TRACTA :: 4eyes

Today’s post is a real mashup of interesting marketing initiatives, technological advances, media information, online developments and a few bites of Hot Stuff.  Enjoy!

Let’s start with Air New Zealand, who have launched a couple of new initiatives lately.  First up is their new in-flight safety video which features All Blacks and a healthy does of rugby-related puns.  Following on from their “Nothing To Hide” safety video, the airline really is taking safety videos viral.  Who’d have thunk it?!?  The airline has also just signed up to a new partnership with Fly Buys, meaning Fly Buys members can use their Fly Buys points to buy seats on Air NZ flights, and spending with Fly Buys partners will also earn Airpoints for members.  “Combined with our recently expanded range of credit card partners, Airpoints members will now be able to earn the Airpoints Dollars for a flight even faster,” says Rob McDonald, CFO at Air NZ.

In Media News, SKY TV have announced they are getting back into Internet TV with i-Sky, initially offering streaming sport and movies on demand to Sky subscribers only, but with plans to make it available to all people through either pay-per-view or short-term subscriptions.  And in time it will also be platform-agnostic, so users will be able to access it through devices like the iPad and X-Box.

It’s about time Sky got back on that train!  Internationally, streaming delivery of content is becoming (nearly) as important as the content that goes to air on that old-fashioned box in the corner of the lounge.  This year the Emmy Awards will have an exclusively online streaming video of backstage action (though it will probably only be available to US viewers, as most US TV content streamed online is).

ACP Magazines would like us to recognise the strength of magazines in New Zealand.  Check out their video here.

And in online news, Google is reportedly getting ready to offer voice calling through G-Mail and Apple are preparing to sell short-term rentals of TV programmes from Fox channels through iTunes, competing with the On-Demand offerings of the major TV networks in the US.  The battlefield is getting crowded – who will remain standing?!?

Now on to the hot stuff!

Men in slow motion in an ad for Carlton Draught (the brand that brought us the “Big Ad“).  Song lyrics here (scroll down).

Clever use of posters for Swinburne University in Melbourne.

Primo have extended their “take a moment” campaign into online in an engaging manner – showing a static ad when TVNZ On-Demand viewers pause their programme.  Read all about it here (and scroll down for a video example).

Finally, while it’s not advertising, I think this is super cool!  NZ scientists have created a Tagamotchi-like virtual pet, which actually contains a real living organism.  What it will be used for I’m not sure, but it’s definitely unique!

That’s all for this week.  Have a good one!

Cheers,

The people have spoken, and New Zealand’s favourite websites have been announced in the Netguide People’s Choice Web Awards 2010.

Amongst the results, Stuff was awarded the Site of The Year prize, but missed out on Best Media Site, to TVNZ.  TradeMe came top in the Trading Site, Property and Employment categories, and runner-up in the Mobile Site and Site of the Year categories.  And international trends are reinforced by our votes for Google (Favourite Search Engine, Best Homepage), YouTube (Best Entertainment Site) and Facebook (Favourite Social Networking Site).

In other trend-watching news, an American university does an annual survey of incoming freshmen to find out what they are doing, thinking and believing.  This year’s incoming class were born in 1992.  Amongst the insights:

- Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

- Czechoslovakia has never existed.

- Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

- Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

- They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

This is the voice of the new generation, where communication technologies are omnipresent and information (but not knowledge) is available at the click of a button.

In Social Media News, Facebook is starting up location-based services.  This means users can tell Facebook where in the world they are, and Facebook will tell the world.  This will offer more chances to meet your virtual network in real life, and more opportunities for nearby businesses to promote their products/services to you.

Facebook are also launching a live video streaming channel.  They are using it for Facebook information and promotion at this stage, but there’s obviously the opportunity for it to rival TV channels for audiences, if they can gather enough “Live” content.

Still on Facebook, a bit of research has revealed the obvious.  Brands that are most successful on Facebook are those that have multiple pages, each cross-promoting each other; use easy-to-find names for the pages; adopt a conversational tone; update often; post video and other rich-content types; allow fan-initiated interaction; and encourage fan-to-fan conversations.

