blog

Facebook finds more friends

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Facebook’s quest for world domination is taking another huge leap forward with the announcement that they are to develop an ‘app centre’ to rival Apple.

The app store in question will contain social apps, such as Pintrest, Draw Something, Spotify, etc, it will also allow developers to charge for apps for the first time.

However, everything is not so rosy in the Facebook camp, with reports recently released, suggesting that the social media mogul saw its first quarter-on-quarter revenue drop in two years.

With Facebook taking the majority of its revenue via advertising, the gradual shift in users steadily moving away from the desktop version onto the mobile platform is proving a worry, as monetizing this avenue is still unproven.

This diversification into another arena is a shrewd move by Facebook to try to it alleviate the cultural shift in how visitors are accessing their site. However, this move should also be viewed as a wake up call to many businesses, as it shows that even the ‘bigger boys’ are having to adapt radically to evolve their offerings. Maybe, therefore, we should all take a step back and analyse how our customers are interacting with our brands?

Read the original article here:

Marathon data mayhem

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:30:00 +0100

With many runners still feeling the effects from their gruelling 26 mile run at the weekend, they must be in a little more pain, with the announcement that event organisers have accidently released home and email addresses of the 38,000 entrants, which were posted live on the event website.

The major glitch was only picked up upon, when a TV presenter was contacted by a member of the general public at their home address.

This lapse by such a high profile event highlights the importance of obeying the data protection act. As with any blunder on this scale, the media frenzy that follows creates an unnecessary perception of the brand, which has now had some of that sheen and sparkle removed.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes need to take note of the significance of holding data, and the realisation that how it's used can have great consequences, not just upon your companies reputation but also the legal ramifications.

We hope that the black cloud currently circling over the marathon will not linger, and that the money raised on Sunday will go onto have great benefit.

Well done to all of those runners who took part, we salute you.

Read the original article here

Olympics…. help or hinder?

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:30:00 +0100

With less then 100 days to go until the Olympic Games in London, is the UK ready and are we even bothered?

News reports suggest that although the stadiums and venues are well on target and ‘will’ be ready, the hype and excitement around the games from the general public seems to have diminished.

There appears to be a real North/ South divide, but this does not mean everyone in the London and surrounding areas are getting excited. People not living in London or in close proximity, may be feeling it will not be relevant to them; it’s too far to travel or believe London will be over run with tourists and crowded for that period.

As a business based in the heart of the Thames Valley and only a stones throw away from Stoke Mandeville (the’ home of the Paralympics’) we have been involved in a lot of the preparations and celebrations. So we are totally on board with the re-generation that the Olympics will be bringing to the country and local area.

Aside from that we cannot put aside the chaos, good or bad, that the Olympics will cause to London and the businesses in and around the vicinity. With people already putting off going into London during this time, we can’t help but think some positive marketing campaigns around the travel and benefits would not go a miss.

Reduced travel costs for regular commuters during this time and discounts for UK residents to attend the events would only be a start to the campaign that we feel is lacking.

It cannot be taken for granted that the Olympics will boost the economy and create the positive spin the UK has been crying out for. But surely the general morale and attitude for the Olympics needs to be improved and can be achieved with just some simple actions.
This is a fantastic opportunity for the whole country with individuals and businesses all responsible for shifting the morale. As a business, you can embrace the event and be part of it by helping to change people’s attitudes. Little things to improve morale and make everyone feel involved could include allowing your staff time to watch the opening ceremony or key events in the office on a TV you have provided. As many of us will not actually get to the Games, making memories by watching key events will be vital when reflecting when they are over and are great snippets to tell future generations.

If you as a business feel that you will be affected by the Olympics, in a good or bad way, or are feeling very much out of the loop, please let us know your thoughts.

Digital killed the familiar star

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:30:00 +0100

Figures recently released from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers reveal that brands spent £4.8bn in 2011 on digital activity, a 14.4% increase, which cements the highest year growth for five years.

This significant leap demonstrates how marketers are finally waking up and smelling the coffee with the importance of utilising the digital landscape, to interact and connect with their target audience, via the vast array of digital channels available.

