Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The funniest thing I hear back when I’m talking to people about Guitar Hero or Rock Band is “So after playing the game are you actually able to play the guitar?” Good question, but the answer is unfortunately no. Something which the makers of South Park gleefully exploit in a recent episode.

The interesting thing though is this new market of casual consumers who have picked up the plastic guitar have opened up a new opportunity for guitar companies. Wired reports:

Of the top 20 podcasts offered by iTunes, six are iVideosongs tutorials. The second most popular podcast on iTunes is iVideosongs’ “Beginning Guitar 101.” The wave of interest in guitar tutorials comes amid renewed interest in the instrument, spurred at least in part by wildly popular games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. IVideosongs’ chart success comes only a few weeks after the company released its first tutorial through iTunes, on April 2.

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Budding guitarists can purchase iVideosongs lessons individually for $5 or $10, depending on whether the song is being taught by the artist who wrote it or not, with certain titles available for free download within iTunes. Purchased tutorials are in HD quality, but can also be transferred onto iPods and iPhones for portable tutelage.

This is a trend which has also been recognised by one of my clients, Canon, who point out that the huge surge of cameraphones has actually led to an increase in the purchase of digital cameras, rather than eating into the market. What we’re seeing is that casual consumers are rediscovering their passion for certain hobbies. Once hooked they are potentially in the market to ‘trade up’, whether it’s switching from a digital compact camera to an SLR or swapping the plastic guitar for a Gibson.

Paul Dervan has an interesting post about Southwest Airlines use of Twitter. For those unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s a bit of a mix between an Internet forum and Instant Messaging (watch this video for a better example.) Paul, the interested marketeer, points out that:

Southwest have 1,212 followers (like me) on twitter. While I’ve never actually flown with them, I suspect most of these people are Southwest customers. The interesting bit is they follow anybody that follows them. Yes, they follow the daily thoughts, ramblings and rants of these individuals - most of which have nothing to do with Southwest.

This sounds like a lot of effort, so why do it? Well, firstly it is a commitment to their customers. They are essentially saying “You are interested enough to follow us, then we are interested in you”. But this is also an excellent way to get under the skin of their customers and of course have a dialogue with them.

Does it work? I’d say so. I read a post (tweet) today from one of their followers which simply said “I hate Southwest”. They responded within a day on their page with the following “I’m sorry to hear that! What did we do, and how can we make it better?”

This is a extremely customer-centric brand that is using technology to get closer to customers and helping them serve them better.

Can you imagine an Irish bank, retailer or airline doing something like this?

I can.

This resonates with an observation that was made at a recent Edelman Digital meeting I attended:

A colleague raised an interesting point about the evolution of the role of a customer service agent. Why wait at the end of a phone, when you could be hunting down unhappy customers online and setting the ball rolling to solving their problem.

Sounds great in theory, but this requires a fundamental shift in how customer service departments are operated. Like Paul I can imagine an Irish bank, retailer or airline doing something like this, but I can’t see it happening it tomorrow. This is the future of customer service, more importantly though it fundamentally increases the importance of customer service in future product/service development. A few bloggers have recently been pointing out how certain brands fair when you look at their tag cloud (here’s a definition.) In the case of negative attributes, if these aren’t addressed it shows up the lack of connection between the company and its customer. Hardly a healthy relationship in the long term.

One important point I want to make on this is that online monitoring of customer feedback underlines the fact that this type of engagement belongs in house. It (is) will be a 24/7 commitment so let’s skip past the old chestnut of which discipline ‘owns’ the social media space. You pay consultancies for their insight and their devil’s advocate advice. In the long run you won’t pay them to do this for you 24/7.

So whose responsibility is it to engage with an organisation’s audiences online? It is something that Damien Mulley has been pondering also, he believes that the role belongs to a community manager:

My definition of a community manager is someone that looks after the community that can develop around the company blog, wiki, social networking profile or discussion forum and also go out further than that onto the net and (if the company permits) engage with people on their personal spaces. Gone is the time when you must wait for the email or phonecall to engage with a customer. A community managers is the point person for the company for the company’s public facing endeavours on the wild wild web. In a hotel analogy the PR people are like the front desk while the community manager is, in a way, like the concierge, able to route around officialdom and get the customer what they want. A concierge that again can also go walkabout.

Damien’s post makes for interesting reading. My only observation is that we’re increasingly getting too bogged down in differentiating between mediums when interacting with customers, when ultimately the end result is the same. Seriously are we advocating that we should only listen to consumers’ thoughts online. You do have to question how many organisations take the good old fashioned suggestion box seriously. With this in mind, I’ll point to Paul Isakson’s excellent PowerPoint on ‘What’s Next in Advertising & Marketing?‘ again.

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With Paul’s PowerPoint in mind, I’d advocate something more along the approach of Nike who increasingly looking to build 360 degree experiences for communities that offer multiple points of intereaction, such as the third floor of the Nike Store in New York, dubbed the ‘Nike Running Club’, where according to the New York Times, “runners can map out running routes, receive training advice and attend an evening speaker series — all free, even if they trot in wearing Adidas or Brooks sneakers.”

This is the future of marketing. Don’t believe me, John Grant puts it best in his book ‘New Marketing Manifesto’:

If Nike as a brand was grounded in local community sports clubs and activities people would have had to give up exercise and friends to leave it behind, rather than just giving up on a badge. Communities of interest make brands less disposable. The old marketing relied on identifying passive target audiences whose only connection with the brand and each other was purchasing. New marketing aims to form a much more active and bonded community of interest.

