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Another little attempt from a brand to tell interesting stories, not necessarily about itself. Societe Generale has created Bankers’ Stories. Very different from what Amex offers, but unique in its own way. We are not really sure if they had to rely on flash and streaming video to do what they have. But there are beautiful little stories in French (English subtitles) here. Take your own call by dropping by at Bankers’ Stories.
If you want to see the power of a brand or a corporate blog, head over to Amex Openforum. Wonderful magazine style website designed to help small businesses, the core target of Amex Open, how to get better at the things they do. With articles and stories in finance, innovation, marketing, leadership and management, the place is choco-bloc with inspiration for someone who wants to do better in business. The forum has interviews and stories featuring many luminaries in the business including, Sir Richard Branson, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and more. If there’s a way for a brand to use the web to help their core customers get better at what they do, Amex is surely showing us how. Amex OpenForum more.
For the 10 million or so unbanked in the US, there’s a new way to get paid. Instead of converting a paycheck into cash, prepaid cards let users pour it into a piece of branded plastic. One of the new players in the space is Prepaid Visa RushCard, the product is a partnership between Unifund (a company best known for buying up and collecting on bad debts) and Russell Simmons, a founder of Def Jam records and the Phat Farm apparel brand. Simmons devised the card because he “thinks everyone should be financially empowered. Ram Palaniappan, general manager of RushCard thinks that the cards are meant to offer the “dignity” of inclusion to consumers otherwise left at the margins of American money culture. While RushCard is not new, it’s been around since 2003, looks like a product that’s sure to do well in these downtimes. More in NY Times.
A wonderful little series in the Financial Times UK on the current crisis that has enveloped the world. A global story whose tentacles spread from the US sub-prime mortgage market to the City of London, Iceland, Russian oligarchs, Dubai property barons and numerous other actors. The aim of the special report is to offer readers an unfolding narrative, as well as a broader perspective on a crisis which shook the western model of market capitalism to its foundations. A must read feature that includes articles from George Soros, FT economist Martin Wolfe, David Blake former asset manager at Goldman Sachs and Gillian Tett, the FT’s award-winning capital markets editor. Click here for.
Katie Newlin helps consumers understand how the biggest retailers in the world use information about people who shop in their stores to sell them more.
Martin Lindstrom
Author and Advertising Age editor Martin Lindstrom spent millions of dollars to peep into consumers brains on exactly why they buy. Why showing gory images on packs of cigarettes actually makes people smoke more. How some brands work in the same way as religion does. And how indirect advertising does really work. Read the book chapter by chapter online here.
1. Create integrated marketing and communications strategy
2. Deploy live ‘listening posts’ online and offline
3. Design and deploy an advanced search engine optimization program
4. Plan and run a new media relations program inclusive of head-of-the-tail and long tail “media”
5. Identify & engage with influencers online and offline
6. Manage communities
7. Integrate new technologies into their own lives
8. Model measurement and performance metrics including new “engagement” metrics
9. Run quick pilot programs and evaluate on-the-fly
10. Train staff and clients continuously
11. Participate in conversations, not just ‘messaging’
12. Create and execute content strategy including video programming (hifi and lowfi)
13. Use digital crisis management
From the Digital Influence blog.
Monetising content on YouTube, there are many experiments going on out there, as both established media entities and the up-and-coming users try to learn from each other. Amateur users are creating narrative arcs and once-a-week videos, enticing viewers to visit regularly. Some are also adding product-placement spots to their videos. Matt Buckley is one who seems to have found a working formula, having recently quit his full time day job to focus on his niche online show called What The Buck Show that focuses on celebrity humour. Matt invested less than $3000 to get his show going in the summer of 2006 is now reportedly earning $ 100,000 a month from advertisers. There are others earning equally impressive numbers. Cory Williams, of smpfilms earns between $17,000 to $20,000 a month. With half the money coming from an ad sharing arrangement he has with YouTube. Matt is now exploring the possibility of doing a show with HBO. But he thinks that people who have cut their teeth in the online space should not abandon the medium because they have found new opportunities on networks. More from The Times.
In their attempt to get consumers to look at unnecessary products and services as relevant to them, some marketers and advertisers have, over the years, invented diseases and medical conditions that never really existed. Yes! Ipana Toothpaste for collapsed capillaries. Royal Typewriters, for people who suffer from shift key fatique, while working typewriters. Here is a small list. Also an interesting article on how advertising can ruin your health. The scourge continues to this day, with some people blaming the pharmaceutical industry for using humdrum medical information to make the industry more relevant and profitable.
Here’s more on an attempt to rebrand medicine.
Do the colour, font, image and message of the ad induce online visitors to click ads? A new bunch of companies are trying to find out just this. They are creating hundreds of versions of clients’ online ads, changing these basic elements to see what combination draws clicks on a particular site or from a specific audience. Two companies, Adisn and Tumri are trying to find out, for example, if an ad for a baby supply store is more popular with young mothers when it features a bottle instead of diapers. They have the technology to assemble ads on the fly and have them come up when people are searching. For example for their work on cleaning brand Simple Green, if it’s a woman looking at a kitchen with a stainless steel refrigerator, they can show a stainless steel product. While a basic use of the concept could help identify which version of the ad works best, what advertisers are finding is that the appropriate ad is not static, and changes all the time as content on the page changes. Read more in Ny Times. Also in Wired Magazine, Online advertising. Survival of the fittest. If you are still reading this story, you may want to check out Yahoo Smart Ads.
