World Cup Fever is taking hold. Advertising for Peanuts points us to this great Oliver Kahn Bridge, in Berlin as part of the Adidas “Impossible Team” campaign.
Rumour has it they were going to put a David James one across the M25 but they were worried he’d drop the ball and fall on the cars!
Much of the talk at the 2006 World Wide Web conference in Edinburgh this week has been about the technologies behind the so-called "semantic web". according to the BBC.
Professor Wendy Hall, head of a research team at the University of Southampton looking into the semantic web says that part of the problem is that the term means so many things to different people. However, she believes it can be summed up as "creating a web that can be interpreted by machines".
Creating web pages that are marked up Semantically, is not that complicated. It’s actually a more efficient way of creating web pages so that they can be understood by not just your computer browser; but by all sorts of machines and on line applications - including Search Engines.
A good example is to compare a web page to a catalogue. Rather than put all the information in willy-nilly and un-categorised, you specify what’s what. It makes it instantly more searchable and understandable. It allows for automatic understanding of data. For example, by putting some text in between tags: <h1>This tells the whole world that it is an important header</h1>. It’s obviously slightly more complicated than that but it is (in our minds) common sense to speak a global language. It makes the Internet, and the billions of web pages, more relevant and accessible - across the board.
At The Escape, we have also found that it is not only a more efficient way of working, giving you untold flexibility to edit and update your web site; but, it also makes your web site more successful because more machines (search engines) can read it and, more importantly, make sense of it.
It is the way forward as the Internet continues to mature. A good start to find out how your site does is to run it through the validator.
So, today I needed some sandwiches for a lunchtime meeting.
Something drew me to a local deli that I used to really love. I used to go in at least once a week. The Owner knew my name, they had a loyalty scheme which made me want to buy more Lattes. I became a regular.
Then they opened another branch and the Owner went to manage the new place. Staff turnover in my deli was not too good and each time I went in, it was a different person. In fact, the last time I went in (about six months ago) there were two young men serving that had ‘their kind of music’ playing which, didn’t fit with the deli brand. They grunted at me, called me ‘mate’ throughout the interaction and basically, I was in their way - an inconvenience. I didn’t belong anymore.
Maybe be it was me, I thought. A bit like the fact that I find it hard to listen to Radio One now, so have moved onto Radio 2. I mean it is a fact of life - People evolve and so do Companies - perhaps we didn’t match each other anymore? So anyway, I stopped going to the deli.
But, I found myself heading there this morning for our lunches and surprise surprise, there was, again, two different staff - both young ladies I might add. But, they were friendly, they were helpful, they were having fun in their work and suddenly I belong again.
Which made me think - it’s not the sandwich I was buying or the latte - it’s the experience. And that takes constant work and reassessment. All the adverts in the world won’t make people come back and let’s face it, Customer Service Levels in the UK are getting worse and worse - perhaps that is the thing we are all crying out for - genuine customer service. It’s one crack you can’t paper over and the best value of brand builder you will ever have!
So, if you would, please tell me how we could improve our Customer Service Levels.
In the words of Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets:
You make me want to become a better person
If you make your Flash Intro Powerful enough, people won’t skip it on the first time round.
This is a very powerful intro, to a very thought provoking web site.
Great Advertising for jobsintown.de as posted by Advertising For Peanuts.
This is a great campaign from TBWA created for Häagen-Dazs.
Together they produced a limited edition series of authentic postal stamps that featured original Häagen-Dazs artwork.
They then infused flavors like Cookies & Cream,
Macadamia Nut Brittle and Strawberry Cheesecake into the adhesive on
the back. As you licked the stamp, you actually tasted the flavor! For
every 10 scoops of ice cream purchased, a book of stamps was
distributed as part of a loyalty program.
Link courtesy of MIT Advertising Lab
Seth Godin with another thought provoking post about barriers within companies and marketing:
In talking with companies that are unhappy with the way they are
growing, I find two common themes (and one a little less often):
Seth goes on to mention how these all tend to happen before the customer is even involved.
