Four Ways to Exceed Clients' Expectations

1. Agree to a deadline you know you can beat. Clients nearly always appreciate when good work arrives before the due date, because it affords them flexibility. Plus, it shows that you are both efficient and customer-focused. Of course, you shouldn't nudge clients to begrudgingly accept deadlines that don't suit them just so that you can exceed expectations later. But the surprise of early delivery is more memorable than an up-front offer to beat a client's proposed due date.

2. Be an astute questioner, not a silent sage. People often overestimate the value clients place on not being bothered while their work is with a contractor. In fact, asking pointed, proactive questions during the process demonstrates your genuine interest and focus. That doesn't mean nickel-and-diming clients so that they suspect you have obsessive-compulsive disorder. But follow-up that proves you have foresight and a knack for process efficiency sends the reassuring message that while the work is in your hands, there's no need to worry about it. Silence, in contrast, can generate unease. Besides, the occasional question is a pinprick compared with the laceration that a wholesale misinterpretation can later prove to be.

3. Be collegial. "Duh," you're probably thinking. "I'm obviously not going to be rude." But collegiality is less about politeness than about your level of deference. Too much deference, which is what most contractors show, makes you seem merely like the hired help rather than a capable complement to the internal staff — and that doesn't inspire confidence. Most clients would rather work with an equal (i.e., a colleague) than a lackey, especially if you're providing expertise. That said, acting like a know-it-all obviously isn't collegial either

4. Offer constructive suggestions at the end. Every process can be improved, and who better to provide insights than someone who just went through it? If you focus solely on the merits, not on how you would benefit, your ideas for improvement won't sound presumptuous or like complaints. A truly useful suggestion, offered in good faith and with great tact, is one that the client will want to implement, probably with you. Of course, making suggestions as an outsider is a delicate endeavor that requires appropriate circumstances and good social skills. But if you've got both on your side, the payoff can be big.

Most expensive TVC ever "Honda Accord" ::: 90” for $6,200,000

“content is king”: how brands can best leverage content without the need to force-feed brand messages.

Branded content is made up of ideas that bring entertainment value to brands and that integrate brands into entertainment. This could be in the form of a TV programme, community events, film or video – any content, provided it links important passions to brands with a strategic reason.
Branded content is a by-product of a changing media landscape. Fragmentation and consumer empowerment in a world of personalised media platforms mean that consumers can choose if they want to engage with brands or not at the touch of a button.

Sophisticated content strategies enable brands to reach people without shoving brand messages down their throats. By facilitating new entertainment experiences, brands gain fame and goodwill. The more value created for the consumer, the more value is created for businesses.

It differs from sponsorship because it is not simply adding a brand’s logo to an already existing event or entertainment property. Branded content involves coming up with the creative ideas together with the brand and producers.

There are many pitfalls with branded content - Not only can it be prohibitively expensive, but it raises issues of intellectual property and can often require brands to relinquish editorial control: a prospect too terrifying for many to swallow.


Great content will draw an audience to unexpected platforms
Purina (FREE)
A cat-food manufacturer shows that gaming isn’t only for teenage boys, with an online gaming channel targeting cat owners.





Save huge production costs with live experiences
Huggies
Huggies changes Colombians' perceptions of the brand as an expensive "gringo" brand through a link up and live tour with a local comedy troupe





Ensure value for consumers and brand with truly relevant content
Dove
Dove finds a perfect content fit to take its 'Real Beauty' message to China with TV show Ugly Betty.






Develop ideas in conjunction with media owners
Meat and Livestock Australia
Meat and Livestock Australia became part of the non-commercial airtime of the Australian tennis open with live branded content.







Engage consumers across multiple platforms
Cornetto
Cornetto reaches Chinese consumers with an online karaoke competition linked with a TV show and point of sale activity













Unify fragmented audiences with tailored media favourites
Halifax
Halifax International drives business among the disparate ex-pat community in a competitive market








Be creative with distribution channels
Cheetos
Cheetos engages with 18-35 year olds with the first ever web series distributed on Facebook.















