Adventures In Digital Marketing

If you’re an iPhone 4 wannabee – like a lot of us right now, signal failures or not – and a twitter fan then you probably can’t have helped to notice the sales promotion that was offered recently by a bulk-purchase discount website called Groupola.

Now, I’d not heard of Groupola before these last few days, but I sure have now, and that was obviously the point of their sales promotion – to raise awareness of the brand and to attract huge numbers of subscribers to their email list.

To that end there wasn’t anything wrong with what they were trying to do, and they won’t be the last brand to offer a heavily discounted offer in return for your valuable contact details – something a lot of people forget when they ask questions naively like “how can they offer these phones so cheap? It’s got to be a scam” – because of course it’s not – they’ve (hopefully!) worked out the average value of you as an individual to the business and bobs your uncle, 80% off an iPhone.

That’s all fine, I get it, no worries.

But why then has there been such an outrage on the web around this piece of SP?  Is it because it was a scam and the 200+ iPhones they’ve apparently “sold” were never sold?  I don’t think so and to be honest I have no reason to believe one way or the other but there are lots of people who don’t believe (me not being one of them!) but I think most of that is anger at not getting one and they’re bitter because they’re tight and don’t want to fork out £499 for a legit one from Apple.

Not getting your hands on one wouldn’t have been a problem if the site you were directed to via the “secret” link (which they then asked you to retweet in the same email so, not that secret then!) hadn’t spectacularly crashed out and simply stopped responding because of the huge volumes in traffic directed to the site.

And that’s the fail.  This brand grabbed a basic idea – give something amazingly popular away for next to nothing to raise awareness of your brand and your business model (this is after all what they do – bulk discounts) – but they failed to consider the technical implications of a major web traffic spike to their infrastructure.

You simply cannot do that with digital marketing because as we all know, or at least should know, technology, serving and all of that generally boring (sorry networks guys!) ugly stuff behind the scenes is just as important as the good looking sexy stuff in front of the web browser.  Forget that simple fact and you are doomed to failure.

Imagine if the BBC site crashed during the World Cup or Wimbledon coverage recently – like it did during 9/11 all those years ago when the web was still in infancy – or if something like the telephone system behind American Idol couldn’t cope with the calls during the show.  All stuff like this could be a disaster, and that’s exactly where Groupola now find themselves.

If they’d thought it through, up-scaled their server capacity, and put in place the correct pages to say “sorry guys, we’ve sold out, but here are the lucky real people winners” no one would have minded.  But they didn’t.  And the servers crashed.  And the rest is twitter history.

A lesson learnt for sure.  And possibly a world record set in how to quickly grow a mailing list and then lose it all to a huge unsusbcribe request 24 hours later.

Howard

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Related articles by Zemanta

• Apple admits iPhone signal fault (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Apple iPhone 4 on sale for £99 (guardian.co.uk)

image by Jeremy Brooks on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/

When I worked in an integrated environment I thought all the digital marketing on a campaign should come to my department.  That’s not because I was greedy (although I was of course – we all have targets!) or that I was naive.  I just believed that we were best placed to handle the digital side of an integrated campaign that we were leading.  It hardly ever happened and often it was given to a pure play digital agency who were on the roster for digital, much to my chagrin.

So, now I work in a pure play digital agency.  And guess what?  Now I think all the digital on a client should come to us and that the integrated agency isn’t best placed to do the digital because they don’t understand the medium fully.  And, once again, this isn’t happening and integrated agencies are stepping in and taking bits and bobs here and there, more on some clients, less on others.

OK, so the grass is always greener and I am really hungry when it comes to clients and potential work – but we always knew that!

But, off the back of this something else is happening.  And it’s in relation to Social Media Marketing as opposed to web design+build or campaign based digital activity in traditional digital channels.

And what’s interesting about Social Media Marketing is that not only do we as a pure play have to contend with an integrated agency but more often than not we have to work with/alongside/around a PR agency who are now more and more frequently getting involved.

Now I don’t think this is the same thing as with the pure/integrated angle – not entirely anyway.

