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Give Blood Yarn Bombing

Yarn Bombing is an underground movement which I have already seen a couple of time around London, where participants knit covers or decorations for street furniture.

However, the government organisation “the National Blood Service” more commonly know by its slogan “give blood” have taken yarn bombing and harnessed it into a bit of ambush marketing.

The knitted droplets of blood picture above have been hanging from the trees up and down the country, as they tour university campuses, train stations and open spaces, asking people to donate their blood for those ill in hospital.

This campaign works particularly well because of the intrigue of the yarn bombing. I stumbled across this campaign when coming home from work, hanging from the trees outside Kings Cross Station, and when I would normally be wearily plodding my way towards the underground, these strange red objects hanging from the trees changed my course and I was not the only one taking photos either.

The droplets themselves look like deflated balloons which until closer inspection seem to have no other purpose than to decorate the trees. Only those who go up and inspect the trees properly will find the little tags with “blood.co.uk” sewn onto the bottom of each and read the sign tacked to the tree trunk.

This campaign does rely on people going to have a closer look, although there is the more familiar “give blood” stand and pop up banners inside the station, but I love the subtlety.

Ambush marketing, however aggressive the name might suggest, needs to make sure it is not intrusive, as it appears where consumers least expect it, and I think the kitsch nature of knitted blood droplets takes the edge off of the otherwise macabre image of bleeding trees.

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Amazing UN Women Google Search Terms Ad

Now this may be because I am reading Infidel, the autobiography of a Somali woman and her struggle with being female in a modern Muslim world, and so the message behind these ads resonated doubly, but the UN’s series of Google search ads is a fantastic piece of creative.

Created by Ogilvy and Mather, Dubai, these ads picture women of varying races and nationalities with a Google search bar over their mouth, gagging them. In this search bar are real Google suggested search terms finishing off sentences like “Women should…”. Google, based on the most popular world wide searches, comes up with searches like “Women should not speak in church” and “Women should not work”.

This campaign has been designed to demonstrate how sexism is still a world wide problem and I believe works so well because it is something any of us can do: search on Google. Driven by such a shocking revelation that Google turns up such backwards thinking ideas, any Tom, Dick or Harriet (for all you feminists out there) can type in the same search and see the results for themselves.

So often are we given statistics which are shocking like “30% of people in the UK live below the breadline” (completely made up statistic) but we have to take it at face value; we cannot conduct our own survey to verify the stats. We can all see, through a quick google, that these ads are true. I even decided to see what search terms came up when I typed in “Men should” or “Men are” just to see the contrast.

I think it is one of the best ways I have seen a press ad integrate digital technology, driving the message home and getting the reader to interact with the press ad. Very powerful!

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Everyone will be pleased to know I found an Eleanor coke bottle #allgoodthingscometothosewhowait

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Rentokil Serve up a Pesky Treat

It seems that the name of the game this summer is pop-up shop. Everyone from Henry Holland to Heston Blumenthal is piling on the bandwagon, popping up all over London with their individual brand experience. And Rentokil is no exception.

To celebrate 85 years of killing our unwanted visitors, Rentokil decided to pop-up in St Paul’s to serve up just those animals they try to get rid of. Dubbed the Pestaurant, they served a gourmet menu of chocolate covered worms, sweet-chilli chicken burger and deep-fried crickets, plus many more, giving city workers an alternative to their usual Pret sandwiches and sushi, and all for free.

This brand extension, from pest control to pop-up dining, plays on the trend for the unusual, exclusive and above all free, whilst not stretching Rentokil’s current associations. There were Rentokil pest experts on hand to answer your pest related questions but the main aim of the pop-up was to spread the brand word and getting people interacting with the brand.

The pop-up stall was only open one day, but attracted huge crowds causing them to run out of lots of the creepy-crawly treats. When we got down to St Paul’s they were serving the pigeon burgers in quarters (one per person) and there was not a bug in site.

A great idea, but when your PR has worked so well that you have a queue double the size of the Jamie Oliver stall, perhaps you should have catered for a few more hungry workers. Still a fantastic idea though, and the pigeon burger was tasty.

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Morrisons to Murriwins

The last two weeks the nation has been gripped by tennis fever and with good reason as Andy Murray has become the first British Men’s Singles winner in 77 years.

Some might attribute Murray's success to his stringent training regime, his previous success at the Olympics or Ivan Lendl’s coaching, however Morrisons would argue their little stunt with their shop sign might have spurred on the Scot’s victory.

Morrisons in Wimbledon for the two weeks of Wimbledon changed just one simple letter in its sign to become Murrisons. Retailers in Wimbledon have long been decorating their windows with tennis balls, strawberries and white clothes, but Morrisons chose to take it one step further.

