adland ireland

We are moving

2010-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

Finally I have gotten round to a proper domain hosting thingummy. You will find the new posts (and these old ones, so you can tootle off now) at adlandireland.com

Rory Sutherland at IAPI on Behavioural Economics

2010-05-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

Wonderful insights (I am going to minimise my use of the word insights soon, I promise. It's the internet thief's way of saying I'm gonna steal your routine.) from Ogilvy UK veepee Rory Sutherland. This is the TED version of the same talk he delivered in the National Gallery last Wednesday for IAPI's AdFx 2010 series.

Marketing needn't be big and expensive to make a lasting impression, and he gives some inspiring and funny examples of how to do it.

Portfolio Night at Ogilvy

2010-05-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

A brand apart: Inishturkbeg

2010-05-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to The Persuaders for introducing me to the story of Inishturkbeg island a couple of weeks back. It's in Clew Bay in Mayo, not far from Westport, and it's the passion and dream of Nadim Sadek, who has built the entire island experience as a brand. That definition makes it sound far too small though. It's an artists' retreat, a stud farm, a purveyor of high-end quality foods and products and a weekend getaway (handy if you've got the €10k overnight asking price, but you can at least bring 39 of your fave friends with you).

It's a brand catering very much to the upper end of the market. Sadek comes from a research background but has very firmly gone against the research grain in many ways. Simple little things, like not actually showing their smoked salmon in its pack but instead designing packaging to show rich island photography, reiterating the brand essence at every turn. He's done a huge amount of thinking about the project, knows the essence of what he's created inside out yet readily admits that he is far from certain about where it will end up.

I'm not aware of any other luxury brands that are pushing the boat out anywhere in TRT, let alone in the West of Ireland, but Sadek has charisma and vision, and the effort that's gone into this brand is huge. You won't see it easily because it is talking exclusively to the corporate and First 10,000 market of London and beyond, and it's not doing so with any traditional marketing. Lean Mean Fighting Machine have recently been tasked with taking Inishturkbeg into the world, and they've got the online nous to do it.

The sprawl of the Inishturkbeg brand is a wonderful experiment in marketing, certainly not like anything else I've seen. The commercial nature of it, while essential, certainly doesn't take over from the artistic endeavour of what the place is about. Not sure I'll have the sponds to stay anytime soon though.

Thanks to Alex Gibson for the evening, and all at the v snazzy dylan.

Losing your Big Job in Advertising

2010-05-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

It’s not nice for anyone, but if you’re a parent with young kids (ie me) the primal thought that floods the mind when you hear that awful ‘We’re sorry…’ from upper management is How am I going to make sure the kids have shelter? Big picture stuff.

So for what it’s worth, if you’re living under the fear of that, or maybe already in the reality of it, here are my Guaranteed Tips to Surviving the Apocalypse™.

1. Be scared.

Absolutely, for now. You are disrupting the ingrained patterns of a career, possibly a professional lifetime, and that doesn’t happen any animal without a natural degree of terror. The panic is the adjustment period. It is intense, but it will pass, and while it is present know that it is not wrong or counter-productive. It will be followed by a sense of shame, by the way, with a dollop of inadequacy and a sprinkling of hundreds and thousands of humiliations. Ignore all those. Trust me, there is life after the R word.

2. There was no safety net.

I woke up and stared with sickening dread into the maw of blackness, I will admit, where once no darkness had been. But enough of the poetics. Just because you had it good for a while, and got lulled by the consistency of a rather nice monthly pay cheque, don’t assume that that is a norm for anyone in this line of work. It actually never was. For a while I pined after that security, the blank-minded ability to trust in someone higher up the food chain. There is no security, not in an advertising agency. And once you get used to that idea (it happens sooner than you’d think) it can feel quite liberating. This is you and your wits, and soon enough it will make you see opportunities that you didn’t even consider before.

3. Use the raw materials around you at this moment.

When you've been made redundant you'll usually still have a couple of weeks or even a month with the support system of an office. Use every second to plan what happens next. Use the backup of having a photocopier, free broadband, a list of email contacts, production facilities, paper clips. Within reason, your soon-to-be ex boss will be pliable on these issues. My entire company folded. I had no idea what I would do next for work, but I used the opportunity and a precious chunk of redundancy money to make them an offer for furniture. I got kitting the home office out with some great desks, lockers, storage cabinets and chairs for a tenth of the price it would otherwise have cost. It felt odd. But only for three seconds. After that it felt like the beginnings of a plan.

4. Think short term solutions.

Not what happens next month, or next year. Baby steps now. Strategise. See point 2 above? Sign on the dole, and set yourself an early exit date. Redundancy money in an ad agency will net you a pathetic max of €1,200 for each year of your employment. You'll whizz through that pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, have you put your portfolio together? If you’re a creative you absolutely have no excuse. Get it together, and when you're at it knock up a few creative ways to get your foot in the next door, stud. You are now your own next brief. The Clio Award is dinner. If you’re in Client Service or Planning or Media, get your CV together. Got case studies you’re proud of? Awards that you can even tangentially lay claim to? Keep notes of all your advantages and write, and rewrite, your CV until you are happy. Then tear it up and write it again in a way that would make an interviewer happy. Give it to recruitment agencies. Don’t bullshit. That worked once upon a time, but our industry is much more picky now.

5. Network your sweet ass off.

There will be a small window when there is a reservoir of good will amongst people towards you and your plight. This will pass because everyone is in the firing line in trad media just now, and also because people can only remember tragedy for so long and then there’s lunch. Use the moment well, let as many people as possible know that you are ‘entering the workforce of the employable’ and ask them to keep eyes, ears and email open for you. Do not be fussy. If someone needs cover for a receptionist or if there’s an art director on holiday for a fortnight, jump in there if you’re lucky enough. Make the biggest impression you can while there. No, that doesn’t include sleeping with the boss.

Everything is networking. Are you on Linkedin? Get there if you're not, and if you are don't just sit there.There are several excellent groups with advertising/marketing content, free networking events and potential short-term contract work. Meet-ups, tweet-ups, web awards, happenings… they are all being attended by adventurers in new media, and like it or lump it, this is where you should be heading. Are you using Twitter to keep an eye on the industry? Does every email you send have your contact points all over the bottom of it? Have you printed your business card? It’ll take €15 or less to design your own and you will need them. I spent a month fooling myself that I worked mainly online now and didn’t - pschaw! – need a business card. I was a fucking idiot.

6. Professional bodies. Join them.

IAPI, the Marketing Institute, ICAD etc etc. This is also networking, and being seen is much more important for you when you don’t have the umbrella of a large organisation to stand under.

7. What is your core talent and how can you show that expertise to the world?

There are a lot of ways to get yourself positive media attention. Set up a YouTube channel offering free advice on direct marketing. Show someone the process of making a radio ad. Set up a blog (you’re reading the one that I set up to cope with redundancy right now) that offers some content that’s relevant to the people you are targetting. Write for business journals that are relevant to your area of smarts. Speak at open events like Ignite. Organise an event of your own if there’s a dearth of happenings in Planning or Media or Copywriting or whatever. Spice it with fun. Fun matters. It also makes you more memorable. Do not expect to get paid for any of these activities.

8. What about the company’s clients?

Have you approached them? Obviously, if you’ve been made redundant and your company is a going concern this is not an option. But if your company is going glug glug don’t waste the opportunity. There might be a continuity gap that needs plugging amongst some of those clients, and your experience may well gain you a critical few weeks of contract work there. Another trick I missed, and it took me quite a while to forgive myself, but that’s a different story.

9. Shyness. Get over it quickly.

Throughout much of my working life I sat at the end of the production line and did what I was told. Suddenly one day there was nobody to tell me. Except me. All the things that I had shied away from, all the awkward ‘I’ll have to justify this’ moments with clients were suddenly either going to have to involve me or not happen. And my kids still needed a roof, so they were going to have to happen.

10. Consider a new departure.

(Breathe in deeply. This is a biggie.) The model of advertising is in a state of flux. Despite the diehard opinion of a few in our old school, change is inevitable. Online communications are growing. Trad media budgets and options are shrinking. A few will be able to continue in the outdated fashion, in the same way that a few manufacturers will still produce those thermal fax paper rolls. Just not very many.

I looked long and hard at advertising and at my role within it when my company went down. I had 18 years of copywriting by that stage, and more big brand experience than I knew what to do with. I wasn’t a leading light in the firmament, I worked a lot of retail trench warfare, but I was steady hands. Given the recession, and the pinch that every agency was starting to feel, I was frankly unemployable and I knew it. If I was about to become a freelancer, in a city with more than enough tradvertising freelancers, I knew I’d need to start learning what was required for me to write to a new audience.

For a copywriter it’s different in some respects, but ultimately it’s the same. Good communication is the same in a banner ad, in a blog post, in online video, on a home page, as it is on a tv or radio ad or a 48 sheet or a DM piece. The gatekeepers happen to be younger agencies, and the topography of the possible is significantly wider, but it is eminently learnable, even by a dino like me. The only enemy is stasis. Let me repeat: THE ONLY ENEMY IS STASIS.

If you’re overwhelmed about where to start, particularly if you’ve had little or no exposure to online marketing, do not worry. We’re all learning. Pick a spot and begin. Get online. Start cruising relevant industry websites. Follow some local blogs. There is an army of them running down the right hand side of this post, all of them carrying info relevant to what’s going on in the Irish online marketing community. Refine these to what’s most relevant to your own skills base, because you will never keep up with all the content that’s coming at you. Learn to filter it. Find out what Google Reader is. Discover the joys of RSS. Start to discern between the myriad logos out there. It is important in advertising now, for instance, to know what the truly schizophrenic Facebook is up to at any given moment. No, not because of your skiing photos. Because your former clients will want to know how to advertise on it.

Here’s the secret I have been telling everyone for a couple of years now. I learned it by observation of both old and new ad agencies. There is a gap between the models. It is not the chasm it once was. There is a bridge over that gap. It is a one-way bridge. Oddly, digital agency people don’t want to cross from their side to the one where you just lost your job. But you can cross to theirs. And if you know enough to know that you have much to learn about their world, and if you can package all the experience that you now have in a way that allows the digital marketing community to use that precious knowledge, then you aren’t just a makeweight but a very valuable resource. Brand info is always valuable, whether you work as a suit or a creative. But you need to restructure your lego set if you want to continue in marketing.

Don't be scared by any of this for more than two, max three sleepless nights. Frankly, our shallow little world has never been more full of excitement and possibility. And because it's worth repeating twice, stasis is the only enemy.

The BBC Digital Discussion

2010-04-29T04:01:00.000-07:00

Popped along to the 2010 BBC Digital Discussion yesterday at the Westbury. Very glad I did too. It wasn't all the well clipped RP tones of the Home Service, and the BBC speaker had an unmistakably German accent, but the rest of the event was as calm, insightful and well organised as you'd expect from Auntie.

The event was scheduled for just the afternoon and has confirmed in my mind the benefits of non-full day seminars. I've no doubt that a massive amount of frantic behind-the-scenes work was done by Mark Tarbatt and the good folks at Generator to make it seem as effortless as it was for the crowd. Click On's Simon Cox chaired, Dörte Saltz outlined the new media opps that the Beeb (the non-commercial Beeb? I think not.) is introducing. There was an audible gasp inside everyone's imagination when she revealed that the oft-heard-of-but-never-actually-seen iPlayer for forreners would launch within 12 months. Sounds like we'll have to pay per view or subscribe. Gah. :(

After that, the business end of the talk, where short presentations were made by Ryan Keene at Audience Science and Richard Delevan, very newly former deputy MD of McConnells Integrated. The latter's in particular was more than timely, being an overview of online marketing in turbulent times. Kerplunk. I hope he puts it online, and if he does I will immediately pass it off as my own because it's an excellent Top Ten of things we ought to unlearn as online marketers. Deadpan funny deliverer of knowledge too. I was not the only one who thought so.

And then the panel. My overall impression from what was said by Mark Tarbatt, Mark Gilleran, Justin Cullen and the aforementioned Keene and Delevan was of a part of an industry that's been trying to validate itself for too long, and is now beginning to just get on with it. They kicked sand in my face, but boy when I sat down to play...

Cast of Oestrogen Ltd, shot entirely in iPhone OptiFuzz™

Experience, customer behaviour and the fact that the CEO's daughter tells dad that online is, like, waay important? are now moving the game along anyway. A very important - a very important - milestone in this process will be when the IAB sets up a proper analytical service for Ireland because, as Richard mythbusted, the truism that 'everything online is measurable' is a mega-untruism. The validation of numbers will help to convince quite a few cobwebby MDs and CEOs and various naysayers that this web thing might be around for a while.

Notes:
The hashtag stream is here.
The goodie bag was.
Musicella: Running away to join the Google circus just to avoid meeting me is extreme.

Boring old banners

2010-04-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

You've no doubt seen at least one of these. Same idea, and Pringles does it best of the two, but at least they're crediting viewer with some sort of brain.
Dunno why we can't explore some more energetic banner advertising in this neck of the woods. Some really good executions gathered at Bannerblog.

Brando and O2 shake the format up

2010-04-25T13:46:00.000-07:00

Nice to see a bit of subversion going on. Well done to Brando and their client for fiddling about with things.

Link found via Paul

57 channels? Oh you had no idea, boss...

2010-04-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last year ad spend in Ireland, in broadcast and print, came to about €1.25 billion. Online estimates are between €80 and €100 million. (Still only estimates but, we're told, soon to be measurable when the Interactive Advertising Bureau hits Ireland with its analytical service.) Despite the fact that traditional ads dwarf online spend, what was spent on them contracted by 25% last year. I don't think anyone can tell you what the increase was online, but it was at least as dramatic and altogether more positive.

For the trad agency model, the elephant in the ointment of internet-based advertising has always been how to make it pay. When Bruce sang that he had 57 channels and nothing on, even though it all seemed out of control, that was only in a Brett Easton Ellis kinda way. Truth was, it was infinitely controllable, both in media and production terms. And there was a nice layer of fat in there too for operators in the space. But the radical difference between online and offline media has been the empowerment. A word beloved of new-age meeja gurus, but appropriate nonetheless. Control has simply been taken by the people via their handycams and their phones. No need for actual high walls and perimeter guards around tall masts at broadcasting stations any more. Result? An explosion of content, most of it utter tosh, but quantities far in excess of anything that traditional advertising production could hope to keep up with. Not that that'll stop em making a viral for you.

Meanwhile the steady erosion of market share for TV channels, the prevalence of the Sky record button and the decline of print has blah blah blah. McConnells Advertising, it was announced yesterday, has been bought and will in time be streamlined and possibly subsumed into its new owner DDFH&B. More of that can be expected and, dare I chance saying it, encouraged. Because the old model is broke, it does need fixing and there is a multiplicity of ways in which it can be done.

Oh yes, my financey senses are tingling like mad this last week with the huge developments that are finally beginning to happen. Twitter has figured out how to include advertising. Foursquare seems to be genuinely getting people to use it creatively for branding purposes. Massive news from Apple too with the OS4 launch of iAd that looks like it might worry the socks off the advertising guys at Google.

I'm off to the energy store but when I come back I'll be planning in-depth, thoughtful, erudite and analytical pieces on each of these, and other, forays into paid online advertising. Either that or I will steal, slash and reassemble useful content from smarter people into some Frankenstinian monster that I'll present as my own.

Much like this post.

Idea matters

2010-04-07T02:28:00.000-07:00

A belting little ad for Natural Gas. Simplest of ideas, beautiful warmth.

With all respect to Vodafone, this one zings it right out of the camogie pitch.

The Big Switch Part 2

2010-04-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

A little bit of history

In February 2009 Bord Gais Energy started to talk directly with a few Irish bloggers. On the eve of their Big Switch launch they were interested in seeing how well that would play as part of their marketing push for the promotion. It wasn't anything too intense: an informal approach (via Damien Mulley) to tell the assembled (and mostly bemused) bloggers what they were planning. Just another promotional activity from a big Irish company is the gist of it. And pushing 160,000 conversions, the vast majority of them via the web, tells you fairly emphatically that it's been hugely successful.

A small part of that success has been the online engagement. They ran a nice chatty Twitter campaign to back up the activity of the promo, but with the amount of PR and ATL activity through solid work from DDFH&B, plus a no-brainer offer of a guaranteed minimum 10% saving over ESB prices, it was never going to fail. The question was, how well would it succeed?

That laptop theft

We know now, of course. But what wasn't foreseen was the bit of a PR disaster with customers and the online community that resulted from the theft of sensitive consumer data. With customers because it was their data, and with the online community because BGE's engagement, hitherto chummy, suddenly turned to static. The tweeting stopped and no real explanations were forthcoming for an extended period. When it came, it was through the usual channels, and not the direct, speedy interface of online engagement.
Companies have fires like this to contend with all the time, and BGE rode it out fairly well, all things considered. The arguably less important of the two issues, their nascent relationship with the online community (a complete misnomer of itself btw, but that's another day's discussion), was a little bruised, but in many respects that community is a self-regarding and quite small entity in marketing terms within Ireland. Each year it becomes more relevant and professional, but these are early days. Plenty of companies of BGE's stature and even more smaller ones wouldn't even deign to engage with bloggers, Tweeters and online types. But that's where BGE showed some foresight, I'd have to say. Knowing that this is part of the marketing mix, and at least attempting to converse, makes them the trendsetters and made everyone else with a promo since then ask their digital connections to 'do a Bord Gais for us'. Thus far, despite quite a few people doing different things to engage customers online, nobody's engaged at the level of BGE. So how have they followed it up?

The Big Switch Part 2

Lucy is back on TV, in another campaign from DDFH&B, this time mopping up what was missed last time out. There's been a display campaign, Google Adwords and all the rest. They've also stuck by the online community and gone a step further than last year's launch by creating an entire online campaign that doesn't feature Lucy at all, but is a much more format-friendly guerrilla style.

The Last Family, featuring the last man to want to switch to Bord Gais Energy, Sean Last, is a series of 'amateur' productions by the fictional family itself designed to highlight some of the issues that non-switchers might have, and the resolutions to them.

Bord Gais Energy launched this exclusively online campaign to selected bloggers on the last day of March this year. Most of the bloggers were following up on the teaser video by Young Kubrick (as the junior member of the Last family was called in a Twitter campaign). It involved the acting out of a live ad on a set in front of the assembled bloggers, who were encouraged to tweet about it as it happened.