Reap the brand rewards from funding funky technologies
Fanta
Fanta creates a series of mobile applications including an augmented reality tennis game to engage with teens.










Provide tools that travel across the net
STA
STA Travel maximises its brand message via a range of Travel Tool widgets that can be embedded in users' social network profiles.

SHIFT: The end of television

. . . Then everything changed. Cable and satellite TV emerged, then expanded to hundreds, now thousands, of channels. Internet and network providers really kicked things into gear. Cellphones made it even crazier. Throw in Netflix, Xbox and PlayStation 3 streaming, along with Roku, Amazon Video on Demand, Apple TV, Blockbuster MediaPoint, Vudu, Zvbox, Boxee, and XStreamHD, and it's just plain nuts. Watching TV got complicated, and everyone, particularly the networks, scrambled to keep up.

Johnsonville Sausage

Overview
Weave Johnsonville brats into American culture by introducing the brand to key influencers and driving media coverage.

Objective
Through and on-going news bureau and special events, create opportunities for consumers, media and influencers to experience Johnsonville brats.

Strategy
Build a steady drumbeat of news with seasonal stories, tips and recipes. By partnering with key spokespeople already aligned with Johnsonville, leverage their authenticity to drive media awareness and create memorable consumer interaction.

Program Elements -- Creating the Brat News Network
Johnsonville Sausage was looking for a way to put its delicious, Austrian bratwurst on the national map. After years of successfully growing its business to be the leader in the category, the company was successful, while also being one of the best-kept secrets in the U.S.

· Brat News Network: We developed the Brat News Network to give the company its just desserts. The BNN is an aggressive media outreach strategy, which includes enlisting every possible media outreach tactic. From top tier media spokesperson and grilling guru Steven Raichlen, to satellite media tours, desk-side briefings, messaging, training, “Make Summer Sizzle” press kit, “Tailgating Tips and Techniques” outreach, and a steady drumbeat of pitching, the Brat News Network is taking the humble, coarse-ground and highly seasoned sausage to new “links”!

· Johnsonville Bratwurst Tailgating Hall of Fame Recipe Contest: Tailgating season is a bratwurst’s time to shine. Fans from across the nation hit parking lots before each game with time-tested favorite recipes. In fact, according to a survey of more than 3,000 tailgaters across America by www.tailgating.com, 71 percent of Americans tailgate at least six times per season. In fall 2004 Boomer Esiason, legendary NFL Quarterback and CBS Radio Monday Night Football Announcer, teamed up with world renown Johnsonville Brats to search for America’s favorite bratwurst tailgate recipes and grilling tips. And, each week during nationally broadcast Monday Night Football games, Esiason inducts one winner into the “Johnsonville Bratwurst Tailgating Hall of Fame.” Each winner received a year’s supply of Johnsonville brats and is eligible to compete for the title of MVB—Most Valuable Bratwurst.

The grand prize winner, to be announced on or around January 15, 2005, will receive the “World’s Ultimate Tailgate Party” with the Johnsonville Big Taste Grill rolling up to the winner’s hometown during the professional football championship game in February and hosting an all-expense paid tailgate party for their friends, family and neighbors. Johnsonville’s Big Taste Grill is a converted semi truck sporting the world’s largest grill weighing in at 53,000 pounds and 65 feet long. The grill can cook an amazing 2,500 brats an hour. For each winning recipe or tip, Johnsonville makes a donation of $5,000 to the Boomer Esiason Foundation, with a pledge of $200,000 total to the Foundation.

· Pentagon Brat Festival – A day of brats and music: Johnsonville sausage loaded up its Big Taste Grill and headed out to the Pentagon on Oct. 7, 2004 for a traditional Wisconsin “brat fry.” Together with Miss America, Miss Virginia and Washington Redskin Cheerleaders, the sausage company set out to raise $25,000 for the Pentagon Memorial Fund by selling $5.00 lunches to the employees of the Pentagon. The Pentagon Memorial Fund is currently campaigning to raise $17.5 million to build a beautiful memorial park and $10 million for an endowment to maintain it for future generations.

