Cellphones banking

Cellphone overtakes PC for banking

JOHANNESBURG:- The number of people banking from their cellphones has exceeded that of people banking from their PCs in South Africa, with more than a quarter of bank customers turning to their cellphones for services ranging from informational transaction types such as balance enquiries to financial transaction types which include account payments.

This was one of the key findings from the consumer phase of the Mobility 2009 research project, released today by leading market research organisation World Wide Worx. The study was backed by First National Bank (FNB), leaders in cellphone banking in Africa, and Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry solution.

“It is encouraging to see that not only in FNB, but across the country, cellphone banking is now part of people’s lives,” says Len Pienaar, CEO, FNB mCommerce.

The Mobility 2009 study is being conducted in four phases, with the first three looking at the use of mobile technologies by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Consumers and Corporations, and the final phase exploring the Mobile Internet. In the second phase, announced at a press conference today, it was revealed that, while 16% of banking customers in South Africa use the internet for banking, 28% use their cellphones. A total of 34% of banking customers use one or both of these channels. Outside of the branch and ATMs, only 6% relying exclusively on the internet, while 18% rely only on cellphone banking.

“The fact that services like cellphone banking are taking off so strongly shows that consumers no longer see their cellphones only as voice and text messaging devices, but use them stay in touch with everything that matters in their business and personal lives,” says Deon Liebenberg,Regional Director for Sub Sahara Africa at RIM. “With a device like a BlackBerry smartphone, you have immediate access to financial information, your accounts and banking services while you are on the go, wherever you are.”

The study revealed that the main services driving cellphone banking were balance enquiries and notifications of transactions, with three quarters of cellphone bankers using these features. Just under half view statements on their cellphones, 35% transfer between accounts, and 28% pay accounts on their cellphones. In contrast, only 8% add beneficiaries via the cellphone, indicating both security concerns and set-up issues.

“Our research shows that South Africans are becoming comfortable with cellphone banking, but precisely half of general banking customers are still nervous of it, citing trust as their major concern,” says Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx. “However, this concern must be seen in the light of 34% also saying the issue is not knowing how to use the service.”

“Although we have made great inroads, two-thirds of banked people still don’t use electronic channels, other than an ATM,” says Pienaar.

At the same time, two thirds of cellphone banking users were satisfied with the security of the channel. This suggests that, once customers start using cellphone banking, they grow increasingly confident in both security and usability aspects.

“We have seen this rapid adoption driven by our USSD menu service, although I believe that WAP will start to play a more important role in future,” says Pienaar.

Liebenberg adds: “The success of cellphone banking shows that there is a strong demand in South Africa for powerful and easy to use mobile data services and applications that help people to save time and stay in control of their lives at all times. With mobile penetration at more than 114% in South Africa, we can expect to see the adoption of mobile banking and other personal services and applications ramp up quickly.”

The study also shows purchasing via the cellphone beginning to take off, with 24% of cellphone banking customers purchasing prepaid electricity and 21% making general purchases like movie tickets and flowers. Purchase of airtime still leads the way here, accounting for 61% of cellphone banking users.

Mobility 2009 included research among 1,000 consumers in metropolitan areas, 1,000 SMEs and 240 large enterprises in South Africa. - 3 November 2009

In a nutshell:

Services driving cellphone banking:

• Balance enquiry: 74%
• Notifications: 73%
• Buying airtime: 61%
• Statement/mini-statement: 48%
• Notification of account limit: 47%
• Transfer funds between accounts: 35%
• Pay accounts: 28%
• Buy pre-paid electricity: 24%
• Make a purchase: 21%

Campaign Vs.Conversation

This graph clearly and neatly map the differences between the two approaches and  this RGA film talkes about the importance of long term brand platforms.

Campaigns versus conversations Infographic by Kenneth J Weiss

The danger, however, is that the believe that we can simply shine a spotlight on the conversation, abandon the campaign and leave consumers to it. It’s dangerous for a number of reasons:

1. They may not be saying very much at all. Writing about launching “Brands in Public” Seth Godin observes “If your brand has any traction at all people are talking about you”. That’s partially true of course, but only partially. If you’re say a bread brand, a detergent brand or a toilet paper brand they may not be saying a lot.  As Oscar Wilde so memorably put it “The only thing worse than been talked about is not being talked about”.Or is it…
2. In the absence of something positive to respond to, the conversation may be dominated by customer service issues or by mischief making. The Skittles experiment is a case in point where without a conversation starter from the brand the conversation is effectively high-jacked. Indeed many brand owners’ reaction to the Brands in Public initiative seems to indicate that simply letting the conversation run without interesting brand stimulus and curation is problematic for any number of brands.
3. Our brands become the guy with no opinion-the one who responds to every question with “I don’t know, what do you think?”