It generated quite a bit of local interest online, as you can see if you follow the #livead hashtag on Twitter. As is the way of online, the comments include less than glowing ones. Some more fleshed-out coverage can be seen here at Mediacontact and at Channelship.

But does it all work?

The Big Question. For any company, but especially a larger one, social engagement must be a pain in the arse. It can consume horrible amounts of time to talk directly to consumers, and very often for what seems like little in return. Or maybe even less than that. There's a ton of slowly-being-written rules that you have to observe, and woe betide you if you piss off the wrong online influencers. And aside from time invested, engagement doesn't come for free. It's still cheaper than TV or press or a detailed mail drop, but it ain't cheap.

So why do it? Do you really have to? I mean, it hasn't done any favours for Nestlé, has it? And the point that Fianna Fail pretty much shoulder-jabbed into an ambushed and highly irate group of soc media and political bloggers in Feb of last year still holds. A front page in a national daily will reach tens of thousands more than most blogs would hope to attract.

Ultimately I don't believe big companies have a choice. And I'm being disingenuous with the two references in the previous paragraph. In fairness both of them handled their business at best opaquely, and at worst ineptly. The truth will set you free, and the truth is spelled out with statistics. The Big Switch didn't happen mostly on the phone or by post. It was an online initiative that recruited the vast majority of switchers via the website. What we hear about declining TV viewership and folding local newspaper titles is true, and while maybe not as dramatic as it's made out, it's still a slide that won't be reversed. The flipside is that more and more time is spent online, whether at home, at work or on mobiles. The realisation is slowly dawning: a company NOT interacting with its customers is girding itself today for hari kiri tomorrow. Even the exception that proves the rule is getting (oh so terribly slightly) involved with social media.

SWOT analysis time.

The pursuit of online marketing means a realignment of practices, and it represents a threat to any traditional advertising agency, particularly if they're wedded to their traditions. It also represents an opportunity, and one that's as available to yesterday's ad agencies as to any new ones. Look at the Big Switch promotion as an example of evolving thinking. They deal with a spectrum of agencies, each bringing different skills to the task of promoting The Big Switch. There are more than the ones I've outlined here, but I'm too lazy to check.

DDFH&B for TV, radio and press advertising
Web Factory for site design
Pembroke Communications for PR/event management
Mulley Communications for online PR/marketing
Eighty:Twenty and Radical for interactive advertising

I was even involved myself, in a small way, as one of the writers for the online videos and also for some of the site and display ad content.

I say this as a way of demonstrating a point. Where once there was one single agency, or possibly two, which looked after every cradle-to-grave aspect of a client's needs, the model is now redefined. Partly because of the number of disciplines now involved. Nobody can keep that much expertise inhouse. It's in every agency's best interests to be fully up to speed at all times with what's going on around them in terms of digital comms expertise. There's a lot of it out there, from apps development to site functionality to online video production etc etc. That's even before you think in terms of creativity. That will, in the long haul, be the constant. The agency that remains creatively excellent down any channel will still be the one that makes the biggest impact, in my humble.

About the death of the blog

2010-03-30T11:52:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to snapper du soir Rymus for the pic.

A whole lot of Irish blogs have been celebrating, dissecting, bitching about and bitching about the Irish Blog Awards, held on Saturday last in Galway. Very nearly didn't happen, as the CPSU had staged a drunken sit-in in the spartan Marxist surroundings of the Radisson Blu the night before, but once the funeral march for The Death of Irish Blogging™ began there was no stopping the bloggernaut.

Every year the event gets bigger and more commercially relevant, as a glance at the sponsor list will confirm. Heads like WHPR, Microsoft Ireland, Bord Bia, Lastminute.com and twice as many more get involved just to rub shoulders with a bunch of bedroom-dwelling dweebs, of course. Not for the fact that the world of Irish bloggers is just bloggers of the world in Ireland. If you get me.

Anyhoo, the catfighting about winners aside there's a full list of them here. Fantastic achievements from all. Many thanks to Fr Damien Mulley and the team for a sensitive and loving send-off to the lamented blogosphere. Not quite sure why it needs a bigger venue every year.

Remember when your info channels used to close down?

2010-03-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

Found on Glue chap Andy Kinsella's blog, via a tweet from Digital Times. Kids today, don't know they're etc etc.

'Advertisers should fear Twitter and Facebook more than regulators'

2010-03-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Interesting viewpoint from the global head of comms giant Havas in the Guardian last Friday.

David Jones, the global chief executive of Havas Wordwide, has warned that advertisers who market their brands as socially responsible should fear "inherently negative" social media such as Twitter and Facebook more than getting ad campaigns banned by regulators.

Jones said that with the rise of social media, with which many companies are still grappling, brands should be more worried about consumers than trying to outmanouevre the regulator.

"Social media is inherently a more negative than a positive medium on many levels," he added. "Lots of stuff that is passed around is negative. If you are a brand or a company today you should be far less worried about broadcast regulations than digitally empowered consumers. What is an ASA sanction versus a [negative] sanction from a couple of million people if you are not authentic?"

'Surely he's being a bit melodramatic,' thought I to myself. 'It's not quite that vicious, is it?' Then, with consummate irony on the timing front, Néstle found itself in a whole Facebook of trouble over its supplier policies in Indonesia. That wasn't the touchpaper however. Having an idiot at the controls of the Facebook page was what provoked a storm of negative howls.

First off, a fairly cocky status statement greets you:

Ok, so far so not exactly shiniest practitioner of good community relationships. And pretty soon it gets called out on the attitude by Paul:

Ok, nobody's throwing stuff around so far. This is now the moment where a cool head will decide how things go from here.

Ouch! Way to show the customer who's always right, Nestlé. Firm, firm, firm hand at the controls. We like it! But Paul ain't going away.

Take that, you big multinational you, and rethink! Which they did!

Oh no they diint!
Oh yes they diid!! They just told him that he was as irrelevant as the on average eight insect legs per bar that end up in the choccie vats, allegedly. With more pithiness than I can muster here, somebody later on in the thread said 'Well, the chocolate's hit the 93,000 fans now' or something similar. Sorry I can't find it now for proper attribution, but the thread is very, very, very long by this stage and will be having a massive impact on the company. I'm frankly amazed that there's no real sign of moderation from what is, after all, the world's biggest nyom conglom. I did find an apology of sorts in there too, but am curious as to why they bothered.

The floodgates are ripped off at the hinges long since, and the well meaning complaints and the cranks and everything in between are going full tilt through Nestlé like prune juice. Their nut clusters are in such a vice right now that it will have some sort of impact on share price, I don't doubt. And while obviously at the heart of this is a very sore point about how they go about their ingredients gathering in our super-connected world, it still got kick started with a rookie mistake. Control of the FB page was given to someone who should not have been entrusted with the brand's reputation on the two-way street.

This is what Havas head honcho Jones meant when he spoke about fearing the negativity of online interfaces like Twitter and Fb. Oh boy is it ever.

I wait with huge interest to see what Nestlé's next move will be. Last word with Paul, and this is still on the host's fan page. (Numbers of fans still growing, it is noted.)

The Last Advertising Agency on Earth

2010-03-22T05:59:00.000-07:00

The last agency? Really? It seems flip and simplistic, but judging from the small handful of trad advertising agencies who take it seriously enough to try to do something about it, it isn't that unlikely. It happened to a me I know, but only once. Thanks to Damien Mulley for sifting it out.

Frito Lay Dips takes over the Vimeo page

2010-03-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

A long time ago I worked with Pizza Hut and those guys knew how to obsess about food shots. I wouldn't normally ask animation to make food appealing, but when it uses the medium as well as Frito Lays do here it somehow scores above where it should've, adding an extra little ingredient of magic along the way.

The medium is not the message

2010-03-12T08:42:00.000-08:00

Thanksy.

There's an inherent danger to working online. I don't mean stalkers or trojans or ill-advised pics/comments on Facebook (that modern equivalent of the office party/photocopier/alcohol interface). I mean the danger of forgetting that the medium is not the message.

Watchfulness applies to people like me especially. More and more of what I write is specifically, if not exclusively, for online use. I'm surrounded by people who are in the same position. Journalists, media commentators, broadcasters, advertisers, marketers and entrepreneurs. Companies too. The net result is one constant information flow, a lovely jubbly Dow Jones ticker tape that never stops, and access to it is universal. We all rush to investigate the latest applications in social media. The local news rumours and stories fly quickly, get verified or scotched within minutes and it's all quite chummy, even when arguments break out. As they frequently do

It has its own heady and self-satisfying effect, I find. But like Gollum, you fondle the shiny things for too long at your peril. The marketing mantra remains the same: the medium is not the message.
I'm convinced that it's an age thing. I clearly remember when a fax machine was the absolute razor's edge of tech empowerment for the office. It's not really surprising, is it, that the wow factor of Chatroulette (or insert your own recent online thing discovery here), how it can start and what it ends up being used for, will never be lost on a guy of my vintage.

For an entire generation of kids however, the shiny toys were always there. They never didn't know mobile phones. If Foursquare (or insert your own recent online thing discovery here) is to have any relevance for them, the marketing department needs to allow it to continue the conversation they're having around it, without the tool itself being a distraction. It reminds me of something Martin Scorsese said years ago. Once you've drawn the viewer's attention to what you just did as the director, you've ruined the magic.

Paul Dervan recently wrote about a book that analyses the teen market and how it operates online. One of the subcategories the authors break it down to is Geeking. But as Paul says,

'Geeking' should not be confused with 'geeks'. The authors explain that these are not 'geeks' as we might know the term - but rather kids very enthusiastic about a particular hobby. For example, they could even be sports nuts. And this is not really about digital for the sake of it. It just happens to be their way to get into their hobby and the online communities around it.

I keep a few geeks, real geeks, in view at all times. I can tell that they are because nineteen tweets out of twenty I have no earthly idea what they're talking about. But they move through this online medium with the ease of talcum-powdered ferrets because it's what they've always done. They produce online games, platforms and applications and they're younger than me. Much. I keep them close to remind myself of the mantra. Medium not message. They have loads to teach an old dino like me. They don't care about Facebook per se. It's just allowing them to pass notes to each other.

Meanwhile, because it's ultra-multi-media and great fun, there's this from Heineken Iddly.

Heineken İtaly Activation from Kreatif360 on Vimeo.

Google: cue menacing music

2010-03-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

Digital Misfitz and Digital Landscapes

2010-03-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

March 2nd, and Digital Misfitz had their latest event in space@rothco. A very full room of (mostly young) advertisingy types to hear about digitality from the marketing/media perspective. In their own words, 'Digital Misfitz brings together artists, creative minds and industry specialists through events on topics surrounding digital technology specifically in relation to advertising.'

Declan Kennedy from Facebook app developers Betapond did the sales bit for the new Big Blue, Mark Little did the 'the world is changing faster than my presentation' bit and Suzanne Fitzgerald very ably pulled the entire thing together, with sponsors and helpers from advertisingland, including Smirnoff, who obviously had alco-response wifi receptors built into the skulls of the student hordes from DCU and DIT.
Interesting to see the coalescence of disciplines around low-key but well
managed events like this. Great attendance, very relaxed and people do seem to be putting ideas into their own heads about taking a very malleable medium and shaping it to find new ways of communicating.
On the Digital Misfitz fanpage you'll find the entire evening's content (minus the alcohol. Pesky students.) I'd post some of the video here but Facebook doesn't do house calls. You must become a fan of.

*********

At the five-course end of the spectrum, the students from the Smurfit Business School were only sipping orange juice at 7.40 am (AM!!) in UCD for the half day conference on how to apply the web to your business. The panels were top-tier stuff and the chair, Professor Damien McLoughlin, terrified the assembled audience of business types by telling them with great frequency that they should be terrified. If you wanted a complete overview of how Ireland must work as part of a world economy and concentrate on quality, not 'the biggest' anything, the speakers here were the people to be listening to.

The round-up included Chris Horn, Google's John Herlihy, Colm Long of Facebook, HP's MD Martin Murphy, Kim Majerus of Cisco, Eamonn Fallon, co-founder of Daft.ie, Damien Mulley, Dylan Collins of Jolt Online Gaming and boards.ie co-founder John Breslin. It was a wide-angled presentation, but a quick look at the Tweets from the morning has some terrific bite-sized zingers from the speakers.

More:
What Mashable reported from John Herlihy's speech on the importance of mobiles here.
The big brain end of things here. Chris Horn on the similarities of feedback loops, positive and neg, for engineers or businesses.

Old Spice. The old-fashioned way.

2010-02-25T03:04:00.000-08:00

I watched this a bajillion times and was pleased to an unhealthy degree to see the production techniques that were used. There's a breakdown of the making of below, with the team behind it, Craig Allen and Eric Kallman from Wieden + Kennedy. Well worth the 20 minutes.

Should your brand be on Twitter?

2010-02-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

The pace of soc media hasn't slowed down any over the last year, and while more brands are actively participating, there are still a lot of them pulling on the arm floats and belly-flopping into a Facebook page near you. That's fine. It's often appropriate.

Likewise with Twitter. If by now you haven't paid it any respect, wake up. Willy O'Dea resigned yesterday as Minister of Defence because of the power of Twitter. One or two little tweets, in fact.

That's politics however. What about brands?

Reasons to be on the microsite

1. Use Twitter to pull traffic to your site.
You can link to online articles on your blog, slide presentations, your website, your YouTube page, a photosharing site, your Facebook page etc etc. If it's useful information that's a very good start.

2. Use it to shout about special offers.
You can pull people back to your website or your actual store by telling them about the fantastic deal you've got for them. Very often companies will give dedicated deals to their Twitter followers. It creates great word of mouth and while the community can be relatively small it is fiercely connected and spreadability factor is potentially astronomical if the offer is right.

3. Gain new customers.
So you sell robust teat feeder buckets for young goats? Did you know you can follow people who have previously mentioned any of your specific terms. Use http://search.twitter.com to see if anyone out there has mentioned them on Twitter already. Don't be shy about it for God's sake! It's just business. I didn't ask you why you make goatboy teat buckets, did I?
As an interesting exercise, the search results can also show you who else is selling perverse items like the ones you make. They're the competition. Don't follow them, but consider following whoever they follow.

4. New product launches.
As per special offers, Twitter can act as a great PR outreach. The critical issue here (and with pretty much all of these points) is that you need to be following the relevant people. There are a lot of automated robot accounts out there which are about as much use to your business as nipples are to a chicken. No, let me guess, you have a product for that too.

5. Another way to get your logo out there.
It's not a big space, but that little Twitter avatar, when used properly, can sear your logo into the minds of your followers. Bear in mind too that Twitter is increasingly first port of call for people searching online. It makes sense to have a presence there for many brands.
Strong colours and simple icons work best, as they do in most visual communications, and if you're consistent and tweet with relevance you can become the opinion former amongst your competitors.

6. Find out who's talking about you.

You don't even need to run an account to see if your name's coming up or what people are saying about you. If it's good news it's nice to know about it. If it's bad, it becomes crucial. Use the Twitter search facility to find out.

7. Keeping track of what interests your followers.

Whenever you use Twitter to point your followers to a deal, you can track how many people click on your links and where they are from. A service like www.bit.ly is free and offers excellent metrics. Set up your account, use it to shorten links down to manageable size and keep an eye on what works best for your followers. Then keep doing it.

8. Upskilling

No doubt there is a lot of waffle on Twitter, but if you use their lists tool you can be very selective and group people you follow into relevant categories. Follow the informative ones in your field (there must be hundreds of goat teat manuf sites out there) and you'll be up to your tonsils in rich and valuable content that's shared free in the great big givathon that is the web. Tutorials; presentations; videos: you could be the best marketer of synthetic goat teat products of all time by the end of the year, no kiddin'.

9. Live news in real time.

Obviously once a year the Goatworld Trade Show will loom large on your calendar. With your Twitter account in place, you can tell everybody what the goatiest trends are as they happen. Others on Twitter will be doing the same, and beautiful little thing that it is, Twitter can let you all tweet on the same topic. Just decide a name and put a hashtag in front of it, and by golly I'll be sure to check out what y'all are saying at #goatworld10 next whenever.
(Remove all jocular reference to things hircine above and it should still be good information. Get baack to me if not.)

10. One more way to build a database

If you have an e-mail list Twitter can be an excellent way to get opt-ins. A careful cultivation of followers can yield favourable results and sales conversions. Targetted information will always be more valuable than scattergun stuff.

As with most social media, you really ought to watch the space with your company hat on before you jump. Follow others first, watch what your competitors are doing if they're on Twitter, get a feel for how people act and react in the space. If you were to be patient about it, and wait for a crisis (say, like a government minister's resignation or a food health scare), there is an awful lot tha Twitter can teach about human behaviour that only an idiot would dismiss. Nobody knows what the average life span of new social media might be. Like Blade Runner's Roy Batty the light that burns half as long will burn twice as bright, and in the meantime you should at least, at the very least, know what your competitors are doing. It may not be for every company or every sector, but for the majority of companies there probably is a space for Twitter.

Bloody Belgian sonsapitches

2010-02-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

Ruining it for everybody, they are. Everybody, I tell ya. They're just jealous of that Pringles banner clicky thing. Bloody Belgians. Making a cod of the whol- Eh?

Whassat?

They are everybody? I never heard anything more anarchic in my life. Bloody Belgian anarchists. Next it'll be a union or some such. Buncha right wing commie anarchists.

Grab it here for the next few days only. Then you'll never see it again probably, unless you go to YouTube. And who ever goes there?

Bloody Belgians.

Context is everything

2010-02-11T14:44:00.000-08:00

Hurrah! A non-webby post, speshly for all those people who want to click the poll button that says Do you secretly wish the whole internet thing would go away?* Not new, four years old in fact, but still contextual brilliance plus the word utter in the appropriate spot.

* Poll idea suggested by a semi-fox that's anything but.

Fighting bad news: Toyota v Vodafone

2010-02-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a nightmare lately for the builder of the best built cars in the world. It started with a US recall of 5.3 million Toyotas for repair to accelerator pedals that might, when worn, have stuck. The consequences for some were fatal. Toyota has had to face into the single biggest damage limitation action of its life.

