Twitter::: right Vs. wrong

Twitter will ultimately fail.

What is right:
*Twitter has the buzz and is leveraging that for talent, attention and investment.
*Twitter is addictive and fun and plays into the Social Currency model that media and storytelling is evolving into.
*Twitter has some powerful names engaged in it and supporting it.
*Twitter offers value in the nature of immediate customer service, reputation management, unvalidated search, trendspotting and conversational media.
*They allow third party software to integrate with their service, helping the open source/transparent nature of today's communications.


What is wrong:
*Twitter has no business model.

• If they start charging for use, their general audience will leave.
• If they start advertising on the site it will not generate enough revenue to make the investors happy.
• If they start advertising in the Tweets, they will get serious backlash.
• If they charge superusers or corporations for use they will probably not pay or a newcomer will come in and undermine them.

*Twitter is a platform, it is not content. Facebook, Flickr, Linked-In, etc. are all 'Social Media" that have content attached. They can sell advertising or give tangible benefit for upgrading to a 'pro' model. To have Twitter users pay for use, would uncover that you are basically asking users to pay for their own conversations.
*Many of those that are the uberusers on Twitter (celebs, early adopters, evangelists) are doing a lot more broadcasting than engaging. If you are following 20 of these people, who each post 30 times per day, that is 600 tweets alone to get through. And if they do not follow you back/ do not engage when you engage them, you start to wonder why you are reading them at all. As a service that was meant to be a way to share the minutea of your day with your friends, it starts to lose it's shine when you are just reading and don't feel the opportunity to participate.
*Let's be honest, Twitter is one big chatroom, the more followers and those you are following, the bigger your personal chatroom. Chatrooms were one of AOL's most popular features, until they realized they could not monetize them and they started to try and figure out new ways to make money. At least on AOL, if the chatrooms got people to join, they could then try and convince those users to try new things, buy new things, click on ads in other places. Twitter has none of that.
*By allowing third party software to access the system, it takes valuable traffic away from Twitter.com and therefore means they have to create value in the Tweets themselves, which has problem written all over it any way you look at it. Also, who owns the content of those Tweets?
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on the other hand

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But it looks to me as though lots of people who don’t see the point of Twitter could gain significant benefit from using it. Not only that, I think they would really enjoy it — if they gave it a chance.
Do any of the following appeal to you?

• meeting new and interesting people (in real life as well as on the web)
• staying in touch with people who matter to you
• stimulating your creativity with new discoveries
• building your reputation
• receiving helpful feedback
• finding new business opportunities
• generating more sales
• knowing what people are saying about you and/or your company
• breaking up your day with some friendly chitchat — even if you’re working alone
  

If you’re not interested in any of these things, then you can safely ignore Twitter. But if you want some (or even all) of them, then Twitter could be just perfect for you.
If you’re already an active web publisher — whether of text, images, music or video — Twitter can act as a catalyst for your other projects and help you increase your impact.

If you’re not yet a confident web user or publisher, Twitter is a great way to dip your toes in the water and get used to writing and interacting with people online. It’s free, very quick to set up — and unlike a blog or website, you don’t need to invest a lot of time in it.
Not convinced? Give it a try. Twitter is like ice cream — if you step back and analyse it, sounds like a really bad idea (all those calories and additives?). But once you try it, the objections tend to melt away.
OK, Twitter doesn’t offer quite the same level of instant gratification as ice cream. For some people it’s more of an acquired taste. But once you ‘get it’, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.
Getting Started - the ABC of Twitter
A. Set Up a Twitter Account

Go to Twitter.com
Click on the Get Started — Join button.
Fill out the sign-up form.
Once you’ve set up your account, click on ‘Settings’ at the top of the page. In the Account tab, fill out your ‘One line bio’. For many visitors to your Twitter page, this will be the first thing they look at — so if your Twitter account is remotely connected to your work, make sure it describes what you do as clearly as possible. Mine describes the three most important things I do: ‘Poet, creative coach and co-founder, Lateral Action’.
If you have a website, add a link to it in the box labelled ‘More Info URL’. That way, people who get to know you on Twitter can find out more about you — and your Twitter account becomes a great way of driving users to your site.
If it’s available, I recommend you use your own name as your username, because:
*It’s unmistakably you — people like to know who they’re talking to on Twitter, and it will help you build your reputation.
*You may change your job or your brand name, but you probably won’t change your own name. So if your circumstances change, you can keep your Twitter account.
*If you want to experiment with alter egos or have a Twitter account for your company, you can do that as well. But you never know when a personal account could come in handy.
*It stops someone else using the name and either impersonating you or becoming ‘that (slightly) famous person with the same name as you’.
B. Start Listening
Think of Twitter as a virtual cocktail party.
I’m guessing you don’t charge straight into a party and start talking to all and sundry the moment you’re in the door. After saying ‘Hello’ you probably spend a bit of time listening to other people’s conversation. For one thing, it’s only polite and shows other people that you are interested in them. And for another, it gives you a chance to tune in to what they’re talking about.
After a while, you’ll notice an opportunity to join the conversation — someone will ask a question, touch upon a subject you know about, or remind you of something in your own experience. And because you’ve been listening to them, you can be reasonably confident that what you say will be of interest. Sometimes it takes a bit of courage to speak up, but once you do you’ll usually glad you’ve broken the ice.