Skittles' Twitter Homepage Experiment

It’s very easy to see the campaign as the poster child for everything that is wrong with communications today-monolithic, monomaniacal and myopic. But do any of us really want to talk to a brand with nothing to say for itself? The people I want to talk to are the ones who tell me interesting stories, make me laugh or show me something beautiful. The brands people participate with most are arguably the ones generating the most interesting material of their own. So perhaps we need to re-frame the way we think about campaigns, seeing them not as egomaniacal, one-way rants but as conversation starters and stimulators-the jokes, stories and provocations that start a conversation, keep it going, keep it interesting.

Benjamin Palmer of the Barbarian Group in an excellent-and provocative-post on the subject of brands and conversations emphasises this need to do something worth talking about:

“I can’t help but feel that while we’re in a phase where our industry is looking at social media as a new marketing platform, what we should be thinking is that it’s just the newest place our audience goes to to talk about us when we do something worth talking about”

Smart and nuanced stuff, though I’m not sure I agree 100%. There’s no question that the age of the monologue is over. The conversations between brands and their consumers happen in the open today and we either embrace that or lose all control of the dialogue. Likewise, as media platforms fragment we need to create our own platforms; brand destinations delivering ongoing utility and entertainment. As consumers become ever more empowered and expressive we will want to embrace that expressive-ness and co-create with them.

Clearly, any smart social media thinkers will find ways of managing and directing the conversation. They will understand the role of content in giving shape to conversations, they will know how to associate brands with the subjects consumers do want to talk about, they will build in simple and scaleable ways of joining a conversation. They will find ways of aggregating the conversation into something bigger and more beautiful than the sum of its parts.

But we believe campaigns also have a pivotal role to play if we want our brands to be involved in the right kinds of conversations:

• Campaigns start conversations: Campaigns are the jokes, the chat-up lines, the anecdotes that get conversations started. Done right, they make our brands look interesting, sexy and funny-the kind of brand you want to talk back to. Campaigns bring people to platforms.
• Campaigns refresh and expand conversations: So you’ve started a conversation. People are talking about the brand, passing around branded content, buzzing about the campaign. You’ve used that buzz to draw some people into a deeper conversation, perhaps engaging with a long-term brand platform or utility. Now you want 1. to give those people something new to talk about and 2. to draw more people into that deeper relationship.
• Campaigns amplify conversations: You may have a hard core of loyal users who talk to you all the time. They’re fascinating individuals, they make excellent comments, they co-create some fantastic content with the brand. But they’re maybe 1% of your target audience. Campaigns can give these users and their content a much broader stage to play on.

The role of campaigns in conversation thinking

Of course, to do all this we need to be designing the right kind of campaign. Campaigns that provoke, entertain and inspire, campaigns that invite participation, campaigns that are designed to move consumers from buzzing about brand content towards a richer, longer term dialogue. We need to design in social features from the outset and incentivise social spread. We need to make a Campaign’s ability to drive participation a key metric, to try more things more quickly and see what catches fire. Campaigns have long been designed to be talked about, it’s time to start designing them to be talked to.

If we think of conversations as the fire and campaigns as the fuel for those conversations, it’s pretty clear we need both. There’s no fire without a spark. There’s not much heat without fuel.

Microsoft Soft Launch New MSN.com Home Page+MSN Rebranding

MSN Rebranding

MSN has done a major rebrand on its image. I gotta say that I like the direction it’s going with the thinner font, and the new upgraded butterfly. They have released a preview of the new site, which you can see here. If anyone has any more info on the logo please comment. What are your thoughts?

Microsoft Soft Launch New MSN.com
It has been reported that MSN.com is rolling uot a new version over time. You can preview the new version at http://preview.msn.com.

I never knew that more than 1/3 of all Internet users worldwide visit MSN every month. 400 million people per month. Thats nearly as good as Yahoo’s 600 million and killing AOL’s 80 million. But still, it’s the most popular Internet portal that no one actually ever goes to.

In the new version everything is a lot cleaner and easier to read. They have integrated Facebook and Twitter nicely and more videos. Additionally, you will notice the simplicity of the Bing search bar which provide no clutter.