The Irish Times is gradually adopting audio reports into its website. For example, on a recent breaking news story (the free section of the Times’ website) David Duffy of the ESRI discuss its Medium-Term Review. This is interesting because it is a move towards rich content, but most commentators until now would have seen an overlapping of photographers and journalists functions for breaking news stories. If the move is a sign of things to come, it would mark an interesting departure and it remains to be seen how journalists will react to report in audio, a format completely different to print in terms of editing.

This was also noted by Eoin Kennedy, fellow Irish PR blogger. Eoin points out that:

Journalists recording interviews is nothing new but them editing and uploading the content is a fairly big progression.

Interesting implications from a PR perspective. It introduces an element of colour to press conferences that may not always be desired and further erodes the fallacy of control but it also opens up opportunities. If they are using audio content then why not high quality audio interviews that are supplied by a PR company especially if the reporter cannot attend.

But its his next observation that jumps off the page for me:

This is a trend that is only likely to increase in complexity with rumours that Silicon Republic will be introducing video content or at least recording some events they cover. Undoubtably this will be a sellable item for them but again once the PR industry invests in the software and hardware its another area of potential growth for the PR industry.

There has been murmurings of a few news outlets and organisations incorporating video content onto their website. The obvious reason for this is that the barriers to entry have been falling pretty quickly of late. On this note, Damien Mulley reveals that:

Wexford Software company Ubcam have developed software for a whole load of Nokias, Sony Ericsson’s and some other brands (but not the iPhone) that will turn your phone into a live video streaming device. It’s like the well-recognised service from QIK except more phones can run the Ubcam software than can run QIK.

While the barriers to entry might have dropped, I am still slightly perplexed how news organisations (other than broadcast outlets) aim to overcome the challenge of quality. For example, I had an RTE news crew at a recent launch and two hours work turned into two minutes footage. Journalists are busy enough as it is these days, I just can’t see them being overjoyed at the prospect of more work. With media outlets increasingly streamlining their operations, which invariably increases the workload of its staff, how will they justify the time required to edit this content and ensure it adheres to its overall standards.

Damien goes onto point out that he “chatted to a TV crew from RTE recently about QIK and they were amazed that a simple mobile phone could empower the average punter into becoming a live news broadcaster. Wouldn’t they have been impressive during the Dublin riots?” Well would they? While the reports and photos of the Dublin riots from regular consumers showed up traditional media outlets, what about the Finglas riots on St Patricks Day. Judge for yourself from the two YouTube videos below. Somehow I don’t think that RTE will be quaking in their boots.

This isn’t too say that your average punter couldn’t have recorded footage as well as any TV news crew. What I am pointing out is that everyone has a core function as part of their job. It is expected that you should meet a minimum standard of quality. Hence we outsource functions that aren’t part of our day to day jobs to people who fulfill that that function on a 9-5 basis. Putting it in simple terms, As Chris Rock would say - “You can drive a car with your feet if you want to; it don’t mean its a good f***ing idea.”

While I might sound excessively negative about the potential dual role of journalists, I do believe that this evolution is only a matter of time. I’m just interested in seeing whether Irish media outlets will invest the sums required for a quality product, when in the short term the payback won’t cover the costs for the initiative.

Judging from the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C tracking poll, it’s all to play for when it comes to calling which way the pendulum will swing when Ireland goes to the polls to vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

You’ve got to give it to the anti treaty campaigners for their communications efforts. Despite what some may think of the legitimacy of their claims, they have proved to be highly successful at developing messages for specific voter segments. Targeting segments like the farming community looks like it could pay dividends when it comes to trying to mobilise the general public to get up and vote. And in general, judging from the placards on my way into work this morning, their messaging is simple and succinct.

The main problem with the campaign for the Lisbon Treaty, much like the text of the treaty itself, is that it is slightly obscure. Pro-campaigners seemingly fail to explain why the public should go out and vote yes. Just reading some of Labour’s slogans (subscription required) - “A soul for Europe”, “A Citizens’ Europe”, “Proud to be Irish – Yes to Europe” - and it’s clear why groups like Libertas simply ask voters to read the treaty of the text to see if they can make sense of it.

It would seem to me that the benefits of the Lisbon Treaty mainly revolve around taking a combined approach to issues that affect all member states such as immigration or climate change. These types of issues are tangible in the minds of the voting public, yet pro treaty campaigners get bogged down debating Irish neutrality and our corporate tax rate.

Funnily enough, I was at an event earlier this year that Enda Kenny spoke at, where he highlighted the joined up thinking approach that Europe needs to take and discussed the valuable role Irish business and NGOs need to play to ensure the treaty is passed. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been disappointed by the lack of buoyancy around the pro-treaty campaign thus far.

Simply looking at the issue of climate change, it would seem to me that the Irish public would be willing to accept that a combined effort is required if Europe is to triumph the cause of sustainability. In addition, it would be difficult for groups like Libertas to argue against issues like climate change, given that there is such a positive tide of public opinion around environmental issues.

Slogans like “A soul for Europe”, “A Citizens’ Europe”, “Proud to be Irish – Yes to Europe” are not going to sway my decision. Even off the top of my head, a simple position such as “Together We Can” which could be easily extended to issues like climate change or immigration would help voters focus on the bigger picture.

