On November 2, 2006, Nokia celebrated the opening of a research facility in Palo Alto, CA.
This is the first Silicon Valley presence for the Finland-based company, so Nokia invited executives and engineers, academics and students, all the technorati in the area to come and eat, drink, play games and enjoy the live entertainment. The message was simple: we want to be part of your community.
Check out the byliner in this week's Ad Age arguing that most word of mouth (WOM) conversations about products and brands are happening offline--not online. According to the research (from WOM consultants Keller Fay Group), 90% of WOM conversations take place offline.
A big blow to the conventional wisdom that WOM is happening primarily on social networking sites, blogs and in chat rooms.
A big boon for brands that create live experiences--which, after all, both provide a platform for WOM to take place and give people something to talk about.
PR agency Weber Shandwick released an interesting study on the growth of alternative media, based on interviews with senior marketing executives. The results point to continued growth in live experiences:
81% are currently using customized events to reach targeted audiences
54% say they will increase spending on customized events in the next 5 years
events ranked #2 in planned increase -- second only to spending on web sites (66%)
"Creativity economy" is BusinessWeek's term for our current innovation-driven economy and marketing landscape.
Photo: Andy Welsh
The populace of London have until the end of January to see Volume, a charming installation at the V&A Museum. A collaboration between design collective United Visual Artists and Robert Del Naja (of Massive Attack) and co-writer Neil Davidge. Enter the space and your body movements will trigger beautiful light and sound responses. Best when the daylight is poor and the floor is wet. Perfect for London then.
www.vam.ac.uk/collections/contemporary/volume/index.html
The Jack Morton London team have just helped produce an installation sponsored by Nokia Nseries to encourage exploration of our ’Connected Lives’, a theme important to Nokia. In conjunction with Lowe and The Light Surgeons (who bring together various artists) the installation explores physical travel and psychological relationships between people in the urban environment. Easy to enjoy, difficult to articulate. A great way to spend an hour.
I kept reading about Starbucks' "chain of cheer" viral campaign and thinking what a cool idea it would be... if only I were the receipient of one of their "cheer passes." Then yesterday on a business trip in Boston I hailed a cab and the driver announced, "This is your lucky day!" The ride was free--paid for by Starbucks. Based on my experience the campaign is working:
-- I have told at least 10 people about it
-- As a rule their response was a variant on the word "Cool"
-- Like a good cheer-ee I went online and recorded my story on the cheer pass web site
-- And finally I fully intend to "pass it on" (look out for cheer pass #430827)
-- Godwin, the driver, was an awesome "brand ambassabor" for Starbucks
After acquiring the assets of Rover one would have thought that if The Nanjing Automotive Corporation were to change the brand then they would have done so with a little more effort - just take a look at some of the images below:
I had a chance to speak this week at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Summit in Washington DC.
First of all...let me say...as an "experiential marketer" the east coast during the holidays is pretty amazing. I work in our Austin office and it's just not the same here in Texas - we get our holiday on but we don't have the crisp cool evenings, gorgeous decorations, etc. It is just a great time of year to head east.
OK, tangent aside...let's talk about the WOMMA event and my session on B2B.
The holiday’s are here again and New England is quaint and charming. It’s a little late in the game for me to be shopping , so I head straight to the store.
The minute I get there I have regrets. I am at the mercy of the store sales force who knows NOTHING about flat screen TV’s and could care less about helping me find an appropriate one. Why didn’t I shop online where I could have the ratings and comments of the shopping collective?
With the help of FedEx and UPS to deliver before the holiday and the knowledge of thousands of shoppers and buyers to guide me, the rest of my shopping will be done online. What was I thinking!
Today, Time Magazine voted “You” the Person of the Year. Yes, “You”, the shopper, the writer, artist, doctor, marketer, scientist, architect, fisherman, teacher, knitter, traveler, runner, anthropologist, all of you. Thanks for all of your postings about flat screen TV’s, I am going with a 20” Sharp with a built in DVD player. More to come on the web collective, Happy Holidays.
When I jumped in a cab in Little Rock, Arkansas, last week and Mexican pop group RBD was blaring on the radio, I felt I had no choice but to blog about this musical and marketing phenomenon. RBD has spread like wild fire in the Spanish-speaking world and is poised to be a big cross-over phenomenon here in the US. Even if you don’t normally jam out to Mexican commercial pop, as a marketer you have to appreciate RBD’s smart marketing strategy.
NBC's campaign for the show 30 Rock (http://www.nbc.com/30rock) is a great example of how to use an experience to generate buzz and drive awareness. And even more remarkable is the fact that its being done by one of the networks, the home of the 30 second spot.
So much for reach and frequency.
I was the recipient of the experience and proceeded to send the message on to five other people around the country. And they sent it on ...
(By the way, the show is really funny too.)
This banner ad caught my attention today because it brings the consumer directly into the core marketing strategy that so many of us work on every day: generating personal advocacy.
In mashing up the Huey Lewis smash hit I simply wanna point out that being asked to forecast or highlight creative (marketing) trends these days is like trying to snatch a photo of Britney Spears with her underwear on. Yep, good luck. If you think it’s trendy or hip, you can be sure it no longer is because millions of people will have already moved on. Trend come and trend go, click-of-a-mouse quick.