Microsoft have also reported that more than half of their monthly visitors use Facebook on a monthly basis, as well as 15% using Twitter. These are the key reasons why these services are added but not much else.

Pfizer|Revision to its 18-year-old oval logo

 Pfizer launched a new web site and introduced a revision to its 18-year-old oval logo, which was designed in 1991 by Enterprise IG (now The Brand Union). The new logo and comprehensive identity program has been designed by Siegel+Gale.

The "Pfizer oval" was introduced in 1991. Over time, a great deal of equity was built in that logo, and it is widely recognized around the world. But today, Pfizer is a different company. It's changed through global growth, numerous acquisitions, entry into new therapeutic areas, and development of life-changing medicines. The new logo keeps much of the existing equity, but with the brightened color, approachable typeface, and tilted oval it signals positive change and forward momentum and asks people to take a fresh look at Pfizer because it is not the same company it was in 1991.

In addition to an updated logo, their new visual system also helps to signify this shift. The new dotted display typeface, illustration style, and bright multi-color palette work to communicate their larger vision of advancing better health for all people around the world.
— From Siegel+Gale

The new logo features redrawn typography, a color gradient and a tilted oval.
Siegel+Gale presented various redesigns to Pfizer but ultimately the decision was made to not stray far from the existing logo. 


The new logo is a great improvement on the old one. Instead of a semi serif, the new typography is a sans serif which makes it feel more contemporary. The italic "e" that adds a lot of softness to the mark. The "z" is a little wobbly on its diagonal line but it works. And, overall, I like that there is less contrast between the thick and the thins, so the logo will hold up better when sized down on the back of a medicine box. The gradient… I guess, why not. I'm not a fan, and as the 1-color logos above show, it's not necessary. I also like the tilted oval, it's less symmetric and adds a bit of movement.



New identity applications
Siegel+Gale has put together a kit that allows Pfizer to deploy a variety of looks and messages. The first element is a dot typeface used for display purposes; it's nothing too fancy, but in the context of Big Pharma it's pretty out there. Following the dot appliqué is a set of moody illustrations that are at once scientific and playful. Add in a vibrant color palette and you have a recipe for real potential as the applications below — which are proof-of-concept and not final executions — demonstrate. With a few more hours of development the two designs underneath and to the right (green and pink backgrounds) would make Lester Beall and Ladislav Sutnar proud. This is not an easy project and the result is as uplifting as Pfizer's magic blue pills.

Guinness brand| repositioning “Bring it to life”

Diageo is to reposition its Guinness brand as a drink to be enjoyed in group situations at the pub or at home.

Guinness introduces a new strapline “Bring it to life” to its brand advertising in its latest television campaign. Epic ad telling public to 'Bring it to life' moves away from drinks firm's famous 'Good things come to those who wait' line


A new strap line “Bring it to Life” has been introduced in a new brand advertising campaign breaking today (4 November) with the aim of bringing “more life, vibrancy and communality” to the brand’s positioning.

Paul Cornell, marketing manager for Guinness, says he wants to reposition the brand from one to be enjoyed on a “low tempo” occasion – people drinking on their own or with a handful of people – to a drink to enjoyed on “mid tempo” occasions, for example weekend get-togethers with four or five friends.

He adds the campaign aims to drive those who love the brand to drink it more on relevant communal occasions such as while watching sporting events.

Cornell adds that the changing nature of alcohol consumption, the declining on-trade and rise of at-home drinking, has also influenced the shift, adding that the “Good things come to those wait” strapline, which emphasised the two-part pour,lent to the on-trade and could suggest cans or bottles bought off-trade “were inferior”.

Diageo is looking to grow its 2% share of the off-trade beer category and is targeting 10% annual growth for the brand.

The TV ad, called "World", focuses on how the famous stout looks like it comes alive when a pint is poured.

Guinness's epic ad was shot in locations including New Zealand, Canada, Fiji and the UK.

It features a group of men who bring life to a barren landscape by populating the ocean with fish, dragging fields of grass into place and supplying fresh water.

As the 90-second commercial unfolds Guinness aims to draw a parallel with the famous "surge and settle" motion that typifies the pouring of a pint and introduce the new strapline "Bring it to life".

Created by the Diageo brand’s long-standing agency Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, the commercial will first air in high definition on ITV1 during the Champions League clash between Liverpool and Lyon tonight from 7.45pm.

Guinness has linked up with Google Earth to allow web users to "bring an imaginary planet to life" in a simplified version of games such as Civilization or Sim City called "Guinness World".

