Brand Republic Blogs

The future of C4 and Facebook was on ITV this week External website

by Steve Hatch, 16/05/2012

Neil Hughes from 56 Up

This week saw the latest instalment of The Up Series. Originally commissioned by Granada television in 1965, Up is a documentary series that has followed the lives of 14 people from the age of 7, returning to each of them every seven years to see how they and their lives have changed (or not).

by Charlotte Henry, 16/05/2012

Brands are becoming ever more sensitive about how they are perceived online – nobody wants to become the latest Addison Lee.

This has led to them become more receptive to responding to complaints and queries posted by consumers in social networks. A new study by Fishburn Hedges shows that 65% of those polled felt social media was a better way to connect with a company than the traditional call centre. Only 7% thought they were worse off using social.

by Pascal Podvin, 16/05/2012

Since Sainsbury’s Justin King made his comment in February, that smaller retailers should simply accept their fate and die gracefully, the ‘death of the high street’ has been the talk of the media.

by @gordonmacmillan, 16/05/2012

The WSJ is reporting that General Motors is planning to stop advertising on Facebook after deciding that paying for ads on the social network has little impact on consumers when it comes to car purchases.

by Helen Edwards, 16/05/2012

One of the most profound differences between the act of consuming a brand and the task of marketing it is the degree of intimacy involved. For all but the most ethereal of categories, consumption intimacy means exactly that. The product might well end up inside the person (snack, beer, analgesic), or the person might well end up inside the product (hotel, aircraft, bank).

by Greg Taylor, 16/05/2012

The Shops at Target design partnership programme aims to recreate the ambience and personalised customer service of five independent stores selected by the Target in-house design team: The Candy Store in San Francisco, Aspen-based cosmetics store Cos Bar, Boston’s Polka Dog Bakery for pet accessories, Connecticut-based Privet House for homewares, and The Webster, a luxury fashion boutique from Miami.

by James Devon, 16/05/2012

The tension between journalists and bloggers has raged ever since “web 2.0” emerged in the new millennium. The journalist is educated and trained, and considered the voice of the nation. Surely they are above other wannabe hacks? But the internet came along and broke this business model, allowing “citizen journalists” to share what they wanted with the world.

by Mel Carson, 15/05/2012

We’ve been asking a number of agency heavy hitters here in the US “How do you successfully bring brand stories to life through digital storytelling?”

One answer from Matt Walsh – VP / Executive Experience Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky – turned in a total of four, as he spelled out the main considerations you have to make before setting out on a campaign.

by Ian Moore, 15/05/2012

The 50p-per-unit-of-alcohol Bill has hit the headlines this week, but if you follow this page you’ll know I’ve been opining for some time that anything less than £1 is unlikely to do any serious damage.

by @gordonmacmillan, 15/05/2012

Billy Brag’s ‘It says here’ came on my iPod other day and as I listened to it, despite the song being from the early eighties, it was striking how little had changed in the world that the song talks about “where politics mix with bingo and tits, In a strictly money and numbers game”.

by Jonathan Weeks, 15/05/2012

When predictions were made about the “modern technological age” in which we now live, the main projection was that technology was the key enabler to having more free time. As with most predictions this hasn’t happened (flying cars etc), and about having more time, it’s more likely most people feel they have less free time.

by @gordonmacmillan, 15/05/2012

As Twitter today celebrated its first birthday in the UK today, Brand Republic held a lunch time chat with Twitter’s head of sales Bruce Daisley.

We spoke to Daisley about Twitter advertising, some of the brands who are doing it well and why Twitter is a very different platform for advertisers compared to Facebook.

by Christian Schmalzl, 15/05/2012

When the media landscape changes, there are inevitably casualties. The once mighty print publishers have learnt that lesson to their cost as they struggle to manage the transition from print pounds to digital pennies.
The media landscape is changing once more and the existing players are heading for a shake up. As we head from a digital landscape dominated by PCs to one controlled by mobile, the company with the most to lose is Google.
Google may be massive in online search – excluding China it has around 90% of the market and in Europe (excluding Russia) the figure is closer to 98%– but has a much less dominant position in smartphones and tablets.
The company’s share of mobile search in the UK and US comes to 20% in many categories, across Europe the figure is closer to 15% and globally it’s probably at just 10%.
The mobile landscape is still forming and it’s possible that Google will once again come out on top. But to do so will require its new competitors to make mistakes of the same order as those that Microsoft and Yahoo.
The chances of that happening – and that Google will once again make all the right decisions – seem small. Lightening rarely strikes twice.
There are also structural reasons why it will ultimately struggle to achieve the same level of dominance on mobile as it has on PCs.
While many PCs use Google as their home page, the route to the web via mobile is more complex, controlled by networks or by handset manufacturers and consumer usage that is dominated by links sent via social networks.
In contrast to the print publishers, many of whom buried their heads in the sand, Google is being proactive about this area of potential weakness.
It’s meeting with agencies and offering to form partnerships with client brands that are happy to invest significantly. Brands need to decide if they are going to be part of the Google camp or if they want to link with its mobile rivals.
Those that back the winners will benefit from long-term value and access to new opportunities.

