FRANKthoughts

According to Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia the answer is yes, and it will be here sooner than you might think.

Digital Radio  (DR) is due to roll out in all 5 metro markets in Jan/Feb 2009. Yesterday morning I was amongst 30 industry professionals who got to hear it first hand. In just over the course of an hour, we were taken through how it will work and what it means for both the consumer and the advertiser.  As a consumer, I am very excited! No longer will I be subjected to the static interference that corrupts my ears every morning, as I try and listen to my favourite FM breakfast show while on the train into work.  One of the main advantages to DR will be the strong interference-free signal, especially within built up areas. AM listeners in particular, will be jumping for joy with news of this.  Not only will the sound quality surpass current standards, but it will open up more choices for listeners with extra channels and new digital features. New technology means we will have screens to display dynamic text, images, data & multimedia channels.

For Advertisers, radio will no longer be just an audio touch point. DR introduces a visual element to complement the offering. From product shots to animated logos, contact details and even down-loadable electronic coupons for redeemable promotions. Phones will have the fastest capability to embrace digital radio and for many features will be the most practical hardware (electronic coupons for example) Despite these features you will not be able to display moving pictures; don’t get digital radio confused with Mobile TV.

Although a free service to consumers, an initial investment in a digital receiver will be required. Despite the onslaught of negative press out there I believe that DR will win the consumer over in the end, even if it takes 10 years. Remember Digital TV didn’t happen over night.

On Sunday 31.08.08 myself and a million other runners in 25 countries participated in a 10k run organised by NIKE+. NIKE+ started with a product - A small chip in your shoe that talks to your ipod nano, tracking your distance, time, pace and calories burned. The product led itself to a community of runners with NIKE offers support, tools and coaching.

Nike plus is a business/product/marketing solution that proves you can achieve great results with an holistic cross business approach. NIKE is so good at that, building an experience that extends marketing buzz words, leaving you searching for new ones to describe it. All elements work seamlessly together supporting one strong mantra: help the participants kick ass.

This is how I felt and my feelings, memories and experience were brought to me by NIKE. How strong is this bond? Wondering how this whole thing came to life (going back to some behind the scenes boardroom) I find it hard to believe it started from a strategy line like: “we want to sell more shoes”. I believe the single thought that started this project was more in the line of: “how can we make our users happy?”. Nike proves that putting your users in front of the bottom line will pay dividends.

Being part of the human race made me think again about the power of brands.

This time Nike pulled off the world’s biggest race. What will they just do next? Here is one answer:

It’s all well and good to sit at your big desk in the corner office and advise your clients on how to sell their brands, products and ideas BUT, have you ever tried it yourself? Have you ever tried to do it with a $2,000 budget?

The FRANk Crew has decided to conduct a little experiment.  We’ve imported 2500 Vietnamese Table Top BBQs and are trying to sell them using a grassroots strategy that relies on WOM and good old fashioned hawking, backed by a website because, lets face it, everyone has a website these days.  We’ve also taken the initiative to commit 5% of sales to The Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange Trust, a charity that will use our money to purchase cows for communities that have been affected by Agent Orange.  Remember my post on the Girl Effect?  It’s a bit like that.

If reading this is making that little hamster in your brain hop on its wheel and start spinning then we’d love to hear from you.  If you were in our position what would you do?  Have you got any advice that fits our budget and will sell BBQs?   Let us know and if it sells we’ll send you your very own Table Top BBQ to say thanks!

A brand is my gut feeling about a product, a service or an entity. Branding is all about creating an emotional connection with people. This is important in every touch point with your users, especially when you’re talking. How do you think a customer feel about your brand after an unpleasant chat with your “customer care” person? (One of my good friends just had an unbelievably bad experience with Telstra and yes, he told all his friends about it).

Let’s take a quick side step to the world of robotics where robots are starting to connect with people on an emotional level - please check out “Heart Robot” to be blown away by some of these emotionally evolved robots. After watching this I was wondering what it’s going to be like having a robot as your customer service person.  On the positive side they can work 24 hours a day, never need coffee and never get cranky with a customer.  On the negative side they wont know when to bend the rules for a special client, exceed expectations or deal with a complaint.

Just a sec…when was the last time a customer care person slightly bent the rules for your sick mother, exceeded your expectations or calmed you down in a nice way? Unfortunately most customer service representatives are still trained to act like robots. How does this affect your brand emotional intelligence?

