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Download a selection of my press coverage by clicking here (10mb) |
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There's one thing you should know about B2B marketing: it doesn't exist They say there's an infinite number of ways you can divide the world in two: those who like Marmite and those who don't; innies and outies or those who have and haven't slept with the England football team. We in the marketing game have this tendency to talk about about B2C and B2B. For the unitiated, this means Business to Consumer and Business to Business. In the B2C world, we set about giving our brands a tone of voice, to find a personability that can unlock our emotional side as well as our rational one. Recent examples include Sony Bravia 'Balls', T-Mobile 'Dance' and Comparethemarket's 'Alexandr', which picked up a raft of awards as well as a pile of new customers. Over in the so-called B2B world, there's a worrying misnomer. If you've ever seen pathetic stock shots of handshakes, smiling phone jockeys and boardroom tables you'll have an inkling. Because we don't advertise to Businesses, just in the same way that we don't advertise to living rooms, pubs or schools. We look to engage with the people in them. People with tight deadlines, people under pressure, people wanting to look great at their job. I asked Renier Evers at trendwatching for his views. He told me this: to be successful in B2B, you HAVE to keep track of B2C trends. First, because your client’s customers are most likely consumers (and so you’re really selling to consumers, but indirectly) and secondly, because your client IS and does behave like a consumer, when it comes to his or her needs and wants. B2B is as much about human desires as is B2C. It was this attitude that put my work on numerous B2B award lists, including best digital campaign, best direct campaign and best small budget campaign. We were even nominated for B2B agency of the year. This approach saw us win an amazing amount of new business, beating agencies many times our size. Or, rather, beating the people inside them. But still I loathed the terminology. So, whatever brief you have on your desk, I ask you to think of it in terms of B2P: Business to People. Come on people, you can do it. |
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| The spider agency is dead, long live the caterpillar
You should be frightened of spiders. Not in a Little Miss Muffet kind of way, although I'm sure you'd look fabulous in that taffeta dress. No, you should run a mile next time your agency spins you the yarn about the agency hub and all its lovely zeitgeisty legs, like digital, ambient and viral. Just to show you how different from everybody else they are, they gave you this presentation on a whiteboard, using a blue marker, right? Good. Next week I'll tell you the lottery numbers. The problem with the spider agency is that all of the little hairy legs wander off in their own direction to further their own selfish cause, which incidently, will only bear a passing resemblance to yours. If you've ever seen the webs that spiders produce when smashed off their tiny tits on drugs you'll get the picture, otherwise I implore you to see them here - worth noting that caffeine is by far the worst stimulant. The issue with the spider agency is that everybody stays in their little box and does their little bit. If you've ever played consequences you'll get the idea. They like to work on their terms, not on yours. Whereas your project, being radically normal, has a clear chronology. You might need a marketplace assessment, a brand audit, research, strategy development, internal comms and testing before you get to the bits that your agency gets excited by. Each stage is a part of the caterpillar that has to march in sync to get the results you crave. But to pull this off, your agency needs to be filled with people whose skills overlap - think Ajax's Total Football of the 70s - rather than tunnel-visioned types with the turning circle of a cruiser. It needs to have creatives who can be driven by SEO not EGO, evolved planners rather than slide-monkeys and digital gurus who can still work a pen and paper. That way, you'll have integrated meetings that don't require boardrooms the size of Berkshire. And results that will actually fly. See the caterpillar presentation here. |
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Zig when others zag My postman has a noticable spring in his step of late. It's not just the dawn of lighter mornings, but the fact that his sack is much lighter than it used to be. Not union regulations, just the herd mentality of clients wanting to stop direct mail and go digital. It's cheaper, it's trackable, it's right, right? Well, no. Not if all of your competitors are doing exactly the same. As a (vaguely) scientific experiment I kept count this week of the number of things that fell through my door versus those that pinged my intray. I've had over 60 eBlasts, not including the Viagra spammers, and the grand total of one piece of DM through the door. One. ONE? It stood out, it kept my interest. I remembered it because it wasn't doing what everyone else was doing. So creative hats off to the good people of Virgin; a brand with a tradition for innovation. Proving that sometimes the best way to innovate is to let everybody else move away, leaving you with the space to communicate clearly. After all, isn't that what our clients would expect from us? |
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Stretch yourself not your budget. Six months ago we were trawling the image libraries for a shot of someone tightening their belt. Could we find anything? Could we hell. Today, put just about any keyword into an image search and you won't be able to move for credit crunch piccies. Marketing is all about being ahead of trends, having a sense of where a given market will head or how a particular demographic will feel down the line. Hindsight is nearly always the best camera angle, but how appropriate that a set of posters we wrote for Totally Fitness in the days when credit crunch was still a breakfast cereal appeared this week on Channel 4 news.
