AIMIA finalist

I find it amazing what can happen in a day, the up's and down's of modern life, it's a bit like running in Sydney, I've just found out that work we did at Bullseye has been shortlisted at AMIA which is great news the bad news for me is; I had my mountain bike stolen this morning. So it looks like I'll be doing a few my Blackmores challenges on my feet rather than on the bike for a while. I was also at a cracking conference over the last two day's with the Bullseye team which was hosted by Bruce Rasmussen but more on that later.

Marketing tricks

We all know the marketing tricks as marketing directors and advertising agencies but in this day and age so does our customers! for some marketeers this can be a good thing for others it's definitely a bad thing. A casing in point; in this weekend’s news I read Coles getting in hot water on their ‘tick’ for their ‘Smart Buy’ campaign you'll notice if you shop in Coles they have this plastered all over their own label brands, no bad thing you may say but their products are bad as in full of rubbish, their 'tick' mirrored the tick of approval from The Heart Foundation, so in effect giving the impression its product was improved by the Heart Foundation, sneaky and look at the backlash Coles are now getting from health groups and their customers, maybe the campaign should now be called ‘Not a Smart Move’ campaign?

Which gets me onto cars, the principles remain the same, here’s a product truth I’ve found as a customer visiting the microsite from Toyota Yaris 'It’s clever enough to be almost anything' is the line well not quite, your site is broken!! the interior tab freezes each time I roll over so what does that say to me about the car?

Over promising or not fulfilling your level of service after you’ve bought the car or looking for a car, is something that as a customer can really make you angry and now with the digital channel you can vent that anger via FaceBook and Co.
Product truths in advertising which is executed in a creative way that really hammers home the message is still the key, take for instance a campaign I did for VW in the UK:
They built their customer loyalty around ‘Reliability’ I knew this truth from working on the account and I owed one.
I knew it was reliable from starting first time in those cold winter nights and their customer service was exceptional (They once gave my then girlfriend a spare VW while her old Ford Escort was getting repaired).
So I was never disappointed and guess what? the following year I had two VW’s, a new one for the wife and with me still driving the same reliable VW.
One thing can be guaranteed as a customer I won't be buying a Toyota Yaris or shopping in Coles if that's their customer experience.

Social games

Games they're all the rage and not only for fat kids sitting in front of computers they've now games out there for fat adults sitting in front of computers all day, (why they can't get out and play real golf to get fit is beyond me) but these types of games have become very addictive and even have a cult following among players, my personal favourite is the brain teasers.

Australian Sport's Commission Viral

The brief from the Australian Sport's Commission was to draw attention to the talent ID program which they set up to attract the next Australian Olympic champion for London 2012, get us noticed and get the message out there was the brief to us at Bullseye, one thing, when I looked at this brief and I knew that our audience was so competitive that beating the 'Poms' in their own back yard was to good to pass by. How do you reach and engage with this cycical group of 15 to 25 year old Aussies? Answer, get a Pom to have a go at them? In coming up with the idea I asked myself; 'was there a way that I could push the idea further?

For one I made sure the actor was English and my aim was to have his accent slightly out, all chavved up,I KNEW this would create a response back home, responses like: 'Them Aussies can't tell the difference between a Londoner and Northener', for me that was perfect, as the viral kept spreading, below is some PR, good or bad, I couldn't care less, it did its job, just on the video on the ASC site it had 400,000 hits within in a week!! and it's still rising (That doesn't include any uploads on the various YouTube sites and all the press coverage.
Below is just some of the press coverage, it even made the Sun Newspaper!

At the end of the day if the ASC get some Aussie kid come through the program that picks up an Olympic Gold medal in Straford, East London where I spent many an hour on a Sunday skateboarding in the late 70's,I'll be chuffed.

