Cadbury UK - 2009 Superbowl Ad

SuperBowl Ads have an allure that attracts a wide audience of consumers, and even those that don't watch the SuperBowl seem to have a common liking for their ads. However, what I'm wondering is if SuperBowl ads that are placed on Youtube have a larger viewing than its airtime during the SuperBowl? Take this cadbury ad for example, its weird, awkward yet still had 3 million watches over a period of 3 months!

Should Google worry about Facebook?

A common question that has been asked by countless online marketers: "should Google worry about Facebook?" Before I go about spilling my opinion on this topic, I'd like to stretch-out-the-silly-putty on this one and go back to late 2007. According to Jody Nimetz from 'ask-Enquiro.com' in September of 2007, she outline 7 points on why Google should feel threatened by Facebook:

1. Facebook has experienced a quick rise to the "top" - Facebook is currently the second largest social network on the Web, behind only MySpace in terms of traffic.
2. Facebook is th emost viral software distribution platform ever
3. Facebook is addicting
4. Fasbook has made no secret of the fact that it wants to go public and will likely allow its search box to return keyword-driven results to generate greater online advertising dollars, which would pose a threat to Google
5. Facebook is not some little startup, many believe Facebook's value to be in the $8-12 billion dollar range
6. There are nearly  3400 applications on Facebook with about 100 million installs
7. Microsoft continues to acquire a stake in Facebook

Compare that to recent news from RBC Capital Markets' Analyst, Ross Sandler, shows that Facebook could "eclipse Google in 2011" in terms of unique users growing at an annual rate of 85% vs. Google's 20%. Evidently, more users are using Facebook to browse and link to direct key sites more often than Google! Check our the charts that show Facebook's rise to power:

Source: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/03/18/rbc-analyst-issues-note-on-facebooks-threat-to-google/

So it would seem evident that Facebook is invading on Google's mothership of search advertising and browsing. For myself, I hate to admit that it but I've never been much of a Facebook user and have already begun to fall out of sync with today's online networking tools like twitter. Call me old fashioned but I just can't seem to commit to an online tool when I put my phone to good use everyday talking to close friends! For myself at the least, I'm rooting for Google, because I just can't image the day I use Facebook and social networks to get all my quirky information =P

My little 'Green Book' and the steps to an "Irish Spring"

Happy St. Patricks Day! I was recently sent info about this new microsite from my friend about Irish Spring's new interactive marketing ploys. So what are the Irish known for? Well according to Colgate-Palmolive, their known for 3 things: "fresh scents, dirty jokes and ... legendary luck of the Irish"! Why wouldn't I want a piece of that! It seems that the brand specialists on Irish Spring decided to go forward on using a new web refreshed microsite to perk the sales on their new 2-in-1 body wash and cool relief cleaning formula. 

Its actually a pretty neat interactive site with product profiles, funny little Irish sayings, ringtone downloads, and even a voting cast for favorite Irish Spring T-shirts. The microsite also combines online marketing with offline as they're doing a tour with their Body Wash Team right now in Vancouver! As an interesting fact, there are 4.4 million Canadians of Irish decent making it this country's 4th largest ethnic group! So it might just be time to jump in to learning some of those Irish pick up lines to impress the 'lassies'.

(Sourced: http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/media/article.jsp?content=20090313_143921_8876)

Grassroots Marketing - An age of Non-Marketing?

From my last post, one of my friends started asking me about Pepsico's "G" campaign. I took a look into it a little deeper and found that the latest trend in online marketing is "Grassroots Marketing" or Non-Marketing. This new kind of marketing runs on people's curiosity. By putting a strange and interesting ad online that draws a sense of mystery, it raises the chances for people to pass it on virally. 

An article I found online about Grassroots Marketing tells us that, there is "little or no money spent on marketing or advertising. The biggest downside is that it is time and energy intensive". The article also talks about the three F's of Grassroots Marketing as characterized by Feel-good, Frequent, and Free.

In a sense, Grassroots Marketing takes 'word-of-mouth' advertising online and very well viral marketing to an extreme. This explains the "G" -gatorade campaign.

(Source: http://corporate-marketing-branding.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_latest_marketing_trend_nomarketing)

What's G?

This past weekend, my team and I finally put together our Collegiate Sports Business Conference, and at the event we had the Pepsi Bottling Group there as a  workshop speaker speaking to us about their newest product G2. In their presentation, I learned about their new interactive viral video campaign called "What's G?" Why don't you take a look and see if you can tell me what it is.

Don't get it? Don't worry, your not alone on this one. Apparent Pepsico's strategy is to shock and confuse their customers with their interesting ad piece that seems either too abstract for my mind or maybe just a mystery for all. I commend them on their effort for doing something different, a whole viral video for Gatorade with out even the slight product shot or brand recognition. I'd be interested to see how this one plays out. 