The drinks brand has not said how much the commercial cost, but the project required three months of preparation and more than 8,000km of scouting before filming began in Canada.

The production crew included the set designer from the third Lord of the Rings film. The set for the underwater scene took three months to build and the shot where grass is dragged into place, filmed in New Zealand on a disused bombing range, required army assistance.

Johnny Green, the director of the TV ad, described it as "one of the toughest" jobs he has ever worked on.

"We wanted to create a truly amazing campaign which will graphically illustrate the life, energy and passion of the brand," said Paul Cornell, marketing manager for Guinness.
The initial November and December push will be followed in the new year with Six Nations themed activity that will also emphasise the new positioning by focusing on the celebration around the sport.    





Guinness celebrated its 250th anniversary this year with a global campaign devised by Saatchi & Saatchi with the theme “Arthur’s Day” commemorating the founder of the brewery.

Credits

The World campaign was developed at AMV BBDO, London, by creative Paul Brazier, and agency producer Yvonne Chalkley.
Filming was shot by director Johnny Green via Knucklehead, London, with directors of photography Joost Van Gelder and Wally Pfister, producers Tim Katz and Fergus Brown, and set designer Grant Major.
Editor was Ted Guard at The Quarry.
Post production was done at The Mill, London, by producers Lucy Reid and Ben Stallard, colourists Aubrey Woodiwiss and Adam Scott, shoot supervisors Russell Tickner and Michael Gibson, lead 2D artist/Flame artist Rich Roberts, lead Flame artists Barnsley and Pete Rypstra, Flame assist Gareth Brannan, lead 3D artists Russell Tickner and Jordi Bares, 3D artists Teemu Eramaa, James Spillman, Andy Nicholas, Rick Thiele, Adrien St. Girons, Laurent Makowski, Ed Shires, Tom Blake, Andy Guest, Aidan Gibbons, Sergio Xisto, Suraj Odedra, Jules Janaud, Francois Roisin, matte painters Dave Gibbons and Lee Matthews.

B2B Marketers: If Your Markets' Needs and Behaviors Have Changed... Why Hasn't Your Marketing?

Reports, statistics and factoids are marketers' best friends. After all, data gives us information from which we glean intelligence to build our business models, marketing strategies, plans to increase market share and programs to cut through clutter. And rock-solid data is the fuel we need to drive change within our departments and across our organizations.

Devoid of statistically sound findings, however, we're left relying on gut feelings and our personal views of how we perceive things to be... which can turn out to be perfectly correct or miserably myopic. So research gives us insight, reduces uncertainty and lends credibility to our business arguments.
And that brings me to the facts and findings from the just-released Consumer New Media 3-Part Study (by Cone Inc.), which are too good not to share--but I'm going to do so with a bit of a twist. As the report is aconsumer-oriented study, I'm going to extrapolate some of the study's findings to cite implications forbusiness audiences. Because the fact is, B2C gets the lion's share of social media marketing attention and while B2B social media studies are popping up more, B2B folks still have to dig deeper for social media data that speaks to the needs, challenges and profit potential inherent to professional audiences.

*Online Brand Engagement* 

• Fact: "Almost 80% (78%) of new media users interact with companies or brands via new media sites and tools, an increase of 32% from 2008 (59%)."

B2B implications: As consumers go, so too with professional audiences (uh, the Internet and email, anyone?).  And while consumers use their computers and Web-enabled mobile devices for entertainment and other tasks throughout the day, professionals are all-out tethered to their computers at least 40 hours weekly. Thus, adoption rates for B2B audiences are undoubtedly keeping pace with consumers, but professionals are using social media for work-related activities, like researching products, evaluating brand alternatives and informing purchasing decisions... which are mighty important activities for marketers to capitalize upon.

• Fact: “Users are conversing with brands more often: Some 37% say they do so at least once a week -- up from one in four when Cone did the study last year.”

B2B implications: Consumers communicating directly with brands is new, some might say it's revolutionary. But professionals dialogue with brands all the time—they always have. Why? Because when professionals make a purchase, they interact with the company that produces the product, service or solution as a matter of course since B2B purchases involve long purchasing cycles, lots of questions and, in the process, developing relationships with those company representatives. B2B branding, in other words is very high touch.
Moreover, business purchases many times involve aftermarket maintenance contracts which means professionals continue to interact with brand representatives after the sale (How well do you know your copier maintenance guy?). Thus, social media gives professionals an online channel to do the very same activities they've been accustomed to doing offline for decades and is a natural extension to other communications channels.
*Influence/Power*

• Fact: "Perhaps the most intriguing part of Cone's data, however, is that consumers strongly believe that new media is a two-way street, with 62% saying they can influence business decisions by voicing their opinions through new media."

