Watched Haye slay Valuev (dubbed David versus Goliath) last night on Sky+HD to take the world heavyweight boxing title. What a fantastic example of speed and agility winning over brute power. Throughly enjoyable.
As I sat there I must admit I wished I’d invited a few friends over to watch the fight with me. Sky are offering an incentive for people to do this at the moment and in turn help promote their HD services. Choose a complimentary movie, invite friends over and they will give you a £10 M&S voucher.
It’s a fantastic example of a brand mobilising its advocates. Existing customers and the HD experience itself has got to be the most effective way for Sky to promote its services - much more effective than relying on the traditional Goliath of TV Advertising.
Yesterday, 76% of us felt positively about First Direct, with words like new, understand and support coming to mind when asked to describe the brand. Mind you “Unhappy Bunny” says a loan shark is offering better rates in his area!
First Direct has recently launched a live comment website that allows you to rate their service, comment on it or indeed just read about it and have a giggle. It’s a brave move for a bank. The sector has never been one of our favourites. It will be interesting to see how it gets used after the novelty has worn off.
Google have just launched another interesting application called SideWiki. It’s interesting because it allows any visitor to a website to make comment on that site. Comments will then show up to other visitors in a sidebar. The comments themselves will be ranked by the authority of the writer – comments from readers, previous entries.
This is going to provide an excellent platform for campaigning groups. If a corporate or brand is doing something that you think they shouldn’t, what better way of telling the world than next to their very own website. It could also spark a new industry - SideWiki campaigner. Build your authority up on SideWiki and sell your services to those who pay the highest price!
Watched a video on line recently? Figures from the US show that on line video viewing has increased by 130% year on year. Video is the future of the web. It’s easier to consume than words and now easy to make with the growth of video enabled mobile phones.
Recommended your employer recently? Now there are no excuses. Glassdoor let’s you find out what a potential employer is really like to work for. Anonymous entries tell you whether they pay well, what the atmosphere is like and whether the CEO is a real A*!e.
Another great site is VIMO . This let’s you rate your Doctor. Is he good with breathing problems or got bad breath. All can be disclosed here.
Neither sites use video (yet) and neither feature a Giraffe. What a shame.
Latest research by Universal McCann into social media habits suggests usage may have peaked in the UK? Video watchers, Blog readers and Blog writers are in decline according to the research (although still at high levels). Only those managing or reading social network profiles are in growth.
BSM (Driving School) announced today that they were dumping Vauxhall Corsas and buying Fiat 500’s in a deal that has Advocacy written all over it. BSM claim that 70% of learner drivers go on to buy the car they learn to drive in. With BSM promising to buy 14,000 Fiats over the next three years, I bet BSM are getting a price worth recommending too!
It’s interesting to see how the two new corporate partners are helping each other out. I’ve just watched a senior “bod” at BSM extolling the virtues of the Fiat (you don’t often hear somebody talkiing about turning circles on the 7 O clock BBC news). Fiat are offering BSM drivers £500 off the price of a new car.
It’s all food for thought for brands in this advocacy age. Have you or your competitors identified and fully leveraged all of the influencers in your category? We normally find they haven’t.
Twitter is now using case studies to demonstrate the potential of the site to the corporate world. I thought the Jet Blue example was fascinating. When the airline started using Twitter they simply posted Press Releases and service announcements. Unsurprisingly they found that they didn’t receive many followers or messages. They changed their style and became more conversational, asking for help to develop their business and offering answers to specific customer problems. The service took off.
The significance of this goes beyond Twitter. It goes to the heart of how brands need to communicate with consumers today. If you talk at consumers they simply won’t engage. Understand what they want to talk about, facilitate and join a conversation and all of a sudden you enter into a new world. A world of delighted customers recommending your brand.
Global trust in advertising has increased according to a new report into trust and engagement launched by Nielsen Research this month. Unfortunately not as much as the trust we have in each other to provide us with unbiased product reviews!
The research indicated that globally 90% of repondents said they trust people somewhat/completely up from 78% in 2007. This compared to 61% for TV advertising (up from 56%) over the same time period.
Views about whether you should trust advertising seem split. In Europe, only 49% said they trust advertising somewhat/completely with 51% saying they don’t trust it much at all. Further evidence if needed that every brand should have an advocacy strategy in place today.
Watched Haye slay Valuev (dubbed David versus Goliath) last night on Sky+HD to take the world heavyweight boxing title. What a fantastic example of speed and agility winning over brute power. Throughly enjoyable.
Yesterday, 76% of us felt positively about First Direct, with words like new, understand and support coming to mind when asked to describe the brand. Mind you “Unhappy Bunny” says a loan shark is offering better rates in his area!
Google have just launched another interesting application called 
BSM (Driving School) announced today that they were dumping Vauxhall Corsas and buying Fiat 500’s in a deal that has Advocacy written all over it. BSM claim that 70% of learner drivers go on to buy the car they learn to drive in. With BSM promising to buy 14,000 Fiats over the next three years, I bet BSM are getting a price worth recommending too! 
Twitter is now using case studies to demonstrate the potential of the site to the corporate world. I thought the 