Sunday 31 January 2010

Saturday 30 January 2010

Some light entertainment…

So you have an MBA’ – a short and funny commercial. FedEx created ‘earned media’. Something that is good enough and is therefore worth sharing. As posted by Samir Abid here.

The Pink Glove Dance – brilliant work. For me this is digital revolution at its best, social media at its height and human creative and the desire to do good at its greatest. In support of breast cancer awareness, let’s keep the viral campaign alive. Pass it on after watching it. Posted by the ‘100% Liked’ Cultural Offering here.

For the stressed out worker… hilarious. On Cultural Offering.

Less is indeed more. A favourite classical composition based on the same rhythm and a single theme and repetition. Here.


cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com


Cartoon

by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Wednesday 27 January 2010

What is really important?

Really important.

’There will be some people in your life who are particularly important to you. They give you unconditional love, or encouragement or support or make you laugh or are there when you need them or think of you or drop you a nice note when you are down or…’
(quote by Nicholas Bate)

Or they give you all the above and still more. And I spend the 27th of January each year remembering one of them…
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Tuesday 26 January 2010

Brain stimulation boosts people's deception skills

I read an interesting blog post on BPS Research Digest today on brain stimulation and how it enhances lying. Researchers ‘have shown that the application of transcranial direct current stimulation over the anterior prefrontal cortex - the front bit of the brain - improves people's lying skills’.

In other words, ‘the stimulation improved participants' lying ability: they lied more skillfully in terms of only lying when they needed to; lied more quickly; and remained calmer whilst lying, as reflected by their sweating less’.

This finding certainly raises many questions, one (as the researchers pointed it out) is about the possible implications on personal responsibility. I certainly agree. Being aware of such a connection between the brain and electronic current is one thing, but using it for questionable reasons is quite another.
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Monday 25 January 2010

What’s the ROI of chit-chat?

Networking. At first it sounds like a dirty word, a bit like forced fun. But it all depends on how you look at it really… ROI quickly stacks up when you consider that it’s human nature to gravitate towards the familiar. Evidently, people rather do business with those they know, rather than strangers.

Here are a few sources on networking, that I stumbled upon today and are worth a read.

Really liked the 5 key points for networking basics as posted by Cherie on Chat with the Chamber, quoted from ‘Never Eat Alone’ (by Keith Ferrazzi).
1. Understand the importance of mentors
2. Put others first
3. Know you have value
4. Don't keep score
5. Find your passion


Another source, a ‘how to’ guide on networking, advised not to miss an opportunity and besides weddings consider times in transit, waiting at the checkout, sporting events, festivals, bookstores, etc. I would add professional training courses. Where I had the pleasure to meet this fantastic blogger.

And if you are still hesitant, here is how to network: for the introverts. Useful, even if you are an extravert.

Chat soon.

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Sunday 24 January 2010

Visualising empires decline

I quite liked this…

I think this is a perfect example on how we can use technology to make history more fun to learn and easier to understand.


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Friday 22 January 2010

Beating the System – Quote of the Day

as read it on Execupundit.com.

Effective police officers think like criminals; effective criminals think like police officers.

- Russell L. Ackoff and Sheldon Rovin, Beating the System
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20 goals for your business/ career 2010

as posted by Cherie on Chat with the Chamber here.
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Sunday 17 January 2010

Focus or diversify?

I was checking out the January sales yesterday and ventured into one of the shops of a renowned Australian clothing brand. They are at the top end of the high street franchise brands, with prices and quality above the average.

They’ve done well with ’related diversification’ in the past. Such as with bags, accessories and jewellery – all of which a fitting extension of their core product, the clothing line. However, shoes were added recently. In line with the brand’s image, they are classy, trendy, and top quality; but no sooner had I put a pair on than I realised that they are simply not wearable. And I’m not even talking about whether they are comfortable or not.
When it’s a challenge to stand up straight in a pair of shoes, something has gone seriously wrong with that product. And as I was scanning through the boycotted shoes’ boxes, piled 2 metres high, I couldn’t help but notice that others must have been on the same opinion.

