Interactive Marketing Trends

Why Are There No Great Digital Campaigns?

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Sat, 08 Feb 2014 11:32:00 +0000

Ok so looking around there seems to be very few great campaigns that are actually based on digital insight.

Whoa there! Before you get your digital underwear in a twist; sure many use digital channels to deliver on more traditional insights. But those are in the majority. And there are some truly amazing ones. Pick any cyber Cannes winner.

But what I am after is amazing work that has come from a uniquely digital behaviour. What goes into the brief from a planner rather than what comes out from a creative.

For an example of the difference; BK Subservient Chicken was amazing creative use of digital to drive a benefit; BK Whopper Sacrifice was based on an understanding of how people behave on Facebook.

- The Philips Cannes radio was based on the insight (gathered by social media listening) that mums talked about spying on their kids with the camera baby monitor.

- McDonalds changed the name of their free wifi to advertise their meal deals because they knew people jumped on their wifi from neighbouring restaurants.

- People tweet boring stuff - you know who you are - so Expedia travelled the tweets to different parts of the world to show how travel makes them more interesting.

- People use their Phones as alarm clocks and teenage boys dream about waking up next to a beautiful women so Axe made the Wake-Up Service

It's a little blurry and plenty cases could be argued either way but there seem to be very few of the latter.

The Future of Competitive Sport

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Sport 2.0, Social Sport, I am seeing a really interesting approach to competitive sport. Crossfit is a strength and conditioning program where workouts posted daily on their site along with instructional videos, tips, stories and allows people to post their comments & results.

The Crossfit Games is an annual event that has regional and global events. For this year they have also launched the crossfit open for everyone. For $5 you can enter the competition and receive a workout every week for 6 weeks. To validate your score you either do it in an affiliated gym or video yourself and post it on the site for it to be moderated by other competitors.

20,000 people have registered.

I got my arse handed to me by their first workout and am currently languishing at around 60% of the field. decided to redo it after i had recovered, beat my score and then realized I hadn't pressed record. Ouch.

The Digital Conferences You Should Go To

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:39:00 +0000

None. I was asked recently what were good digital advertising conferences to go to. But I actually think most of them are rubbish.

You have the same people saying the same stuff that everyone has been saying for 3 or 4 years. Or even worse new people saying the same stuff as if they invented it. Often professional speakers doing the circuit or people in agencies trying to push their own personal agenda.

Generally it is a bunch of hacked presentations showing really interesting/engaging/disruptive/social (delete as appropriate) work and saying that what we need to do and brand/advertising/social/digital/direct (deleted as appropriate) are the best agency to deliver it.

But that is lazy. It is sodding easy to bash advertising and show examples of cool stuff we should be doing. Very few people actually offer constructive advice on how we need to change our process as well as our product. Global marketing business re-engineering. That's what interests me and I have had a bash at it here.

So don't go to a conference spend 3 hours on slideshare.com, follow the right people on twitter and think & talk alot. Alot, a lot.

But if you do fancy a conference, here is a list one ones my good Ogilvy friend Nicole Yershon recommends. Attend or follow the buzz online.

As you can see most of them are not about advertising but look at music, film, arts, technology and business.

UK Specific
thinking digital - 24-26 May in Sheffield
TED salon events - London 3 times a year
google zeitgeist - May in UK
click - Nov in London
power to the pixel - Nov in London
media pro - Nov in London
sounds digital - Apr in London
the childrens media conference - June in Sheffield
the sheffield doc fest - June in Sheffield
PSFK global events - London & Global
iStrategy - London & Global
likeminds - Nov in Exeter & Lon
b.tween - UK

Global Economic & Political
(that all have digital/tech on their agenda)
World Economic Forum - Jan in Davos
DLD - Jan in Munich
TED - All the time, everywhere
Clinton Global Initiative - Sept in NY

Business
(that all have digital/tech on their agenda)
allen & company sun valley conf - July in Idaho
all things D - June in San Diego)
monaco media forum - Nov in, err, Monaco
berkshire hathaway annual shareholders mtg - May in Omaha
summit series - Apr in USA

Global Digital, Tech & Innovation
techcrunch disrupt - Spet in San Fran
le web - Dec in Paris
the lobby - Sept in Hawaii
fortune brainstorm tech - June in Aspen
sxsw - Mar in Austin
CES - Jan in Vegas
picnic - Sept in Amsterdam
IBC - European CES - Sept in Amsterdam
WEB 2.0 - Nov in San Francisco
miptv - Apr & Oct in Cannes

So I have probably missed afew out and I am sometimes happy to be proved wrong. If someone fancies inviting me to attend or speak, after all I have my personal agenda to pursue and a couple of borrowed decks I can hack together...

