Social business design

There are number of companies who think of marketing as directing all efforts and resources into customer service, hoping to generate positive WOM. This has been so from the start. Upgrade to just being good and hoping somebody to notice, is being visibly and actively close to your customers - strategically choosing your channels. Regarding to previous, it would be interesting to stop on social business design, as a great mean to bring your company really close to your customers. It’s a interesting and growing field I would liked to know more about, so anyone more acquainted, please drop me a line here.

CiniMini Wacky Slider

My kid is a victim of advertising. So I was forced to buy Nestle CiniMinis. As I amuse myself from time to time with clumsy text adaptions, then this package was a real treat for me. This particular package is translated into 5 languages, although in some places 3 of them was chosen, to save some space. How considerate (Estonian was left out).

I can imagine the lengthy process of this package adaption into all these five fabulous languages (Czech, Hungarian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian). And the enormous effort the designer has put into compressing all this information into this box. It must have been hard work.

I’m not going into details, as blog entries should maintain a snappy content and length.  Let’s just say Google translator is a linguist god compared to this case.

Advertising career evolution.

Sunday morning speculations

Everybody is talking about it; few are brave enough to experiment.

Are you using classical media in a classical way to promote classical product or service? If you’re not Procter & Gamble with endless budget, then it means for you driving a car looking in the rear-view mirror. You need to stand out. Be special in what you do. Extraordinary. Otherwise you may be living, but what a life it is, being gray and boring and bringing nobody to think, laugh or cry. If you earn enough to get your mortgage payments in time and are satisfied with it – fine. Your one of those who has a lack of imagination combined with willpower. This is the combination that leads on. Safe is boring. If you do not happen to be a guy with a golden brain - outsource it. Besides that you need to be passionate about your field of activity and smart enough to recognize a good idea.

Although changing marketing mix isn’t the solution anymore. Not today. Very special and extraordinary advertising alone does not give you the long-term results you are longing for. The innovation has to come from the product or service you are offering. Offering a memorable user experience is the key.

In today’s situation consumers are looking for security and many companies are offering secure products and services to survive. No one has the resources, willpower or courage to experiment. It s a perfect ground for creating something outstanding, as the market situation is making it possible. By being outstanding I do not mean outrageous or scandalous. This is already despair. Scandalous redeems itself only if this is the core essence of your brand. But in the longer run intelligent kind of outstanding creates more brand value. The trick is to think small before thinking big. It’s the details that count today.

Second life for killed ideas

How many times my team has created fabulous, crème de la crème ideas that are a knock out. Some at least… How many times my team has been rejected those brilliant ideas. Countless times. Why?
• It’s very interesting, but we are afraid... (does not matter what follows, client is afraid - that’s it).
• It’s out of our budget range.
• Our CEO does not like it. No comments. Just his face was not happy seeing it.
• They take the idea and send it to the big round inside their company and come back with a totally different idea.
• It’s just too crazy.
• Nobody understands it (except the creative team).
• Sometimes you present many fabulous ideas for one brand and only one is to be chosen, others left out.

Well at least now all those killed ideas have a second chance. Killedideas.com is a place to submit all those ideas that have been rejected for one reason or another. They publish them in a book or/and display on a blog. Although there is a deeper financial meaning for this initiative, as it seems to be a campaign for Blurb - bookmaking software and publishing, its a good idea. Targeting those who won’t get recognition naturally, offering them the tools for being a published author.

Submission ends on 31. March 2009, so few days to go, for running through archives.

If you re not having fun, you re not doing it right.

My first days in the advertising business brought me to the cold knowledge: I was told that the fun guys in the industry are the ones that can’t be taken seriously. The most successful and respected are the ones that come and leave unnoticed and do their work perfectly and leave a mark in the longer run.

I thought „yeah right“. I was driven by the passion for advertising and had no idea how to suppress it down and work like a machine, showing no passion at all.

Almost 2 years have passed and now I understand. Those people DO have passion for advertising and are no machines. Instead of living their passion out, they live it in and convert it into their work. This is what gives excellent and impressing results. „Fun guys“ waste all energy for being „so fun“ and leave no reserves for actual nut cracking.

