First off apologies – I’ve committed the cardinal sin of blogging and blogged off for the summer…!
I’ve been intrigued over the last month or so by the amount of discussion and developments around “where are you” or the tweeting (or facebooking) your exact location.
Towards the end of August twitter blogged about its latest API making it an option for users to tweet ther longitude and latitude so that individuals know exactly where each other is tweeting from. Whilst, as the article notes, it could be interesting when you look at following response to a location specific event, or even following opinion in the neighbourhood it also would offer an amazing opportunity for brands to view regional insight that previously could have been difficult to track. The problem is how insightful would it ever really be? And is it yet more “social buzz / networing / word of mouth / reputation management” clutter that actually isn’t much use at all!
Take as an example a general election scenario. The government, using those posters willing to share their location could use real time tracking to see issues and glean insight to help them tailor conversation messages. Likewise brands can begin to compare keywords against regions to look at uplift by region (against geographic opinion or even test campaign beds) as opposed to across the nation in general – again giving digital that edge over offline buzz - its all so measurable!
That said when I look at my twitter account and the conversations I follow I dont know whether this could ever be valuable or what you could get. I sat in a meeting earlier today and pointed out to people that Twitter is a buzz word right now and not many brands are doing it well, simply jumping on the bandwagon (as they probably did with Facebook) because its the latest fad. Its perceived to be free therefore why shouldn’t they be “trying” to use it – regardless of the fact they have 10 followers and a mere 2 tweeters. I wondered how long it would take for agencies to start throwing in the importance of conversation tracking by region (despite the fact most haven’t worked out how to value track a total universe conversation in the first place).
The location thing seems inevitable for take off. The “youth” are self-obsessed with highlighting their every move and using networks to create their own PR campaigns for their “self”. Gypsii is also surely a tried and tested example of how powerful a location based network can be. Apparently compatible on 350 handset devices (a reach of approx 1 billion) users are able to search using mobile GPRS for things of interest, friends, and events local to them, at that point in time. Huge in Asia but not seeing mainstreamuptake in the UK (yet) the interesting point will be if Facebook and Twitter can get their location uptake substantial enough to make market entry difficult for Gypsii and its competitors (Brightkite, Plazes and Loopt).
It will be interesting to see how the location debate unfolds, how adoption spreads (and within which demographics) then, finally, what marketeers think they can do (or effect) with that data….
My first 4 days in Sri Lanka was spent in Tangalla in the lovely palm paradise cabanas - we arrived there quite late at night following a long taxi direct from Colombo (it took an absolute age and in retrospect we should have had a night near the airport before heading off!)
But, on arrival the accomodation was perfect and the sandy beach was even better.
Tangalla Sri LankaAside from lazing around, eating quite good food (and I base this on the fact every guide book had told me it would be terrible!) There wasn't a lot to do. Lots of sun, lots of sri lankan curry and absolutely no-one else staying at the cabanas.We also had our first encounter with Sri Lanka. On the 2nd day an elderly man came up to us on the beach. He told us his name was Winnie and that his beach hut was the abandoned one on the beach. Since the Tsunami he'd been cooking on a gas stove in there and, as we were there early in the season he didn't have the money to open it. He asked if we'd like to go there for lunch the next day and we agreed. He then asked if we'd give him the equivalent of around a tenner so that he could buy the ingredients for our dinner. Naively (and with the view it was only a tenner) we gave him the cash. The next day we hung around till 2pm and no Winnie, defeated and armed with the ROugh Guide having told us about these horrible Sri lankan touts who fleece tourists for your last penny we retreated to the palm paradise cabanas for lunch. Half way through some delicious grilled prawns a face peered over the balcony and winnie stared up at us. He explained that he was so worried about the weather he didn't think he'd be able to carry off the fish BBQ we'd been promised and, instead, cooked us dinner in his own home and had boated it around the bay, from his village, and onto the beach for us. Queue me, and Aidan, feeling like the worst, most spineless tourists to walk the land! We had to have a 2nd dinner (we couldn't let Winnie down) and, like a bad vicar of dibley episode felt absolutely stuffed and guilty with our lack of belief in an honest man. Lesson 1 of Sri Lanka learnt, whilst people do try and fleece you for every penny (which we found later on) Winnie was an honest man who deserves your chance - his food was amazing, his attitude faultless so don't be like us and if you're lucky enough to stumble across him, give him the time of day (and a beer or 2!