There is also the realisation that employing digital in its many formats, can be just as important at building brand presence as the older kids on the block, TV, press and the like.

Although one should bear in mind, that chucking all of your eggs within the digital basket may not be the smartest of moves, especially if your target audience do not hold the same view. That said, this is still the way forward for many an industry, so should not be ignored.

Read the original article here

Happy Easter from Eyes Wide Open

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:09:23 +0100

Everyone at Eyes Wide Open would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter, we hope you enjoy all of your chocolate eggs.

Pizza via your phone…. Now that’s a tasty idea

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:30:00 +0100

With Dominos Pizza announcing that it took over £1million on orders via its mobile platforms in just one week, isn’t it about time we took notice of how consumers are digesting technology to communicate with their favourite brands.

Dominos, which made just over half (50.6%) of all its sales in the UK via such platforms, reaffirms the power of the e-commerce platform. It also shows how technology is becoming such an inherent part of people’s lives, that picking up your smartphone, tablet, or any other device to access an app, or mobile optimised site, is becoming so easy that it makes sense to incorporate this into any marketing plan.

However, outside of the retail realm, this is often overlooked. So, maybe now we should assess how to harness this movement, to make business far tastier.

To read the original article click here

Incentivising Against the Norm?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0100

Traditionally, marketers have used incentives to get people to purchase a product or service. Now similar tactics are being used to engage customers and allow them to spread the word online about the brands- helping drive their business growth.

We all know that through conversations with our friends, we all recommend restaurants, shops, websites, etc. that we have recently used and we either rave about how good they are, or have a good moan about how we will never use them again.

Brands are embracing this tradition with the use of social media to help promote their offerings and get people talking about them.

Music streaming site Deezer, sees personal recommendations as its fuel for growth to create a buzz around the brand. They have integrated its services into Facebook, where customers sign in using their profiles on the social media network and can share what they listen to and choose. Deezer recently offered a three-month free subscription to its social media users. Tweets and likes can make all users eligible for rewards, the culmination of each tweet and like can reach such a large volume of people, providing an invaluable marketing tool for many brands.

The campaigns can be relatively small that users can perform online by simply liking a brand, to larger scale campaigns seeing users carry out a treasure hunt to win festival tickets, or sitting in a bath of chocolate to win a years supply of chocolate.

Of course, all of this activity has to be targeted to the right demographic. It is highly unlikely that promoting a Saga holiday on Facebook and incentivising users to win a holiday will be successful, as the majority of users will not fall into their targeted age bracket. Marks and Spencer made that mistake by sponsoring last years X Factor, which saw a large backlash for them as their core demographic was not targeted. Well targeted campaigns aimed at the right demographic can really see results. Promoting the brand through word of mouth, a marketing technique that has been seen as a dying form recently.

One downside to this free voice, is that you need to ensure, as a brand, that you are getting things right. As much as a good recommendation can build business growth, bad recommendations and experiences voiced on social media platforms can be detrimental to any growing business.

Made in Britain

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

With the Jubilee Celebrations and the London Olympics only a few months away, the current marketplace is rife with brands jumping on the ‘brand Britain’ bandwagon, making associations left right and centre, in the hope that this will lead to greater brand value in the eye of the consumer.

One recent example was Virgin media’s evolution of their corporate logo design to include the Union Jack, to tap into the positive attitude circulating. This transition was thought about as a way of emphasising their current sponsorship with ‘Britain’s got talent’, as well marking out their image world over as a truly British brand.

Although one thing to bear in mind with the ‘brand Britain’ revolution is that it still must be focused, so that after the Olympic flame slowly flickers out and the world’s media get ready for the next mammoth event, your target market don’t do the same, and the association brought must be able to galvanise the brand as part of a longer term strategy.

To read the original article click here

TFM&A more than just pens and stress-balls!

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:00:00 +0000

With this year’s Technology for Marketing & Advertising (TFM&A) being my very first such event, it was definitely an eye opening experience, and definitely blog worthy. So take a glimpse through my eyes, of which they were wide open :)

I arrived fresh faced with anticipation of gathering information, of which my colleague had suggested not to pick up too much initially, otherwise it’ll be a burden all day (great tip, by the way).So after the initial walk round I’d been careful, only picking a couple of pens, stress balls, key-rings and the like, although I’d failed when it came to literature, for which I had enough to compile a small library! But in this time, I’d also seen some cracking demos of new products that were available.

