I recently gave a talk on behalf of GBM as part of their Video Solutions day at Vison+Media at MediaCity. Since the talk I have had several people request some of the case studies I showed, so I thought I would collect as much as I could from that talk into a blog article.
A few years ago we took a major decision at Red C to push our digital video offering, this came about after we read an article in Campaign Magazine, which highlighted that the agency that could successfully deliver low cost video solutions to clients would have a larger share of the future. Which is true when you consider all the places now where clients can use video, from video adverts on the internet to video embedded in magazines on iPads to narrowcasting in Petrol Stations and Taxis… and of course video on YouTube and Vimeo.
Rather than highlight our own work; at the talk I highlighted several video case studies that over the years have impressed me. Together with the videos, I highlighted the responses the videos have received as well as reasons why I think they have been so successful… so here they are:
The use of eye tracking in the research environment is growing significantly as a result of major advances in the sophistication, power and ease of use of the technology, according to Tommy Strandvall, the Global Training Manager for Tobii Technology at the Tobii Eye Track UX Conference held in London on the 9th and 10th of June. Certainly, there was a real buzz about the conference on the day that my colleague Rosemary and I attended as speakers to deliver a session on findings from a major email eye tracking study that Red C is undertaking in 2011.
In fact, Tommy set a very high bar with his own presentation at the opening of the second day of the conference, with some remarkable live demonstrations of beta technologies, including a much-anticipated Tobii set-up to eye track mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads. We enjoyed a live demonstration of Tobii Glasses, a lightweight eye tracker capturing data on a device not much bigger than a smartphone.
Back in November I attended the NatMag 100 conference at the Saatchi Gallery in London. One of the many interesting talks on the day was by the Future Foundation, who highlighted a few emerging audiences such as Media Madonnas and Digital Divas… audiences who are becoming increasingly hard to sell to thanks to the way they consume their media… essentially these people are disengaged.
It can’t have failed to escape you that over the last few years more and more consumers are becoming disengaged. Many of them sit at home watching the TV with their Smartphone by their side or their laptop or iPad on their knee surfing the web as they catch up on their favourite soaps! In fact it is common knowledge that as a result of this, these consumers are no longer saying, “persuade me and I’ll buy from you” they are saying, “entertain me and I’ll engage with you”.
TV ads. I have to say… I love them. They are the main reason I got into this business in the first place… to create some arresting TV Advertising that my mates might talk about down the pub. One thing that has always infuriated me about TV Advertising, however, has been the inability to really effectively target them like you could other forms of advertising.
Well, it looks like those little niggles I have could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the thing that has been nicknamed Smart TV. Its real name is Targeted Substitutional Advertising (TSA) and it looks like it could be the thing to deliver accountability and personalisation that digital media advertisers have enjoyed for years.
Earlier this week I gave a talk on digital video and how advertising agencies are changing to facilitate a wide range of video needs that are required by clients. From high budget brand TV video adverts to medium budget DRTV adverts right to low budget web-video… the demand is increasing and now’s the time to invest in skills and training.
I gave the talk on behalf of GBM at ‘Band on the Wall’ in Manchester and have split it into three parts of around 10 minutes each. Thanks to GBM and everyone who came to the talk, I hope you found it informative… I certainly enjoyed putting it together.
Parts two and three can be viewed by clicking the red button below.
Marketing is not a nostalgic business. With the constant emergence of new technologies, advertisers need to keep bang up to date to avoid being left behind. Just think back a year. At the beginning of 2009, Twitter was still a relatively niche social network, Spotify wasn’t yet available to the general public and search engine Bing didn’t even exist. One year on and all these technologies may be fundamental to creating a successful advertising campaign.
So what’s next? What will the ‘big thing’ of 2010 be? Well, I’m not going to try and predict that, but I will tell you what will make the next ‘big thing’ happen – and that’s the Ubiquitous Network. In fact, I’m confident it’ll change the future of advertising and marketing forever…
Our love for our smartphones has led to two quite cringeworthy nicknames “iNat and Katieberry”. Which is best though? Is it my lovely white 16gb iphone 3GS or is it Katie’s sexy Blackberry curve? We aren’t the only ones to be having this debate, the internet is littered with articles and forums where other smartphone users have either argued their case or sought advice from other users before making that all important purchasing decision.
In terms of popularity, Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry phone, shifted 382,000 handsets in Q3 2009, compared to 254,000 iPhones sold by Apple.
Katie and I have given this some serious thought – she has tried to persuade me (even through some rap songs) but im pretty convinced that my iPhone beats her Blackberry curve hands down!… Over to you Katie… Read more…
We’re extremely proud of our work on the Swinton Mystery Tipper, especially as it has garnered the agency an armful of awards from two DMA Awards to two ISP Awards and two IPA Effectiveness Awards. We’ve had quite a few people ask to see our winning entry form… so here it is!
CONTEXT AND MARKET BACKGROUND
The insurance sector is a complex and increasingly challenging marketplace. For most of us, insurance has always been a distress purchase – something we grudgingly concede we need to have, and resent the increasing premiums. Three key innovations in the last decade have had a significant impact on the broader market. The launch of Direct Line’s online insurance offer, in 1999, following the formula of its breakthrough approach to offering insurance by telephone a decade earlier, forced every insurer and broker to reassess their approach – here was a company that made buying insurance simple and fuss-free, cutting out the middle man and talking everyday language. This sparked an extended period of discounting in the sector that still has ramifications today.
Imagine walking down any street and holding up your iPhone… what you see on the screen is a view of the street yet there are lots of Zombies running towards you that you then have to shoot. Or imagine walking up to a wall and touching it… just for the wall to then display the view that is on the other side of it…. This is the world of Augmented Reality and it’s a world that looks like it’s going to be very big indeed.
Put simply, Augmented Reality blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell. It adds graphics, sounds, and smell to our world… and through a normal pair of glasses or display screen, informative graphics appear in your field of view, and audio coincides with whatever you see. These enhancements are then refreshed continually to reflect the movements of your head and the world around you.
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
Each chip that feeds the screen can hold up to 40 minutes of video with the battery that powers the chip and screen being able to play for about 65 to 70 minutes. This battery can then be recharged by plugging in a mini USB cord and once you’ve got bored of the content contained in the chip… you can download additional content from the Web. Sounds clever, and expensive… so will it take off?
I recently gave a talk on behalf of GBM as part of their Video Solutions day at Vison+Media at MediaCity. Since the talk I have had several people request some of the case studies I showed, so I thought I would collect as much as I could from that talk into a blog article.
Marketing is not a nostalgic business. With the constant emergence of new technologies, advertisers need to keep bang up to date to avoid being left behind. Just think back a year. At the beginning of 2009, 
We’re extremely proud of our work on the Swinton Mystery Tipper, especially as it has garnered the agency an armful of awards from two DMA Awards to two ISP Awards and two IPA Effectiveness Awards. We’ve had quite a few people ask to see our winning entry form… so here it is!
Imagine walking down any street and holding up your iPhone… what you see on the screen is a view of the street yet there are lots of Zombies running towards you that you then have to shoot. Or imagine walking up to a wall and touching it… just for the wall to then display the view that is on the other side of it…. This is the world of Augmented Reality and it’s a world that looks like it’s going to be very big indeed.
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