We mention the word Authenticity a lot in modern marketing. Why not be who you are and work on getting better at it? You will create a great story based on the fact that it is true. You will also get the customers you deserve and maybe that is the crux of the matter.
Do we really deserve our customers and, if we don’t, what could we be doing to make sure we do?
Viral Marketing is great.
Some viral marketing campaigns aren’t.
This one for the Mini Cooper is the best one I have seen in a very long time. I dare you not to try it out.
Keep Your Blouse On! They won’t give your details to anyone else!
Thanks: Brandflakes
The thing I love about marketing is how much it’s changed and and how all the rules have been rewritten. This obviously scares some people witless but for others, they make big changes to their lives, and businesses, with very little. These two real stories prove the point.
Lilly Allen
Lilly Allen is the daughter of Keith Allen but that isn’t important. She wanted to be a pop star. She created her own page on myspace and now has a record deal. I don’t know of the intricacies of how it all happened but she has created her own marketing, using myspace to promote herself and connect with people. Watch out for her single this summer.
Jesús Rodríguez
Marketing Tom joined the dots for me on this one. He can tell the story so much better than I could but the gist is. Local Spanish guy, no-one wants to know about his song, creates it along with a video with a friend and pops it on the Internet. Over 3 million downloads later and he is a star, with people making up their own versions.
You
Who is your potential audience and how do you get them to take note? You obviously need to start with something worth talking about but the rest can be easily transmitted with a little time and effort!
It’s lunchtime, which sounds nicer?
Depending on who your market is, you may get different answers, but I bet you’d pay more for the second option.
I am sure we all understand the importance of well-written copy, especially in business and to be really effective, we need not to be concentrating just on the grammar aspect of an article, but, even more importantly, on the story itself.
But we are not here to tell a story, I hear you say, we’re here to sell our business and services and that’s more about facts. That’s all well and good, but people buy into the story just as much as the reality and especially more so than hard facts.
Seth Godin, pronounces in his book, All Marketers Are Liars, that stories are what make a business service buyable:
Either you’re going to tell stories that spread, or you’ll become irrelevant.
He has a point. Recently I have noticed that a lot of copy we are given to work with, when taken out of context, means absolutely nothing:
They are also very factual and specific and don’t sell benefits or needs.
Anyone of the above examples could be applied to website design, for instance, but I don’t want a web site. I want an on line marketing tool that is going to be very effective, generating business and saving me time. It’s still a web site, yes, but a web site that is effective: Because I also want a quick return on investment (that’s my needs and desires).
So, not only do you need to tell your story, you also need to keep it contextual and, just to add more to the mix, if your copy is for the web and search engine traffic is important to you; you also need to make it keyword oriented. People do not go onto search engines and type in "complete solutions provider", it’s about context: "website designer in hampshire" for instance.
It sounds complicated doesn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t, but it continues to be one of the most overlooked parts of marketing – great copy sells the story, which sells the product (or service).
Derek Powazek, on the A List Apart Blog, asks all designers: Learn To Write!
It’s time we designers stop thinking of ourselves as merely pixel
people, and start thinking of ourselves as the creators of experiences.
And when it comes to experience on the web, there’s no better way to
create it than to write, and write well.
We agree, so read and write feverishly, developing the talent. I also think that the words you use and the way you use them are integral to your brand. That is why it is an area that needs constant development and inspiration.
Words Also Change
Language itself also develops "dont u tink"? Text messaging may annoy many people but if we hadn’t allowed language to develop we would all be speaking like Shakespeare still, wouldn’t we? Copy in business is becoming a lot more conversational. You need to be appealing!
The key is not to be precious, but to embrace changes and the need for great stories. Who are to speaking to and what are you trying to say, really? Invest in your marketing speak and develop your tone-of-voice. Choice is becoming immense and if you don’t say it the way that your customers need to hear it, or would say it themselves; or, if your story isn’t that interesting; you may just lose them to someone who is.
If you need a little more convincing, read this nice little article called The Story of Branding over at ClickZ.Com