The recall rollout affects 350,000 cars in the UK and 18,000 in Ireland. They've been using traditional PR to get news stories out in the press and they also have used their local online presence to alert the public.

But there's never a shit situation that can't be enworsened by a smartarse hacker. Indeed hacker is probably too lofty a term for what was needed to bypass Toyota's failsafe security. Here's what happened on Toyota Ireland's site early this weekend.

We can confirm that your Toyota is absolutely fucked and is probably exploding in your face right now.

Ouch. It stayed like that for two whole days, complete with a working link to major competitor Renault, before finally someone got it fixed. Now it's back to the boring old business of trying to minimise the damage that has already wiped $20 billion off Toyota's worldwide share value. But the recalled, repaired site makes no reference to the messing that went on.

It even has last Friday's date on it. The Twitter account, updated today, Sunday, at around 3 in the afternoon, alludes to it once only and also seems to think that the hack had just happened minutes ago. It leaves us with a lukewarm Thanks for listening message.

Just like in real life, jokers will mess with your shit on the web. In fact it's pretty much guaranteed, especially if you're in any kind of media spotlight. Ask Cheryl Cole. But there is a more serious point for all Irish advertisers to take on board. The web is a living place where your brand can grow or get bullied, or both. If you aren't on top of it, with online PR, advertising and active social engagement, you will suffer. This isn't an academic notion. It's a fact.

More learned people than I can tell you the dos and dont's of building your site in order to avoid this kind of jackanapery, but you shouldn't need anyone to tell you that the web is open for business all the time. There is no weekend off, not for your PR company and not for you. Two crucial days were lost online for Toyota, and the level of engagement in the arena where they were lost has been absolutely minimal. Nothing on the site, and one lousy tweet that relayed no information.

Compare this with a slightly smaller embarrassment that Vodafone UK suffered at pretty much the same time, Friday afternoon on Feb 5th. An offensive tweet on their account read

"Vodafone UK is fed up of dirty homo's and is going after beaver."

It was taken down sharpish, and Vodafone's reaction demonstrates the difference between a client who understands how they have to behave online and one who clearly isn't there yet.

Anyone who complained was responded to, and a complete disclosure (within reasonable limits) was made. Responsibility was assumed, quickly, and a full apology was made. No doubt some dick will rightly have every Monday off from now on, and it must have stung Vodafone like hell, but how often do you hear a big brand saying We're really sorry?

And will Toyota Ireland (who have proven themselves quite clever online in some respects, particularly marketing) learn from this, I wonder? I hope so.

For the record, every car I've ever owned has been a Toyota. I'm on No. 4. And if I'm ever lucky enough to change again, it'll most likely be to No. 5. I'm nowhere near as convinced that management has mastered CRM in the 21st century as well as it has production.

Ten things I hate about you, Facebook

2010-01-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not a listy fella, but you have earned this top ten, my dear. I'll try, as much as possible, to keep it professional rather than personal, not that you'd notice the subtle distinction, so no whines from me about white mystery eggs or bunches of flowers or hugs or pirate loot or vampires or zombies or any of the rest of that codswallop.

1. Privacy

It is mine. Not yours. In my admittedly simple little way of thinking, allow me to repeat: my stuff is mine, not yours.
This is what you led me to believe when first I started with you. It was mid 2007, although it now feels like a decade or more (we'll get to that though). Back then your privacy policy seemed absolute (even though you still were hazy about hosting my pics).
Founder (?) Mark Zuckerberg called privacy 'the vector around which Facebook is built' just two years ago. But today he says 'Doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner's mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.'

Anybody else smell horseshite? Most people have no idea how compromised their privacy is, because the format is so bubbly and new still, and they're too busy with white mystery eggs or bunches of flowers or hugs or pirate loot or vampires or zombies or fending off their mother as their friend or whatever. But when they do eventually wake up they'll be pissed off that it's still 1984. And as for companies? If you tell me one truth about my data today and a different truth tomorrow, I shall judge you to be inconsistent and therefore not a reliable partner or medium.

2. Opt outs

Does EVERY thing I do on here need to be relayed to everyone all the time?? My list of people (they're not all friends, you assumptive fool) does not need to be spammed about some pissy little app I downloaded to see how many words there are in my average update. And I think a little bit less of them when you tell me that 'Marty McGillacuddy is finding out what colour knickers her great great great grand aunt Mary wore in pre-Famine Ireland and thinks you should find out too!' Spam is spam, you info-hogging obsessive. Here's the deal: I will refrain from actually saying something important to someone I know as a friend on Facebook, wishing their kid nephew good luck with his chemo, for instance, and you will refrain from spamming my inbox 45 times with 45 comments from 45 other people I don't know wishing my friend's nephew the same thing. Yes I know there's a technical opt-out in Settings, but it's a bit of a nuke response isn't it? Let me opt in if I want to follow a thread, you voracious fucker, or do you honestly think we're just one big hillbilly family?

3. Lack of clear-cut distinction between professional and personal use.

I've alluded to Profiles, Pages and Groups before.

To sum it up neatly: if you're a person, set up a profile and your friends can join, whereas if you're a non-human (event, product, cyborg) set up a page and people can become fans. Or if you want to be a Group with lots of interaction then set one up and people can become Members. But don't ever set up a Profile and then decide you want to be a thing instead of a person because Facebook might delete all your contacts so what you should do is set up a Page instead unless you're going to be a real chatterbox and then a Group is better oh oh and too also you may be able to swop your old Profile for a Page if you use FBML and-

SHADDAP! Shut. The. Fuck. Up. You big blue morass of uncertain-of-everything-except-we-know-we-want-all-your-dataz maniac! You want to be Linkedin. You want to be Twitter, and email, and Flickr and everything else too. A great big online Airbus for business and economy classes where everyone's giddier than Aunt Mabel going to Benidorm in 1967.

Great. Just one problem.

They all look the same.

4. Designed by fascists

God bless Bebo. I loved it for its unpredictability. Long before C4 it redefined skins. Long after Rizla, admittedly, but that is another discussion.
Blogs, websites, MySpace... even a Twitter profile page ffs will let me do something to own it. Facebook has The Big Blue Book of Blue. Give you the blues, does it reader? It gives me the blue shits, frankly.
Obviously the behind-the-curtain bit has given FB a superb functionality. People love how they can connect with each other online using it as a big Bebo. It sucks everybody else's capabilities and repackages them as its own. It is very good at what it does. But Christ Almighty does it have to be so geometrically boring and colour-adverse? It is banal with a capital anal. If ever a web application needed the Sony Bravia makeover, this monochromatic monster is first in line. When I googled Profiles, Pages and Groups guess how many results came up. Go on.
That's right. Two hundred and seventy seven million. That to me smacks of nothing so much as indecisiveness. End of.

5. Clunky target marketing

Facebook has 350 million+ users. Sounds like a lot. And you only pay for the ads when they click on them! But spread it about all over the world and it gets diluted. Break your target down further, say to guys, and that cuts things by over 50%. But if you want guys who care about a six pack that's a smaller segment again. You absolutely need to be geographically accurate with your pitch or you are for sure wasting your money. You probably won't be able to buy relevant keywords you'd like. And even if you could? Nobody cares, in my humble opinion. They're there to send their friends white mystery eggs or bunches of flowers or hugs or pirate loot or vampires or zombies or fend off their mother as their friend. Or if they're a guy check out their girlfriend's girlfriends. They sure as hell have no interest in leaving the site and all the goss to go Build a City and Conquer Neighbouring Armies, buddy. Are you on the right page? Social media is not search, and people being social, porniness aside, are not searching for whatever those little ads are selling. Besides which...

6. Are advertisers being shafted by click fraud?

Techcrunch would suggest that you're fannying about, Facebook. Your 2009 revenue targets were $550 million, a bit of a steep jump from 2008's $280m. Some advertisers:

Facebook is still reporting 20% more clicks than I actually get. This is bullshit. If I were at least getting bot traffic or something that would be one thing, but right now Facebook is simply stealing 20% of clicks that I paid for, which adds up to thousands of dollars. Someone should threaten legal action, this is straight up fraud on Facebook’s part.
FB click fraud update: ratio is now EXACTLY 10:1. 10 clicks reported on FB, 1 click on prosper. No, this wasnt on a small scale either. Were talking 1000’s of clicks. Have fun facebook. Im checking out till you can fix this shit.
I’m targeting small, specific demos, Facebook reports exactly twice as many clicks as hit my LP. Facebook is stealing our money, fuck this shit.

Techcrunch goes on to say

These aren’t the standard click fraud complaints that advertisers have leveled against search engines for years. In those cases, bots are racking up the fake clicks, which obviously never convert to any sort of purchase or other action. But at least the advertisers see the clicks.

In this case advertisers are saying that Facebook is recording and charging for clicks that don’t exist at all, even from bots. Their tracking software shows one set of numbers, which is 20% – 100% lower than what Facebook is recording.

According to the WickedFire posts Facebook isn’t officially acknowledging the problem or giving any refunds so far. But they are asking some advertisers to send in logs to show the discrepancy. So far, advertisers who go to the trouble to do this aren’t getting the response they wanted: “I was asked to send in my logs so I spent over an hour compiling logs over the time period in question, and they replied with their fucking scripted bullshit. I was sooo fucking pissed, since I took the time to do that and they churn out a 2 second response.”

Happy clickmas!

7. News feed v Live feed

Oh you what? Some months back when Facebook eventually noticed the twerrier nipping at its ankles it changed its feed from a small bore Wavin into a Russian transcontinental monster pipe inside which James Bond would be proud to take an Aston Martin. So that they could wash away the 140 character irrelevance of Twitter presumably. For this massive pointlessness and utter lack of understanding of who users wanted them to be I am just going to link you to two pages on the platform itself. Clueless Facebookers #1 and Clueless Facebookers #2.

8. That fucking demented knock knock sound when someone wants to chat.

This may seem petty but I am reminded that I HATE your chat function EVERY TIME somebody gives that hollowed-out marmoset skull sound. (On reflection no, this isn't petty at all.) Any other company in the world would listen, especially one as successful as you. They'd watch the competition, learn and apply those learnings. Their customers would love them more because of it.
Do not get me wrong, I can be quite critical of a lot of what Google is about, but their gmail is a lesson in streamlined simplicity. Take just the chat function. It gives me settings that allow me to have a personal byline message, be invisible, say I'm busy etc etc. I can break the chat box out of the home page (functional brilliance), have my pic as part of it and save conversations. It will allow me to send a message even when the other person is not online. And most importantly it does not give me your marmoset skull sound effects. Such is my loathing of this feature of yours that I tend to forget that I know it exists at all. A kind of security cloaking device. Only reason it appears in this list is that I happened to have the dreaded page open just now and someone foolishly came a knock-knock marmoset knockin'.
If I needed a kidney, and Facebook chat was the only way the donor could reach me, I'd probably take it, but the very next kidney that came along I'd swop that fucker right out. Even if it was only for a little marmoset substitute.

9. The walled garden myth

If you were a garden there might be something nice to see. You're a prison yard and I'm wearing that poxy blue jumpsuit. You're Hotel California. I'm Rapunzel. You're eTender reminders from the government. I wish I could quit you.
But if I delete my account you'll keep my data, my private letters, my pictures and all the rest of it. If I migrate my content you'll delete my account. Have you never even heard of the majesty that is Sting?* If you love someone, set them free. If they come back to you they deserve everything they get, the triple-galvanised idiots. Wanna know where they get all the zombies for that stupid game? They're here, 40,000 of them almost, stumbling around trying to find an exit that doesn't lead back into Blue Hell.

10. Don't pretend to care.

I don't want to know how many friends I share with him.
I don't want to help her find her friends.
I don't care that I haven't spoken to him in that long.
I don't want to find people from my phone book.
I don't want to find friends from school or uni or the office.

You don't care about any of that. Don't pretend you do. You just want my info, my stats and my behavioural graph for your master plan, whatever this year's business model is. Data is money, we're idiots and you're trying to double your numbers in 2010. 700 million users. The vast majority of us missing the point.

Will it ever hit home for more than a few percent? I'm not at all sure that it will. This is no Bebo. As far as a success story business, you're pretty much perfect, Facebook.

That's probably the most annoying thing of all.

* A non-literal witticism

in3rds.com/2009/03/bits-of-absurdity/mokus-pokus.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Irish Daily Mail acting scummy.

2010-01-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

I'm going off-brief for a little. Sort of.

Melanie Schregardus is an air traffic controller in Shannon. She's also a blogger. Last weekend her life went into a tailspin on the back of an article by The Irish Daily Mail. A journalist by the name of Luke Byrne took one of her blogposts (you can access the background here) and proceeded, in clichéd bad journalist fashion, to spin it into something very different from what Melanie had intended.

The key elements are in place: industrial unrest within the civil aviation sector; a chauvinism angle; an innocent online diary offering tantalising titbits when viewed in fragments from just the right angle.

I'm offering no opinion on the civil aviation dispute. I'm not offering any opinion on the legalities of the Daily Mail's actions either. I'm absolutely sure that it's put enormous, unasked-for and entirely unexpected pressure on Melanie Schregardus and her family. I have no doubt that it is, at the very least, lazy journalism but probably more like the Mail ethos and agenda in black and white.

Harsh lessons are being learned by innocent people that the internet is not a democracy or a meritocracy either. Bullies exist here for grownups as well as schoolkids, and privacy as a concept is null and void. If you are not entirely confident about what you are saying, don't be surprised if you wake up to a bad news story starring you. I hope the Schregardus family gets satisfaction and vindication. I hope the Irish Daily Mail drops ten thousand readers. As the Sarge used to say in Hill Street Blues, be careful out here.

Some links:
John McGuirk
Darren Christie
Tony Frattaroli
Politics.ie
Alan Moloney
Ed Lee

Two upcoming events

2010-01-22T03:34:00.000-08:00

Blue corner:

Thursday 4th of Feb in Trinity College sees The Dublin Web Summit kick off with some real heavyweights. Matt Mullenweg, the eleven year old founder of Wordpress (jealous much, Nick?) and Craig Newmark, the first guy to ever make a list and make millions out of putting his name to it, will join ex Iona chief Chris Horn and Wired's Ben Hammersley. Doesn't much matter what they're talking about. It'll be worth listening.

Red corner:

The Brainfood Store meanwhile goes from strength to strength. On Wed 24th of Feb Justin Cullen an Fred King's baby hosts The Digital Festival at the Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge. They've got Brent Hoberman, lastminute.com's founder, Peter Kim from the Dachis Group, Shel Israel and a few more top-drawer professionals, all converging on the workability of digital marketing.

The ante is getting upped for events like these, which to me suggests that the demand is there for quality. Might be a future for this internet thing after all.

My many charity works

2010-01-21T03:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not gonna let the do-gooders have all the bandwidth over this Haiti thing. Yes it's a mess, and yes there are some amazing people being unnervingly generous with their time, money, talents and so on to help a country that needed plenty of help before this shocking event, so spurred on by their inspirational Action Jackson exploits I'm jumping on the goodness gravy train too. I mean, I'm relatively young, I have my health, I can do stuff too.

What I'm going to do is take part in a table quiz on Wed 27th of Jan. I'll have to- excuse me? What?
Don't you judge me! Don't you DARE judge me! I'll have to sit through Jason Byrne as he sweats his way through the questions. I'll need to get across the city to Dublin 2. I'll be exposed to all sorts of young people out 'wearing' what they claim with no modesty whatsoever to be 'clothes'. They'll probably use other words too, like 'fashion' and 'Grandad' and 'mace'. And after that I'll be surounded by marketing/advertising/radio types who know absolutely everything already.
DON'T TELL ME I WON'T BE SUFFERING FOR HAITI!

You might help by at least offering to come along. It's being organised by Independent Radio Sales for The Haven Partnership (who have already committed to building 5,000 homes in Haiti).

Julia Farrelly works with IRS:

In order to do this we are trying to sell as many tables as possible (invites to follow!) and also gather together fantastic prizes that we will raffle on the night and I’m hoping that you/your clients might consider donating prizes to help us make this event as successful as possible. We will have a big screen on the night which will feature credits to anyone providing prizes, and obviously Jason Byrne will be crediting all prize donations too throughout the event.

You can reach Julia at julia@radio-sales.com

Another way you can help is by bidding on the hat of Ireland's newest sex god Paul Cunningham. It's on ebay here. It's not really suitable for you if you don't have a head.

And still another is by clicking on the Tweet this! button beneath this post, or blogging/tweeting/standing on tall shoes and just shouting about it. If we work together, I can look really good here.

Your privacy on everybody's internet

2010-01-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

Pic courtesy Webwombat

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person. I have a theory that I love them more, in fact. No more fertile compost heap than the privacy-on-the-net canard. (Oh my what a horrible set of metaphor bookends. I'll let them stand, as a warning to aspiring writers.)

Anyway. Privacy. I'll give you the science in three words: there is none.

A very good overview of many of the issues involved in social media here from Damien Mulley.

And here ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick takes Facebook's volte face on privacy to task and essentially tears them a second arse. A small snippet:

First the company kept user data siloed inside its site alone, saying that a high degree of user privacy would make users comfortable enough to share more information with a smaller number of trusted people.
Now that it has 350 million people signed up and connected to their friends and family in a way they never have been before - now Facebook decides that the initial, privacy-centric, contract with users is out of date. That users actually want to share openly, with the world at large, and incidentally (as Facebook's Director of Public Policy Barry Schnitt told us in December) that it's time for increased pageviews and advertising revenue, too.

From schoolkids on Facebook to idiot college kids on dormporn sites to celebs on Twitter and on and on and on, the message is the same. There is NO privacy on the web. If you put stuff up there anywhere (and often if you don't) it is findable and will be disseminated. 99% of the time this will be as harmful as dropping your DNA in the bin on a Big Mac box, and if you're ok with that I'm ok with it too. But privacy has undergone seismic redefinition. Most people are unaware of how exposed they are. Internet giants will do what they can to protect the interests of consumers. Right after they've done what's right for them first.

Thanks to Niall Austin for highlighting the RWW article.