Twitter hits the world wide web again this week with yet more chat around whether Twitter is (or isn’t) a success or failure!
To start with the quitters… Nielsen has reported that 60% of users who sign up to Twitter fail to remain using the site after the first month – This compares to Facebook and Myspace who (reportedly) hit a contrasting 70% retention rate when they were at their peak.
For me the reason for these contrasting results is relatively clear. Taking facebook and Twitter as contrasting examples, facebook is easier… Twitter can suddently feel like this all consuming tool, you need to keep up with your own (and others) micro-blogs or you miss full conversations, titbits and information. Facebook, on the other hand, is easier to dip in and out of it. Photos can be explored when you fancy it, you can nose at people profiles on you own terms and the wall functionality means you dont miss notes that are relevent to you.
Twitter on the other hand… 3 days out and you’re behind the times!
I guess this poses the question as to where brands should sit on the twitter wagon. For me it seems like a no-brainer. Profile is setup for free. Individuals will follow you for free because they love you and, as long as you have something to say, then let your personality run and connect with your consumers. If someone offered you a free ad in a magazine being sent to 10k people who have overtly said they love your brand would you say no? No. You’d say yes so why should Twitter be viewed differently?
As with everything there are 2 sides to this. The side that annoys me is the brands that sign up who think that simply posting URLs is significant communication equally annoys me. Twitter should be about connecting with your consumers, listening to their conversations and revealing your personality in a way that no other brand does. Innocent drinks does a stirling job on this but I have heard plenty of excuses as to wjhy “innocent” can do it and they can’t. Innocent has a playful brand, a brand you expect to be personable and a brand that can get away with posting about what the receptionist is having for lunch. Other brands dont have that freedom. The brands are too functional for personality, or too corporate, or too cool. REALLY? Is that the failing of a brand manager in allowing a personality to develop or is it really the case that some brands can have a conversation and some can’t?
I’m not sure I know the answer on that one but its one I’m going to keep investigating as I think it unlocks the answers to some interesting questions (and excuses!)
For whatever reason my blog seems to rank really well on Sri Lanka… Having only entered it once on my blog it seems a slightly obscure search term to be driving traffic to my site but in light of it I thought I’d do a few post this weeks on my Sri Lankan trip.
To start with I went for 3 weeks. Begining in Columbo I went straight from airport, by car down to Tangalle to stay in the middle of the forest, right on the beach in a beautiful cabana for 5 nights, from there it was straight up by a frantic and deathly bus journey to Ella where we spent 2 nights exploring the hill village and walking in the tea plantations, at this point we ran into another couple travelling with a wonderful driver called Larry who journeyed on with us by part train / part car to Adams peak where we stayed at the “slightly chilled, slightly yellow house” and climbed the steps at 3am to the top.
2 days later, more than weary, it was onto Kandy where we did day trips around the cultural triangle and elephant orphanage. Another train journey to Colombo and a further train journey down to Galle saw us hit the beaches of Unawatuna for 7 nights before it was almost home time. Back up (by train) to Colmbo, a tuktuk to Ngembo for 2 nights on the beaches before the night flight home.
Our journey wasn’t that direct, we went up and down the island as opposed to round and round but were governed by where we wanted to be as opposed to the quickest travelling or “most sensible” route.
After watching last nights Apprentice and hurling insults at the poor individuals as you can do in the luxury of my own home I felt that Philips pants man pitch took it to a whole new level.
It reminded me of many late brainstorms when no ideas have come and you all start to lose it slightly – you let a tangent get carried away too much and begin to come up with the insane ideas but someone sensible in the room will bring everyone back down to “marketing” earth. I loved the fact that they went with the idea, I love the idea of pants man and I wonder if kellogs will ever launch a limited edition pants man pack….
So this post is an ode to the pants man creative pitch – if only…
“feeling rough around the edges? Feels great to trim the hedges”
An ad for Black and Decker? Nope an ad by Wilkinson Sword.