Twitter: Evolving past its design

I'm completely new to the whole Twitter concept so I do apologize if I get the lingo wrong. So recently we've been hearing so much about the new social media phenomenon, Twitter. Well what is it? I was browsing through TED.com and I managed to find a video that sort of gives a Twitter 101 speech on what it is and how it use has evolved beyond its design.

Evan Williams is the CEO of ODEO, the company that designed Twitter. With its initipal use as a simple status update (in 140 characters or less) or a SMS feed to family and friends, the real-time factor of its messaging system has evolved far beyond its original purpose. Now I'm beginning to see how the world is continuing to demand "CONSTANT" communication and Twitter has done just that! From wanting to tell your friends about where you are, what your eating, to a life threatening plea for help; Twitter can do it all for you!

Now the question I have about this revolutionary social networking tool is... doesn't the cell phone do this already? Isn't a simple text message the same? I guess it obviously doesn't have the same reach and it would take forever to send your status piece to everyone but is this not another form of SPAM for the average T

witter hater? Check out some comments and pics of what Twitter haters feel:

I think a lot of people see the use of Twitter but are misguided by its potential when they receive the most irrelevant social status updates from the people they follow! But the haters do have a point about how it might just be too much info to know the 'toilet just flushed at victor's house'. Use Twitter responsibly ... STOP SPAMMING and maybe even I will decide to pick it up someday ... (-.o)

Shop today... a click away!

For the longest time, I had insecurities about shopping online. Maybe its the caution asian upbringing or just my skeptical side speaking out about online retailers, but I just don't like shopping online! Too many things to worry about, credit card fraud, trusting a virtual seller or even worse yet, receiving SPAM from personal information leak! Honest truth, I haven't ever bought anything from E-bay, Craig's List, Kijiji, Facebook... you name it. But I know it works! I was reading up from a marketing stats website called "marketing charts.com" and looked up the top 10 online retail categories and the top 10 online retailers:

Interestingly enough the top 3 online retail categories (Computer Hardware, Automotive, Consumer Electronics) did not correlate with the top 10 online retailers! I'm really not too sure why this phenomenon exists because it appears the top 10 online retailers are mostly for grocery, flowers, medicine and generic type clothing. I guess its interesting that the most popular online retail categories with the more technologically advanced products probably elicit more search behaviors by customers. However, due to high prices for tech products, people may still choose to buy these products in-store.

I'm not sure about many of the other sites on the top 10 retailers list, but I do have an interesting story to tell about Quixtar. I was once recruited to join the company and to start up my own portal to sell their products. I never actually went through with it when I found out that most of my sales would probably come from close family and friends before it could a viral effect. As well, it would have take me much too long to introduce new people to startup their own portals under me before their key termed "residual income" would kick in. Don't get me wrong, i'm not against portal sales or online sales, to me its just one word. Risky.

New Mind Space: Viral Facebook Cult or Interactive Public Art?

I'm sure by know you guys have begun to realize that I like to put a little of my life's stories in my blogs and in light of me being back in Toronto for the week, here's an interesting little one about a viral action phenomenon called "New Mind Space". I first got a taste of it myself when I was in Toronto this past summer in a city wide pillow fight outside of Toronto's City Hall - Nathan Phillips Square. 

(yes that is me excitedly getting ready to slap someone)

So how did this all begin? They apparently started in New York as an interactive urban bliss, a getaway if you will for people in the big cities to let loose and have fun. Much like the concept of a "Flash Mob" in Asia (similarly people get together to do really random things for a 'flash second' and disperse rapidly). So one random day, I took a look on my facebook account and saw an invite to a city-wide pillow fight, and I thought "this must be some joke?" Looking into it further, I realized that there were thousands of people signed up to go to this event and tons of comments of anticipation for the pillow fight to happen! As curious as any urban city dweller would be, I grabbed a pillow and went off to City Hall.

I think the biggest lesson learned out of this is that Facebook has now been used as more than just a medium for social networking and ads, but also a collective movement (a call-to-action). So for all those online marketers out there, this is a way to harness Facebook's social presence and engage users to act in either hitting strangers with pillows or buying the next cutting-edge consumer technology.

Feel free to check out where the viral action all began - www.newmindspace.com

Blogging or Jobbing - A bus driver's dilemma?

So I was driving to school last wednesday, listening to the Beat 94.5. They were going on about their usual sex-related antics and to my surprise they had a guest speaker, one Michael Cox who had come on-air as a guest speaker. He was a bus driver employed by the Coast Mountain Bus Company. Note in the last sentence, he "WAS" a bus driver. 