Google China, DIT goes digital and Cybercom want a meeja head

2010-01-13T02:40:00.000-08:00

Big news this morning is that Google looks to be squaring up to the Chinese government's meddlesome ways when it comes to censoring search. Their full release is here. It seems that they're already losing market share in China, down from 19% to 17% in Q4 2009. Baidu, the state controlled search behemoth, hogs over 75% of the market. Still, 17% of the Chinese market is not something to leave lightly. I don't believe Google are being 100% transparent here with their release, and something big is obviously coming down the tracks for their business model in that part of the world, but it's still a little chilling to read between the lines as they attempt to protect their China-based employees in the last para here, from David Drummond, one of their senior Corporate Development and legal beaks.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

*********

More on this one later, but for now an overview. Dublin Institute of Technology and the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland have teamed up at last to recognise that digital upskilling in adland is most definitely needed on the curriculum. This neglected area will hopefully begin to benefit from a brand spanking new course, the Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Digital Communications. It's a part-time evening course run from Aungier Street and is heavily skewed towards digital communications but still incorporates much of the trad side of how things are done. It is practically geared, being run by professionals at work full-time in marketing communications (myself included).
If you're interested in doing it or signing up some of your staff there may still be places. It's due to start in the next couple of weeks. Talk to IAPI's Aisling Conlon at advertisingpostgrad@gmail.com.

*********

Down by the river in Ringsend Cybercom continue to build their comprehensive digital offering. Rob Reid wants a Media Account Director to head up their Media Department. They'll have five people under them. Impressive for a digital ad agency, not great for stage diving. Full details here or email rob.reid@cybercom.ie.

Happy Wednesday all.

Outdoor is set to go online. Huh?

2010-01-12T02:24:00.000-08:00

Forget Second Life (apologies if you were born post 2007, precious reader). The new unreality will be much more practical. Google has just been granted a new patent to post 48 sheets in Street View. Imagine tooling around the Street View version of city centre Dublin on a wet and windy Tuesday morning, as you build your personal map of Aldi locations for the rest of the year's shopping excursions. You cruise down Parnell Street and why, there's a great big dirty poster for none other than the Dunnes Stores outlet around the corner on Henry Street. And then it revolves! Just like the oh-so-futuristic prismatics of the eighties! And behold, it's another supermarket poster, except this time for Tesco in the Jervis Centre!

Far fetched? Don't be silly. No reason thus far why your competitors can't own virtual ad space over an online image of your company's real outlet. Google applied for the patent over a year and a half ago and now they have it. As RWW says

The patent describes a two-step process for identifying potential advertising real estate in these images. Google's software first identifies interest points in the image (e.g. the edges or corners of an object) and then generates features around these interest points. Google can then augment this region of the image with a link or replace a part of the current Street View image with a new image.

This thrills me in ways that I can barely describe, but I will try.
It's like Bruce Boxleitner in Tron hitting a 90° turn at 200 mph and smashing into a giant sheet of cyberglass being carefully walked across the information superhighway (aah, remember that place?) by The Lawnmower Man and Max Headroom. When it shatters into a billion fragments, each one is a beautifully perfect hologram, spinning in luscious slo-mo, and you can buy full rights (for a limited period only, natch) to any number of these holograms and have full HDR of your logo, company strapline and a looped piece of high def footage (10 seconds) from one of your Antiques Roadshow-era 'tellyvision' ads, for that added company heritage brand pillars wheel pyramid thingummy feel.

Fuck. I have to stop with the mushrooms. Next I'll be seein- YEEARGHHHHHHHH!

Spotted via @ciaranoreilly. Image courtesy zdnet.com

Why should you know David Armano?

2010-01-07T02:10:00.000-08:00

Clockwise: a Shirky, a Scoble, a Godin and a Vaynerchuk

If you are involved in digital marketing you'll be aware of the rapid turnover of hardware and the even faster speed of evolving software at the points where company and consumers meet. It's dizzying. You'll then have to contend with a seemingly endless flashmob of certified social media and digital branding experts, here in Ireland and from everywhere else.

A glance is usually enough to dismiss most of them as journeymen, but some names get bandied about too much to dismiss so quickly. They're all American. Clay Shirky (a kind of Mahatma Gandhi on a mild steroid course), Seth Godin (Gandhi on a diet), Robert Scoble (Gandhi played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Gary Vaynerchuck (a kind of Gandhi, if he were built by Ant and Dec) are names you can't help but trip over in online marketing terms, and there are heaps more that I'm already too stressed to mention. They've all got something, but in a universe of infinite content you just can't devote your life to following the twelve disciples.

When content is pushed my way from David Armano however, I usually make time to read it. Not just because what he says makes sense, but because I genuinely like the vibe off him. It's a business thing, he offers full disclosure, he's very serious about results and he's not afraid to fall on his arse (in a personal sense) trying something. He seems very human.
Quite a while ago Alexia Golez made a comment that stayed with me. She mentioned the internet being a place that revealed personalities rather than masked them. It made instant sense. You can fake it for a while, but ultimately the real you will out, unless deception is your key game. And Armano feels real to me. Not saying the others aren't: they patently have more presence reality than marketing gurus from any other era. It's just that the cut of Armano's gib works for me, and as opposed to talking about tech specifically, or the hippy vibe of soc media, he actually does all his work at the point where brands and people intersect.

While managers debate who will control social media inside their organizations — marketing, PR, corporate, IT — I say stop and ask the bigger question: Do any of the people who make up your company, agencies, partners and so on actually live social? Do they demonstrate that they work and play in a connected fashion? Once we begin to resolve that (and don't underestimate the power of baby steps), then we can worry about which discipline, department or agency/consultancy is best equipped to help lead the way.

From a recent piece written for the Harvard Business Review. None of it is new at all. He's repeating the same simple message he's been doing for a long time. But it is worth hearing, especially for the smaller Irish companies who maybe don't have the issues of 'Who controls it?' so much as 'where do I start?' or 'How do I find the time?'

Armano is now a Vice President (Americans are big on them) with Edelmann Digital, and he's graduated from the school of been there and done it, via digital creative/strategy work at Critical Mass, Digitas and Agency.com.

There are lots of bright people out there who can teach you many things. I like this guy, and whenever I can I tune in. Which is not nearly enough. Ironically, here's Armano giving loads of kudos to the guys I effectively glossed over a few paragraphs back. Hadn't seen it before I wrote. Typical.

End of the decayed

2009-12-31T04:08:00.000-08:00

Pic Dennis Villegas

My new resolution is to eliminate self delusion. I hope to make some quiet and effective changes in how I work, so that I am not chained to the mac while the kids are taken by mum to the shoe shop for the next size up. If I'm not still being self delusional that will require taking things to another level in terms of business structure. A scary thought, but I've had many adrenaline rush moments since 2008. It's just another one.

And anyway, my job description is changing every month, even while the core of what I do remains the same. When I started as a copywriter with Wilson Hartnell, as Ogilvy & Mather were known in Dublin then, the task was simple and difficult. I worked with an art director and we dreamed up 2D campaigns that would hopefully work for our clients. The campaigns would not require much in the way of measurement. A bunch of senior ad guys would rely on that good old gut instinct for a grabby headline or a strong visual. They'd pick what they liked, get us to mock it up with fairly finished illustrations, put together a working script if it was TV or radio, and then they'd take it to the next level.

Client meeting.
They'd always try to have the meeting in the agency, because it was a chance for the client to enjoy some sexy, away from the grime of the west Dublin industrial estate. Plush seating in reception, avant garde artwork strewn oh so carefully around, coffee fetched by an eager runner and only the efficient swish of the receptionists' glam rags as they switched shifts. All so very civilised.
Not a jot of accountability, of course. Tscha. That was for (sneer here) direct marketing. We didn't need that because we were Brand Ambassadors! Loftier things awaited us don't you know.

A quick story about the two sided nature of non-accountability.
At one point, in the early 90s, we wanted the snack brand we were working on to 'own' the Irish comedy scene by using a coterie of excellent stand-ups from the burgeoning circuit. There was no Bulmers Comedy Festival or Murphy's Laughter Lounge or Carlsberg Comedy Festival. Even the Cat Laughs hadn't yet arrived, much less Father Ted. We got as far as making a test ad using a great Irish comic, and were given the greenlight. Why? Because the client's kids liked the ad. That was enough for us. Spurious as all fuck, but we were getting to make our ads, so we didn't care. We shot a dozen in a day, cheap and dirty, on video. We were made! The first burst went on TV and we told all our friends, family, even our pets. They were silly ads but they made people laugh. Unless, of course, you were the sales dept of the client who was selling the utterly disposable snack food. No, they did not like silly. Our ads were pulled. Most of them never saw the light of a cathode ray tube, despite the fact that production had cost buttons. The Sales team at Snackky Ltd (name made up to protect the idiocent) didn't like the ads, so within fourteen days we were canned. Shortly after, Irish comedy went stratospheric (at least in the English speaking world) but Snackky Ltd had already missed the chuckle boat.

What have we learned, children?
As William Goldman says of Hollywood in Adventures in the Screen Trade, nobody knows anything. We didn't then. We don't now. I was humiliated on that occasion by other people's idiocy, and I vowed never to let it happen again. How? It's easy really. You just don't put your heart into it. Go ahead and put your intelligence into it, sure. I mean, nobody's going to pay you just to sit there, are they? But if you become emotionally invested in something that's not yours, you're open to a severe kicking.

Sounds callous, I'll admit. But a fundamental truth was revealed to me with that experience, and while I'm the dumbest arse on the planet in many respects, I was smart enough to see something then. If it isn't actually yours, don't ever become its. That sentence looks terrible, but you get me, right? In the meantime, I work for myself and I freelance as a copywriter and content writer and I do a variety of other related activities. I am the product now in some respects, so I have to care. And I like it much better that way. The old model of copywriter/art director dreaming up campaigns is still out there in the agencies, but it's no longer for me. It's pretty much defunct in digital creativity, because you need to understand the medium to a far greater degree. The passivity of tv/radio/press is not tenable online, which is why there's growth right now in digital agencies, unlike tradvertising. But you need to understand people's habits, have a grasp of the technology and be able to assemble the team that can make it happen.

The other kicker is that results matter. The faux parade of glitzy peer-to-peer awards means nothing in new media, because efficacy is all, and efficacy is decided pretty quickly. Kind of makes it exciting too, and separates the can do people from the quacks fairly sharpish. Still plenty of quacks though, particularly in the area of providing digital marketing to green-behind-the-ears clients. I predict that a lot of people will fall into this trap in 2010, but that won't last too long. Resources for quackery just ain't there they way they were in the last decade.

So roll on the tens, with new opportunities and new adventures, and if I get to own a part of it I will give it my heart. I fully plan to.

And this comes via the ever wise Paul Dervan. Dave Trott on making pow without kerching.

A prosperous 2010 to all.

The last days of Bebo?

2009-12-15T03:57:00.000-08:00

Image by stefania murru

Not too long ago Bebo was the bright and shining star in the Irish social media firmament. They trilled loudly about having a million plus accounts, back when Facebook had considerably less than half that. But the worm hasn't just turned. It's fallen into a vat of toxic chemicals, emerged with super Bebo-munching hunger pangs and has just devoured the kids' favourite. Meanwhile school buses packed with migrating teens have been pulling up outside Facebook High in an endless stream. The glitzy shimmer of your own designer skin is suddenly old-skool, and the nu-skool uniform of anaemic fb blue seems to be all that the kids want. Jesus, is this a Heathers moment or what?

I don't think that the kids have just graduated because of the colour scheme somehow. You'd have to give some credit to Zuckerberg's minions for getting the functionality of Facebook to a level where the yoot would want to go there, despite the fact that it looks like corporate fascist design of the most boring kind. Whatever the motivation, be it functionality, peer pressure or both (or perhaps just a superior product), the roll call has been taken and not too many are still hanging around the Bebo gym. (Ok, I've been waiting for someone to call me out on the piss-thin schoolyard metaphor for two long paragraphs and nobody has, so I'm just going to have to shoot my own damn self. Why oh why did nobody shout Stop?)

Daily unique visitors to Bebo Ireland (source Google)

And to Facebook Ireland (source Google)

Google's impassive adplanner analytics paint the sobering story. Barely 30,000 hits shows a plummet of over 200% since January '09. Last month saw the departure of Philip McCartney, Bebo's head of sales in Ireland. It highlights the fickle nature of the younger target market, and the dangerous dustbowl that social media spaces can quickly become. Not that Facebook will be caring too much right now.

Bearing in mind that Ireland was the Golden Child for the platform, it wouldn't fill me with confidence today to be an AOL shareholder. The American mammoth bought Bebo last year for $850 million and despite a hefty redesign early this year it's been tanking steadily since.

Advertisers take note: when you're hot you're hot. Bebo no longer is.

Why SMEs use Social Media Marketing

2009-12-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Chanced upon this in, of all things, an actual printed quarterly bulletin. It's from Amas, and the research was done by David Scanlon at Enterprise Ireland, who kindly allows me to republish it here.

A total of 48 SMEs involved, using Linkedin, Fb and Twitter. 86% use it to promote their company, unsurprisingly. For 36% it's a way to cut costs without killing the marketing goose. Almost half (48%) use it to enhance/protect brand reputations. We need more information like this.

Digital suppliers In Ireland: E to J

2009-12-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

eBay Ireland Dublin 15 (Online marketplace)

Ebow Dublin (Web development & design)

Ecom Ireland Dublin (Web & software devel, SEO, online marketing)

eGain Communications Dublin (Software and services)

Eighty:Twenty Dublin (Digital Advertising)

Eirborne Dublin (Mobile entertainment)

Eircom Net Dublin (Broadband, web hosting and ISP services)

Electric Media Sales Dublin (Online advertising sales)

Elucidate Dublin (Online communications and marketing)

eMedia Galway (Electronic media)

Engine Solutions Dublin (Software development)

Enhance Dublin (Web Design)

Entropy Dublin (Digital security solutions)

Escape Web Designs Limerick (Web development and design)

Esus Web Consultancy Services Cork (Web development)

E-Type Dublin (Online Advertising)

EU Internet Dublin (Domain name management and services)

Evolution Internet Dublin (Web design & internet marketing)

Fireball Media Cork (Web development and design)

FireIMC Ltd Belfast (Advertising Agency)

First Advertising Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Fluent Design Dublin (Web design)

Fluid Rock Dublin (Interactive media agency)

Future Image Co Down (Advertising Agency)

Generator Dublin (Interactive marketing agency)

Gerry McGovern Dublin (Web content management solutions)

Google Ireland Dublin (Online advertising and search)

Graphedia Wexford (Web design)

Green Island Interactive Dublin (Web Development & design)

Green Room Media Dublin (Web design, online video)

GT Interactive Dublin (Digital Agency)

GuiltyFish.com Dublin (Web Design)

Herbert Street Technologies Dublin (Private web-based secure communications systems)

Hosting365 Dublin (Provider of hosting, colocation and managed services)

i-believe Dublin (Online Advertising)

ICAN Dublin (Online advertising and marketing services)

Icarus E-Com Dublin (Database backed e-commerce applications)

IE Domain Registry Dublin (Allocation and management of Irish domain names)

i-merge Dublin (Integrated digital marketing communications)

Impact Media Galway (Advertising Agency)

Impact Media Limerick (Advertising Agency)

Independent Digital Works Dublin

INEX Dublin (Internet Exchange Point)

Initiative Media Dublin Dublin (Media Independents)

Inspiration Dublin (Online marketing consultants)

InterFusion Networks Dublin (Provider of managed network and e-security services)

io - Interactive Ocean Dublin (Advertising Agency)

iPLANIT Dublin (Web & Internet services)

iQ Content Dublin (Custom content solutions)

Irish Broadband Dublin (Provision of broadband services)

Irish Domains Dublin (Hosting, domain name registration and ecommerce services)

Irish International BBDO Dublin (Advertising Agency)

iTouch Ireland Dublin (Mobile solutions)

iWord Wicklow (Mobile Marketing)

Javelin Group Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Juritsu Limerick (Web & Graphic design)

With thanks again to the industrious folks at Mount Media.

Digital suppliers in Ireland: The List from A to D

2009-11-29T04:42:00.000-08:00

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting an A-Z of digital suppliers in Ireland north and south. It's pretty comprehensive and comes via the hard work of Mount Media (publishers of IMJ and Adworld among others). A big thank you to them.

If you're not on the list or if you're incorrectly detailed just let me know and additions/amends will be made statim. I'll probably put the full list in a category somewhere handy when it's complete. Meantime here's the first four letters of the alphabet in digital Ireland.