Queuing became an important feature during the day. With seminars galore, it was a civilised free for all to get in. Though I’m happy to say, I was one of the lucky ones and made it to several seminars. Which being very informative and insightful, were also a welcome relief for a seat after all that queuing!

But that aside, the seminars that I attended were all excellent, with the highlight of the day being the ‘What does social business mean for marketing’ seminar, which injected some much needed clarification upon the subject.

One key message that gabbed my attention from this , was the idea that marketing in its traditional form, was all about advertising, whether it be on the paraphernalia that was handed out at the event, to the billboards that were plastered around the underground. This typical form being akin to marketing as the speaker funnel, being tacked onto the end of the business, a kind of ‘shout’ and hope somebody listens approach. But the new way to approach marketing is more in line with the meaningful moments, which would be taken from an event like this. The conversations that were striked up with individuals (brand advocates) manning the booths. This in essence is what marketing needs to be and social business is seen as a platform to aid this.

So to sum up, the event was a winner, it gave knowledge, insight and understanding of what 2012 and beyond has to offer, not just for marketing but for everyone. And with the ever changing marketplace constantly evolving its reassurance that I was not lagging behind was worth far more than just stress balls and pens.

Can Mobile Marketing really change your brand?

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:33:49 +0000

After visiting the TFM&A exhibition yesterday and sitting in a number of seminars, one seminar particularly stood out for me.

Mark Lister, Managing Director of Imano, discussed his thoughts on the mobile market giving examples, including the Sky Go package, which ensures with your TV subscription, that you can access Sky TV on the go. Allowing Dad’s to watch the rugby, even if their children want to watch cartoons on the main TV. Overall suiting our increasingly busy lives, and securing the monthly standing order with the increased offering.

The seminar made me think of how everyday businesses can enhance and change their brand with the use of Mobile Marketing. A mobile proposition has to challenge the consumer and make their experience easier and more beneficial. Harrods have used this to great effect, by creating an app alongside Imano, that can locate where you are in store and direct you around the store, subject to your interest. It will even give you the lift option, if you state you have a push chair with you. Harrods have tapped into the tourist market very cleverly here, as many of its customers do not have English as their first language. When asking staff for directions, it can often be challenging for both parties. The app solves this problem, therefore freeing staff for other roles.

So you ask, how well can my business use this great affect? Mobile Marketing can really be used on any scale, if your business can save resources by creating an app, then why not? Having a mobile version of your website would be a great place to start, and then the development can go from there. An online booking system? This could save resources on the phone and create an easier system for your users. It’s really down to you.

Mobile Marketing will be the future with 85% of the world covered with wireless signal, it is something that all businesses will need to start thinking about.

Mini Marketing Mishap

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:30:00 +0000

As we are only too aware, the cold weather snap that Europe has experienced in the last month to 6 weeks, has put us all out of sorts.

As typical ‘Brits’ we have all turned into local weather forecasters and the Met-office website has become one of our most visited sites.

Weather reporters in Germany have livened up their forecasts by using names that have been assigned to individual weather fronts. This is part of a cleverly named ‘Adopt-a-Vortex’ scheme run by the institute for Meteorology, at the Free University in Berlin.

BMW owned Marque Mini jumped on this brand wagon by sponsoring one of the cold fronts. Unfortunately for them this recent cold snap killed more than 100 people across Europe, generating unwelcomed negative press coverage.

Mini’s German ad agency Sassenbach Advertising, thought it was onto a winner by sponsoring a high pressure system with the name ‘Cooper’, predicting that drivers could use its latest cabriolet model in the sunny weather. It also paid to name a forthcoming low-pressure subsystem called ‘Minnie’, let’s hope it has better luck with that one!

A BMW spokeswoman told the media that it was ‘sorry that the Cooper front had taken catastrophic proportions’, and was quick to remind everyone that the system causing the latest cold temperature was a new one called ‘Dieter’.
Regardless of this, the brand has still been made to endure some frosty media coverage.

