Trends of the New Year

Below are some of the trends I think are going to be big players in 2011. I feel these are important to note for the year to come. They are some of the trends I would make sure I was fluent in for the year ahead:

Interactive Advertising

Marketers are really going all out to grab consumer’s attention. Today’s print media is no longer cutting it. The marketers are now turning to large-scale, interactive, viral video billboards to make sure they get noticed. Like I spoke about in earlier in my blog, interactivity and innovation are what to look out for in 2011.  With the advancements in technology and the add-soaked world we live in, in is any surprise that this was what was on the cards?

Digital Retail and Mobile Applications 

With the amount of consumers running to the internet to voice their opinions, the interactive shopping experience has never been more powerful! Within 2 minutes you can find out via your smart phone, real customer experiences with a product. Digital word of mouth beats any salesman’s pitch .

Secondly, with iPad, iphone and general applications taking on a life of their own, brands now have to differentiate themselves from other industry competitors to keep their momentum. The creation of interactive retail allows you to experience the store first hand, without ever leaving the coach.

Shockvertising

Whether a high class brand or a worldwide charity, brands have gone above and beyond to differentiate themselves to get attention. Brands aiming to create awareness and increase their business are utilising shock tactics like obscure, gruesome and overly odd sexual imagery. For example if we take my previous blog entry about “creative sexploitation” we can see that generic sex no longer sells and brands have had to up their game to get noticed.

Social Media Superiority

Businesses are incorporating YouTube, live streaming and Facebook to attract customers from every angle, social media has become the medium of choice by consumers who crave immediacy. Brands need to be aware of this and keep real time responses going to stay top of mind.

One could argue that the traditional means of marketing have been seized by technology, the key factor that was instrumental to its regicide being social media. The world has changed; in the past if you wanted to ingest vast amounts of media one was afflicted by marketing’s efforts of persuasion. But a social media revolution has emerged and trade media attempts are now falling on deaf ears.

 

Tweetonomics

To follow on from the Social Media trend, Twitter has become an incremental part of business success. Tweetonomics has flourished, more so than anyone expected. As long as Twitter continues to grow, so will the businesses that use it. With its growing membership and people becoming Twit-literate, there will be a surge of business opportunities for 2011, so it’s up to businesses to make sure they don’t get left behind.

Stealth Success

Whether it’s Starbucks disguising as an indie espresso bar or Absolute getting rid of its label, it’s quite clear that stealth marketing has taken on a life of its own. Consumers are turning away from big brand names and are directing there interest to the smaller more unique businesses. Mega-brands are getting the blame for the recession so smaller or newer businesses have an open door to capitalise on this new movement.

Crowd Sourcing

Consumer’s votes are now pushing a variety of products such as furniture, clothing and even quirky logo design. Furthermore, with this digital revolution the power is now more so than ever, is in the hands of the consumer. Their voice has never been louder; if you don’t listen to your consumer it can be detrimental to the business, as we all remember the GAP fiasco.

Brand Reversion

From the creation of adults sized playground to child-themed grown up ads, it seems that consumers are on a continual quest to satisfy their childhood nostalgia.  With iconic figures targeting grownups and well as children, brands are really tapping into youth to keep business booming.

The MacDonald’s playground is a perfect example of this; the playground allowed grown-ups to forget about their deadlines, budgets and stresses of life and just revel in this incredible childhood arcadia. There was huge hype about this campaign online for the simple fact that adults really connect with communications that are able to reignite childhood memories.

Three Great Marketing Campaigns

As all good things come in threes, I decided to merge three  campaigns for my blog. post. All three campaigns  are extremely effective and exciting pieces of marketing. In my opinion they not only answer the objective, they answer it with the level of creativity that this marketeer admires!

 

Firstly, it’s the stunt that makes me smile every time, its Guerrilla marketing at its best! Before I get in to it, let me set the scene; every year the Salon du Livre cle in Paris has a massive book fair that opens its doors to over 200,000 people over a period of five days. The objective of this stunt was to:

“Let people know about Editions Points, a publisher specialised in pocket books, and attract as many visitors as possible to their stand.”

