was over, and I couldn’t have been out the door faster.

How is that for bad marketing and sales tactics?

First impressions matter.
Be ready before you open for business.
Build trust with potential clients before the sell.
Don’t use intimidating sales tactics, they seldom work.
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Blog make over (1)

I feel like I discovered an entirely new World today. Bloggershpere. There are so many things one can do to their blog page, and I felt the urge to try some out… by no means is this attempting to be a guide, more like a few tips for those, who are new to this as well… and since technology, platforms and trends are changing so fast, this is only the first attempt to keep up – I assume there will be many more.

Blogger (my blogger platform) no longer offers 3 column templates, so one has to edit the HTML code of their blog and here is a great step by step guide on how.
In order to drive traffic and increase awareness of your blog (well, if that’s what you aspire to do) it’s important to register it with search engines such as Bing and Google and certainly with Technorati – the homepage which will elaborate on why exactly.
(support and tips)
You would probably want to add a Retweet button to make it easy for all those Twitter fans to spread the word. Here is how you can do that.
I tweaked the code that’s offered on the site a bit and created my own html code for this, here it is if you want to use it (if you have a Twitter ID, replace that between the ‘’, otherwise just delete that line):

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
tweetmeme_style = ‘compact’;
tweetmeme_source = ‘Your Twitter ID’;
tweetmeme_url = ‘<data:post.url/>’;
tweetmeme_service = ‘bit.ly’;
</script> <script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>

And finally make sure you add buttons to share or ‘Add This’.
Here is a slide share on how – have a look, it’s really easy!

Good luck.

before / after

Sydney Harbour at lunchtime today

‘it’s beginning to look like Christmas… but boy it’s hot today’ – wrote a good friend on Facebook today.

Christmas in Australia. Hot & sunny, beach, bbq & loads of seafood.

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Frequency

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It is said that if you are introduced to a new person, you should use their name immediately as many times as you can for it to stick. e.g.: ‘Hi Sam, nice to meet you. So, what is that you do Sam?’
Don’t be discouraged, no one ever notices the apparent overuse of their names. Why? Because it’s one of the sweetest things we can ever hear… So repeat it to remember - at least three times in the first five minutes of meeting them.

And that is the definition of frequency exactly: the number of times the message is being repeated within a certain time period. A ’legacy concept from the one-way communication era’, but still relevant today, frequency is used in media planning to achieve the communication goal, or campaign objective. Which will also determine the number of repetition. ’Effective frequency is expressed as the number of exposures necessary to produce an effect’ (Surmanek, p110), but as a general rule, the more detailed the message the higher frequency needed for people to memorise. But wait. Apart from finite media budgets, is there no upper limit at all to the number of repetitions?

This takes me back to one of my earlier posts about an advertisement for a popular online auction site, at a city train station, which I saw again this evening and many others since then. Credit to the billboard, not only did it achieve it’s frequency goals, but also recency, in other words reach and continuity, as I went home and logged on to the site. But on the flipside, by now, I have probably started ignoring it.

So yes, there is an upper limit to frequency beside budgets. Media planners’ challenge is to find that fine balance of sufficient repetition to assist memorising, but not too much to avoid wastage and for the message to become annoying.
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Branding – Dubai & Tiger Woods

‘Dubai is basically […] the biggest, greatest and newest of everything’ said Tiger Woods earlier this year when he was asked about his choice to support the opening of a golf course in Dubai, named after him – as quoted in the Guardian’s June article by L. Donegan.
Reading this now, only a few months on, this comment seems almost surreal.
According to original plans, the golf course should have opened this (Northern) Autumn, but as you may know, two things happened since June 2009, when the comment was made. Both brands involved irrevocable damages: Brand Tiger Woods and Brand Dubai.
Dubai is being rescued (for the third time) by its rich and increasingly reluctant neighbour, the conservative Abu Dhabi, while no apology can save Tiger Wood’s image and him being dropped by sponsors – first of which is Gillette.
The internet offers millions of definitions on what a ‘brand’ is, but here is a good one from Seth Godin. Building it takes years and years of consistent messaging to achieve credibility and trust. But all that hard work can be destroyed in no time.
 