The supermarket is conveniently placed next to a giant screen erected for shoppers to watch the action from down the road at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, placing it in a prime location for hungry tennis fans watching the game. What better way to get the punters in than by using the Bitish number one's name?

However, Murrisons did not stop there. On Sunday, as Murray hugged that coveted trophy to his chest on Centre Court, Morrisons employees changes an addition 2 letters to Murriwins.

How long this change will last I am unsure, as Wimbledon finished on Sunday, but Morrisons has effectively connected with the tennis fans flocking to SW19, proving that shopper marketing can operate in real time too.

Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/08/morrisons-renames-murrisons-store-to-murriwins-after-andy-murrays-wimbledon-triumph-3873333/

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The Rise of the Personal: the Coca-Cola method

In the past month, Coca-Cola have launched their "Share a Coke with..." campaign, printing thousands of bottles and cans of coke with the 150 most popular names in the UK. These names are printed in the iconic Coca-Cola script and on the surface, designed to be purchased by one shopper for their friend who bears that name.

It is a great idea, built on the concept that for brands to be successful, they need to form lasting bonds, so they return to the product again and again. You do not want shoppers purely choosing products based on price alone, ideally an emotional connection should override the price and make the shopper act irrationally. At Saatchi & Saatchi this is called Lovemarks .

So by writing people’s names on the Cokes, Coca-Cola is making the Coke personal to that shopper. Although the official line is “Share a Coke with …”, implying the drink will be a gift from you, the shopper, to your friend of that name, ultimately the game has become find your own name.

Once the holy grail is found, do you drink and throw the bottle away, keep the label or the entire bottle, contents untouched? Well that is up to you, you are one of the lucky ones.

However, not everyone is so lucky. There is no system to where the names are distributed it seems and more importantly there are currently only 150 names. What if your name is Francesca? Coca-Cola do not do your name. One Facebook friend expressed just this frustration the other day.

It could be enough to turn a loyal shopper off a brand.

But Coke have thought of everything. Visit their Facebook Coke Zone page, and you can create a Coke with whatever friend’s name you would like. They, of course, now have access to my friends list and birthday, for some reason, but I spread the Coke love.

The Coke Zone also lists the 150 names that have been chosen and a roadshow event in the summer at which you will be able to get whichever name printed on your very own Coca-Cola bottle.

They are turning their FMCG product into a gift, something M&M and Dairy Milk have also started doing but at an extra cost to the shopper. Shoppers will go out their way to purchase the product, just to see their name up in those curly-red lights.

I think it is a fantastic step, and a great way to really engage the shopper with their product.

  N.B. To the man on the train drinking a Charlotte can of Coke, this is not acceptable. Unless your name is Charlotte you should not be drinking this can. Take one of the normal cans if you cannot find your name. Do not deprive all the Charlottes of the satisfaction of finding their name amongst the hundreds on the shelf.

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Abercrombie & Fitch: No more Mr Nice Guy

Abercrombie & Fitch hit the headlines this week after CEO Mike Jeffries went viral for his controversial brand positioning. Although the interview is from 2006, its emergence in 2013 has had quite a damaging effect on Abercrombie’s image.

In 2006, Jeffries stated “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not so cool kids. We go after the cool kids. A lot of people can’t belong, and they don’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

These are very strong words, but the question is, is he just telling the truth, and facing the facts that many other brands refuse to express?

Although Abercrombie is making lots of enemies, this is also could be a hugely clever strategy as it reinforces the brand as for the cool kids. We all know that to be successful a brand need to appeal to a certain type of shopper, and have a unique selling point that means that shopper buys into the brand. He is tapping into the American High School kids’ brain, and channelling what they want to believe about Abercrombie.

Yes it is fantastically derogatory, and highlights that there are still lots of problems with body image and bullying, that can stretch way beyond the high school gates. But he has managed to reinforce the brands position, as the clothes the cool kids wear.

Similarly in the UK, the majority of high street brands do not stock clothes in sizes over 18, and if they do they are in a separate section. We see their clothing lines displayed on size 6 sculpted torsos and buy the clothes in the hope that we will too look the same. Other brands in the UK even pay beautiful, university students to wear their clothes on campus, to maintain their brand image at that particular university. This is not something Abercrombie is only guilty of.

However, what Jeffries is doing is making it seem OK to bully and poke fun at those who do not fit in. Although lots of brands do use clothing sizes as part of their brand positioning, not very many of them will come out and say we only sell clothes to skinny people.

What this has resulted in, is a backlash against the clothing brand, as well as him as an individual. Including one guy, Greg Karber (see the video attached), leading a campaign to change the image of Abercrombie by donating them to homeless people.

