Alberta Business MarketingSep
1
2010
Aug
19
2010
The New York Times recently lauded the success of The Economist in marketing to the sophisticated. The Brits have always been perceived as 'cool', but a British weekly publication has been a marketing success even in the U.S.A.? That's almost unheard of.
Bankers read it in first-class seats; hipsters read it on the subway on their way to work; boomers and Gen-Xers both love it. The newsweekly, a bible of global affairs for those who want to aspire to be worldly, did not become a success overnight. It took 25 years of clever advertising that appeal to the status-seeking reader to help the magazine get there.
I've always been a big fan and a subscriber for the past three years – not for the status, per se, but for its global and big-picture editorial content. I've been telling my friends that not a week will pass in my life unless I've read both The Economist and Hello Canada - the former for my intellectual curiosity and the latter for my pop culture update! I like The Economist's formal, proper English writing style and the choice of its macro subject matters.
Since the magazine first began printing a North American edition in early 1981, its circulation has increased more than tenfold. When The Economist began reporting figures to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in 1982, it printed about 80,000 copies and sold fewer than 8,300 on the newsstand each week. As of its last accounting, for the first half of 2010, the magazine sold an average of about 52,000 on the newsstand each week and had a total weekly circulation of just under 823,000. When almost every other weekly publication has been suffering a decline in circulation numbers and is struggling for survivial, The Economist's success is impressive.
As an avid e-book reader, I don't understand why The Economist is not available on Amazon's Kindle. The Kindle has been touted as a single-purpose, electronic device designed for avid readers, and that's why there are no photos on the device. Ironicially, The Economist also focuses on the writing and the reporting, with very few photos in the entire publication. With the increasing popularity of e-books, It should be just a matter of time before these two find a match for each other!
Lina Ko
Aug
16
2010
So unless you have been completely off the grid (which is possible) you have probably seen the Old Spice advertising campaign. Yes, the cheeky one which features former NFL football player Isaiah Mustafa playing the role of "Old Spice Guy."
A conservative guess is that Procter & Gamble (owners of the Old Spice brand) spent tens upon tens of millions of dollars on a massive advertising campaign according to an agency side friend of mine. The campaign was a recipient of the 2010 Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix and received an Emmy nomination for outstanding commercial. Yes, this is the very same brand that I previously associated with my beloved grandfather.
If that wasn't enough this campaign was then taken to the next level. What was done exactly? The agency responsible for Old Spice (Wieden & Kennedy) launched a terrific social media campaign that built on the previous campaign momentum.
For a limited time period, fans could interact with Old Spice guy via Twitter, Facebook and/or YouTube and ask questions. The Old Spice Guy then replied in personal manner to those blessed enough via a 30 second YouTube spot. The social media campaign is brilliant from a creative perspective and didn’t cost a lot (compared to prior media expenses) to engage with fans besides the cost of employing the actor, writers who scripted the responses, production expenses and other ancillary costs.
Here is an example of one answer by the Old Spice Guy to a question posed by the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team via Twitter.
You may not like hockey. You may not like Old Spice. But you must admit this is a brilliant concept. An agency team responded to roughly 200 questions in a personalized manner within a 48 hour timeframe. We’re talking real-time answers that were hilarious, in character and in keeping with the desired brand positioning and creative goals. As Leigh Himel points out, it would be pretty cool to see what the agency creative brief looked like. Especially when having to sell a typically conservative organization like P&G.
From personalized answers to celebrities to marriage proposals the whole gamut was covered. The agency also wisely leveraged momentum built up by previous mass media advertising and media coverage that created the persona of Old Spice Guy. They also did little things like leverage the promoted trending topic on Twitter. I don't suspect it cost that much and the agency probably didn't have to do it as the campaign became an organic trending topic all on its own but it's still a good type of marketing insurance to have.
There has been some debate as to whether this social media campaign was successful. The digital results according to P&G speak for themselves. Nearly 105 Million YouTube views, 1.2 Billion media impressions, 2700% increase in Twitter followers, 800% increase in Facebook fan interaction, 300% increase in traffic to the Old Spice website. Not to mention the countless sharing, promotion and mashups created by fans. In my view you have clearly hit a nerve when consumers start creating their own derivations of a commercial. (*Warning about the language contained in the aforementioned link as typically happens lately when Mel Gibson is involved.)
My friend Tamera is firmly of the belief that this social media campaign was a success. Other detractors take the view that digital metrics are window-dressing and the creative was very juvenile. Everyone has an opinion and rightly so.
So it really all comes down to sales, right? Show me the money! That's what P&G shareholders and executives ultimately care about. According to Neilsen, sales of Old Spice Body Wash rose significantly since they launched the campaign. Kind of tough to argue with those numbers even if they are projections. Ultimately the folks at P&G will know the truth.