Diversification when done properly has many benefits – it can spread the risk across the business, can create an opportunity to grow, just to name a few. But when done for the sake of it, or without sufficient planning, things can go horribly wrong.
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Oxford St, Bondi Junction

Friday 15 January 2010

Invest in yourself, not others…

I never sat in the front row in school, neither the very last, but always towards the back. In retrospect I realise that I was also one of those lucky ones who got through school and achieved a lot without much effort. So it always amused me, watching from the back, how others in the front ‘tried too hard’ to please the teachers.
Fast forward to today and I still see it daily. Not in the school of course, but at work.

There will always be those who ‘try too hard’ and say or do anything to please their superiors – and in this chain of thought genuine cooperation is excluded. But the problem is, that’s not a ‘currency’.
You can’t exactly put down on your resume how many of your bosses you have pleased.

Your achievements and skills on the other hand, you can. So invest in yourself – not others.

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Wednesday 6 January 2010

Mobile advertising shake up

As the story unfolds, it looks like Apple stole some of the limelight on the day that was meant to be about Google’s new mobile. A mobile advertising power play is taking shape with Apple announcing to have bought a mobile advertising service: Quattro One, earlier this week. This is only a couple of months after Google acquiring AdMob, another advertising service company.

Let’s ask why?

1. rapid increase in 3G mobile devices
According to eMarketer, there will be 656 million 3G enabled smartphones in the US only by 2013, predicting an over 300% increase in only 2 years. (Interesting to note that the other internet-enabled devices are predicted to have some but nowhere near the same increase as 3G enabled smartphones.)



2. increased demand for mobile sites
As the number of 3G handsets will increase so will the demand for mobile sites and mobile content – and as we all know it, advertisers follow eyeballs.

3. ‘show me the money!’
Also according to eMarketer (as quoted in WARC), US mobile ad spend was $416 million (USD) in 2009, but according to forecast, this will reach $1.6 billion by 2013.

So the race is on in the world of mobile. In an obvious attempt, Apple and Google are out there to capture a large chunk of the market now, as among all the internet enabled devices, mobile’s growth is predicted to be the largest.

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Tuesday 5 January 2010

Google’s new mobile

The latest Google powered mobile, HTC’s Nexus One, running on Android OS has arrived (official blog here). Google powered mobile devices have been around for a while, and from the reviews – as positive as they are - it still only seems like that this is just a newer addition to the twenty-odd mobiles that are currently already available.

But there is more to the story, at least there is a strong potential for the future:
Google's model has an important twist. Instead of buying the phone from a carrier, consumers will buy the phone directly from Google's Web site. (Scott Anthony, HBR)

So we are talking about a latest model, touch phone mobile device with an unlocked sim card, that everyone can buy online. Disruptive? Certainly has the potential to turn Apple’s restricted, carrier locked in model upside down.
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Monday 4 January 2010

Government advertising

It’s the 4th of January, the first Monday of the new year. Alongside those who only took a short break over the festive season, I’m also queuing for a train ticket at the station on the way to work. (Is it my imagination, or the the queue is going even slower than usual?)
It’s only a couple of people ahead of me now and I can make out the single city ticket’s price on the machine’s display: 20 cents increase.
The Australian Government spends in excess of $130m a year (Full Year Report 2008-09) on advertising, and true to their election promise, a $100m less then the previous Government (Howard led Liberal). But I’m sure I am not the only one who is wishing that there was some bare minimum signage at and around the stations to prompt people to prepare more change on the first and possibly the second Monday of the new year – immediately after the price increase.

What if you could have more say into what Government advertising is spent on? What communication would you want more or less of?
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The last click vs. the Long Road to Conversion

Continuing my previous post on the ‘last click’ and the influencing factors of preceding events… As consumers are using digital media (currently in the US accounting for a third of all their media consumption) and come in contact with brands – are we to count the last click, and discount all those ‘ad events’ that came previously? Not exactly. The Atlas Institute, in their recent research, The Long Road to Conversion, looked at the influencing factors preceding the conversion.

The research was based on some 69 million conversion records gathered from thousands of sites. For the purposes of the research 90 days of history was recorded. After the first day, the median total ad events were 2.2 (over 2 ads were served to an individual within 24 hours before they converted). However, the real surprise is, that this number went up to as high as 18.5 median total ad events during the entire 90 day window. What this means is that consumers are in fact reached months before they actually make the purchase.
AIDA Purchase Funnel[9]Marketers know that for the purchase to happen, first they need to gain consumers’ attention, their interest and build a desire. The widely used marketing model describing these stages leading up to the purchase is the AIDA Purchase Funnel (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action). 