Another couple of things that caught my attention that I feel are worth highlighting.

First of which is KMPG’s ‘That’ll Never Work…’, a book about twelve Irish entrepreneurs. From a PR perspective this is a great example of a company putting its money where its mouth is and taking ownership of a space. As Minister Harney points out in the press release, “KPMG provides invaluable support to many of our most successful entrepreneurs, and congratulations to Michael Gaffney, Colin O’Brien and all at KPMG involved in the publication of this fascinating read. Most of all - our congratulations go to the contributors. The inspirational stories of the challenges they faced, their unfailing determination and ultimately their hugely deserved success are wonderful examples of Irish enterprise.” I haven’t read the book yet, but it looks insightful.

LG punk’d some Hollywood celebs for the launch of its new Scarlet TV range. Celebs like Lindsey Lohan turned up at the red carpet affair thinking they were there for the launch of a new TV series by a Sopranos and Smallville director. It was a rather well run campaign as I noticed a few banner ads and blog posts in the runup to its release, genuinely thinking that it was a new TV show. Great way to get stars to your launch without paying appearance or endorsement fees.

The producers of the new Batman film which hits cinema screens in June this year are running one of the best commericla online viral marketing campaigns I’ve seen. Here’s one aspect, the recruitment campaign for the lead villian’s gang. It should be pointed out that it always helps when you’ve got a huge budget and hardcore fans.

There’s a great New York Times article about the evolution of Nike’s marketing spend. For me, Nike is a brand which encapsulates marketing 2.0 (or whatever buzzword you want to use), between its Nike+ partnership with Apple, “word-of-foot” marketing by tapping into running communities and redistribution of advertising spend to incorporate online videos (not all of which are great.)

And finally John Naughton points out a great ad from New South Wales police warning teens about the dangers of tuning out from the world on their iPods.

For once I’ve managed to benefit from free giveaways online. Thanks to Daragh Doyle, I’ve scored two tickets to Iron Man at the Coca-Cola Cinemagic Film & Television Festival. The festival lineup itself looks great and were it not for the combination of work and the return leg of Manchester United vs Barcelona, then I would have attended more.

Looking forward to Iron Man. Finally, a superhero film that actually looks like it might be entertaining:

Shane Hegarty had a great column in the irish Times the other week. Entitled ‘The ads don’t work’, Hegarty questions the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in changing people’s behaviour. As a stand alone tactic, advertising like any communications discipline (PR included) will not bring about a change in the public’s behaviour without the wider influence of socio-economic forces.

For example, the Road Safety Authority runs numerous advertising campaigns during the year about road safety, drink driving, etc, but one has to question their effectiveness at times. Other road safety advocates have called for sports stars to go to schools to preach to children about the dangers of speeding, that ‘boy racers’ should go to morgues to see the victims of road crashes, along with a variety of other shock tactics. However, a story about a prank played on April Fools Day highlighted Hegarty’s argument.

The Irish Times reported on (subscription required) an April Fools’ joke by Mayo County Council who placed “a life-size cardboard cut-out of a Garda car with a speed gun poking from its window” on the side of the road. The prank which cost €200 got numerous motorists to slow down as they approached. It highlighted the fact that motorists will only changed their behaviour if they fear a penalty.

This is not to say that advertising and other communications disciplines do not have a role to play. Realistically though these messages will only be effective if the target audience has a reason to listen to them.

While in Tokyo I had the fortune to stumble upon the UT t-shirt shop in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. The shop offers a fantastic example as to how to make a t-shirt something aspirational. UT’s philosophy is:

A t-shirt is more than just a t-shirt. It’s an expression of who you are. Where you’ve been. What you love. That’s the UT philosophy.

The store sells limited edition t-shirts. You walk in and each floor is full of capsules lining the shelves on either side of the room, like cans on beer in a liquor store.

In the centre of each aisle are t-shirts hanging on railings that go down the length of the room. The customer browses the t-shirt, finds one he likes, but instead of taking it off the shelf he reads the code on the label. Then he has to go the section of the store marked with the code on the t-shirt where he will find his t-shirt, which is one of a limited quantity that has been produced. Needless to say, I walked into the shop and after the process was explained to me, there was no way I was leaving the shop without a t-shirt.

This is an extremely innovative way for a retailer to create demand for their products by raising the perceived value of the item in the eyes of the potential customer.

I’ve spent some time in Japan on holidays and was working in Barcelona for a couple of days recently. Both experiences underlined the importance of the Internet for the tourism sector and reiterated Francois Gossieaux’s point that brands are defined by the user interface of an organisation.

On the first point, I spoke last year at Tourism Ireland’s eSymposium about ways social media can be used by organisations in the sector to attract tourists. Since my holiday if I was to give this presentation again, there are a number of things I would change. The main thing would be that people need to step back and forget about all the ’sexy’ stuff like making YouTube videos and starting a social networking profile, and instead check to see if they’re doing all the basics right.

We live in the Information Economy. What I mean by that is that we make a lot of purchasing decisions based on the information available to us. When it comes to holidays, consumers do a hell of a lot of research before making their final purchasing decision. Interestingly the information sources we use for doing something like booking a hotel isn’t the hotel’s website, it’s sites like TripAdvisor. It’s fair enough that people would want to see how other consumers rank the hotel, but what’s shocking is that TripAdvisor has basic pieces of information that aren’t on some hotel websites.