Tongue in cheek look at keeping your “topiary” in shape….
Not sure it will be making prime time TV viewing but having bbeen upload on the 31st March to Youtube and currently standing at 211k views it’s an interesting way to get a bit of personality across in a product that is normally pretty standard in its advertising techniques.
Designed by Them London it seems they’re continuing to have fun with razor blades following in their previous poodle parlour this one still dances away from”bikini” line shots and whilst its slightly cringey the tune is catchy and as I type this I’m singing aloud “mow the lawn….”
I was having a ponder at FHM earlier and was intrigued by their user profiling that they now have.
I’m not a regular user or visitor to the site so I’m not sure if its a new feature to the site or something that’s been around for a while but in order to take part in competitions and promotions on site you have to accrue points to be able to enter them.
The premise of this works: Why shouldnt FHM reward those users that they feel are most loyal or heavier users of the site. It links back to the idea of data versus experience that I explored in an earlier post. To enter the grand prix competition you need to have had 45 interactions with the site. Iromically they note in their instructions (as to how you gain points) that you could frantically click the mouse for each point.
Does this mean that they are rewarding users who are consuming the site or rewarding the users who can be bothered to click. It makes sense that the theory of rewarding loyal users should be the case. Particularly because each point is earned on each click. If a user is reading 2 or 3 pages on the site (or looking at 10 – 15 female pictures) they will easily accrue the points.
Will be interesting to see if they take this profiling or reward mechanic further over the coming months.
I’ve been surprised by how many people are still viewing my thoughts on the Compare The Meerkat campaign by compare the market.com.
Launched just after Christmas the brave brand marketeers went for memorability using a fluffy persona (cadbury’s gorilla anyone?!) and went on to take the campaign through every medium possible. This is the part that interested me. Working for a full service digital agency I know how difficult it is to get absolute integration. Having multiple agencies and stakeholders all buying into one idea and being able to execute cross channel is a challenge for the marketing manager and ensuring all are on board but its something that VCCP managed to spearhead and achieve.
I’ve been meaning to post up my paper to this blog for a while but, as with many things, its easy once you’ve finished something to push it to one side and forget about it!
My paper looks at the balance of data versus experience. Its a conundrum many online brands are faced with. Do they capture all of the data on consumers that the research department wants (to understand), that the marketing department needs (to prove effectiveness) and the business insists on (for commercial understanding) OR do they throw caution to the wind and put the brands digital experience with their consumers ahead of registrations, locked content or tracking.
To quote:
data means the possibility for brands to have an appropriate and personal dialogue with you, the consumer, has never been more achievable, with the tools and data allowing tailored insight, and messaging that simply wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. It’s become a partnership that can be made as simple or as complex as the brands marketing team dictate, but it’s a process that’s made relationship building a statistical science rather than an emotional hunch.
The paper goes onto explore these looking at the likes of Tesco Loyalty card, Amazon, Bailey’s and Gurgle as differing examples of how data can enhance as well as dictate the whole consumer experience.
A short but sweet post on the coolness that is GoogleStreet View – after spending the last 30 minutes looking up pointless address’ I’m hooked and awaiting them to come to the countryside and feature Hungerford so I too can see a photo of my house (why I need that I dont know but it seems exciting!)
Currently limited to Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Southampton, Swansea and York. It lets you see a 360′ panaromaic view of your street address and is very very cool! Check out their instructions and give it a play – The San Francisco one is particularly cool.
More sights spotted by the Google Street View crew HERE
*Update* Just found the latest stats on its traffic since the launch showing a 41% increase:
Team that with the stats
The average visit time for Google Maps yesterday was 7 minutes 6 seconds, up from 5 minutes 28 seconds the day before.
and its appeal as a tool is evident.
That said these stats only show the immediate increase after a week of press releases, tech coverage, blogging, tweeting, privacy issues and WOM that have given Google Maps street view rapid adoption / awareness. As such a big brand (or as some would argue the biggest brand) to provide web tools its obvious that many users will test this out, have a look and spend 5 – 10 minutes checking out address’. The more interesting stats for this will be how users use this novelty feature over time in the online space and how (not if!)they evolve this into their sat-nav features on both the phone and in car.