It’s more of the fact that I think clients seem to interpret Social Media as more inline with PR than it is with marketing.  There’s a lot of content creation, which PR agencies are very good at.  I think this is what the issue is. PR agencies seem to just be viewed by clients as being better at content creation and dealing with a high-risk situation that needs quick responses and turn arounds than an agency of either a pure or digital nature can do.

But does this mean PR agencies are the best ones to actually deal with this space? Well, that depends.  I personally think that some PR agencies are a bit too old-fashioned to deal with the true intricacies of the social space and tend to just be too formal, too old-world PR in an environment that really doesn’t suit it.

But new PR agencies, and I think this will happen more and more as their nature changes in the ways that ad agencies have had to adapt in the past decade or so, makes PR agencies, or rather forces them, to adapt or die.  I actually think it’s probably a very exciting time to be working in PR – and believe me that’s something I didn’t think I’d ever say!

There are some amazing agencies out there that seem to bridge the gap between PR and social and ad and marketing and pure and integrated.  The one name that immediately springs to mind is We Are Social who call themselves a “conversation agency”.  I’ve got a lot of respect for this agency, especially after seeing them speak at events in the past where they just seem to “get it”.  Maybe this is what PR agencies need to become?

Well, I don’t know and I am sure I’m not best placed to answer either.

I do know I get a little bit “annoyed” when I hear that i’ve lost out to another agency on any piece of work, and more and more recently i’ve been hearing “we’ve given this to the PR agency”.  Especially as someone who loves his social networks and media.  But, you can’t win it all and maybe we aren’t best placed?  Who knows – and I’m not convinced yet.

But I do know it’s intersting and, for me, social is the new battle ground where the old versus new agencies are fighting it out.

Intergrated versus pure play? Who cared – that’s so last year!

Howard

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On Friday last week I gave an hour long lecture to 3rd year management students at Southampton University on the subject of Digital Marketing and how it’s evolved from my own perspective, 14+ years into a career in the business.

After the event I was interviewed by Karen Woods, a freelance journalist working for the University, and she recorded this interview.

I waffle a bit, and I am really not used to being recorded so excuse it if I say some things that are a bit weird and fumbled

Generally I am happy with what I said though – it seems to make sense after 2 re-listens

Howard

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I don’t normally post items about this kind of thing but with this one I feel I have to because it illustrates clearly how not to engage a blogger audience and get them to talk about your campaign, IMHO at least.

We at AdventuresDM receive these kind of emails all the time – requesting that we blog about, or check out, or generally get involved with campaigns to spread the word – and more of the time we’re happy to do so – we’ve even road-tested new pieces of hardware for people like Nokia in order to take part – so we get it and we like it when it’s done correctly.

And we of course understand, as agency-types ourselves, why you’d want to do this and involve them as brand advocates etc. – it’s stuff we suggest often to our own clients.

But I just got this email from an agency asking me to get involved, and it so clearly shows how not to do things that I really wanted to highlight it.  To give the agency, brand and person (real person??) a bit of privacy, i’ve starred out their name and details, but you’ll get the drift I am sure…

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Have you seen the latest cool ******** ads?? Of course no, it’s super new!!

This week sees the culmination of ****** ******** campaign. The ad features the song ‘********’, written and performed by ********* and set up using only ******** free texts and internet *********.

In fact, **************** were involved in the recording of the song and each one is featured on the track.  What’s more, the song was released as a single by Universal Records on Monday.

The ad was air on Friday, 15^th January during Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother, running for the entire ad break.  And while this marks the end of the ‘******* campaign, it also marks the one year anniversary of **************, which aired in the same week and during the same show in 2009.

Check it out http://***.*******.com/***************

And tell me what you think!

If you like it why don’t you embed it on your site and let your readers know about it?

G******

G****** F******

B** Q******

0207xxxxxxxx

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Now, I am sure some would argue there is nothing wrong with the following, but for me it’s so impersonal, so badly written (i wonder if the spelling mistakes are intentional to give it realism?) and so obviously a “one size fits all” blanket bomb of an email sent to a load of bloggers that it isn’t worth the time of day following the campaign itself.

To put it bluntly, it’s a bit insulting to the audience for whom it is intended.

