BIG-Data Is Not Revolutionising Marketing

Marketers are great for coming up with buzz words. And there are always one or two new ones doing the rounds. They make us sound like we know what we’re talking about; that we are current and ‘cutting edge’. It separates the exclusive club of ‘morketeers’ from the ordinary Joe’s. If you don’t understand the latest jargon, you're not eligible for membership.

One of the buzz words around at the moment is ‘BIG-data’. Apparently it’s going to revolutionise marketing. Well, contrary to popular opinion, it's not (not by itself anyway). The fact is, data is everywhere. Technology provides marketers with the tools to capture all kinds of data on their customers. Not just around what they buy and when they buy it, but also into how they behave, what they are talking about and, perhaps even, how they are thinking.

All of this is great. In truth, however, most marketers have more data than they know what to do with. There is no benefit to having all of this data if you can’t turn it into insights. Data doesn’t inspire great marketing; insights do.

Just as much as they need great creativity, marketing teams now need real expertise in research and analytic analysis. They need people who can translate seemingly meaningless numbers into actionable insights. Finding out what is happening is not enough. Unearthing insights mean we can answer the question of why. Marketing now really is about science and art.

So, the bottom line here is this; BIG-data is not revolutionising marketing. But being able to interpret meaning from it just might. Sure any morketeer worth their salt could tell you that.

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For New Customers Only

This is, in effect, what many marketers are telling their base of existing loyal customers. Tagged to the end of the radio ad (and sometimes said very quickly so you might not pick it up) or in the small print of the TV, print or digital communication (and sometimes so small that you miss it) are the magic words; "for new customers only". Meaning existing customers are not eligible. Your loyalty doesn't count. Sorry.

Why is this? Why do many marketers put more emphasis on acquiring new customers than they do retaining the ones they already have? It's not because it leads to better results. Most research studies report it's about ten times cheaper to hold onto an existing customer than it is to replace them with a new one. And there are other benefits.

Loyal customers will sell your product far better than you could ever sell it yourself. Word-of-mouth has always been (and still is) the most influential form of communication and loyal customers have so many ways in which to spread the word and win new customers for you. And, if you can build loyalty into the customer experience, you run a far less risk of your customers being wooed by your competitors' fancy "for new customers only" promotions. You will get to benefit from your customers' life-time-value.

Although it is industry-dependent, many organisations lose between 20%-50% of their customers each and every year. Instead of trying to stop this from happening, by rewarding them and earning their loyalty, they look to replace them with expensive new customers. When really, at best all they are doing is renting new customers for a while. Yes they win some new transactions, but a focus on loyalty results in the creation of life-long fans.

You would never tell your existing friends they are not as important to you as the new friends you're trying to attract. (Well, maybe you would, but that's a totally different blog post.) Here's the point; acquiring new customers is a costly business. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it; I'm just saying that, once you win them, you have to make every effort to keep them. As well as asking 'how can we win more new customers', ask yourself 'how can we reward the customers we already have'. Give them a reason to keep coming back. Develop such strong ties that they don't even consider switching to your competitor. And for God's sake reward them. They are, after all, the only customers you have right now.

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What Line?

Remember the days when marketers used to create ‘above-the-line’ or ‘below-the-line’ campaigns. Everybody knew their place. You were on one team or the other. And you worked with an agency who spoke the same language; one who specialised in marketing that was either side of the line (but never both sides, God forbid).

Then things began to get a little blurred and we couldn’t quite distinguish where the line started and ended. To accommodate this blurring, marketers and agencies came up with another beautiful term to classify the type of marketing they were producing; ‘through-the-line’.

How about acknowledging there is no line? Perhaps there never should have been one in the first place. But it certainly seems a little silly to me to still talk about a line that simply doesn’t exist. Trying to explain it would be a little like that episode of Father Ted, when Ted was trying to convince Dougal about the existence of heaven and hell. The conversation might go a little like... 

Dougal: "Ted, you know when they say 'above-the-line' and 'below-the-line'. What are they talking about? I can't see any line." 

Ted: "Well Dougal, the line is invisible and a bit of a mystery. It's a lovely line our Lord gave us to distinguish between different forms of marketing." 

Dougal: "Well it all sounds a bit mad Ted if you ask me, sure isn't it all just marketing."

And the fact is, Dougal would be right. Marketing no longer exists in silos. There is no ‘above-the-line’, ‘below-the-line’, ‘online’ and ‘offline’ in marketing anymore. Communications, in all its forms, have converged. It’s all just marketing.