But I think there are bigger questions in all this. For the agency folks, is your shop capable of pumping out this kind of quality content in a very short time frame for a digital campaign? We’re not talking about days or weeks but minutes and hours to engage with potential customers. We’re talking about your creative directors & content writers working closely with the social media marketers, talent and production team in a truly integrated manner. Do you have the creative juices that leverage previous marketing efforts and support them? Do you truly understand the philosophy of engagement and conversation with customers? Because that is exactly why the Old Spice social media campaign was successful.
And those of us on the client side need to face the music also. As Dave Stubbs aptly notes in a terrific post, P&G put a lot of trust in their agency to pull this off. To react with the speed required means there wasn’t time for 4 different layers of approvals. There wasn't time for a full financial audit about costs on a line by line basis. There wasn't time for every pixel and prop to be mercilessly scrutinized by the brand police. So here is the rub. Can you do that in your company? Do you empower your agency to make bold decisions without fear? Have you built up enough trust with agency partner(s) where you are willing to put your neck on the line when executives start asking pointed questions in the boardroom?
Those are the spicy questions we must all (including myself) ask ourselves. And no amount of Old Spice will cover that up.
Sulemaan Ahmed
Aug
12
2010
Group think is the nemesis of qualitative research. The more senior you go in any organization, the more dismissive of focus groups managers become because of "group think." And, indeed, watching focus groups, as I have done innumerable times, it could appear that group think is impacting the dynamic.
Of course, one manager's group think is another manager's consensus. I mention this as an aside, but it is true that when 6 people in a group like the concept, this is a sign of a great concept. When six people in a group dislike the concept, it's clearly group think. Of course, if you hate the concept, then this works the other way around. Which leads to:
Bernstein's First Law of Group Think: The intensity of group think in any focus group is indirectly proportionate to the degree that the group reflects the observers innate bias.
But, I digress.
Group think is the inevitable result of recruiting homogenous groups of people. Why are we surprised that people who are in the same targeted age group, same target education level and use the same products with the same frequency, share the same opinions about the brand, product, category, and so on. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if there is no group think, then the recruiters have done a lousy job. And, perhaps even more controversially, the reason why professional respondents (i.e. those who attend many focus groups and don't absolutely fit the criteria) are generally more interesting than actual respondents (those who do fit the criteria and have little or no experience withfocus groups) -- they are, in fact, not the same as everybody else in the room and are therefor are more likely to have different opinions!
Think of it like this:
In her brilliant (must read for all marketers) book, The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar points out three aspects of personhood that help clarify this issue:
1. People are more alike than they think
2. What people believe about themselves (or what people would want other people to believe about them) does not vary much from person to person
3. Each person is convinced that he or she is unique
So, if this applies to all people, imagine how much these lack of differences are magnified in a homogenous group. Group think is not group think in the sense of people following a leader in spite of their own personal opinions. Group think is simply group agreement.
So what?
Couple of things.
1. The next time a client complains of group think, stick your finger in your ears and hum loudly
2. Don't recruit homogenous groups to focus groups. Try recruiting different people, try mixing the cohorts -- mix frequent users with terminal rejecters; mix 35 to 49 with 18 to 29; mix males with females; mix high income with low income. In any case you are better off doing two groups of mixed A and B than one group of A and one group of B
3. Read "The Art of Choosing" and get back to me .
And, for your added enjoyment, check out our new web site.
Laurence Bernstein
Jun
29
2010
Today I am up in beautiful Red Deer, Alberta. I haven’t had the opportunity to come up this way for quite some time. I believe January may have been that last time I ventured up Highway 2. Red Deer is a beautiful city and Ulistic is still a member of the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce, however we really need to come up and participate more in this vibrant Alberta community.
Our focus today is Social Media for Non-Profits, Ulistic is working with a non-profit organization in Red Deer, assisting them in determining and understanding a social media strategy which can help them focus on those they serve and provide information to the community. Many non-profits in Canada are concerned about costs and social media when used with purpose can drastically reduce the costs associated with marketing and advertising.
Working with charities, non-profits and others who offer similar services across Canada excites us (I was up bright and early today). This market is another who are trying to figure out how online services, social media, search engine optimization and communications impacts their business and the way they communicate externally.
Social Media does play a huge role in the non-profit world and sometimes it is easier to attract an audience with these types of organizations or regular commercial entities. Why? People love to support a cause and rally behind an organization that is focused on helping those with cancer, the homeless or those who may have other challenges. Social Media technologies is the perfect vehicle to help promote the cause and attract those in the community.
I am sure today will be an awesome day in Red Deer as we serve the non-profit community with social media support and guidance.
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Ulistic focuses on serving the needs of Canadian Small Business, REALTORS, and Information Technology firms across Canada and United States. Helping your business understand, deploy and leverage social media, search engine optimization and online communications to generate business opportunities and make an impact inside your community and industry.
My business partner David and I are business professionals first. We understand what it takes to run a successful small business.
I invite you to reach out to me personally at 403.775.2205 or email Stuart at scrawford@ulistic.com.
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