Recent review of marketing manager type folk from Forrester shows that the old ways are still prevalent and that while there’s lots of discussion and good intent, trial and actual usage is still a way behind. In a candid chat with a former marketing client a few weeks ago, she let me know that her difficulty is convincing guys 10/20 years older, who grew up thinking DM was a new fad, to spend the money on things that they struggle to “get.” “No one got fired doing TV” was the safety net for them and the low budgets they got provided for the bucket of below the line ,had much higher pressure to produce ROI to try and get more money so they chucked it in the run of site ad networks for pretty much guaranteed returns and struggled to innovate. A sad tale but one that makes us realise that rather than just evangelising, we need to prove.

Round up of social media launches.

Beautiful example with Members Project from Amex by Digitas in US (disclosure time, I am Digitas London now, the artists previously known as Modem Media) allowing cardholders to share their project ideas, vote and then the best bit, Amex puts the project into reality. A great example of getting a closer emotional connection to the card through harnessing the social media potential of digital. Will they bring this to the UK? I hope so. Thanks to Greg Verdino for that.

Lincoln allow you to share your dreams. (don’t get the URL wrong and miss the “my” out or you may get a different kind of dream).

And Smirnoff allow you to show rare character through picture uploads.

Image from on Google images

Women are spending more time online, those good chaps at eMarketer tell us. A natural extension of their more advanced offline social ecosphere being replicated online? Or just because they have better sites to go to than us chaps with things like bag, borrow or steal where you can hire designer handbags? After all, a girl can’t have enough handbags. Or shoes. Or make up. Or tops. Or etc. I always enjoy finding ammo to challenge antiquated views of the dynamics of web usage.

This is awesome. Microsoft seem to finally be emerging as a technology innovator rather than just a grey box. This stuff could have a huge impact on how people interact with form and function.

Source: Scobleizer onTwitter about 8hrs ago

Consumer insight is as much art as it is science and there are gazillions of ways to get to that elusive “a-ha!” moment. And the sun doesn’t always shine on TV. (OK, enough puns). Refreshing observations from an unusual place, Credit Suisse. Here’s some nice quotes from David McQuillen and links to the articles are below.

Sometimes people come to us so bogged down and weary of politics, policy, and internal navel-gazing that they just aren’t thinking very well. Helping them get out of that - helping them see differently, generate real insights into what will be best for the customer and best for the business.

I used to work in strategy consulting for Accenture. While all the other consultants were analyzing competitive forces, pricing, distribution, and the like, I was curiously looking at the quality of the customer experience and saying, “You know, if they just made it easier to buy from them, I bet they would be a lot more successful.”

I’d like to make it sound like we’re using rigorous science, but we make it up as we go along and stick with the things that work. You can do this stuff in two or three days - you don’t have to spend half a million dollars on research. Just go and observe.

Sources, image & links: Chief Marketer | Top 10 creative minds | Fast Company

This is a great example of a clear proposition being executed in a highly creative way to make a huge (literally) impact in a usually staid medium.

Source: building brands.com

This mash up is just too addictive. Here’s two more.

Boom!

Wise words

This time Spam must make a choice: will he turn to the dark side?  See the mash up video here.

Created using the new mash up tool on the updated Star Wars site. Hours of fun.

Previously on Spam the Monkey: episode 1, episode 2

After sharing the heroic direct mail deeds of Shane Warne, here’s some more mail from my post bag over the last couple of weeks in a kind of dm review type thing.

DMA (Direct Marketing association) - those who remember will know that I have an alter ego in the shape of Ms Nicholas Gill. I have sent it back twice with amendments correctly marked up. They managed to correct the Nicola but my gender is still suspect. If they can’t get my title correct then the round file awaits (professional terminology there, folks). I have no idea what was in it, perhaps an invite to a door drop seminar?

HSBC bank - normally HSBC don’t tend to send my inserts/stuffers/crap with my statement but this time they do. Pleading with me to save the planet by opting for online statements. For every one who signs up to go paperless, they will plant a virtual tree. For every 20, they will plant a real tree. So far 123,000 have signed up and that means 6,000 trees. Two things wrong with this: 1) why does the bloody URL hsbc.co.uk/thevirtualforest go to HSBC homepage and make me click again (aaaargh) and 2) isn’t this the bank who made gazillions of profits last year? Couldn’t they fore-go the champers and caviar at the annual results this year and plant a real tree for every switcher?

Land Rover Discovery 3 - “oh yes” I think as the shiny metal CD-shaped case arrives clinking on the doormat. “Oh bugger ” I say out loud as it takes me an age to open the damn thing up (approx 1 minute). “Oh” I say in a deflated manner as I realise that despite the integration with the new (very nice) ATL campaign about film-makers using the motor as their most stable and trusted moving tripod, there is no actual footage on a cd in the pack. The metal casing is even embossed/debossed (I can never remember) with old-fashioned style film casing design. Surely a trick missed considering the miniscule cost of cd’s these days and the high likelihood of getting some good video? Sad, I discard the Discovery.

Volvo XC-90 - I always remember from my DM days a key KPI being “How many opened the piece?” The plastic outer was so hard to open I gave up.

Facebook has over-taken that bastion of Britishness, the currant bun (for those across the pond, cockney rhyming slang for the Sun). Impressive growth for the social media network versus sport, boobs and er, more boobs. So, plus ca change? What would be more interesting is to extrapolate this out to users AND readers of both as we now live in a media mashing world and don’t solely rely on singular channels for news or entertainment or poking.

Source: Observer (25.05)