With this epic fail in mind, it is always key to plan, research and execute marketing plans and initiatives, that will be beneficial for your business.

Research is key in any strategic planning. Without research, your plans will not be implemented with any conviction or value to your business. It seems that MINI could have done with a little more research, and then maybe this mishap might have been prevented?

Super Bowl...Super Ads

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:30:00 +0000

It has become as important a fixture in the calendar of NFL fans as it has for brands and marketeers. With a worldwide reach of 111 million in 2011, the opportunity to get your message to consumers in this positive mind-set is deemed priceless (well $3.5 million for a 30sec spot according to Bloomberg Business Week).

With ads this year ranging from the global juggernauts Coca Cola to Honda, it is seen as a barometer of the mood within marketing, not only in the American market, but globally. The calibre of ad spends shows that despite recessionary fears, business continues as usual.

This in mind, we all must remember that advertising on any scale is only one communication channel within the larger picture of the overall strategy, and that the key to success is developed from a culmination of planning and research. Without this in place, the big money one- off ads go from being priceless to worthless.

Read the original article here.

Smooth Operator

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

With Valentines Day rapidly approaching a hive of marketing activity around this hallmark calendar event is offering brands the chance to inject some creative oomph into their campaigns.

Innocent Smoothies have recently launched an idea offering would-be Casanova’s the chance to personalise their smoothies through a dedicated site with heart-felt messages, poems or whatever they fancy onto their bottles (appropriately titled ‘love labels’), these phrases include “it may or may not have an aphrodisiac”, "It's a gift from someone who'll set your groin on fire” and “Sip it and See”.

If you fancy having a go yourself click here.

This quirky bit of fun from Innocent highlights that sometimes using a personalised approach to marketing is often the best policy and what is needed to differentiate in the overcrowded marketplace. Offering the ‘human’ touch in this tech filled environment is worth far more to someone than a thousand e-mails ever would. So take time to consider this personal approach, especially at this love-filled time of the year.

Read the original article here.

Directors Briefing: Modern day Whodunit

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Social media is a massive part of day to day life. People tweet about what they have had for lunch and you seem to know everything about everyone, even if you don’t really know them.

At EWO Towers, we embrace social media, as we, of course, practice what we preach, but we have recently seen a significant shift with the use of Social Media for marketing campaigns and activity.

A report commissioned by Figaro ‘The Figaro Engagement Survey’, indicated that the majority of users are open to engaging with brands on social media, but they would like tangible returns from their investment. You need to give users something useful, something that they can’t get elsewhere.

A great example of this is a campaign from the Metropolitan Police that uses social media very cleverly and is targeted extremely well.

An interactive story running on Facebook, “who killed Deon?” was designed to raise awareness amongst young people of the Joint Enterprise Law. “If a person’s presence, knowledge or actions lead to a killing, they could be charged with murder under Joint Enterprise.” the Met explain. Six different films track the involvement of six different characters in a young man’s death, each illustrating that you don’t have to have wielded the weapon to be charged.
This was smart, powerful and has educational content which allowed the Met police to engage with young people, through a medium in which they are familiar with.

We do not need to know what you have had for lunch or your social plans for the weekend, but well targeted campaigns and good benefits, can really set you aside from your competitors.

Top Tips for Social Media for business:
-   Train your staff to use social media for business ,for example: Linked In, Facebook, Twitter
-   Target the activity
-   Get everyone involved
-   Make it count
-   Have fun with it, but make sure it does not turn into a social activity

McFail..Or is it?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

McDonalds have announced that they are to pull their recent social media activity as it has definitely been deep fried!

The fast food giant used Twitter’s hashtag platform to encourage customers to share positive stories about their McDonald’s experiences using the hashtag #McDStories. However, this backfired when critics, such as animal rights group PETA, started utilising the campaign to post negatively about the brand.

We are all becoming aware of the power of social media, but discovering the best way to harness its prowess is definitely more of a fine art than an exact science.