Results
· More than 1,000 placements, including ESPN Cold Pizza, FOX & Friends, WB11, New York, Woman’s World, RedBook, Fresno Bee, WTXF-Fox (Philadelphia), Popular Mechanics
· First time ever media briefings with top tier consumer magazines including Woman’s Day, Country Living, First for Women
· Coverage in more than 7 non-traditional brat markets, including New York, Boston, California, Florida, Washington DC, Denver, Seattle
· Total advertising equivalency: more than $685,000
· Reached more than 69,000,000 consumers nationwide!

Top 25 Apps by Penetration of Apple App Users

Drink poster slammed by ASA ruling

08-Apr-09, 06:00
LONDON - A poster claiming that POM Wonderful pomegranate juice could help consumers "cheat death" has been axed by the Advertising Standards Authority.





The poster, which showed a bottle of the juice with a severed noose around its neck, attracted 23 complaints from people who felt the ad communicated false and misleading health benefits.POM Wonderful argued that consumers were unlikely to take seriously the obvious untruth in saying that the antioxidant power of the juice could help cheat death.

The company claimed that it was a typical technique in poster advertising to use a powerful, yet brief statement to sum up the brand.However, some of the complainants had interpreted the ad to mean that the antioxidant power of pomegranate juice contributed somehow to a longer life.
The ASA noted that the claim "cheat death" was an exaggeration, however, it was felt the overall ad text was ambiguous and if read as a health claim, was likely to mislead.
The ad must not appear in its current form again.

Advertising Standards Authority scraps Tesco poster ad

08-Apr-09, 06:00
LONDON - A poster featuring a 50 per cent off promotion in Tesco stores has been banned by the ASA for including items not in the sale.
The poster showed an iPod nano plugged into a docking station next to a price tag of £74.98, with £149.97 and £99.97 crossed through. Additional small print stated "Ipod [sic] not included".

Three people complained that the ad was misleading as it implied that the iPod was included in the price.

Tesco Stores argued that the iPod was shown installed in the docking station for illustrative purposes only and the small print at the foot of the ad supported this.

Tesco believed that customers would not expect that the iPod was included in the offer as it generally retails at about £100.

The ASA felt that the main body of the ad, which featured just the illustration and price, did not explain properly what was for sale.

The small print was not felt to be sufficiently prominent to ensure it was not overlooked by customers.

Therefore, the watchdog concluded that the poster was likely to mislead and must not be shown again in its current form.

Tesco assured the ASA that it would give clearer item descriptions in future advertising.

How to use “official” envelopes for direct mail

There are two basic envelope strategies for direct mail packages: the teaser envelope and the mystery envelope.

The teaser envelope is just what it sounds like. It’s a direct mail envelope covered with teaser copy about the envelope contents. This makes it clear that the contents are advertising something. Often there are photos or illustrations, copy details, even a statement of the offer.

The mystery envelope by contrast, generally gives you no clue about the envelope contents. Sometimes the envelope shows nothing more than the return address and postage or looks like a personal communication.
The idea here is for the mailing to not look like advertising.
“Official” envelopes are a subset of the mystery envelope. They don’t tell you exactly what’s inside, but they raise the curiosity level by making it appear as if the contents are important and urgent.
Here’s an example I received recently:













This official looking envelope uses a simple red bar across the front with the words “OFFICIAL BUSINESS” and the outline of an eagle, giving it a semi-governmental appearance. The words “Immediate Reply Requested” adds a touch of urgency.

Also note how the Washington D.C. address works with the concept. There’s no printed indicia, but rather metered postage, something used for business correspondence.

