7/29/2010Posted by Leo Ryan, Influence Planning Director, Draftfcb London
This is a belated post about the digital culture smorgasbord that is SXSW. Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to attend SXSW and have written endless almost-finished-blog-posts and presentations about the amazing things I learnt and saw there. Now I have finally managed to (quickly) check my punctuation and spelling and roughly assemble my notes into an almost intelligible format...enjoy.
Some things that make SXSW cool...
The breadth: There is a very broad range of attendees: Compared to some 1 day conferences in London SXSW is incredibly good value. This low cost means that instead of a few clients from Proctor and Gamble and the creative digital director of BBH talking to themselves at the Grosvenor Hotel you get students, indy agencies, R&D guys from HP, tech and media startups, VCs and angel investors and every level of employee from interactive and marketing agencies including Draftfcb's healthy contribution that included junior creatives teams through to senior bods like Rob Sherlock and a raft of HR recruitment team swooping on any wandering talent.
The depth: There is a Massive Choice: Each session has about 21 different events from lectures to workshops, demonstrations and round-table discussions / debates. On the upside, what would be in itself a very good conference in Europe or indeed anywhere in the world is all on in one 60 minute session. On the downside obviously you can't possibly see everything or even just the things that you are really really keen to see. So completely opposite to TED where you get a single stream and lots of intense conversation around a single topic at SXSW you get lots of different conversations. To deal with the spread of interest the Draftfcb team split up and then shared notes after each session.
The treats: The Goody Bag was so heavy it could only be dragged back to the hotel and dumped on the floor to sift through. Containing all kinds of fun treats, stickers and flyers, some of them useful, most of them rubbish. Best one were the free Sticky Bits which I have only just re-discovered and distributed around the London office...
The BBQ: As a Queenslander born and bred I have strong opinions about BBQ. The Texans do it very differently but they do it very well. As evidenced by the regular damage we inflicted at Stubbs.
The Weather: Spring comes early to Austin. So while my family friends and colleagues were still shivering in London was in short sleeves and even managed a swim at the natural outdoor Barton Spring.
The Headsup: It is the harbinger of Things To Come. The products and projects launched or profiled at SXSW includes;
2006: Wikipedia2007: Twitter2008: Facebook Beacon (I didn't say they were all successful)
2009: Spotify2010: FourSquareSo what did this years SXSW presage?
1. The Internet of Things
The intersection of online and offline worlds. Newspaper Club printed a newspaper for the conference but took all of their content form the speakers and event data, Sticky Bits were handed out randomly and stuck to all manner of things (no, I'm not going there..) and naturally FourSquare and Gowalla were in high demand.
FourSquare added 100K users after SXSW. During the event we used it as a way of keeping track of who was in which talk, bar or party, sometimes with some hilarious results as we discovered a group who we'd invited to dinner had instead decided to meet separately, but only two blocks away...
QR codes on our conference passes meant that (for mobile phones with the software installed) you could just scan someone's pass and get their info into your contacts. No, it's not particularly new but when you see a gadgetally advanced crowd who all have iPhones and who all want to connect in a short period of time then you start to see the future of how this might be used.
2. There's an App For That
The SXSW iPhone app was a bit rubbish but it heralds an interesting thing; special purpose short term apps with very specific functions like a Nivea For Men World Cup App or a Matters *%^ Me Numbers App.
3. New kinds of businesses
There are some very different kinds of business emerging who are not hampered by legacy business thinking or technology who are really thriving in this new environment. Local Motors, Mint, SmartyPig, Vook, Newspaper Club are all very new types of business operating in traditional sectors; automotive, finance and publishing. There is a significant shift underway and we need to help clients to understand and adapt.
All in all an inspiring and invigorating event. MOre posts to come on some of my fave talks including Transmedia, Future of Publishing, Education 2.0. Once I get this pitch out of the way...
6/24/2010
Posted by Soraya Eltomey, Corporate Communications Associate, Draftfcb
There is no denying it. The video content available via television, the web and mobile devices engages, informs and entertains consumers alike. But what does this all mean for advertisers?
To best answer this question, I sat down with Draftfcb New York VP, Group Media Director Bhavana Smith.
Bhavana 1/11/2010
Posted by Michael Fassnacht, Global Chief Strategy Officer
Like every year over the last five years, marketers predict 2010 as the breakthrough year for mobile marketing. Honestly I don’t care if 2010 is the year of mobile marketing or not, more important are the long term trends that definitely will increase the importance of the mobile device in any smart marketing solution.
A few observations seem relevant to me:
- Most researchers predict a roughly four fold increase of spend in mobile marketing in North America by 2015 whereas the overall marketing spend will increase by 10-20%, depending on research source. The overall mobile spend will be still only be around 5% of TV spend but it is getting significant. Now it’s the time for marketer to get their brains and hearts around the importance of mobile marketing.