I m not going to classify myself, as obviously I m not the serious type- writing this blog, and no fun either- so says my husband. Which leaves me empty handed.

Right now the moto to live by is: if you’re not having fun, you re not doing it right. By not having fun - you start looking fun from elsewhere. Synergy coming from passion directed right can be mind-blowing. Advertising is fun. Not just outside.

Seriously – inside.

You've got mail

I have a friend who runs a niche business and instead of many suggestions to stop, sends me over totally boring monthly newsletter. I have nothing against receiving this carefully composed newsletter. But I‘m afraid that this newsletter does not serve the purpose he hopes for. I believe his goal is to develop a long-term impact on the readers. It should provide the readers value, which means more than just sales messages. It should contain information, which informs, entertains or otherwise benefits the readers. He invests his time and money on it and value of ROI, I believe, is zero.

So here, dear friend and everybody else, trying to really reach somebody via e-mail, are some soft reminders:

• Do not send your newsletter, so everybody can see the entire cc list. It’s just plain rude.

• Make a decision. Are you sending a direct mail or a newsletter? Direct mail fits into e-mail without having to open it. Newsletter is usually composed into PDF file, so parties interested can browse through it or print it out and it usually contains more than one page. You can’t be both at the same time.

• Avoid plain long text. No one wants to read it. Add a link to your website for further information, if somebody is really interested.

• Bring out reader benefit - BIG AND RED - at the beginning, so highly occupied people would have interest to read further.

• Be focused and understand what's important for your clients.

• It’s very nice that somebody has composed a thorough PDF of your companis summer vacation; two more pitches won and a new improvement on your business. So what? Ditch the information, that is not crucial and put all the emotions into the new product introduction, new skills owned by your staff or innovations in your field of activity.

• If you do not have anything important to say, do not send it, just because you think you should… people do not want to read it. Value the time of your customers.

• Innovation in your field of activity still exists. Please find it and spread the message. If you are in the dead end and think there is no innovation - be a man, and invent it.

• Act like a market leader, not like someone who is trying his best to become one.(Its recommendation just for him , as he is the market leader. Other folks who are not - accept your position and compose your strategies accordingly.)

• I understand it is hard to come up with some illustrations or something else that catches the eye. If you already came to a point sending this newsletter, please be so kind to hire somebody who makes it look more edible.
  

Flogo clouds

Interesting.

A new way for marketers to use a new form of ambient advertising. “Environmentally friendly” clouds that can be produced to resemble advertising logos etc. called Flogos.

It’s made of soap-based formula mixed with helium and vegetable dye. A new Flogo cloud can be produced after every 7 seconds. Each Flogo lasts approximately 30 minutes.

Watch on YouTube how Flogos are made:


Although it can be used for commercial purposes, an artist Stuart Stemple, used smiley faces in London, to promote the value of creativity. Whatever the reason, most of all it made many people smile ☺

Complex human nature

There might be an average person who corresponds to the image created by research companies. For example aged 25-35, works, has 2 kids, a dog and drives a Toyota. Stereotypes are easily adapted, but to really reach somebody, a marketer has to realise the complexity of a human nature.

Most marketing people make decisions according to research data. It’s not so black and white. Communities cross and if a person belongs to one group, does not matter that he/she can’t belong to another. For example if a customer flies first class and has higher income than average then it does not automatically mean that he/she likes to drink beer from glass and wear a white shirt and a tie.

Is cause marketing mainstream or not?

Cause-marketing is, to put it simply, when a non-profit organization and a business combine forces in a good cause. Usually non-profit organization provides PR and business provides ”resources”. A good worldwide example would be Product Red®. It was created to support The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria and includes companies such as Starbucks, Apple Computer, Motorola, Giorgio Armani, and The Gap as participants.

In Estonia some large corporations show their social responsibility mainly during Christmas time, where donations are collected for children, dogs and disabled people. In everyday advertising and PR noise cause-marketing messages do not make a relevant percentage, so they would be noticed enough.