For example, the hotel I stayed at in Kyoto involved getting a subway from the main train station in the city. Of course, my travel company and the hotel didn’t actually tell me this. Just look at the Karasuma Hotel website and the lack of any real content on it. the very first review on TripAdvisor tells me exactly how to get there. If I didn’t google the hotel prior to travelling to Kyoto, I would have ended up having to get a taxi.

Organisations should be in information overload mode, giving every single piece of detail that could make them a more attractive choice for potential customers. Organisations can incorporate use blogs, social networks, etc to achieve this, but their primary purpose should be to provide information instead of trying to be seen as innovative. For example, a social networking presence provides a handy way to field ongoing q&as or using Google Maps to show how to get to nearby attractions. Concise directions to the hotel on your website is better.

Here’s something clever Guinness developed recently as part of their sponsorship of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens - the first Cantonese-speaking mobile guide (via Adrants).

On the second point about the fact that brands are defined by the user interface of an organisation, I had the misfortune to fly through Heathrow last week. Despite flying with British Airways, my fears were allayed when I saw I wasn’t flying through Terminal 5. How wrong I was as my luggage got lost anyway, but I’d almost forgive British Airways given the general state of Heathrow at the moment. Transferring to my flight to Barcelona was a nightmare as there is construction going on at the moment and no-one has bothered to move half of the signs in the airport. Myself and a group of other passengers headed in the same direction, wandering around like lemmings as we continually ended up in dead ends despite the sign pointing us that way. A piece of paper and some sellotape would have made the experience ten times better.

So the INTO (Irish National Teachers Organisation) held their annual conference a couple of weeks ago. There was back and forth between the teacher’s union and Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin T.D., on a number of points including class sizes, IT in classrooms and education for disadvantaged and disabled students.

What’s of particular interest for me about how the whole knowledge based economy was thrown into the mix yet again. I’ve given my two cents on the topic in the past, but not so much in the context of the Irish education system (and what’s probably relevant to other education systems across the globe.)

We’re at a bit of a crossroads at the moment. On the one hand, we have business leaders, government and teachers talking about how we need to innovate in order for the country to continue on its path of unheralded economic success. On the other hand, we’re staring blankly at the huge waves of innovation taking place in front of us currently and failing to acknowledge how these new creative processes are affecting the current socio-economic environment.

Firstly let’s look at a new White Paper published by the UK government recently. The BBC reports that the UK government’s viewpoint is that “the key to the UK becoming a world leader in innovation is to forge closer links between industry and higher education.” However, when you read down through the article, the Association for Science Education points out that while that is all well and good, the current education system in the UK (like Ireland) stifles innovation when it comes to science. The BBC quotes’s Alan Rhodes from the Association for Science Education, “Our curriculum is so test orientated that children are being taught to pass tests and you do not innovate when teaching children to pass tests. I believe in high standards, but there is insufficient time for creativity in the curriculum from primary school up to the age of 18.”

The main problem facing most education systems is that they are centred on rote learning which by definition avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on memorisation. Ultimately this does not instill the type of creativity and free thinking that innovation depends on. The CAO system adds to the problem as it simply incentivises people to study subject like law or medicine simply based on the fact that they require high points. Some commentators are calling for bonus points to be given to maths, but this fails to recognise that the system is the problem. Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, President of DCU, offered some other reasons why the CAO system is flawed in the Irish Times last year (subscription required):

It may be useful to describe briefly what the points system is. In order to be admitted to the third-level programme of her or his choice, a student needs to have the points required for that programme.

The points themselves are, it could be said, a market currency. There is a minimum number for each programme, reflecting the educational attainment thought necessary to succeed in that programme; but the actual points required are the product of supply and demand: where there are more applicants for a programme than there are places - ie where there is strong demand for a scarce product - then you will have higher points. Therefore if a subject becomes particularly popular, the points go through the roof. This does not reflect the intellectual demands of the programme, just its popularity; and the points can go up and down dramatically from year to year without the syllabus changing at all. If you want to buy a scarce product, you need to pay a high price; and if few want it, you can get it very cheaply.

So what is the effect of that in practice? Let us take the case of points required for entry to various subjects in University College Dublin last September.

A student wanting to study architecture or law, for example, would have to have between 500 and 600 points. But if the same student wanted to study chemical engineering, food science or biochemistry, she would need only 300-400 points.
What does that tell us? Nothing at all about the intellectual demands of the subjects concerned; in fact arguably the more difficult ones seem to require the lower points in the above examples (though all third-level studies require intellectual application). Maybe these points reflect national priorities? Certainly not, as the country’s needs in technological studies and life sciences are much greater than its need for more lawyers, for example.

It could be argued that points are a beauty parade of college programmes, reflecting current fashions rather than any assessment of need. But my worry is that they don’t reflect student preferences and aptitudes either. A student with 550 points will tend to look at programmes that require these.

Disproportionately few students with 550 points apply for programmes requiring 300, so that the brightest often shun the less popular programmes, though these in turn often reflect real national needs.

It is also arguable that some of the most popular subjects provide training for the professions, such as the law, accountancy, architecture, the Civil Service, and so on. Social pressures may be pushing students into those professions, influencing the points. But national needs don’t necessarily point in the same direction, since the biggest need for more graduates is not in areas like law and architecture, but arguably in technology-related subjects and life sciences.

