At Ogilvy, as digital is dramatically changing the marketing world, 4 themes seem critical to us. Dada, which is about art and always being willing to view things afresh. Data, which is about metrics but also about leveraging data to tell stories in new ways. Alpha, which is your brand advocate and more critical than ever in building a brand. Beta, which is about the state of things from now on.
An interesting article from the Associated Press recently appeared on Yahoo that may represent the head of big issue and debate surrounding posted personal content forthcoming. I found myself asking many "what if" questions. Here's a summary of the story.
The news, from any source worth quoting, seems to be that kids play video games as much, if not more, than they watch TV. It is stated all different ways but the gist is the same. Because of this oft-quoted research, gaming, typically in the form of adver-gaming, seems to be the solution for any program targeting any one under the age of twenty-one – no matter the objectives or detailed audience information. This is akin to saying “they watch TV so we should advertise there.”
56% of consumers visiting CPG websites say they are going there to get free product samples. As marketers, is this the best we can do to provide value to consumers and connect them to retail stores?
Once in store, 29% of US shoppers decide to impulsively buy from categories they that were unintended. More than 1 in 10 shoppers leave stores empty handed, even though they want to buy. As store ranges grow shoppers are being asked to make more and more decisions. Consumers need help. For your brands you should know what kind of help they need.
Knowing that shoppers behave differently in every category they shop is an insight...
Late last week, Cowen & Co. lowered their revenue forecast for U.S. online ads to a 6 percent decline in 2009 to $22 billion. This is much lower that Cowen's previous forecast (negative 3%) and what other outfits are expecting for this 2009 (flat on average). Cowen also expects the online share of the ad market will continue to rise, ending this year at 9.4 percent of total U.S. ad budgets over last year’s 8.7 percent.
What I found quite interesting these days are all the discussions that you hear at conferences and that - I have to admit - we have with our clients about social media and the concept of EARNED media. Is this a coincidence that at the exact time the economy is shrinking, at the times that companies have less money - no money - for their marketing initiatives, everyone is talking about this idea - as if it was new - this idea of earned media. However capturing people's attention with something - an idea, a new product, a provoking point-of-view - that will be so compelling that people will share it (thereby generating earned media) is difficult and requires more than embracing facebook or twitter.
I am a big believer in social media but I hope that companies and CMOs are not embracing social media and the concept of "earned media" just because they don't have the same budget than last year. This would be a disservice to social media as it would put way too much expectation on this nascent form of communciation. As of today, social media without creativity or a compelling point-of-view does not generate much success for any marketer. However, if one combines social media, with creative content (which can be fun, compelling, though-provoking... preferably in video format) and with PAID media, one has a solid chance to generate attention and earned media.
Marketers must understand that social media needs to work in concert with paid media (search, rich media, display) in order to gain scale. Unfortunately, the decline in online advertising revenue does not bode well for the success of social media as a marketing platform in 2009.
The recent David Ogilvy biography, "The King of Madison Avenue" recounted many of the pithy telex-friendly missives he penned to staff, but there was a story about one that really grabbed me.
David had bought his castle in Touffou during the low tax days in France. When the socialists under Mitterand took power in 1980, David was concerned and sent this telegram to his finance chief in Paris. "Mitterand will soak the rich. I am rich."
This style of paced writing, leaving out key things one can conclude oneself and be amused by isn't just Hemingway-eque. It's how so many of us use Twitter. Bite-sized...
My first experience with twitter size communication was somewhere around 1986, when I managed to have BTX installed in my parents’ house in Hanau, Germany. I was suddenly connected, (at a rate of about 1200B/s), to a central IBM unit somewhere in the vaults of Deutsche Post. And I was able to send little messages to all the other participants who also happened to be logged in and listening in on that magically flowing stream of people reaching out into the ether, and well, other people. It was a bit like short wave radio, except much clearer and utterly modern.
The reason why I am comparing this communication to twitter is...
Digg founder Kevin Rose spoke with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) and posed the most popular questions as submitted and voted upon through Digg.
This is a fascinating interview for a few reasons beyond my deep appreciation for NIN as a band.
All of the questions were "digged" - 5,000 - crowd-sourced, a demonstration of consensus and prioritization of ideas . This is very "social", ensuring the format interesting, contemporary and audience-relevant . The interview itself was well-shot with multiple camera angles...
There has been a lot of debates recently about the lack of creativity in the online advertising space. Randall Rotherberg, CEO of the IAB wrote a long essay about the need for the online ad industry to reclaim the creative mantle. Wenda Millard's keynote at the Eco2.0 conference in February spoke about online advertising being an AND medium - a medium for direct response AND branding. Given this debate and various task forces (IAB, AAAA) focused on this topic, i thought i would share with you...
Since its introduction on June 29, 2007, the iPhone has driven change—it revolutionized the US mobile phone industry. The success of the iPhone was instant. Various news sources report that the company now claims a combined installed base of 30 million iPhones and iPod Touches. iPhone created a revolutionary new distribution channel where the appstore opened-up new possibilities for direct-to-consumer distribution of mobile applications. The current iPhone appstore install curve suggests that applications are set to hit 1 billion downloads within year one. That’s half the time that iTunes music downloads took. Comscore just issued a study detailing the mobile media usage habits of iPhone users compared to Smartphone users. This study shows...
If you still need confirmation that everyone can find fame on the Internet, look no further than last week’s meteoric rise of the 47 year-old singing virgin and the convicted sex-offender turned Domino’s vulgar videographer. That such disparate “talents” could take the Internet by storm in the same week should surprise no one. But looking deeper we find two distinct and effective examples for video marketers to learn from. The former reminds us that TV and the Internet can still be BFF’s when used as complimentary media, while the latter makes us wonder how to react when hand-held technology brings a train wreck right into your station.
Virgin Airwaves When Susan Boyle, the frumpy frau with the golden voice, took the stage ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY ) on the Simon Cowell TV vehicle “Britain’s Got Talent” she unknowingly launched one of the greatest web awareness campaigns in history. With Internet video posts of...
Welcome to Dada Data Alpha Beta blog. On this blog, a team of Ogilvy digital creative, planning and marketing folks - all passionate by how digital is changing the world of marketing and communications - will discuss trends in creativity, technology, UX, social media, search, ... everything digital. We intend to showcase the best, the worst, the most talked about in digital creativity, technology and innovation. We're here to share and we welcome your comments.