Twitter works the same way. Once you’ve signed up, and said something like ‘Hello world, here I am’, your first priority should be to find and start following other users. That way you’ll get a feel for what people are saying and how they use Twitter.
Following people is easy:

*When you visit someone’s Twitter page, you’ll see a Follow button directly under their picture.
*Click the button and their next update will appear on your Twitter page.
*Each time you refresh your Twitter page, you’ll get the latest updates from all the people you’re following.
*Once you’re used to this and tired of pressing ‘refresh’, you can use a Twitter client like Twhirl or Tweetdeck to make life easier by automating the delivery process. (Depending on where you live, and what kind of phone you have, you can also use Twitter on your mobile phone, but that’s another story.)
Finding people to follow can seem a little harder, especially at first. But it’s not that difficult.

• Start with your friends – ask who’s on Twitter and where you can follow them. If they really are your friends, they’ll probably follow you back, and hey presto! You’re already in a conversation.
• Add your business contacts – again, ask for the link to their Twitter page. If they use Twitter professionally, they’ll be delighted to add you as a follower, and once again they are likely to follow you back.
• Follow people who interest you – whether you’re interested in celebrities, thought leaders, prominent people in your industry, authors, bloggers or potential business contacts, you’ll find plenty of them on Twitter.
  

N.b. If you want to keep your social and business conversations completely separate, it’s a good idea to set up separate Twitter accounts for personal and business use!
Don’t worry about being perceived as a stalker — unless they have protected their updates (for approved followers only), people will be very happy to add you to their audience of followers. They may even notice you and follow back — if they see something interesting on your Twitter page …
Once you start following people, spend a bit of time looking through the lists of people they are following (clearly displayed on their Twitter page) and start following the ones you know or find interesting.
C. Start Talking
Just like a real cocktail party, once you’ve listened for a bit you’ll feel the urge to join in. Technically, it’s a piece of cake:

1) Type your message (maximum 140 characters) into the box at the top of your screen.
2) Press ‘Update’.
3) Your message will now be sent to everyone who is following you.
But what should you say?
Here’s a clue - Don’t (always) answer the question ‘What are you doing?’
Will people really be interested in the fact that you’ve just had a cheese sandwich or are reading Hello! Foucault on the train? To be brutally honest — probably not. Unless you habitually perform daredevil rescues, tame lions or make breakthrough discoveries, your average day probably won’t make very exciting reading.
No problem. Just remember the cocktail party — you don’t talk about yourself all the time there (do you?). You talk about things that are likely to interest the other people at the party. Such as:

*responses to their questions
*questions of your own
*titbits of information or advice
*interesting anecdotes
*requests for help
*thoughts or observations
*jokes
That doesn’t sound too difficult does it? It basically boils down to being yourself, showing a genuine interest in other people and engaging them in conversation.
Yet you’d be amazed how many people forget their basic social etiquette online (and not just on Twitter). These are the people who think Twitter is just another broadcasting or marketing ‘channel’ and start bombarding people with sales messages, boasting about their achievements or trying to say something impressively profound. They are the online equivalent of the party bore.
Fortunately you don’t have to listen to them. Just click the ‘Following’ link under their photo and you can stop following them — which means you never have to read another word they write.
Part of the beauty of Twitter is that it’s very hard to spam people — the onus is on you to be interesting, entertaining or helpful. And just like in real life, the way to do this is be yourself, follow your passions and enjoy the company of the people around you.

Follow Me …
You can follow my Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/ayman0sarhan

More about Twitter
6 Reasons Why I Was Wrong about Twitter
Get More Followers by Spending Less Time on Twitter
How Does Twitter Affect Your Creativity?
The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People
Darren Rowse’s blog Twitip is a great source of advice about using Twitter.
And my Delicious Twitter page is where I bookmark interesting Twitter articles and resources as I discover them. Subscribe to the page’s feed to get the latest additions delivered to you.

Are You on Twitter?
If so - what do you like/dislike about it?
If not - have I whetted your curiosity? Why/Why not?

Avid::: new logo

website: http://www.avid.com/

At the center of Avid’s brand identity is a new logo composed of simple geometric shapes derived from the buttons, icons and markers that consumers and professionals recognize as fundamental to the digital audio and video solutions they use every day to enable their creativity.

The new logo forms a visual connection to iconic shapes that represent “volume up, volume down, play, pause, record and forward,” signaling a unification of the company’s core audio and video offerings. The distinctive mark also spells out the company’s name in abstract letterforms.

"Avid is coming together as one company with new offerings, a new strategy, and a new operating model. We are stronger as one company than we are as separate parts, and we have a unique opportunity to help our customers achieve greater success in a digital world," said Gary Greenfield, Chairman and CEO of Avid. "Our new identity is one of the powerful ways we are communicating the evolution of our business as well as our commitment to partner with customers by understanding exactly what they want to do. Whether it's the flawless execution of a global television broadcast, a chart-topping hit song, a lean-forward moment on the big screen or in a sold out concert venue, or a home movie that family members will cherish for a lifetime, our customers want integrated, interoperable, and open audio and video offerings. By pulling together all of our category-creating technologies under one roof, we are beginning to serve our customers with digital media solutions unlike any other company in the world."

The old logo was memorable with its italic quirkiness but the new one is both memorable and relevant. At first glance it might feel like a cliche to use the play buttons as a logo, but as truly universal icons for a range of products that are accepted industry-wide, it’s the perfect use. The result is simple and bold. I could definitely do without the shading, specially being so subtle it feels unnecessary. But this will surely look great on screen and some glossy packaging. I also like the idea of filling in the shapes with images and, while it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, Avid pulls it off nicely.

