Digitising Hoardings

Brand: Pinterest

Category: Social media
 
Idea: Take the old-fashioned scrap book online

Details: And you thought there would never be anything better than Facebook? Think again. With Pinterest you can share and store ideas, commentary, humour and pretty much everything in between. You can use it to express yourself, find inspiration, waste time… the works. Even sell. It’s direct, cuts through the clutter, easy to use (no fiddly privacy issues) and above all great fun. If you haven’t discovered Pinterest yet, please do so before everybody else does as well and it turns into another Facebook. In less than three years, it is worth nearly eight million, has four million unique visitors, with the bulk aged between 25 and 54. If you are targeting people in their 30s and 40s, this might be the place to do so.

Source: http://auroramag.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/digitising-hoardings/

Kit Kat’s ‘Free No Wi Fi Zones’ Encourage People To Take A Break

Kit Kat has introduced “Free No Wi Fi Zones” in an attempt to encourage people to ‘Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat’.
The concept is very smart and in line with the brand’s overall image that asks people to take a break from their every day hectic routines and enjoy a Kit Kat. The concept also focuses on encouraging people to interact with real people and disconnect from the digital world for a bit.
The No Wi Fi Zones block internet access within a 5 meter radius making sure that the user is not connected to the internet within this area.
This campaign has been executed in Amsterdam is being executed by JWT Amsterdam.
The ad reads:

“The world is becoming one big WiFi zone, it’s available in bars, restaurants, trains, airports, supermarkets. There’s even WiFi on Mount Everest. Result? People are constantly online. Time for a break.”
So we created a Free No-WiFi Zone. In a radius of 5 meters, we blocked all signals so people could escape e-mails, updates, tags or likes. Instead, they could enjoy a good old newspaper or a hardcover book. Some even had a real conversation. Whilst eating a Kit Kat of course.

Source: http://www.mediapoondi.com/2013/01/24/kit-kats-free-no-wi-fi-zones-encourage-people-to-take-a-break-2/

What Shines On

Brand: Louis Vuitton (LV)

Category: Fashion

Idea: Life is a journey

Details: LV is an incredible brand. It is apparently the best loved luxury brand in the world. What makes it a great brand, apart from beautiful products is the communication and how well integrated it is between the digital and the real world. Their films chronicling the journeys of well known life travellers (posted on their website), their Facebook page (10 million fans), their display windows, their trunks for transporting yachting trophies and their sponsored vintage car races in Monaco… there is no dichotomy between retail and online – both translate beautifully and seamlessly into a stunning celebration of life’s journeys.


Source: http://auroramag.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/what-shines-online/

PAS Awards 2013 briefing

The Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) held a PAS Awards 2013 briefing yesterday. Agencies and clients were given a run down of the PAS Awards 2011 and 2012 and what given a sense of what to expect of the upcoming Awards. 

Qamar Abbas, Executive Director, PAS reiterated for new participants that unlike other advertising awards which are creative focused, the PAS Awards are effectiveness awards and therefore  every campaign is also scored on the basis of its results.
Uzma Nawaz, Project In-charge for the PAS Awards 2013 talked about the next edition of the Awards due in April, which will see the introduction of two new categories: ‘Best in Digital,’ “to encourage and award work done on the evolving digital front”; and ‘Passion for Pakistan,’ “for all and any campaigns that enhance the image of Pakistan.”

Another new Award for ‘Best Original Local Idea,’ has also been introduced which is aimed at addressing last year’s concern that ‘regional adaptations should not be included’ to “encourage work that had been purely conceptualised and executed in Pakistan.” However, agencies will not be able to enter work specifically for this Award. The winner will be chosen by the PAS Awards jury from all the locally conceptualised entries submitted across  categories.

Nawaz also took the participants through the submission process, highlighting that the forms could be downloaded from the PAS website and how they should be filled out. The PAS also offered to send participants a sample showreel and form to aid them in the submission process.


Source:  http://auroramag.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/pas-awards-2013-briefing/

Another Blast of Hot Air

That remarkable thinker Theodore Zeldin (1994) says an opportunity is wasted every time a meeting has taken place and nothing has happened. If so, most of us spend a depressingly high percentage of our lives on fruitless chatter. 