So with the help of some creative’s, the people at Points decided to hire a team of  former pickpockets  to slip Editions Points books into the pockets of the fair’s visitors. Throughout the day people were finding these books, with the cover reading “Discover the greatest writers in your pocket” with information and offers leading them to the stand.

The results that came after showed that this somewhat radical stunt surged a lot of interest. With almost 1000 books “Put-pocked” on to people over the five days, they saw a 30% increase in their visitors to the editions. Also compared to the previous year there was a 14% increase of sales during the fair week and following month and over 60,000 visitors on the website dedicated for the operation.

Now, obviously some people may not like this stunt and everyone can see things from different perspectives, but that’s the joy of marketing, everyone is allowed have an opinion. But I have to say in this marketer’s opinion this stunt was brilliantly executed and stood out as one of my top marketing stunts.

Next, we have Amnesty international and their Guerrilla/Ambient stunt that left people stunned, shocked and educated. There objective of this campaign was to inform the public about the reality of migrant workers. The campaign was created for International Migrants Day on the 18th December 2010. Many migrant workers enter South Korea to work but their employers treat them like working machines and forfeit any human rights they may have.

Amnesty International wanted to promote this treatment of workers, who were pretty much slaves. To get people to take notice of this they created life-size boxes used for packing goods and used them to inform the public about what was happening. The boxes looked like machine parts but had humans on the display. The stunt successfully promoted their message that “humans are not machines.”

I thought this campaign was executed excellently; it addressed every component of the brief. l thought it was an extremely effective campaign and one that was worth mentioning. These types of campaigns are what I love about marketing and what I feel I could bring to the DAS programme; the ability to think outside the box (no pun intended).

Lastly, the ministry of justice in the Netherlands introduced an interactive billboard in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The object of the campaign was to challenge public apathy towards aggressive behaviour on the streets. The campaign was started to deal with the substantial growth of Public service employees in the Netherlands, such as ambulance drivers facing aggression and violence on the streets. Onlookers unfortunately do not intervene often enough when they encounter a situation like this. The billboards was able to pick up the images of passersby and place them in a pre-recorded violent situation, then providing four tips on what they can do should it happen.

What made this campaign interesting was how it was able to alter something that is already being used all across the world and portray the message so effectively. When I was in New York last summer they had a similar campaign to promote cameras I think. However, this campaign took on a whole new angle as it mixed reality and fiction and really made you shockingly stop and take notice, which was the objective of the whole campaign; Hold a mirror to the face of the public.

IKEA STEALTH SHOWROOMS

To follow on from my previous blog about IKEA, I was thinking what else the business could do to create brand awareness.  As the companies target audience seems to be the younger generation, those who are more so renters than buyers, it got me thinking (which is always a dangerous thought.) Could IKEA take a page out of Starbucks stealth stores campaign? 

Over the last few weeks I have been helping a friend look for a new apartment/house to move into. It clearly became apparent, that you make up your mind literally the time it takes you to flick through the last photo available of the apartment. 

Let’s take two successful house hunting websites, Gumtree and Daft. In the last month I personally feel that I have become an expert in finding homes to live in, through analysing the uploaded photos. I can quickly decide in one photo if the room is cold, well lit or even fit for a person to live (trust me I have been to a few places that I wouldn’t inflict on my worst enemy.)

And then it hit (like the door frame in the last place we looked) that these places can be made look like a palace, if they just moved a few things around, changed the decor, pretty much make a house a home. Like everything in business in sales it really does all come down to impression management, if that house looks like a dump in the photo you’re not bothering to book a viewing.

So as a marketing student, my creative juices began to flow. If I was accepted on to the DAS programme and we had IKEA as a client, I would advise them that they could increase their brand awareness to their target audience (those who are creating a home) by using these sites to their advantage. Stealth marketing seems to be one of the fastest growing trends of 2010 and no doubt will be a prominent tactic of 2011.  What I would propose would be to IKEA to:

“Increase the brand awareness through the real life product placement.”

What I mean by this would be to contact those who are renting homes, and offer IKEA’s merchandisers to turn any type of place for rent into an IKEA show room. The company could lend their products during the time of a house search and make the house look like one of their showrooms, thus helping the home to be leased.