Dominos Pizza :::Remote-controlled pizza

BRAND OWNER :Dominos Pizza CATEGORY :Food
REGION :USA
DATE :Nov 2008 - Dec 2007
MEDIACHANNEL:TiVo

Domino’s Pizza wanted to find a way to make it even more convenient for people to get their pizza fix.
Recognizing that most people require pizza when lazing around at home watching TV, Domino’s wanted to create a customer interaction via their TV. The brand wanted a mechanism that would mean that the customer did not need to get up off their couch to order food.
Once off the couch, there is the risk that a consumer will find a competing take away menu while looking for the Domino’s flier or deciding to eat something in their own fridge.
Domino’s teamed up with PVR service TiVo to allow customers with broadband to order a pizza via their television set. When a customer was fast forwarding through a commercial for Domino’s, TiVo flashed a pop-up ad asking if the customer would like to order a pizza and then direct them to an ordering screen.
Customers were able to select their crust, toppings, and sauces from an ordering screen. And pizzas show up at the customer's door in about 30 minutes, for the same price as what is offered locally. They could even see a timer on their screen showing how much time was left until delivery.
This is the first time TiVo has set up a partnership with a restaurant company to sell food through the television.

Doritos Seriously

"A concept to cover the full range of Doritos products and promotion. Based on the distinctive triangular corn chips in the form of warning signs, the design highlights the bold and intense flavours of Doritos

Silver Hills Bakery:::Before and After

Brand:Silver Hills Bakery

Agency: http://www.karacters.com/main.html

Country: Canada

The new creative concept was prompted by an insight discovered during brand strategy development that the bakery’s “Squirrelly” bread had higher brand recognition and recall than the Silver Hills’ parent brand.

Karacters Design Group’s brand identity experts used this insight as an interesting naming strategy for the other breads and counseled Silver Hills to rename them with the following unusual, unique names: Squirrelly, The Kings Kamut, Hemptation, The Big 16, Little Big Bread, Hardy Hearty Harvest, Mack’s Flax, Marvelous Multi, Radiant Raisin and Steady Eddie.

The re-branded packaging has a distinct shelf presence that beckons to be picked up and examined. Using solid, matte colours, which are unusual for the category, the colourful, biodegradable bags include witty illustrations by Robert Hanson. The lighthearted illustrations evoke the new names visually and cleverly incorporate captivating bread windows to display the product.
“The sliced bread category is very dull and one dimensional with most brands sharing the same visual wheat sheaf-cues, functional descriptors and clichéd good-for-you health claims.

Our goal was to develop new packaging that would break through the homogeneity and connect with consumers in a humanistic way,” says James Bateman, creative director, Karacters Design Group. “The witty illustrations and unique names engage customers on an emotional level that makes you want to smile, while the short stories reveal the authenticity and integrity behind each carefully crafted loaf.”

How to measure visitor engagement

Part 1: session-based indices

Click-Depth Index (Ci)

is the percent of sessions having more than “n” page views divided by all sessions.
Recency Index (Ri)

is the percent of sessions having more than “n” page views that occurred in the past “n” weeks divided by all sessions. The Recency Index captures recent sessions that were also deep enough to be measured in the Click-Depth Index.
Duration Index (Di)

is the percent of sessions longer than “n” minutes divided by all sessions.
Brand Index (Bi)

is the percent of sessions that either begin directly (i.e., have no referring URL) or are initiated by an external search for a “branded” term divided by all sessions (see additional explanation below)
Feedback Index (Fi)

is the percent of sessions where the visitor gave direct feedback via a Voice of Customer technology like ForeSee Results or OpinionLab divided by all sessions (see additional explanation below)
Interaction Index (Ii)

is the percent of sessions where the visitor completed one of any specific, tracked events divided by all sessions (see additional explanation below)

Part 2: binary weighting factors based on visitor behavior

Loyalty Index (Li)

is scored as “1″ if the visitor has come to the site more than “n” times during the time-frame under examination (and otherwise scored “0″)
Subscription Index (Si)

is scored as “1″ if the visitor is a known content subscriber (i.e., subscribed to my blog) during the time-frame under examination (and otherwise scored “0″)

You take the value of each of the component indices, sum them, and then divide by “8″ (the total number of indices) to get a very clean value between “0″ and “1″ that is easily converted to a percentage.

Given sufficient robust technology, you can then segment against the calculated value, build super-useful KPIs like “percent highly-engaged visitors” and add the engagement metric to the reports you’re already running.

Engagement: is an estimate of the degree and depth of visitor interaction on the site against a clearly defined set of goals.

"engagement = attention * emotion"

website:http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2007/10/how-to-measure-visitor-engagement-redux.html

In-N-Out Burger: Professionalizing Fast-Food

How do you build a word-of-mouth following for your product or service? That's one challenge most companies would love to wrestle with, but few do.
California's fast-food chain In-N-Out Burger is an exception, with a famously devoted customer base that inspires envy throughout the industry—and brand recognition well beyond its geographic reach. But instead of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into ad campaigns like rivals Burger King (BKC) and McDonald's (MCD), In-N-Out relies mainly on its carefully located stores, billboards, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and its own rabid fans to broadcast its message.
In this excerpt from her new book, In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules BusinessWeek writer Stacy Perman shows how the chain's marketing strategy works.

