Last summer I got on a train leaving Stockholm for Gothenburg. Together with freelancing project manager, planner and colleague Caroline Karlström I had a meeting set up with diving brand Poseidon. This was the start of a project where I truly had the opportunity to work with all aspects of branding and creative communication.
A dream project.
Ingvar Elfström, the founder of Poseidon back in 1958.
The Background
Back in 1958 this brand was founded by a young Swedish diver, Ingvar Elfström. Since then the brand has become famous for unique, different and great products. However over the last couple of years they’ve lost speed when it comes to innovation and marketing initiatives.
But then something happened. The company was bought by a small group of investors three years back. Headed by visionaire Kurt Sjöblom they set out on a journey – to develop the first ever automated rebreather for recreational divers.
This was why we were there. About a year from launch Kurt and his team felt they needed to do something about the brand. And after a successful meeting that actually started with me diving [click to continue…]
Winning clients is hard. Keeping them over time is even harder. Many of you might read this blog in order to do just that – win and keep clients. Then let me share my point of view on the subject.
How to hit your target
Innovation is what awards you with new accounts.
This is key. If your in a pitch situation you will not win by simply telling the client about your process, thoughts on strategy etc. The client have decided to try new blood and that means he/she wants just that – new blood. You will win clients by showing your [click to continue…]
Where are we all heading. Where will we settle, MySpace, Facebook or Twitter? What technology will win? Will we all become iPhone owners or stick to Nokia? PC or Apple? When will we be pleased?
Brands are spending millions and millions in order to understand where people are settling down. Once that knowledge is secured they spend even more millions to develop a presence. But once people move on to another place and another community the same brands have a hard time turning their battleships around.
In order to develop a long term strategy for online communication brands have to understand that no technology will actually win. No community will be ‘the one’ community. We’re merely a population consisting of digital settlers moving from land to land trying to find the next gold rush. Once we find it we dig until there’s no more gold to be found or the place becomes so crowded that we cannot see the gold anymore. Then we move on. Some people stay behind and eventually turn lonely. But as time goes by even they will once again turn into settlers and move on to a new place where they can once again prosper.
Of course today the gold is conversation and the place is anywhere the tribe can prosper.
The digital world makes it easier than ever for consumers to keep moving from one land to another and that’s why brands have to do get ready to do the same. For the last 50 years it’s been about TV, Print and of course other channels. It’s been easy for marketeers to follow tribes or what we until now have defined as target groups. Now the power has shifted and we’re moving from place to place, technology to technology and user behavior to user behavior. So, brands have to do the same.
If you’re a CEO of a company trying to fight your way to the jungle. Don’t stick with one map and one path. Send out trackers constantly. Find new unique places that hasn’t yet been discovered cause one thing you can be sure of is – where there’s gold there will be people. In order to find those hidden gems you’ve gotta try out everything that comes your way. It’s all about being interested in the unknown and being able to filter the information. In other words – reorganize the way your company is working and get rockin’!
Six Degrees yesterday – Facebook today. ICQ yesterday – MSN & Twitter today. Tomorrow? Who knows. But one things for sure – follow the leaders cause they’ll show you where the next party is or become one yourself.
(quite a strange philosophical post but then again I’m on my way to a strange and philosophical meeting)
Whatever you do online, make sure you provide a value that is relevant to people who might want to use your service. By doing so you’ll generate more traffic, more buzz and finally a higher SEO ranking.
Box UK, a web consultancy agency, are living by this simple rule. The blog on their website is filled with ideas on how to succeed with your online presence. The old school marketing generation would say their giving their competence away. I beg to differ. One of the problem when it comes to digital communication is the competence on the buying side. Most brands won’t buy what they don’t understand. So either you lower yourselves to their level or educate them and thereby also provide a value.
One of Box latest post is an excellent one. It’s called ‘Monetizing your Web App: Business Model Options’.
Box has listed what they believe are the most successful ways to generate money from web applications. They’ve then taken their own list of possibilities and analyzed Webware 100 Top Web Apps for 2008. The conclusion then becomes a great check box model for monetizing your web apps.
The chart above shows the results of their survey: 34% use Advertising, 12% a Variable Subscription model, and 8% each for Virtual Products (typically digital downloads), Related Products (typically a large software company offering a free product to attract you to their platform) and Pay-Per-Use.
So, the question is. Do you wanna challenge the leaders within advertising financed sector or maybe penetrate the not yet so exploited areas?
Results?
- They’ve provided their visitors with a great relevant value that will drive traffic, generate comments and create positive SEO effects.
- Kevin Kelly, one of the worlds most respected digital gurus then picked it up.
- Then it’s spread all over the world and I among many other will talk about it.
- We all then drive trafic back to BOX.
Thanks Box for a great post!
Let me break it to you right away – the old way of planning and executing communication is slowly sinking into the ocean of well paid consultants that doesn’t do shit for your brand and the best you can do is throw yourselves into the lifeboats, get your ass to land and then find something else that makes your brand travel – and it’s not another boat.
You see, in order to paddle on to this new wave of communication you’ve gotta get different gear, different muscles and find new spots and this requires totally new ways of thinking. It’s not really about finding better creatives, cause the creative people out there are top notch, that’s not what I’m saying – I’m talking about choosing problem [click to continue…]
There’s a blog called NeuroscienceMarketing. Don’t know if you read it, but every now and then they got some great insights on marketing. The other day Roger Dooley posted a short piece the other day called ‘Offer a third choice, boost sales’ that made me notice his first post ‘Decoy Marketing’.
Decoy marketing is about the fact that a brand tend to get better result if you offer your target group three choices instead of two. Roger gives you lots of examples. One of the better one is from a test with subscriptions to the magazine The Economist. In the example two groups of subjects were given the option to choose a subscription. One group was offered two choices. The other one three.
Offer A:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (68 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (32 chose)
Predicted Revenue – $8,012
Offer B:
$59 – Internet Only Subscription (16 chose)
$125 – Print Only Subscription (0 chose)
$125 – Internet and Print Subscription (84 chose)
Predicted Revenue – $11,444
Conclusion – The predicted revenue jumped 43% due to the introduction of a third choice.
Something to think about for you brand owners out there.
Read the full post here, here and here.
Mashable directed me to this great presentation by French consulting agency Fabernovel.
If you’re looking for insights on Google – this is it. In 34 slides Fabernovel has dissected the secrets behind Googles plan to take over the world. Reading this doesn’t only give you an insight into Google, but also into how to think when growing your business online. Red-it, favorized on slideshare and blogged it!
Stuck on Arlanda airport on my way to London. Its pretty f*#n snowy so my plane is delayed. Sooner or later I’ll get there though!
As I’m browsing some feeds I noted that Anton had bookmarked a case study by Amber/Altitude. The case study is basically an Interview with Scott Monty the head of social media at Ford Motor Company, where we get some good insights on how Ford approaches Social Media. Its well worth a read!
My favorite quote is:
First off, I strongly believe in the need to put strategy first. The tools are immaterial. What’s hot today may not be hot tomorrow.
True, true!
Note! Ford Motor’s got a Head of Social Media. How many brands got that?