And finally, in more “so-obvious-but-we-had-to-do-the-research-to-prove-it” news:  A Twitter user is more likely to be a brand advocate or influencer than your average Joe.  They engage with more brands partly for the benefits such as discounts and new product knowledge, and partly so they can be seen by their followers as being in-the-know.  It’s largely a self-fulfilling cycle, and those of us that understand the need of these influencers to have “prior knowledge” can use that to  the advantage of our businesses.

That’s enough heavy stuff for a Monday.  Be careful out there!

Cheers,

Here’s another selection of clever, creative and cunning executions from around the world.  Enjoy!

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising expanded beyond the standard billboard long ago.  We’ve all seen examples of billboards that visually depict the message as well as just saying it.  Here’s another one, for road safety from the Colorado State Patrol. Not all outdoor advertising needs a billboard site, as this pedestrian crossing for a McDonalds in Switzerland shows.  And sometimes it doesn’t matter where you put it, if the message is compelling, it will get noticed.  Clever copywriting in this poster for Dayton Boots from Canada.

Online Banners

Some recent reports have stated that banner advertising is dead, and social is king.  But banner advertising still provides excellent reach, and is a great support for campaigns in other media.  And with the merging of Flash and interactive technologies into display ads, there is still a lot of potential for increasing engagement and interactivity.  This banner for Orcon Internet (from Special Group in Auckland) shows what is possible with a strong, innovative idea and good investment in production.  It’s been getting good press locally and internationally!

And taking interactivity to the next level, this campaign for a men’s fragrance from Brazil developed a truly expanding banner!

Partnerships

Not necessarily advertising, but business partnerships can form a platform for marketing initiatives.  One example is this partnership between Payless Shoes and Office Max, for the back-to-school season in the US.  If you spend at one store, you get a discount voucher for the other.  Both stores should benefit from increased patronage, and the consumer gets to save a bit more.  It’s a win=win=win!

And while it’s not purely commercial, ASB supporting NZ Police with their Serial Number Action Project shows social responsibility and community support.  It could also potentially reduce insurance payouts. Hmmm… ASB offers insurance — maybe there is a commercial imperative behind it?

TV/Video

Just one… a new “moment of joy” from Cadbury’s Glass and a Half Full Productions.

Cheers,

It’s Friday the 13th.

That might be scary, but this assortment of news from around the web sure isn’t.

(Unless you’re centophobic.)

Facebook News

A new application for Facebook on mobile allows users to make free phone calls from smartphones to other smartphone users. Try it out here.

You can now access your Facebook pages, friends and conversations, through different software.  The Wowd software client (available here) includes real-time search and a “social dashboard”.

And if you’re worried that some of the stuff you (or others) have put on Facebook might come back to haunt you in the future, it might be time for you to hire an online reputation manager!

Google News

It’s an ongoing battle between Facebook and Google to become masters of the online universe.

Google has recently purchased or invested in two of the most popular apps developers for Facebook: Zynga and Slide.  This gives Google a very strong foothold with Facebook users and their data.  Where to from here?

You don’t hear much bad news from Google, but the much-hyped Google Wave is to be shut down.  The service that was supposed to allow freer sharing of content between users just hasn’t got to the critical mass of users that Google was hoping for.  Or is there something else in the pipeline that’s going to replace it really soon?

That’s not to say Google are sitting still though (as apparent from their multi-million dollar investments).  They have also just released an updated interface for GMail, showing that email is still a core activity for them.  It won’t be long until GMail includes all social media activity too, I reckon.

Twitter News

In previous posts I have highlighted how Facebook has set up policies for dealing with its users who have died, either removing their profiles or keeping them (minus some personal details) as memorial pages.  Twitter are catching up, and now doing the same.  Or if you’re willing to keep on your online reputation manager after your passing, he/she can take care of it for you!