While Estonian people seem to show some compassion only during Christmas or via shock advertising, then in US cause marketing seems to be getting mainstream. According to marketing survey by Cone, Inc. 89% of Americans (aged 13 to 25) would switch from one brand to another brand of a comparable product (and price) if the latter brand was associated with "good cause". The same study also indicated that a significant percentage surveyed would prefer to work for a company that was considered socially responsible. Asked if people hold a more positive image of companies that support causes, 92 percent said, “yes.”

A survey by Golin Harris showed that American consumers cared about:
1. Environment, Pollution

2. Education

3. Energy Conservation

4. Human Rights (e.g. - race, gender, lifestyle)

5. Consumer Rights

Estonian consumers have totally different priorities, which can be seen from the preferences made by corporations choosing partners for cooperation.

One very good and colourful example from cause-marketing in Estonia, in my opinion, would be Kaubamaja, a Department store.

Kaubamaja opened a newly renovated department for youth fashion. The colourful messages in the campaign spread the message of joie de vivre and all the profits from the badges sales go to social entrepreneurial program for youth called SINA. Not only is this campaign positive and full of life, it also carries a social message. People, who are not the target group, walking by and not getting very deep into the campaign, understand this just as a positive thought spread by Kaubamaja during hard times. This is like 2 in 1 campaign, which makes it even more genius, as it first seems.

As some parts of the world have discovered already the positive side of good causes and positive corporate image then let’s hope that in here more companies start to notice others around them also. I m not talking about the large corporations. They know already how to make it work for them. This could be a very good way to position themselves for a medium or small business and get the publicity and recognition needed. Only thing to remember is that the good thought could turn into bad publicity in a second, as consumers smell greediness. Sincerity sells.

Kit Kat launched "intriguing" website

Kit Kat launched a first worldwide website where nothing happens. The idea is to “have a break” form flashy websites.

http://www.thefirstworldwidewebsitewerenothinghappens.com/

• It’s not the first. In the majority of websites nothing happens actually. Nothing relevant to be accurate. 
  
• The address is so intriguingly long, that I do not even want to bother to type it in. Only way for people, who really want to see it, is to click on the URL somewhere - like in here.
  
• Luckily they have thought of the people who can't spell right and registered URL- s with some words misspelled. As this does not direct to the correctly spelled domain, many people truly believe that Kit Kat has made a mistake in registering the domain name. This creates a buzz. Buzz is good.  

Y Water

Ever heard about the “impossible” tasks to sell ice to the Eskimos etc? Mission impossible seems also to sell water to the children. Although water is essential, water is boooooring as hell and tastes like... nothing. Well, if you can’t sell plain water, think further and add something little extra, to make it special. Add functionality that attracts the parents and design that makes kids go crazy.

Y Water is playful, interesting and seems to make kids healthier, opposite to the traditional beverages sold in stores. It comes in four options: brain water, immune water, muscle water and bone water. Even if the children have consumed all the content and the bottle is empty, they can link all the bottles together with knots and live out wildest fantasies constructing whatever comes to their mind and give a new life to the empty bottles.

I like the website. Its childlike and playful, yet gives factual product information to the parents at the same time.

But still there is on little but. There is still sugar inside. How can you call it "water", when it contains also sugar? So here’s a lesson. How to sell water to children? Put sugar inside and make it colourful. Some little extras like design and functionality would be nice also.

Tricky social marketing campaign for teens

Syke seems to be a new hip energy drink. Campaign has taken over US TV, print, Internet and music events targeted to teenagers.

Campaign is divided into three phases:
1. Introduce Syke through extreme ads to the target group and make them interact with the brand. Syke is presented as the ultimate drink making life awesome.
2. Introduce 9 new “super awesome” ingredients that are also actually the most dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes.
3. Total public collapse of Syke energy drink and shame. It is being introduced as dangerous as cigarettes and fake chief executive of the fake company disgraced and the fake product pulled from fake shelves.

The marketers believe that the target group first acknowledges the brand and takes it seriously. The bad things happening to the energy drink and the final revelation are believed to be refreshing and they believe that teenagers take the message coming from Syke more seriously as from some unknown advertiser.