But this email, this impersonal way it opens (the phrase “super new!!), in fact the whole way it’s structured to do nothing just push the content out, regardless of who they’re writing to, and get them to embed the video shows a complete lack of understand for the blogger audience, disregard for them as people with value to add and treats us, bloggers who are passionate about what we write as nothing more than a cheap win for them – they’re playing a numbers game on this one.  Send it to X number of bloggers and hope that 10% of them post the link and video – bingo!

It’s like the worst kind of old-style marketing, Direct mail state of mind, that we’ve been trying to change for so long now – that we’re not numbers and hit-and-hope anymore – but engagement and interaction and dialogue and conversation.

This is trying to do things right but it’s doing it so wrong it makes me truly sad.  What makes me even more sad is that in some way this probably will achieve what they want an a certain number of desperate bloggers will go right out there and post the link and embed the video just to get themselves in as part of a campaign and a few links into their own blog.  But this isn’t how to do things.

This is how NOT to engage a blogger audience!

We are not numbers out there to get your in-bound links up and extend your reach.  We’re advocates and enthusiasts who add true value to your products, services or campaigns.

As both a blogger and an agency employee I cannot emphasise this strongly enough.

Treat us with respect people! it’s one of the golden rules of social-media engagment.

Howard

2009 was quite a good year for us at AdventuresDM, and to bring a bit of light back to some posts which have now dropped off the page, and some which you may not have caught first time around, here is the top 10 posts of last year.  Enjoy!

1. Digital Wales: A Google Map (you can edit!)

2. Sony’s new TV’s bring Yahoo! widget content to the masses

3. Twitter as a sales promotion channel

4. Augmented Reality on the iPhone

5. Future of Web Design 2009 London

6. ASOS using real-time sentiment analysis direct to consumers

7. Oxfam’s Cannes Lion Youtube Competition

8. Some digital marketing predictions for 2009

9. Yahoo!’s connected TV platform

10. Honda Insight Takeover Shines

Today I am at the Monitoring Social Media conference in London to hear what some of Europe’s leading thinkers have to say about this hottest of topics (OK, it’s not as hot as Augmented Reality, but it’s a very close second especially when you mention Twitter!)

Actually, that’s one thing – i’ve ironically been locked out of twitter temporarily because stupid useless annoying tweetdeck which i foolishly opened instead of tweetie screwed up again and tried to login a million times in a second. I HATE TWEETDECK!

anyway, I’ll try and takes enough notes to write-up the conference when I am on the train tonight. So far it’s a mixed bag – first speaker, Alan Moore from SMLXL was really interesting, talking about how networks have changed everything and it’s the theory of networks that you need to be able to understand as a marketer in order to fully address people in the 21st century.

second speaker on the other hand, who is speaking right now, Neville Hobson, is really disinteresting and, for me, saying nothing new at all – would have been good a year ago but now it’s old hat. ho hum

anyway, if you want to follow the hashtag on twitter it’s #msm09

Howard
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I love the bloke at the end who comes in and says “Are you making a movie?”

Couldn’t have written it better!

Recently I keep coming up against a seeming growing obsession with proposing TV ads as legitimate content for digital communication. It burns me up.

I see it in retail stores, on tube media, online and more recently I’ve been exposed to lots of situations where in the process of proposing digital content people (non-digital mind) instantly default to “hey, we could use the TV ad on there”.

Why do people insist on seeing the moving images of TV as being suitable for any and all screens someone might be exposed to?

Tube screen? TV ad.

Instore plasma? TV ad.

Interactive kiosk. Use the TV ad.

Plasma screen. What about (hey you guessed it) TV ad.

But the same logic is invariably not applied to all other consumer touchpoints. Do we see a poster site and say, hey lets take stills of the TV ad and print that!

Or an advertorial and take the TV script. No we don’t and why?

Cause it’s not relevant message for that media at that stage of the consumer journey.

TV has an ever growing tenous role with the growth of digital, but if we do see it as relevant then only at a single  point (hey on TV!), and assuming that it’s universally relevant and pertinent content for an audience to be rolled out at all screens a brand owns is surely flawed?

Lets take, oh i don’t know a plasma at retail. TV won’t provided enhanced perceived value at that point of purchase. That push to buy.

Medium and moment should decide the message and content.

Screen does not = TV!