Police News

This may seem an unusual category to include in Four Eyes, but these stories are all about technology and communications in policing…

Boston Police catch flasher via Twitter

NZ Police radio encryption is working

NZ Police using radio programmes to educate Samoan parents about the dangers of youth gangs

A couple of cool websites

To stimulate your creative juices…

The V Isokinetic website.  Very interactive.  Very cool.

A new shoe website.  Again, very interactive.  Quite sexy.  And the shoe has fingers for your toes!

Cheers,

L’Oreal’s new beauty channel on YouTube is a fantastic example of what can be done with that channel with enough thought, and money.  Rather than posting their own content, they have aggregated the most popular “beauty advisors” on YouTube into one channel.  Yes, makeup is a big deal!

Again in 2010?!?

The All Blacks have done it again – this time surprising a primary school class.  What a surprise!  Read the story, watch the video, and get that “awwww” feeling!  The ABs are doing well with PR and brand extensions this year, and it’s great to see them doing well on the field too!

Create your own font with this spectacular online tool.  A nice, kind of subliminal, promotion (and database gatherer) for pen manufacture Pilot.

And have you seen the new Hell Pizza campaign?  It’s a choose-your-own-adventure video story!  With prizes to be won, and minutes upon minutes of engagement for eager fans!  See the trailer here and play the game here. You need a bit of time, and be warned! This video contains splatter-level violence, extreme pizza shots and gratuitous use of Kiwi idioms.

Have a nice week!

I’m not sure how recent these ads are, but I enjoyed them.

Auckland City Mission text appeal in conjunction with ASB… giving a new meaning to “cold hard cash”.  This is a great way of providing engagement for what is essentially a text campaign.  And it’s got robots!! (NZ)

Motorola highlights the deficiencies of the iPhone.  Aiming to leverage the “big noise” about iPhone in the market. (USA)

Smirnoff put on a party in movie theatres.  Another good example of creating engagement and a memorable brand experience. (Australia)

Sky Travel channel shows an innovative use of shopping mall poster advertising.  Turn them into 3D viewing booths! (NZ)

If you have any HOT ads you’d like to share, please do so in this blog’s Comments section.

Cheers,

You know what they say about an apple a day?  Well lately it feels like Apple have been releasing new products to keep up with that saying!

Hot on the heels of the launch of the  iPad in New Zealand last week, the press releases have been coming out thick and fast.  First cab off the rank was ACP’s North and South magazine, who are selling each issue on the iPad for the same price as a standard printed copy.  NZ Herald wasn’t far behind with an app release, and TVNZ are nearly ready to release theirs.

Then this week Apple told us the new iPhone 4 would be available in NZ on Friday.  Friday morning came, and there were no iPhones.  There were some unhappy iFans around New Zealand!  The truly committed were finally able to get their hands on the new puppy from midday Friday.

The funny thing is, while incidents like lack of product supply, connectivity issues and software failings could spell the end of any number of products or brands, Apple Inc seems to be Teflon coated. While everyone knows about the aerial issues with the iPhone 4, the first run of stock in NZ (through Vodafone) has all sold out.  New stock will be arriving “in the coming weeks”.  And they will sell out too!

In other Apple news, watch out for the new “Magic Trackpad” which will make using your Macbook as much fun as using an iPad.

And in other internet news, New Zealand reportedly has the 42nd fastest broadband in the world.  That might not sound great, but at least it’s better than Australia (50th).

Finally, are you into Facebook?  Or over it?  An increasing number of young adults are over it, according to new stats from Inside Facebook.  It seems it’s getting too complicated, too commoditised and users are also concerned about privacy issues.  The article fails to mention, though, what I think is one of the biggest reasons users are backing away from Facebook… that our parents are on there now!

Cheers,

Today is iPad day! Ü

Here are some of the cool things it can do

(is that an actual news article, or an ad?!?).

That is, unless you live in Hawkes Bay.  Ö

At least the iPad won’t have the same issues as the iPhone 4 (aerial issues), or the iPhone 3G (issues running 4.0 operating system), or … shall we wait and see?