So apparently, like any average Joe, he started up a blog about his life as a bus driver on his personal time just so he could share what it was like to be a bus driver. The blog was originally intended for his close family and friends, but to his surprise, many people began following his blog and reading up on his daily adventures! Coast Mountain caught wind about his blog "Short Turns"and one day called him in to the office and fired him claiming that the content on his blog was offensive and negative to the company!

In my perspective, all I have to say to Coast Mountain is ... DEAL WITH IT! You had a golden opportunity to encourage a worker and for him to write great blogs with a growing customer fan base! Its excellent PR and really 360 feed from workers to customers! Now instead of making the best of it, you fired a great employee, in trade for what? A bunch of bad press.

I just feel sorry for the guy... but I guess this goes to show, free speech (even on the internet) isn't overrated. 

Online News Ad Spend flips the boat on Print

My girlfriend always complains how I don't read enough of the newspaper, but I seem to always respond with "maybe you just can't see me reading behind my screen". Looking up a news article from the New York Times in 2006, and to my surprise the numbers astound me to how much ad spend on online news sites have grown!

In 2006, print ad spend only grew 0.3% to 10.5 billion, while online advertising grew 35% to 613 million! Even more astounding this trend continued to move up in 2007 where print ad spend went down to 10.1 billion and online news spend grew 21.1% to 773 million in Q3 of 2007! The chart below summarizes the ad spend data:

When information searching is so much apart of the daily lives of an urban citizen, one draws the question, what was life like before the internet? I don't know... but I'll be sure to search it up online. 

(source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/business/media/06adco.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Online%20News%20Ad%20spend&st=cse)

Vancouver’s “Noise Digital” breaking through the clutter

So i'm a pretty big game fan, not so much a gamer. Personally I find the costs to keep up with the world's newest gaming technology (ie. PS3) just a little too rich for my flavor. But I do have to commend Playstation's new game "Little Big World" for their (dare I say) awesome interactive marketing! I wanted to dedicate a blog post to "Digital Noise", Vancouver's own digital ad agency. So what do they have to do with gaming and digital marketing? EVERYTHING!

Having started their business in 1998, they experienced huge growth and now serve a wide variety of clients from Adidas, Playstation, Bell, Unilever... you name it! So the question is, what is digital marketing? What forms do they use? 

It gets better! Quoted directly from their corporate website "all of our efforts are devoted to producing the great, ground-breaking, relevant, holy s#*t! kinds of interactive creative that make our clients famous" - (http://www.noisedigital.com/about.php) what more could you want from an ad agency! So instead of me g

oing on and boasting about this co

mpany here are a few neat "media units" they used for the "Little Big World" campaign:

"world" - http://www.noisedigital.com/archive/sony/lbp/world.html

"zipper" - http://www.noisedigital.com/archive/sony/lbp/zipper.html

Media units are pretty much an animated silk screen ad that can engage a user and keep those eyeballs and brains wondering "what the heck am I looking at?" As fun as they may seem, I wonder if these interactive forms of media are limited to a 3 month window of attention and retain the sustained effects of traditional TV advertisements? Obviously the argument would be that it should be better than TV because users actively choose the information they search thus get bombarded by ad pieces of what they want to see. As such, consumers have long since showed the effect of ignoring TV ads, will consumers one day see through the animated videos and dancing figurines to know that this is just another ad?  

The Success of Youtube Ads?

Youtube Ads?? Why would I want to see ads on Youtube when I get spammed enough on TV!? I personally find it worrisome to think that I'll be spammed with ads telling me to go to Las Vegas when I'm just wanting to look at new uploaded videos made by my friends! To be fair, lets paint a little context to the story...

Since October 9th, 2006, Google's acquisition of Youtube brought one key question to marketer's minds: "Can Google make effective Youtube ads?" 

The promise was to use "pre-roll ads", ads that play for short period before the Youtube video is aired to the active user. As time can tell, Google also experimented with inline ads, ads that appear on the bottom of the video for the initial 15 seconds and remain animated to trigger consumers to click-through (http://newteevee.com/2007/05/11/youtubes-new-inline-ads-screenshots/). 

However this still begs the question, do people really want to see ads when they're on Youtube? The obvious and simple answer is "NO"! This article on CNet News explains it best: "It really is all about a father finding a cleaver way to get himself invited into his teenager's private world" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10009462-71.html). 

In a society where internet ads are dreaded and often ignored, Google has been successful in implementing ads in their Google website as content that blurs in the background of search results. However people use the Google search engine to look for specific information not casual browsing like Youtube! No one intends to buy anything when watching a Youtube video, so how will ads that prompt sales on 3rd party sites be even remotely successful? Some blog users believe that making the ads on Youtube animated might help, but still the purchase intent is not there! Ads on Youtube that attempt to drive traffic might reinforce top-of-mind awareness but Google has a long way to go until we can begin calling Youtube ads a success.