So, let’s draw a line under this one. There is no line. Fair enough Ted.

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The Nuclear Media Explosion - Media 2.0 Has 4 Pillars

"Selling to people who want to hear from you 

is more effective than interrupting strangers who don't." 

(Seth Godin)

We are living in a time of great change. In fact, right now is probably the greatest time of change the marketing and media world has ever seen. The explosion of media that has occurred over the last decade has been nothing short of nuclear. How we consume media has changed, forever. Profound changes have taken place, heralding the death of mass marketing. Marketers, take note. A new media model is here. It's called Media 2.0. Here are it's four pillars.

1. Fragmentation

It was far easier for marketers a couple of decades ago to get their messages out there. They simply had to interrupt people on one of the two TV channels available in Ireland at the time and BANG, their message had reached the masses. Now in Ireland, consumers have more than 800 TV channels to choose from, and access to countless more online. Marketing is no longer about interrupting people. As the dust settles on the nuclear media explosion, society is being broken down into much smaller parts and, with it, media. Globally, consumers organise themselves into specific interest groups and, as they do, they find (or form) new media to accommodate them. Whether you are into gardening, golf, or god, football, finance, or flying, there is a medium available to you, where you can receive and give back content. This Media 2.0 era provides both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers. The challenge is finding your audience. It is not as simple as shouting at the world in the hope that those whom the message is intended for hear it and respond. Now you are required to find the media your audience is consuming and talk with them (not at them), in a way they appreciate. The opportunity this fragmentation offers is a much greater degree of message to audience relevance. If you get the message right, the media will allow you to talk to people who actually want to hear from you. That is, as long as you choose the right media of course.

2. Immediacy

Do you remember the time when, at around midnight or so, you would see this image on your TV screen? The TV channel had shut down for the night. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow to get the news. Compare that to the world we now live in. If a video takes more than 7 or 8 seconds to download we give up on it and press the "X" button. When we run a Google search we expect to receive 130,000,000 results in 0.40 seconds. Many of us don't wait until the weekly scheduled broadcast of our favourate TV programme, we watch the entire series in one go, if and when we want to.We just don't have the time to wait around. We expect things now. And I mean NOW! Patience is gone. Immediacy is here.  And this drive for immediacy has fueled the rapid global diffusion of information. Mark Little, founder and CEO of the social media news agency Storyful, tells an interesting story of the time when he knew a dramatic shift in the media landscape had taken place. It was 25th July 2009, he was attending a wedding, disconnected from traditional media, when someone informed him of the death of Michael Jackson. They had heard it, within just moments of the event occurring on the other side of the world, via social media. He said, "I decided at that stage that if this bunch of twentysomething-year-olds could know about a world event before everybody else, then I as a journalist am kind of obsolescent." In the new Media 2.0 era, people expect channels to be immediate and always on. And they have decreasing levels of tolerance for those that don't.

3. Convergence
Media convergence has taken place on a global level. Consumers don't give their undivided attention to just one medium at a time, they are increasingly multitasking with their media consumption. Marketers using multiple media, in an integrated fashion, is no longer merely optional. Media is converging and a multi-layered media approach is necessary. There is also a convergence between producers and consumers of media content. Traditional and digital channels are simultaneously consumed as global citizens both consume and produce content at a rate the world has never seen. People have become, not just passive consumers, but active prosumers, as they assume a hybrid role between consumption and production of content. Marketing is now in the form of dialogue, not monologue. Communications need to be considered as being, not one-way messages as in the past, but two-way conversations. Social citizens are gravitating towards new media that allows them the opportunity to have their voice heard. This means marketers need to be happy with a certain loss of control. A paradigm shift has taken place. Consumers now hold the power. 

4. Democratisation

You no longer own the message, the collective consumer decides what's hot and what's not. Audience numbers, whether they were viewing, listening or reading, have always been important. But never on the scale we have today. Think about the online news website, Reddit.com. Journalists don't decide what makes the front page, consumers do. As you read, you vote if you find it interesting and ignore if you don't. Whatever gets the most votes is bumped up to the top of the feed. An interesting concept and one that traditional media is struggling to keep up with. Once the editor of a newspaper makes her decisions, and the front page is printed, it can't be undone, like it or not. We vote on pretty much everything these days and influence the behaviour of others. Whether it be a restaurant, a hotel, a YouTube video or a secondary school teacher, democratisation is here and media needs to allow for it.