B2B implications: While consumer goods span a wide spectrum insofar as price and risk (a $3 bar of soap vs. a $15,000 car), business purchases are, by their very nature, higher in price and risk (a $3 million dollar software integration, a $15 million-dollar piece of construction equipment). And while a consumer purchase affects the individual, or their whole family; a business purchase, affects an entire business department or the entire enterprise.

The point here is that positive and negative opinions posted online by professionals go a long way and hold HUGE influence in how other professionals perceive (and, yes, purchase!) brands because professionals are always looking to lower risk since purchases affect their jobs, other employees and the organization. *Purchasing Behavior/Decisions* 

• Fact: "Consumers are most interested in information that will inform their purchasing decisions. Respondents said they want companies to tell them what is in products and how they are made (85%) and provide additional details about information, labels and claims shared offline (e.g., in the store, on the package, in an advertisement) (83%)."

B2B Implications: Professionals want the very same information about their purchases--but more importantly, they NEED it. Business purchases are never impulse decisions, they always require analysis and so it goes: the more informed a prospect, the better the chance that prospect becomes a customer. Given that rationale, B2Bs would be doing themselves a disservice (and helping their competitors) by not using these technologies to facilitate purchases.

• Fact: "30% have made a purchase based on POSITIVE information learned about a product, company or brand; and, 23% have switched brands or boycotted a company based on NEGATIVE information learned about a product, company or brand."

B2B Implications: If 30% of consumers have made purchases due to positive information learned about a product online, then I argue the same, if not much higher!, applies to professionals. Why? Because professionals place a great deal of clout on third-party feedback with every purchase they make... be the third-party feedback from analysts, journalists, industry thought leaders, colleagues or other professionals.
As explained earlier, professionals are risk-averse and seek high levels of assurance about purchases beforehand, with negative reviews also of great interest to them as they weigh product alternatives. Now, more than ever, B2B marketers must ensure that (1) their offerings are high in quality, (2) their customer service is operating at optimal levels and (3) all of their marketing messages live up to their claims. Said another way: You can either facilitate positive WOM or negative WOM, the choice is truly within your control.

*Fulfilling Needs* 

• Fact: "Consumers still feel companies’ or brands’ top priorities within new media should be to problem solve and provide information (61%, up from 43% in 2008)."

B2B Implications: Problem solving and information gathering are absolutely core to B2B jobs and purchasing—after all, professionals are busy and they need information that will help them make decisions quickly and solve challenges even faster.

Many of the B2B social media strategies I recommend to clients and colleagues are based around programs that facilitate a high transfer of knowledge and problem solving, as these attributes are valuable to B2B professionals and areas that they consistently engage around (just look at an agenda for any major conference and you'll see that speeches and workshops are primarily based around communicating new opportunities, new methodologies or new ways to solve problems).

*Competitive Advantage*

• “'Consumers haven’t yet been exhausted by brand oversaturation in the new media space,” says Mike Hollywood, Cone’s director of new media. “There is still an opportunity for forward-thinking companies to establish a presence and earn a competitive advantage. Based on the growth of user interactions with companies, countless purchase decisions are being influenced by new media. It’s imperative to get on board now that the train has left the station."

B2B Implications: If consumer audience segments have not yet been over-saturated by social media campaigns--with B2Cs implementing social media programs at exponentially higher rates than B2Bs--then that signals tremendous opportunity in social media for B2Bs. Yet B2Bs wait (and wait!) for others to go first which is ironic since being first is the one of the key factors in gaining a competitive advantage, no?

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Further material can be found @ B2B-centric information archived for you right here.

Fasttelco: Beyond Communication

Arabic Proverb: If it Was Good Enough, It Wouldn’t Be Cheap

Arabic Proverb: inform everybody 3 times faster internet

“Or connect”

“Infinity”

 “Fastest”

Client: FastTelco[Kuwait]

Creative Agency: Paragon Marketing Communications, Kuwait
Chief Creative Officer: Louai Alasfahani
Creative Director: Konstantin Assenov
Copywriter: Wasim Khan
Illustrator: Huzaifa S. Kakumama
Other additional credits: Diana George
Published: 7, 2009

Nokia N97… Your Personalised Home Screen

Here is an interesting ambient ad for Nokia N97 in Dubai Media City