Ügyfél mondja: hozz jót, gyorsan, olcsón

Te ügyfél, figyu, ebből bármelyik kettőt választhatod.

Best Practise: Olympus 50th Anniversary

Mireille Hakkenberg @ viralblog

For the 50th anniversary of the PEN cameras, Olympus created a stopmotion video. Even though there are a lot of those out there, Olympus did a stunning job in creating theirs.



The video is accompanied by some impressive numbers. For the PEN Story Olympus shot 60,000 pictures, developed 9.600 of them and then reshot 1,800 pics. In the video, there are 20 different locations. Another nice detail: there was no postproduction!

In their credits, Olympus says thanks to all the stop motion artists who inspired them. Nice gesture, since the video seems inspired by Tekeuchi who posted his video three months ago and got almost 2 million YouTube views. Even still, it’s obvious that Olympus put a lot time and effort in this video, and it was well worth it.

Ügyfél mondja: csinálj belőle vírust!

- Ebből...?

- Ebből. Nincs pénzem médiára. Budget cut volt. A TV-t meg lekötöttem januárban. Abból nem vágok. Meg az kell. Na, akkor legyen egy millió egyedi IP.

- Egy év alatt, vagy egy hét alatt?

- Ne akadékoskodj! Pár hét alatt legyen meg az 1 millió.

- Figyu ügyfél. Vírust nem lehet csinálni. Valami vagy virulens, vagy nem az. Ha virulens sem mindegy, hogy kinek releváns. Vagy átviszi az adott célcsoport ingerküszöbét, vagy nem. És már megbocsáss, de nincs is egymillió fő a fogyasztói bázisod, de még a célcsoportod sincs annyi...! Az anyag meg... kutya nem fogja letölteni, mert reklámos, unalmas és gagyi a kivitelezése.

- Az mindegy. Két és fél millió net előfizetés van Magyarországon. Terjedjen. Ennyi. Ha kell, rakjál bele nyereményt. Nyerjen, ha továbbküldi két ismerősének.

- Figyu ügyfél. Az nem vírus, hanem promóció és boldog boldogtalan küldeni fogja, mert valamit kaphat érte, bármi is legyen az, ha ingyen van. Az üzeneted meg megy a kukába. Ez nem vírus, hanem adatbázisépítő technika.
Hadd csináljunk új anyagot, ami a célcsoportodnak releváns, átviszi az ingerküszöbüket és így valóban virulens lesz. Három hónap alatt meg lesz a 150-300 ezer UV és emlékezni fognak az üzenetre.

- Nem. Nincs pénz új produkcióra. Világosan elmondtam a briefet. Ebből az anyagból csináljatok vírust, és terjedjen mint a villám. Ez a brief. Melyik része nem világos?

- Minden teljesen világos...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonus falatkák:

Három erősen virulens anyag a közelmúltból ...persze más más céllal, célcsoporttal és forgalmi adattal.

• Pannon-ház
• Sziget Fesztivál
• South Park új évad.

Jó szórakozást!

www.uzenetsouthparkbol.hu

Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert

Guardian

Traditional media, including watching television, is losing ground to new media, according to Matthew Robson's report. Photograph: Howard Kingsnorth/Getty

A research note written by a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern that described his friends' media habits has generated a flurry of interest from media executives and investors.

The US investment bank's European media analysts asked Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school, to write a report on teenagers' likes and dislikes, which made the Financial Times' front page today.

His report, that dismissed Twitter and described online advertising as pointless, proved to be "one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen – so we published it", said Edward Hill-Wood, executive director of Morgan Stanley's European media team.

"We've had dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, e-mailing and calling all day." He said the note had generated five or six times more responses than the team's usual research.

His colleague, Julien Rossi, added: "It's an interesting starting point for debate."

The rapid surge of interest in social networking and messaging sites has prompted speculation that sites such as Twitter or Facebook could be taken over. But Robson's report, which was sent to Morgan Stanley's clients as a research note last Friday, suggested that such a move could be folly. He said teenagers were using more and more media, but they were unwilling to pay for it.

"Teenagers do not use Twitter," he wrote. "Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless."

He warned that traditional media – television, radio and newspapers – are losing ground.

