Archive for April, 2009
April 28th, 2009
by Adrian Rowe
For customer engagement, e-mail is fast becoming the most powerful channel available to marketers. Growing penetration of e-mail addresses on our customer databases, the environmental backlash against direct mail, the increasing preference of customers for online dialogue, the exceptional richness of response data from email – just some of the reasons why UK marketers should be exploiting every opportunity to capture addresses and permissions. Yet I am surprised by the lack of attention and thought that is going into the sign-up process, especially in these recessionary times. Read more…
Tags: e-mail benchmark study, e-mail best practice, E-mail Marketing, e-mail newsletters, e-mail nursery programmes, e-mail sign-up best practice, growing your e-mail file, multi-channel engagement
Posted in Blog, E-mail Marketing, ecommerce, Email, Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Shopping | View Comments
April 23rd, 2009
by Natalie Cooke
It’s staring at me on the arm of the sofa but I have promised that I won’t use it. I even turned it face down so I am not tempted to check my Facebook to see who has commented on my status in the last fifteen minutes, or to download the “Fish Tycoon” application I have heard my friend talking about. You can nurture and breed your own fish then sell them for virtual money. Truth is I hate fish, but the iPhone application looks fun…!!
An addiction?
Needless to say, my iPhone has become a worrying addiction – and the application store on iTunes is starting to cost me a lot of money! The store is what really makes the iPhone so unique and is the biggest advancement in mobile technology in recent years. It’s accessible via iTunes and holds over 25,000 applications ranging from the really useful to the completely pointless and bizarre. Read more…
Tags: Apple, apps, branded applications, Direct Marketing Agency in Manchester, Facebook, fish tycoon, iPhone, iPhone Applications, ipint, itunes, justupdate, mobile, Mobile Marketing, mobile technology, Smartphones, Social Networking, travelodge ibooker, Twitter, twittervision, Youtube
Posted in Blog, Creative Concepts, Marketing Innovations, Mobile Phone Marketing, Web 2.0 | View Comments
April 19th, 2009
by Joseph Reaney
Really, what’s the point of celebrity endorsement? Does anyone actually care what kind of natural yoghurt tickles the tastebuds of a vacuous reality star, or which department store has flip-flops to fit a has-been pop singer? Perhaps, or perhaps not… it really depends who the celebrity is, and whether they appeal to the product’s target market. I, for one, am happy to believe that Peter Kay really does enjoy a cheeky pint of John Smith’s, and that Stephen Fry genuinely relishes “the soothing taste of Twinings”. And I’m also thoroughly convinced that Kerry Katona does – or did – her big shop at Iceland.
Good celebrity endorsements rely on a careful marriage between product and ‘star’. If the collaboration works then both brand and celebrity could reap the rewards, but if the two are utterly mismatched then the association could have a severely damaging effect on product sales, profits and worse – reputations. Read more…
Tags: Barack Obama Buxton, Campaign Magazine, Celebrity endorsement, Fern Britton gastric band, Fern Britton Ryvita, Gillette Fusion Power, Iggy Pop Swiftcover, Jamie Oliver Sainsbury's, John Lydon Country Life, Joseph Reaney, Mariani Wine, Michael Jackson Pepsi, Sharon Stone Dior, Steven Fry Twinings, Thierry Henry Tiger Woods Roger Federer
Posted in Blog, Branding, General Interest, Marketing, Marketing Innovations, Red C, Television Advertising | View Comments
April 14th, 2009
by Rachael Taylor
There’s nothing new about spending Saturday afternoon in town with your girlfriends, or dragging your reluctant partner around the clothes shops, but with the advent of web 2.0 and its associated technologies – are these favourite pastimes just that – a thing of the past?
OK, so we’ve been ordering online for sometime now, content with digital versions of catalogues and directories, flicking through page turning technology and zooming in on products to work out just how they would fit us / suit us. And then sending them back when we are disappointed with the physical nature of them. Some forward thinking home shopping organisations such as Lands End in the early part of the century, even started to use technologies such as the Virtual Model TM to enhance the online ‘changing room’ experience.
