I like it. It is simple, but the idea makes perfect sense.  In an economy where everyone is trying to cut down on advertising spend, some of the simplest and least expensive ideas are the most alluring.  The idea: give away free paper cups (for coffee, tea, water) to company offices.  The only catch is that the cups have advertising on them for other companies and products.  How much time do you spend looking at your coffee cup next to your computer while you are working or thinking.  So, it actually should get a good amount of attention.  Furthermore, you can pull up the advertisers website, while sitting there.  Nothing complicated, but it follows the current theme...FREE!

Let's not pretend, work has slowed down a bit for many of those still employed.  During the peak of boom times, it was normal for advertising agencies to be servicing all of their tried and true clients, while balancing 2 or 3 big pitches.  I won't get into the politics of dedicated client servicing vs. pitch teams, but either way you look at it, when the overall company has new business opportunities out there and client spend has decreased, employees will find themselves with more time on their hands.  I am sure that this echos the same for many others across their various lines of business.  Therefore, at no other time is it perhaps easier to get your customer to listen, for longer than they would have typically given you.  This dawned on me the other day, when I clicked on 3 email marketing pieces in 1 afternoon and actually accepted a cold call meeting with a financial consultant.  While undoubtedly we have all begun to tighten our spending belts, there are certainly still services that we will indulge in, as long as we are gainfully employed.  They may need to change their angle a bitm but with less effort, they can achieve greater cut through.  I highlighted a fun interactive game that was linked to out of an DM email.  While it was advertising a new car, which I would never consider at this stage, given the abundance of nearly new used cars that are available at insane low prices, but the fact remained...I clicked on it.  AND I spent the time playing the game, and heard the pitch from Audi.  If this were for something requiring much lower involvement, such as booking my next pedicure, I would have most definiely actioned it. 

Now of all times, those low involvement marketing messages have a ready audience.  An audience with, sadly perhaps, a little more time on their hands than they had a year ago. 

Recession, recession, recession.  We are all inundated with news and predictions about the recession.  when will it end

what will it affect

how will I be impacted

who will survive it

what will change as a result of it…

There are numerous questions and predicted outcomes, but one thing is consistent, EVERYONE is in a wait and see mode.  At some point, this mass mentality of wait and see has to give way to ‘make a move’.  And by not making a move, you have made your move.  In essence, you have opted for ‘pass’ on your turn. 

There are more opportunities to make bold statements about your brand and your products now, than there were 6 months ago, when everyone was fighting to get their message out.  With smaller budgets, we are forced to think harder about our campaigns, and push to get more impact with less.  This is great news, as it finally allows marketing teams to try some of the less conventional approaches (guerilla) and less costly mediums (digital) to move their brands forward.  The same old way of doing business is definitely not the way forward, but then again, standing still is not either.  

I recently read an article that included the following 2 statistics. In combination, and as a digital marketing die-hard, they made me very nervous… The article covers a new study from Booze & Company on Middle East planned advertising spend in 2009.

• Middle East regional spending on online advertising is expected to grow by 25-35% in 2009
• Only 25 percent of marketers consider themselves savvy enough to capitalise on opportunities in online advertising

This sounds like a mounting and predictable outcome. If spending is set to increase, then this is a grand opportunity for the online market to really take off in the region. However, if the vast majority of the marketers leading these digital campaigns are not comfortable with online advertising, then we are heading towards a great let down that may unfairly and incorrectly be blamed on the medium. I do hope that the marketing teams are taking time for training, briefings and consulting about online advertising before embarking on this adventure, openly recognizing that failure to do so will ensure dismal results. This is a great opportunity for advertising agencies and smaller niche companies (such as my own) to reach out to clients to help them better plan, execute, and measure online campaigns. If we are willing to take on their additional spend, then we have the responsibility of imparting our knowledge of the medium, and ensuring we both are prepared for this shift in focus to online advertising.