1 World Media Marketing Belfast (Advertising Agency)

2BeScene Dublin (Online marketing services)

Ad2One Dublin (Online Sales & Marketing)

Adnet Dublin (Web design)

Adtech London (AOL Advertising)

Afilias Dublin (Domain Registry for .info)

agency.com Dublin (Interactive agency)

All Media Matters Dublin (Media)

AMAS Dublin (eBusiness consultancy)

An Webbery Donegal (Web design and Internet services)

Ardmore Co Down (Advertising & Marketing)

Ardvaark Digital Media Cork (Web design)

Arekibo Dublin (Web development, design & consultancy)

Aró Gaillimh (eBusiness solutions)

Artweb Design Dublin (Internet consultancy)

Athena Media Dublin (Media Independents)

Atomic Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Aura Internet Services Monaghan (Web development and consultancy)

AV Browne Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Banahan McManus Advertising Dublin (Advertising Agency)

BDM Innovate Dublin (Digital Media solutions)

Bitbuzz Dublin (Wi-Fi networks)

Blacknight Internet Solutions Carlow (Web hosting)

bloom Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Bluecube Interactive Dublin (Digital Marketing Agency)

Bluemetrix Cork (Web analytics)

Bluestar Tipperary (Web design, applications, online marketing)

Bonfire Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Bookassist Dublin (Internet consultancy & enterprise level databases)

Brando Dublin (Digital Advertising)

Brendan Moran & Co Wicklow (Computer consultancy)

Brightspark Consulting Dublin (Internet communications)

Broadtalk Communications Dublin (Broadband & VoIP)

BT Ireland Dublin (Telephone and broadband services)

Carat Ireland Dublin (Media Independents)

Carival Advertising & Design Cork (Advertising Agency)

Chemistry Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Chorus NTL Dublin (Digital TV, internet and telephony)

Clearscape Dublin (Website Design & Development)

Clientwell Dublin (Online marketing agency)

Comado Dublin (Digital publishing)

Combined Media Dublin (Website design & development)

Community Publishing Wicklow (Software for mobile and internet communities)

Completecents Dublin (Online Marketing Strategies)

Concept Cork (Advertising Agency)

Continuum Dublin (e-business consulting and design)

Corevalue Dublin (Business-to-Business; Business-to-Govt Services)

Cork Webdesign Cork (Web design)

Creative Inc Dublin (Web and graphic design)

Customer Minds Dublin (Mobile Marketing)

Cybercom Dublin (Full Service Digital Marketing Agency)

Dara Creative Dublin (Web & graphic design)

Data Conversion Dublin (Mobile & Direct Marketing)

Data Electronics Dublin (Co-location and managed web hosting)

Dataway Dublin (Network Security)

dbase Technologies Dublin (Web design, IT solutions)

DDFH&B Advertising Dublin (Advertising Agency)

Deise Design Waterford (Web design and implementation)

Denobi Dublin (Website design and online marketing)

Dialogue Dublin (Direct Response Advertising Agency)

Diffiniti Dublin (Digital Media Specialist)

Digicast Dublin (Digital audio and podcasting)

Digino Tipperary (Online marketing consultancy)

DigiServe Software Dublin (Develop & management of portal sites)

Digital Crew Cork (Web developers)

Digital Enterprise Solutions Dublin (Enterprise solutions)

Digital Hub Dublin (Digital development agency)

Digital Lounge Media Dublin (Digital Agency)

Digital Works Dublin (Media Independents)

Digitize Dublin (Online advertising sales)

Digiweb Louth (Internet hosting, domain registrations, broadband provision)

Dimex Belfast (Advertising Agency)

DirectBrand Dublin (Direct and digital marketing)

Discover Mobile Dublin (Mobile content management)

DMA Dublin (Advertising and Direct Marketing Agency)

Documation Dublin (Print services)

Doopdesign Dublin (Design company)

DotMobi Dublin (Mobile Marketing)

DV4 Dublin (Web Design and Online Video)

Agencies who span trad and new media - properly

2009-11-21T04:04:00.001-08:00

There are some who do, believe it or not. You'll find a dizzying array of new operators in the digital marketing space, from lone guns (some genuine, some new-age bullshit gurus to be avoided), to small and even medium-sized companies (some genuine, some new-age bullshit gurus to be avoided). That there are so many is testament to the amount of people who suddenly find themselves on the job market, sure, but also because new media are emerging quite quickly and traditional marketing companies are not upskilling with enough speed to understand and thereby dismiss or integrate them as appropriate.

I picked this Slideshare presentation up from a tweet or on one of the many digital avenues used by Mark Congiusta who heads up IIBBDO and Proximity's digital sections. (Ignore the irony of their websites not being, er, there yet.) He has a bunch of copped-on presentations over on Linkedin covering a variety of relevant areas: mobile advertising, taking your marketing online during recession and such and such. Each one plays a straight hand, and if you're in the marketing side of things but not yet happily in a digital groove you will find some local knowledgeable advice.

Traditional agencies: is transition possible?

2009-11-21T03:30:00.000-08:00

It's the fag end of November 09. The country has finally realised the extent of the financial crap we're in, the most savage budget ever witnessed is apparently about to be unleashed snarling on the public and just to make sure a sucker never gets a break, God left the bath tap on while doing a ten day Vegas residency. The country is officially riding bell broke and knickers wringing.

But enough of the good news. The latest issue of IMJ magazine has an interview with the highly pragmatic Ray Sheerin, boss of one of Ireland's most lauded creative ad houses, Chemistry. He expresses clear concern for indigenous agencies.

"If you look at the industry at the moment, it is probably about half the size it was this time last year in terms of revenue yet it is only slightly smaller in terms of the number of people servicing it. That to me is not sustainable and I think the industry is facing into a very serious period of realignment over the next three to six months.

This time next year, there will be fewer agencies in Ireland than there are now. I think some were probably holding off making critical decisions in the hope of some sort of an upturn in the last quarter of the year. At the moment, I don't see this happening and it's certainly not going to happen in the first quarter of 2010. So I think reality for some agencies will really only bite early next year and I don't think it's going to be pleasant."

Reality's bite has already been felt at Chemistry itself. Never a profligate bunch even at the height of boomtown, they ran a tight ship. Nevertheless the jobs axe has already swung for several of their agency personnel in the latter half of '09. I'm not sure if this stark interview is their way of starting the process of 'realignment', but it wouldn't surprise me, and it wouldn't be a bad start.

I see Chemistry as a microcosm of the issue facing ad agencies in general. The cold facts of the recession are not lost on them, and the work that they do for clients, in ever more difficult circumstances, remains of an excellent standard. But there is no fat on the figures any more. Lose one account and you can end up closing an entire department of your hard-working agency. It's hard to keep going in the teeth of that disappointment, knowing that you're still doing good work on shrinking resources. And I have alluded before to the streak of cruelty I've observed in (some) bigger clients throughout this recession. They are actively demanding more but willing to pay for less. They are fragmenting business among agencies, leading to a bull pit where agencies are ripping into each other's cost bases for unjust rewards at the end of the campaign, and loyalty meanwhile has taken the boat to elsewhere.

The way forward?
At the risk of sounding like Garret Fitzgerald, I've said this before. The game was changing anyway. Recession has collided with an explosion of new media and all the bingo bullshit in the world doesn't hide the fact that agencies need to find a digital way forward or Ray Sheerin's prediction will include them.
But is this actually possible? I believe it is. Not without a hell of a lot of recessionary pruning, and most likely that includes Sheerin's mooted mergers, but secondly (and here's the Darwinian nucleus) a whole new mindset when it comes to how agencies view control of the medium, the project and the client's budget.

My personal, and some might argue simplistic, belief is that core agency thinking, particularly of the traditional kind, is a hindrance to effective online marketing. The G5 of TV/Radio/Press/Outdoor/Cinema have long since ceased to be the dominant global force they once were. There's nothing new in that. Some recent research from RedC notes that for 16 -30 year olds in Ireland almost half of their viewing time, about two hours, is spent online. Two fifths of the TV viewing is not specific and is on in the background. We're not even factoring in how many people are recording the shows they actually want to watch on the Sky box and then simply ignoring that jewel in the crown of latter C20 advertising, the prized TV spot.

If you want to see the full results from that RedC research
from Richard Colwell, you can access it on video here.

But the machinery that drove agencies, and continues to drive them, is structured in a way that's counter-intuitive to producing rapid-turnaround online creative work. I sat through how many presentations to prospective clients without actually clocking what was wrong with that slide where we outlined the agency structure. It had two triangles, side by side. The head of client service was the sharp end of one, the creative director the tip of the other. Above them, vaguely connected to both, was top management, while below were the various layers of drones (as a senior writer I include myself in one of those layers).
Two triangles that never overlapped. And that was the 'team' that was going to work on Client X's much-sought business. You can see where problems might have gestated, no? Makes me think of that scene with John Hurt in Alien. Ultimately that's how it played out too. And this is even before we start to talk about integrating digital, which in itself is a loathsomely patronising term.

The model where creatives and execs essentially see each other as hindrances to getting the job done properly needs to be dismantled anyway in order not to just include digital marketing media but to be entirely built ab initio around it. The vacuum that's created by the inability of trad agencies to do this has been filled with literally hundreds of small online marketing companies, offering a plethora of varied services, and each month more join the field. It's dizzying, and very often the trad agency, digitally inarticulate behemoth that it is, is overlooking the fact that what these small companies offer, whether it's professional podcasting, mobile app development, SEO expertise or any of a hundred different relevancies, is most likely necessary for the agency's clients in today's marketplace. It may be overwhelming to look at how much needs to be absorbed for an old schooler, but I'd still rather have sleepless nights AND a roof overhead.

No ring to bind them all
I spoke to Orlaith Blaney recently, MD of McCann Erickson in Dublin. Big agency, on the face of it doing a creditable job of working through the recession and still making plenty of traditional advertising. But what about all of the online activity her clients now needed? Was McCann in a position to give Coke and Tayto and Heineken and Nestlé real online expertise? She reckoned that the switch-up to full digital offering (and really, nobody can define 'full' in the ever-expanding world of online media) would be far too costly for an Irish agency to do from scratch. From McCann's perspective, the core issue would still be about positioning themselves at the centre of the client's brand needs, and making sure that those needs were met either through the agency's work directly or through collaboration. But the idea of being 'the one' wasn't sustainable.

I think she's right. Knowing how to market crisps doesn't mean that you need to have someone on the payroll who knows how to make an iPhone app that markets crisps. Just be aware that it can be done, and be clued in as to whether it's right for your client to use it. Same mantra as always: know your shit. Creativity will still be creativity. Just in a different space. I think agencies can take a huge amount of positive juice from seeing it put into practice.
No better example in the past week than Chemistry themselves, who capitalised virally on Thierry Henry's handling of the ball to take France to the World Cup and send Ireland home. The guys in Leeson Park fabricated a diplomatic storm in a virtual teacup with elegant minimalism but huge impact. Google the words Sarkozy, box and letters and see how well they did it, just to prove that they could. People are getting this web thing.

Online media and NGOs

2009-11-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

Damien Mulley is organising a conference for charities on December 8 at the Euro Commission office in Molesworth Street, Dublin 2. Excellent opportunity to learn how the freely available tools that are out there can work to the benefit of organisations.

The course is free, with a max of two attendees per NGO. You can sign up here if you're interested. I don't like to talk about the many amazing things I constantly do for charity, so I am unable to say if I will be involved, or what if I may be involved I would be talking about if I was involved. Or not.

Use white space and your readers will be 20% smarter

2009-11-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

This is from a presentation by Paddy Cosgrave, organiser of the Dublin Web Summit (see previous post). He rattled through it quite quickly on the day, although nowhere near as quickly as his YouTube upload does. It's too damn quick frankly, so hover over the pause button. Some sharp insights.

Amma let ya conference...

2009-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

Not an actual pic from #dws

Put on my Marketing.ie columnist hat on October 30th for the Dublin Web Summit at Bewley's Hotel in Ballsbridge. I got approximately half of the day's events, not counting any of the workshops. In an increasingly crowded calendar of summits, conferences, meetups, tweetups and all sorts of networking events, this was one of the best I've attended this year. Well done to organiser Paddy Cosgrave and the Digital Marketing Institute.

Absolutely top drawer selection of speakers, superb presentations on the day, great interaction between attendees and speakers. The spread of attendees ranged from startup entrepreneurs to NGOs and bodies like Enterprise Ireland, as well as already-established web-based companies.
Mark Little, as a trad media journalist and enthusiastic recent adopter of social media, was a good choice of anchor. His genuine interest in the subject matter came through and he'd obviously done his homework. I'm not going to even namecheck all of the speakers. Far too ~~lazy~~ many of them. It seems that the content, as with most of these events, will be made available online. Worth keeping an eye out for.

The hashtag of the day's events, #dws, relays the keenness of the audience for the subject matter. The fact that so many people were live tweeting in itself marks some kind of watershed for companies. The technology of communications is actively being embraced. I wondered why they didn't live stream it for the non-tweeters in the audience to see, but perhaps its busyness might have been a distraction from the stream of excellent realtime content.

Not quite all positive and light though. Some grumbling, centering around the ticket price bounce that happened in the run-up to the event, can be detected if you go back through the #dws comments (and more elsewhere). As its popularity grew, so too did the ticket price, it seems. From €50 to €245 is a fair hike. That doesn't play well, particularly with an online-savvy audience.

The bar's getting set higher all the time. Later tonight (4pm at the National College of Ireland) it's the turn of Understanding Digital. They promise us 'a few hours inside some of the brightest creative minds in the online media industry.' Online smartypantses from We are Social, Agenda 21 Digital, Folk Creative and Ogilvy London will all be in a 10 dance.

Inner cranial update coming soon. Hell, I might even #udcreative it cos I am at sooo one with The Twitter.

Take your Powerpoint presentation and shove it?

2009-10-29T03:16:00.000-07:00

You know that lame old 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people' codswollop? The exact same inbuilt idiocy occurs in the phrase 'I haaate Powerpoint sooo much.' The more vowels, the more idiotic the speaker.
Why? Because it's a shortcut and it's untrue. Guns don't kill people. Bullets do. Powerpoint is a fan-fucking-tastic tool, and when it's not put in the hands of numpties who want to squeeze the entire contents of the company's ten year analysis into The Increase in Granulation of sub-Saharan Sand Encroachment: A Comprehensive Review (With Speaker Notes) then it can actually be quite entertaining.
I have sat in too many presentations where we killed the potential client. They took so many bullets to the vital areas that they were never going to be able to walk out of the boardroom, let alone want to come back for more on a regular basis. And I said nothing. Well in fairness I was asleep, but that's not going to save me in Nuremburg, is it? I will promise never to do it again, however.
Anyway, there's no finer birthday card for a 25 year old than this Powerpoint presentation by Rowan Manahan. Mark it, download it, memorise it, and if ever you're presenting to me please, please use it.

PowerPoint @ 25

View more presentations from Rowan Manahan.

Social Media for non-profits: an overview

2009-10-27T06:12:00.001-07:00

There's still little understanding of the power of social media for organisations that are not profit driven. I find this all the more remarkable when you consider their relative weakness in marketing budget terms.
I can't see that lasting however, as the number of organisations getting their toes wet has been growing. Whether or not they'll benefit from increased soc media activity is down purely to the understanding and amount of resources they are willing to devote to working the mojo. It certainly isn't about levels of € spend.
This presentation was delivered to Special Olympics Ireland last week, and briefly overviews the strengths of Facebook, blogging and Twitter for organisations with widespread memberships. Nothing new or radical for anyone heavily or even moderately involved with the online marketing scene, but quite an eye opener for novices.

Soc Media For Special Olympics Ireland

Air New Zealand enlist some marketing help from tweeters

2009-10-23T02:02:00.000-07:00

What's the strapline on the new Air New Zealand campaign?

Personality allowed.

Thanks to Brand Republic. More here.

When Smartphones attack

2009-10-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

Oh such iFun we had!
First there was this.

And then came this.

Asda ask customers

2009-10-19T02:06:00.000-07:00

Relevant more to the UK market naturally, but Asda as a major competitor can possibly teach Tesco a thing or two about the customer here in Ireland too. Little things like how to keep them satisfied. At local and national level here they seem to have lost their way in pursuit of gobbling market share for their own products. Asda on the other hand seem to be embracing the customer, even (perhaps especially) when things have gone terribly wrong.

Still pumped when the freelance phone rings

2009-10-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

The cutest thing I've seen in a while. Comes from Space Avalanche, and thanks Dave Concannon for pointing it out.

Online advertising will grow even more if it works with TV

2009-10-07T14:21:00.001-07:00

Image cred

Thought this was interesting, from Danielle Long in New Media Age. She notes that

it comes as no surprise that online has overtaken TV. Google’s ad revenues are now bigger than ITV’s and the broadcast sector has suffered greatly in the recession. While the predicted resurgence in TV could still happen early next year, the two sectors are bound to be wrangling for the top spot for some time yet.

Aspiring creatives: could you make a commercial in one day?

2009-10-05T02:18:00.000-07:00

Image thanks What What

The fantastically hip people at HYP tv (I know it was too easy. Shut up. It's Monday morning.) are running the kind of competition that I as a pup twenty or thirty or forty years ago would've given my canines for. I'm too hackneyed now to even write this post myself, but instead will cut and paste (such a utilitarian little modren phrase) from their own site.

HYPtv has teamed up with M&C Saatchi, Johnnie Oddball and the ICA to host the 24 Hour Ad Challenge.

Young teams of film-makers will join together with advertising student creative teams to create a 30" commercial - all in just 24 hours! There will be up to 20 teams competing in the challenge.

On the day, at the Challenge briefing, teams of film makers will be put together with advertising creative teams. Each amalgamated team will have an M&C Saatchi creative mentor who is there to offer advice and review ideas, not create them. The teams will then be given the brief - which will be the same for all teams. Each team has just 24 hours to create, shoot, edit and deliver their commercial. Later that day, the commercials will be screened to all and the verdicts delivered. The judges will also discuss the entries.

You'll have to get your arse to that London for November 7. You will be required to look blasé and studiously ignore all the other blasé entrants for the briefing at M&C Saatchi 36 Golden Square at 10 am. Which means you'll be getting up earlier than on any other day this year.

To enter you can use this handy Uniform Resource Locator link that I have also copied and pasted (works in past tense too, see?) for your convenience. Spread the word to those interested. It might be the only chance they get to work on a tv job for the next five years.

Asda on firefighting

2009-10-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

True accountability from big companies is always laudable. This from a local English outpost of the very large Asda is a response to the idiocy of a former employee. We've seen idiot staff doing things (Domino's springs to mind) and posting, without necessarily realising that there's a watching world beyond their immediate circle of idiots.

Viral, as has been stated ad nauseam, can't be prefabricated but must come from an area of honesty. Usually it's people sending each other entertainment, but very often it's newsworthiness that makes content viral. In the case of this idiot, it sure as little apples wasn't entertainment.

I'm especially heartened to see that Asda's local staff ran with a counter video. To my mind, it does immensely more to regain trust than a polished press release or statement from the most senior company bods could do (although that too can be highly effective).

I've only watched the first half of this guy's antics. Feel free to watch it all. He strikes me as someone who has problems and who possibly needs help. Anyway. What do I know?

Found at Brand Republic

JC Decaux and the little guys

2009-09-23T01:58:00.000-07:00

At the nexus where web development, brand marketing and customer management meet right now there is a liberating sense that anything can happen. Companies and brands are a bit more nervous about it, true, but wonderful little things take place all the time to show a warmer sense of interaction coming from people who have genuine affinity with products and crucially were never told what they couldn't do. So much of this stuff is brand new and the fuddy-duddies who normally apply the brakes can't always keep up.

Can-doism. Like Dusty and Michael, the Coke-loving dweebs who set up their own fanpage, which soon became extremely popular.

It was unofficial, and almost four million people are now fans. I don't understand why either, but that's not relevant. Coke came sniffing (behave) but they had the good sense to recognise people power and not fuck it up for the dweebs or themselves. They co-author the page now or some such, but not with the heavy hand they could so easily swing.