This is often no accident, since many meetings are not intended to achieve anything, having been proposed for sundry selfish reasons. A common one, which also begets much market research, is the desire of an individual or individuals to avoid being responsible for a decision. This is often wise, since whilst it is perfectly possible that someone may be fired for getting something wrong, few firms are so callous or determined as to get rid of a whole group because of something for which no one person can be blamed. 

Some meetings have objectives so ludicrous it is inconceivable that can be achieved. Thus, about four years ago a client assembled about 16 people from all over the world in London to discuss nothing less than the complete restructuring benefits and services his vast organization offered to its millions of customers. How he imagined the very basis of his firm's businesses could be transformed for the better by eight hours' jabbering around a conference table i did not understand. i spent most of the day trying to calculate the cost in air fares and fees of those present - who included, apart from the company's representatives and those of their agencies, some astoundingly expensive management consultants from the United States and Europe. 

 Many meetings revolve around presentations, but few receive the rapt attention they deserve. A few years ago a friend, Roger Millington, entered the wrong conference room at a big agency. He thought he was talking to an audience of people selling ladies' underwear, whereas they were from Goodyear Tyres. He swears he was a good 10 minutes into his spiel before anyone noticed everything he was saying was hilariously irrelevant. 

When I first became a creative director many years ago I soon learnt meetings were an even greater theft of time than procrastination and never attended unless forced to, merely sending in advance my written views on the subject in question, offering to turn up and discuss them if asked. I don't recall this ever happening, which probably says more than I would like about the poor quality of my thinking. In Up the Organization, Robert Townsend, who made Avis successful, suggests all meetings be held standing up so people will not dawdle. 

But Zeldin is right. The greatest curse of meetings is that most produce nothing. Either there is no conclusion save that another meeting should take place or, if it is decided what should be done, it is not made clear by whom; and even if that essential point is established, it is rarely made clear by when it must be done. 

If what I have written reflects your own experience, I am not at all surprised. But if your organization does not suffer from these vices, it either already is or soon will be amazingly successful. But dont get complacent. Given enough meetings, it won't stay that way long.




Source: Bird, D., (June 1996), MARKETING Insights & Outrages.  

Digital Trends for 2013

Together with Econ­sul­tancy, we sur­veyed more than 700 dig­i­tal pro­fes­sion­als in late 2012 to look at the chal­lenges and oppor­tun­ties that organ­i­sa­tions will be pay­ing close atten­tion to this year. Down­load the report.

Our find­ings have revealed that the sin­gle most sig­nif­i­cant trend is con­tent mar­ket­ing. 2013 is set to be the year of content!
Find out more in our info­graphic below, along with other key themes:

 






















































































































































































































 Source: http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-marketing/digital-trends-for-2013/

Selling on Facebook Now Easier to Track

Selling on Facebook is now a bit easier to track as the company is readying a new analytics tool that allows e-retailers to see which ads are most effective. 

The conversion tracking tool should be a popular one, but its functionality does not give critical insights some companies might want. The people who click the ads will remain anonymous. Good for privacy, not quite as helpful to ad sellers. Still, it's a step forward for the one billion member strong Facebook as it tries to chip away at Google's stranglehold on online advertising.

Best for Direct Response Marketing

Retailers who have been considering buying Facebook ads will likely find the tool useful, and that could help sway them to advertise on Facebook rather than Google. It couldn't hurt anyway. Any insight companies can get from advertising campaigns will help in targeting the next time around.

One way the tool will help do this is to allow companies to sell new ads to people with similar attributes to those who responded to a previous ad. It's worth noting here that Facebook defines conversions as any desired action taken, like registering for a newsletter, and not just completed sales. 
Once the tool launches at the end of the month, marketers will be able to track more than just the numbers of clicks or numbers of app downloads triggered.

Facebook Ads vs Pages

Of course, there is more than one way to make money on Facebook, and trying to convert Likes into dollars is one popular way. This has its own set of pitfalls, however, and that is one of the main reasons why Facebook ads hold so much promise.

Back in September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook was focused on mobile, and so far that has helped the company's bottom line. For customers though, convincing them to advertise on Facebook might be a tougher sell because of the shadow of Google. Google shows relevant ads during a search, and that immediacy is hard to beat. 

Along with new features like Sponsored Stories, Facebook's tracking tool is one more piece the company can use to get advertisers on board. Tell us in the comments if you have a loyal Facebook following and if your Page is a moneymaker.



Source: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/selling-on-facebook-now-easier-to-track-018316.php