Posts by Martyn Thomas

The theory of social media is that it allows brands to leapfrog traditional media and forge relationships directly with customers using branded content. If you tell them great stories and connect with them in real time then your brand will become a hub for a community of consumers. The reality is that building a brand →

I noticed an eDM, yesterday, from THINK TV  the marketing initiative of Free TV Australia, representing Australia’s free-to-air metropolitan and regional commercial television broadcasters. The thrust of it is that “more than six out of ten online Australians would take action as a result of an ad seen on TV, making TV the most powerful →

Let’s go back, just a few years. Social platforms, in theory, enabled brands to have discourse with their customers/fans/advocates. The thing is that 90%+ of brands found themselves to be socially inept as they hijacked this new opportunity by simply talking about themselves. The old adage that great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk →

Do you ever get that nagging feeling, during your day, about the growing inefficiency of advertising for brands? Mounting evidence comes, in part, from the explosion of brands in the world. In 1997 based upon the number of trademarks in force there were approximately 2.5 million brands. By 2011 there were nearly 10 million (source →

In conjunction with Dr Michael Valos, senior lecturer at Deakin University we are looking to recruit a social media B2B group of about 15-20 people. The intent is to meet up a few times a year to share learnings and discuss this ever evolving space to collectively move the debate forward. B2B is the most →

(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 22nd October 2014)   Maybe it’s in the water but, despite a hesitant start, we are seeing renewed interest in B2B social media. An AdAge survey earlier this year projected that 80% of B2B marketers plan to increase digital spending with a significant percentage going towards →

Brian Solis – Australian Digital Summit 2014 Yesterday I watched Brian Solis, courtesy of Telstra’s live streaming, at the Australian Digital Summit 2014. For anyone new to Brian, he is a guiding light through the opportunity and turmoil of change that we’re all experiencing in digital and social. To his credit Brian hasn’t fundamentally changed →

(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 16th May 2014) The thing that is driving massive change in businesses today is the fact that we’ve become connected in ways that haven’t previously existed. No longer is a brand about messaging and perception it’s about creating experiences and communities centred on a core purpose. It’s bigger →

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 (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 →

(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 →

(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 5th July 2013) I think we all know that brands could try harder. They often disappoint and we wish they’d get their act together to become more aware of what we think and get a grip on their role (and potential role) in our lives. Havas’ recent →

(This article was first published in Marketing Magazine’s blog on 13th June 2013) There have been various waves of awareness and action (or not) when it comes to social media. One of the earliest waves to trickle ashore was back in 2007/08 when a few savvy individuals ardently began espousing social to anyone who’d listen. Brands and agencies →

(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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →