Interactive Marketing Trends: February 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

UK Youth Tribes

Channel 4 have just launched a new version of their successful youth insight project: UK Tribes. The revised website features a wealth of findings on the 25 identified tribes, including films, essays, image galleries and interviews. The new version of the site also introduces five new tribes, which are shaping contemporary youth culture.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Ogilvyone And Mobixell Announce A Mobile Ad Deal

GoMo 1-to-2: OgilvyOne and Mobixell announce a mobile ad deal from Cian Gomo on Vimeo.

Jonathan MacDonald of OgilvyOne and Freddy Friedman of Mobixell explain some of the details for their new advertising deal, announced at Mobile World Congress.

Tags: ogilvyone mobixell mobile advertising giles rhys jones

Monday, February 16, 2009

The World's Worst Naked Viral

If anyone hasn't seen this story from Australia it is a stark reminder that you need to be open and honest in all your communications.

Naked Communications recorded a video for fashion brand Witchery, featuring an actress who claimed to be trying to find the man of her dreams who had left his (Witchery) jacket in a cafe, and put it on YouTube.

It quickly became the most talked about stunt, but for all the wrong reasons. It suffered a backlash from social media commentators who opposed the deception involved in the campaign. Rather than stop they produced a second video and kept going....until Naked’s CEO in Australia, Mat Baxter, quit last week.

There entire saga moved at such a fast pace and there were plenty of twists along the way – first denials, then admissions, then defence of the stunt and finally more finger pointing.

Naked said it was all fun and harmless, but the bottom line is that people don’t enjoy being lied too.The last straw was when

The Australian’s Wish magazine published a full page advertisement from Naked for Witchery naming the journalists that had been fooled into writing about the stunt. Salt to the wound?

Further proof that you need specialist advice to play in the social media space.

Tags: naked communications witchery bad viral campaigns giles rhys jones

Sunday, February 15, 2009

What's My Digital Strategy? Ahhhh...

This is a question I get asked alot. And it is starting to piss me off. You don't have a digital strategy, you have a product development strategy, an HR strategy, a business strategy and communications strategy. And more besides, and a great many subsets within all of them. Digital has to be a component part of each and everyone. I wrote about the digital agengy roster dying and the same thought applies here. No?

Tags: giles rhys jones

Digital Mom Report

Razorfish and CafeMom issued the digital mom report that examines the role of digital technology in modern moms in the US. Here are 5 points to entice you to read the whole thing courtesy of Guy Kawasaki:

“Social media and text messaging, instant messaging, and gaming, now used by the majority of digital moms, are no longer niche activities.”
“At the same time, moms with children 12 or older are more likely than moms of children under 12 to use gaming and video. Marketers have an opportunity to respond to these trends by acknowledging that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy against moms may not work.”
“Marketers should recognize the dual purposes (communicating with peers and monitoring their kids) moms of older children have for engaging with emerging technologies, particularly social channels.”
“Marketers should consider marketing to mom as both an interconnected woman and a mom, as her interests extend beyond parenting.”
“Among digital moms, the gap is closing between TV and other channels in creating initial awareness about products. Marketers should consider the penetration level and relative influence of each channel when determining how, when, and where to reach digital moms along the purchase funnel.”

Tags: digital marketing women mothers giles rhys jones

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Dalai Lama Does Twitter

"His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office open and assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience."

Over 10,000 people in 16 hours.

I also note Stepehn Fry just broke 100,000 last friday and is now up to 156,179

True 1-2-1 communication on a massive scale.

Ps one way to get innovation through your clients - dont tell them - I set up the marketing publication - brandrepublic on twitter for the fun of it a couple of years ago when they were a client of the agency and to this day I dont think they know they have 1,500 people following them or what to do with them.

Tags: twitter dalai lama stephen fry giles rhys jones

Friday, February 06, 2009

2009 Media & Entertainment Predictions

The 2009 Global Predictions for the media and entertainment industry provide an in-depth look at the emerging issues that will have an impact on the media and entertainment sector in the coming year. Highlights include:

The Rising Cost of Free Online Content

The public's 15 minutes of online fame could fast be receding, given the rising costs of storing content. For the largest sites, hosting user-generated content could cost more than $100 million per year. But the ability to realize revenue from that content remains a challenge. Advertisers are generally reluctant to place ads next to any content that could damage a client's brand. So to generate revenue, sites may need to start charging to upload or share content.

Mobile Advertising Finds Its Meaning

With global advertising experiencing double-digit decreases and the coming year promising an even tougher economy, mobile advertising's time may have come. More able than ever before to carry advertising, mobile phones are at their most ubiquitous -and there is a more mature understanding of what mobile can and cannot deliver in advertising. In 2009, a growing number of campaigns will use the minimalism of mobile to powerful effect -modeling themselves on one of mobile's most successful campaigns to date- the U.S. presidential election's use of text messaging.

Coming to a Theater Near You

3D a Major Draw: movies will need a "must-see" factor to get audiences to open their wallets in the coming year -and that factor might well be 3D. In 2009, the 3D movie is on course to have its first billion-dollar year at the box office. A growing list of directors and producers is likely to create all future outputs in 3D - and some of the world's leading directors are planning their first 3D movies. Yet the number of venues for 3D movies is still limited, with the expense of converting theaters potentially prohibitive in today's economy. But the better 3D movies perform, the better the prospects for investment. This momentum may also force the industry to choose between the backing of super high definition or 3D, particularly in the short term.

Tags: digital trends 2009 giles rhys jones