How damaging Jeffries’ words for the brand still remain to be seen, but one prediction might be that “Nice people do not wear Abercrombie”.

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My signing off from my previous blog, used as part of Saatchi X graduate scheme.

The one thing I have learnt from my time at Saatchi & Saatchi X…

  Don’t panic, there is still time.

We all spend our final year of university nose to grind stone, bashing out dissertations and final projects and revising our arses off for those all-important degrees, whilst other students around us harp on about their placement here, or their internship there, or their amazing post-uni “gup yar”. So it feels like the pressure is on, get the degree, get the dream job, do it all and do it now!

But it is so not the case.

To anyone else in the world, you are a baby, you have so much potential and so many different ways you could go. If you decide in 4-5 years’ time you are in the wrong career, then you are only 26-27, still very young and with bags of time to decide and flit around.

My favourite thing to do to demonstrate this is tell people what year you were born in. Us grads here at SSX were born in 1989-91, and it makes the rest of the agency’s jaws drop. Most of them were already in school by then, some in secondary school and some were even at university or working.

You look to them like the world is your oyster, and it is. Who cares if you do not get a grad scheme straight out of uni? Only me and Hannah got a traditional “grad scheme” from SSX, the other three applied to junior level jobs, which are advertised all year round (yes even after you have graduated).

Take some time to look back on what you have achieved already. You probably haven’t stopped since you were 16. You have taken exams every summer for 6+ years. Give yourself a pat on the back and cut yourself some slack.

I think the person who puts all this best is Baz Luhrmann. Take a listen to this song and relax; leave the worrying to the old people.

Over and out.

Ellie x

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My answer to a task set by a potential employer.

When trying to get into Advertising/ Marketing jobs you are often asked to do presentations and little tasks which is one of the ways they see if you are up to the job.

This task was creating a Social Media Strategy for a Healthy Snacks Company. I was told to be creative and really think about how I presented my strategy.

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Case Study: Australia Working Holidays' Best Jobs in the World

Having been unsuccessful in winning one of the Best Jobs in the World, provided by Australia Working Holidays, I thought I would instead analyse it from a Social Media Strategy POV and maybe gain traction in my not so glamorous London based career.

Australia Working Holidays have been targeting international, young adults for several years now, proven by the constant appearance of PPC Facebook adverts appearing on my Facebook account. Presumably would have already had a reasonable following, me amongst them, however after initially looking at the cute pictures of Koalas I had lost interest in the page.

However, 2 months ago Australia Working Holidays started a competition simply titled “The Best Jobs in the World”.

The Competition

The competition listed 6 amazing jobs exploring different aspects of Australian culture from Outback Explorer to Taste Master, each with an attractive $100,000 pay package and the chance to live in Oz for 6 months.

The first stage of the competition was to like the Australia Working Holiday’s page, so you could interact with the competition app, and then enter your details into the form in application of one of the jobs. Applicants where not limited to how many jobs they applied for, and each individual application generated an email sent to their email.

The entrants were then asked to create 30 second video explaining why they should be chosen for the shortlist. Thousands of entrants then uploaded videos explaining whoever they thought best why they should be chosen, and a shortlist of 150 (25 for each job).

Currently we are at the shortlisted stage, where the finalists go through a bootcamp day to determine who will be crowned the victor, but the big social media success is already really really obvious.

#FollowandRT

By marketing such an attractive package, and making it achievable (most people can put together a video using simple video editing software) they drew in thousands of applicants. These applicants all had to like the Facebook page and signup to receive emails from Australia Working Holidays to be considered for the competition. Something clever, but familiar in the world of social media.

“If Jackie in Taiwan can enter, then why can’t I?”

However, the user generated content, the thousands of videos hopefully uploaded into the app on the Facebook page, left Australia Working Holidays with a plethora of readymade adverts to remind those who had already entered the competition that they needed to upload their video and also show the rest of Facebook what they could be doing.

Looking Forward

They now have found 6 potential people who know how to stand out in social media, use their knowledge well and are recognisable from their job title. So long as all those unsuccessful applicants do not unlike Australia Working Holidays in disgust and mad jealousy, these 6 winners will be able to continue to drive awareness and interaction.

And ultimately, the Facebook page’s goal is to promote working visa for Australia, and it has done it on a massive scale. Those thousands of applicants are now considering if there is another way to get to their dream job out in Oz. Maybe they will have to go about it the traditional way, but now they are linked to a site who can tell them exactly what they need to do.

Well done Australia, I am on the next plane over.

Links:

http://www.facebook.com/AustralianWorkingHoliday