Thursday, September 27, 2007

Shock Horror - Ads As Entertainment

For all the talk of ad skipping, fragemented media and a elusive, cynical audience and the radical changes required in the advetising industry to cope with this it is refreshing to see brands and agencies doing what they have always done well.

Beautiful short form content. Nike - Leave Nothing.




NFL Nike Leave Nothing
Uploaded by Masterfill

Massive production values and filmed in HD, Branded Utility can mean just being entertaining for 30 seconds too...

Interestingly this seems to be fostering a trend. Through Firebrand, NBC Universal is presentating advertising as entertainment. It will dish up ads meant to be so captivating that people will gladly watch them. Firebrand will reach out to consumers on television, online and on mobile devices. The hope is that when the ads are deemed to be entertaining, consumers will opt in to watch them rather than skip or zap through them.

XBOX 360: Believe is another great ad that really pulls you in but that said the campaign really comes alive online.



Halo 3 : Believe
Uploaded by jeremy60


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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

AdAge's UK Power 25



If your marketing interests have too much of a US influence I have pulle dotgether the top UK marketing blogs, as defined by AdAge's Power 150.

I have outputted it as 25 UK Marketing blogs widget and as a Yahoo Pipe generated 25 UK Marketing blogs RSS feed.

Similar to the Ogilvy Blog Aggregator.

Enjoy

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Friday, September 21, 2007

Desert Island Geek - Survive On Nothing But A PC

In order to promote their Digital Marketing Event; Verge, Jordi Urbea head of the OgilvyOne Barcelona office put a young fellow, in a empty hotel room (sponsored by the hotel).

With no money, no credit cards, no food, no phone. He has to survive for 10 days, with the only help of a computer, and a internet connection. He is not allowed to go out of the room.

He has to get everything... bed, food, services, mobile phone, clothes, support from brands through internet. He has to convince people and brands to support him with goods, and everything.

He has been assigned tasks to do everyday: get a mobile phone, a bed, clothes, start a blog, a video camera, a viral video in youtube, speakers for his computer, tickets for Police concert, digital TV connection, etc…

The result of this experience will be shown at the event and if you want to see him, just go to thedigitalchallenge and ask him to do something.

London's event was last week and you can see footage and comments from the day.

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

The Ten Most-Ignored Email Best Practices

Here are the 10 most frequently ignored best practices. Percentages refer to the percentage of senders who used a best practice in their email messages.

1. Provide a subscription-administration center in each message.
How many use it: 17.7%

Why it’s important: The admin center (our shorthand name for it) keeps you connected to your subscribers and helps distinguish you from unsolicited email. It should include the email address they used to subscribe, an unsubscribe link, a link to your privacy policy and preference page and your contact information: street address, phone number and email address.

2. Provide a site search function.
How many use it: 17.7%

Why it’s important: Allows users to search for products, past article, company information, etc., without having to first click to the site then initiate the search.

3. Provide a forward-to-a-friend link.
How many use it: 25.1%

Why it’s important: Giving subscribers a link to send your emails on to their friends is a more proactive stance than just including a line somewhere in the message asking them to pass on your messages. The link sends the request through your server, which can also allow you to track who’s forwarding your message, how often and what actions result. It also ensures the forwarded message will render properly, which may not happen when a recipient simply forwards through their email client.

4. Provide a subscription link.
How many use it: 27.1%

Why it’s important: Offering a subscription function in your newsletter allows readers who received it from a friend to sign up without having to search your site for instructions.

5. Add-to-safe-senders-list request.
How many use it: 35%

Why it’s important: Most email clients won’t block email from a sender listed on the recipient’s personal whitelist and image rendering is also less likely to be blocked (also a safe-sender list, approved-sender list, etc.)


6. Link to a Web version.
How many use it: 37.4%

Why it’s important: Many email clients either block images or don’t render HTML messages properly, especially if they read email in a preview pane. Providing this link allows readers to view your message in their Web browser instead.

7. Provide a telephone contact number.
How many use it: 40.4%

Why it’s important: Email is fast, but a phone call is faster. Many respondents want to get in touch with you directly, especially buyers, clients, or salespeople, may want to get in touch with you directly. This way you spare them the extra step of going to your Web site and hunting down your contact information.

8. Display the recipient’s email address.
How many use it: 43.8%

Why it’s important: Showing the recipient’s address helps boost the email’s credibility and helps readers who may be receiving duplicate copies under several different email addresses unsubscribe from the correct address.

9. Provide navigation links within the email and to the Web site.
How many use it: 48.3%

Why it’s important: Navigation links near the top of newsletters with multiple departments or articles help readers find information quickly and efficiently. Multiple site links help your readers move directly to the areas on your Web site they need or want, which adds
value and strengthens your relationship with them.

10. Provide an email address for feedback or sender contact.
How many use it: 53.2%

Why it’s important: The email contact address gives subscribers a way to reach you to ask questions, send comments or alert you to a problem, such as an unsubscribe link that doesn’t work. More senders provide a contact email address than a telephone number, but even more should add this feature to build their credibility and relationship with recipients.

