The All-New Path-to-Purchase
Many shopper marketing consultants are wrong. The path-to-purchase is not linear. The path-to-purchase in days gone by was just a tool “to drive consumers from the couch to the shopping mall to the aisle.” The line was:
we’ll turn consumers into shoppers and shoppers into buyers
…often where “integration” meant a “matching luggage approach” to the creative work by a range of agencies.
Yesteryear's Path-to-Purchase
Putting the matching luggage issue aside, this Path-to-Purchase, which we might call “yesteryear’s p2p” only works now for TOTALLY NEW products. You see, for the majority of products – from recognised brands – social media has changed the path-to-purchase for ever.
Today, we’re all familiar with the idea that there exists a myriad of new channels for consumers to communicate to each other. Brands now can thrive or die because of these interactions.
New channels should be considered as springboards for conversations, for the frequent, lightweight interactions that are vital in today’s socially networked society.
The path-to-purchase now starts with your current, engaged audience. Your current buyers. (more…)
Should ad agencies advertise?
In 2006 I was on a project at Patts Y&R in Melbourne. The now-famous Russel Howcroft had just been appointed as MD. The receptionist asked me what project I was working on. I explained that I was working for Russel and, with a senior account director called Tobi, helping them articulate today’s stories for the agency and to find ways to package them up and disseminate them to prospective clients. The receptionist’s summary was succinct:
You’re advertising the advertising agency!
I use that line nowadays when people ask me what I am doing for a living. But in reality, we all know an advertising agency seldom advertises itself. Not in the traditional sense of paid advertising.
When it comes to the paid-owned-earned media debate, agencies just don’t pay for advertising space. Hell, we’re bad enough with our owned media (how many out-of-date websites are there and/or offices ‘soon to be renovated’). And few agencies are fabulous at sparking the conversation in earned media (what percentage of agencies goes beyond PR-ing breaking campaigns, updating a Linkedin profile and the occasional tweets?). But this piece isn’t about owned and earned media, not today.
Well, we’ve all thought about our own advertising and debated it. And this came up again recently:
I found out the other day that Encore magazine is about to be revamped and, on top of its usual readership, it’ll be distributed among the 4,500 senior marketers on the Australian Marketing Institute’s database. And I bet the All-New Encore Magazine will enjoy heavy promotion to an even wider marketing community via its sister title, mumbrella.
And so I spoke to the Encore publishing team and was duly sent the media pack with the rate card.
As it happens Innocean, the agency where I work, will feature since another now-famous adman, Sean Cummins, will scrutinise our latest TV ad for Kia, part of a multimedia campaign for an irreverent brand.
Here lies the debate. Should we also advertise in the publication? Well, it’s too late now, we’ve missed the deadline. So, should we have advertised? And what would should have been our message?
My immediate reaction was YES, let’s advertise. A resounding YES. What’s more, I had a brilliant idea for the ad. Creatives all cringe when ‘suits’ get ideas for advertising executions. Especially when the suit says it’s brilliant! And so they should – here’s what I created on my (t)rusty old mac:
My objection to running ads like this is (more…)
The post-Jobs post: Samsung; the bandwagon; flowers
Samsung launched a new product today. Samsung Galaxy SII.
Queues for Mr Samsung
I only know about this launch because at five to eight this morning there was a queue outside the Samsung store here in the central business district of Sydney. Not a massive queue – not by Apple standards – but a queue none the less. Good work, Mr Samsung.
Well, Samsung is on the front page of The Economist last week. The business is held up as a success story.
And Apple made it onto the front of this week’s publication, of course. A success story and also an obituary.
But I when I say “Good work, Mr Samsung” I realise that unlike the recently deceased Mr Apple, we don’t know who Mr Samsung is. And I’m fine with that. As I said on the recent Mumbrella podcast (33.55), the new CEO at Apple is a self-proclaimed team player, not a figurehead.