The objective here for IKEA would be to increase the amount of viewings done for a home and allow all those who are searching to become familiar with IKEA products. Pretty much instead of getting customers to go to IKEA you are bringing IKEA to your customers. 

Now I know when there is a house for sale, there are people who do make over an empty house and make it look liveable. My idea is to take it a step further and get those who are looking for a room as well as a house i.e. Students, Young professionals and Young families.  

Even if some renters do not come to see the home, the amount of active views that a house gets on sites like Gumtree or Daft is quite substantial. I would propose that IKEA pay the rent of a home for one month i.e. €/£400. In that time it would allow a significant amount of viewings for the stealth showroom and allow maximum exposure of the products.  However, once the house is rented it would be up to IKEA if they would want to let the house keep the products. 

The outcome of this Stealth campaign would be to reach possible consumers on two levels:

1.   Those who view the home and get to personally interact with the products;

2.   Secondly, turn the websites into stealth showrooms for the IKEA brand.

Here's an example I created:

IKEA GETS IT RIGHT!

IKEA is quickly becoming one of my all time favourite brands, not only because my room is head to toe covered in their products but also their successful use of creativity and innovation.  As I have said countless times throughout this blog, in today’s world the creative minds have to be able to convey their message in new and interesting ways, not to mention be able to successfully utilise social media (which has become an integral part of any campaign)

IKEA spread the word on their new store opening in Sweden with the creation of an online showroom which was hosted on Facebook. The campaign itself was focused on Facebook’s “tagging” and “liking” applications. IKEA uploaded photographs on the social networking site with a profile that was specially created for Gordon Gustavsson, who is the store manager. Over a period of two weeks, 12 different photos of the stores showrooms were uploaded to his profile. Facebook friends (who had requested Gordon as a friend) could then tag themselves to a specific item in each of the 12 photos of the showrooms and in doing so, win that particular IKEA product. 

This campaign was a winner in my eyes for many reasons; firstly, because of its utter simplicity. Secondly, its successful use of social networking (which so many businesses are still struggling to comprehend.) IKEA did not have to develop any sort of specific application for Facebook nor create any costly promotional campaign. They adapted two already successful applications on Facebook which the customer was already familiar with, “Tagging” and “Sharing” and then adapted them to suit the business and its objectives.

For those, who may not be Facebook savvy, in a nut shell here is what made this campaign such a success:

1.   IKEA, first and foremost gave an incentive that motivated Facebook users to “Tag” IKEA’s Photos. For the users to be able to tag a photo, they must first “Like” the IKEA page.

2.   This “like” application created a high level of is visibility through the Facebook News Feeds. The news feed then informs others that one of their friends has “liked” the page. As the news feed came from a trusted source, it caused other users to “like” the page, which then subsequently informed all their Facebook friends.

3.   Then, when a person tags an IKEA picture with their name in it, once again their Facebook friends are then notified through the news feed.

4.   The “Likes” and “Tags” created a substantial ripple effect throughout Facebook and severely increased publicity of the IKEA page.  Curiosity stimulated more users and the above steps started all over again.

5.   Also, the amount for anticipation for another online campaign stimulated continual daily active views. The “buzz” of the campaign also kept people interested, without offering users any new incentives.

The above is somewhat hard to follow I know (it’s a lot easier to understand if you watch the video) 

Furthermore, IKEA set the timeline of the campaign just over a two week period, which was just long enough to keep the “buzz” of the campaign and keep members interested. Many companies feel that they must build a long lasting relationship with an online community of people, but sadly with the attention span of the average user, you really have to strike when the pan is hot! 

In summary, IKEA was able to create a campaign that successfully used crowd sourcing and digital word of mouth; People love being involved in a business, especially when they think they can win something. And when they like something and feel involved they tell their friends. An online community can be an extremely tricky thing to pull off and it can be quite costly. IKEA proved that with a short life cycle, clear objectives and a clear understanding of the online community, you don’t need to spend millions to get your people talking.