Paul

At FOWD 2009 year, Microsoft were again a lead speaker. In 2008 we were (ahem) treated to a very loooooong and verbose demo of SIlverlight, which I think crashed at one point.

Unperturbed Microsoft returned to FOWD 09 with a slot entitled Watchmen, having been demoing Microsoft Surface in the lobby I was intrigued to see how they would showcase Surface with the comic property.

Now before I go any further, I love Watchmen. Moore’s graphic novel is a classic piece of English literature for me, as complex a narrative as any classic novel. So yes, maybe my heckles were up.

Microsoft gave a half hour long diorama like version of the book, dragging cut-out versions of the characters onscreen, making them a little bigger, shrinking them down. Jiggling them a little. Then dragging them off screen.

For 30 long mins we saw the same weak visual gag recycled. Now aside from massacring the complex plot of the novel, it was the least flattering demo of what should be an exciting product proposition I’ve seen. No mention of Surface’s capability to … take a breath:

• Create applications to recognise and interact with products when placed on screen
• Upload content (video and photo) direct from devices to screen simply by dropping it on the surface
• Allow custom GUIs to fit your creative execution
• Apply a library of texture effects — water / sand — to interations
• Navigation around maps in realtime
• Handwriting recognition
• Sharing content direct from screen with others

No. All we get is scaling cardboard cut-outs. Truly cutting edge, thank you.

I’d sooner have watched this far more informative (yet slightly corporate) Microsoft demo and reclaimed those 30 mins of my life.

Recently I saw an example of gesture based interactivity in the Orange Store on Carnaby Street. You were invited to interact with Orange’s Mobile portal Orange World through an i-tunes coverflow like interface at the front of store. Now I can’t say if that was  Surface, but we all could have been more enriched about how to adapt this technology had we seen some real world examples?

Thanks again Windows for another great demo, hey there’s always 2010.

And (more importantly) where was the Tales of the Black Freighter?

Paul

I’m not a big fan of display ads, I’ll be honest with you. Banners, MPUs, Takeovers, the like, don’t really get me going. I work with them, of course, and often they’re an essential part of a campaign, but it’s not what makes me get out of bed in the morning.

Every now and then though an execution will catch my eye and give me hope that creative thinking that’s gone into it has been well worth it, and we’re not stuck with another “click the monkey” banner.

This execution for the Honda Insight hybrid car is one such thing – and whilst the advert being shown itself is nothing more (I think, correct me if I am wrong) than a straight conversion of the TV ad, the way it’s hosted and held on video sharing site Vimeo is simply great.

Starting with a page that looks to all intents and purposes like a standard Vimeo page, the user is presented with a truly lovely take-over execution once they click the play button, where-in the whole page fades out to black, and a new video loads in over the top of the page making what was a simple TVC conversion a much richer, more involved, and infinitely more lovely experience than just watching a video inside a flash player could ever be.

The whole page transitions through various stages with the video itself, giving the user a sunrise that moves with the content itself.

Imagery from the TVC extends outside the player area to move into other parts of the browser itself, and as the video comes towards a close the sun does indeed Shine, even adding a lens-flare effect across the whole page.

Finally, the page re-brands itself to the logo that Honda are currently using (it looks like a kind of Orla Kiely leaf pattern) and brings in the brand colours of white and red.

It’s a really great use of a TV ad in a new medium for which it wasn’t originally intended, and as I say, whilst normally just reformatting the TV ad video for use online is a big no-no (wrong type of audience, wrong way of consumption, etc. etc. etc.), the fact that whoever created this piece worked with the technology of the site in such a great way, really using the media space as part of the creative execution and not just the holding place, justifies the straight re-use, and adds so much more in the process.

For a format that’s usually intrusive, hated and generally not loved by consumers, I think this one works so well, and only once the user has clicked play – indicating their true desire to view the content – that it’s use can be forgiven in this instance – it just works so well in my opinion.

Well worth checking out on this link or just watch it embedded below (although you’ll only see the TVC and won’t get the whole takeover experience!!).
http://vimeo.com/4281939

Whoever did this – truly well done. Love it!

Howard
ps – thanks to @paulyd for the tip

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Honda Insight – Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.