No teasers. No handwriting. No pictures. No clue about what’s inside. All you know is that this envelope looks important and better be opened. I knew the technique being used and even I felt compelled to open it.

What’s inside? A renewal notice from Advertising Age. Do I feel tricked? No. And that’s the beauty of the official envelope. While it creates the impression of an urgent message, it doesn’t mislead you in any way.

When should you use an official envelope like this? My general rule is that if there is any doubt about whether you should have teasers on the envelope, go with a mystery envelope. If you’re not sure the plain mystery envelope is right, try the official envelope.

The only caveat is to make sure you don’t carry the idea so far that you end up deceiving and therefore annoying your prospects (and violating basic ethical guidelines). You don’t want to create an envelope that masquerades as a notice from the IRS, for example. The envelope I’ve shown you above is a good example of how to do it right.

Philips:::Simple gift of time

BRAND OWNER:Philips
CATEGORY:Pharmaceuticals/ Healthcare
REGION:China
DATE:Jan 2008 - Apr 2008

Philips brand proposition is ‘Sense and Simplicity’. It is relatively easy to communicate within their traditional consumer products divisions, but harder for Philips’ Healthcare division to become meaningful and rewarding to consumers in Chinese hospitals.

The Philips target audience in China is an affluent, working, white collar audience. They have busy work and social lives.

Time in busy cities like Shanghai is scarce and can be wasted when dealing with government bureaucracies like hospitals which have long waiting times and a ticketed queue system.

Philips developed the communication platform called ‘Create Time’, to bring Sense and Simplicity to life in the most meaningful way possible by giving consumers back that most precious commodity, their own time.

The brand developed a tool that let patients track their place in the hospital queue. This freed them up to leave the hospital for 3 or 4 hours without missing their appointment.

Once given their place in the queue, patients registered their mobile on a Philips terminal and received a text message giving them time to get back to hospital. Philips inserted brand messages into the text response mechanisms.

5 major hospitals installed the system, which reduced over-crowding in public areas and increased the efficiency of their patient flow.

At the same time Philips rolled out a TV campaign that demonstrated the benefits to consumers in using the newly refurbished, less crowded community clinics, rather than the major hospitals.

It showed consumers that they could save time by visiting the community clinic. By working with the Public Health Bureau to classify the Philips commercial as an official public health message we secured a 65% reduction in Shanghai TV airtime costs.

The system has already been rolled out to 10 hospital departments in Shanghai. Each terminal is used by 125 consumers per day on average, creating time for them and reducing congestion for remaining patients. Our simple, common sense system saves each patient 3 hours on average

Calippo:::Enjoying Habbo with Calippo

BRAND OWNER:Unilever
CATEGORY:Confectionery/ Snacks
REGION:Spain
DATE:Apr 2008 - Sep 2008

Calippo is a well known brand in Spain, with a reasonable high level of penetration amongst the core target audience, but it wanted to increase the average frequency of consumption among 11-17 year-olds
Realizing teens do not make a real difference between the “real world” and the “digital world, Calippo developed a partnership with Habbo Hotel, the most successful virtual world in Spain for our target.

Habbo Hotel teens need “habbo credits” to buy “furnies” (elements they use to furnish their rooms) and the more “furnies” they get the more popular and successful the user becomes.

Normally the only way to get habbo credits is buying them, but Calippo offered them for free and additionally offered them other activities, games, “furnies”, rooms, badges, etc that would give added value to their lives. Calippo put codes in the covers of the ice lollies which could be exchanged for habbocredits at www.calippo.com.

This activity was supported by TV, magazines and online, with all creative carrying a call to action relating to Habbo Hotel.



Some 626,761 codes were exchanged for habbocredits, and the value sales increased by 20,66% versus the previous year. 298,170 Calippo Badges were delivered within the Habbo Community and the Calippo room (within Habbohotel) was the most successful room during the period of the campaign.
The site www.calippo.com received 1,232,996 visits during the period of the campaign becoming the top ice cream site in Spain.