Organisations are constantly trailing new mediums for advertising purposes. It will be interesting to see how companies incorporate a call to action for consumers. Irish Handstamps say that they expect drink companies and mobile operators to snap up the advertising space, whereas I would have thought that transport organisations, like Dublin Dus or a taxi company, or fast food restaurants might be more relevant for clubgoers.

All we’re waiting for now is for consumers to start selling advertising space on their bodies in the form of tattoos.

This weekend, the company puts on its first event - Affliction: Banned - and has attracted some of the top fighters in the world, in the process offering a credible alternative to the UFC, the leading organisation in the mixed martial arts world. Some may question whether the event is a stretch too far for Affliction, but the approach taken by the organisation in not tying its fighters to exclusive contracts has given the UFC something to worry about. Its star champion, Randy Couture, is even in dispute with the organisation as he attempts to engineer a move to Affliction.

So what has this got to do with brands in general? Personally I think it offers a tangible example of how a brand can tap into a community and build a platform to create ongoing positive engagement with its target audience. It flips the traditional sponsorship model on its head by building its own property from the ground up. The promotion is effectively a giant outlet for its clothing range.

In his book, the ‘New Marketing Manifesto‘, John Grant offers advice to brands as to how they can engrain themselves into the lives of their target audience:

In the past, this drive [the pack instinct] found expression in the real communities people were part of – the extended family and village or neighbourhood or the firm which gave you a job for life. Now people are more uprooted. Social, geographical and work mobility are a central of most people’s lives. Sociologists say that in this sense we are all homeless because we have no fixed point as our emotional origin. This creates a hunger for communities we can belong to.

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.

Affliction Clothing’s move to become a mixed martials arts promoter has enabled it to form this bonded community of interest with its consumers. It has moved passed the old sponsorship model of simply slapping your brand name on the content and hoping the public remembers it. Instead, to paraphrase Jeff Hicks, CEO, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, it has created “content so valuable and useful that [consumers] wouldn’t want to live without it.“

So it would just be a simple click of a button and sayonara Moviestar.ie…or would it?

You have to hand it to Moviestar.ie, they have a fantastic cancellation service which means you have to go through five stages before canceling the service. It’s largely designed to capture information so that they can improve their service, but I was impressed by the manner they handled the cancellation.

Am I sure I want to cancel my account? Would I like two weeks service instead before making up my mind? It got to the stage that I felt guilty that I was breaking up with Moviestar.ie.

The sign of a good brand or service - it feels like you’re in a relationship with them. Breaking up is hard to do. In this case it was of a case of ‘It’s not you, it’s me…honest.’

Couple of interesting points:

• Sofia’s diary is in profit before it begins production thanks to sponsorship revenue. The soap opera typically has five sponsors (there is a queue waiting for one of these spaces apparently), and as a result the show features product placement and even one of the characters is there as a result of a hair removal company.
• While Sofia’s Diary is an online soap opera that is primarily distributed on Bebo, the show has signed deals with multiple media outlets for promotional purposes. The weekly web episodes are also combined together for broadcast on Fiver, a UK TV Channel.
• One other interesting aspect is that they have also recently formed a partnership with iTunes after noticing all the comments from viewers wondering which artist was responsible for a song played in a particular episode. They receive part of the revenue from iTunes for the songs that viewers download.

The No decision in the Lisbon Treaty has become part of Irish folklore now, inspiring a couple of videos since the referendum:

Cowen’s Downfall (Another remix of Downfall)

Shamrockfield (Created as part of the Darklight Festival)

It will be very interesting to see how Sarkozy reacts when he finally makes his visit to Ireland, only to be greeted by an unappreciative audience.

• It’ll be full of people trying to sell me things
• I don’t want to stand there and try to sell to other people either
• I’m just a startup business I won’t fit in
• My kind of customers aren’t there
• There’s no chance to do any real business there anyway
• I don’t know anybody, who will I talk to?

I must profess I’m not that much of a networking fan, but it’s something which I’m putting more emphasis on over the coming months. I was at a networking event organised by the Irish Academy of Public Relations recently which featured Tricia Murphy of the TiG Alliance - the self processed the Queen of Networking. Despite the cheesy title, she really put the crowd to ease and structured the session well to move the attendees around and get people talking.

Some observations I made on the night and based on Mark’s post and other material I’ve read recently:

• A lot of people are put off by networking opportunities because they don’t know anyone. When they introduce themselves to people at the event, they can often latch on to someone for the duration of the event. I’m often guilty of this. One simple way to get around this is to set a minimum number of business cards that you want to come away from the event with.
• Another simple suggestion is to attend the event with someone else from your organisation. You’ll be more at ease and get introduced to their contacts.
• Latch on to a maven if they’re at the event. I was at Le Web a couple of years ago and met Fergus Burns of Nooked, who proceeded to introduce me to a veritable who’s who of the online world anytime I was chatting to him over the course of the event. I would hate to see Fergus’s address book, he knows everybody!
• When you’re talking to someone, find out about what they do. If you know something of interest to them, talk about that instead of going into a sales pitch. As Hugh MacLeod says “What’s true in life is also true in marketing: If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about other people.”

On a related note, for information about networking events or opportunities read Conor Lynch’s new Connector blog. Speaking of networking I hope to make it along to the SMS Text News mobile networking event on St Stephens Green this evening

Helge Tenno has a very interesting presentation in this respect on Content Marketing. Slide 7 stands out for me, it simply states:

Content isn’t King. Conversation is King.
Content is just something to talk about.

