FRANKthoughts

Here’s the first batch. We are logging who is sending what but are keeping all participants anonymous.

 We are simply posting the entries and will not always comment….

An appalling use of billboard vinyl, time and resource comes ironically from a couple of energy companies. TRU Energy and Energy Australia (see for yourself). There is a certain irony here. Vinyl used to produce outdoor skins is highly toxic at the manufacturing stage producing foul emmissions to make kyoto blush with a half life of thousands of years.

There are part solutions but there is light at the end of the tunnel with BIOflex a fully degradable PVC good for about 12 months…long enough. So please, anyone commissioning the production of outdoor skins, enquire as to the type of vinyl and also the printing process. Go with UV ink (90% makes its way onto the vinyl) NOT solvent ink (90% makes its way into the atmosphere).

BIOflex will cost about 20% more but it’s the least we can do. Do it.

Billboards are part of life’s rich tapestry but how much richer could they be if we could read them? I’d say 90% of creative work is assessed from about 1m…. mounted on card or from a monitor. Blowing this up to over 40sqm and placing it by a busy road does not necessarily guarantee consumer engagment. The in-office test of good billboard creative is to walk the A3 artwork about 10m away and take another look.

We are mounting the “worst-billboard i’ve seen in a while” competition. The winner will win a FRANk bag…made from an old Ansett billboard skin, surely a collectors items, valued at $80. Please send me (martyn at frankmedia.com.au) any images you capture and i’ll post them. The competiton will run until the end of June’08.

The catalyst for this idea comes from a billboard i saw yesterday from Energy Australia. This is truly appalling. Firstly it’s about an energy supplier so it’s inherently of low interest plus the “headline” is unreadable and as for the rest of the copy…well who only knows. Someone then commented on TRU Energy’s newest campaign…maybe you need to see a TV ad before this makes sense. Anyway these are my two entries.

Thankyou very much

Is this the time we start evolving our ways in measuring acquisition accountability? Since 2007 we already understood the halo effect of various digital media placements have in effect before a customer visits the landing page. Although we knew this, we’re still attributing sales to “Last Click” ad. For example a customer’s path to buying insurance could be:

1st May - Saw an ad on NineMSN Entertainment

3rd May - Saw an ad on Yahoo Mail

3rd May - Saw an ad on Adconion network

4th May - Google Search and clicked on a paid link to visit the site

8th May - Saw an ad on DGM network

9th May - Google Search and clicked on a paid link

9th May - Bought insurance on the site

From the 1st of May to the 9th of May, who do you account the sales to? A research has accounted “Last Click” sources from display are 63%, Search 25%, and Affiliates 12%. Startling figures but we still rely heavily on SEM. Don’t get me wrong, SEM does send qualified leads to your site (a low hanging fruit option) but when partnered with other media (ie display banners), Search can get more credit than it really deserves. Is “Last Click Only” a dying acquisition metric? Do affiliates need to evolve to offer more? For agencies, we also need our ad serving partners to also provide advancements in “path to action” from number of ads displayed before a response is created to optimise frequency AND to monitor campaigns holisticly across various channels… display, affiliates, sem, etc.

I’m thinking a sharing based model where networks share $$$ from an acquisition rate. The closer to the funnel the more they’ll get. Eg. Last Click = 30%, Last viewed 20%, Second last viewed 10%, and so on. Realisticly… I don’t think that will ever happen.

Now… what happens if someone saw an outdoor billboard amongst all those digital ads… if only we could ever track that!

More porridge anyone?

Some passionate discussion about Connex, Melbourne’s rail system, on Marketing magazine’s blog. I couldn’t help but comment on the letter from Julian Cole. I indulgently referred to my post travel community but added a thought about recycling mx newspapers.

Connex tends to be the butt of jokes and ridicule and to be fair they may be victims of their corporate environment. However their site does lack practical empathy. I did find a feedback section which suggests, in preference 1. speaking with their staff on platform 2. calling the customer feedback line ( i rang, spoke with a helpful lady about my mx newspaper recycling idea who in turn said she’d refer my idea to the Customer Relationship team and they’d be back to me within 7 days…i’ll report on their feedback as a comment) 3. writing a letter or 4. an online response.

One of their latest initiatives is to meet their managers at various stations to ask questions. Wouldn’t it just be a lot simpler and practical to engage online? Soon.

Ok, so here’s the thing: entire industries are changing because of what’s happening online. This change is driven by web users and web companies. If you disagree just look at the music industry. Are things the same? Now what about the TV industry? The advertising industry? The real question is not if change is coming or not. Its how can we get ready for it.

This is a general post about what’s happening just to kick things off. I am hoping to get some help from all you thinkers out there. So please share your thoughts - I’m sure we’ll need more than one post. Let’s get a bit more targeted. I’m wondering what will happen to advertising agencies both “traditional” and “digital”. In particular I want to explore different ways for brands to develop a communication strategy. I want to dive deeper into”brand experiences”, how can we create and deliver them. Here are a few conversation starters:

Laurel Papworth has a great post about the differences between digital media, interactive media, new media and social media. Idris mootee is writing about the end of the advertising agency as we know it and is thinking about brand utility and experience design as alternatives. If you’re a client and not sure what to do, you should read the kaiser’s latest piece of work - Please scroll all the way down and start reading upward. (Thanks to Katie Chatfield ).

I believe brands need to create a strategy to manage change. A piece of string that will guide them onto creating great experiences for their customers. This can be achieved when the organisation goal and the user goal are the same. This also means that customers happiness will be the top priority before the bottom line. Your thoughts?

Sometimes a minimal budget and a good cause can trigger a brilliant idea. Here is an example from Osocio, a blog about social advertising and non-profit campaigns from around the globe:

Client: Israeli food bank. Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay / Young & Rubicam, Tel Aviv.

Just found this little gem thanks to Paul Isakson.

For more info go to the blu blog. For more cool stuff check out their blogroll.

Years after people around the world discovered the Mentos+Diet Coke experiment, this little trick is still working for both brands.

Youtube alone has more than 11,000 videos about “mentos coke”. One video on Revver had more than 10 million views and the phenomenon was reported on television shows like MythBusters and the Late Show with David Letterman. The experiment also gets headlines regularly as Guinness records are challenged around the world.

On the 23rd of April, 2008, students in the Belgian city of Leuven (shown in photo above) set a new world record, simultaneously launching 1,360 Mentos geysers. (Unfortunately for them on May 14, 2008, students at Louisville Male High School broke this record by setting off 1,800 reactions at the same time).

This has to be the biggest ROI in history:

Cost of campaign = $0. Value of promotion = more than $10 million.

“Google Maps has just added even more information for your geographical perusal, including the option to place links to Wikipedia articles and geotagged photos from Panoramio on top of your maps. It’s a cool way to see shots of areas taken with a more artful eye than the Street View vans as well as check out info written by strangers and verified by nobody of authority. It’s also added real estate listings, which you can turn on under the “search options” link. The future is now!”

Source: Gizmodo