However. It remains to be seen just how long this hippie vibe can survive, when you hear about shit like this happening. From the Irish Times:

A FREE iPhone application for users of Dublin’s bicycle rental scheme has been withdrawn after the software firm which developed it was threatened with legal action by the advertising agency backing the new initiative.

The real-time application allows users of the scheme to find their nearest Dublinbikes station and see how many bicycles and spaces are available at it.

Fusio, the company behind the application, was sent a cease and desist letter from JC Decaux earlier this week in which it was told that legal action would be considered if it continued to offer the mobile application for download.

Fusio seem to be a fairly together web developer based in Dublin, doing half decent work and getting themselves noticed in the right ways. I don't know them, but I like the sound of the iPhone app, and how could you not like such a cheeky and clever way of getting a little bit of self publicity? They earned it after all, and in return created something useful, ozone friendly and, perhaps most important of all in these hairshirt days, cool.

JC Decaux on the other hand is a very big company, and benefitting massively from the bike scheme. (It's had its share of controversy and detractors, if you weren't aware.) Quite what they had to lose by people knowing where the fucking bikes they wanted to rent were, well, I am not altogether sure. Perhaps they would like to explain that.

When they're at it maybe they can tell us why they didn't start doing wheelies of delight at the thought that someone would bother their arses developing the app in the first place. Me, I'd slap it up on my website as quick as I could. And be damn pleased with myself. I am however but one cycling hippie, with two wheels and the truth.

JC Decaux. It's their bike, ok? (Pic credit)

Gotcha, Captcha!

2009-09-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Bit of a nerdy one this time. Google pulled on their Timberlands and strolled down to the chopin centra this week. Bored and loaded, they just had to buy something, so ReCAPTCHA got bought. You'll know them as these guys, the security text box you have to fill in order to validate your life as a non-robot.
Interesting thing is that it wasn't just a random fuckit-let's-splurge purchase. (Ok, that's not even remotely unusual, considering that this is Google we're talking about.) Google have a maniacal obsession with the information of the world, and clever little ReCAPTCHA isn't just a security programme. The words you're asked to verify are scanned archival material from newspapers and books. When you type them in, you're actually teaching the computer to understand the words because they have trouble with degraded ink. Computers are learning exponential- wait, someone's downstairs... asking for a Sarah Connor. Hang on a minute, I'll be back-

Coming up next on Adland: How Google mistakenly bought pornography portal Go Ogle...

Think outside the flatpack

2009-09-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

New channels of media arrive almost daily on the web, but simple, strong ideas for branding are still a requirement. Entertainment for the most part still pulls in the punters. In Burbank at an IKEA outlet a bunch of hooligans with a camera has been making the somewhat droll IKEA Heights. Some timely creativity lessons here. They're shooting it instore, they're so far getting away with it, and if IKEA are not complicit then they are hopefully smart enough to let this thing have a hopefully viral effect. It's better than a lot of the soaps you see, and it's not being disrespectful to the brand. Aspiring creatives, flatpacking is out-of-the-box thinking.

I'm not getting newspapers

2009-09-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Plenty has been written about the imminent demise of the printed news. A lot of it is unsubstantiated guff and terror, but there's no arguing the pickle they find themselves in. As the next generation will find precious little reason to ever buy a title, most of them face a certain decline of readership with an ever greyer demographic slant. Hardly headline news. Everyone's got a prediction and nobody's got a concrete plan. Market contraction, free content distribution and a slew of other issues need to be tackled, but essentially nobody knows how to make the online model pay the same way as the real, manufactured product used to.

Peter Merholz, writing in Harvard Business, put it very simply, and I find it hard to argue with the logic.

If you don't work in mass media, you might be forgiven if you think that you — the reader, the watcher, the audience member — are the customer. When you work in mass media, you know that readers, watchers, and audience members are really the products, being served up to mass media's actual customers, the advertisers. So for decades, improving the "customer experience" meant doing what's best for advertisers, whether or not it was best for the audience. And so you get sites like the Bakersfield Californian, with giant banner ads dwarfing the social media content. If there were no Craigslist, the audience would put up with it. But there is a Craigslist. And on Craigslist, you really are the customer. Even with its shortcomings, the site has only one audience in mind. And so customers click away from the confused businesses, and direct their attention to those who endeavor to serve them.

The awful Craigslist is awfully successful because it is only what the customer wants. Like the utterly mundane Google homepage, it is selling shovels, not gold. Let's not be entirely naive. Every newspaper in Ireland is now sponsored jointly by Tesco, Dunnes Stores, SuperValu and the other retailers. Full page colour ads for cheap chicken are the dog, and editorial is the tail.

Time to wake up. When customers can increasingly turn to informed peer-to-peer online publications (and add to the content themselves) or when they can see from Amazon and TripAdvisor just what the hoi polloi thinks of whatever or wherever it is they have a mind to buy or go (and then themselves rate it) then the newspapers have to take seriously the issue of what they're chasing first, advertisers or readers.

Online readers and offline readers are touching tangentially now, but soon they will part forever imo. The latest college grads will not have a default buy-the-print-version setting. And 'innovations' like making your digital publication look exactly like your offline version are an utter waste of money and time that could be spent figuring out how to make your premium content, your opinion sections, your decent writers, that bit more exclusive (ie billable) without ignoring the fact that anyone, anywhere can get the rest of the news for free at any time.

Publishing and printing are in the front line of Changing Times, and the recession has less to do with it than the advances of electronic media. Henry Ford's idea that if he'd asked the people what they wanted, they'd have demanded a faster horse is now bunkum. The people know exactly what they want, but they don't want to wade through flashing, distracting, epilepsy-inducing and downright annoying ad content to get to it. There is only one Commandment: thou shalt engage. If your advertisers' content doesn't do that, Madam Editor, it will diminish them - and by association your online publication - in the eyes of the end users.

I will never text and drive again.

2009-09-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

This is an explanation of viral. A road safety film from the Welsh Constabulary in Gwent. Links to the background here. Clever soundtracks, creative analogies, twisted puns... Nothing beats real drama for bringing this kind of message home. People don't necessarily understand it, but they utterly feel it.

And that is what has made it viral.

Essential for the ad person who carries an iPhone

2009-08-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the other Adland over at Adweek. Howdy David.

Solidarity with small businesses during the recession

2009-08-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

My favourite word this week is traction. Not just the sound of it, but all the associations of solidity and grip and realness. Three quarters of it is action.

Here's one from Brand Ireland that encourages it and is very much in tune with the zeitgeist, a practical yet romantic German word that English has no equivalent for.

Ok, etymology lesson over. Go see that Brand Ireland fella's post for more of this:

So, what I had in mind was the coming together (solidarity) of a range of professionals in the areas of Marketing & PR to offer some free expertise to small businesses or a chosen business in an effort ‘revolutionise’ their brand and create some buzz for their business. This grouping could act as a full service agency for the chosen brand for an agreed period of time in an effort to bring the business or brand to the next level and then hand back the reins.

Interesting. Hands-on pro bono marketing help from people on the inside. Tricky to organise, I'd imagine, but an excellent idea. I'd certainly be willing to devote some time to the concept.

Peperami where it belongs: in the hands of the fans.

2009-08-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

It came off the back of a generation of Young Ones fans. It traded irreverence and honesty with a nod to bovver boys and Millwall fans. It was the irrepressible Peperami and it was, it assured us with carefully considered nonchalance, a bit of an animal.

Wishing to get it back is a futile exercise, because its relevance owed everything to its time. So instead, Unilever puts a Doc Marten sole up its wotsits and boots it right into the 2009s. You want Peperami? You do the work.

Ten kay sterling is the prize for coming up with their new ad. Believe me, the agency responsible for the initial success all those 16 count-em years ago, Lowe, would've charged more by a factor of ten at the very minimum for it, but now it's open to the public. I'm still utterly undecided about that fab creation of the new century, crowdsourcing, but Unilever, like some giant colossus, has disregarded my indecision and invited Joe Public to take the brand to the next level. Smart move.

Here's Marketing Week's take on it.
And Campaign.
The Guardian.

Ok, bored now giving other people's opinions. Here's mine, as your benign but don't-brook-me-no-shit-nonetheless ruler at this blog.

Clever move by Unilever. Bound to attract a lot of attention, 97% of which will be shit that they'd skin and hide the agency for, but since it'll be free, right up to the point where they give some sap a pittance for a wealth of free publicity and an ad campaign to boot, they'll be full of spicy, thirst-inducing glee. It'll re-energise an absolutely maniacal classic of an ad creation and it'll shift a frankly perverse product by the cartload.

Interested? Hop on the meatwagon here at crowdsourcing central (Ugh. Just decided I dislike the idea.) Idea Bounty and who knows? It could be you, up to your gonads in over-salted animal remnant.

Excellent opportunity to express the profound and incalculable loss of the legend that was John Peel and the slightly less well known but nonetheless regrettable passing of that beloved sot of the marketing world, Assistant to the Brand Manager.

Ni bhéidh a leithid ann arís.

Adland jobspot

2009-08-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

Some jobseeker opportunities for web-minded marketers.

OgilvyOne are on the lookout for a Digital Project Manager for a three month initial contract. They say

Ideally you will come form an agency background, either from the client or project-management side, with a foundation in digital marketing delivery. Specifically you will be responsible one large blue chip client and a number of websites being developed.

Full spec here. Contact suzanne.delaney@ogilvy.com before Sept 15.

Cybercom have a position vacant for an Account Manager.

Experience in Social Media, Online PR and Online Advertising is a must while a detailed understanding of the other digital vehicles is required. The successful candidate will most likely be an Account Manager in another digital agency with the ability to work to tight deadlines, handle pressure and thrive in a multi-task environment.

Email your interest to Rob Reid rob.reid@cybercom.ie

Lovely, dark and deep

2009-08-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

Snot all that bad, missus.

I’ll tell you exactly when we got lost. It was that moment in the woods, somewhere around Burkittsville, when that stupid Michael Williams kicked the stupid map into the river. Up until then we were all humming along just fine. Day followed night and post followed pre and all was good. Then in July of ’99 Artisan released a lo-tech, DIY home movie called The Blair Witch Project. Biggest box office sales-to-production cost in American filmmaking history.

They threw away the map.

The internet was there already, of course, in an increasing number of workday lives. It wasn’t quite the chattering, listening, helpful, I-hear-you place of consumer gratification that it is now but that didn’t stop the producers of The Blair Witch Project from realising what a mighty opportunity it gave them. They invented a myth about an Irish witch in Maryland, they peddled it for gospel in a documentary that they’d made for potential investors, and when it got people talking they shot that ‘new truth’ directly into the bloodstream of young Americans with this fabulous internet thing before they ever released a print. Ker-ching. The fact that they’d spent two years inventing a centuries-old myth and then turned it into the biggest no-budget marketing success ever via the web was a delicious whammy that none of us even copped until the dust settled and the numbers were in.

That was then. Internetland has changed dramatically since. It’s not a place where you just observe any more. Engagement is key now. You contribute. Snakes on a Plane? This is a basic that hasn’t been grasped by a lot of Irish marketers yet. Since 2005, YouTube has allowed anyone to upload their content, and anyone else to watch it. It’s incredibly user friendly. No strings of code or fancy algorithms necessary. If you’ve got some rubber bands, a toilet roll tube and a magnifying glass you can probably do it. And if you’ve got something that others want to watch, they will. And if you’d invented simple, straightforward cut-and-paste YouTube, how pleased would you have been when Google came knocking a year and a half later, waving a cheque for $1.65 billion? If Google want what you do, you can bet that you’re doing something that has a future.

There are stacks of success stories that made it because of engagement on social sites. People like Lauren Luke. An ordinary girl from Newcastle with an instantly homey appeal, she’s built a business from telling girls all over the globe what eye make-up will suit them, and how to put it on. Tens of millions of views of her practical demos on YouTube. It’s not my particular thing, believe it or not, but it neatly demonstrates the two-way nature of new media. The people who watch will comment, tell her publicly what it means for them and will viral that all-important word of mouth. Lauren’s rise has been stellar. She’s the definition of commercial success in a new reality. It’s even allowed her to start a column in the olde worlde media too, via The Guardian's Saturday Weekend mag. How quaint!

The essence of the change in consumer internet use since the dotcom bomb of 2000 relates to its unmistakably human conversational nature. People watch, but they also shoot and record and write and post so that others may watch them. They interact. They join chat forums relating to every conceivable topic, because they want to and they can. They take part, they blog, they post photos and silly comments on their friends’ snaps. They’re on Facebook (half a million Irish accounts) (Update! Almost a million now!) and Bebo (over a million there, kids) and Flickr, Pix.ie, Vimeo, Twitter and a slew of other places where news, good and bad, is shared instantly. They form interest groups that can bring causes to wider attention. They rate hotels, schools, cars and restaurants. They write poetry. They have Kawasaki motorcycle clubs, recipe-swopping sites and autism awareness groups for those affected by it. They have instant access to everything. They’re Web 2.0, and if you aren’t, well frankly my dear who gives a Steve Silvermint?

Access to new markets via social media is as democratic as it gets, and the impact of these new two-way platforms on traditional lines of message dissemination is hard to overstate. I mean really, really hard. It’s a massive warning to companies who see the web as something that doesn’t directly affect them. It directly affects everyone.

Everything has changed, yet ironically many people in offline communications, be it advertising, PR or entertainment, are failing to see how they’re marginalising their own power by not getting to grips with this conversation. They now absolutely need to talk to consumers and potential customers on behalf of their clients, and show that they are capable communicators in this new landscape, yet they have apparently no idea how to engage.

Coming from a very traditional marketing background, as an advertising copywriter now working online, I see this shortfall in understanding from agencies all the time. I’m puzzled as to whether it’s denial, fear or outright complacency, but it’s certainly there. One of the major issues is, naturally, money. Advertisers, accustomed to making a statement and having it pushed out there on sexy, big TV without much fear of contradiction, have no idea how to make money from new social media. They don’t often seem to understand the essential shift in communications platforms. They express their thinking in terms of making this new web thing retro-fit the old matrix. But putting a press execution or a 48-sheet onto a website as a banner ad does not represent an understanding of the model. ‘We’ll get it out there as a viral’ does not mean putting a tv ad online and commanding everyone to look at it. That does not work.

The rewards for agencies have been good up until recently. On the other hand the payback from blogging, tweeting, networking online, building microsites, going truly viral and harvesting as much information as possible about your consumers is hard work, especially compared to a one-off €750,000 shoot. But how many of them are happening in 2009/2010?

The R word is a given. Production is not going to rebound in the near future, and never again to the levels we’ve enjoyed until recently. Consolidation will remain a fancy term for eviscerating the marketing budget. I’d prefer to accentuate positivity instead, particularly since an understanding of the new models of marketing is essential if we’re to see any helpful or meaningful growth in the short to medium term. There are incredible new outlets for creativity. The tools are in everybody’s hands and those who prove themselves adept at getting out there will reap the rewards. Brands will still have to protect and project themselves in the digital sphere, and if PR and advertising agencies don’t learn how to do it, new entities will come along and do it for them. Several are already there, doing excellent work on much smaller budgets, and delivering measureability to clients that traditional agencies don’t even dream about. While the old schoolers are dropping the Nielsen ratings on their foot, the new kids are telling clients what their customers are eating for breakfast right now.

Advertisers and agencies have to watch their flanks as well as their rears, because the search engines and the technology are continually gaining ground and converging. Internet protocol tv is just a heartbeat away. Google is already a huge online ad agency with its AdWords, and it’s as near as dammit to being able to target readers with Minority Report-like precision. Phillip K. Dick thought that wouldn’t be around until 2054. Heh.

Even if you are utterly lost in the woods and freaking out right now, take comfort from the fact that you’re not the only one. And producers of quality content, both words and pictures, now have more channels than ever before to distribute their work. Illustrators, animators, actors, writers, directors, musicians, production teams and anyone else with creativity to offer will find streams to push their wares along. Cream will still have the joyously endearing habit of rising. And unlike the Blair Witch trio ten years ago, we’ve got Google Maps. Let’s go.

This post is an edited version of an article written for Film Ireland's July/August issue. Big thanks to a mighty digital media advocate, Cathal Gaffney at Brown Bag Films.

Things I lost. Things I found.

2009-08-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

It is one year since I stopped coasting. One year since the luxury of not thinking was taken away from me. Professionally, that is. In matters of family and friends, the cogs were meshing away, but I had lost any pride in my work, had no sense of belonging to the core of the company and a vague sense that well, they just owed me because. The longevity defence.

But when WPP decided to pull the plug, the option of not thinking anymore was gone. I was suddenly Keanu Reeves in the Matrix. No, not that one. I got to be the blinky, slime-covered one, finally dumped from the pod of mental gloop and needing a serious power download into my skull.

In the intervening year I have stopped feeling stupid about shameless networking, because networking makes the world go round. It did before me. It will after me. It should be shameless. And in the process I have met some of the most brilliant, energised and focussed individuals. I use the word pointedly, because now I see how individuals can operate within the hive but without the hive mindset.

If I hadn't lost my job I could not have possibly found myself, because I was hiding behind the fucking thing. But I am never going to regret that, because that would be wasting more now, and my now has way too much great stuff in it, because I lost my job. Funny old life.

I have no fear of recession, because I know how rich we are as a country. But I do get upset for those losing their jobs, because it's a terrifying step off a cliff. I feel (a bit) sad for the hive minds, because I haven't quite forgotten the mindless comfort of it. I get infuriated with the 'Nothing to do with me' legions operating within our vast and sluggish civil service/semi-state marshes. And by fuck are there plenty, still sucking at the full-cream tit with no regard for those who cannot, hung up on scales and benefits and grades and petty competition and living a daily obsolescence. A friend of mine has just been fortunate enough to get a contract with one of these government services. One we all know. She came from the real world. In Week 1 she was told three times that 'this isn't a performance-based company like your last one.' You know what? I believe that they believe that. And something else? They are terribly wrong to think that way, because nothing is too big to fall.

Okay, spleen vented. What actually prompted it all was this Slideshare presentation by Charlie Hoehn. It's his guide to getting any job you want within a year of finishing college. It has such wisdom, foresight and level-headedness from one so young that I can only sit back and applaud him. The prick. When I think of how I wasted my twenties. Aah, maybe he'll screw up his forties and the karmic wheel will trundle along nicely.

Can't see it somehow.

Recession-Proof Graduate

Discovered via the equally was-probably-always-together Seth Godin.

And and and. You know who you are. Thanks.

A crash course in social media from Simply Zesty

2009-08-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

New kids on the online pr/socmeej block, Simply Zesty (founded by the tireless twins Niall Harbison and Lauren Fisher), are presenting a Summer Camp on various topics at the business/social media convergence point. It happens on August 27th at The Church on Mary Street, D1.

In their own words:

The aim of our course is to give you an overview of the free tools available in social media that enable you to reach your customers in new ways online. We’ve got a great lineup of speakers, including Philip Macartney from Bebo, Conall McDevitt from Weber Shandwick and natural search guru Alastair McDermott from Website Doctor. We’ve also got a great panel of bloggers and journalists who are active and influential in the social media space. They will be there to answer your questions on how you can reach your customers online, with first hand experience.

There's enough talent lined up on the day to sort the spam and the specious from the socially smart, and there are worse ways to spend less than a hundred quid.

Happily they don't promise to make social media gurus out of attendees, which is great and probably spares me hefty jail time, because it's my Manchurian Candidate trigger term. The other one, if you ever want to see me descend into a seething frenzy of spittle and (other people's) bone shards, is 'coach' when applied to anything other than sports fields and modes of transport.

Yes, it's my problem, according to the analyst. I know. Don't blame yourselves.

The Facebook juggernaut rolls on

2009-08-17T02:34:00.000-07:00

Image cred Bobbi L. Newman

Facebook has officially got over 900,000 Irish users. Seems like only a few months ago when I wrote that the social networking giant was just cresting 600k users here in Ireland. No, wait... oh, right. Getcha.
Anyway, a short while since it revamped its streaming updates to give itself a Twitterlike vibe (albeit a fattened out one, but even there it's decided to challenge little old Twitter) it seems to have aped the American experience here and taken off with a huge chunk of the middle of the market, attracting people at the mature end of the mouse spectrum who are suddenly realising how it can bind them closer to their friend diaspora. If you don't think that this matters beyond thinking 'aah, that's nice for them' then you need to consider what your clients may think of it all. A recent post here about the effect of socmeej on brand recognition for Sandtex demonstrates quite forcefully that when it comes to the potency of these types of vehicle for your brand, you can ignore them but you cannot afford to for long. More soon on that one, and some overviews on recent work by Coca Cola brands to follow.
But I digress. Facebook. Ireland. Numbers. Gone are the days of above the line, below the line, through the line, online, offline... it's WFL? as far as I'm concerned. Damien Mulley wrote about the numbers here. Good idea to see the breakdown. Not because you can now poke your mother in law either. Mulleybite:

So right now the stats:

905,980 people in Ireland are now on Facebook. In January there were just over 400k.
612,380 people are age 25 and older – 67%
399,440 people are age 30 and older – 44%
134,660 people are age 40 and older – 14%

It's a big zeitgeisty monster now. Question that brands should ponder is how, when and why it can be useful for them. It's far from universally applicable for every brand, but it simply has to be on the rota of considerations.

Interesting

2009-08-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the somewhat wonderful xkcd for the funny humour.

I have been away but now I am back and I will shortly have many interesting things to say about many other interesting things of interest to people who, like me, are interested in interesting things. Interesting people.

Prevolution

2009-08-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

It's not a new drum beat or anything. The tectonic crockery of marketing has been jiggling across the table for the lifespan of a whole Lady Gaga by this stage. We've been seeing it even here, in the forgotten Irish spiral of cyberspace, where brands like Barry's and even Sandtex (a masonry paint fer cri yi yi, but more on that later) have been absorbing this notion that brands are actually free to talk to people, rather than at them. Liberating in a way, like taking a punt on Tubridy as master of the country's moral compass. Anyway, here are some lovely slides by that nice Paul Isakson man. Isn't he the guy that did the Twin Peaks music?

The evolution of the logo

2009-07-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what this proves. Some people like to dance around a lot and set their hair on fire. Some don't. Or, as I like to interpret it, drink water. Found this at the Barbarian Blog.

Heavy showers moving in from the web: the Summer of Sandtex

2009-07-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Every so often the (cliché alert, gentle readers!) green shoots of hope manage to poke me in the eye and I cry a little tear for the audacity of hope in this time of such not hope at all. Such a story as this following one is one such.

I've done my share of whingeing here about the slow-to-glacial uptake of digital engagement by Adland. Some part of my D&A just refuses to stop caring about it. And now as the chill gloom of deep August settles on us all and I sit here amidst the early BulMag apple cider harvest, suffused about the cheeks with a faux-retro Kellogg's Country Store vibe, I look back over the short summer of Dublin adland and ask myself what has happened in digital terms, quite apart from all the killings, maimings, torturings, razors taken to budgets and shivs dug into the unsuspecting necks of junior AEs?

But mostly I look back and wonder, as I'm sure we all do: what the fuck was this all about?

I'd seen the zany outdoor stuff and like any sane person I wondered what's Gillian Bowler at now, lads? Then I copped the Sandtex logo and almost at once I elected to forego my sixth annual continental fortnight just so that I could get to the bottom of this deliciously apposite enigma. Because whatever it looks like, it sure as shitty weather doesn't look like an ad for exterior masonry paint. Right?

Er, wrong. Wrong to the tune of 10,307 Facebook fans atcherly. It was a big old gotcha! and I'm sheepishly admitting that I completely missed the viral action that was going on. The entire campaign pretty much lived online - and is still doing so. A blog was set up linking to the Twitter and Facebook page, run by The Sandtex Insider, a national man (?) of mystery known only by the squelching of his wellies, who's been writing (fuckin' incessantly, and quite appropriately) about the weather.

That one thing that unites all pasty-arsed Irish men and women from April to October. The poxy weather. That's how big the creative idea was. It blotted out the sky, maan. So big that you wouldn't even see it in all its pissy glory, but it was that pissy idea that gets you wet all the same.

The campaign cleverly latched on to it because it's something that is just part and parcel of our sodden summers. The blog is frankly downright dull on the old colour spectrum (Irony, right lads? That's irony, yeah?) it did no more than it needed to for engagement on visitors' terms, it gently nudged the Sandtex message here and there and it linked to the other sites. (That doesn't make it viral per se, btw. People passing it along decide if it's viral.) It also just hit the right amount of cultural buttons to make it uniquely Irish. Not to be underestimated, that one. Where else would this reader submission be considered funny, exactly? But right here in Ireland, in this medium, it's a fuckin' riot. (No offence, baby J.)

So yet again, the big idea proves to be a little one. I'm pleased really, because I've had to hang on to the brogans of more than one ad creative as they disappeared up their own jacksie in search of the high art concept. Occasionally they were me. But that's not always what interests punters. The most redeemed giveaway on the blog? Child of Prague statuettes. I kid you not. (Free pint of Sledgehammer not included, btw.)

I'm also pleased that I completely missed it for weeks. I could cite all sorts of reasons for this, but the ultimate why is that the Irish online community is waay too big for anyone to keep a comprehensive eye on. I should've seen this one, professionally speaking, but the fact that it slipped past while I was probably nosing around in someone else's blog means a wider, deeper pool of engagement, where all sorts of tricks will need to be deployed, is happening.

But what real learnings?

Your creative idea can live longer and more impactfully online if you think about it that way from the start. This campaign set out with a two week budget for some posters, bus sides, weather sponsorship on radio and hope in its heart. It's knocked an entire season out of what was to be, at best, a month and a half of activity.

Campaigns like this are few in Ireland just yet, but they shouldn't necessarily be seen as an immediate sales booster. They can do that, no doubt, but certainly to me they look more likely to assist brands to slide into that area beloved by late eighties admen: the hearts and minds of consumers, ladies and gentlemen.

So don't expect immediate sales spikes unless you are pushing a specific promo within your engagement. And as timing would have it, that's exactly what the Sandtex blog is doing with today's post. I'd love to hear how it does. Who knows, we might get an inkling when the numbers are in. What's clear already is that Facebook has been a huge success, with over 10k fans and massive engagement. Second only to Guinness as regards official fan pages, they say. I'm too lazy to check it out. There have been around 40,000 page views. The 'pointless' outdoor alone was doing a good job of searing Sandtex onto my retinas anyway, but add the engagement to it and suddenly it's got a very sharp point indeed. Even if I did miss it initially.

In short, campaigns like this one are major causes for optimism, imho. New media being tackled appropriately and all that. There's another wave that needs to come right behind it, bringing people with even less 'traditional' advertising nous with it: the application developers. The cat can be skinned more ways than ever. But first let's get to grips with the ones that people are becoming increasingly familiar with. And meantime I'm off to give a lick of paint to the castle ramparts, while there's a gap in the August moisture.

Update: Mea culpa for wittering on about an integrated campaign and forgetting to name other key integrationists. Alongside Bloom on this one are Radical and Pembroke Communications. Nicely executed work from all, and apparently there's more to come.

Irish PR. New levels of precision digital targetting every day.*

2009-07-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big fan of incisive, cut-through-the-clutter PR. The science of it. The subtlety of it!! I love the way so many agencies know how to target their message with unbelievably clinical precision, narrowing it down to within nanometers of the cerebral cortex of the intended consumer.

How often have I marvelled at the unerring way that uniquely talented models are used against a backdrop of, oh I dunno, let's take a completely random St Stephen's Green, to promote let's say a rate of return of an amazing 9.7% APR for new customers opening a Switcheroo account. It cuts straight to the relevant heart of the matter, don't you find? The care, exactitude and thought that go with it are often breathtaking. Next thing you know, there'll be a shot of a slightly overweight guy in a sober suit holding an outsized something or other (like a big 9.7% made out of styrofoam maybe) alongside an actress (dontcha know) and suddenly there it'll be, as essential to The Evening Herald as journalists and incisive journalism. The process is endlessly fascinating, the learnings that are applied (use girls, don't go mad on clothing, have a big prop, include the client if possible etc) are always just zingy fresh and new, and the outcomes for client's budget on these photoshoots must always be enormous. You gotta spend it to make it, clearly.

This particularly resonant example was brought to my attention by Brand Ireland. A trip to the post will explain many of the nuances that I simply do not have the space to deal with adequately here. Suffice to say that this extraordinarily creative twist, featuring not one, not two wildly varied models, involves the eagerly awaited launch of Avonmore's new Easy Pour Jugs.

Surely you'll join me in my hat tip to this summit, this azimuth, this acme, this peak, this explosion of public relations at its creative finest. I know its elegant simplicity has inspired me. Thus, in its honour, I am inaugurating a three-semester, 33-week, proto-analytical course in the Dublin School of Advanced Applied Public Relations. Course applications are being taken now, so if you think you have what it takes to be a PR maestro (and only the brightest will gain admittance) then you may be one of the lucky first classmates to pass Cumma sum Laudly through my academic hands. Places are limited to 174, and unfortunately in this inaugural year there will only be one random PR Guru Award. Applications to the usual address. There will be badges for all. (And yes, I know azimuth was out of place there. Smartarse.)

* This post has nothing whatsoever to do with digital marketing. But I know relevance when I see it.

I’m putting you in charge of Pittsburgh, Peter. I know it’s perfect, Peter; that’s why I picked Pittsburgh.

2009-07-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

From this...

to this.

You can rely on FedEx not to drop it. Unless it's TV advertising during Super Bowl. They've decided instead to go after this internet thing con gusto, hoping that a series of spoof infomercials will hit the spot with the office crowd.

They've started out smart by hiring Fred Willard (yes you know him, you just don't know you do). They'll have their work cut out for them. Last quarter they lost $876 million. 12 months earlier losses were running at a third of that figure. So they absolutely, positively need to start making inroads somewhere.

The FedEx YouTube channel is called Get Infotained and you can see all the spots and get an eyeball on the numbers if you care to take a look. FedEx director of advertising Steve Pacheco says in an interview with the New York Times that they're not deserting TV, just the $3m-for-30-second-slots insanity that is SuperBowl. It's bigger than the All-Ireland Football Final, apparently.

Yeah, right.

Can a corporate blog ask the difficult questions?

2009-07-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Pic thanks Kevin Dooley

Anyone with a blog can mouth an opinion.

What you won't find too much of is a corporate entity jumping in there and saying the unexpected, because they're far too often petrified by the prospect of what genie they'll let out of the bottle. Truth? We never needed it before, why should we be all warm and fuzzy now?

You won't, you can be damn sure, hear a bank in Ireland asking out loud whether Western economies will struggle to return to growth. And it wouldn't ask if we are in the eye of the perfect storm, or whether we're facing years of foreclosures or if those shoots of recovery, of which Mr Cowen spoke, are really visible. Safer to play accentuate the positive, even if you're only admiring the napp of the wallpaper in your first class cabin on board HMS Titanic.

But if it were to ask these honest questions, a major bank in Ireland would never ask them outside the boardroom. It wouldn't ask a naysayer like David McWilliams for fear that he'd answer with the truth, or at the very least an honest opinion. And it most definitely wouldn't put the bloody answers on its blog out there in the skittish public domain, now would it? No, because you can't trust people with unvarnished information. Even if they trust you with their precious resources. No no no. Blogs are the Bic of Satan. Dangerously true information has to be filtered through the correct sieves. Reassurance mechanisms like PR and advertising and official spokesper- what?

Oh really? They did?

Oh. I see.

What would Coca Cola do?

2009-07-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

I found this on Linkedin, which is making more and more sense to me these days. Particularly the groups. We Are Social is one, and here's a presentation found via them on what Coke is doing with media digitally and socially.

BlogWell New York Social Media Case Study: Coca-Cola, presented by Adam Brown from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Facebook Garage report (moderate geek alert)

2009-07-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

Way back there on July 2nd, I took my tired chassis to the Facebook Garage in the decidedly non-pitlike surrounds of the Radisson SAS in Golden Lane, D2.

Why? As I said somewhere else before, because I am reassured to know that there are serious geeks out there who know how to build serious applications (or 'apps', as we in the 'biz' 'call' them). I won't ever learn how to do it myself, but these dudes show the way.

Most impressive of the geeky ones for me was Flavien Charlon's MyCity. You may know this app already from FB. He had a modest way of explaining how his hobby of building a Sim city for FB went totally apeshit and now has 500,000 people who 'live' in the app. Putting on the morkeshing hat for a minute, I could see the instant application of this, erm, application for advertisers. Check out the slideshow.

But beyond geeky was cold, hard business. Colm Long, local boy and Facebook ruler of EMEA (I think it's, like, somewhere beyond Narnia) gave a great topline presentation on Facebook and apps (and the apps of apps) from the perspective of adlanders. This is the money shot.

Colm Long, GM of Facebook EMEA

View more presentations from Web2 Ireland.

And fyi (now that this is a gossip rag) people from the spitoon of Satan (ie agencies etc) who were in attendance included Unnamed from IIProximity, Undercover from Kick Communications, Unshaven from Cybercom, and Underexposed from MaxFilms.

Congratulations! I am the one millionth person to title a blogpost "The end for advertising agencies?"

2009-07-12T04:01:00.000-07:00

Piece by piece the structure of advertising agencies is being disassembled. That's the polite way of saying it. If you've seen any of the Saw movies that might work as a more incisive visual. Just last week I heard unconfirmed reports of nine people being let go from Cawley Nea. It could be the Chinese Whisper figure I heard, but more often than not there's substance to the story. It's always glum to hear, and even more difficult to accept when it's from a good agency, doing good work for its clients. That alone is not enough right now to save anyone.

Ad agencies have their head in the vice alright, and it's not only the economy that's turning the handle. A rampant spend culture, the seeds of which were sown over the last decade, is now being harvested. Across town the memories of the office Christmas party that simply had to happen in some other continental capital aren't too distant to be forgotten yet. The endless, needless taxi trips to locations ten or fifteen minutes away on foot. The ugliest, most expensive furniture and bibelots scattered around reception.

It's not fair to blame a high-on-the-hog agency culture solely. I think that at this moment in time a lot of clients (unquestionably under pressure themselves too) are using stringent wartime conditions to let a bit of a wanton cruel streak cut loose. Agencies are scrabbling for project-by-project appointments, expending a huge amount of effort on mini-pitches. It gives the illusion of a busy beehive but it's based on vapour. The majority of it is energy and expense that is spent unrewarded. Not sustainable for very long. I hear of clients who demand more work on a purely speculative basis, more often than they ever have previously. It's fun to toy with the agency, I guess, now that it's turned into a mouse. Maybe it relieves their own stress in these faltering days. And with each genuine big account that is pitched and moves (or stays, it doesn't really matter) the staff at the unsuccessful agencies will hold their breaths and the management will most likely have to make that horrible call to the singled-out few.

Needless to say, I'm generalising quite a bit here. Not all clients are complete tossers and not all agencies are in headless chicken mode. And maybe soon that'll all be an academic question anyway, over redundancy pints in Smyths. But other questions need to be asked in the meantime. Fundamental questions. Like What is the agency now? What does it represent for clients? Can it reassume a place of relevance at the heart of client communications needs?

I'm skeptical. The last 18 months have seen wholesale changes, but the erosion for agencies has been going on for a lot longer than that. The removal of the media function that began 15 years or so back was huge. The growth of external researchers. The outsourcing of production facilities. The splintering effect of creative-only agencies, or service-led agencies that would hire in creatives on an ad hoc basis. The setting up of independent BTL agencies. The growth of digital media that have largely remained unharnessed by agencies. All these changes have led to an emasculation of the agency's raison d'etre in client terms. And clients have grown exponentially more sophisticated in marketing terms. It's been a long time since any decent-sized firm would simply rely on an agency as its go-to guy for all its needs, preferring instead to operate an a la carte system. Who could blame them? Nobody really expects one body to have all these competencies and be master of each one. Not gonna happen.

And more pertinently, when clients are exposed to the cost structures of various marketing specialists, it quickly becomes apparent as to who is costing the most and who is the least effective. Nowhere to hide. That became true in the late eighties with investment in direct response advertising and the set-up of direct marketing houses. Not as sexy as the big ad campaign makers, maybe, but effective and far more valuable to a lot of clients because of it.