This campaign has had two significant outcomes, Gordon’s profile has spread across the globe and he is now friends with people from all over the world. This means that at the touch of a button, IKEA can reach millions of possible customers.

Secondly, with the actual success of this campaign, IKEA has been talked about through the internet and thousands of blogs have posted showroom pictures featured in the campaign, which is increasing an already successful campaign (exactly what I’m doing in writing this blog.)

Stealth to a New Level

You walk in to your neighbourhood coffee shop, order an espresso and then take a seat on one of the more rustic table and chairs. In the background you hear the local band tuning their instruments, getting ready to play the second set of the night. You look around and inhale the smell of coffee and wine while you sit back and sip your unbranded “non –cooperation” “non-conforming coffee”. You close your eyes and think how happy you are that you’re money is going to your local coffee shop, rather than a soulless giant organisation like Starbucks. 

It’s everything that makes independent coffee shops so great, what gives them a heart, a community spirit an anti-Starbucks feeling. It’s a place where you want to get away from the big crowds and away from corporate giants, where you’re not just another number.

Well I hate to break it to you but that hip and trendy shop, named after your street, is none other than a Starbucks in disguise! Yes boys and girls, Starbucks have taken stealth marketing to a whole new level with the creation of stealth stores.   

After Starbucks saw a serious decline in profits, they began experimenting with new coffee shops that ditched their brand altogether. The brand (or should I say the Brand less) now are favouring community environment; Starbucks claimed the revamp was meant to give the stores “a community personality.” These new stores now have live music, wine and beer on sale and espressos that are manually made.

The brand name is gone, the cups have the street name on them and the traditional layout had been ditched by a super hip “indie” look. The stealth store initiative is to recreate the atmosphere and feeling that independent neighbourhood coffeehouses had before Starbucks came to town.

Stealth marketing has swept the marketing world but the coffee giants Starbucks have really taken the idea to new heights. The innovative idea being to match each of the stores aesthetics to specific neighbourhoods is an idea that if anything else is extremely interesting.

Now I know this idea is somewhat old but when I first heard about it when I was in the states, I knew I had to include it in my blog because it’s one of those bits of marketing nuggets that really makes you think about a brand.

Anyway here are some shots of the test stores, see what you make of the new “indie”-bucks: 

I must applaud the company for their innovative idea, however; Can Starbucks lack some of the most basic tricks of the trade, ones that are adapted by smaller boutiques to keep customers?

If I had Starbucks as a client, I would make sure that before we would launch an expensive initiative (like the stealth stores) that in the regular stores, the smallest details of customer satisfaction are being tended too. 

Take loyalty cards for example, although Starbucks have a gift card (which needs to be pre-loaded) they have missed a simplistic technique to keep patrons, a loyalty card. Customers are tightening their purse strings and with something as simple as “buy 9 get the 10th free” could sustain some of its business.

Also, Starbucks are under criticism for being a “heartless corporation.” Customer involvement could be utilised to target the problem. As far as I know Starbucks run very little competitions or events for the community, which could incentivise local customers to purchase from the store. Furthermore, they could even sponsor local events in the neighbourhood (something that has been successfully undertaken by other giant corporations).

Nowadays, Brands are also utilising social media and crowd sourcing for business. Starbucks could bring out new coffee ranges and invite customers to vote online for their favourite or they could ask customers to create a new signature coffee, like if I won I would create a “Mocha-Seanie-Triple-Shot-Latte.”

The key here is customer involvement. If they feel like they are part of a company they are more likely to repeat business. Also, these competitions would continually navigate people to the website and allow Star Bucks to create mailing lists. Often the simplest tricks are most effective and ones that I would urge Starbucks to undertake.

Talk about a Power Shower

There’s nothing better than a good guerrilla marketing stunt, especially one that can arose so much attention. This is exactly what the good people of Palmolive did to promote its new range of shower products.

In downtown Moscow, the stunt featured real models taking shifts bathing within a billboard that was equipped with a shower. Frosted glass blurred any onlookers from a clear view of the models, but crowds of people in the streets shockingly watched as the modes bathed in the centre of town.

According to their website the models were “seduced” by the new Palmolive shower gel and then preceded to take a shower in the branded pillar, in the full view of shocked and admiring individuals.

The huge event attracted a large crowd of onlookers, who captured the event on camera. The event then premiered on YouTube and has now generated more than 800.000 combined views and huge hype online.

Stunts like this is why I love marketing so much, the ability to think outside the box, be creative, unique and a little bit daring. In my earlier blog I spoke about MacDonald’s childhood playground being such a success because they executed their message so creatively. Like Macdonald’s the Palmolive campaign is a winner in my mind for two reasons: 

Its tremendous simplicity;

Its impressive creativity.

Creativity in my mind is what makes a good company great and a brand historic. I believe it is one of the key components of business, marketing or otherwise and one of the strengths needed for any marketeer.

 Anyway see what you think youreself:

Creative Sexploitation

Everyone knows that sex sells right? However, with it no longer seen as the taboo that is once was, one could argue that this effective sales strategy is now just another trick of the trade. With the population becoming growingly desensitised to sex, advertisers have had to pull out all the stops between the fine lines of what is deemed appropriate for the public and what will get them talking.

Advertisers must now make deliberate attempts to startle and offend the over sexed audience. They must break through the general advertising clutter to capture the attention of the people, all in attempts to sell a product or deliver a public service message.

Gone are the days where a simple butcher could stir up controversy to get people talking by using a slogan, like “eat the meat” through its vague connotations of sex. No, today it’s about how one can use creative sex effectively to get their message across.

Nothing illustrates my point better than the controversial and explicit advertisements used to create awareness about HIV and Aids around world Aids day. As HIV and Aids are sexually transmitted diseases it is only fitting that there main stream advertisements are in layman’s terms “all about sex.”

With everything being “done before" creative’s need to push the boundaires and think of new and interesting ways to capture the audience. They need to be different and clever to get people interested.

However, with general warnings of protection falling on deaf ears and shocking portrayals being censored to the point where a three minute video becomes a 20 second clip. The advertisers now must utilise “creative sexploitation” to grab attention and portray a message effectively.

To effectively get a message about protection across, the lovely creative’s over at MTV have decided to go about it in the most graphic portrayal of sex, without actually being sex, well sort of ........

I guarantee after watching this you will know exactly what I mean:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTfiTAKvhq0

See, it’s shocking but in a different way; it’s a graphic display of sex BUT WITH LAMPS! Lamp Porn- a sentense I thought I would never say.


For the demographic at which it is targeting, it’s creative genius. It has just cut through all that red tape by subbing humans with lamps. One can only assume that the genius behind this video was sitting at their desk pondeing a new campaign and literally found the answer in front of their face.

The simplicity and unique approach of  the message  is something that would make you sit up and watch, even if it leaves you slighly puzzled at what you have just seen. In this marketer’s opinion, it delivers its communication effectively and will definitely get people talking. 


Furthermore, I must wonder for all those who may have issues with the content of the ad, can you be outraged at this obvious display of pornography when it’s not really pornography at all?

Ba Da Ba Ba Ba Im Loving it!

When Macdonald’s launched their adult playground campaign, in my opinion it encapsulated what innovative and imaginative marketing is all about, doing something different. What made this campaign so successful was its clear and simple message. Adult life carries many limitations so they wanted to remind people that McDonald's is still a place where they can be themselves, have fun and be free from judgment.

The playground allows grown-ups to forget about their deadlines, budgets and stresses of life and just revel in this incredible childhood arcadia. There was huge hype about this campaign online for the simple fact that adults really connect with communications that are able to reignite childhood memories.

What made this communication so impressive, was its tremendous simplicity, it’s imaginative, innovative and unambiguous message, which was executed flawlessly. McDonalds is a place to forget your troubles, worries and responsibilities, a place to be a child, whether four or forty.

If you want to see the video check the link:

 http://tinyurl.com/34nreqk

A Digital Revolution!

One could argue that main stream marketing’s has been usurped! The traditional means of marketing have been seized by technology, the key factor that was instrumental to its regicide being the technological revolution.