This excerpt tracks how Rich Snyder, son of founders Esther and Harry Snyder, expanded the chain, focusing closely on the quality of the food—and the staff—before he was killed in a plane crash in 1993.
Rich Snyder was 24 when he became president of In-N-Out Burger after his father, Harry, died in 1976. He shared Harry's belief that running a successful fast-food business wasn't about cutting corners or using the right equipment. What it boiled down to was the people on the front lines.
Where the two differed, however, was that Harry had hoped his "associates," as he and Esther insisted on calling employees, would work hard, save money, and leave. Rich had another idea: "Why let good people move on when you can use them to help your company grow?" Rich also wanted to establish a much bigger footprint for In-N-Out Burger.
There was another difference between father and son: Rich was a born-again Christian. In the 1980s he began printing biblical references on cups and burger wrappers, and then he went further, commissioning a Christmastime radio commercial that asked listeners to let Jesus into their lives, alongside In-N-Out's jingle. Many stations refused to run the ads, and Californians showered the company with complaints. Rich essentially shrugged off the reaction. The Bible chapter-and-verse references remain to this day, and radio ads commingled with evangelism still crop up.
But on issues of quality, Rich remained his father's son. In 1984, in Baldwin Park, Calif., he set up In-N-Out University, a training facility, with the aim of filling the pipeline with qualified managers and reinforcing the company's focus on quality, cleanliness, and service. About 80% of In-N-Out's store managers started at the very bottom, picking up trash before rising through the ranks. Rich realized that if he wanted to expand, he needed to put a system in place that would professionalize management.
To attend In-N-Out University, an associate usually had to have worked full-time at a store for a year. In that time, she had to demonstrate initiative, strong decision-making ability, and impressive people skills. A cornerstone of In-N-Out's limited growth strategy was to expand only as quickly as the management roster would allow. At the university Rich came up with a number of ideas to hone the training process. For instance, a team of field specialists was deployed to motivate and instruct associates. Inspired by pro sports teams, Rich began producing a series of training films and videotaped trainees to critique their performance.
Although the work could be dreary—imagine a four-hour shift spent cleaning up spilled milk shakes—associates were made to feel part of an important enterprise and given opportunities to advance. On-the-job training was wedged in between mealtime rushes, and everyone was given large helpings of feedback. Rich wanted each associate to understand his job and how he could do it better. The result was that many part-timers came for a summer job and stayed for a career.


Despite some flickers of media attention since its founding in 1948, nothing gave press-shy In-N-Out more publicity than its own longtime customers. Staying simple and remaining focused on its core values had allowed In-N-Out to stay true to its loyal fan base. And it was precisely those customers who often did the heavy lifting, frequently boasting about their zealous affection for the chain to everybody else. Regulars engaged in an ongoing contest, trying to outdo each other on how many hamburgers they could eat at any one time. Some regulars also assumed the responsibility of bringing in a constant stream of new devotees, an act generally referred to as "the conversion."

INFURIATING ADVICE
Rich thought of his job as the point at the bottom of an inverted triangle. He was there to support everyone in the company. When talking to store managers, he was always careful to refer to the shops as "your stores," hoping this would help instill a sense of ownership.
At one point when Rich was planning the expansion drive, he sought the advice of a food industry consultant. The expert told Rich that if he slashed salaries, In-N-Out could save a "ton of money." This infuriated Rich. Recounting the story, he said it was exactly the kind of advice one would expect "from a guy who wears a suit and who thinks you don't pay a guy who cooks hamburgers that much money."
From its start, In-N-Out paid employees more than the going rate. (Associates always made at least $2 to $3 above minimum wage.) As of February 2008, In-N-Out was paying new part-time associates $10 an hour—just 51 cents less than full-time workers at Wal-Mart (WMT), whose $375 billion in annual sales is about 1,000 times greater than In-N-Out's. Store managers at In-N-Out make at least $100,000 a year and are eligible for monthly bonuses tied to store sales.
Rich also established an expansive set of benefits, including 401(k) plans, paid vacation for part-timers, and health, dental, and vision plans for full-time workers. Each year, he put on companywide picnics and a gala dinner. Managers who met their goals were sent on trips with their spouses, often to Europe in first-class seats. For a Christmas outing to a performance of The Nutcracker, Rich insisted that his managers wear tuxedos. He thought they stood shoulder to shoulder with any blue-chip manager and wanted them to feel that way, too.
The upshot of treating its employees with special care is that In-N-Out boasts one of the lowest turnover rates in the business. Industrywide, only about half of all fast-food workers stay beyond a year. And the numbers plummet to just 25% at two years and 12% at three. In In-N-Out's case, managers' typical tenure is 14 years, while part-time associates remain, on average, for two.
To this day, the corporate culture inspired by Harry and Esther and carved in stone by Rich stands in stark contrast to rivals' systems of low-paid burger flippers and cashiers who don their disposable hats for what society has deemed McJobs. And it never drove up prices or pushed down quality.

A Double-Double, Twice
At the same time, without corporate solicitation, a roster of celebrity names regularly endorsed the chain. "When I first joined the band, we must have eaten there at least three days a week," recalled rocker Sammy Hagar, who signed up as the front man for Van Halen in 1985. "We were in the studio recording 5150, and we'd send someone to go get food, and we'd talk about sushi or pizza and always end up with In-N-Out." Gordon Ramsay, the British celebrity chef with 12 Michelin stars, global fame, and profanity-laced rants, once admitted to sitting down for a Double-Double and then "minutes later I drove back 'round and got the same thing again to take away." PGA golf champ Phil Mickelson mentioned the chain so often that whenever he fell into a losing streak, sportswriters began suggesting that he cut back on the Double-Doubles.
Before long, tourists got wind of In-N-Out Burger and began making their own pilgrimages to what was considered the quintessential Southern California attraction. Fans passed the "secret menu" on to one another and described the sublime pleasures of tucking into an Animal Style cheeseburger. Vegetarians talked up the chain's off-menu Grilled Cheese. Expatriate Californians pined for their favorite burger, and In-N-Out T-shirts were the epitome of cool. Analysts spoke of In-N-Out's "uncopyable advantage," while everybody else talked about its unparalleled cult following. According to William Martin, who devised the training curriculum for In-N-Out University, the Snyders and the rest of the chain's highest echelon were definitely conscious of the mystique that had developed around In-N-Out. "They were all aware of it, and they loved it," he said. "But they had no explanation for it." That didn't mean, however, that they didn't know how use it.