Measurement has become ridiculously more quantifiable now (yes, I am aware of the tautology, but cannot be arsed to take the time to improve, better or refine it) with the true ascent of digital agents. 'Digital marketing is a speciality full of specialities.' That's how Jonathan Forrest of Cybercom put it recently in an interview with Pat Kenny. Recession or no, why would a client give any ad agency a huge chunk of business, welded as they are to an ever decreasing portion of the way we were?

Is there a way forward for agencies? In my stomach I don't believe there is, unless it's as a reinvented entity. And I don't mean rebranded. I mean as a valuable go-to resource for clients, a hub where expertise can be marshalled, so that even when an agency does not possess the skill to complete the required task, it can be an essential part of the overall equation that does. Nobody possesses all the specialities. Film production companies have always operated on this basis. You form the network for the project. Next time out you build to order all over again. But always, you have the option of positioning yourself at the centre of that hub. The brand guardian, if I may use that wanky old scrote of an expression. But it necessitates knowing all lines of communication, from Google Adwords to what the hell use an iPhone app might be. Things that you didn't need to know before, when everything was just radio/tv/press/outdoor lovely. There's no time for complacency at all. There's barely enough time to decide to act. The steepest learning curve adland has ever faced is pointing up to the sky right in front of everybody's face.

Last week's Business Post had a great article on the current state of affairs for agencies in general. It had a perfect cross-section of panic, denial, optimism and pragmatic decisiveness. Sometimes all from the same agency spokesperson. But what stood out clearly was everyone's fixation with digital. For some because it's what they do, for others because it's what they know they need to be doing. Necessity, to tweak a phrase, is the mother of reinvention.

Your Economy needs you!

2009-07-07T14:14:00.001-07:00

Terracotta Army
Originally uploaded by Eugene Regis

The soc meej army continues to mass its ranks. A couple of ways to enlist.

One gratuit: Thurs July 16th, Social Media Networking at the Clarion Hotel IFSC at 6pm.

One paid: MediaContact's Social Media Unspun on July 23rd at 10am.

MIA

2009-07-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

Oh my goodness goodness me. It's been one of those most unusual things for me of late: a terribly busy two weeks in offline adland. I know! I'm as surprisder as you. I've barely had the time to fit 140 characters onto my private yacht, Das Tvit, for the annual five weeks of orgiastic July excess.

Nermine.

We've put together a 20" TV ad for a new superclub that's opening (in TRT!) in Maynooth, and it's rather tasty. We're also helping some festival frineds launch on radio and in press. Radio requirements throughout July seems to be enjoying a bounce after frankly a non-existent June all round.

Anyway, there'll be more from me with some real substance to it later, I hope. Here's a picture of my neighbours meanwhile. I don't know about you but that guy in the middle freaks the fuck out of me.

Pic from Urban Street Art

Hmmm. So what shall we do this week?

2009-06-29T03:15:00.001-07:00

Trench Warfare Originally uploaded by [Cardz]

Downsizing continues in tradland, with some good agency friends getting put on a three day week last week. But they're resourceful people, so they're already planning the comeback tour and have several good dates locked in.

Like next Wednesday's 121 Marketing Network monthly informal social meetup. 121 are based at Linkedin and organised by Karina Rose Heavey, who says it's 'a group for Ireland-based Marketing professionals to discuss marketing ideas, industry trends and help people find other marketing experts.'

On Thursday there's a Facebook apps developer workshop happening in the Radisson. Already pretty full, but worth looking at the next one. Why am I going? After all, I expect to model in six inch stilettos and a clingy micro mini for Dolce and Gabbana before I know how to develop a Facebok application. Isn't this getting just a bit nerdy?
Well no. I want to know who to talk to when my clients ask me to creatively reach their female over 55s target. Biggest growing demographic on Facebook right now, and I'd prefer to reach them with an application than a pay-per-click ad.

Online PR in Ireland has a new face too. Become a fan, contribute, listen and observe, because social meeja doesn't really respect that solid thick line you used to be able to marker between pr and advertising.

Two examples of lines blurring are Damien Mulley's piece here about Hennessy doing a Bord Gais with bloggers, and the planned blog-up that WHPR have organised at Ogilvy's offices next Wednesday. Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the latest Bud ad. With pizza. Everybody wants to engage now.

Film production companies too are looking at the future of advertising with a sober acknowledgement of where it's at and a co-operative shoulder-to-the-wheel mentality which is absolutely brilliant to see. I can think of nobody better able to spearhead the issue than Max Brady of MaxFilms. Along with Russ Russell of Russell Curran she's pushing the new message out. Sounds like a great example of like minds working for a common purpose, despite the obvious competitive special interests. I'm all for it and wish them a great second half of '09.

Producers have met to take action in recognition that advertisers’ available budgets have been cut, and that TV production needs to evolve to meet changing needs in the current economic climate. Through industry co-operation, new working practices are to be brought into the production business that makes the production of advertisements, locally, more competitive.
“Ireland has always had a diverse, and very creative, commercials production sector, wrangling smaller budgets into giving higher production standards”,says Russ. “We would hope that the actions we have now taken will assist Irish advertisers, and advertising agencies, to begin spending on TV production again; ensuring the survival of a very unique and atypical sector of the Irish economy, and ultimately helping to contribute towards the survival of our television broadcasters”.

Google loves you, agencyland. It really, really loves you!

2009-06-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

Well sort of, enough to create an online educational portal because it truly values your juicy relationship with your clients. Here's what Rupal Parekh says in Advertising Age:

The AgencyLand platform, now in beta with select agencies, houses a ton of Google-centric content created for agency staff. Naturally, much of it is focused on digital topics. There are webinars, a searchable library with more than 200 marketing case studies and short, on-demand video segments featuring Google leaders such as Chief Economist Hal Varian. It also aggregates Google's array of ad tools, such as a media-planning tool that connects advertisers and publishers and a website optimizer, which helps measure user behavior on web pages.

Looks sound on the face of it. They got initial buy-in this year from Ogilvy, Initiative, Starcom and Carat to be guinea pigs while it works out the kinks. Testing goes to the next batch round about now, and will include DDB, Group M and BBDO among others. Mr Google himself told me that he hopes to make AgencyLand generally available to agencies late this year.

It's free. It consists of 15-minute training modules, it gets co-branded with an agency's corporate livery, uses some of their exclusive content, shows pics of various agency employees and generally sounds like a mock-up of however many Powerpoint documents you've put together over the years, with your logo in one corner and your prospective-bed-partner new client's logo in the other.

Google will be doing this because they're not evil, they care for you and they want you to thrive in the digital space, of which they inhabit practically every pixel already. Martin Sorrell, a man of no small presence himself, used to call them the 'frenemy' apparently. He's since changed it to froe. Frunny bastard.

Thanks to cityferret at Amber Green for this.

Is the advertising agency 'problematic'?

2009-06-22T02:00:00.001-07:00

As is the way of the cloud, I discovered Helge Tenno's slideshare via Damien Mulley. The most hooky bit of it for me was a quote Helge used from Jeff Jarvis at the Nokia Ideas Project, which itself is a one-minute lesson in quo vadis for ad people. It should give pause and cause at least some slight gear change.

Since the Internet is a connection machine, anything creating artificial middle men, preventing companies from connecting directly with their participants, will become problematic. (link)

The obvious screaming question then becomes What do I do? I'm an adman! It merits a longer discussion than this, but the essence of the answer is Upskill, reskill or get the fuck out of the way.

My old company, Grey, used to share an office with Mediacom, its WPP sister and media buying monster. They had a poster on the wall, a big red Mediacom logo with the legend Closer to Clients. I never believed it. Then they closed down. All of the links in this post are important and demand the attention of anyone with an interest in pursuing or even just maintaining a career in advertising.

Happy Monday everyone!

View more Microsoft Word documents from Helge Tennø.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

2009-06-18T13:11:00.001-07:00

Pic by hoskarsson

Internet advertising will reach 36% of all advertising by 2013, writes Jacquie Bowser in Brand Republic

PricewaterhouseCoopers, in its report into the UK entertainment and media market, said internet ad expenditure grew by 17.1% year on year in 2008 to £3.35bn, an increase of £540m. The increase in advertising would happen over the next five years as digital technologies become increasingly widespread.

Overall, the UK entertainment and media market will experience a 7% decline in revenue from 2008 to 2010, to $85bn. Following this low, the market is set to flourish, increasing to $98bn in 2013.

However, the only segments that will be larger in 2013 than in 2008 are internet access, internet advertising, TV subscriptions and license fees, filmed entertainment and video games. Revenues in 2013 from television advertising, newspaper publishing, business-to-business publishing and consumer magazine publishing are all expected to be lower than in 2008.

Now I'm not one to stir up trouble. Much. And anyway, the UK is so very far away after all. And 2013 is a ridiculously unimaginable spandex-wearing futurespace. Plus didn't PricewaterhouseCooper tell us that Ireland Inc was tickety boo there a year or two ago?

Nah. Forget I mentioned it.

I scream! You scream! We all scream! Etc!

2009-06-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

One incredible benefit has resulted from my job loss last year. I have met dozens of new and interesting people. Many of them are that most magical of get-up-and-go things: entrepreneurs! God, I even love the fucking sound of the word.

However.

Let me not disappear too far up my own fundament, because this post is canvassing for a refreshingly different party. It's being organised by one of the sweetest success stories of these days. Ice Cream Ireland are the guys behind Murphy's Ice Cream. They're Murphys, and they make ice cream. Go find out all about them. (And take special note of how they are marketing their product. Social Media Summa Cum Laude, these guys.)

So. If you're in Dublin and can slide away from the office an hour early this Friday, go sample some of their amazing new creations at The Powerscourt Centre. I'll be there with an armload of freezer bags and I'll execute every last murphyfurphyn one of you if you try to stop me...

Training Day

2009-06-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

There is no scarcity of ways to upskill in Social Media.

Essentially it's what you do already if you're any good at your job. Think Facebook. Put yourself at the centre of a web of can-ness and provide your client with fresh options for fresh times. As a copy and content writer, I have personally seen two blog start-ups for well-known Irish brands in June alone. I have no idea how many others are out there getting ready to sail. Question is, are any of them yours?

If they are and you're not involved, you should at the very least turn the safety catch of those twin barrels pointing at your foot to the On position. For starters.

Exhibit A.

This weekend Greenhouse Incubator in Limerick held a conference on how to use social media to market your business. I couldn't be there but I followed it on Twitter via my mobile. While my four year old 'played' hurling with our local club in the glorious Dublin sunshine, I marvelled at what new avenues technology has given to us. Evert Bopp is the grey matter behind Greenhouse and he should be applauded for its dynamism in the midst of an apparent media blackout on positive push stories.

Exhibit B.

The Irish Internet Association is running two programmes this month of high relevance to meercatting people. On June 17th they will be featuring the Nobel Laureate of Online Marketing, Krishna De. Krishna will cover the relevance and practicalities of Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter for business people.

A week later on June 25th she'll also present a half day course on blogging for business.

Exhibit C.

The market is about nothing if not competition. And competition begets choice. Covering much the same ground as the seminars above, Mediacontact.ie runs S ocial Media Unspun on July 23rd. You can figure it out from the title, yes?

There you go. Fair warning. I know a bunch of people in advertising who will be clued in to these events already, but the number is as far away from industry tipping point as Angelina Jolie is from signing that Beschoffs Batterburger contract.

POSTSCRIPT: One of the presenters from Greenhouse, Campbell Scott, commented below with a link to his presentation. I wouldn't want you to miss it, so click here to see the whole thing. It'll take a minute of your time. And as well as turning you on to some of the entrepreneurial marketing that's out there, it'll make you puke at the thought of all the boring zedfests of powerpoint pitches you've made prospective clients stay awake through. Lack of brevity is the source of shit.

Mad Avenue Blues

2009-06-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

David McWilliams picked me up no fucking end today. He's off gadding about on his next Breakfast Roll Decklander juggernaut of clichés-in-waiting, but he could still find the time to twinkle piss on the green shoots of my positivity. Thank fuck for the 140 character limit to Twitter or else I might've really got the thrust of what EconosseurMan meant. See what the fuck I just did there? Maybe we can ALL become Phraseologists of Doom™ and make a nice packet faffing around the globe with a film crew and a group pass for the local youth hostel and an amazing almanac of allegorical alliteration. The Moral of the Mayan Meltdown?Where does his indefatigable energy come from? Can NOBODY downsize me of this meddlesome monarch of monetary mooning?

Here, I didn't even mean to vent my spleen on him. Sorry David. Nothing personal, ya gent. :) You just didn't help today. I lost my iPhone contacts too, which helped a whole lot less. But anyway. I digress yet again. There is positivity everywhere. Just not here this week. And ok, we have mountains to climb. But that's what mountains are for.

And seeing as you're already down, here's a nine minute twenty one second wonder that's funny, then eight minutes too long. You don't have to watch it all. But that doesn't mean it won't come up on the exam paper, shitheads.*

* Yes I do have an irrational mind picture of me facing two grey-suited interviewers as they pore intently over a very long list of the bad language that I have liberated into the swearyverse. And yes I do know that I won't be feeling so darn funny if it ever happens. But let me tell you now from the comfort and privacy of my own blog, those two grey-suited gentlemen are nothing but motherfuckers, from a long line of similar.

POSTSCRIPT: The interweb has exacted its revenge, and within five hours. That nice man McWilliams tweeted me and was nothing but gracious and now I feel bad for tirading on his ass. But with a small adjustment I shall let my words stand, as a testament to my own rash fucking mouth. Er, fingers. Mind. Whatever. Oh fuck off.

Career strategy for ad agency personnel

2009-06-08T06:35:00.001-07:00

My friend Esther* wants to move and can't find a job as an art director in New York. She's pretty good too, has a great mind for travelling straight lines in sticky-on-the-memory creative curves, from the single-minded proposition through to the mounted billboard. But nobody gives a shit about that anymore, because the only openings have that word digital in front of them. It's driving Esther crazy. It's onomatopoeic like a box of hornet, with a high-pitched znnnng! that will walk her into a gun store one of these hot afternoons. Just don't be the next big agency cd who makes a moue with your mouth when you're looking at her book. Not on that day.

Esther's story is an old one. The changing of the guard. She already works with an ad agency, btw. One that appears, on the surface, to be doing quite well. But she's aware in the bones of her that it isn't. One or two questioning remarks drifting down from meetings. She can pick it up in the disinterested body language of the clients sitting in reception too. The chrome around the receptionist's desk is a gazillion miles away from Google. They'll have Bing by Christmas no doubt, but it won't be the MS one.

Anyway, enough of the corny. She'll transfer relatively easily because she wants to get it and is willing to learn. Her employer will find it more difficult, through sheer dint of scale and the possibly greater problem of unwillingness to engage with the present, let alone the future. Their new website, not linked to here, is sufficient unto the day, they believe. They're not blogging. They're not using social sites for anything practical as far as I can see.

I have charted a graph of their growth opportunities in the medium to long-term. If you have an analytical mind you can read the future potential growth of traditional analogue agency opportunity here.

*Esther isn't Simon's real name.

O2 and Samsung Tocco supporting Irish Autism

2009-06-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

O2 and Samsung are well capable of promoting themselves, but I'd like to post this to support the tireless Lisa at Irish Autism Action.

She's got two incredible kids with autism herself, yet despite the 27 or so hours she devotes to them every day, she also finds time to do stuff like help loads of other special needs groups and she fundraises like Billy-o for the autie cause.

The latest push comes with the kind assistance of O2 and Samsung. For every Samsung Tocco Sold In O2 stores during the month of June, €10 will be going to Irish Autism Action Charities in your area.

If you ARE in the market in Ireland for a smartphone, maybe you could possibly consider putting the Samsung Tocco on the shortlist. And if you're not, perhaps you could spread the message to anyone you know who might be.

If you want to find out what that support means from the perspective of someone with autism, Lisa's blog post says it rather nicely. Please support her essential (and usually unsung) work if you can.

I'll give you viral!

2009-06-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Next person who tells me they're putting up a 'viral' on that YouTube, I suggest they carry a little medical warning card for the A&E staff, explaining that the word, when used incorrectly, caused an explosion of rage in the person they were talking to and yes, an x-ray will confirm that that is a smartphone up there.

Sorry. Had to get that out. Now, a little on video content.

This has been happening around the edges for a while. It looks like a useable model for YouGoog to make money off, and it certainly represents a penetrating possibility for global brands. The stars of YouTube have been getting jiggy with some of these brands, making ads for them and pushing their creative work out into the world. I really don't know how to say this next part but it's, um, really hard to see where the, like, ad agency fits in here?

If you're unaware of who or wtf YouTube stars are, here are just three.

Lauren Luke, more about whom here. She has 221,000 subscribers. Mostly girls and a few guys who like eye liner and make-up.
25 year old iJustine has over 95,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel.
The seriously funny Lisa Nova has over 170,000 subscribers.

Of themselves they don't represent fabulous numbers, of course. Sexy old Matt Cooper probably reaches more than any of them directly. But that's missing the point of the true meaning of viral.
Pay attention now. In many, many ways this is the money shot. Virability (which is a word I just invented that neatly fuses viability and- oh you got that did you? Well fuck you, smartie pants.) makes this first of the concentric rings merely the smallest one. The next one to ripple out is wider by far. And so on, until the rings disappear and the campaign has run its usefulness.

Sanyo is pushing its new digi camera on YouTube by using iJustine, Lisa Nova and others to shoot their own ads that show off the spec. From Adweek:

"These cameras allow people to be more creative," said Tom Van Voy, vp of audio visual products sales of Sanyo. "We're reaching a part of the community that can fully utilize the capabilities the camera can offer."

The video I've embedded below has had 2.5 million views, and Lisa is just one of eight acts to be pushing the camera. Her ad is almost 3 mins long and tells me tons about the camera and if I'm to be totally honest I didn't even know I was being played the first time I saw it. Not that it mattered, because I loved the content and I came back again. But I surprised myself with how many geeky points about the camera I'd actually remembered.

Think about it. You're not constrained by a 30" airtime budget. You have way more freedom of expression. And slowly, as this campaign shows, the science is creeping in to placement. Measurement will legitimise everything. Hell, do you think Google would have it any other way?

Next up to try the same approach is Carl's Jr., the US burger king (sorta), who are letting nine YouTube channelistas make their own ads for Carl's Six Dollar Burger. The brief ? Tell how you eat a burger and mention the product by name. Watch this space.