From EmailLabs Via Benoit Octave

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Monday, September 17, 2007

The Worlds Biggest Creative Department

I have often used openad.net as an illustration of how advertising is under pressure in this changing environment. OpenAd is a Slovenian-based online marketplace where ad and design ideas from about 9,000 creatives worldwide are bought and sold.

About 20% of OpenAd's creatives are from Latin America, 15% from Asia, 32% from continental Europe, 20% from the U.K., and 6% from the U.S. and Canada.

Traditionally serving European clients they are however starting to make moves into the US as more and more big clients are starting to kick their tyres.

This summer, executives from Gillette heard pitches from creatives in 21 countries for a campaign to persuade men to trade in their disposable razors for the Fusion shaver. Among the winners were a Slovenian student, a British photographer and an American creative director, all of whom based their submissions on an initial idea from a small agency based in India. Gillette paid the winners of its pitch $1,000 each.

Now we know that this isn't going to replace the Ogilvys and Leo Burnetts. It simply doesn't offer the strategic guidance, account management or executional capabilities agencies have.

But it speaks to a key business trend that McKinsey predicted, that of the increasing partnerships amongst once fierce competitors forced by an ever fragmented global market.

Corporate borders are becoming blurrier as interlinked "ecosystems" of
suppliers, producers, and customers emerge.


This is not lost on founder Katarina Skoberne who suggests . "In an ideal world," she said, "agencies will use OpenAd on behalf of clients."

People seem to easily group together across agencies, geographies and disciplines as my twitter, facebook and various like minded coffee morning friends will attest. Oddly it seems big agency groups or networks don't really subscribe to this more fluid approach. Imagine the power of an OpenOgilvyAd.net...

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Thursday, September 13, 2007

Arith-ritis - A Modern Marketing Disease

Arithritis - a combination of arthritis and arithmetrics - when a business has such a obsession with marketing metrics that it becomes swollen and unable to innovate and move painlessly. there is a need therefore to change the rules. change the metrics.

From a speech from Rory Sutherland at Ogilvy's UK Verge Event.



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*UPDATED* Always On The Verge

Ogilvy's Verge is a programme of private, invitation-only (and free) day long conversations all over the globe held with the aim of bringing our clients and friends up-to-date with the latest thinking on how to future-proof brands for a new digital world.

London Verge was held on the 13th September at the original information super highway, the British Library. The program structure was: Listen, Experiment and Engage. Exactly what smart marketers have always done.

We had 150 of our senior clients from Cisco, Unilever, IBM, BT, British Gas, CRUK and American Express attending. Speakers included AdAge's Bob Garfield, Unilever's Caroline Slootweg & Nike's Michael Tchao.

We blogged it here, photos are here, presentations here and video interviews here. Come by and have a look, comment or have a rant.

Disclosure: I work for Ogilvy & helped to organise the event

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

*UPDATED* Web 2.0 in Plain English

A great series of videos on web 2.0 from Lee Lefever using a white board, cut out web pages and a simple explanation. Love It.

Online Documents


Social Networking


Wikis


Social Bookmarking


RSS

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics

Fancy trialing our pantyliner? There seems to be an alarming trend: clumsy, thoughtless outreach to bloggers by alleged marketing professionals.


Ogilvy PR just published thier new Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics on the 360° Digital Influence Blog. It builds on the WOMMA's code and their own 7 Tips.


Ogilvy PR’s Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics

  • We reach out to bloggers because we respect your influence and feel that we might have something that is “remarkable” which could be of interest to you and/or your audience.

  • We will only propose blogger outreach as a tactic if it complements our overall strategy.

  • We will not recommend it as a panacea for every social media campaign.

  • We will always be transparent and clearly disclose who we are and who we work for in our outreach email.

  • Before we email you, we will check out your blog’s About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if you have blatantly said you would not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies. If so, we’ll leave you alone.

  • If you tell us there is a specific way you want to be reached, we’ll adhere to those guidelines.

  • We won’t pretend to have read your blog if we haven’t.

  • In our email we will convey why we think you, in particular, might be interested in our client’s product, issue, event or message.

  • We won’t leave you hanging. If your contact at Ogilvy PR is going out of town or will be unreachable, we will provide you with an alternate point of contact.

  • We encourage you to disclose our relationship with you to your readers, and will never ask you to do otherwise.

  • You are entitled to blog on information or products we give you in any way you see fit. (Yes, you can even say you hate it.)

  • If you don’t want to hear from us again, we will place you on our Do Not Contact list – which we will share with the rest of the Ogilvy PR agency.

  • If you are initially interested in the campaign, but don’t respond to one of our emails, we will follow up with you no more than once. If you don’t respond to us at all, we’ll leave you alone.

  • Our initial outreach email will always include a link to Ogilvy PR’s Blog Outreach Code of Ethics.

OK so not rocket science but good that they have gone on record.



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