No teenager Robson knew reads a newspaper regularly since most "cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV". The only newspapers that are read are the cheaper tabloids and freesheets.

His peers are also put off by intrusive advertising so they prefer listening to advert-free music on websites such as Last.fm to traditional radio. Teens see adverts on websites - pop ups, banner ads - as "extremely annoying and pointless," Robson said. However, "most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content".

He stressed that his peers were "very reluctant" to pay for music and most had never bought a CD, with a large majority downloading songs illegally from filesharing sites.

Money and time are instead devoted to cinema, concerts and video game consoles. Downloading films off the internet is not popular as the films are usually bad quality and have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a risk of viruses, Robson said.

Game consoles like Wii, which are now able to connect to the internet and offer free voice chat between users, have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone.

His report came as media moguls gathered at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. This annual event is a chance for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to discuss the latest business and technology issues in a relaxed atmosphere.

When interviewed at the event, Murdoch appeared to rule out making a bid for the micro-blogging site Twitter. Asked if he was considering buying Twitter, Murdoch said, "No." Asked about selling MySpace, he replied, "Hell no."

Download research here

Swaggerizeme.com - Old Spice Swagger case study

Communication arts & bannerblog

“Not only amusing, with its comical and clever approach to promoting the brand, this site has solid user interaction and a worthy payoff.” —Edward J. Heinz Jr.

“Taps into a deep-seated, human need to be more desirable to the opposite sex, using the latest social networking tools and a good dose of humor.” —Amber Bezahler

Overview

This application transforms the Old Spice Swagger campaign into an online experience while increasing awareness of the new scent. Aimed at men aged 12 to 34, with a creative bull’s-eye of 18- to 24-year-olds, Swaggerizeme.com allows users to enhance their “swagger” by creating fake, flattering articles, blogs and Web sites about themselves that come up when anyone does a Web search on their name. The central interactive feature is a set of sliders that allows users to choose qualities (Goodlookingness, Strongliness, Geniusmanship) that are then filtered through a Mad Lib-style copy generator to create unique articles to post to a network of twelve fake blogs.

• With over 500,000 visitors since launch, the campaign helped increase sales by over 20 percent.
• Thirteen video clips displayed at random intervals depending on a user's position within the site.

What Sticks - A must have book by Rex Briggs & Greg Stuart

What Sticks is the one book that explains exactly how marketing and advertising works today! Based on new insights from analysis of over $1billion worth of advertising.

Decades ago it was ok to believe, as retail magnate John Wannamaker did, that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

However, today the stakes are much higher as marketing thought-leaders Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart estimate that $112 billion in advertising spending in the U.S. alone is wasted, which is cutting deeply into company profits.

Based on proprietary research against $1 billion in advertising spending, What Sticks uncovers bold new insights from the largest-ever global marketing research project amongst 30 Fortune 200 companies, including: Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, McDonald's, Unilever, Ford and others. This is a comprehensive and solutions-oriented book that outlines how any marketer, at any level, can guarantee their advertising succeeds.

Marketers cannot ignore the findings or the solutions revealed in What Sticks. Written in a conversational, easy-to-read style, you will learn:

• Why 47% of the advertising campaigns studied didn’t work and what you can do to guarantee yours does
• How to spend the same advertising budget, but get better results – the campaigns studied on average gained +20% (And one campaign actually gained nearly +2000%.)
• How to get your CFO and CEO to eagerly increase your marketing & advertising budget
• What many marketers don’t get about how marketing & advertising REALLY works
• Forecast next year’s advertising budget (hint: It’s not by using last year’s spending!)
• How to immediately fix your advertising by applying these principles and real nuggets of wisdom

With data like this, no marketer can ignore these findings or the solutions found in What Sticks.

Advertising Age had this to say…

“The book… may well be the most important advertising research since the "How Advertising Works" study of the early 1990s.”

“Although its conclusions are based on number-crunching done with such marketing titans as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Kraft Foods and McDonald's, the book is written accessibly enough to find an audience among all marketers and creatives.”

Insights

All factions of the Marketing industry will gain value from the insights of What Sticks.

Marketers will gain new insights about all facets of their marketing, advertising and communications efforts. This is one book that covers it all and provides new deep insights that you will not have seen anywhere before. Based on the most extensive research ever, What Sticks uncovers new insights based on the market today and a way of managing that chaotic future still to come. Marketers will learn, as many of the brands here have that advertising can be the ultimate competitive weapon.

What Sticks Insights for Marketers

• Currently, $112 billion of the $295 Billion in U.S. advertising is wasted
• The average gain by marketers in applying the principles of What Sticks was to increase Advertising impact by 20% (and the highest was nearly 2,000%)

Brand Managers, like never before, have to stay on top of all elements of their brand, always looking to understand the relationship between advertising, promotion, the product, pricing and so much more. What Sticks helps a marketer looking at all consumer touch points and ensures that the brand remains strong, even in the face of demands to just sell more product. In fact, in many of the studies, Advertising was the most cost-effective tool for selling more product to more consumers than any other tool, including consumer promotion/couponing, trade promotion or even PR.

What Sticks Insights for Brand Manager

• Every marketer studied was able to improve their advertising or sales impact between +7% to more than double at the same budget level.

Ad Agency Account Executives need new, fresh thinking to bring their clients and What Sticks provides that perspective. Experienced Account Directors will appreciate the new insights and support from the research while new Account Executives will gain a broad overview of how the whole ad game fits together and how they can manage each aspect, strategy, research, creative and media to its utmost effectiveness. The concept of the 4M’s (Motivations, Message, Media and Maximization will bring a whole new focus to their efforts to achieve the ultimate success – Advertising that works.

What Sticks Insights for Account Executives

• 47% of advertising campaigns studied didn’t work (i.e., created little or no change in consumers attitudes or sales)

Creative Directors probably won’t like What Sticks, or at least most that we’ve met. This book focuses on advertising that works, with or without a big idea or a big budget. The emphasis is on effectiveness, not creative cool. If creative directors are focused on making sure their advertising is as powerful for the product sales as it is at winning awards, then they will love this book.

What Sticks Insights for Creatives

• 31% of our marketers did not get their Messaging right and wasted $36 billion
• Ford developed a radical new online approach that was 10x more cost effective than TV

Strategic Planners will find this an instrumental tool for helping them keep the group focused on getting to the right answers and them MAKING sure those are the right answers. The application of What Sticks’ COP, or Communications Optimization Process, will be a godsend to getting better results.

What Sticks Insights for Strategic Planners

• 36% of the marketers studied did not get Motivations right, either missing the Motivation, the Positioning or Segmentation and wasted $53 billion

Media Strategists will appreciate the importance What Sticks gives to the media function. Repeatedly, throughout What Sticks, you’ll see the phrase, “Same Budget, Better Results.” This concept, and the proof of it, was originally conceived from the original concept that was focused on Media Optimization. On average, the brands we worked with were able to increase the actual effectiveness of their campaign by more than 35%, and that after the campaign started.

• 83% of marketers spent money in Advertising media that was seriously suboptimal
• McDonald’s found that they could increase advertising effectiveness by 50% just by changing the time of day

Researchers will feel like they have been vindicated once they read this book, although it will put even more pressure on them to really help contribute to results. Whether Researchers read this book or not, it will benefit you as all factions of the advertising marketing process will begin to appreciate the role that proper research can play. As marketers we are all for the art of advertising, but a bedrock of data will make for a better campaign – guaranteed.

What Sticks Insights for Researchers

• What Sticks identifies a new area of advertising study called Psychologics, which is the field of study examining consumer psychology of meaning created by each medium

CEO’s & CFO’s in our experience have always wondered what role advertising really plays for the brand but it was this void they feel compelled to put money into, a lot of money in fact, but not really sure if they should be spending less, or even more. What Sticks helps CEO’s & CFO’s to figure that out and to not only give guidance to them to share with their marketing teams but importantly tells them clearly the role that they play in their company producing effective advertising.

What Sticks Insights for CEO’s & CFO’s

• The 30 Marketers studied included AstraZeneca, Colgate, Ford F-150, ING Financial Services ,Johnson & Johnson (Neutrogena), Kimberly Clark Corp., Kraft (Jell-O), McDonald’s, Phillips (Norelco), Nestlé's (Coffee-mate), P&G (Olay), Unilever (Dove), Universal Studios Home Video, Verisign, Volkswagen (Jetta), among others.

Download Chapter 1 here

Semantic Web Shopping – a “how to” for the immediate future

mike darnell @ headup

Although opinions about scope and scheduling tend to vary most experts agree that the transformation of “The Web” in to “The Semantic Web” is only a matter of time.
Based on the experience from the last major upheaval – the transition to “Web 2.0”, it’s safe to assume that regardless of the details, the transition will be a gradual one. This will be a process of Evolution rather than Revolution.

Change is coming (image by Maria Reyes-McDavis)

When will it begin?

One need only observe the steady increase over the past two years in the amount of enterprises and services focused on the Semantic Web space to realize that the process is already well under way.

Advances in web technology instigate social change

One of the lessons to be learned from the last transition the Web went through is that advances in web technology are powerful instigators for social adaptations and cultural evolution:

- Blogging

- Online social networking

- Crowd sourcing

These are just a few examples of some of the social adaptations that can be attributed to the transition to Web 2.0. It should be obvious that the transition to Semantic Web will have, indeed is having already, a similar impact. This post is an attempt to predict what impact the transition will have on our habits as consumers.

Buying online today

Our experiences as customers on today’s web are largely modeled on the offline commercial world and can be divided into two categories:

- Impulse buys

- Planned purchases

I’ve chosen to concentrate on planned purchases simply because impulse buys are by definition much harder to predict. To simplify things further I’d like to use an example from my own recent experiences:

Stroller Hunting 2.0

Shopping for a stroller isn't child's play... (image by Matt Ryall)

In order to understand how purchasing on the Semantic Web might differ from what we’re currently used to we first need to be aware of our current practices. As luck may have it my girlfriend and I are expecting our first child and since she’s started her third trimester about a month ago we’ve begun dedicating an increasing amount of time daily to hunting for the perfect baby stroller. By “perfect” I men the stroller best suited to our needs and circumstances. This is a textbook “planned purchase” and serves as a great case-study for this discussion so I’d like to take a closer look at the activities we’ve engaged in as part of our stroller hunt:

- Consulted with friends that made the same purchase recently.

- Discussed the purchase between us to define what we’re looking for

- Used Google and other resources to get a grasp of the stroller market.

- Compared stroller prices by using both price comparison sites and our own notes.

- Hunted for stroller bargains on Ebay, Amazon, and others online retailers.

- Posted “Stroller Wanted” ads on second hand and free-swap sites.

Upon analysis the following underlying commonalities can be identified as being shared between all the activities listed:

- They’re all motivated by a clearly defined and obvious need.

- The online activities required we visit specific web services.

- In order to really get the most value from our online activities multiple repetitions over a period of a few weeks were required.

- A certain portion of the time we invested turned out to be a dismal waste.

- All the activities we engaged in required us to aggregate and analyze the data.

The bottom line is that although the Web saved us the effort of getting out of the house to do our research, our online shopping experience turned out to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, not much more than a digitally enhanced bargain hunt. Moreover, when the value of the time my girlfriend and I invested in the purchase is added to the price we paid for the stroller we bought, our purchase, regretfully, ceases to be anything that can even remotely be classified as a “bargain”…
Shopping on the Semantic Web may well be a very different experience.

The Semantic Web Stroller Hunt

A key element to remember about an ideal Semantic Web is that it’s a web of data where everything is perfectly defined and linked, and moreover all the data is structured and accessible to computers. When all the data about everything is available online and accessible to computers shopping becomes a task requiring not much more than the indication of intent. The research, price comparisons, bidding all become completely automated.

Here’s a vision of what shopping for a stroller might look like on the Semantic Web:

Being pregnant has an effect on both my girlfriend’s, and my own online activities: Tagged pictures of my girlfriend’s pregnant belly are uploaded to Flickr for far away friends to see, gripes about morning sickness start appearing in our Tweets feeds and Facebook status alerts, we both begin subscribing to feeds from parenting sites, etc.

As our due date approaches the volume of these pregnancy related activities steadily increases.

