Addicted to Twitter! (for now…)

 

… is the question my geekiest friend asked me this afternoon. ‘I don’t get it, I really don’t!’ He’s not the only one, and admittedly, I only just started playing with Twitter… I guess I’ll find out in the next few weeks whether this is lust or love!

 

A while back, I asked my Twitter followers what Twitter is all about and Mack gave me the following answer.

 

 

 

 

So far, I have seen people twittering about the weather, traffic information, sending useful links, and promoting their blogs. Here is what Phil and Mack had to say about how they use Twitter:

 

 

 

I think there’s a massive opportunity for brands to build relationship with their consumers on Twitter, by creating their own Twitter pages and sending regular Tweets to their followers.  Saying that, I think Twitter will have to develop a way of sorting contacts in a more practical and organised way i.e.  allowing users to classify their contacts in groups (e.g. marketing Twitters, friends, brands, news etc)

 

I think Twitter will also radically change the way we consume media as the application evolves – Twitterpic via Twirl is simply great and allows Twitters to become real-time journalists sharing information and news as it happens.

 

Watch this space  

 

Further reading: Discover new Twitter friends with who should I follow

A confession…

Photo: The cans Festival, London

 

 

Remember the cutie with an impressive spec? Yes, I am talking about the Xda Orbit 2. Well I have a confession to make… whilst I think it is a brilliant phone with lots of cool and useful apps, I have actually started using my old Samsung E900 again. Don’t get me wrong, the Xda Orbit 2 is a fab phone but I am a texter and I missed having a keypad. I found it really hard to text on the go… yes I am a girl and I multi-task!

Go and check the Xda Blog for more info about the applications that can be downloaded onto the phone.

UPDATE: Steve from VCCP left me a comment to ask whether I had tried to download the resco keyboard. The answer is yes, I have… it is easier to text with the resco keyboard however it is not the same as pressing buttons…

Goodbye landlines, hello dongles!

   The folks at 3mobilebuzz recently sent me a new mobile internet dongle to play with, and I have to say that I have been very impressed!

 

The dongle is very simple to install – just whizz it out its box, plug it in and within minutes you’ll be online. I travel a lot around the UK for work and it was a pleasure being able to send emails during my London-Manchester train journey. I did get disconnected at times, but overall I was quite impressed with the signal strength.

 

I think there is a massive opportunity to market this product to Londoners. If you pick up a free London paper on your way to/back from work, you would probably have noticed quite a few ‘3’ ads for the dongle.

 

As a flat sharer, moving into a flat without an Internet connection can be nightmare and being tied to a 12 months contract for both a landline and broadband is both expensive and daunting if you’re not sure how long you are going to stay in that flat.

 

Why not advertise the dongle as a cheaper alternative to landlines and broadband and the bonus of being able to move out without having to worry about where your broadband/landline is registered? I am sure this would appeal to quite a few consumers emotionally. Fair enough, it’s not as fast a home internet connection but it certainly does the job for emailing and browsing the Internet…

 

My only criticism would be that 3 introduced too many different formats of dongles too quickly. My flatmate bought a ‘matchbox’ modem last year and wanted to have my dongle as she saw it – like a lot of customers, even though both dongles do the exact same thing, she wanted the latest one out! I think that offering different colours is a great idea – there seems to be a trend for pinks as far as mobile phones are concerned – why not dongles? At least they’ll certainly stand out from the competition!

 

3 currently have the cheapest tariffs out there and will even offer you a discount if you are already have a mobile phone contract with them. I think that ‘3’ could try to kill two birds with one stone by using their dongle offer to get consumers to switch mobile network… ‘3’ could also talk more to the very large Aussie community in London to sign up as ‘3’ is also available in Oz – and I am sure no one would say no to free calls back home with a Skype Phone!

Fight for Kisses

A friend of mine recently asked me to come up with some of the most over-used advertising clichés and a couple immediately sprang to mind:

• Washing powder – the ad where the guy washes a white shirt covered in deep stains in salad bowl with a wooden spoon – I can’t even remember what the product they were trying to advertise.  

• Gillette ads always featuring gorgeous clean-shaven hunks. Yes, I am talking about the type of guy we will never meet unless you move to LA.

Experts say that the average person is exposed to about 3,000 advertisements every day. With that many advertisements out there, it is no surprise that advertisers have a hard time coming up with something new. It seems that many advertisers out there have completely given up on being original and are simply recycling the same old ads.

I discovered this awesome ad for razor manufacturer Wilkinson (currently number 2 behind Gillette in France and Great-Britain) – the viral campaign is called Fight for Kisses and originated in France.

Click the picture below to watch the ad

There is also site to check out with a series of goodies and a game to download and play to win a series of prizes.

So what do you think? Hit or miss?

One more thing about the Cocoon

 I have been an O2 customer for years, and every year around upgrade time, I start looking into the different types of mobile phones on the market.  

I have to say that advertising is very influential because it’s very difficult to escape ads on the Tube! In addition to advertising, I usually browse the O2 website as well mobile phone reviews sites hence the importance of viral marketing especially in the case of O2 who do not advertise their phones.  

I had a little look at the phones available and the Cocoon is currently featured on the front page under the phones section – so far, so good!  

