Category Archives: Uncategorized

Discover Dennis

It’s the story of a man. A delicate subject. And the tape they never wanted you to see….

September 2009. Discover Dennis.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Starbucks turn Social Media into So-Cool Media

It’s hot outside, we’re all broke and the only addictions we can afford are the ones that involve clicking on tags from Andrew’s party last Friday. So, the magic question is: How can brands get us out of our bedrooms and onto the High St? And how can they get us to loosen the purse strings in these tough times? Well, they should offer us real value, in places where we will see it, at prices we can all afford. And they should make our lives a little more enjoyable, even if only for a fleeting moment.

Starbucks in the US have come up with an idea that does just that and one that should get people engaged, dressed and down to their stores faster then you can say Skinny Frappucino: from the 6th of July they have been giving away free ice cream on their Facebook fan page. You can’t run from it, you’re on Facebook, you’re hot and the little luxuries that you had to sacrifice for bills, like premium ice cream, might just provide that little piece of escapism that you’ve been craving.

The campaign to promote the product is simple: Facebook as the vehicle, ice cream as the incentive and summer for its time of delivery. All of which encourage sharing.

The choice of Facebook as the sole vehicle, as opposed to multiple platforms (which is tempting but often unsuitable), is perfect given the sharable nature of the site and it’s ability to cater for rich media, such as glorious pictures of said product. The offer is limited to 20,000 pints of ice cream and although this sounds like a lot there are a lot more hot people on Facebook than that.

All it requires is the user to log on, sign up, suggest a mate and at the top of the hour grab the coupons on offer, but remember, it’s all about sharing so bring out your generous side.

Here’s the link if you’re interested…US residents only might I add! Sorry.

http://apps.facebook.com/starbucksicecream/

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Get Real And Prosper: Why social media demands authentic brands.

“The easiest thing to do in branding and in advertising is to tell the story the market wants to hear. The hard road—the one that leads to the greatest reward—is to tell the story that’s real and make it matter. That means knowing what your company is at its core, and using your genuine, authentic story to power the creative.”

This article by William Faust and Leigh Householder is a great read if you have a spare ten minutes. The authors stress the need for authenticity when it comes to brands dipping their toe in the social media pond- while “engagement” is essential, this engagement needs to be connect with consumers in a way that is relevant and true to their brand.

From office supply stores to the always-cool BMW Mini, the authors of this article bring their arguments to life by using some great comparative case studies of brands that have done this successfully (and others that have not been so successful).

You can find the full article here


Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Profero Thumbs/UP – CompareTheMeerkat.com

Brand: Comparethemarket.com
Campaign: Comparethemeerkat.com
Date: January 2009
Market: United Kingdom

Background
Launched in 2006 Comparethemarket.com is a trading name of BISL Limited. The property is an insurance comparison site where customers can compare quotes from over 400 insurance providers.

The Challenge
Comparethemarket.com had to create a campaign that would increase the number of prospects searching for the site by name. To get onto the shortlist in this highly competitive market, you have to be amongst the top three search results.

The Approach
Forget about buying general keywords like ‘compare’, ‘market’ or ‘car insurance’ – all they needed was a bold new asset whose influential presence offline would drive users to search for the company online through relevant keywords.

The Idea
Through playing with words and a touch of genius, the Russian meerkat Aleksandr was born. After realizing the keyword ‘meerkat’ could bring a funny character to life and would cost a fraction of the cost of buying ‘compare’ or ‘market’ on Google, the idea of creating an integrated campaign around this character came to life.

Through a powerful TV ad, the character is launching an appeal to people to stop visiting his site when looking for cheap car insurance as he only compares meerkats.
With a clear call to action, if users want the best deals on car insurance the newly born character invite users to go to comparethemarket.com instead.

The surprise was not only the development of a fully functional website to compare meerkats but an integrated media approach using a Facebook profile page, a YouTube channel and a Twitter account for Aleksandr to entertain his fans

The Results
The campaign has been an incredible success for Comparethemarket.com through ensuring the brand would became front of mind in a very competitive market.

These are some significant figures:

  • The number of quotes on the website is up by 90% on the same period last year.
  • Within only two months, Facebook fans have increased from 5,800 to an astonishing 290,000
  • From an average of 400 followers in a month, as of today Aleksandr has 8,088 people following his updates on Twitter
  • The commercial on YouTube has received a total amount of nearly 220,000 views spread across different accounts
  • The campaign has been so successful that no paid search is now required for the company to be on top of Google ranks. Also, as a consequence, competitors are actually now bidding on ‘meerkat’ as a keyword to be visible on sponsored results
  • Because of Aleksandr receiving a lot of attention, he was chosen as one of the 14 most famous characters in advertising for the latest Red Nose TV campaign

The Learnings

  • Integration between Creativity and SEM – As mentioned within the case study, the winning formula was adapting a creative idea based on a simple search engine insight.
  • Continue Building The Brand Online – They saw the opportunity of enriching the brand experience online rather then driving traffic straight to their comparison service
  • Embracing Social Media when Relevant – There are so many brands using Social Media spaces inappropriately just to be visible to their consumers. However, using a Twitter account for Aleksandr to bring the character’s sense of humour to life was appropriate to the campaign rather than just using the platform because you can
  • Be Different – Through the launch of a memorable character and breaking the rules from what is standard comparing sites’ advertising, the brand will be remembered to have taken the risk and turned a boring category into something fun and different.
  • A Funny Accent Works Everytime…
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments closed

Offline Commenting

Ernesto in Profero Madrid has created this great new way of commenting on offline poster advertising and any offline content and, in some ways, has taken a bold step to merging non-digital and digital. By printing up stickers from the Offline Commenting website and attaching them to posters in the street, Ernesto is encouraging people to comment on what they think of the ads. People write their comments on the stickers, take a photo and then post their pics back up on the website

It’s an innovative and simple way of bringing off- and on-line together and creating a debate around what people think about content and ads they pass in the streets, on trains and all around towns and cities. The site has already been picked up and is hosted on the homepage of Designslices, the “platform for designers and design geeks” so go and check it out!

Also posted in ...Marketing, Advertising, Public Spaces | Comments closed
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes