On Facebook, almost a billion users “Like” products and brands, and promote their own opinions, images, comments, videos and links.
On Twitter, half a billion active users do the same (except in 140 characters or less)!
On LinkedIn over 160 million professionals join groups, follow companies, pose questions, present polls, enter discussions, offer recommendations, connect to individuals, post credentials, develop careers, pursue and business leads and sales.
However, an understanding of online customer behaviour and an effective strategy is fundamental to ensure that your business ‘stays on track’ in social media.
Although LinkedIn launched in May ’03, Facebook in February ’04 and Twitter in March ’06, (making them ancient in Interwebs years), they are still precarious territory for many businesspeople whose communications experience precedes them.
Hannah Atkinson of Return on Digital (UK), has introduced an infographic which addresses interaction and brand engagement with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, for businesspeople unfamiliar with these dominant social media platforms.
What could be easier than pointing your smartphone at a QR code in newspaper ad to buy the product?
QR codes have been around for many years. We are becoming accustomed to seeing them in magazines, on products and retail storefronts. They are even appearing on business cards, but still retain a degree of unfamiliarity for some and innovative impact for many.
Advocates have for many years promoted the conduit which QR codes can provide, between static print and a dynamic online presence.
Datasheets can be out of date immediately upon printing, if text includes data or pricing which is subject to change. Adding a QR code extends the shelf life, delivers higher ROI and adds impact and immediacy, by directing the user to current information and pricing online AND the impetus, opportunity and mechanism to buy.
And the market is ready for this technology, more than ever before.
In 2011, according to statistics from international market researcher Canalys, total annual global shipments of smart phones exceeded those of personal computers (including pads).
Smartphones enable their users to download a multitude of QR code reader apps. CNet recently published its’ review of several top performing apps. QuickMark is a recommended app for iPhone users.
PayPal Australia and Point & Pay have recently enabled The West Australian newspaper to translate ads into instant sales, via QR codes.
As a video on the initiative states, in 2010 PayPal processed mobile transactions of around A$800 million, but in 2012 sales are projected to reach A$10 billion!
PayPal recently launched the PayPal Here! card reader to process credit card transactions on smartphones. PayPal, with a presence in 190 markets and over 100 million accounts, is a company of eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY).
PayPal has also established a Joint Venture with leading Internet brand SOFTBANK in Japan to promote PayPal POS solutions including the card reader and merchant app for iPhone.
The awareness and implementation of QR codes as sales and informational tools is only going to increase in the marketplace.
Advanced thinkers are already exploring the creative use of QR codes by integrating non-square graphical elements within the code, for greater visual impact and focus.
Brands which utilise QR codes in a range of print media will capitalise on this innovation and convey a dynamic impression and increased sales.
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I still recall the stark print advertisement, years ago, which sparked my love of advertising.
Done well, advertising grabs your attention, stimulates your emotions and is highly memorable.
However, emotions are also aroused within the advertising world on the issue of originality.
According to Campaign China, advertising agency DDB Group Hong Kong has succumbed to criticism and re-edited a current Towngas television commercial, after clamour over a perceived lack of originality by the public and claims of conceptual theft by competitor agencies.
The 30-second TVC launched in June to celebrate 150 years in Hong Kong, and showed a series of Towngas technicians standing or walking through a multitude of Hong Kong locations, from historic to contemporary. As a one-time resident of Hong Kong, the film generated in me the clearly intended sense of pride in the city and the contribution of The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited.
The action within the spot has been likened to the videos of idiosyncratic dancer and world traveller, Matt Harding. The “Dancing Man” videos had become a viral phenomenon and Matt’s travels were subsequently sponsored by Visa as an advertising campaign. Strangely, the degree of originality in that campaign has not been questioned!
The rationale for the claim of plagiarism is that, like Matt, the actor remains centred in frame while intercutting between different locations. Centre-frame is hardly an original placement and was understandably necessary for consistency.
As a professional film-maker and someone who had seen the “Dancing Man” videos, I made absolutely no correlation with it while watching the Towngas spot.
If centre-frame was the focus, then why not identify the source as the online campaign for Johnnie Walker, in which actor Robert Carlyle narrates the history of the brand for over six minutes, as he continuously walks toward a receding camera?
The concept is not unique. In fact the very first television commercial on which I worked, (in 1983), consisted of a male model, centred in frame, walking toward a reverse tracking camera on multiple locations!
An adman from a competitor agency commented on the Towngas concept, “While there’s nothing strictly criminal .. ” !! What an inference! Some may consider that if a lack of originality in advertising concepts was criminal, there would be precious few creatives not ‘doing time’.
Originality is mostly demonstrated in the clever ways in which existing elements are perceived or recombined, and only very rarely in the components themselves.