If the points system is a market, then it should be assessed like any other market - is it a good distribution mechanism for the resources being traded? I would find the evidence on that count to be fairly damning, and I would fear that we are institutionalising a set of trends that are not particularly good for the colleges, the students and the country.

The other factor in the mix is how sites like Wikipedia are challenging traditional perceptions of learning in the education system. There’s a really interesting post on one of our new Edelman blogs about the difference between colloboration and cheating. Phil Gomes points out that an acquaitance if his, a scientist-turned-business-leader, once said, “In the workplace, they call it ‘collaboration’. In academia, they call it ‘cheating’.” Gomes highlights the case of Chris Avenir, a student at Ryerson University, who “is fighting charges of academic misconduct for helping run an online chemistry study group via Facebook last term, where 146 classmates swapped tips on homework questions that counted for 10 per cent of their mark.” according to an article in the Toronto Star. Gomes simplifies the situation as:

Study group wherein it’s entirely possible that solutions for chemistry and math problems are freely swapped: Perfectly okay.

Study group on Facebook, where it is demonstrably clear that no solution was traded, only helpful tips (as in any IRL study group): Expulsion-worthy!!

Education as we know it is fundamentally changing. We’re operating a system that is around one hundred years old. If there needs to be innovation in any sector, then it’s the education system. The INTO hit the nail on the head in one of the demands of Minister Hanafin at their conference and that was not to reduce the invesment in the education system in the face of an economic downturn. It’s a bit like selling your star player when a sports team gets relegated. It might make financial sense, but when it comes to getting promoted next year, you’ve effectively chopped your own legs off before you’ve started.

The main challenge facing teachers though is that change needs to be built into the education system. How prepared are Irish teachers to be constantly challenging themselves and self-improving. Why do I say this? Let’s look at the whole IT in the Irish education system debate. A number of people are saying that 252 million euro is too little, the government are saying its just fine. They’re both right in a sense.

The problem with most IT investment is that it’s a capital investment. The lifetime of a laptop is 18 months before it’s effectively obselete, but a secondary school student’s educational lifetime is six years so they will have seen four laptops in that period alone.

The big problem with introducing anything new into the classroom is that teachers need to be confident enough to use it. No-one wants to stand up in front of a class of 30 kids and be heckled because they don’t know where the ANY key is. ANY key aside, if a laptop is installed as a bare minimum into every classroom across the country then teachers need to be prepared to know how to use it and commit to further training for hardware and software upgrades.

What really needs to happen in classrooms when it comes to teaching IT is that the concepts behind the applications need to be taught. Focusing on the software is shortsighted as students will be using something completely different when they graduate. Instead they should be learning about collaboration and using the Internet as a research tool, but at the same time realising that they need to investigate a number of information sources, before ultimately offering their opinion rather than repeating what they read on Wikipedia or in a text book.

The big worry however is the resistance to change in any institution, especially public sector. Just look at the health system, everyone admits that there needs to be change, but no-one will implement it. In effect, that’s the complete opposite of what the knowledge based economy should be - the ongoing development of new processes and their incorporation into organisations.

Do - Paddy Courtney is doing his first solo show in Vicar Street on 12 April. I had the misfortune to go to the Podge & Rodge Live Show last year, Paddy opened for them and was the best thing about the night.

Read - ‘We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity‘ by Charles Leadbeater is on my shopping list for April. Watch the YouTube video below to find out more about it:

Watch - The Shield Season Six went on sale in the UK at the end of last month.

Listen - What do you get when you fix the Notorious BIG with Jimi Hendrix? One of the best mashup albums of the year.

YouTube have launched a new metrics tool to help people track the success of their videos on the website. One key metric that a lot of people seem to overlook is the links section on any YouTube video. Lots of views doesn’t necessarily mean popularity, in fact it could mean notoriety.

Not to name names, but I’ve looked at a YouTube video recently which has almost 2,500 views. A little digging though and almost one tenth of those come from a website deriding the video.

Francois Gossieaux penned some great commentary recently, here’s the best nugget:

You brand gets defined by the UI (User Interface) of your company, the interface through which your customers and prospects interact with your company. That interface gets determined by pre-sale activities - i.e., advertising, retail layout, retail personnel attitude, telemarketing, sales people’s knowledge of the industry, etc -, as well as immediate post-sale activities - i.e., packaging, ease of use to set up the products, available help options, etc. -, and the long term post sale activities - i.e., telephone support, return policies, warranty policies, on-site support, etc. That makes up a lot of links in the chain that determines your brand in the mind of the consumers which your company controls.

I find it enthralling the way organisations make choices which affect the way they are perceived. For example, I had the misfortune to fly abroad on a bank holiday weekend. I should have arrived to the airport much earlier, instead I was left with one eye on my watch and the other try to navigate a path through the crowds. Not to criticise Dublin Airport Authority as they had numerous staff available to aid travelers, but I think they were also slightly overwhelmed by the numbers. Simple things like making it clearer which zigzaging queues were leading to which check-in desks would have made a big difference. Instead there was a general sense of frustration as people struggled to figure out which queue they should be in. Ultimately by providing a better user interface I would have left the airport with a much better impression of the organisation

Looking past this, there are plenty of people out their giving their two cents on what constitutes Brand 2.0 and what organisations should be doing differently. Here’s my tuppence - they should be doing nothing different. Everything is still the same. Ultimately you have to develop a product or service that ticks the right boxes for your target customer.