The Atlas Institute, based on their research, added time to the standard AIDA funnel – chart below – which allowed mapping the influencing factors. This funnel demonstrates where different conversion categories appear on the 90 day timeline. Search is at the very bottom, which means that this category reaches consumers within 24 hours before they buy. Strongly suggesting that at this stage many people have already made up their mind about the purchase and using Search as a navigational tool - attributing the ‘last click’ to this category. It takes over a week before the first publisher appears, but most are 2 weeks or further up on the funnel.

The Digital Purchase Funnel 
What this proves is that the relationship between brand / advertising message and the consumers is certainly not a ‘one night stand’ (Avinash Kaushnik), but can be a rather long road with a number of influencing factors before the actual purchase happens.

What this means for display advertisers is that they need to consider the entire funnel. To achieve an integrated marketing campaign there has to be a strong message at the top of the funnel, the middle and also the bottom. .

Sunday 3 January 2010

More on the ‘last click’

…by Young-Bean Song on ‘How to make every touch point count’.
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Digital media: does the ‘last click’ deserve all the credit?

Audience measurement metrics are integral to media planning and buying (as previously mentioned here). With regards to digital, the industry at first counted page views and people, then started counting clicks, progressing on to click through rates (CTR). The latest buzz is around engagement (more on this later) in a continuous quest to provide more detailed data for what is often coined ‘the most measurable media’.

What this means is, that advertisers are inundated with data, the sheer volume of which ironically often becomes a hindrance in making sense of it all. Add to this all the different ways audiences consume digital – through social media, video, display, search, rich media, the list goes on – and ‘the most measurable media’ quickly becomes a non-measurable one. At least by traditional digital metrics, that of click-throughs.

However, as consumers are spending more time online (currently, in the US, around a third of their media consumption), marketers need to understand what influences click-throughs and conversion, to determine what works and what doesn’t. ‘It turns out that most Online Marketers tend to think of life, online at least, to be all about “one night stands”. Come. Wallet out. Convert.’ (Avinash Kaushik, Jan 2009, Author of Web Analytics An Hour a Day, source: The Long Road to Conversion)
Does that mean that if a well known brand decided to pull all their advertising bar Search, from tomorrow onwards, their sales would continue to perform well? Of course not – at least not on the long run. Branding needs to be taken care of. However, too many marketers exclude or underutilise online when it comes to their branding campaigns. But when, as mentioned above, around a third of media consumption happens online, I ask why?

And all those times that consumers are online and come in contact with brands – are we to count the last click, and discount all those ‘ad events’ that came previously? Not exactly. The Atlas Institute has the answer – more on that tomorrow. .

Saturday 2 January 2010

Different channels call for different creatives

Just a few days ago, I was sitting on the plane, which was waiting at the gate to be allowed to taxi out to the runway. Not ready to start reading yet, but also uninterested in putting on the earplugs, I ended up staring at the mute screen built into the seat in front of me.

After a few minutes consuming ‘muted advertisements’ it struck me that some ads made complete sense. I got the message, and a week later, I still have brand recall. One of these was a car ad and all key messages were also displayed on the screen. It was simple, to the point and all the right connotations (for performance, comfort, and reliability) were used.

On the other hand some other messages could have been selling sand from Mars for all I know. While we were waiting to move, with only a handful of ads rotating, I saw all of them again – some still not making sense.

Of course there are budgetary constraints to create a new artwork or creative for each and every channel within a marketing campaign. But creative should only be recycled and used cross-platform if the message will make sense within that medium. Otherwise it is just wasted ad dollar, and is likely to produce poor results.
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Friday 1 January 2010

2009 summed up in 1 paragraph

…as Execupundit (Michael Wade) grabbed the most powerful paragraph of George Will’s article on Newsweek.
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Have an amazing 2010!

No resolutions… just getting on with it Nicholas Bate style:

”Because you don’t need New Year Resolutions; you simply don’t need to hang around for some ceremony. They are simply a nice trigger. Pencil, paper…start writing. What do you want? No really, really want?”
(quoted from 2010: Your Best Year Yet. The Director’s Cut. For The Truly Dedicated, Only.)

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and blessed new year. Let’s continue to do good and make the World a better place!