Home – Articles posted by Martyn Thomas
Bottled air and breaking perceptions
February 26, 2014 —
Here’s a lovely idea from Yarra Valley Water. It revolves around a pop-up store in Melbourne Central selling packaged air, sunshine and moonlight. The punchline comes right at the end. Great talent and beautifully droll. In a similar mode Best and Less moved to shatter their brand’s perception, ina positive way, with this disarming approach. →
The drums are beating louder: Why marketers need to evolve beyond the linear
November 25, 2013 —
The drums are beating louder: Why marketers need to evolve beyond the linear (This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 25th November 2013) In the last week we’ve heard from a senior marketing commentator that: “the industry is as close to being on its knees as it has in the 20 years I’ve been writing →
If you’re going to be a comedian you have to be funny (or, social media vs social business)
September 16, 2013 —
(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 13th September 2013) If you’re going to be a comedian you have to be funny (or, social media vs social business) Nearly a year ago I wrote about a client asking if we could use another term other than social media. She wanted to convince her CEO of →
Transition Marketing towards integrating Social Media
April 12, 2013 —
(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 11th April 2013) One of the hottest topics in marketing today is how to make the best of all the communications channels now available and how to make the transition towards integrating social media. Brands face an incredibly complex challenge as they have to play →
Bang & Olufsen gets Funky with the Beolit 12
October 30, 2012 —
We’ve been very fortunate to be working with Bang & Olufsen for the last few months with the enviable task of showcasing their recently launched B&O PLAY range. One of our favourites in the range is the BEOLIT 12 portable sound system, which we took for a walk around Prahran, photos above, to showcase its mobility →
When social media is not social media
September 27, 2012 —
My latest post for Marketing Mag, looking beyond the tools, at what they’re really for: content delivery. This article first appeared in Marketing Magazine, September 25 2012. Recently a client asked me if we could use a term other than ‘social media’. The reason being she wanted to convince her CEO of the need to pursue a →
Turning social media COI in to ROI
August 8, 2012 —
Martyn Thomas pens his next instalment for Marketing Mag, looking at how to turn social media Cost of Inaction (COI) in to a substantial Return on Investment (ROI) for your company… (This article first appeared in Marketing Magazine, July 30 2012) Recently, I looked at the issue of social-COI (cost of inaction) and now we →
Social Business – Do You Get It?
May 14, 2012 —
You’ll have heard this: “Great people talk about ideas. Average people talk about things. Small people talk about other people, and then, sadly, there are the people who love to talk about themselves.” Why is it then that when brands make a move into social business they are surprised that they struggle to attract ‘friends’ or →
Social Media evolving into Social Business
May 10, 2012 —
One day we’ll look back at being a Social Business Agency in 2012 and realise that we were laying the early ground work for helping our clients become social businesses. A great article by David Armano hit a nerve for me in that he too has formed the view that there is a degree of →
Social media and Trust
May 3, 2012 —
As a social business agency one of our roles is to help clients understand the role and influence of social media. One of our favourite points of reference is the Nielsen survey which asks “What degree of trust do you place in the following forms of advertising?” In 2009 (charted here) we saw that the →
FRANkademy Retail and Social Business
March 27, 2012 —
As we approach “FRANkademy Retail and Social Business” this Friday I thought I’d whet the appetite with some observational snippets. Australia remains emerged in a culture of austerity, caution and uncertainty. This is reflected in part by: Australians have increased their savings rate, since the economic turndown in 2008/09, to 10.5% (the highest rate since →
Social media Necessities
March 19, 2012 —
I’ve just started to read Brian Solis’ book “The End of Business as Usual.” Lots to get through but what strikes me in the early stages are the variety of bite sized foundation-comments which underpin the necessary approach to a fruitful social business strategy. Before I delve into some paraphrases here’s a quote which stands →
Social Media Kony 2012
March 8, 2012 —
Not much to say here other than we are doing our part to help make Joseph Kony amazingly famous and in turn help raise support for his arrest for crimes spanning 26 years [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/37119711[/vimeo] At the very least please watch the video and be aware. If this moves you then you can help in →
Social Communities
March 1, 2012 —
Yesterday I saw and appreciated this crochet wrapped around a tree in Greville Street. More enlightened people than me (thanks Steph) told me this is an example of yarn bombing. My appreciation came from how the crochet made me re-evaluate an everyday object and reinforced a sense of an active local community in Greville Street. →
Social Media Advocacy Model
February 24, 2012 —
Back in early January we talked about the paranoia of brands and their need to be “liked.” Again thankyou to Mark Smiciklas for his graphics and inspiration. This graphic has been updated to emphasis the process and end game of getting social business strategy right. Let’s begin with the end game…. which is positive consumer →
Social Business Tipping Point
February 13, 2012 —
Whilst awaiting my coffee at the ever so convenient St. Edmonds just across the road I scanned the business section from The Age. The article was about mining billionaires….blah blah…but the bit that caught my eye was the opening paragraph ” In the nineties and the noughties global banking and finance set the tone with →
Looking for T-shaped People
February 6, 2012 —
About 18-months ago we commented on T-shaped people which we’d noticed thanks to BBH Labs. Well now we’re looking to recruit some T-people. Who are they? Well back in November we remarked on the emergence of the Earned Media Director (EMD) and this post provides some insight plus the following three slides will give →
Social Media ROI through Social Business
February 1, 2012 —
The thinking here is that to generate true return on investment then an external social media strategy needs to be coupled with an internally sound social business. Here’s a chart we’ve amended from one of David Armarno’s excellent posts & graphics. If I can draw your eye to 12 o’clock…this is the external aspect of social. As →
Social Media Strategy – What Does it Involve?
January 20, 2012 —
I particularly like this analogy, again thank you to Mark Smicklas. It’s a chart I use to illustrate the importance of implementing a social business strategy. The shift to come is moving from a focus on external media consumption to the internalisation and business integration of what it means to become social. External media will →
Invest & Explore Brand Advocates for Social Media ROI
January 9, 2012 —
Well here we go. It’s 2012 and if the Mayans are right then we have 12 months to get this social-thing right. 2011 saw the initial desperate desire from brands to be liked or followed and so i thought that a great place to start getting it right is to differentiate between connection and advocacy. →