Every Agency Needs An Innovation Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Safe adventure, investment marketing, risk marketing, measureable innovation. Call it what you will but the more I talk to agencies and clients the more I am convinced that to survive, the first/only rule we reallly need to adhere to is McKinsey's 80/20.

Spend 80% on stuff you know works and 20% on measurable innovation.

As the environment continues to be challenging clients are stripping back budgets and expecting those budgets to work hard. They and their agencies are shying away from doing anything that can't be very closely related to sales or is out of the ordinary. No real issue there but this will over time deliver diminishing returns, sacked clients and bored agencies.

To survive we all need to try new things and develop new ways of reaching our audiences. But it needs to be measurable. If the ideas work they are rolled in to the 80% if not we learn and move on. Rather than try and sell those in on an adhoc basis, fighting for budgets in the weeds, we need to all buy into this at a high level.

It keeps work interesting but most importantly keeps us moving, keeps us evolving...and we get to do stuff like this...

giles rhys jones

Social Media China Report

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:10:00 +0000

The OgilvyOne Connected Report (English)

View more presentations from Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

Global Web index Lite

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Use the tool embedded below to find out social media stats. Nifty little tool.

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The Digital Agency Death Knell

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:23:00 +0000

So farewell AGENCY.COM, to be broken and absorbed in TBWA and others. As digital ceases to be seen as a channel and becomes a specialism within other disciplines, traditional digital agencies will continue to creak at the sides and break under the weight of trying to do everything digital. They will rapidly have to focus on what it is they actually do. The digital agency roster will die, at least in its current form, and client will pick discipline specific digital agencies. The chart below is 3 years old. Social Media and Mobile agencies take note...

I spent 3 happy years at AGENCY.COM building out their digital advertising unit in the UK and developing some groundbreaking work on BA, oneworld and Heineken. They also had the foresight to allow us to create AgencyRepublic a JV between them and ClaydonHeeleyJonesMason of which I was one of the founding 4.

Interestingly AgencyRepublic is another digital agency fallen on tough times. 5 times winner of best digital agency in the UK it has just lost it's flagship O2 account to.....you guessed it a traditional agency with an integrated digital offering, VCCP.

Likewise the more traditional offline agencies will have to rapidly adapt to accomodate this influx of highly creative and very non traditional people and approach. Digital will have to be part of everyone's role and they will quickly have to staff up (and down) to get the right mix of people and fundamentally change how they approach pretty much every part of their business.

Manifesto For A New Ad Agency

View more presentations from Giles Rhys Jones.

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re write the future nike spoof

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:43:00 +0000

Nike might have won the wc2010 marketing war but I still hate the ad and love the parody above.

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the best digital in cannes

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:03:00 +0000

my choices:

phone book - mobile

mother xmas card - viral

myspace music - site/social

pilot handwriting - site

hbo film - entertainment

golden grahams grant - social/site

verbatim monsters - gaming

IS parade - social

yellow pages chocolate - social

polo public - integrated

stockholm pride how hetero - twitter

gatorade replay - entertainment

mentos beatbox - banner

burger king $1 - augmented reality

v&a decode/recode - art

true city nike - mobile

last call home - entertainment

bluedot gps chairs - integrated

walls smile activated vending machine - experiential

radiotjanst hero - social

hamberg city orchestra - site

ikea catalog - mobile

monopoly city streets - gaming

vw piano staircase - activation

nike chalkbot - integrated

heineken football match integrated

met police choose your ending - social

northface conquer china - integrated

just call us - experiential

canon photochain - integrated

walkers sandwich - activation

Tags: cannes digital giles rhys jones

See Through Walls With Wimbledon iPhone App

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:58:00 +0000

Live streaming video from centre court, web cam of the taxi cue and augmented reality overlays telling you where the toilets are and how big the queue for the strawberries is. 2010's IBM SEER pushes tech limits.

Caveat: I worked on the original version of this last year.

Tags: IBM SEER Wimbledon App Ogilvy giles rhys jones

Web 3.0 in 14min 25sec

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

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Is The New Nike Ad Rubbish?