Understanding how your audience consumes media has become so important. Putting messages in the right places is now paramount to marketing success. Marketers work hard to get the creative right. Getting the media mix right, however, is just as important. There is no point having a beautifully designed arrow, carrying an utterly compelling message, if it doesn't reach its target. And, if it doesn't reach its target, not only will you waste money, you will also interrupt a lot of strangers who don't want to hear from you.

So, what do you think? Do you agree with my thoughts on the nuclear media explosion and the birth of Media 2.0? Are there other 'pillars' upon which Media 2.0 is built that I should have also discussed? Let me know...

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The 10 Best ‘Music’ Ads of All Time?

"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything." (Plato)

Music is a dominant feature in many of today’s TV ads. And with good reason too. Careful selection of appropriate music that matches the message can help brands connect on an emotional level with their audiences. Music has an intrusive value, meaning that while people don’t always actively listen to your ad, they can passively hear it. That said, a catchy tune can capture people’s attention a lot easier. And there is a better chance of the ad being remembered too. It’s not just a picture that paints a thousand words, music does it pretty well too.

And this is not just my opinion (or Plato's for that matter). Research company Millward Brown ran a test using two versions of a mobile phone network ad that were identical except for the choice of music. One used a well-known song, 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones, and the other used a song that had not been a hit called 'Annie'. The differences were clear: the 'Teenage Kicks' soundtrack positively benefited both rational and emotional responses. And, as a result, the positive reaction to this track helped generate a stronger response to the brand. It has been suggested that getting the music right can increase sales effectiveness by as much as 30% (The Power of Music, Admap, October 2013). 

So, this week I thought I’d share with you my shortlist (in no particular order) of the best ‘music’ ads of all time. Some are recent, others not so recent. And, when I say 'music' ads, I don’t mean ads that are selling music. I mean ads featuring music. You know what I mean...

1.      Cadburys ‘Gorilla’ ad featuring ‘In the Air Tonight’ 
(Phil Collins)

I would love to have been in the room the day this one was presented. "So, essentially the idea is we will not feature product in the ad at all, but we will feature an adult male gorilla playing the drums to Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight' - how does that sound?". This still goes down as one of the maddest ads of all time for me, but perhaps it was so successful because of it. There is obviously a whole lot more to talk about here, but music was a central feature.

2.      Evian ‘Roller Babies’ ad featuring ‘Rapper’s Delight’ (The Sugar Hill Gang)

Originally created as an online video, and shot in Prague, this production featuring the first big rap tune 'Rapper's Delight' (1979) made it to TV screens in 2009 and was a big hit with both young and old.

3.      Levis ‘Launderette’ ad featuring ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ (Marvin Gaye)

I am a big fan of this classic from 1985, featuring Marvin Gaye's 'I Heard it Through the Grapevine'. I recently reviewed this ad, but it's worth repeating on its 30 year old anniversary. 


4.      Durex ad featuring ‘Let’s Get it On’ (Marvin Gaye)

Again featuring the king of soul himself, Durex ran this brilliant ad to the tune of 'Let's Get it On'. This one is sure to bring a smile to your face.

5.      Nike ‘Airport’ ad featuring ‘Mas Que Nada' (Tamba!)

To coincide with the World Cup in 1998, Nike produced this great ad, using probably the most iconic piece of latin samba ever written, 'Mas Que Nada'. Not cheap to produce I'm sure, but it certainly communicated the message that music and football is in the blood in Brazil and, when those boys want to dance or play (or both at the same time), they just do it.

6.      Nike ‘A Little Less Hurt’ ad featuring ‘Hurt’ (Johnny Cash)

This blog post is not sponsored by Nike (although I am open to offers). It just so happens that this one of theirs makes my shortlist too. An enthralling depiction of the physical and mental commitment made by athletes and the pain they put themselves through in order to achieve their goals. After the ad draws you in with emotional visuals, with Johnny Cash singing 'Hurt' in the background, the finishing message is 'Nike Air - A little less hurt'. Nice. The visuals get the attention. But it's the music that makes it memorable.

7.      Walls ‘Just One Cornetto’ ad featuring an edited version of ‘O Sole Mio’ (Luciano Pavarotti)

I bet Luciano Pavarotti wasn't very happy when Walls decided to adapt a tongue-in-cheek version of this classic opera number. I also bet the lads driving the gondolas in Venice are a little fed up hearing 'Just One Cornetto' from annoying tourists who think they're the first to ever do it (apart from the guy in the ad of course).