However when I clicked on the picture of the Cocoon to get more info about it, I felt the description on the site was letting the phone down – what about the alarm clock feature, the nest, the map of the O2 arena? In addition, I could not find a link to the Cocoon’s blog or the Cocoon’s webpage!  

Can someone point me in the direction of these links?  

Why did O2 set up a webpage for the Cocoon, a blog as well as sending a free phone to bloggers if they are not going to clearly advertise it on their site?

Introducing the O2 Cocoon

Peter Kwong of advertising agency VCCP in London recently approached me about a project he is working on for mobile phone supplier O2.  

O2 recently launched a new 3G quadbrand mobile phone called Cocoon and the guys at VCCP contacted me to blog about it. Very much like Neville Hobson, I do get quite a lot dodgy pitches, most of the time from the USA but:

1)     The folks at VCCP actually took the time to read my blog and leave a comment

2)     Their pitch is of interest to me - I try to understand consumers for a living and just thought it would be a good idea to check out and get involved with the O2 Cocoon blog.  

I have been an O2 customer for years and as ‘a valued customer’ O2 upgrade my phone once a year no questions asked. I have now had a Samsung phone for the last 3 years, and I upgraded to a Samsung E [insert number] back in May.  Well that’s right – I don’t even know what my phone is called! Kudos to O2 for using an actual name rather than some random code we consumers, can never remember!   

The Cocoon project

 Source: ‘Taking inspiration from real life, we asked designers, fashion students and musicians from London to Tokyo, Shanghai to Rio, “what inspires you, and what do you want from a mobile phone?”

The answer? Something emotional. Original. That doesn‘t look like a phone or a music player - something more natural, that‘s visually stunning and functions perfectly.’

I usually go for branded phones (Nokia, Samsung) even though I perfectly know that the O2 phones are out there… but why?

1) O2 phones are not advertised resulting in limited awareness of these phones

2) Consumers tend to go for well-established brand.

I won’t spend too much time reviewing the Cocoon phone at this present moment as I only received the mobile phone on Saturday – saying that the phone is pretty good and looks great and more will follow on the subject. I’d like to discuss the O2 Cocoon blog for now.  

First of all, I am glad to see that the Cocoon was developed with the help of consumers. Marketing lesson #1: marketing is about meeting your customers’ needs and wants.

I think the blog is a great idea – viral marketing can do wonders especially for an ‘unbranded phone’. The folks at VCCP told me that when purchasing the phone, O2 customers had the opportunity to blog about it on the O2 blog and they have also been approaching bloggers since July.  

Although I think the O2 Cocoon blog is a great idea, interaction on the blog is still fairly limited even though all technical problems reported seem to have been addressed.  The posts are generally good however the blog does not necessarily cover all technical aspects of the phone.

 As a qualitative researcher, I like to understand the ‘why’s’

• ‘I’ve had my phone for a day and I love it’ – what do you particularly like about the phone? Why?
• This is a seriously well thought out, sexy and functional piece of kit’  - which functions of the phone do you particularly like? Why?  

Although the feedback on the blog is certainly insightful to O2, I would like to see the blog’s administrator ask specific questions on the phone and get bloggers to leave a comment, something similar to a bulleting board. 

Saying that I am very impressed by O2 efforts and I’ll be reviewing the phone very soon!

Dove Pro-Age Campaign

 

A recent research study demonstrated that adverts featuring celebs such as Angelina Jolie who has been the face of fashion label St John are less effective than those showing ordinary people. Do you remember the Campaign for Real Beauty video that came out last year?

 

Ladies and Gentleman, I am pleased to announce that Dove are back with their new controversial Dove Pro-Age video. Apparently this commercial was banned in the
US.  

 

I love the way Dove have managed to differentiate themselves with the branding of their new Pro-Age range as opposed to anti-ageing. ‘Anti-ageing’ sounds like it’s a crime to age!

 

Dove delivered their brand promise with the Campaign for Real Beauty and they continue to deliver with the Pro-Age campaign.

More Dove magic over at Chris Brown’s blog

Christmas is (almost) here!

Not brand new news, but a friend of mine just emailed me an on-line money-off coupon for Thresher.

For ten days, from 30 November until 10 December, they will offering 40% off ALL their wine. That means all Stormhoek, all red and white, all French, all Spanish, all Australian, all Champagne. Everything, tutto, tout!

Here’s the catch: they are not advertising it! The only way to get the money-off is to get hold of their super secret coupon, and because I am super nice, I shall tell you a little secret… click here but shhhhh!

As good as a gmail invite!

KLM - A story about courage, skills and discovery

What if you were a plane, and you could fly for fortune and adventure, would you give it a try?

I lost

Pepsi gets fizzy with youtube

Despite the fact that we aren’t all switching off the BBC and watching brand-funded programming as was once predicted, there are still some interesting partnerships out there. Take the one between Pepsi and the newly-Google-owned youtube. Pepsi is launching a branded channel on the site to drive traffic to its own video site. It encourages users to create and upload video clips showing how they would ‘max’ their day with £1000. Will this promotion give Pepsi some extra fizz in its marketing or will the plan fall flat? To be continued…