Each one of our actions by itself is nearly inconsequential, but to all-aggregating and all-reasoning Semantic Web the cumulative effect of all of them combined means only one thing: we’re pregnant and ripe for pregnancy related content and… advertising.

Unlike the advertising we experience today the advertising my girlfriend and I are targeted with takes into account our unique needs and circumstances: We’re only offered stuff likely to be within our price range and supplied by vendors shipping to our region. Our online purchases influence the advertising we’re receiving as well: Ads for items we’ve already purchased are removed and replaced with ads for items that compliment and augment the stuff we’ve already bought.

The sum total of the experience is one in which instead of us having to hunt for baby items the Semantic Web makes sure they hunt for us…

How to prepare for Shopping 3.0

A key element of preparing for the Semantic Web is to remember that the best Semantic Web technologies are only as good as the data they can access. If you want to enjoy the best that Semantic Web technologies have to offer be prepared to make A LOT of information about yourself available online. A great place to start is your Facebook profile. If you want to get the most from the future of Semantic Web shopping I suggest you begin by flesing out your profile as much as you possibly can. The reason I suggest you begin with Facebook in particular is because you’ve probably already got a profile there already and, whether you like or not, Facebook is already making your information available to other services via it’s API. The Facebook API grants access to the following details about any and every Facebook member (this is a very partial list):

- Location

- Gender

- Sexual preference

- Marital status

- Employment history

- Likes – books, films, music, etc.

- Fan pages the member belongs to

Despite current criticism over Facebook’s failings in regards to monetizing, the information they have is without doubt a veritable treasure trove of personal information just waiting to be commercialized.Whatever the future has in store for us in terms of Semantic Web there can be little doubt that the Facebook API will have an important part to play in it.

Hunting for bargains - a thing of the past? (image by avlxyz)

What about privacy?

I’m fully aware that those of you who are touchy about privacy are probably scandalized by my last suggestion. Right about now you’re probably thinking: “What? make stuff about me publicly available online? What are you nuts?!?”.Luckily while writing this post I ran into an excellent article titled “How much is your privacy worth?“. The article, written by Eric Harber, does an excellent job of presenting the Semantic Web consumers’ paradigm, and moreover illuminates that there’s little that’s new about it. The articles main premise is that we’ve been trading our privacy in for perks and benefits for yearsand therefore there can be little doubt that we’ll continue to do so in the future. Mr. Harber argues that every loyalty club we’ve ever subscribed to, every coupon we’ve ever cashed and every marketing survey we’ve ever particiapted in all stand as examples of cases where we’ve voluntarily surrendered some of our privacy for a perk offered by a marketer.

Our wish to safeguard our privacy is understandable but the simple truth is that in this data driven day and age privacy is increasingly an illusion. More and more of our daily activities are monitored, individually or in aggregate, whether we’re aware of it or not. The data collected is already being put to use in advertising whether obviously or less so. This trend will increase as the quality of data and the ability to analyze it continue to improve.

Semantic Web shopping will be Opt-in

To me there’s something very comforting about the knowledge that this process of cashing in my privacy for perks isn’t new. It means that the practices and policies that need to be developed in order to enable and regulate marketing on the Semantic Web have a solid base for reference, one that not only takes consumers’ privacy into account, but also gives it a paramount importance. There can be no doubt that the Semantic Web will usher in a new age that will change not only our understanding of what consists of “private information” but also what may be done with it. As was the case with this same dilemma in the past, ultimately legal frameworks will be created that will ensure that a consumers right to privacy is protected and that receiving marketing offers remain an opt-in experience (Anti spam legislation being a prime example).

