At Friday October 19th and Saturday 20th I was host at Marktplein DM. This was the fifth time the event took place. It was my third time as a host. Earlier I already attended as a speaker. In total I visited Maastricht almost annually for direct marketing related events for about 17 years now! That makes me part of the ‘old chaps network’ that was causing a bit of a stir (later on this more).
For now please feel free to download the presentations of the speakers here.
Blog Action Day is an initiative in which bloggers all over the world are asked to blog on a specific day (October 15th) on just one issue/subject: the environment. I enlisted with DR | ADV already and now I’m part of a (growing) network of 9.203 blogs (and counting…). In total these blogs reach the stunning amount of 6,796,283 persons.
I really like this initiative. Because it shows the longtail-effect of blogging in such a clear way. Also because I’m very curious HOW all these bloggers are going to write about the subject. Will they integrate it in their blog’s editorial framework? Or will they – just on this day – ignore their format? I choose the first option. There is plenty of time to thing on a subject. But please be my guest and let me know how you would link the environment with Direct Response Advertising. Watch the video on Blog Action Day here.
Update: Oops… October 15th gone by and I didn’t even notice it. So much for this nice initiative. But I think I’ve got an item up my sleeve. And what the heck: this issue is too important to just stick it to one specific day! Don’t you agree?
Dutch company Overtoom (sort of Office Depot) is back on radio with spots that still promote their claim on quickness. That’s simple consistent advertising. But now they’ve gone multichannel! In the spot a man can be heard asking for a ‘poeremetator’. This word doesn’t exist. Not even in Dutch… The story behind this is, that Overtoom wanted people (that listened to the spot that was on air in a high frequency) to Google the strange word. What you get is this: 89.100 hits at the moment of writing! Smart!
The (still) Dutch bank ABN AMRO recently took the news with a strategic report on the media in The Netherlands. In this report the bank sketches a lot of scenarios that might become reality in the (near) future. A lot of remarks were made why a bank as ABN AMRO would bother creating such a report. ABN AMRO themselves replied that a lot of clients of the bank are active in the media and they consider it their duty to investigate the sector. Sharing of this knowledge seems naturally. The criticism from the communication industry was on the content of the report: a lot of clichés, no real insights, common knowledge. In fact the publication is no scoop. Competitor Rabobank used to send out sector reports often.
My first thought however was: how come that the Bank’s analysts do not share their knowledge with the people responsible for spending the communication budget? Recently ABN AMRO bragged about their participation in Second Life (the world’s quietest bank office probably). But then again: this initiative generated a lot of free publicity in itself. In that perspective the effect of the virtual venture itself is quite irrelevant…
A very interesting discussion on the Dutch website of Adformatie: although a bit dated already, I stumbled upon it just a few days ago. In the comments on the article “How does User Generated Content (UGC) work exactly?”, people are trying to find out what the critical (success) factors are for advertiser instigated UGC-initiatives. In order to try to define UGC, they separate the different forms of UGC you can find online nowadays. First there are initiatives like Flickr, YouTube, MySpace and others that thrive and exist by UGC. This also includes the popular blogs that gain their popularity mainly because of the huge amount on comments they are able to generate (=UGC). These type of UGC-sites are the drivers that started the UGC-movement that made TIME Magazine put YOU on the cover of their “Person Of The Year”-issue. Then there are the UGC-initiatives that are in instigated by advertisers: the first being well thought of platforms that facilitate UGC in relation to the brand (or product). The second is the more opportunistic approach of bundling already existing UGC on the brand/product in order to (try to) channel this content in a favorable way.
Most important conclusion apart from this ‘fine-tuning’ discussion is the fact that UGC is considered more than a hype that it is often considered to be (still). In fact, the discussion tries to pinpoint the different forms of UGC in a commercial context in order to try to define the do’s-and-dont’s of ‘using’ UGC-concepts in a marketingcommunication-context. This is an effort that I think is sensible. The discussion on Adformatie ended before it really got going. Which is a pity. I’ll try to follow the discussion on other placed and will get in contact with the discussion starter (Jos van Liempd) is order to find out whether or not he succeeded in narrowing things down a bit. In the meantime, I’m really interested what you consider successful examples of UGC. Shoot!
Update September, 21st 2007: Thanks to Jos, I received this link that contains a ‘must-read’ for all the Dutch(speaking) folks out there. Also see the comments for this link.
The initiative of Dutch broadcaster BNN caused some stir. Not only within The Netherland, but also abroad: here (BBC), here (ABC) and here (France24) amongst others. Just do a Google-search on “Dutch Donor Show” and be astonished by the results (894.000)… In short: BNN said to air a show in which a very ill patient (kidney failure) would compete for a donor kidney. Afterwards the transplant would be arranged.
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In the movie above – made possible by Verizon in order to sell their broadband products – me, myself and I are the hero. Oh, and some aliens also… By uploading a simple portrait (made by cellphone, on the fly) I was able to star in a self-assembled movie. Picking storylines, scripts, props and speech snippets, the movie was made for me. When done, I received a link to watch the movie. A nice example of personalization. Not by name, but by face. And yes, I can use a hairdo! But don’t you like the car? I wonder if Aston Martin paid for this in-script sponsoring…
Young adults read more consumer magazines than older people, according to a summer 2006 study by McPheters & Co. cited in MediaDaily News.
In the six months prior to the study, respondents said they had read an average of 29.3 specific magazine issues. Adults ages 19 to 24 read an average of 30.9 issues, and 25-to-34-year-olds read an average of 33.3 issues. Readership declined after age 34, and those 65 and older had read an average of only 25 issues in the previous six months.
John McPheters of McPheters & Co. said young adults “reported that they read a larger number of both different magazine titles and specific magazine issues than their older counterparts.
“This evidence speaks directly to the growing concern that younger audiences are abandoning the hard-copy magazines for the Internet and other forms of media. It simply has not happened.”
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