by Louise Kennedy, 15/05/2012

We’ve just seen that Clintons are the latest in a long line of high street casualties. So how has this happened? I think it’s a combination of a shift in purchasing behaviour, the rise of low price competitors and a lack of credible innovation. But all totally preventable. So what does the future hold for the greetings cards world and why are Clintons not part of it?

by @gordonmacmillan, 15/05/2012

The Times has given an update on digital subscription numbers and says The Times and Sunday Times now have 131,000 digital subscribers across all platforms.

That is an improvement on figures it gave in February when News International said its two UK newspaper websites behind paywalls had 119,255 digital subscribers for The Times and 113,818 for the Sunday Times.

by Nicola Clark, 15/05/2012

Power remains the most elusive of traits; but this year’s Power 100 is based on the most simple of premises; the power of a good idea. When Marc Mathieu, senior vice president of marketing at Unilever called for a ‘more magic less logic’ approach to marketing he articulated the concerns of many in the industry about the growth of risk-adverse ‘marketing by numbers’ focus on ROI at all costs.

by @gordonmacmillan, 15/05/2012

The BBC is reporting that Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie are to be charged with perverting the course of justice as part of the Metropolitan Police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.

by Greg Taylor, 15/05/2012

3D printing has taken a sweet new turn with the development of the ‘Choc Creator 1’ – a printer that creates custom 3D treats. Designed by Choc Edge (headed by Dr Liang Hao from the University of Exeter), the printer will begin retailing on ebay for £2,500.

by @gordonmacmillan, 15/05/2012

The FT is reporting today that Yahoo’s chief executive Scott Thompson, who resigned from his post at the weekend, walks away with a settlement of $8m in cash and stock after five months.

by Dave Trott, 15/05/2012

I’m not a big fan of the TV series Mad Men.
But my wife likes it a lot, so I end up watching it.
Last week there was a sequence in it that I thought was actually very perceptive.
An account man is sitting at a dinner table next to a French philosopher.
The philosopher is cynical about advertising.
He says haughtily “So, what is your job?”
The account man says “I’m an account man.”
The philosopher says sneeringly “And what exactly do you do?”
The account man says “Well what do you do?”
The philosopher says proudly “I am a philosopher.”
The account man says “I hear you’re more than that, I hear you’re very eminent in your field.”
The philosopher raises his eyebrows, surprised that the account man has heard of him.
He says modestly “Well, perhaps you could say I am, yes.”
The account man says “In fact I hear you’re more than a philosopher. I hear you’re a fine teacher, too.”
Blushing now, the philosopher says “Well, my goodness, perhaps that is also true. Yes, indeed.”
The account man says “In fact, I hear that we’d all be a lot better off if we took a lot more notice of your views on many things.”
The philosopher is now thrilled and embarrassed.
He says “Oh, my dear sir, you really are too kind, thank you.”
And he shakes the account man’s hand warmly.
And the account man says “That’s what I do.”
Brilliant.
The account man turned the philosopher’s view from cynicism to trust in just a few sentences.
By talking about the philosopher instead of talking about himself.
By finding out about the target audience.
Instead of just talking about himself and what he wanted.
Which of course is the lesson for all of us.
It’s no good just telling someone what we want.
They already know that.
We work in advertising, we want their money.
But, instead of just nagging them into it, why don’t we look at what they want?
Instead of talking over them, let’s just listen to them.
In the military they communicate by walkie-talkie.
The walkie-talkie has a switch marked BROADCAST and RECEIVE.
You have to switch from one to the other.
You can’t do both at the same time.
This is to stop garbled communications in battlefield situations.
To stop people trying to talk over each other.
You press one button to talk.
Then, when you’ve finished, you press the other button to listen.
You either talk or listen, you can’t do both at the same time.
This makes for clarity of communication.
And clarity is what makes real communication work.
One talks while one listens.
Then one listens while the other talks.
If we do that we can find out what’s important to other people.
What do they want or need?
What do they care about?
Then we can work out why they should care about what we want.
How do we fit into their lives.
And we can crop up in their lives like an opportunity.
Instead of just another nag.
But first we have to realise that there are other people out there.
And they’re not a captive audience.
And they’re not interested in what we’re interested in.
And that’s who we need to be talking to.