If you’re skeptic that the legal aspect alone won’t be enough to enforce the sanctity of consumer privacy I submit to you the following argument – companies that abuse privacy will suffer such a backlash from consumers and create such splitting PR headaches for themselves that the practice will quickly become unprofitable. At worst we’ll have to deal with the Semantic Web version of Viagra spam…

Epilogue

Progress is inevitable therefore it becomes the collective responsibility of both marketers and consumers to define to what extent the trade-off between privacy and purchasing perks creates value for all the stakeholders involved. The laws of economics will eventually guarantee that imbalanced models will slowly die out leaving us with those that we not only can, but also want to, live with. After experiencing first hand how inefficient online shopping really is I personally would be happy to divulge information about myself if it would save me all the time I spent searching for that perfect stroller… ; )

Mobile Advertising: Maybe Next Year …or the Year After That

Greg Stuart @ gregstuart.com

For nearly a decade now I’ve been hearing, “This is the year for mobile advertising.” However, based on recent polling research I suspect the mobile industry has a bigger, underlying problem that that will greatly slow its adoption: Even advertisers hate the idea of ads on their phones.

In polls conducted with more than 2,000 visitors to Adweek.com, developed in conjunction with research provider Vizu, research showed that 76 percent of advertising types said, “Over my dead body” would they be willing to receive advertising on their cell phones. Only 15 percent said “Yes,” but it was a qualified “yes,” requiring permission. And these were ad people being surveyed, not general consumers.

As former CEO of the IAB, I believe I learned a thing or two about what it takes to create a new medium and garner advertising industry support.

First, know that I believe in the vitality of mobile advertising because I think it has a compelling, unique selling proposition and the power of locality — a new way for advertisers to target and bring relevance to their advertising messages. Mobile has many other strengths, including: interactivity; the fact that it’s personal (and will hopefully be personalized); its omnipresence (which, while unique, could also be accomplished with media mix); and its ability to do sight, sound and motion, with which marketers tend to be enamored.

As a marketer, I’d really want to be looking at those elements, in particular the USP, to figure out how they can be leveraged to get a competitive advantage for my brand. And it’s best to do that now, before my competition figures it out.

Today, cell phones and other devices already have a major audience. In the same research, we found that 77 percent of Adweek.com’s readers have a cell phone, 63 percent have a Blackberry or BB-like device and 72 percent have an iPod or similar device. It makes you wonder if the ubiquity and familiarity of mobile might be working against itself.

Plus, it’s not like advertisers don’t use the standard “medium” feature of their phones. Fifty percent of Adweek.com’s readers said they access the Internet on their cell phone at least once a week and 35 percent of those said they do it every day.

Additionally, 49 percent take business calls “anytime” and another 14 percent said they take calls from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thirty-one percent said they check their Blackberries until 11 p.m. and 22 percent said they check them all night. Finally, 63 percent said they text every day.

The data surely suggest this is not a medium that’s going to die from lack of reach, low usage or not having a USP. No, this is a medium that the most important consumers in the world, the advertisers, prefer not to be tainted with ads.

In my last Adweek.com piece I highlighted that the rate of ad blocking on the Internet is out of control and DVRs in TV land are demonstrating that consumers are fed up with advertising’s practices. Mobile is apparently suffering from contempt (as a medium) prior to execution.

I suspect that marketers, at some level, are afraid their own typical spray & pray approach used in other media might be applied to this much more personal medium.

I often get asked to speak on how we can avoid making the same mistakes the Internet made, to which I answer the following.

First, a new medium needs to prove not just its advertising effectiveness, but its cost effectiveness versus other options. Mobile hasn’t done this in the way that it needs to yet, and it needs to look beyond the value of a click, which the Internet was way too slow to address.

Second, as the new kid on the block, mobile needs to make sure an agency makes a profit in working within the medium, which requires there to be good operational processes, integrated technology to their other systems, common measurement, consistent nomenclature and, most importantly, standards across the board. Mobile appears to have just gotten started in these areas.

Third, mobile needs to figure out ubiquitous and compelling ad units that invite creative exploration. In 2003, the IAB announced the death of the 468 x 60 banner not because the banner didn’t work, but because creatives didn’t like it.

Fourth and most challenging is it needs to figure out how to minimize the inherent challenge of fragmentation at various levels including different carrier systems, different handsets, different software, If TV acted like mobile and every cable network (or cable system) and every TV set was different, then clearly TV advertising spending would not be over $50 billion today. Mobile must deal with the fragmentation of its medium and complexity at every level. These are not small issues.