The difference between how things are done today and in the past is that there is a much greater level of accountability. The old way of doing things was selling to customers on a promise. The problem for advertisers is that consumers have bought into the promise and we’ve had enough with being disappointed with reality. Now companies are being charged with actually delivering on their promise.

No amount of blogs, social networks, etc is going to change this. If you can’t walk the walk, then don’t talk the talk. Some companies are realising this as a recent update by Steve Rubel on Twitter points out:

Big marketers: we’re shifting dollars away from media to customer service

On a similar note, Paul Isakson has posted the following presentation to Slideshare, ‘What’s Next in Marketing & Advertising’.

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Paul Dervan recently launched a new Irish marketing blog which is well worth a regular read. I thought I’d pull together a list of Irish marketing comms blogs together to list all the advertisers, marketers, PR people, etc that are blogging in Ireland. If there’s anyone missing, please leave a comment as I can update the list.

Marketing

Paul Dervan
Krishna De

Advertising

Damian O’Broin
Cawley Nea/Agency.com/TEQUILA Ireland
Pictureworks
McConnells

PR

Tom Murphy
Eoin Kennedy
Ronnie Simpson
Conall McDevitt
Piaras Kelly
Cillian Naughton
Edelman Dublin

Digital Marketing

Cybercom
Net Behaviour

Marketeers blogging for their company

Paul Prendergast - You Get It Back

Damian O’Broin had a short post recently about how non-profits are using Facebook. I decided to have a wander around Facebook to pick out some good examples of how brands are using Facebook to develop and engage communities. I say engage because right now in terms of metrics and social networks I hear marketeers talking about how many friends or comments their social networking page has, but in reality it’s hardly insightful as a short burst of activity hardly builds an ongoing relationship with potential consumers.

In my opinion there are two ways to build brand awareness through Facebook:

• Engage consumers with applications
• Leveraging the network for successful events

Ultimately you’d like to combine both tactics. Here’s a couple of examples to bring this to life.

Engage consumers with applications

In terms of commercial applications, the one I’m most impressed by is Paypal’s presence on Facebook. They have effectively extended their service by creating the Paypal badge. The badge allows you to highlight causes and try to raise money within your network. It seems to have had some teething problems, judging by comments on the page, but the overall concept is good given that they’re going to extend the badge application for use on regular websites.

The use of raising money for a cause is particularly clever as it encourages use of the service and you would assume that consumers would think of ways to apply it in other ways, tapping into the peer-to-peer financial services trend which is going to be big business over the next few years.

Leveraging the network for successful events

My favourite example of this is the Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone day in Dublin on April 29th. Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops across the country – and around the world - will serve up any cone or cup of your choice, absolutely free on the day. It’s a clever online tactic to incorporate into your overall communications strategy.

Ideally a Facebook presence should sit within your overall communications strategy, rather than being a stand alone tactic, particularly in Ireland where numbers are too low to really leverage the Internet in certain respects.

I think there is real potential for leveraging sponsorships through social networks, particularly through the use of applications. For example, why hasn’t anyone created a version of Premier League Picks for the GAA Championships?

Two other relevant thoughts about brands’ presence on social networks.

Alex Gibson, who interviewed me recently on the Persuaders, makes the point, in relation to the Mr Tayto Is Looking For Love campaign (which I think is one of the best integrated and consumer PR programmes I’ve seen in a while), that up until recently consumers have had a individually defined relationship with Tayto as a brand. Can social networks help create an individually defined relationship?

I ask the question because another thought in my mind about social networks is who takes ownership of a profile when the campaign is over? By and large a lot of online programmes literally die off and simply exist as cyberjunk until they are renewed or are deleted. In that sense it’s a bit rich of people to say that you can create individual relationships with consumers, if they’re not going to match that commitment with resources.

The Public Relations Institute of Ireland has updated its website. No major changes in terms of content, but certainly better laid out in terms of design.

Le Monde have published a diagram of the top social networks as they rank in different parts of the world (hat tip to PSFK).

Again it’s interesting to note that social networks aren’t simply about Facebook and MySpace. In Ireland, Bebo still rules the roost and as some of my colleagues in different Edelman offices across Europe pointed out to me recently, there are lots of indigenous social networking websites that come up trumps in their respective countries also.

With a huge influx of migrant communities embedding themselves in Ireland, it’s worth noting that you won’t be able to target them on Bebo or Facebook.

The group freeze phenomenon made its way over to Ireland. What started out as a stunt in the States when over 200 people froze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York, has gone on to be replicated in Trafalgar Square in London and now Grafton Street in Dublin. All the videos are below.

Group freeze on Dublin’s Grafton Street

The Trafalgar Square Freeze

Frozen Grand Central

My interest in this is the fact that Flashmobs is a term that is now bandied about in marketing departments in Ireland. Unfortunately though Ireland is probably one of the least suited countries for activity like this to happen ‘naturally’ due to our small population.

As I’ve mentioned before, with the exception of online virals, trends are slow to take off in Ireland because of the small size of our population. Looking at it from a medical perspective, a virus spreads by infecting a host cell and gradually spreading into surrounding cells until an infection takes hold. Trends are much faster to spread in countries with a large population spread across densely populated urban areas. Any wonder why cities like London or Tokyo are leading trendsetters?