Thanks to MAKEmag for the Heart Robot post.

It’s a war out there. Brands are throwing themselves at our feet vying for attention and money investing $Billions each month. The thing is though brands are only as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as we perceive them, despite their best efforts to shape our views.

Brandwars is designed to elicit our innate opinions towards brands in the form of a tag cloud–a format in which the size of the word corresponds to its frequency among responses. Frequently submitted words are shown in giant type, while rarely-submitted ones look tiny on the screen. Brands rotate on a random basis to minimise competitor-abuse.

We have taken the concept of brands beyond the norm and have included personalities (politicians, media personalities, sportspeople etc.) media (tv networks, newspapers, radio stations etc.) sports clubs (AFL, NRL, A-league etc.)

Brandlove allows us to track overall brand sentiments along the scale from ‘love’, ‘good’, ‘neutral’ or ‘bad’ to ‘hate.’

In a climate where the impact of every dollar tries to be accountable the tried and tested brand awareness (aided and unaided) & brand preference continue to be viable benchmarks. Brandwars adds another dimension after all just because we’re aware of a brand it doesn’t mean we necessarily ‘like’ it.

If you become aware of this then how does this change your perception of Coca Cola? Has your attitude towards the Olympics become just a little more cynical?

The current list of quintessentially Australian brands can be found here. If you would like any brands added just let us know.

Brandwars was inspired by a similar initiative in the US called brandtags created by Noah Brier for which we are thankful.

You all probably get Adrants but I couldn’t resist posting this beast here. This has to be one of the coolest vehicles ever created.

From Adrants: “To call attention to Nike’s sponsorship of the AST Dew Tour, Hub Strategy, which put together a concepting team consisting of an architect, an industrial designer, a planner, a graphic designer and a copywriter. The result? A tricked out extreme vehicle complete with skate ramp, wake board tower, sirk rack, skateboard rails, BMX racks, a camper and, of course, iPod goodness.”

This ticks so many marketing buzz word boxes: it’s guerrilla, brand utility, sponsorship, branded entertainment and a mashup. Whatever we decide to call it - it delivers a unique and unforgettable experience. Even if you’re just looking at it.

Often, I see charts or marketing collateral that says things like “Benefits to User”.

Bah!  Stop cramming down the same stuff to me.  A flip solution would be:

“Customer Solutions” and “Making Life Easy”

It is a thin line and subtle difference in words but a flip in approach.

A far better way to approach things is by making it Customer Centric, not trying to shove me rewards and benefits that I would never use!  Fitness First gives international access to their gyms.. whether I like it or not.  Great story but useless to me.  And my guess to a large percentage of their membership.

A customer centric approach really starts from building the right culture within the business.  Finding out what your customers are having problems with within the category and provide a solution to create a better service.

Higher Price becomes justifiable when a greater Value is perceived (time, money, stress, etc).

The FRANk team is totally amazed by this superb work from The Hallway & Happy soldiers, Sydney based agencies for online travel goru Zuji. Starting with the concept: “We want people to take more holidays”, They decided that instead of just advertsing/shouting they can help people save for these extra holidays. Clever user centric idea, excellent execution and a brave client make this piece of work much more than advertising.

No more words are needed. just click play and enjoy:

We first posted this back in March on the Future of Advertising.

Uwe Gutschow and Don Longfellow have picked up the “What’s Next In Marketing & Advertising” presentation and evolved it to Moving from Advertising to Marketing. Again, it’s a fantastic presentation on the need to shift focus on marketing than advertising as a solution.

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THE eternal challenge for “us” on behalf of our clients is to break through the surface of consumer indifference by being where they choose to be and manifesting the brand with the most appropriate and relevant face, creating moments of receptivity.

The concept of Nomadic media puts a brand’s message out there, traveling many different pathways, and dressed in many different costumes, all specifically tailored to certain groups of interested consumers. Crossing paths with the consumer now actually starts a relationship in which the consumer plays an active part. The consumer is not coming to the brand at the brand’s beckoning. The brand is not forcing its company on the consumer. The brand’s identity in the eyes of the consumer depends on a consumer’s interaction with it.

An excellent article “Unglued from the Tube” by Liz Tascio in this month’s US ‘Media Magazine’ introduces Nomadic media and breaks down the artificial distinction between online and offline reflecting the step-change from passive to active interaction and consumption. Enjoy.