Archives for March 2012

On Loving and Giving Up On Google in Equal Measure

They say that, to be a great business, you should always leave your customer or user wondering what you’re going to do next.

I’d mostly buy into that, unless what you do next makes you appear to be both a wanky company as well as a cool one. Enter Google and their apparent goal to piss off and enthrall in equal measure.

For a company whose motto is “Don’t be evil”, it makes it doubly frustrating when they go against that and force your hand into doing exactly what they say. Or else.

The frustration is only compounded further, because then they come up with something so cool you love them all over again. Before we look at that, though, let’s start with the bad.

Google+ – You’re Stuck With It, Amigo

Over the weekend, I decided to stop using Google+. I’ve never really been enamoured with the service, truth be told, and I just found it to be another place that sucked my time up.

Not only that, but the amount of fanboy bias on there really got grating?- it became worse than the Sega vs. Nintendo debates back in the 80’s. I almost wanted to ask some users if they wanted tissues and a dark room…

So, having made the decision to not use Google+ anymore, I went to my Android to delete the G+ app, since it’s the second-biggest battery suck on my phone. Except I couldn’t delete it – because Google won’t let you.

Instead, the very best I could do was disable it.

The problem was, it then affected other Google apps on my phone because of Google’s “You WILL be signed up as a G+ user on every Google platform you use, and counted as an active one at that, because we want to pretend we have more numbers than we do.”

The biggest casualty was the Gallery app, which refused to load at all. Enabling the Google+ app allowed Gallery to work again; disabling screwed up Gallery again. Which, considering one of the selling points of Android is easy sharing of your pictures across social networks, seems stupid on so many levels.

Google has already been criticized for its all-or-nothing mindset when it comes to tying you?into their network of apps, with the only way to escape being the deletion of your complete Google account. Easier said than done, which Google knows and is playing to.

So, even though I pay for my phone and pay for its services, I can’t choose which apps I want to run (or not), because some of my other apps will be messed up if I dare turn off those from Google.

Thanks guys, awesome way to treat your customers.

Who Do You Love? Google, Sometimes

The ironic part of the negative experience highlighted above is that, often, Google gets it right in so many ways when it comes to the user experience.

A prime example is the What Do You Love??project.

Conceived by the creative minds over at Big Spaceship, What Do You Love? is a very cool content identification and curation experience, based on topics or keywords chosen by you.

Just like the main search page for Google, What Do You Love? is clean and simple, and looks very similar to the search landing page itself with some text and a big search bar.

The fun happens when you type in the keyword, brand or person you’re looking for.

Instead of the normal search results, you get tabbed results for pretty much everything under the sun on baked beans:

Pictures
Alerts
Patents
3D exploration
Popularity of baked beans on the web
Videos
Books
Translations
Google Maps of nearby baked beans (seriously!)
and much, much more.

It’s quite possibly one of the coolest concepts I’ve seen, and makes search incredibly fun. What it also does, though, is allow you to set up a?research station and immediately get an overview of something you’re interested in.

While the What Do You Love? project is primarily a fun and cool way to bring a bunch of results together under one roof, the potential is much more.

Imagine using?it to monitor trends, see visual representations of your brand or business, or simply?understand how something works by seeing it in 3D. You can then take that information and plan a strategy around the results, or even just create magic of your own based on?the wealth of information available to you.

The story behind What Do You Love? is pretty cool too.

Developed outside Google (though fully endorsed by Larry Page and Eric Schmidt), Big Spaceship was allowed to rip apart the Google Apps API to come up with the WDYL? concept and execution, without any inside interference from the Big G.

The Less You Control, The More We Respond

This is where Google frustrates so much. On the one hand, they’re trying to make you a prisoner of their network by baking their products into each other so much, one won’t work without the other.

On the other hand, you have something so amazingly cool like What Do You Love? that gives you everything you need from Google’s toolset, but doesn’t force you to use them if you don’t?want to. And yet, by allowing this open path, you actually use something like WDYL? more than any other search option.

Notice the irony, Google?

I shouldn’t have to have Google+ active if I want to use my Android phone. I shouldn’t have to be an active user of Google+ if I just want to use Gmail, or share a video on YouTube.

Big Spaceship show you why the less control you place, the more a user will respond. The more response, the more use of a product – seems simple enough.

Would it really hurt to have this approach across your other platforms?

Why Businesses Should Take a Note from the Fisher Association of Marketing Professionals

Over in Columbus, Ohio, the marketing and advertising students at Fisher College of Business are setting the example when it comes to how business should be run.

I’ve just come from speaking at the college for their flagship Future Camp event, and I was hugely impressed with the set-up; the staff; the students; and, more than anything, the tangible passion that every student has to make a difference in the world through doing business right.

It’s clear that the combination of Dean Christine Poon and Professor Shashi Matta, who’s the Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing at Fisher, have played a large part in this. In both their closing comments, Christine and Shashi praised the students for making their jobs so easy, so it’s clear (and great) to see the respect is both ways.

Talking to some of the students, they’re not only smart and driven, but really believe that business when done right can make so much of a difference in peoples’ lives. And they’re right.