Read more…
Tags: BookRabbit, Carrotmob, Crowd Clout, Facebook, Kaboodle, MyDeco, MySpace, Social Shopping, UGC, User Generated Content
Posted in Blog, Future of the Internet, General Interest, Marketing Innovations, Online Marketing, Online Shopping, sCommerce, Social Networks, Social Shopping, Tomorrow's World, Web 2.0 | View Comments
April 7th, 2009
by Joseph Reaney
Dark marketing may not be a popular topic of conversation down the pub, or a subject of family debate over a sunday roast, but last year the increasingly popular advertising technique got some important exposure through its use by that most cuddly behemoth of unquenchable consumerism… McDonald’s. The fast food giant, more normally associated with in-your-face mass-media advertising and sports event sponsorship, was found to be the quiet and unassuming creator of a popular online computer game.
Read more…
Tags: Armstrong Williams, Benson & Hedges, Camel, Dark marketing, Formula One, Jay-Z Motorola, Jordan Grand Prix, Joseph Reaney, McDonald's, No Child Left Behind, Sony Ericsson T68i, Stolen NASCAR, Subaru Impreza, Subliminal Advertising, TaxBrain
Posted in Blog, Branding, Creative Concepts, Creativity, Digital Video, General Interest, In Game Advertising, Inside Information, Marketing, Marketing Innovations, Online Marketing, Television Advertising, Viral marketing, World of Web | View Comments
April 5th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
I have to confess, I don’t get Twitter. I’ve signed up for it. Attached it to this Blog. I’ve even got it on my iPhone. Yet I still find myself completely at a loss at what I should do with it. Maybe if I led the life of Stephen Fry (whose Tweets make me smile on a regular basis), then maybe I’d get it… but I don’t.
Still, it doesn’t stop me from looking at this latest web-fad and seeing how it can be used to make brands money. So, if like me, you’re at a loss as to what this Twitter business is all about, and why lots of people are becoming Twits… read on!
Read more…
Tags: Advertising on Twitter, Digital Marketing Agency, Marketing Tweets, Online Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media, Tweets that sell, Twitter, Twitter for Marketing Purposes, Twitter Marketing Agency, Twitter usage, Understanding Twitter
Posted in Blog, General Interest, Marketing Innovations, Online Marketing, Twitter, Viral marketing, Web 2.0, World of Web | View Comments
April 4th, 2009
by Julian Gratton
Red C are celebrating yet another award win thanks to the Communications in Business (CiB) awards. Our ‘Spot the Difference’ campaign for Wolseley’s Electric Centre has been given an Award of Excellence and is now shortlisted for a Class Winner award.
The British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB) is the UK’s leading professional body for in-house, freelance and agency staff involved in internal communications. And our ‘Spot the Difference’ campaign really struck a chord with them as it aims to ensure that employees who work for Wolseley’s Electric Centre have high levels of customer service.
Read more…
Tags: Award-winning Copywriting, Award-Winning Design, Award-Winning Illustration, Award-Winning Marketing, Copywriting, Design, Direct Marketing, Spot the Difference, Staff Training Campaign, The British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB), Viz style illustration, Wolseley's Electric Centre
Posted in News | View Comments
April 4th, 2009
by Joseph Reaney
On 10th March 2009, the BBC’s Today current affairs radio programme ventured into the world of viral marketing by uploading a video to YouTube. The ‘viral’ – a video that rapidly gains popularity by being distributed and shared on the internet – was created as an experiment to see how widely the three-minute ad could spread in a short amount of time.
As of 31st March 2009, three weeks after being uploaded, Inside Today has been viewed nearly 55,000 times and has been emailed, instant messaged and blog linked across the planet. So far, so good. But the experiment has had its critics, with many questioning whether the Today promotional video can really be defined as viral.
Read more…
Tags: BMW Films, Cadbury's Eyebrows, Cadbury's Gorilla, Dancing Cadet, Dynamite Surfing, Evolution of Dance, GuitarMasterPro, Inside Today, Joseph Reaney, Nike, Numa Numa, Quiksilver, Star Wars Kid, The Hire, Touch of Gold, Viral, Viral marketing, Viral video, Youtube
Posted in Blog, Creativity, Digital Video, General Interest, Online Marketing, Viral marketing, Web 2.0, World of Web | View Comments