I would be levelled with claims of unoriginality if I reverted to famous quotations, but there are many which reflect upon the difficulty in creating anything original, more so than ever today, with the immediacy and immense volume of content generated.
In today’s dynamic media environment, it is an entirely impossible task for any creative to absorb all motion picture media (advertising award entries, publicly aired spots, dramatic shorts, feature films, music clips, online videos). With YouTube adding more than a day’s viewing material every hour, how can anyone realistically expect to be exposed to all current and past creative concepts. How could they possibly remember all these, and guarantee no similarity between their work and a existing concept?
There is a vast difference between lazy duplication and a thematic resemblance.
Naturally, where there are agencies competing for big accounts within declining TVC markets, and individual creatives whose egos, professional reputations, awards and commercial successes are based on the concept of originality, debate will continue.
PayPal HereTM, is a new and simple way to accept credit and debit cards and PayPal, any time, anywhere, via your iPhone and a lightweight plugin device.
The devices have been shipped to early adopters who registered interest when the release was announced in early 2012.
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The device will be particularly valuable to tradespeople and companies offering on-site services, where the ability to accept payment via a credit card, debit account or PayPal, will be an immediate, cost-effective and transportable payment solution.
Visit the official site for more information on PayPal Here!
Mostly, it makes me think of betrayal of trust, and branding.
OK. Just about everything makes me think of branding. The result of 30 years of film and digital marketing!
Of course, spam also makes me think, “I’d like to get less of it”! However, due to multiple email addresses, human ingenuity, the extent and duration of my online exposure, and despite cautious online behaviour and the robust redundancy of multiple anti-spam measures, I consider it a functional inevitability. I rapidly scan it to recover the rare legitimate mail.
Today, I noticed an email for branded welcome mats.
Its’ sender does not consider this offer to be spam, but I do.
Think about it. Wow! A traditional mat at the entrance. Another opportunity to place my logo in public view, a greeting to visitors, cleverly hijacking the eyeline of everyone who enters the office?
Yes. All valid strategies.
Except for one thing.
Why would you intentionally invite visitors to wipe their feet all over your logo?
You brand deserves more.
Promoting your brand is more than simply plastering it on every available surface and in every possible material. Doing that is no different from plastering your message in unwanted messages. Spam.
(Musical interlude). Let’s listen to Mavis of The Staple Singers:
“If you don’t respect yourself, Ain’t nobody gonna give a good cahoot”
This lyric reflects the core of branding, advertising and marketing.
Your brand is the representation of your company, product or service.
On launch (and even at the demise) of an enterprise, the name or logo encapsulates the concept which people will recall. (Think Apple. Then think ENRON).
Your company, product or service builds an identity for your brand. In turn, your brand grows to represent your company, products or service offerings.
It should always be treated respectfully to enhance your brand reputation, not denigrate it.
I never cease to be amazed at the destructive treatments which some marketers are prepared to subject their brand identity.
Apart from the branded mat!
Is it just laziness or lack of thought which permits some animators to spin a logo backwards or upside down (as the logo spins on its’ own vertical or horizontal axis)?
Surely, it is preferable to present it as a double sided solid, so that it is always legible and positive. Done correctly, this may even require a lower investment.
Why do clients in English speaking countries allow their brand to slide or the constituent letters to appear right to left, or drift down from the upper right to lower left side of screen. For people who read from left to right, that is the positive direction and the reverse is implicitly negative!
Let’s not even talk about clip art, overexposed stock library images, or the misuse of the colour palette!
Are all these failures just ignorance displayed by companies without the resource of a brand style guide or Marketing Director (for which they are anathema)?
One fundamental reason why some brands are globally recognised, is the rigorous protection of consistency in all brand applications. Fonts, colour schemes, icons, colour palettes, brandlines, all applied consistently, without exception.
In 2000, we developed a non-English language website for Heineken, with the benefit of an online style guide, proscribing and providing the graphical elements, formats and allowable variations across all media. All large multinationals should have this type of online resource.
Increasingly, startups are innately aware of the need for clear and unique branding. Young entrepreneurs and new enterprises are necessarily focused on the name and identity of their brand, and the need for a strong identity to cut-through the crowded marketplaces of VC, business and consumers.
More established companies can gradually neglect their brand and allow it to lose its’ impact.
Any company which respects their own brand, needs to develop it, nurture it, review it and if necessary, refine it, (both the logo and brandline), every five years or so, and impose strict guidelines for use to all internal and external stakeholders.
An if you need a mnemonic to remember this, here it is.
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
Sing it, Aretha!
… music:
The Staple Singers (live at Wattstax 1972)
Kane Gang (a vibrant and respectful re-interpretation from 1985)
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