That being said however, I was chatting to Quintin Ahern from Army of ID about street activity. I was saying that it’s unlikely that companies will be able pull stunts like in Ireland this unless they pay people, have access to a group through sponsorship / membership, or have a dedicated following. The only comparable flashmob we could think of was a My Chemical Romance album launch on Grafton Street.

Quintin offered a good idea though for companies thinking of doing something similar. Establishing a small group, be they volunteers or paid staff, and getting them out onto the street in a bid to encourage members of the public to do the planned activity is one of the few ways to achieve this.

My only alternative idea is a media partnership with a radio DJ like Rick O’Shea whose listenership are quirky enough to come together to pull off a stunt.

Strangely enough flashmobs might have been a lot easier to pull off in the past. It’s a long way from twenty years ago when former RTE presenter Mike Murphy observed the huge listenership the state broadcaster had. He made the point that if he asked listeners on radio that if everyone tuned in would raise their hand, motorists would look around to find people in the vehicles surrounding them with an arm in the air.

I just read about Emotibles on the Cool Hunter. They have a line of accessories to spruce up iPod earphones. It’s a fairly simple concept - flexible rubber charms grip onto your iPod earphones. In the age of personlisation, it’s a clever way to differentiate yourself from the millions of “regular” iPod owners (or uSheep as Tshirt hell refers to us.)

A Sunday Times article about RTE being “forced to broadcast more ‘public service content’ during primetime viewing hours” generated lots of coverage yesterday. Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, wants the state broadcaster to invest less of its annual budget in shows like Eastenders and Desperate Housewives. RTE will have to invest in high brow programming instead.

Interestingly something similar is happening in France where Nicolas Sarkozy plans to ban advertising on public television. According to an article in the Economist, Sarkozy also wants to “liberate public broadcasters from the ‘tyranny of audience ratings’ so they could focus instead on quality.“

The problem however is the audience isn’t interested in high brow programming. The Economist rightly points to the most popular show on the BBC - Eastenders. The move is a bit like taking celeb gossip magazines off the shelves in newsagents and replacing them with copies of Hard Times. Any guesses to whether the public will change channels or not?

While Ryan’s move is certainly laudable, it is going to be difficult to enforce. As the Economist article points out, who benefits? TV3 gets extra ad revenue and a better chance of landing shows like Lost and ER. Is that the answer though? The quality of TV3’s programming has been called into question on numerous occasions and the station has been criticised for its lack of Irish content. At times you’d struggle to switch between TV3 and UTV and notice the differences.

In many respects, the problem with RTE isn’t its content during primetime viewing hours, it’s everything else. What educational programming of note is the station investing in? In its defense though, it isn’t economical to produce children’s content. The Economist had another interesting article a couple of weeks ago. Here’s a snapshot:

The squeezing out of original programming for teenage viewers is one unexpected early consequence of the arrival of multi-channel digital television. Children are among the most eager adopters of digital TV, and now spend 82% of their viewing time on specialist digital channels rather than the old analogue five. Their parents are happy to indulge them: 90% of households with children have multi-channel television, against 76% of childless homes. More channels have meant lots more choice: some 113,000 hours of children’s programmes were broadcast in 2006, compared with 20,000 in 1998.

But there is a catch: nearly all of this is either imported or repeated. By 2006 only 1% of children’s broadcasting consisted of original material made in Britain. Increased competition for viewers from the new channels, as well as bans on advertising junk food during children’s shows, has made it unprofitable to commission expensive new children’s programmes. Britain’s main commercial broadcasters have halved their investment in children’s shows since 1998.

Pre-schoolers are getting the lion’s share of what is left, partly because they are more likely to watch with their parents, whom advertisers will pay more to reach. The BBC, which is funded by a tax on households with televisions, has managed to increase its spending on children’s programmes—yet it too seems to be focusing on younger kids. Its children’s service, which used to cater for under-16s, was redefined in 2006 to attract under-12s away from competitors such as Disney and Nickelodeon. Programmes for older children, such as “Grange Hill”, are having to soften their content accordingly. A new teenagers’ brand, BBC Switch, was launched in October, but its output is slim and mainly on the web, where Beeb bosses reckon teenagers now lurk. The television-minded among the over-12s are increasingly left to watch adult-oriented programmes or imports for children.

I think it’s fair to demand more from the State broadcaster, but it’s other areas where it should invest the licence fee, particularly in areas like children’s programming which no-one is investing in.

Technorati Tags: Piaras Kelly, RTE

Do - St. Patrick’s Day Festival is coming up. What better way to celebrate than the Ceili Mor at Earlsfort Terrace. Click onto the St. Patrick’s Day Festival for a list of all the events planned for the festival.

Read - State, a new monthly music magazine, hits newstands on Thursday. It remains to be seen whether it will knock Hot Press off its perch. Many others have tried and failed. It looks promising though. The magazine’s website is edited by Nialler9, one of the winners at this year’s Irish Blog Awards.

Watch - There Will Be Blood is my must see for March. I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival. The screening featured a Q&A with none other than Daniel Day Lewis, well deserving of his Oscar win last week. Here’s the trailer:

Listen - It was only a matter of time before someone released a song called ‘Google Me’. Perez Hilton thinks it’s going to be a huge hit for Teyana Taylor. Hip-Hop anthem? Maybe not. Cheesy one hit wonder - definitely!