- Currently most of the mobile marketing spend is put against display media, SMS, and application build, only less than 20% against search. This will change dramatically with the decline of SMS marketing and a strong push into mobile search. Some researchers are predicting that more than 70% of overall mobile marketing investment will move in this Google dominated investment area. This will force marketers to be even smarter in regards to organic and paid search.
- The definition of the mobile device will change dramatically. It’s currently limited to cell- and smart phones, but one could envision that a fully connected Apple tablet is more a mobile device than a laptop. The changing definition of a “mobile device” will put mobile marketing even further into the ongoing marketing planning discourse between agency and brand manager.
- Location based intelligence and marketing will increase rapidly over the next years. This will fundamentally improve search results, display advertising, and outbound direct marketing, all centered on the mobile device. One can envision the day when a consumer prefers to search for something on his or her mobile device due to the highly improved results versus using his or her computer.
- Most North American marketers know that the US is one of the less sophisticated cell- and smart phone markets in the world (despite the iPhone). But most of them have not yet established the right learning mechanisms to mine new trends and insights from Asia, Latam, or even Europe. Whoever does this right will have a competitive advantage in how to successfully leverage mobile marketing.
It does not really matter if 2010 is the year of mobile marketing, it does matter that we all take it seriously, try to better understand it, experiment with it, and integrate it with a real purpose into any marketing solution.
3/27/2009
Posted by Kim Luegers, Director of Media Innovations, Draftfcb Chicago's MC Media
Many of our clients today are asking about iPhone applications. And because the space is evolving so rapidly, I thought I’d put some thoughts together to help everyone better understand the foundation of the application landscape and the various options clients have today.
So, let’s start with the overall picture.
- There are around 7 million iPhone’s in the U.S. today and 5 million iTouch devices.
- As of Monday, 3/21 there were 27,131 applications in the App Store.
- Premium apps (those that cost $) now comprise 77.3% of all downloads.
- Games lead in all app categories with 23.1% of App Store downloads.
- Entertainment apps follow at 13.6% trailed by books 9%, utilities 8.5% and education 7%.
- The least popular category: travel apps, which make up just 3.9% of the app store inventory. Though, look for this to change, as we know of one app that is slated to enter the market that has some really slick functions such as storing all of your travel details and going so far as to syncing up with all of your frequent flyer/loyalty rewards information.
There are very few consumer branded apps in the market today. In fact, at a quick glance, I could only identify 11 total branded apps: Audi A4, Carling iPint, Chanel, GAP, Hooters Slider, Kraft iFood, Oakley Surf Report, Zippo, Coca Cola’s Magic Bottle & Spin the Bottle, and lastly REI’s Snow Report.
There is an opportunity for us to help our clients get in the game. But there are some basic elements that need to be vetted before jumping into the space.
- Make sure your consumers actually have/use iPhone/iTouch applications. You may want to broaden your reach and develop apps for other mobile device platforms such as Blackberry and Android
- It is critical for the consumer to feel that your app is a dynamic messenger who holds up your end of the conversation by consistently feeding in fresh relevant content into the experience. This will ensure your app maintains its sense of cool and usefulness long after that initial download.
- Know where your brands consumer’s interest lies and focus your app around this desired content
- Ensure there is a balance among utility and brand marketing. Don’t do an app as an ad.
So, you think you’re ready to jump in?
There are three different routes you can take—build your own, buy outright or integrate (lease) into an existing app. The obvious benefit to building your own is you control every aspect of the app, from start to finish—expect this to take 4-8 weeks to develop once a concept is nailed down.
The other options, buying an app outright or integrating into an existing app., allows you to dip your toes in the water with out diving right into the deep end of the pool. Testing the space with a well-timed integration tactic could be the right way to accomplish a short-term marketing goal of engagement and awareness. This allows your brand to keep an ongoing marketing program fresh and well-supported, even if only for a short while.
So whether you choose to build, buy or lease, be sure to carve out dollars to run media to promote downloads. Because we all know, consumers can not download and engage with an app that they don’t know exists.
3/5/2009
Posted by Chris Miller, Group Management Director, Interactive, Draftfcb Chicago
I continue to be more and more bullish on the so called third screen, the mobile phone. I’m up to 10 pages full of icons=app’s on my iphone and while some are played with and casually tossed away, most are becoming a daily part of my life.
The area I’ve most be intrigued about is location services. Sure there’s dopplr and brightkite and app’s like Loopt, Cellspin, etc. as well as service app’s that don’t just connect you to people but to product like Where and Urban Spoon. But when Google gets into the game with a service like Latitude, you know the game is changing.
As an advertiser and marketer for my clients, data is becoming increasingly important. Well not just the data but the analysis, use and marketing through it, that’s the important part. For years we’ve talked about: the right message, in the right place, at the right time to the right person. It would seem marrying: mobile, data and, on the fly/flexible creative messaging are we’re just about there.
Sure it’s a little bit out there and not the least annoying to others unless those voices are in your head (or bluetooth headset) is the advertising scene from minority report. But are we really that far away from it.
Take a read to the latest Business Week article for their take on mobile marketing, privacy and where it’s going. |
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