This recent example, however, does highlight that even if a campaign doesn’t go to plan, if a contingency plan is in place to halt the activity mid-flow, it can stop the campaign from being a white elephant and more of just a minor hiccup.

And as the old adage goes, it is always better to ‘plan to fail’ than to ‘fail to plan’.

Read the original article here.

Farewell Adam & Jane

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:09:43 +0000

There is just something when a brand retains consistent characters and builds an ongoing story for its advertising campaigns. I’d put money on the fact that, somewhere along the line, you have been sucked into one such campaign at one time or another; whether it was the Nescafé Gold Blend couple in the 1980s, Renault’s Papa and Nicole in the 1990s or maybe even BT’s Adam and Jane over the past six years.

Adam and Jane first came to our screens six years ago (how time flies) and the British public has seen them change from a dating couple, to managing a long-distance relationship, to becoming engaged, getting married. There was even a public vote as to whether they were expecting a baby.

But news has reached us that BT is leaving Adam and Jane behind, to focus on a group of students (one of which will be Jane’s son, Joe) in new sitcom style ads. The change in characters allows BT to demonstrate the products and services it offers for a very different demographic whilst highlighting that perceptions of high prices are incorrect.

An interesting move for the telecoms company, but we can’t help thinking that we’ll miss our regular dose of Adam and Jane and their latest dilemma or development. It seems that the loose ends of the Adam and Jane story haven’t been fully tied up, but with Joe continuing to feature in the ads and retaining some element of consistency; will they make a few guest appearances in the future?

We hope so.

Business New Year’s Resolutions

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:38:03 +0000

As many people return to work today, recovering from the shock of the alarm clock and experiencing withdrawal symptoms from afternoon naps and endless supplies of food, it’s time to look ahead for 2012 and what the year will bring.

Many people make New Year’s resolutions (with varying degrees of success), but have you considered making any for your business? We’ve come up with a few ideas to start you off here:

Plan, plan and plan!
Planning your marketing activity for the next 12 months can predict the level of budget you’ll need, whilst ensuring that you have a structured and integrated marketing approach to any campaigns and that you make the most of any significant dates such as Easter, Halloween etc.

Avoid always running ad-hoc campaigns
Whilst you might get a sales call offering you a great opportunity at a significant discount, don’t always get sucked in by a bargain. Instead, think about whether the audience is right, will it fit within a current campaign, can you use any existing artwork or will you need to spend additional money on having some created?

Follow up
It’s all well and good sending out postal campaigns and emails, but if you just send one and don’t follow up, you’ll never experience the returns that you deserve. Make sure you get the best return from activity and get in touch with the recipients to see if they found it interesting – can you stay in touch?

Network
Events can be a great way to meet new suppliers, clients and referrals. Although networking events can be a good way to get your name out there and ensure you are remembered, test a few out and see which have the most appropriate attendees for you.

Happier Holidays with Google

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:14:07 +0000

As many people begin to wind down for the Christmas period, frantically working their way through email inboxes between festive bashes, it’s great to get an email which makes you smile over a quick break.

We’re not going to write paragraphs on this video which landed in our inboxes, it speaks for itself, and we’re a massive fan because it makes you smile and want to be a part of something, or donate, without evoking that sad, guilty emotion that many charity videos do.

Great work Google – keep it going in 2012!

Find out more about Google Gives Back here.

2011's Dos and Don'ts

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:53:13 +0000

As Christmas is only 12 days away; we have all started to reflect on the last 12 months and consider the year ahead.

2012 is set to be an important year. The hype around the 2012 Games has well and truly begun to build, but the doom and gloom of the economy is still hanging over everyone’s heads.

With next year set to be full of highs and lows, we at EWO Towers would like to take the opportunity to look back on 2011’s marketing activities and see who ticked all the boxes and who got it, oh so very wrong!

The campaigns that we feel really got it right, included:

Waterstones
Throughout the riots in the summer, Waterstones cleverly tweeted around the events, challenging rioters to loot them as, if they stole a book, they might actually learn something. This tapped brilliantly into the mind-set’s of Middle England, the perfect target market for the high street book store.