The Warren Commission Report report says the highest rates of smoking are in the subcultures whose identities are tied up in a look and an attitude. Syke firsthand creates an attitude and look level teenagers want to look up to and after speak to them from that platform created.

As average teenager is not anymore as “Mainstream Floater” but far more complex, then campaign created is supposed to reach everybody who is not a “Mainstream Floater”. They built their strategy around the tastes of a composite subculture. Pretty funny content on the web site. Go check it out. Although I’m not sure about the outcome of this campaign. Scary pictures of tainted lungs work well for me. But I’m not a teenager either.

Indigestion problems?

Simple and clear campaign for GastroMilk, an indigestion medicine.

WOM via Product Placement

First look at these two videos and tell me how many differences do you find?





Reasons for this concealment are not today’s topic, perhaps because I really do not know the reasons. WOM is.

Lately I have gone deep into WOM strategies. Totally useless. The foolproof ones are the ones that always work 100 %. I’m talking about e.g. product placement through celebrity key influencers (where choosing the right one, concerning the target group, might be the only science). The cost of this foolproof strategy might be high to pay. I do not even want to know how much Bentley and Rolex paid to be in James Bond movies, or M.A.C, DeSquared and Motorola paid for A&M Records to be in Fergie's music video showed above. That’s where some other WOM strategies seem to come handy. Although WOM is not generated for free, there are less expensive and cleverer ways to keep the good word circulating. And wouldn't it be exciting to create some all on your own... someday.

Love me tender... or else

Valentines Day is coming. Do not forget it… or else.

It does not matter that you think its Hallmark or Interflora day. What matters is that majority of people (read: women) think it’s the day celebrating romantic love. Why not take advantage of it ?

Here’s Agent Provocateur giving you a soft reminder aswell. Watch video.

"Welcome to Estonia" brand to be hijacked

It was 5 days ago when I was wondering that “Welcome to Estonia” should be reconsidered. Didn’t take even a year. Done.

The new approach to the “Welcome to Estonia” changed the slogan “Positively transforming” into “Positively surprising”. Good choice. I like surprises, who doesn’t? Digging deeper into the new brand book and website, released by EAS, I realize that this all is a big brief to what’s up to come.

Instead of directing all resources out of Estonia, this time the attention in pointed to local inhabitants, to enhance the self-consciousness of local people, so they could be the best delegates to the world. In case somebody has forgotten our roots and essence, EAS has put together very thorough brand book. A guide to the Estonia (n)‘ s soul. It also gives guidelines what to tell when creating an advertising message for “Welcome to Estonia” or for somebody who is just short in words. Guidelines are created for four major groups:

• Tourists (tourism) 
  
• Businessmen (business) 
  
• Temporary students and inhabitants (immigration)
  
• Native Estonians (inner-tourism)

The workgroup seems fairly professional, the studies conducted thorough and time passed from previous campaign has been long enough to learn from mistakes. As we are dealing with “surprises” here, then I believe in Estonian people’s creativity and boldness. We are the people of innovation. We are small, we can afford it.

At least now nobody can say that the new campaign is boring, bad or ineffective as everybody has a chance to speak up or create their own communication ideas, which are better.

It seems that the workgroup has also read the book by Alex Wipperfurth “Brand Hijack- Marketing without Marketing”. Giving the power to the people. It has many pros and cons, in this case i hope the pros will win.

Commitment

Commitments share a common line of behavior. I’m talking about the commitments that start thunderstorms and really exist, not those de jure commitments, that nobody cares about. Husband and wife, parent and a child, employer and employee, brand and the people. You have to work for keeping it strong and vital. Sometimes the work pays off, sometimes all the efforts turn into peanuts. Even Coca Cola has to work for a stronger commitment level. Here’s a thought: even if you have it all, dont stop trying.

Destination promotion

Brilliant, just brilliant. Give the potential clients what they want and they do all the work for you. Especially in the economical and psychological situation as we live in today, where everybody is just looking for the perfect getaway.