When marketeers think Facebook, Youtube et al, they see that there are plenty of conversations taking place on these platforms. They wrongly assuming that by inserting themselves here, their brands will somehow suddenly be relevant and be talked about. Hugh MacLeod talks a lot these days about ‘social objects‘, a node in people’s social network which brings them together to have a conversation, i.e. content that is of interest and relevant to them.

The simplest way of going viral? Mark Nagurski has some simple advice:

So, if repeat business and word-of-mouth make successful businesses AND being really good helps fuel word-of-mouth and keep customers coming back for more, then …
The best way to market a small business 
is to be really good at what you do.

For those that thinking going viral is a case of flicking a switch, more wise words from the Canadian Marketing Blog:

Viral is not strategy. Viral is an outcome. You can plan for it all you want. You can implement the right hooks that makes something go viral. You can even trick components of it to get passed along, but in the end, you don’t decide if something goes viral… everyone else does.

Viral is the effect of doing everything right - strategy, design, content, creative and marketing it in the right channel - the added layer that makes something “go viral” comes through community acceptance and embrace. Stuff we think should go viral never does, and the stuff we think nobody would ever care to play with always goes viral.

If a Marketer claims that they can make something go viral, be sure to steal their crystal ball on the way out of the meeting.

Going back to the slide on Helge’s presentation, organisations have to give consumers something to talk about. Today’s successful brands will bring ideas to life that are implemented through an integrated communications campaign - one idea that is easily communicated through a variety of mediums and communications disciplines. It is not enough to say ‘Oh we should be on Facebook, let’s create a fan page.’ You need to give consumers a tangible reason to ‘adore’ your brand, otherwise as the Sinead O’Connor lyrics inspired by the original fable go - “Through their own words, they will be exposed. They’ve got a severe case of the emperor’s new clothes.”

Great presentation from Helge Tennø on Content Marketing (via Paul Isakson.)

I’ve been very impressed by the buildup to the new Batman film. Prior to its impending release, the publicity machine shifted into another gear with a clever marketing tie-up with Toyota ahead of the Formula One grand prix in Silverstone, where the new Batmobile took on the Toyota F1 car in a lap around the circuit. Pics and the full story from World Car Fans

With the new Champions League sponsorship format, GAA sponsors have to work harder than ever to stand out from the crowd. I think the Guinness Hurling Cubed initiative is a good example of a brand working hard to get the most out of its sponsorship. It’s effectively the hurling version of street football and the perspex cubes make for an interesting playing environment. While it sounds like a flashy marketing gimmick, it seems to be getting good feedback from people who attended the event. In terms of attracting people to the sport, particularly casual fans, the format seems to have definite potential.

Orange Recharge Pod at Glastonbury

No harm in highlighting the two initiatives which grabbed my attention the most over the course of the last two years. Nokia’s soundproof capsule, giving festival goers the opportunity to make calls without being drowned out by the music, and Wrangler’s jeans washing service, which would definitely be of use if the videos of Oxegen from last year are anything to go by.

Advert for the Nokia Silence Booth

Wrangler Laundromat at Lowlands music festival

Mudbaths at Oxegen

Needless to say back in Ireland (and pretty much every other western democracy in the world), communications professionals are all smelling the potential dollars that the Internet promises for future communications campaigns. Just look at the recent Lisbon Treaty campaign which saw thousands wasted on advertising on social networking websites. Oh what’s that, you didn’t read that advertising on social networks is pretty ineffective? Don’t worry it’s not your fault, the same people that sold you the adverts are the same guys that would have told you to spend the money on Second Life eighteen months ago. It’s better to be confused by the digital media consultant who tries to baffle you with clickthrough rates than get attacked by flying phallic objects halfway through your political rally in Second Life (it really did happen!)

Pundits galore are all harping on about the future role that the Internet will play in politics. So I’m going to take this moment to draw a line in the sand. Yes the Internet offers politicians offers massive potential to communicate their message. However, if their message doesn’t resonate then it will sink like a lead balloon. As the Hugh MacLeod cartoon goes, “If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face.”

Barack Obama has an extremely effective Internet campaign, but I think there are wider societal factors that should also be credited with its success. The generation dubbed the millennials are going to be hugely influential in the upcoming election. Race isn’t as a divisive an issue it is with previous generations, they are disconnected with the political process and they are looking for change. Barack Obama is the obvious candidate for them.

While Obama has used the Internet to connect with this important audience, it should be noted that the Web rallied the troops before their Commander in Chief arrived on the scene. In essence Obama is the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke about to unleash the power of a new generation of voters. He doesn’t have it entirely his own way though, as he is the target of many spurious claims in an orchestrated email campaign.

So what about Ireland? The same generation in Ireland is perhaps more digitally connected than their counterparts in the States, given the increased penetration and usage of mobile phones here. Surely Irish politicians will harness the same power in the next general election? Probably not. Politics in the US is simpler in a way, you pretty much have a choice of voting Democrat or Republican, whereas in Ireland there is a much more diverse political landscape (albeit that it tends to be dominated by the one party.) As a result, the population tends not to get as worked up like our peers in the States.

The opportunity for Irish politicians to engage the electorate online is around single issues. You only have to look at campaigns like the Evening Herald’s ‘Stop the M50 Toll Madness’, the broadband lobby or the Hill of Tara protests to see how worked up the population can get. However, the difficulty with politics is that it inevitably involves compromise and thus real change is often difficult to deliver. Adopting single issues is a way for Irish politicians to engage with voters online, but in the long run it could further the seed of dissatisfaction amongst voters in the political process. Change is a great message for Obama, but ultimately it is something he will have to deliver on. Needless to say political parties in Ireland will be watching this space very closely.

UPDATE/ If this post is of interest, make sure to read Damien Blake’s comment.