The world has changed; in the past if you wanted to ingest vast amounts of media one was afflicted by marketing’s efforts of persuasion. But a digital revolution has emerged and trade media attempts are now falling on deaf ears.

Now that’s not to say the traditional marketing channels aren’t significant but one could assume that digital is now wearing the preverbal crown.

                                 

With consumers growing to detest traditional advertising and becoming immune to its effects, the digital world has captivated the common consumer, and where they go marketers need to follow closely behind. However, with this digital revolution the power is now more so than ever, is in the hands of the consumer.

In this digital domain the consumer literally can choose to ignore the power of persuasion or embrace it. Today they can get “x out of” what doesn’t interest them with the flick of a mouse, which makes the job of the advertiser that much more interesting.

Furthermore, this revolution has eradicated traditional social class; the community is now how consumers define themselves. They have evolved, and leading this evolutionary path is the online community. Audiences are now uniting across the globe. A real time revolution revolving around mediums such as Twitter has become an unstoppable force. Social situations have been replaced by social networking, where status updates are the new status quo.

The challenge here is on the marketeer to get those who don’t want to hear to stop and listen. The battle that awaits us future marketeers in this digital revolution, is one that no one saw coming! To win, we can only arm ourselves with two weapons, creativity and innovation, which maybe too much for some to handle.

This marketer however, is ready for the challenge that awaits him, so to all marketers reading this I say Viva la resistance!

Welcome to my Blog

Apparently the Irish have always been known for the uncanny ability of storytelling. I always thought that marketing and storytelling were pretty much two sides of the same coin. Advertising in its most basic form is just telling a story whether it is about “why this product is better than that product” or “enticing the respondent to want to know more.” It can be a one word slogan that encapsulates your message or a picture that speaks a thousand words, but it’s all just basically telling a story. Now I’m not sure how widely accepted that statement about the Irish is but I would personally think that I have always had a knack for telling a story, especially to those who are willing to listen.

I guess to start I would like to tell you a little bit about me, I have had a huge interest in marketing since I was about twelve. I wish I could say there was that “defining moment” where I knew that marketing was meant for me, similar to those that doctors have when they help a person for the first time, but sadly no, there was no “defining moment” it was always just an innate feeling I had.

I did however always find myself looking forward to the add breaks on television to see what was new and interesting but mainly what was different. I loved trying to identify new trends and with that, flicked through magazines and stared at billboards dissecting and rebuilding brands again and again to see ways they could work better. I just always knew that this was the career path for me.

I am currently doing my masters in Marketing Practice in University College Dublin. What makes this master’s different is that it operates commercially as the Marketing Development Programme (MDP), a marketing house that provides professional marketing consultancy services.

I act as a Marketing Advisor; working within a client advisory capacity, on a variety of diverse commercial projects for companies ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups to MNCs. Learning within the MDP is focused on both personal and professional development of skills, through practical application, in areas such as presentation, time management and teamwork and client meetings.

I am currently working on several projects for companies that would be known worldwide.  My team and I are personally dealing with the clients on a constant basis offering them marketing research, creative solutions and further recommendations for their business.

Also internally I work on business development within the MDP, I over sea all digital marketing and press online, such as getting the name out there online and creating a “buzz” about the business. When I entered the MDP in September, I brought the MDP on to such social mediums as twitter, which have resulted in increased business and brand awareness.

I did my undergraduate degree in business, where I specialised in marketing. I received my results for final year and received a 1.1, in my marketing modules I received a high 1.1 and were higher than any other student in my class. My final year rebranding plan (for a small cosmetics company entering the Irish market) won the end of year award for creative marketing. The judges added that my unique, creative and innovative approach was what separated me from the other contestants.

I have been involved in speech and drama all my life and won many awards for it. I have performed in several plays in the Gaiety (Ireland’s most famous theatre) and acted in such television shows as Ballykissangel and Fair City. I have had a big interest in Public speaking from school and ended up setting up Toastmasters society in college, which is still being successfully run now that I have left.

So hopefully now you can have a better idea of who I am and my love for all things marketing. I hope after reading this blog you feel like you learned something you never knew before.

Regards

Sean O’Dwyer