The BBC reported last week that the “use of material taken from personal profiles on social networks by newspapers is to be the subject of a major consultation undertaken by industry watchdog the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)” in the United Kingdom. I wonder if this is something the Irish Press Council will address also.

I’ve heard from one or two sources that picture editors go to social networking sites like Bebo to get images of members of the public who feature in news stories. One interesting piece of criticism the BBC article points out is around the Virginia Tech school shootings:

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech school shootings some felt that journalists had invaded what were essentially private online spaces. The behaviour of a few pushy reporters gave rise to the term: “digital door-stepping”.

The first thing that popped into my head in this context was the use of images and quotes in reports on suicide in Ireland. Media reporting on suicides is a contentious issue already and the use of material from social networking sites only makes it murkier.

Irish socialite and former Miss World, Rosanna Davidson, also made her Bebo profile private last year after numerous media reports about her online activity. Ronan O’Gara, scrum half for the national rugby team, was also subject to a photoshopped image that did the rounds on the Internet before becoming the subject of discussion on radio chat shows.

Obviously there is a good degree of self-education to be done by the public, what you put online is effectively there for all to see even though a lot of people don’t realise it. That being said it’s a shady area as to what should and can be used in the press.

Benjamin Franklin once said ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ I’d like to throw another variable into the mix and that third certainty is change. The rate of innovation taking place around us is unbelievable. In order for today’s companies to stay relevant they have to ask themselves ‘What are our competitors not doing?’ and spot trends in order to create the products and services of tomorrow.

At times this sounds all rather fanciful, but in reality this has always been the case. I’m currently reading ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life: The History Of The Disc Jockey‘ and it illustrates this perfectly. The music industry is said to be caught in the middle of a revolution at the moment, in reality it’s just in another stage of its continued evolution.

Consider these facts for a moment.

• Up until the 1920s, the majority of music played on radio was by live musicians. When the great depression hit, it was far more economical to play records instead. Musicians at the time were up in arms.

• The first nightclub was established by Jimmy Saville in Leeds where he came up with the then revolutionary thought that people might pay to hear recorded music.

Both of these milestones seem inconsequential now, but were revolutionary at the time. The history of the music industry is littered with similar incidents. Even look at the current state of the industry. The big talking point at the moment is still Radiohead’s decision to let consumers choose what price they wanted to pay for downloading their latest album. Saul Williams made a similar decision when distributing his Trent Reznor produced Niggy Tardust album. Reporting in the Irish Times Jim Caroll outlines Trent Reznor reaction to the results:

The Nine Inch Nails frontman produced Saul Williams’s The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust album. When it was released last November, listeners had the option to download it for free or to pay $5 for higher-quality MP3s.

Reznor and Williams thought that fans would shell out the token $5 to support the artist, but they were in for a rude awakening. While Williams’s self-titled 2004 album sold 33,897 copies worldwide, only 28,322 of the 154,449 people who downloaded Niggy Tardust - just 18 per cent of the total - put their hands in their pocket this time around.

“I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality - no strings attached - and offered a hassle-free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price, people would do the right thing,” Reznor said.

But this was not to be. While Reznor argues that more people now have Williams’s music than ever before and may well go to see him when he tours, the fact that fewer than one in five downloaders were willing to pay $5 a pop means a shortfall for the artist when costs are taken into account.

Reznor describes the outcome as “disheartening” and the figures may explain why Radiohead, the other high-profile proponents of the tip-jar business model, are keeping quiet about the facts and figures from their recent In Rainbows release experiment.

Carroll follows up on the story on his blog, outlining Saul Williams’ reaction, which is more reflective of the changes in the music industry.

I think it’s early in the game. I’m not disappointed at all. I think Trent’s disappointment probably stems from being in the music business for over 20 years and remembering a time that was very different, when sales reflected something different, when there was no such thing as downloads. Trent is from another school. Even acts that prospered in the ’90s, you look at people like the Fugees or Lauren Hill selling 18 million copies. That sort of thing is unheard of today. But Trent comes from that world. So I think his disappointed stems from being heavily invested in the past. For modern times, for modern numbers we’re looking great, especially for being just two months into a project.

Huge changes are underfoot in the music industry. One of the interesting trends which I’ve been banging on about for a while is the idea that consumers are becoming media concierges. On social networking sites and blogs, people are posting links to music videos, audio files or simply listing what acts they like. By incorporating a ‘purchase this’ button, there is an opportunity for record labels, rather than simply hope that the consumer copies and pastes the act name into iTunes and makes a purchase.

I’m a good example, I’ve bought countless songs after listening to them on Perez Hilton. I’m sure may people have done the same after watching whatever music video Damien Mulley has included in his daily fluffy links. Is it any wonder that Warner Bros are negotiating a deal with Perez Hilton? Reporting on the story, the New York Times point out a study conducted by researchers at New York University, which indicated that the albums that had been the subjects of 40 blog posts before their release date had sales of triple the average.

Any wonder that Facebook have launched Band Pages, a music service that enables bands and labels a way to post and sell their own music and music-related items (via Wired.)

Eoin Kennedy from Slattery Communications is now also blogging. Have a read here.

His former colleague, Keith Morrison (now with Edelman Korea) is also posting on a group blog here.

Sydney FC came up with an interesting way to engage with fans on the street recently. Here’s a video of one of their street performance’s in action:

You could see this working well on Grafton Street where a number of street performers have a similar routine.

Technorati Tags: Piaras Kelly, PR, Public Relations