One thing seems certain though, that electronic readers are here to stay, as Amazon.com reports it sells more e-books for the Kindle than real books in hard copy.  Check out this new NZ-made series on TV One for a not-very-distant future in which in which your carbon footprint is measured, everything is recycled and paper is too expensive to use. They have a library where people can go and see what books looked like.

This Is Not My Life.  8:30 Thursdays on One.

When Media Goes Bad

After TV3 was accused of copying CBS’s news tagline, you’d think they would have learned that they can’t count on geographic distance to protect them from claims of imitation.  But now they’ve done it again!

And this little pearler shows that even small media players have to be aware of the potentially (too) wide reach of their broadcasts!

Does this image mean anything to you?

If you “only read it for the articles”, then this site is for you.  It’s Playboy, but it’s safe for work.  WTF?!?

If you’re more the “long lunch” type, check out this effort from Germany.

Finally, if you’ve ever played with fridge magnets, you’ll get this ad.

Cheers,

Facebook News

~ Microsoft has finally acknowledged the power of social media with the creation of a Social Inbox within Outlook, integrating Facebook and Twitter feeds into the world’s most-used e-mail handling service.

~ Starbucks is now the biggest commercial brand on Facebook, having recently reached 10 million fans.  Check out what other “brands” have that level of loyal fans…

~ And in other not-really-surprising news, it has been revealed that gays and lesbians spend more time socially networking than straight people.  So if you’re targeting the pink dollar, hit those social networks!

National News

TV audiences continue to hit record levels.  Last week’s peak (6-10:30pm) TV audience (in terms of share of population) was the highest we’ve seen in 14 years.  So more of us are watching TV.  But that viewing is spread over more channels than ever as well.  This chart shows the share of viewing each channel received from the key All People 25-54 target audience set.  TVNZ’s main two channels account for just under 48% of all peak viewing, Sky channels account for 24% and TV3 just under 20%.

Local News

Havelock North online marketers Mogul are taking the bull by the horns (and getting some good media coverage) by offering to create Google Places listings for all Havelock North businesses, for free.  The idea being that it will make Havelock North businesses more visible to visitors planning their trips or seeking goods or services when they are here for the Rugby World Cup.  I expect they’ll generate a bit of paying work from this initiative too!

A Warning

Sponsoring or seeding brand stories within blogs is becoming a common addition to the online marketer’s toolbox.  But (this may seem obvious) it pays to understand the environment your brand is trying to infiltrate.  Pepsi found that out recently when they paid for a blog within the popular and highly respected site ScienceBlogs. The blog was called Food Frontiers and was purportedly about food nutrition.  But the backlash from the scientific community using the site was swift, and Pepsi were forced to remove the blog less than a week after launching.  Users felt the blog was clearly promotional and did not fit with the purely scientific content the site offers.

Lessons: Don’t try to be something you’re not, and don’t try to fool people – they are smarter, more cynical and keener to diss your brand than you might expect!

Cheers,

Artistically driven, this press ad from MAF highlights the dangers of buying imported timber.

Here’s an excellent example of integrating real-time content (in this case, Twitter feeds) into an ambient experience, from Tourism Canada.

Car advertising taken to the next level, with a virtual test drive from Toyota in Germany.  A number of advertisers are incorporating “augmented reality” into their campaigns, such as 42 Below.  This sort of thing can definitely generate increased brand interaction within a loyal audience, and create interest while the technology is new and interesting.  There must be more potential than just delivering cool pictures on a screen though… that’s what I’m waiting to see!

Here’s the best collection of old NZ ads I’ve seen, from the Film Archive.  With classics such as Mr Dollar introducing decimal currency, Raro the instant breakfast drink, Cadbury Crunchie train and heaps more (did you know there were ads for bananas in the 1960s?  Maybe you do, if you were alive then..).

Finally, here’s another chance for you creative types to get something for free.  Design your own personal wrap for a new Mini Cabriolet, get it made and keep the car (for 4 months).

Cheers,