Finally the time has come when CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives are not longer a ‘nice to have’ but an absolute must.  As the current economic conditionshave caused numerous companies to layoff, the market sentiment is no longer about adoring their innovative product lines, rapid rise to fame, or their impressive quarterly profit growth (this is pre-Q4 2008).  Suddenly they have numerous ‘not so happy’ laid off employees and increasingly skeptical consumers, judging their actions on a daily basis.  Now, companies never promised to be philanthropic, and therefore their layoffs are a painful but sometimes necessary reaction to today’s challenging market conditions.   Yes, I too give pause when writing that (my liberal side combats my pragmatic side), but it simply is the way business is done.   In this current reality, it has never been more important to reach out to the community and give back, showing a human and compassionate side to their companies.  I understand, in the prevailing mindset of cost-cutting, CSR is potentially one of the first to go, but this would be self-defeating.  Now is the time, when companies must become more creative in how they contribute back to society, and economically efficient in their approaches.  Some of those ideas include:

• Giving employees 2 days off in their contract to work with already established social programs.  When business is slow, it is of less impact to allow this time off.

• organize food and clothing collection on their company premises

• take on 1 major pro-bono project for a chosen social cause

• look into negotiating lower nursery fees or gym fees, on behalf of your employees

• donate part of executive bonuses (5%) to a scholarship program for any current or ex-employees family members

Programs such as these can be debated and picked apart, but instead of analyzing them, let’s just do them and show the human side of companies.  And yes, in the true marketing sense, talk about them, but not in a self-important way, rather in a way that shows the company cares and raises the bar for other companies to follow suit.

It is time to rethink the measurements we use to assess online advertising campaigns.  CTR have long been the de facto measure and our overzealous marketing side, has allowed us to hail this as the greatest ROI tool ever.  However, simply because we can measure an actual consumer ‘action’ does not mean that we should stop there.  By simply measuring CTR, we are missing at least half (or more) of the picture.  Numerous studies have proven that the impact of online advertising campaigns goes beyond clicks, and clicks are not capturing other enduring memory affects such as brand recall, recognition and attitude towards the brand.  In a recent study using eye-tracking tools, researchers found that consumers avoid looking at banners, yet even when they ‘avoid looking at them’ they are still influenced by them.  The brand awareness was four times greater than the industry average CTR of .7% (from DoubleClick) and unaided brand recall was 19 times greater than the industry average CTR.

Recently the Dubai office of TNS completed an exhaustive study of the minds of Arab youth – a segment that comprises over 50% of the region’s population.  This study delved into their worlds and took an unbiased and in-depth look at how they are living, what they think and what brands are connecting with them and how.  It used a much more natural approach, by meeting with them in their natural environment, amongst their friends and allowing them to video regular moments in their daily lives.  The results were unbelievable…and below are just a few highlights

They are ALL-ABOUT fun, action, connecting, originality, guiltless spending and luxury brands.  Luxury is the standard and they don’t see it as a splurge.  It is simply the way it is…a guiltless purchase.  The word Kashka is used to describe luxury, but it really means luxury and cool…which shows just how luxury is viewed.

They like:

·         flirting and being naughty (still within reason under the cultural norms in the region)

·         cheeky brands that use humor

·         brands that connect with local role models –people they can connect with

It is all about connecting:

·         They use and buy and do things that allow them to better connect and communicate with others; facebook, n-series phones (snap a pic and send)

·         They are building networks more around common interests that vicinity and family, as was the tradition

Viral marketing is a beast of its own, and clever agencies and companies are using more elaborate methods to grab the rogue audience’s attention.  This one is a cute one, Unflinching Triumph…a Red Bull viral mocumentary full-length film on ‘staredown’ competitions.  Available for free download.  It mixes up fairly believable moment and is supported by a National Association of Staredown Professionals website, filled with semi-believable content.  This certainly would fit with the typical cheeky approach that Red Bull is famed for.  Note the Red Bull periodic placement in the clip.  There is even a Wiki entry for this.  Bravo Akqa for creating this film.  Amazing….

Would love to see more of this going on here, where online downloads run rampant and youth market live, eat, sleep online.