8.      Sony ‘Colour’ ad featuring ‘Thieving Magpie’ (Rossini)

Set in Glasgow, 70,000 litres of paint and 1,400 separate explosions were used, as this spectacularly choreographed production was built around Rossini's 'Thieving Magpie'. The visual message was all about colour. But it just wouldn't have been the same without the music, would it?

9.      Hamlet ‘Football’ ad featuring an excerpt from a jazz rendition of Bach's 'Air on the G String' (Played by Jacques Loussier and his trio)

Okay, so I know ads promoting cigars are not allowed anymore (and rightly so), but this one is worth looking at. The punchline is beautifully delivered while the trademark Hamlet tune plays. (Ouch. You'd need a Hamlet after that.)

10.  Guinness ‘Anticipation’ ad featuring ‘Guaglione’ (Perez Prado)

The perfect pint of Guinness takes about 120 seconds to settle and it is well worth the wait. If you're thirsty however, those 120 seconds can seem to take much longer. In 1994, Guinness suggested a useful way to spend that time waiting in anticipation - dance to the tune of Guaglione. I'm sure the barmen of the era remember many's a drunken eijit making a total clown of himself trying to replicate those dodgy dance moves. Still it was good, harmless fun. And the ad a classic, made possible only by a great piece of music.

So, what do you think? I bet you’re dying to tell me the ones I missed. Go on...

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5 'Must Haves' for Your Social Media Strategy

I had an interesting conversation last week with the Chief Executive from one of Ireland's largest media agencies about the increasing importance of social media. We both agreed it is essential for most brands, as they look to connect in a meaningful way with their audiences. Many cohorts of the population in Ireland are now spending more time consuming social media daily than other channel, even TV. In fact, the user adoption rate for social media has been like nothing we have ever seen at any time in history.

However, despite the importance of social media, we both also agreed that brands need to spend a lot more time developing a strategic approach to their use of social media channels. Although it is an improving situation, brands are still not approaching their social media communications with the same level of planning rigour as they do when it comes to offline media. The tried-and-tested process involving a strategic 'big idea', insights gleaned from research, a specific target audience, defined objectives and a scrutinous approach to evaluation, will always deliver the best results, whether your communications are on or offline.

In recent times, brands have been diving into social media without a strategy, with the justification being "well, our competitors are doing it, so we should too". But that's simply not good enough. The blind leading the blind has never been a smart approach. What is a smart approach, is for brands to carefully consider what's right for their brands and their audience. A smart approach is to develop a social media strategy. In doing so, here are 5 'must haves' they should consider.


1. Match the Channel to the Audience

It seems like every other week we hear of another 'fastest growing social media channel in the world'. You just have to take a quick look over the Brian Solis Conversation Prism to see the number of social media channels at play in the social media-sphere. But, do you need to be active on every single one? Absolutely not. You just have to be active on the ones that your audience is active on. Find out where your audience is hanging out online and be present there. And, don't just lazily share the same content across all channels, because that's not smart either. Adjust the content according to the channel.


2. Identify the Influencers

In his quite brilliant book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discussed, what he called, the creation of 'social epidemics'. He talked about how to get ideas to spread. Although he wasn't specifically talking about the social media world, he did identify three types of people who are often responsible for creating social epidemics. He talked about (1) salesmen - people who can deliver a message in a persuasive and compelling manner, (2) mavens - people who feel a certain responsibility to share the knowledge they have acquired on a certain subject, in order to help others make informed buying decisions, and (3) connectors - people who, as a result of the massive number of connections they have in their social network, possess 'raw transmission power'. All of these people exist on social channels. Your job is to find them. Whether they be an affiliate organisation with a shared objective (salesmen), an informative blog that your audience trusts (mavens) or an individual with the power to spread influential messages to their couple of thousand online 'friends' (connectors), they can help you spread your message. And, when they spread the message, they will do so in a much more powerful way than you ever could.


3. Give Your Content 'Stickiness'
The thing is, influencers do not spread any content. They only spread interesting content. And, it doesn't really matter if you find it interesting, they will only share the content if they find it interesting (and if they feel their audience will too). You have to make sure you give your content, what Gladwell calls, 'stickiness'. The content has to stick to them almost everywhere they go as they interact with others. They must feel compelled to talk about it. Your content must be, as Seth Godin calls, 'remark-able', in other words, it must make people able to make a remark upon. Content that is explicitly promotional in nature doesn't tend to be sticky enough to get shared. Content must be entertaining. Think, what will make people laugh? Would people like to see a sneak view behind the scenes? What is the personality of our brand and how can we communicate that? You must find out what your audience is interested in and talk about that.