Website : http://www.in-n-out.com/

Peugeot::: Nude |308 CC

In a cheeky bit of naked ambition, French automaker Peugeot inundated London's morning commuters today with a pool of 308 'nude' actors who appeared to only be wearing scarves. What was the reason for the au natural display? Why, to celebrate the arrival of the company's latest topless model, the 308 Coupe Cabriolet.
Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the flesh flash mob was actually outfitted in form-fitting body-colored suits, thus preventing the local authorities getting rude with the nudes.

Website : http://www.nudeinascarf.com/

Twitter:http://twitter.com/nudeinascarf/

Orange:::Chabal needs your help

BRAND OWNER:France Telecom
CATEGORY:Telecoms/ Mobile
REGION:France
DATE:Nov 2008 - Dec 2007

Orange wanted to increase the number of customers watching football matches on their mobile phone on Orange TV with the launch of Orange Ligue 1, a service that made the main French football championships available on mobile.
Orange selected French iconic rugby player Sebastien Chabal to star in an interactive campaign. Visitors to a site, http://www.chabal-le-duel.com/, could sign up their friends or themselves, entering in their name, address and mobile number. The webuser then receives a phone call on his mobile when he is looking at a video of Chabal preparing to kick a football into goal. The voice at the end of the phone is Chabal himself, asking them where to kick the football. They can pick one of several locations on the goal to aim for and must press a corresponding mobile phone key to instruct Chabal to shoot. When he shoots he gets a goal and then Chabal lifts his shirt to reveal the name of the webs user written on his under shirt, saying “This goal is dedicated for X”. At the end, the person is asked whether they are a customer or not and can then apply for the offer from Orange.
In 10 days, with no advertising, Orange had 1 million unique visitors on the web site.

In Saudi Arabia::: NEVER say NO to your customers

http://www.hotsauce.com/

for hot sauce lovers

OVK :::Let it ring

BRAND OWNER:OVK
CATEGORY:Charities
REGION:Belgium
DATE:Apr 2009 - Dec 2008

Most people know that using your mobile phone while driving can cause accidents, and a large number of accidents could be avoided if people didn’t answer their mobile phones while driving. A charity for parents of child road victims, OVK, wanted to hammer home the dangers of speaking on your phone while driving in a surprising way.
OVK created a website letitring.be where people could enter their friend’s mobile number and email address. The friend would then receive an email containing a link to a Belgium’s largest video portal Garage TV video and a message saying “check out this crazy car crash I found on the web (be sure to put your sound up loud)”. When the friend clicks on the link, the Garage TV video opens in his browser.

The friend thinks they are about to see a user-generated car crash movie on a video website. The video shows a driver’s view of a car journey, with the camera looking through the windscreen at the road. While the person is watching the video, their phone will start to ring at a crucial moment in the video. As soon as they answer the phone, the car in the video loses control and crashes. Then the message appears on the screen saying: “avoid an accident. Let it ring.” They are then given the option to pass the viral prank on with the website’s details. This was supported by a separate campaign aimed at young people who listen to their MP3 players in traffic. Teaming up with popular musicians Sioen, Joshua and Sound of Stereo they created tracks that could be freely downloaded. They songs start as normal, but halfway through you hear the screeching sounds of car tyres and a crashing sound, followed by the brand message.

copy cat bag

LESS ORIGINAL :

Unknown Advertiser - 2006

Agency : Artmaster Kiev (Ukraine)

THE ORIGINAL?

Dubai Autism Center - 2005

Agency : Bates Pangulf (UAE)

Amstel ::: Truck vrachtwagen

Nothing is allowed to slow the progress of an Amstel delivery truck on its rounds. The truck is allowed an exclusive lane on the motorway, it takes precedence on a car ferry, and hundreds of marathon runners are forced to wait while it passes. Traffic cops turn a blind eye while the truck speeds past. A young man learning to drive is astonished when his instructor slams on the breaks, even though he has right of way. But nothing comes before Amstel, that Dutch national treasure.
Language: Dutch,
Length: 45"
Agency: Doom & Dickson Amsterdam
Production house: Bonkers

A Day in the Life of...♀| Lactacyd TV Spot

Can Brand Loyalty Be Bought? - how susceptible are consumers to loyalty programs?

