This is quite funny. Or not. Depending on who you are. But either way this bit of new years advertising for a gym in England got the whole country talking.
The public were in an outrage and found it very offensive (even those that are not overweight).
So the question is – was it worth it. In this case I don’t think so even though anyone with a sense of humour will giggle. I think they upset their target market (the fatties) and have potentially ruined their image.
However, if I was involved, I would look at how to turn all this negative attention into a positive (because now the whole country is watching you). I would retract this message and put an identical looking billboard up with a message that read something along the lines of “We were wrong and we are truly sorry. The aliens also apparently like the skinnies – so we are all screwed:) Join up and receive a free starter pack. Sense of humour not included but new body guaranteed.”
Anyone else there got a better idea? I will publish the best response so send us your thoughts.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to grab people’s attention while reinforcing your brand message. You just need to be clever. Coke did exactly that in what is a textbook example of implementing a great idea really well and then leveraging it on-line for further impact. Currently the video is closing in on 800 000 views, just on the version I watched and everyone who watches it gets the message! Nice Job!!!
Augustine Fou over at Clickz.com has given us his 10 Word-of-Mouth Marketng Commandments for 2010. There is some nice detail in his explanations so click on Moses to get taken to his full article. Here is his list…Tell us if you think anything has been left off…
Thou shalt not target customers with messages they don’t want.
Thou shalt be truthful.
Thou shalt respect your customers.
Thou shalt make it easy for people to find you.
Thou shalt be useful.
Thou shalt make it easy for people to pass along.
Thou shalt measure and optimize.
Thou shalt listen to customers.
Thou shalt remove any organizational barriers to speedy, collaborative innovation.
Flashmobs are generally a little tired and done. Unless you have 500 babies dancing and singing you wont get too much attention these days. So a German Flash Mob took it a little further and took there clothes off. The cause isn’t that interesting but the video is funny enough – but dont expect any flesh:). Click on the logo to read more about it.
If so, I came across a great article by Radian6 that gives you a couple of clear pointers. Click on the authors smile to see the full detail. Here is a topline overview though.
1. Decide On Focus Areas.
2. Articulate Your Goals & Measurements.
3. Consider Resources
4. Map Information Flow
5. Illustrate Results & Next Steps
“You probably have your own subtleties and specifics as you map out your listening strategy, but the point is to have a solid roadmap that tells you what you want from listening, how you’ll deploy the people and tools to make it happen, and how you’ll gather and act on the information you find.”
HaveYouHeard is growing at a phenomenal rate and we need to start hiring some brilliant young minds, bounding with ambition and energy. So if you know of anyone who fits the description below, please forward this e-mail to them. (A Word-of-Mouth recommendation is more trusted, so also forward us any contacts you know of who are brilliant and we can contact them directly) We would need a CV back from them and then we can take it from there.
Job Description: Business Unit Manager
To maintain the growth of HaveYouHeard as a business through ensuring the successful execution of all campaigns, developing trusted client relationships, generating positive PR, acquiring new business and constantly adding value. *A more detailed job description will be e-mailed on receipt of a CV.
Personality Traits:
A natural motivator, networker and general peoples person. Comfortable across all demographics, genders, races, ages and environments (township to presidential). Must have initiative and be entrepreneurial as well as ambitious. Confident in front of people, enjoy the spotlight and love presenting. Must be ready to work hard and to achieve great success this year!! And always happy, positive and enthusiastic.
Must Haves:
Must have a degree. Must have 3 years experience within the Media/ Marketing world. Must think that Media/ Marketing needs a shake up. Must be open to travel around the country. Must have a drivers license and own car. Pay: Negotiable dependent on experience.
The last quater of 2009 was incredibly busy for us and our blog posting really suffered. No more though, we promise. We will be updating the post regularly and bringing you great content on a weekly basis. If there is anything specific you would like answers to, or insight on, let us know and we will publish what we have for you.
Our new year has also kicked off with a quite a bang. We will soon be announcing some great new clients, some very exciting campaigns as well as new staff members.
So keep reading and good luck for the year ahead. If you are wondering who the guy on the right is, well, I am not sure. But he also says Good Luck!
HaveYouHeard presented at Marketing Mix’s Township conference, focused on the Western Cape. We had a lot of focus on the Cape Flats and wanted to share some of the Video Segments with you. There are some really great insights and we would encourage you all to watch.
An Introduction to the Cape Flats:
Aspirational Brands and Products:
If you would lile to access the full presentation and video’s, e-mail me on jason@haveyouheard.co.za or set up a time for us to take you through it all.
Reutors recently published a post on Virtuous Brands (Brands being Good) and the effect that has on the consumer. We have also been picking this up (more than I expected) of consumers wanting to know what impact the company behind the brand is having on society. These Stats are an indication of why it is important to start getting your house in order, before your customers start asking questions.
Many consumers want to make the world a better place and are willing to reward those companies and brands that help them do so with increased trust, loyalty and word-of-mouth, reports a new study titled “Brand Virtue as a Competitive Asset.” It reports on research recently conducted by Context Marketing and Noesis Research.
According to the study, three out of four consumers report they are willing to pay more for brands they see as behaving responsibly. Of those willing to pay more, around 40 percent said they would pay as much as 10 percent more, and another 30 percent say they are willing to pay a premium higher than 10 percent.
There is a great post by a guy called Mikolaj Jan Piskorski from Harvard who has been studying how and what people use Social Networks.
He has a host of very interesting insights based on actual behaviours that you will find startling. He starts off by saying that the usefullness of on-line Social Networks is due to the shortcomings of real life, and providng solutions such as being able to connect with old friends and that 70% of all activity is related to looking at pics and profiles. After further insighs, he finished with these words of wisdom:
“People don’t click through on advertising on social networks…To be successful, you need to shift your mindset from social media to social strategy,” he continues. A good social strategy essentially uses the same principles that made online social networks attractive in the first place—by solving social failures in the offline world. Firms should begin to do the same and help people fulfill their social needs online.
To continue the earlier analogy, “You should come to the table and say, ‘Here is a product that I have designed for you that is going to make you all better friends.’ To execute on this, firms will need to start making changes to the products themselves to make them more social, and leverage group dynamics, using technologies such as Facebook Connect. But I don’t see a lot of that yet. I see (businesses) saying, ‘Let’s talk to people on Twitter or let’s have a Facebook page or let’s advertise.’ And these are good first steps but they are nowhere close to a social strategy.”
There we go – now you have a strong directive to create your Social Media Strategy. Click on the image to view the full post.
This is quite funny. Or not. Depending on who you are. But either way this bit of new years advertising for a gym in England got the whole country talking.
Augustine Fou over at Clickz.com has given us his 10 Word-of-Mouth Marketng Commandments for 2010. There is some nice detail in his explanations so click on Moses to get taken to his full article. Here is his list…Tell us if you think anything has been left off…