While we might often look at business as that beast that swallows our money, there’s no denying the impact it can have on lives. Building a kidney dialysis unit; handing over a $100,000 insurance check to people whose home has been damaged; building an excavator that can dig a well in a third world country; and more.

The Fisher folks also have a strong sense of what should be done to make the experience everything, for consumers and colleagues alike. Again, it’s something that permeates throughout the air there, and I was left suitably impressed and optimistic at the same time.

To see exactly how these guys really want to be leading the way when it comes to business and the relationships that exist within, take a look at their oath below. Then imagine if every business owner adhered to it…

Thanks, Fisher College – you were a pleasure to be with, and here’s to all of your successes.

The Oath
On my honor, I will do my best to always put the consumer first.
And to never accept the status quo.
I will innovate until my audience is fully immersed.
I will act with integrity to instill awe and wonder with brand-expanding glee.
And be a kind collaborator with agencies and cross-functional teams.
To make the world a better place through consumerism.

You Don’t Always Need 100 Million Dollars or 100 Years for Traditional Advertising to Work

First, a caveat: I’m a big fan of Brian Clark and his Copyblogger brand, so this post isn’t a “dig” – more an alternative point of view.

Over at Copyblogger, Brian recently posted this graphic:

Like this graphic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Since Brian is in the content marketing arena (and been very successful in it), it’s understandable why he posted this. Since social media became more mainstream, traditional advertising has long been the brunt of points of view that it’s on its way out.

And it may well be – just not at this moment in time.

While there’s no doubting that social media can offer a much better return as far as in-depth analysis goes on campaigns, investments and success metrics, it’s missing the point a little to say this is where all advertising success happens.

While Pepsi may have switched their $20 million ad budget to social media for the Superbowl, the majority of advertisement at that event still comes from TV slots. And, looking at the results of the Pepsi social media experiment, perhaps that will continue for the foreseeable future.

The Traditional Advertising Effect

Perhaps the biggest problem is what exactly counts for traditional advertising? With the blurring of the lines between media, whether that be social, print, mobile or TV, it can be confusing to lock down what’s seen as new media and what’s classed as traditional.

For myself, traditional covers TV, print, direct mail and radio, although email marketing could be seen as traditional too, since it’s now been around so long.

With that in mind, here are some examples of why you don’t need the 100 years or 100 million dollars from the Copyblogger graphic.

Elle Magazine

Perhaps traditional advertising’s natural habitat, magazine ads still make up a huge amount of the advertising budget for brands. And when you look at something like Elle Magazine, it’s easy to see why.

Elle encourages some of the smartest advertising out there, due to its mix of editorial content and related ads opposite the content. A perfect example is the image below (taken from baekdal):

Immediately you can see how the fashion items being written about look when worn and, for any fashion-conscious person, you can never argue with seeing your new love in action.

It’s this kind of approach that saw advertising spend with Elle rise by over 12% last year. And advertisers don’t buy new ads unless their product campaigns – and, therefore sales – are successful.

Laconia Development

San Diego agency Castle Advertising share many success stories on their website, but one that stands out is their campaign for Laconia Development, a local residential developer.

Laconia’s goal was to sell the remaining units on an urban neighbourhood property, but they were struggling to do so due to the economy and slow real estate sales in general. Castle’s brief was to generate awareness and pre-qualified registrations for a one-day sales event.

Thanks to a strategy that included radio, TV, building banners and email marketing, as well as full-page ads in local publications and unique phone number tracking, the results were impressive: 70% of the units were sold, with 200 registrations pre-sale at a cost of less than $500 per registration.

James Ready Beer

If there’s one market that’s hugely competitive, it’s the beer market (just look at how much is spent by the likes of Budweiser on brand messaging and sponsorship at huge events).

Because of this competitiveness, smaller breweries have to look at ways they can stand out, catch peoples’ attention, and enjoy a return on their limited investment options. Case in point – Canadian brewer James Ready.

To take them to the next level of awareness and sales, James Ready hired Leo Burnett Canada, with media buying and planning support from Starcom MediaVest. Their approach? A billboard campaign.

But instead of this being a standard billboard approach, the creative saw the 10′ by 20′ billboards secured and rented out to fans of the beer for free. The mission? To let fans create ads about why they loved the beer, and the agency would turn this into the campaign to attract new fans and buyers.

The result? An increase of 55% on sales from the previous period, and a growth in market share of 31%, all from a spend of just over $140,000 (excluding production costs). All in all, not too shabby.

Traditional Advertising Does Work – But So Does All Great Advertising

The point of this post isn’t to lay doubts to the Copyblogger graphic. Like I mentioned at the start, social media (or “new”) advertising is hugely effective.

Yet there are many agencies and businesses flocking to social media, when traditional approaches still have their place. And when you couple both traditional and social together, the results can be outstanding.

At the end of the day, the medium that works best is the one that meets the needs and location of your target audience. For some, this may be a Facebook ad; for others, it may be a Sunday slot in the broadsheets.

One form of media doesn’t necessarily trump the other – far from it. Instead, all you need is what you’ve always needed – smart ideas and a solid strategy to back them up.

And that doesn’t have to mean spending 100 million dollars or a 100 year gestation period to be successful…