The classic brand loyalty program offers a combination of rewards and recognition. The bottom-line objective of the program, however, is retention—to ensure that a customer continues to purchase a product or service and remains loyal to that particular brand.
First airlines, and then hotels, used loyalty programs to offer incentives to frequent travelers, but today brand loyalty programs are just as common in financial services and retail.
One of the fastest-growing brand loyalty markets is financial services. Credit card companies in particular have adopted the rewards model with increasing frequency. In some cases a credit card will be linked with a specific airline; in other cases, the credit card rewards its “members” with miles that can be used on any airline. Some credit cards also offer merchandise, cash back or other incentives that build up with credit card use. Some even promise customers they can get preferred seating at events or restaurants.
Brand loyalty is big business. More than 1.8 billion memberships exist in US loyalty programs, averaging 14 memberships per household, according to 2009 research conducted by COLLOQUY, a leading provider of loyalty marketing, publishing education and research.
COLLOQUY estimates about 44 percent of these memberships are “active.” Among the general US population, 57 percent of respondents claim to belong to a loyalty marketing program. This compares to 86 percent of Canadian consumers who participate in loyalty programs, according to another research study conducted by COLLOQUY in late 2007.
But do these programs work? Kelly Hlavinka, partner of COLLOQUY, tells : “From the results of our clients’ programs, loyalty programs are indeed effective at 1)increasing visit frequency, 2)increasing the amount spent annually and 3)retaining customers.
The current economic environment may heighten the importance of a company’s loyalty program.
For the consumer, participating in a loyalty program can help them stretch their limited budget a little bit further. For the company, retaining your best customers that have enrolled in your loyalty program is more important than ever.”
For hotels, loyalty programs seem to be paying off. Jill Noblett, senior vice president of loyalty and direct marketing for Wyndham Hotel Group, discussed the chain’s loyalty program at a “Loyalty Leaders” session at the Direct Marketing Association Conference in October 2008. She says the chain works “to deliver the message that points earned are an enabler.
You can take that vacation or visit one of our fabulous resorts with your expenses covered by redeeming points. What guests earn during their stays also provides them benefits—like a Home Depot gift certificate to use to fix up the kitchen—long after they return home.” Noblett says, “we’ve seen a correlation between redemption and repeat stays.”
For retailers, buying brand loyalty may be more of a challenge. The research conducted by COLLOQUY “suggests that typical two-tier pricing and discount-based rewards—the model that dominates high-frequency retail environments—simply don’t engage consumers,” the company says. “The retail discount reward is now a commodity.”
Aubyn Thomas, senior vice president of marketing services for credit and loyalty for Macy’s, also spoke at the aforementioned Loyalty Leaders session. “Because consumers are very selective in what they buy, we’re relying far more heavily on our Star Rewards program today than ever before,” she says.
The economic environment makes it especially challenging for retailers to reward customers appropriately. As a result, Thomas says, “…we’re turning to less-costly experiential ways of reinforcing customer relationships. So instead of thinking only about discounts and coupons… we’re now thinking about experiences. For example, an experiential reward might be first-class travel to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in person.”
While brand loyalty programs are designed to reward customers with tangible benefits, there is also a “softer” side to customer engagement. “The key to sustaining positive results from loyalty programs is a blend of economic and emotional rewards,” says COLLOQUY’s Hlavinka. “Smart companies strive to move beyond simple economic incentives to incorporate meaningful recognition benefits.”
Wyndham Hotels’ “ByRequest” program is an example of this recognition. “It’s high touch and provides guests with a personalized experience on property,” Noblett says. “ByRequest members can complete an online profile and tell us, ‘I want a certain type of pillow,’ ‘I want a snack and beverage in my room when I arrive,’ ‘I want a certain number of hangers in my closet.’ A manager on property welcomes ByRequest members and ensures that their preferences are met. How nice for a business traveler… to be able to check into a Wyndham and get that kind of special treatment.”
Still, a significant percentage of consumers do not participate in loyalty programs. As reasons for their lack of participation, they cite such economic factors as the need to spend too much and not wanting to pay a program fee, according to COLLOQUY’s research.
There are other non-financial demotivators that brand marketers need to understand. Consumers cited “boring rewards” and the feeling that “all loyalty programs look alike” as reasons for not belonging to a loyalty program. Additionally, there was a high percentage of what COLLOQUY refers to as “category churners—people who had previously played the game and dropped out.” According to the company, “While dropping out of a program is a common consumer experience, the number of consumers churning from the entire category of loyalty programs should raise alarms for loyalty marketers. Clearly, we’re not doing enough to keep customers engaged.”
All audience segments offered as a primary reason for non-participation the “lack of compelling rewards.” Almost half of non-belongers said loyalty programs look too similar. A third issue is the amount of churn: it appears that, regardless of audience segment, people join and then drop out of loyalty programs in relatively high numbers.
Those disappearing high numbers represent lost brand engagement opportunities—a high price for brands to pay in such challenging economic times.

Substral Fertilizer: Tree

Advertising Agency: Bark Copenhagen, Denmark

Advertising Discipline and others

My reflections to an employment ad

Marketing Communications practitioners usually formulates own approaches on analyzing and developing advertising ideas
Personally, I learned to question and judge my approach as following:
Impact “Does it sell?”
Marketing is not entertainment business, even humor driven approaches aim to link brands with consumer mindsets emotionally.
Relevancy!
Is my communication strategy on core brand values? Does the expressive values share common ground? Is it relevant to my target group life style/ life stage?
Originality!
Is the idea familiar to my target group or sound odd? Has it been done before? Does it incorporate some or all of my brand essence? Is it going to employ brand advocates?
Touch point!
Is my brand having a dialogue with target group? Is it a positive brand activation and engagement on the long run? Do the brand in need to create its own medium at point of truth?
Traditional media Vs. New media

Complexity, mobility and fragmentation of any target group command brands to think out of the box in order to be differentiated specially on visibility, consumer promotions and below the line tactics that deliver on one single unique insight and relevant brand key proposition.

The Global Online Media Landscape

Social Media And Video Site Engagement Reshapes The Web
April 22nd, 2009
Online engagement by Internet users is deepening, according to a new report on the online landscape released today by The Nielsen Company. This increased engagement is in part a result of a shift toward video content and social networking as popular online subcategories.

Highlights Of The Report Include

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.
• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.
• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.
• There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.
• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.
• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time
• Retail, and the auto and financial services industries, have obviously made dramatic cuts to their online spending. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical industry is actually spending more on online ads today.