4. Be Transparent

There have been numerous examples of companies trying to be too smart about getting their message to spread. Like the Carlton Hotel who ("allegedly") asked their staff to post fake positive reviews on TripAdvisor, in order to boost its online ratings and influence people's decision making. They even asked their staff to use PCs that were offsite, so IP addresses could not be traced back to the hotel group. When Conor Pope from The Irish Times exposed the story and their cunning plan, it all backfired on them pretty badly. You cannot expect to get away with being false on social media. You will get found out, so don't do it. It's a much better approach to be honest, credible and transparent.


5. Monitor Online Conversations
We know that word-of-mouth has always been important, probably never more so than in today's highly connected social world. But, in the past, when people were engaging in social chatter that was influencing others and shaping their opinions, we didn't have the ability to listen in. Now we do. By means of many social media monitoring tools (Radian6 being one example), we can tune into such consumer communications and know what messages are spreading and how fast. It would be well advisable for all brands to monitor what is being said about their brand, their competitors, their industry and their audience's interests. After all, it is these conversations that really matter at the end of the day. People are no longer passive consumers of content, they are now active producers of it too. Of this fact, brands need to take note and listen.


In truth, you don't do social, you be social. And although you will need to react to what's happening in the news or talk about events taking place that are of interest to your audience, brands really need to work to a structured plan for their social media communications, just like they do with any other channel. In fact, given the rising importance of all things social, this is probably even more important.

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Why Businesses are Now Competing Against the Unseen

“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” (Arie de Geus)

...or here's another one for you; "If two people are being chased by a lion, they don't have to run faster than the lion. They just have to run faster than the other guy." And so it is with competition. Those who do a better job than the competition at attracting and keeping customers are the ones who will win. But some times we become so fixated on competing with those we can see, that we don't widen our focus enough to keep an eye on those we can't. It is much easier for us to spot our head-to-head competitors and aim to beat them. Coca-Cola have been kicking lumps out of Pepsi for years. McDonald's want to sell more burgers than Burger King. Apple are constantly at war with Samsung. But in recent times, many organisations have faced the stiffest challenges from competitors they couldn't see.


Nokia the Giant
I wonder do you remember the days when Nokia was global leader in the mobile phone market? (It will be interesting to see if Microsoft's decision to resurrect this once powerful brand will pay dividends.) If you are in your 20's you will no doubt say "really? Nokia?". Nokia was quickly overtaken by brands they failed to notice and recognise as threats. They focused on competing with other mobile phone manufacturers, when really they should have been keeping an eye on the likes of Apple and Samsung. 



The Kodak Story
Kodak's story is even more interesting. What was once one of the biggest brands in the world, in recent times has been in serious trouble. Kodak's global sales have fallen from about $19 billion in 1990 to around $2 billion in annual sales today. In that time, the company's workforce has been cut from 145,000 to about 8,000 today. The is largely due to the company's inability to gain a sustainable competitive advantage from what it had learnt (an unfortunate twist on the opening quote of this post). Kodak have been selling film camera technology at a time when the world has gone digital. The ironic thing about the Kodak story though is, it was Kodak that invented digital camera technology (in 1975) but decided not to launch it, a decision based on the threat the new technology would pose in cannibalising their existing business. What Kodak didn't realise was that other organisations, who they didn't see as competitors (Sony, for example), might also 'invent' this technology. By the time this happened and Kodak tried to react, it was too late.



Emerging Business Models
And then there are many examples of companies that are really struggling to compete with, what can only be termed, emerging business models. It really doesn't matter if HMV manages to sell more CD's than Golden Discs, if most of the world are buying their music on iTunes or streaming it on Spotify. It doesn't matter either how many free bags of popcorn Xtravision give with their DVD-movie rentals if most of us prefer to subscribe to Netflix or Apple TV. And I bet Eircom never even considered an alternative to fixed-line telephony before Skype was launched in 2003, creating a brand new business model and redefining global communications for one and all in the process.

Businesses are now not just up against competitors they can see, they are quite often competing with those they can't. Marketers need to start looking at things from their customers viewpoint and ask themselves, "how else could they solve their problems?". Could it be possible a fixated focus on your direct, head-to-head competitor will lead to a solution coming from the periphery that will render you both irrelevant? Let's hope not.

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