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:56:00 +0000

A friend just sent me this saying it was the best ad of the year. My perspective: it talks about the consequences of activities on the pitch almost over what is happening on the pitch. I don't care if Wayne ends up in a caravan or some random russian ends ends watching Cirque du Soliel in a tittty bar, I care about the game.

Whilst it taps into the current trend of all powerful football; red top papers, wags and gossip columns it adds weight to the notion that football is a sell out.

I don't really like it.

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ogilvy reel

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:46:00 +0000

My $73,000 Bar Tab

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:07:00 +0000

From Ogilvy Brasil. Another example of scaling an experiential campaign as predicted in the 10 trends of 2008 (good to see many of them still stand up)

Tags: 730000 bar tab ogilvy brazil drunk driving giles rhys jones

TigerTxt - Self Destructing Text Messages

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:26:00 +0000

Safe Text allows users to send texts which then self-destruct, leaving no trace. Wired celebrates its first birthday in the UK with a new mobile campaign created by Ogilvy. The texts, which are Wired-branded, are destroyed shortly after being opened, never to be seen again.

Safe Text will work on any mobile phone which can connect to the internet, it is hosted on a mobile internet site accessible by texting ‘Wired’ to 83118. Once registered, users will be able to send up to 10 Safe Texts per day.

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The Roles Brands Can Play In Entertainment

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:53:00 +0000

A brilliantly simple definition of the role that brands can play in entertainment.

The words in bold are Louis Vuitton's bigideaL(TM)

Much better than my version. the difference between planners & creatives....

Tags: ogilvy big ideal ogilvy paris miptv giles rhys jones

Engaging Doesn't Mean Interactive

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:33:00 +0000

In current marketing nomenclature there is a real focus on 'engagement'. I am all for being engaging but many people seem to misinterpret the notion of interactivity for engagement. given a brief for engagement they jump to digital and interactivity immediately.

Having the audience upload a story, personalise a dancing character or play a game is interactive, it just might not be engaging.

Likewise watching a piece of broadcast video content can be massively engaging without being interactive in any way.

Like the above, or a book.

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Does Legal Marketing Suck

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:43:00 +0000

I spend a lot of my day banging my head against a brick wall trying to convince people that digital/social/mobile/entertainment is a valid part of the marketing mix. Not only as a delivery channel but a fundamental part of strategic thinking. Thankfully the majority of people have hearts in the right place and it is only a matter of time before they come round.

But spare a thought for those who work in professional services marketing. I recently came across an article announcing Ash CS' move to law firm BLP as Head Of Marketing.

The first comment from Hamish:

Why oh why are firms obsessed with marketing guff? Don't they understand that this is not what clients want? They want practical, good value, clear advice. Full stop. Not to know that their fees are being squandered on brainless PR initiatives only designed to fool the media.

Good to see that the majority of following comments give him a good and well deserved kicking, but scary that others point to a deep seated feeling that not only advertising, but all marketing is rubbish.

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Social Media Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:51:00 +0000

Slightly different from the Social Media Affect which I see at most conferences.

Such an innocent phrase isn't it: "Content Created".....

Ogilvy On Branded Utility

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:56:00 +0000

F*ck Advertising Lets Be Useful: interesting, educational, entertaining or make money....

Gays Shouldn't Be Allowed To Play Football

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:56:00 +0000

Ogilvy's film spearheading the FA and Kick It Out's campaign to tackle homophobia in football. I work for Ogilvy who developed this great ad.

Tags: lets+kick+it+out+of+football ogilvy homophobia giles rhys jones

Instant Digital Ad Agency

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:11:00 +0000

Just follow the instructions:

DIGITAL @ (INSERT AGENCY NAME)

30/3/9

Work: Business as Usual

Digital isn’t a discipline; it is a specialism within other disciplines. We believe that any agency can produce innovative marketing solutions that connect brands and their audiences using digital media and/or leveraging on people’s digital behaviour. Just as they currently do through offline channels.

Fundamentally it’s about finding ways to make advertising useful: be that informative, educational, functional or entertaining. The diet of work that traditional agencies ought to be associated with will not be large site design & build but smaller, campaign based marketing solutions.

Cool shit that drives (INSERT AGENCY APPROACH) and ultimately changes perception of the client’s brand.