View PDF Report :

The Global Online Media Landscape

View more documents from Ayman Sarhan.

Natura eco-beauty

Vanity may be one of the seven deadly sins, but makeup is important to mankind. Primitive cultures painted themselves with plant extracts in rituals such as weddings, funerals, wars and religious festivals. So did the American Indians and African tribes. But it wasn’t until ancient Egypt that cosmetics gained prominence and the applying of colorful plant substances on human beings became synonymous with beauty.


The market for cosmetics has experienced exponential growth rates and is an important sector in many countries—particularly Brazil, where the cosmetics sector rose 8.6 percent in 2008 despite the global financial crisis.
Accordingly, Brazil rose in consumer market rankings, becoming the world's second-largest consumer of beauty products—surpassing the Japanese market, which shrank during the same period. Until 2007, Brazil lagged behind both the Japanese and American markets.
According to the Brazilian Association of the Industry of Personal Hygiene, Fragrances and Cosmetics (Abihpec), Brazilian exports in the sector were US$ 650 million against US$ 450 million in imports, reaching a surplus of US$ 200 million in 2008.
In Brazil, the industry of personal hygiene, fragrances and cosmetics is the only chemical complex—which includes cleaning products, pharmaceuticals, paints and fertilizers, among others—to produce a surplus.
www.natura.net
The cosmetics industry in Brazil is extremely competitive and involves big global players, but one Brazilian brand stands out from the rest: Natura. Born in Brazil, this cosmetics brand is now available in seven Latin American countries and France.
Founded in 1969, Natura is the industry leader in the cosmetics, fragrances and personal hygiene market in Brazil. It is also the industry leader in direct sales, surpassing even the giant American company Avon.
Natura offers a full range of products with solutions for consumers’ various needs, regardless of age, including products for the face and body, hair care and treatment products, make-up, fragrances, bath products, sun protection products, oral hygiene products and product lines for children.
Neighborhood success
In 1982, Natura started its internationalization process when it arrived in Chile. Six years later, it added the Bolivian market. It did not take long to infiltrate Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico.
In 2002, Natura’s products were being sold in duty-free Brazilian airports. But it was in 2005 that the brand took a major leap in the international market to open a shop in Paris, the world capital of cosmetic products.
Latin America accepted the Natura brand with incredible enthusiasm. A recent annual report indicates that the company's direct sales in the region will reach a turnover in the order of US$ 500 million in 2012.
In Europe, Natura continues with the important work of building the brand in a sophisticated market, generating the experience required to implement a business model in developed markets. But the international expansion will not be limited to Latin America and Europe. Natura is currently planning expansion into the United States.
Before coming to the US, Natura sent a group of senior executives to develop a plan to penetrate the world’s largest market for cosmetics and direct sales.
What makes Natura so special?
Concerns over global warming continue to increase, especially in politics. In December 2008, during a meeting with Al Gore, then-US-president-elect Barack Obama said: “We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend to do in my administration."
This discussion also included the role companies play in protecting the environment.
Natura, founded in the late 1960s, is credited for having a business model that embraces sustainability and commits to using natural ingredients in its formulas. Natura’s eco-friendly, socially responsible business strategy was in place long before current advertising trends made it popular. Under the slogan "Well-Being-Well," Natura has always focused on social responsibility, the environment and economics. These long-held beliefs have become the main advantage in differentiating Natura from its competitors—demonstrating that the brand and its values were ahead of their time.
Today many opportunistic companies use sustainability as a way to promote their products, but Natura’s green marketing is more than a strategy, it is a philosophy. Natura’s concern for the environment is directly translated into its products. During the production of product mixes, Natura does not test on animals and respects all international security standards. In 1983, Natura began to produce and sell refills, whose average mass is almost 54 percent less than the mass of regular packaging. This revolutionary project resulted in a significant decrease in the disposal of solid waste in the environment. In 2007, the company put into practice the Carbon Neutral Program, designed to reduce and offset all emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).
In 2005, Natura was cited in a UN report, “Talk the Walk,” as one of the pioneers in green marketing. The report also cited American Apparel and Stonyfield Farm—both American brands—and highlighted the work of Natura’s Ekos line for communicating brand values that foster a culture of conscious consumption.
Natura’s Ekos line features fragrances, personal care and ambience products that draw from the wealth of Brazil's biodiversity and are inspired by traditional plant ingredients—elevating awareness around Brazil’s environmental heritage and promoting quality of life in the communities that cultivate or extract those ingredients. Additionally, Natura’s Ekos products are biodegradable and use bottles and packaging that contain recycled material across the brand’s market segments, including soaps, shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers and perfumes.
Brands, according to American economist Edward Chamberlin, must differentiate products and services to survive. It is not surprising that Natura is flourishing by embracing the history and diversity of Brazil’s people and natural environment.