Australia Press Coverage

Marketing Mag

Livenews

Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney Morning Herald (2)
Sydney Morning Herald (3)

Adnews (subscribers only)
Brisbane Times

Canberra Times
UK Press

The Times
The Sun

The Telegraph

The Independant
London Paper
And various other places
MySpace - ausports

Australian Sports Commission Viral | Digital Possibilities

Australia : Let’s rip the brits to bits - Page 3 - General Discussion - Digital Spy Forums Lets rip the Brits to bits in 2012 - All Games
“Lets rip the Brits to bits in 2012″ // Current
Australia encourages athletes to ‘Rip the Brits to bits’ in Olympic ad campaign - Brand Republic News - Brand Republic
Champions365 - The Complete Sports Portal
Australian Sports Commission’s talent search for London 2012
Hire a hoodie: Australia v Team GB | News | guardian.co.uk
Let’s rip those Brits to bits is Australian Olympic ad campaign messaeg - Times Online
Digg - Aussie ads leave Brits insulted
LinkSwarm.com
Top 30 Social Bookmarking Sites | eBizMBA
Aussie ads leave Brits insulted - World - smh.com.au

Agency Christmas Video

Yes it's that time of year and every creative hates, when your CEO walks in the office and says we need a digital Christmas card we've no money and even less time but as a creative you still have to produce the goods well in this instance it's a Bullseye Christmas Hamper but with a twist, I particularly liked the Twitter treats, it was a good laugh to shoot and I thought our actress was a great sport so hats off, credit also goes to Rod who did the colouring in Phon with the words and our actors (who weren't acting Dan and Colin, Dave N for getting all the flash to work and Phil K who is the master at getting the job done with a smile (I think he's going mad) and finally to Matt Clarke upstairs who directed it and did the voice over so to all of you out in web land Happy Christmas and whatever your aim have a successful New Year.

Big banks get smaller

Well what can you say? I know some of you will say with a wry smile 'poor Citigroup they've only got 82 billion in their pot left’ even as a non financial person looking at this graph their in a heap of pain, apparently this is now a month old and it has got even worst, look at RBS is that 22 pounds left in the kitty?

But what do these banks do in times like this? As a customer with ANZ Westpac and Egg I would say; look at your customers and focus on offering them a level of service that is second to none, the customer must always come first a lot of banks forget this, no gimmicks please, or as they say in marketing terms they have to be more 'customer centric'. The bank who truly looks after their customers gain as they have loyal customers who will stick with them even in times like this, as an example here in Australia the banks still charge people for using other providers ATMs, banks make bucket loads (It’s the same operating system software so there’s no excuse in charging to use other ATMs) so why charge the customer?
There’s a good piece from MoneyWise read the whole piece and Australia come out of it badly.

Over the years a lot of banks became greedy, forgot all the previous crashes, and were blinded by cheap money flying around.

You You You sod US

Brands are built by YOU not by the advertising agencies here's why:

Time MAGAZINE in 2006 nominated YOU as the person of the year:
YOU are not a consumer in your eyes you do not ‘consume’ you engage.
YOU will not allow brands to speak to you unless you ask them.
Brands can no longer interrupt a conversation online they have to earn that privilege, agencies are still in the mindset that they talk to their target audience rather than talk with them.
YOU are the ones in control online, YOU will decide if you click, send, open, download or delete!
YOU are now online savvy enough to realise the currency value in brands having your details.
YOU know that online isn't just a TV ad shoved up on the web and called a 'viral'
YOU can push companies to do what you want not what they want you to do
look how the Great British public got Wispa back on the shelf via Facebook
YOU are more responsive within this space
How can agencies be cutting edge online when they are carrying a 10-ton dinosaur around with them? the business model doesn’t work.
YOU can be heard online: Skype’s customer base was built on WOM not from advertising, last year Skype was one of the fasting growing brands in the UK.
YOU are now playing agencies at their own game, reversed high-jacking, agencies in the past used people’s ideas to sell their products, now people use their products in a way companies wouldn’t expect –Diet Coke with Mentos viral