But we should be careful about our eulogy for Steve Jobs. Especially after reading Adam Ferrier’s piece on mumbrella, the ad industry news&views source:
We are living in a world where there is an unparalleled outpouring of grief for someone who has made us fall in love with our PDAs, computers, and MP3s.
What the fuck?
Adam founded and sold the Australian branch of Naked Communications. He’s very bright and very convincing. Well, almost always. And now I feel a little silly about my last post, Computing Made Cool. You know, the one where I quoted a Jobs quote. In Adland, the Jobs quotes are as ubiquitous as the Ogilvy quotes. And I jumped (more…)
Supermarket brands are not trying hard enough
Bloody hell, have you seen how Coles and Woolworths are out to woo shoppers into shopping with them. However, they are doing nothing of interest. I’m sure they have stats to show how their ads are boosting sales. Of course their agencies will find those and/or other stats. And I’m sure the research shows that this is the best advertising since etc etc.
Here’s the basic flow of a short presentation I’m about to share with (more…)
Wake up Retail Australia! It’s about timing not location.
My quest when midnight shopping is to see what I can buy for five bucks or less, including postage. Thank you Ebay for the crap I’m getting sent home much to my wife’s amusement. Then I was introduced to
www.fiverr.com - a great place to waste time and only spend a fiver a pop. Go on, have a look! (Hat tip to Yvette @ellaslist)
So, I have bought a few random things recently. I have a quest when up settling my little baby boy in the middle of the night. Or rather, when not settling him.
And this is all thanks to the smart phone in my pocket.
My point? Well, the point is that point of purchase is now temporal not geographical.
The world has rushed from nought-to-f in sixty seconds. From real world (more…)
The holy grail: How to win all pitches (almost)
Determined to be different? Commbank creatives have all the fun
Just saw this on mumbrella “Commonwealth Bank has released the next in its new series of stylised black and white ads.”
Pretty ad. But such a pity that the advertising has nothing to do with the actual product. Well, maybe they have a mandate to call you. But when they do are they really helpful? For example, I’m in the process of leaving CommBank because they may be determined to be different. But they lack the ability to hire as charming and helpful people as I have found, consistently, at Westpac. Funny thing is that CommBank haven’t even noticed that my salary doesn’t come in, that the credit card doesn’t get used, that as soon as I’m settled into Westpac I’m shuttling out of Commbank for good (or if they have they don’t care! Hmm is that disconcerting?)
My comment at the bottom of the mumbrella article was about the (lack of) irony…
Jean-Pierre Jeunet gets to film the ads for an Australian bank in a location that looks like a gated community outside LA. That’s pretty determined to be different.
That sounds like the kind of after dinner game to play with the kids:
Stephen Conroy gets the UN gig – WHY?
I fail to understand why Senator Stephen Conroy got the UN gig. Senator Conroy is the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate in Australia. That’s a long job title. But it’s okay he has a big business card.
We're going to the UN, mmmkay?
Conroy claims to be there for (middle?) Australia. The people’s champion. Giving broadband to everyone. Just very slow broadband because he thinks that by restricting content he can stop all the nasty content on the web reaching Australia… “Mmm’kay,” as South Park’s Mr Garrison would say. (Does anyone else see the comparison, or is that just me?)
Yes, he’s slowing down broadband in Australia to speeds even the luddites will deplore. He’s opening channels for the government to censor anything they don’t consider right, polite or favorable.
The Future of Communications – in three easy steps
I was listening to the stories being told at the Nokia Forum for developers recently.
If content is king, distribution is...
When Kenny Mathers stood up and announced “if content is king, distribution is king kong.” This quote he attributed to Mark Ollila, another Nokia guru. Of course, their reason for flogging this line is that if the developers create the content, Nokia says it can deliver the right distribution.
A wonderful aphorism. Worth repeating again and again.
If Content is King, Distribution is King Kong
However, this takes for granted a (more…)
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