Culture: Everyone is Digital

To change output, we need to change culture, behaviour and process. Everyone in the agency have to get onboard and feel like they participate in the digital change. This could be simply building digital metrics into teams business targets and incentivising clever use of new digital platforms/digital media. More importantly, we would set up ways to share ideas and thoughts inside the agency. Training will be a key part of educating the client and agency teams as would competitive and trend monitoring to keep them both inspired/afraid.

Delivery: Work the Network

Given the accelerating change in technology and digital channels we believe that a network of trusted, specialist suppliers alongside a small in house capability, working closely with existing account and creative teams is the optimum way to deliver digital. Building and actively managing ecosphere of companies with proven capabilities that is strategically and creatively overseen. We would quickly set up a list of approved suppliers and establish SLA’s.

People: A Thin Agency
As digital is everyone’s responsibility we would leverage the existing teams – planners, suits, creative – to manage clients, much of the process and drive the digital business in their own accounts. There are a couple of key internal appointments and a small team (freelance or fulltime) detailed below who would provide specialist skills.

· A senior suit - internal - to help navigate/circumvent process, client relationships, general agency culture etc...

· A team PA

· A Creative Technologist – is it possible/will it work/ a senior technologist, probably a technical director either freelance or currently working in a digital agency.

· A Senior Digital Project Manager – managing digital projects is far more complicated than any TV-production and have many more moving parts. There is also a perception that ’anything can be changed at anytime’, where a project manager has a key role in pushing back/keeping everybody in line throughout the development.

· Prototype Team - consisting of 3, 4 designers with decent action script skills and good understanding of cross-platforms interface design to build some of the lower level work

Plan: Phased Approach
’Discovery‘
Investigate client list to select the top five digital opportunities based on:

a. digital maturity,

b. agency-client relationship,

c. estimated speed of conversion,

d. propensity to invest in innovation/test activities,

d. activities in the client’s market space.

’Planning’
Develop strategies for the client business leveraging on existing employees knowledge. Collectively we would convert the market & business understanding into ’digital opportunities’ and ’digital briefs’. Some of these initiatives should be pro-active, others could be developed in conjunction with wider client briefs.

’Creative’
Engage current creative teams work on digital briefs but with the addition of the digital resources outlined above. In this phase we need to engage ’digital project managers/producers’ to anticipate implications and production of any ideas that come up and prepare for the ’production phase’.

’Production’
Prototyping is also essential both as a ’sales tool’ to demonstrate the experience to clients and as a ’briefing tool’ to developers. This can either be done by an in-house team or be handled by selected design house. We don’t foresee that (AGENCY) would have any large in-house design/build capabilities, but would outsource all design and development to the partner with the most suitable skill set and ’flavour’.

’Deployment’
Launching a project is only the beginning. Seeding, PR and reputation management needs to be well-orchestrated to ensure success.

‘Measurement’

Measurement and ongoing optimisation are keen to demonstrate success and prove the case for digital. We would connect the teams with the most appropriate suppliers as well as educate and consult with them to structure the appropriate criteria.

‘Education & Inspiration’

Training, trend and competitive monitoring will be ongoing. We have a number of tools we can deploy but ideally a junior planner or account person in each business group would be responsible for collating and distributing much of this.

‘Positioning’

Pretty early on we will need to develop the agency’s digital point of view, something that is uniquely yours. Everything we develop should ladder up to this as a thought. To promote this we should endeavour to get speaking, writing, judging and committee engagements as well as attending the most appropriate conferences and events.

Written last year.

Some of it still valid.

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Ogilvy On Social

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:10:00 +0000

OK it was me, not Ogilvy, talking about social at a being digital mashup event.

I cover our approach to digital, structure for social, a lenovo case study, some internal social programs and the one number you need in marketing. In just over 7 minutes. I never realised I said umm so much.

Tags: social media mash up being social giles rhys jones ogilvy

White Christmas Guaranteed

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:33:00 +0000

iPhone app from Ogilvy. Syncs with your camera and adds gently falling snow to any scene. Take a photo and send to confuse your friends.

Disproves the mantra - An app is for life not just Christmas.

Tags: iphone app xmas ogilvy giles rhys jones

More Virtual Bums

noreply@blogger.com (Giles Rhys Jones) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:40:00 +0000

You wait ages for a virtual bum and then they all come at once. Love this online fashion tool from Fashionista too.