Creativity

The IPA’s analysis (257 IPA Effectiveness cases studies) reveals that that non-awarded campaigns, on average generate 0.5 points of share growth per 10 points of ESOV. Which is obviously very much in line with the findings from Nielsen’s analysis.

In sharp contrast, creatively-awarded campaigns generate on average 5.7 points of share growth per 10 points of ESOV.

In other words creatively-awarded campaigns generate around 11 times  (that’s right, 11 times) more share growth per 10 points of ESOV than creatively-non-awarded campaigns.

Beware of NIKE+

Everyone uses Nike+ as an example on marketing excellence. I am no exception. 

The problem arises when Nike+ is being used as an argument for, both from clients and agencies, to do the "same" kind of solution for any brand. They emulate the solution but fail. Why?

Brands are driven by growth. Growth comes when marketing succeeds to make the brand...

  1. ...increase relevancy and creates ongoing positive memories.
  2. ...become part of the stories between people – as often as possible.
  3. ...an enabler for people to tell something important about themselves to the world which makes the brand part of the stories between people which increases relevance etc...
Nike+ does all of the above for NIKE. The digital solution itself is really not that great and is ripe for improvements in regards to social and user-friendliness – but the way it helps people to tell the world how healthy and fit they are by posting it to Facebook without having to actually write anything themselves is one of the main reasons that makes Nike+ a success.  

So the question for other brands should be: How can we help people to tell something important about themselves to the world? Important, not as in wealth, status or taste – but deeper mental traits such as kindness, intelligence and creativity that people are wired to display. 

That´s when purpose tied-in marketing should come to mind and the creative execution following this thought. 

The focus on owned and earned media represents a fundamental shift in marketing...

... that is more than a fad.

Content is more than just words, pictures or video. Games, apps, events, APIs and so on deliver rich content experiences too.

Content reinforces a brand’s credibility and authenticity in what it stands for, believes in and cares about. For modern marketers, content is a vital expression of the brand. 

A cute manifesto: http://econsultancy.com/no/blog/62574-introducing-the-modern-marketing-manifesto?utm_campaign=momama&utm_medium=email&utm_source=announcement

BIG DATA can have a negative impact on business results.

Research from IPA databank shows some interesting findings and Peter Field/Les Binets will publish a new report about this shortly focusing on long term branding vs short term activation. 

One of their worries is that Big Data can have a negative impact on business results due to brands focusing and allocating more of their marketing budget to short term activation. 

“Big data in marketing, whether it admits it or not, is inevitably heavily focussed on short-term metrics - one of its boasts is about the speed of decision making. This is very dangerous for brands, unless balanced with long-term metrics linked to long-term performance measured over years” - Peter Fields.

The studies show that Long term branding in the form of advertising designed to evoke only an emotional response is twice as likely to produce large profit effects over a three year time frame as any other form of advertising.

A budget split in the area of 40% Short term activation and 60% Long term activation seems to be the optimal spilt for best effect and growth. 

The study also shows that Short term activation effects get an uplift when a brand starts doing both. But stays stabile in effect over the years while Long term branding initiative effect grows over the years. 

>>> Here´s my comment:

1. Short term activation (or sales conversion activities which I bluntly call them - as I see activation as a term being about activating the market so that the brand will become part of the stories between people) must ecco the story/stories of the brand. 

2. Long term branding must continuously create positive memories - as well as the big story occasionally shown on TV as a TV spot. Same with Short term activation. 

3. Big Data and Real Time Marketing - in addition and as a vital, perhaps central, part of the brands storytelling -  will be the driver for growth but must be measured and focused with affecting BOTH long term and short term KPI´s in mind. 

A brand is a living entity and is enriched cumulatively over time. The product of many big and small gestures.  This understanding as a fundament for marketing decisions is crucial for growth. So we need to move out, once and for all, from the traditional short vs long term focus activities and start working 24/7/365 to be perceived as relevant and gaining ESOV - which ensures growth in market share. 







How to matter

"We consume much more than we create, we read much more than we think, and it should be the other way around. We have to make sure we consume the things that truly matter to us, but only so that we have time to create something that matters to someone else." - https://twitter.com/restreitinho

NOKIA´s Head of Digital comments on COCA-COLA Social media study

Eric Schmidt, Coca-Cola's senior manager of marketing strategy and insights: 

"We didn't see any statistically significant relationship between our buzz and our short-term sales." 

The article continues:  But Coca-Cola's newly published research could renew the debate over just how effective social initiatives are. After all, if the world's largest brand says that social buzz had a measly 0.01% impact on its sales, why would any other business, large or small, expect more from the medium?


Then in the comments Sylvain Querné, Head of Digital Marketing at Nokia comments: 

"Isn't coca cola losing sales on soda drinks in the US? At this point no impact is better than negative impact..."


Read all: http://econsultancy.com/no/blog/62383-coca-cola-the-s-in-social-media-doesn-t-stand-for-sales?utm_medium=email&utm_source=daily_pulse


UPDATE:

Oh and today COCA-COLA followed up Erick Schmidt´s poor analysis with a statement: 

http://marketingland.com/coca-cola-clarifies-social-media-is-crucial-driving-in-store-sales-36829?utm_campaign=tweet&utm_source=socialflow&utm_medium=twitter

Brand presence on social media - Product/service experts and storytellers:

Use internal subject matter experts for dialogue around your product/service - which also can enhance, while building trust, the brands storytelling done 24/7/365 by internal and external storytellers.

Important to activate employees. If you manage to activate 10% you will reach a tipping point. 
Also the need for agency and brand to work 24/7/365 is crucial for relevance in the market and continouse strenghtening the brands storytelling and even better - producing stuff that results in people telling stories to each other.

The difference between Big Data and Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) and Customer intelligence (CI) projects have mostly been focusing on the past and are also often not driven by any business problem. 

A better approach might be to scale down your BI and CI project - and instead focus on what business problem you want to solve and then identify:
1. Business goals – Set KPI´s and identify the data sources that we need to focus on.  
2. Communication goals -  Set KPI´s and identify the data sources that we need to focus on affecting to reach the business goals.
 > Make sure you have a balance between internal and external data!
3. Do an audit of existing marketing initiatives. Are they affecting our goals?
4. Use the insight provided by the data to identify (predict) what kind of stories will resonate in the market, and that will be seen as added value to ongoing and future publishing/dialogue from and between people on- and offline.  (The quality of what´s being done based on the insight is what makes stuff go viral.)

Then you will activate the market. Not only inform.