Tropicana
One of the team at EWO was delivered a gift from Tropicana at midday on a Wednesday, congratulating them that they had made it to the middle of the week and it was all easy going, from here on to the weekend.

Copella
Copella, famous for its Apple Juice, has launched a campaign to save the British Apple Tree. With 110,000 tonnes of apples produced in the UK, two thirds of apples sold in supermarkets are shipped in from Europe. There are over 2,000 British varieties of apples – surely that must mean that there is one to suit all tastes and recipes?

The Police
The Met Police's campaign aims to raise awareness of how thieves see things with a different perspective, trying to stop the public being easy targets. But rather than tell us, the ad tries to involve us, in a situation we can relate to, as the main character gets caught up in the conversation, becoming oblivious to surroundings and therefore, an easy target.

Honda
Honda has cleverly found a great way to use all of the content regarding its models across the internet to create an entire microsite, fuelled by, what is essentially, user generated content. With a tongue in cheek presenter, walking you through the site, you can navigate to any specific area, see what other people are saying, and generally enjoy the experience of browsing. We could spend many hours on this site.

E4
E4, the younger sibling to Channel 4, perfectly demonstrated the scope of social media earlier this year on Facebook. By merely answering a question that someone had posted on the BBC Three Facebook page, the channel then became engaged with BBC Three fans, directing them to the E4 page to continue discussions. BBC Three were too slow to realise this was happening under their nose and subsequently, looked a bit silly, missing a fantastic opportunity. A lesson learnt in observation! Well done E4!

Intel
Earlier this year, Intel launched the Museum of Me in collaboration with Facebook. It gave everyone with a Facebook profile the opportunity to have their very own exhibition. Emotive music, status updates and memorable photos, all showed us how it is our friends, family and relationships which define a large part of us. Touching.

The campaigns that got it wrong included:

Sony Ericsson Xperia 20.22 Moment
Sony Ericsson has been running a TV advert for the new Xperia handset which ends by asking what you are doing for your 20.22 moment. However, we can’t help but think that Sony Ericsson is missing a trick by having no social media call to action for consumers to share their 20.22 moment. What a missed opportunity!!

Supermarkets’ Deceiving Price Drops
Supermarkets have been slated in the press this week, as they have sensationally slashed all of their prices so consumers feel that they are getting a great deal. However, it now seems that the supermarkets had hiked up the prices previously to make it look like an incredible deal.

Television Product Placements
Since the regulations were relaxed in February, only a handful of product placement deals have been signed. Brands have failed to use the opportunity of paying to place their products within television shows. Whilst it’s still early, time will tell whether this will improve, but stats are not looking positive.

Nature Valley's Maths Fail
Embarrassingly, Nature Valley got their sums epically wrong in an advert on the front cover of the Metro, seen by thousands of people on a daily basis. The advert suggested that they were going to increase deliciousness by 200% by adding another slice to their bar!! Whilst some highlighted that doubling the number of slices was not a 200% increase, others questioned how giving more product would increase the deliciousness? Umm, someone needs to go back to school!

M&S Sponsoring the XFactor
M&S seem to have this all wrong. We question whether the target market is right for M&S and the constant cutting and changing of the Christmas ad has confused and annoyed viewers. Controversially, Amelia Lily replaced Misha B on the end credit before Misha was even voted off, raising concerns that the show was fixed.

ITV Launch its 'Text Santa' Campaign

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:46:14 +0000

Last night saw the launch of ITV’s ‘Text Santa’ appeal.

The show aims to raise awareness and money for those most vulnerable during the festive period.

Six charities will benefit from the campaign, including::
-   Carers UK
-   Crisis UK
-   Samaritans
-   Help the Hospices
-   WRVS
-   A selection of Children’s hospitals

Programmes will all be aired to bring the charities to life, with a star-studded line-up and are set to evoke emotions, adding a pinch of reality to our winter evenings.

To get involved in the ‘Text Santa’ campaign, you can donate by text with all the details on the show and website, as well as buying cleverly placed merchandise in stores like ASDA.

At EWO Towers, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and ask that everyone takes a moment over the Christmas period to think about those less fortunate than ourselves!

MERRY CHRISTMAS