Lately Great Barrier Reef madness has taken over the world. They call it “The Best Job In The World”; I call it “The best advertising possible for the destination”. This is so brilliant it makes me shiver.
According to The New York Times within 24 hours, more than 200,000 prospective applicants had visited the Web site advertising the job, islandreefjob.com. Applicants must submit a 60-second video application, and 11 finalists will be flown from their home countries to the island in May for the final selection process. The application deadline is Feb. 22.

In exchange for the $100,000 pay, a free stay in an oceanfront villa and plane tickets, the employee will be required to “manage” the island and what’s most important keep a blog about the everyday life. That’s what gives this campaign a longer lifecycle and gives reason to the world to talk about.

Another good example to promote a destination via what people really want: www.pomegranatephone.com , which is great viral for Nova Scotia.

Should "Welcome to Estonia " be reconsidered? Kadri Tuisk

What’s good about today?

• Market is full and saturated and seems that there is only room for a big clean up and reorganisation.
  
• As people are frustrated, they believe in the new messiah.
  
• Highly qualified people are available or looking for new opportunities.
  
• Everything collapses in order to reinvent itself in the new molecular level.
  
• What an amazing opportunity for marketers to do something that could actually change something. Just be brave enough and pick up the berries.
  
• Every end is the begging for something big and new.
  
• And it seems that grass is also greener today - or is it just me? Kadri Tuisk

The American Dream

I’ve been following a marketing stunt made by Doritos. It s not a very innovative idea, totally ordinary in fact, but as the stakes are high, it caught attraction. Everybody had a chance to earn/win 1 million dollars by making Super Bowl ad for Doritos. The reason according to The Wall Street Journal is that PepsiCo wants to outmaster Budweiser who has been number one in Super Bowl ads. The creator of the chosen ad wins million dollars, if the ad tops number one in USA TODAY'S annual Ad Meter.

Where did they advertise and what was the responce?

The five lucky finalists are

1. "Free Doritos," Joe Herbert, Batesville, IN

2. "New Flavor Pitch," Oren Brimer, New York, NY

3. "Power of the Crunch," Eric Heimbold, Venice, CA

4. "The Chase," Chris Roberts, Burbank, CA

5. "Too Delicious," Michael Goubeaux, Los Angeles, CA

The excitement is held in the air and the winner will be not revealed before Super Bowl Sunday.

My favorite is "The Chase".

Cross-channel purchase journey

Last month our agency was visited by a Finnish duo from Oneexperience ® who talked about determining a customer’s shopping route. If you know how your customer acts, you know when is the right time to contact him/her. This gives the marketer the possibility to correct the channels used for reaching the customer. For example you could find out that nobody read the direct mail you spent fortune on last year or the buying decision was made while talking to friends, so message on TVC should be reconsidered, to tell the customer what they really want to hear at that certain time.

Definitely a very useful tool for companies who have one certain field of activity. For example car retailers, mobile operators etc. It's pretty expensive toy though, but I’m sure in the longer run optimizing the media mix pays off and no need for producing marketing materials that annoy everybody, are expensive and useless. Who does not want to learn the art of pushing the right buttons?

Make My Logo Bigger Cream

Finally something reasonable for the marketing managers who are struggling with ad agencies over a logo size. Do-it-yourself kit. Marketing manager is happy for not having to pop up this embarrasing request, again, to the ad agency and ad agency can produce creative solutions with unnoticeable small logos which do not ruin great art work. Suitable for sending to competitions.

Great self- publicity though. I like. Kadri Tuisk

The biggest discount ever

While driving to work every morning I used to enjoy the witty, sometimes silly radio spots that entertained me. Now all I hear is biggest discount ever, sale, cheaper prizes etc. Unsatisfying - I switch the channel. In the evening, while watching TV, I used to enjoy advertisements even more than the program itself. It engaged me with its entertaining content and made me think. About the product, company behind it, brief and the creative process. Now I see short flash animated numbers showing me how cheap everything is. Where is the creativity? Now is the time to do something different, although I understand the lack of budget…but still I want to be entertained and engaged - not sold the prize to. I do not connect to the numbers, I connect to emotions. Please somebody surprise me (easier said than done).