DraftFCB | 2010 Agency of the Year

Changes We’d Like To See

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

6.  Journalists with a healthy expense account, so they stop obsessing over how much politicians chalk up on their credit cards

5. Shop signs that say “yes, you could probably get it cheaper elsewhere, but you’re here now so you might as well buy”

4. A guarantee from software makers that all file outputs will be backwards-compatible so that any earlier programme version can still read them

3. Job descriptions that admit most of the work is beneath you (“but every so often, Wow!”)

2. Real estate agents who confess that the market is really tough right now

1. Bus lane signage that says “go ahead and use this lane, the city needs the money”

Looking for Black Swans

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

In his 2007 bestseller “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks about high-impact, rare and hard-to-predict events that change everything. At DRAFTFCB we’re always on the lookout for swans that are at least off-white.

If you haven’t read the book, here’s a quick explanation of its title.

It was always an accepted fact that all swans are white — that is, until European explorers discovered black swans in Australia. It was simply impossible to predict, in the light of known facts before that time, that swans might not always be white.

Similarly, Black Swan events (caused by factors previously unknown) are equally impossible to predict. Preparation for such events can only be general, not specific.

However change on a less cataclysmic scale is constant — and can be both monitored and taken advantage of, if the will is there.

At DRAFTFCB we keep watch on change; this blog is one of our tools for sharing the knowledge.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this issue, as we strive to identify those not-quite-white swans.

Shopper Marketing Goes Hi-Tech

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

Video surveillance — commonplace overseas — is being used more and more frequently in New Zealand. Most retail organisations use the devices to forestall trouble and for security purposes; but an unexpected yet increasingly growing function of video surveillance cameras is to provide shopper insights.

More and more frequently camera extensions, attachments, and software are being attached to existing store cameras to provide shopper data. How does it work? Here’s an example from a Canadian company providing video surveillance for shopper insights, CognoVision: using small camera sensors and computers, the company’s anonymous face detection and people tracking software gathers data on how people watch ads and how they move within a store.

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Peer Pressure or Instant Gratification?

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

Which is a more effective method of behaviour modification, instant gratification or peer pressure? There isn’t a universal answer to that question, but recent trials conducted by energy utilities in the United States and Canada provide some interesting comparative results.

A number of North American utilities have been undertaking research to understand the most effective methods of changing human behaviour to achieve power conservation.

Their efforts, summarised in a recent white paper by Minnesota operator Franklin Energy, identify these broad categories of programmes and solutions which might generate energy savings through residential consumer behaviour change:

1. In-home devices and displays providing real-time feedback on energy use (instant gratification)
2. Customised, regular feedback about the household’s performance relative to others (peer pressure)

THE CHALLENGE

As the White Paper observed:

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Cause Marketers adopt Social Networks

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

Social marketers, perhaps amongst the most agile of us all, have been quick to spot the potential of Social Media and its benefits for aligning consumers with their causes.

An early 2010 study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research interviewed representatives of 76 of the Top 200 Charities in the U.S. and found that by the end of 2009:

• 96% of those charities now use Social Media (up from 32% in 2008 and 79% in 2009)
• Those charities have been faster to adopt Social Media than either the Higher Education sector (84%) or the Top 500 US Companies (61%)
• It’s a very recent conversion: slightly over half have been marketing on Facebook for less than a year, a further third for less than two years

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All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

We live in times of constant technological and cultural change. What was once the stuff of speculative fiction is now commonplace. And yet, despite paradigms shifting all around us, human behaviour remains largely unchanged.

Case in point: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22v9). Penned close to three thousand years ago, but is it still valid today?

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The iPad and its Implications

// August 24th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // General

What does the arrival of the iPad mean for Kiwi marketers? Consider these seven implications:

1. That picture is again worth a thousand words. At one point brand websites all had spectacular entry portals that delivered very pretty pictures – but took forever to load, except on the most high-end machines. Such imagery fell out of favour fast – but now the fact the iPad can cope with glorious imagery (and in many cases demands glamour to compete with everything else out there) means that hot design in back in style.
2. Size does matter. These are mobile devices – some iPad users will be gathering content by WiFi but most will typically access their content via the cellular network. There’s a cost – so ensure that the value your large files deliver is worth the load.
3. Mobile analytics are back. Web access via mobile phone is an issue, with many mobile browsers not accepting cookies. However the iPad can make use of a full-blown browser such as Safari, which does accept cookies. Tracking works on the iPad.
4. Apps are cool but. The iPad (like its iPhonic predecessor) really comes to life through Applications. It’s tempting to develop a branded App to take full advantage of the new medium. Just remember that there already more than 200,000 applications available for the iPad (some native, most ported from the iPhone). Whatever you’re considering building better stack up on its own merits.
5. The media will be there. We’ve already seen leading NZ media organizations developing iPad versions of their content. They’re probably the most appropriate vehicle for starting your iPad journey.
6. Short and sweet. The iPad is a consumption rather than a creation medium. The ever-present digit, paused ready to swipe you into oblivion, encourages messages that are short yet rich (eg images, video, presentations). Cut to the chase quickly.
7. A great training tool. The 91 students entering Stanford University’s medical school next month will receive a free iPad instead of reams of paperwork. Learning has the potential to be totally transformed using this device – and the same is true of any in-the-field training or demonstrating.

Food for thought.

Facebook: Location, Location

// August 24th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // General

It’s been rumoured for some time, now it’s finally here. Last week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg formally announced the U.S. launch of Facebook Places, a location-based smartphone service that takes on much of the functionality provided by existing services such as Foursquare and Yelp.

Facebook Places is designed to deliver three main offerings:

• Help people share where they are in a social way
• See which friends are nearby
• Discover nearby places and new places through friends’ profiles

From a marketer’s perspective, Facebook Places (and Foursquare and Yelp) enables these opportunities:

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