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How a bonanza can turn into a banana skin. More websites are opening themselves to brands by launching or sponsoring "widgets" on sites. Paul Dawson, head of interactive media at digital media agency Conchango, says these are possibly the smartest new way for brands to be seen as useful on social networks. "People are spending more time on social networks and blogging sites than they are watching television, particularly in the youth market, which you just can't reach anywhere else," Dawson says. "If you can offer them a service, or a widget, that lets them do something cool, your brand becomes relevant to them." Andy Powell, creative director at ad agency Mabox, says that although social networking, blogging and viral marketing are all part of Web 2.0, brands and agencies need to be cautious. "It's all well and good trying to look 'with it' but you've got to avoid being the embarrassing dad dancing at the disco," he says. "The main thing people respect on social networks and with blogging is honesty. If you're not a trendy brand, don't try to be one. Just be yourself and it can work wonders so long as you're prepared to take the rough with the smooth." |
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This article, by Sean Hargrave, originally appeared in The Guardian. |
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The future of thinkpieces? This thinkpiece contains information and is therefore intended only for an individual or individuals with free minds. If you do not fit this criterion, or are unsure as to your status, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this work. Please notify the author immediately by secure e-mail or registered post if you have received this information by mistake and wipe these words from your short and long term memory. Information transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as it can be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses or subjective opinion. The author therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this information, which arise as a result of transmission. It may also contain privileged or otherwise copyright protected information which may be subject to legal or other rules. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent or should not be inferred to be connected in any way to any other individual, company or organisation. No liability for any damage, lost time or atrophied brain cells will be accepted |
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It's nothing personal “You might dodge it successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you”. Winston Smith might have been talking of the dystopian nightmare of thinkcrime, but it appears to be fitting for the data rape of today’s consumer. Handled correctly, the use of personalisation in marketing is invaluable when looking to stand out from the crowded marketplace, but it’s easy to forget that the strongest bonds are formed from opt-in not opt-out. It's no wonder the Client Services Director of a data agency recently told me how far he goes to avoid giving up his personal info. Just because the nation's digiboxes, shopping baskets and flexible friends give away every little secret doesn't give us the right to abuse them. When it comes to marketing, it's time to talk not stalk. Empathy is the key to successful work, just as it's always been. Creating a desire to buy will not be achieved through slack personalisation, or lazy pigeonholing. It's still down to the old fashioned mix of understanding, insight and impactful delivery. My name, postcode and minor ailments (they're fine, thanks for asking) is between me and my GP, not you and your organic tofu vodka from Bratislava . Entertain me, educate me, excite me and I'll come running to your brand. Then you'll have earned the right to get up close and personalised. Until then, remember: Don't Assume Total Access. |
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This piece went on to be featured on UTalkMarketing. |
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Are friends effective? The most important step to take is clearly establishing the measurement objectives before the creative brief is agreed. The earlier this is decided, the easier it becomes for everyone concerned. You need to work out from the offset the desired response you want from your target audience and no campaign should be started without undertaking this planning stage. It is imperative to understand how your target audience will interact with your campaign. Only then can you set short, medium and long term measurable objectives for the work. We all know that the measureable responses can vary - from website hit rates, to the numbers of telephone or sales calls or returned promotion forms, but whatever response you choose to measure, you must remember to track them continually against the agreed targets. To make life easier, marketers should really plan campaign measurement before the campaign starts and integrate into this planning a way of exceeding expectations. Make sure that the responses are as visible and easy to collect as possible. Considering industry average response rates, before finalising media channels, can often lead to a more effective campaign strategy. But the bottom line is that the market capitalisation of any brand is still said to be around 60% unquantifiable because we cannot accurately measure ‘brand value’. An example would be the Sony Bravia campaign. The first execution (‘balls’) had an emotional quality that left you warm to the brand – humming the music, discussing with your mates, enjoying the spoofs. The second and third executions (‘paint’ and ‘play-doh’) have tried to apply the box-ticking qualities of the first ad, but just don’t have that initial emotive tug. Whether this impacts sales figures is another matter. This is one area of evaluation that will continue to evolve with improved technology and new media but with any campaign a marketer can stay one step ahead by planning in advance and sticking to the brief. |
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This piece went on to be featured on UTalkMarketing. |
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