But in the end, I think the most important lesson learned is not to let your medium get to the place, like Internet advertising did, where anyone thinks pop ups and other consumer-offensive activity are OK. Resist ads like punch the monkey or flashing screens so irritating that some in the U.K. believed the medium could trigger epileptic fits. Don’t let the phrase, “But it’s effective,” be a defense for irritating the consumer.

So my big lesson learned for Mobile?

Fight to the death those who want to use/abuse the medium for short-term gain but long-term loss, even if a marketer. Attack any entity trying to participate in mobile who disrespects the consumer or outright annoys them. Aggressively protect consumer trust, whether it be around issues of privacy or other issues of transparency to consumer.

Here’s a twist on the famous David Ogilvy quote that the customer is your wife: For new media like mobile, the customer is your advertiser. Act accordingly.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE ADWEEK.COM POLL RESULTS

Is semantic technology helping ads? Hardly

Former president of IAB, Greg Stuart, says semantic technology isn't close to improving targeting

"The promise of semantics is to bring a level of intelligence [to advertising]," said former Interactive Advertising Bureau President Greg Stuart. "It’s not quite there... advertising based on semantic technology isn't even close to improving targeting."

I ran into Stuart at the 2009 Semantic Technology conference. Stuart was on a couple panels discussing semantics as it applies to advertising and publishing. Stuart also headed the IAB, an organization that creates standards for the online advertising industry. So, who better to talk to about whether advertising was getting smarter - in other words better targeted - with the integration of semantic technology?

In software, semantic technology essentially provides a layer of meaning-centered code on top of existing technologies. In other words, software should realize that someone reading an article about gaming company Digital Chocolate probably isn't interested in an advertisement for Ghirardelli chocolates. This has been a problem that advertising companies have been trying to solve for a long time. They still don't have it right and semantic technology hasn't helped, according to Stuart.

Stuart, who happens to also be an angel investor, and who's also seeking an operational role at an advertising or media-related startup, says he hasn't found that billion-dollar-semantic idea yet.

See this video on Vator.tv »

Panel: Semantic Advertising Roundtable

by Semantic Universe

"If we leave Advertising to Advertiser's, They kill the business"
"Over 37% of US ad-spending is wasted"

Panel: Semantic Advertising Roundtable from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

Bacardi Fails With Get Ugly Girlfriend Campaign

Matthijs Roumen @ viralblog

Bacardi launched a website in order to promote their beverage, the Bacardi Breezer. While creative directors of the Israeli agency McCann Digital thought this approach would be fun for their target audience, most likely to be influentials in female peer groups, they totally missed the point and failed deeply with their campaign “Get An Ugly Girlfriend!”.

What happened? And why did this campaign ended up like something familiar that happened to Motrin (see the article: The Motrin Case: The Voice Of The Crowd, right here on ViralBlog). Lets have a closer look at the campaign.

To start of with a hard statement: creativity isn’t what is used to be. Instead of targeting it on an individual, your campaign is being judged by a tribe of peers, who look critically as a mass to the message you try to bring to them.

Your message has to land clearly. Perhaps, this ad could have been a hit 10 years ago. If Bacardi launched it back then, the message could have come clean to a small group ofcrowd leaders. The ones who lead offline groups and are being respected by the rest of the group. Less communication in between the members and a big believe in the group leader; the one who pushes the message down the pyramid. If this leader loves the message, it’ll spread.

But now there is no more pyramid. It’s a sphere of peers, communicating as a tribe. No leadership, so every individuals opinion counts just as heavy. There is mutual respect for opinions from peers in any social sphere. If a message like this is disliked by a few of these individuals, the rest of the group reviews it once more.

So make sure you’ll let your creative message being tested by a tribe, not by a crowd. Aim for individual opinions in a tribe, not individual opinions in a crowd.

The campaign also caught a lot of traction on Search, Twitter and blogs.

Of course the buzz on Twitter and blogs caught the attention of Bacardi, who came with the following statement;

“Thank you for taking the time to post your story on Bacardi Breezer.

The campaign you are referring to ran in 2008 for two months in Israel. Even though Bacardi Breezer is not sold or distributed in the United States, we immediately notified the appropriate Bacardi affiliate and had this website shut down.

Bacardi proudly celebrates diversity and we do not endorse the views of this site. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by this site and thank you for bringing it to our attention.