Franchise Brands: More than a Logo

Franchise Brands: More than a Logo
March 9, 2009

In franchising, it’s not just the corporate logo that needs to be carefully guarded, although that’s important. It’s the logo plus everything else—corporate colors, signage, buildings, trucks, uniforms, products, services, prices, promotions, ads, window posters, and even mundane stuff like pens, wrappers, and every collateral item in existence.
SUBWAY restaurants, named the #1 Global Franchise Opportunity for 2009 by Entrepreneur magazine, has more than 30,500 locations in 87 countries. Imagine what it’s like to control every aspect of the SUBWAY brand in every franchise location around the globe.
If it sounds like a major headache-inducing challenge—well, it is. “Multi-unit franchises may face a variety of difficulties along the way toward building brand consistency,” says Gary Findley, CEO of the Findley Group, in Franchising World (“Consistency: The Key to Branding," April 2007).
“Balancing brand uniformity while respecting franchisee independence and regulating brand messages while effectively targeting local communities are two of the struggles that often arise.”
Findley believes the only way to control the brand is through RQM—repetitive quality marketing.
“In RQM, repetitive is remaining persistent and consistent with the marketing message,” Findley says. “In RQM, the overall objective is to remain consistent.
Consistency in the marketing campaign will not only strengthen the brand identity, but it often leads to positive business growth.”
In the franchise world, however, marketing consistency takes on a whole new meaning. “…marketing touches everything a business does,” Findley says, “from the design on the bathroom tiles to the rips in the salesperson’s jeans, and anything a customer sees, touches, hears or smells can affect the brand image.”
For large and small franchise operations alike, educating franchisees about the value of the brand is often the first and most important step.
Taylor Bond, CEO and president of Children’s Orchard, a US-based children’s clothing resale franchise, explains it this way in Franchising World (“Communicating the Brand,” February 2005): “…we have aggressively focused on communicating the ‘picture of value.’ That means we have done everything humanly possible to help our franchise owners understand that the brand is the market share.
We explain that the brand is a mental message, a picture that consumers connect to their store.” Bond says smaller franchisors should point to the success of large global brands to get their franchisees “to understand and embrace the value of the brand.” It’s crucial, he says, to “tie the brand directly to the value of the business.”
In large, sophisticated franchise operations, the franchisor maintains control of the brand through numerous means, including franchisee training programs, comprehensive brand guidelines, and providing franchisees with consistently executed branding and marketing materials.
Providing brand guidelines is not that difficult, but enforcing them across a far-flung franchise system is another story.
“While many franchise systems provide their franchisees with guidelines about logo usage, signage and advertising, many fail to fully enforce those guidelines,” says Nikki Sells, vice president of franchising for Express Personnel Services, in Franchising World (“Consistent Brand Identification Increases Market Share,” December 2006). “This is why a customer can go from one unit to the next and have a completely different experience with the brand.
Enforcing clear guidelines will not only help franchises stay true to the brand when marketing, it will also improve customers’ experiences.” Sells says it may take site visits, customer surveys and focus groups with field reps to determine adherence to brand standards.
That’s why superior global franchisors such as SUBWAY and McDonald’s make franchisees part of the solution. McDonald’s requires its restaurants to spend a minimum of 4 percent of gross sales annually for promoting and advertising the business. Owner/operators work with local agencies to place advertisements and, in some cases, produce their own creative material, as long as it follows system guidelines.
McDonald’s also encourages its operators to offer feedback and ideas that could benefit the entire system; the Big Mac, Egg McMuffin and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches were all developed by owner/operators.
International branding is particularly difficult. Language and cultural issues present unique challenges for franchises. For food franchise systems, local cuisine preferences may require entire menus to vary. McDonald’s, for example, operates in India but does not serve beef there.
Instead, the Indian system offers a choice of vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus; the non-vegetarian menu is comprised of chicken and fish. Product names retain the McDonald’s branding concept but are country-specific: McVeggie, McAloo Tikki, Shahi Paneer McCurry Pan and Veg Pizza McPuff.
Challenges not withstanding, globalization is a means of rapid brand expansion. US-based Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants, has enjoyed widespread acceptance for its franchise brands around the world. The KFC business in France has the highest unit volumes of any KFC in the world. For the last four years, Pizza Hut has been ranked as the #1 most trusted food-service brand in India in a consumer survey in The Economic Times.

Mainland China is Yum! Brands’ top market for new company restaurant development worldwide. The company opened 471 new restaurants last year in mainland China. KFC, with more than 2,300 restaurants in China, is the leading quick-service restaurant brand, while Pizza Hut, with 400 locations, is the leading casual dining brand in mainland China. Yum! Brands says it opens a new KFC every day in mainland China. In 2007, operating profits for Yum! Brands’ China Division were more than US$ 375 million.
When a franchise system decides to change its brand, the implications are mind-boggling. In 2001, global shipping giant UPS acquired Mail Boxes Etc., a private postal center service. In 2003, “The UPS Store” brand was introduced. Tests in select US markets pitting The UPS Store against Mail Boxes Etc. showed a strong preference for The UPS Store. That meant thousands of US-based Mail Boxes Etc. stores had to be rebranded. Stores in Canada were rebranded in 2005. Stores outside North America, however, maintain the Mail Boxes Etc. brand. UPS currently operates over 6,000 stores worldwide.
Despite the arduous requirements of global branding, the business opportunity associated with a strong international franchise is unparalleled. Controlling their brands across thousands of locations is a key reason leading franchise systems succeed—and why their brands are among the most recognized in the world.

Soda Cans

Zoo Safari::: Take a peek

BRAND OWNER :Zoo Safari
CATEGORY:Sport/Leisure
REGION:Brazil
DATE:Feb 2009 - Dec 2008


The Zoo Safari in Sao Paulo is a safari park where visitors can drive their vehicle through forests as the animals roam around freely. The idea is that this way visitors are in cages rather than animals.
In order to communicate this different type of animal park, Zoo Safari created electrostatic stickers featuring pictures of animals including Zebra, ostriches and monkeys. These were placed on the windscreens of parked cars, facing inwards to car interior. Anyone getting into their car would get a glimpse of what it might be to have an animal peering into their vehicle. The proportions of the sticker gave the impression that an actual life sized creature was investigating the car passengers. The message on the sticker read: “Up-close, no cages, more fun”.