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Work should fit into life…

Back from a unintended break from my cherished blog. Three weeks older, but a whole lot wiser. As a start, ‘work should fit into life, rather than the other way around’. (Joan Smith)

And of course the world around me didn’t stop… And even if I stopped writing, I certainly didn’t stop reading so here is some great stuff to share…

First and foremost, the forever motivating Nicholas Bate: Realise and Release Your Potential 30.

A free ebook from the marketer extraordinaire Seth Godin: What Matters Now.

And at last but not least, Cultural Offering’s yet another delightful post ‘Funny because it’s true’.
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Wordle

‘Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide.’ Try it here. Here is mine for this blog:.

 
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Daily maths

I recently decided to solve a puzzle every day – just for the challenge and to keep my mind fresh.
So here is today’s puzzle (found here):

How can you get 24 from 3,3,8,8 using only the main signs of add, subtract, multiply and divide?

solution: using fractions… .

Choosing the right environment for your message

The morning Sun is up, and it’s so bright that it makes everything look black and white. The water is so cold that when I put my head in my throat tightens. It’s 8 am on a Sunday and I’m swimming laps in the pool that’s caved in the rock at Sydney’s Bronte Beach.
Soon the junior swim squads arrive, parents are settling in on the benches above. There is quite a crowd now.
I surface again between two strokes and wondering why aren’t there any advertisements of the harmful effects of the Sun anywhere in sight…

Bronte Beach, Sydney NSW, Australia

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Integrated marketing communication

Just another day, going home after work, waiting for the train at a busy city underground station, and suddenly I find myself checking out a billboard, giving me about 10 good reasons to visit a well known, online auction site to do my Christmas shopping at.
A couple of minutes later the exact same message reaches my consciousness as my mind surfaces from deep thoughts about the podcast I’m listening to. This time, the advertisement is printed on the page of the free metro magazine (Sydney’s mX) the person next to me is holding. And now I remember. I also saw the same advertisement online, earlier today.

I get home, routinely switch on the laptop and of course, while my emails are loading I’m on the auction site – for just a quick look.

Three touchpoints in one day that I can instantly and knowingly recall plus a message with ‘call to action’ (price point, Christmas) and I, as well as thousands of others are hooked. In today’s world, when a person gets bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every day, and ROI is at utmost importance, ‘success requires maximum efficiency and effectiveness’. Therefore, for any marketer, integrated marketing communication is no longer the goal, but the absolute minimum. .

when Hungary broke free from the communist block

It was 1989. Mum and I would drive about 20 minutes north of Gyor to cross the Slovakian border to fill up the car, because it was cheaper. The closest border crossing was closed due to upgrading works on the bridge above the Danube, so on this occasion we had to drive to Komarom, or as the Slovakians call it: Komarno.

We were just passing the Hungarian checkpoint, and started driving up the bridge, when we saw a group of people, about 10-15 of them as they just reached the bridge half way, where the flags of the two countries were blowing in the wind side by side. As they stepped into Hungary, they raised their hands and started clapping, and cheering… Mum waived back smiling, as we passed.

'East Germans, she said. 'They are crossing over to Czechoslovakia, than to Hungary, only to continue to Austria, and to finally arrive back in to Germany, but on the West side.'

There were a number of futile efforts by the member countries to break free from the communist block previously, such as Hungary’s 1956 revolution, so no one knew whether this time it would last. Just like before, the young and restless packed up and fled immediately. East Germans couldn’t just cross over to West Germany, neither to Austria at that time, so they had to do a round trip. And thousands did as their cars with the DDR sticker (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) filled the streets of Hungarian cities along the way. Until at least the Wall fell, months later…
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Brand association

Having accumulated a bit of a backlog on my The Economist podcasts, I listened to about four or five of them in a row, on the way to work this morning. In between the podcasts, deep in thoughts about the previous discussion, a brief advertising message, a tag line kept recurring. Something about Conrad Hotels & Resorts...

In my current job I rarely travel for business, especially not outside the country of my current residence (Australia), which is probably the reason why when I woke up this morning, I didn't have a brand recall of Conrad Hotels & Resorts.

But why would I even think of business travel…? But that is exactly what I did. In between podcasts, I caught myself imagining what Conrad Hotels & Resorts look like. I imagined neat and stylish receptions, quick and polite service, businessmen in suits, looking the part.

Why? The answer is very simple: brand association. The marketer chose the environment, and my mind did the rest: it associated Conrad Hotels & Resort with all, that The Economist stand for

Advertising via brand association: it works.

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