Ikea’s Ideas

Ireland was lucky enough to get it’s first Ikea in 2009.

The Irish were subjected to seeing “Glocal” coporate operations first hand. There are many, many highlights to the business style adopted by the Swedish giant but importantly for this blog is their innovative marketing that is a tried and tested form of creating a buzz around the Ikea brand and indeed, the local store.

As well as promoting the opening of the store with print and outdoor advertising Ikea ran a user generated content  campaign on a localised Irish website  asking visitors to tell their stories to be in with a chance  of winning a €15,000 house makeover.

Ikea Dublin used Twitter to run  competitions for the best fancy dress  and announcing free giveaways or ‘furniture drops’ all over the City.

Here’s an example (or something similar but from Paris!)

It worked so well some 3,000 people flocked through the doors of the Dublin branch of IKEA within the first hour of its opening.

Pulling at the heart strings (Tried and Tested)

Have just spotted this lovely little advert from Vodafone.

It has perfectly created an emotional attachment to the network; stepping away from the ultra cool concepts once used by Vodafone and still used by other networks.

Enjoy!

People will start depending on Vodafone now!

Lego for Adults.

Lego; the kids favourite and adults secret guilty pleasure.

There hasn’t been any marketing campaigns focused on adults and maybe that’s because Lego still sees their little building block as a young person’s endeavor.

The reality however, is that there are probably as many adults playing with these wondrous blocks as children.

Some clever planner realised this and pushed this campaign.

Stepping out from the crowd

Innovation can make your brand stick out so everybody can engage with it.

This street graffiti works well.

Coca Cola are masters of branding, usually mass oriented branding. This little narrow form of marketing communication works well.

JWT don’t take breaks

Why can’t we all do more of this?

Innovation is the best way to get around the sheer mass of below par, uninspired “creative”

JWT London do it well.

Power to the People

The post-modern consumer is a different species to the one that reacted to the post World War 2 marketing paradigm. The four P’s is an archaic and ineffective way to do business in this day and age.

Our consumer now wants more than the consumption of a product or service, they want dialogue, they want democratic marketing, they want tribes but a sense of individuality, they want a platform for advocating brands and creativity. They want it all! The marketers job therefore is a tough one; trying to understand all these parts of the average consumer.

Crowdsourcing is another string to the post modern consumers bow. And advertisers need to stand up and take note. It could be the future of advertising.

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

Victors and Spoils, the first crowdsourced advertising agency has been established in the U.S., they will strategically do the planning and executive aspect to the job but outsource the creative via the internet in an open call and it’s just the start.

While DVR’s and SKY+ boxes have made the advertisers of today search for alternative means of persuasion, is it possible people won’t skip through the adverts when they are amateur/D.I.Y/not direct from Madison Avenue?

Pepsi-co’s Dorito brand now challenge their consumers to make their Superbowl adverts every year, in fact it’s becoming very popular. Peperami, Pringles, they are all seeing the potential.

Two Doritos commercials were among the most-watched among all the spots in households with TiVo digital video recorders.

Here’s one of them;

Obviously, it is a unique brand engagement tool as well as a source of fresh ideas from somewhere other than the ad agency. Instead of having the agency do the job, why not get the consumers to; the people the brand means something to, who understand it and who personify the brand?

It is definitely something we should all be cognisant of, especially the practitioner.

While it may never become the principal way of producing adverts, the power of the people is scary and something that can help brands.

See crowdsourcing guru Jeff Howe’s site crowdsourcing.typepad.com for the details.

Can’t we do something different?

The average consumers sees 5,000 advertising messages a day. Marketing Clutter has hit an all time high. The average consumer, however, only perceives 1-2% of these messages. So, clients are putting more and more pressure on agencies to stand out from the crowd, to make the brand known, to get people talking about them.

So, Viral Ad’s have become the antidote to the marketing quandary.

Something quirky, something unique, that will capture the imaginations of the public and reinforce the brand.

Flash mobs were the answer. But have been done to death. So sick of seeing them. Some marketers think - OK let’s do a viral – let’s get a flashmob on the case.

Big Mistake. That won’t catch on anymore, people are too used to them by now. The nature of a viral is something that will spread like wildfire, a flashmob that has been done every couple of weeks for another struggling brand won’t work.

Do something new. Please.

Saatchi and Saatchi get it;

Reel of Honour 2

For inspiration Flagship scours the internet for fun, cool, something to talk about and always end up on YouTube looking at great adverts.

This is one of them;  it looks great, sounds great, and it’s different.

Stuck in your head

The topic of advertising jingles is one that usually causes a stir.

In 1970, advertising legend Hal Riney hired Paul Williams to write a song for Crocker Bank. From that decision, The Carpenters chart topping hit “We’ve only just begun” came to life. The idea of the jingle became just a tad more important to advertisers.

But what are they for? Well, Flagship are firm believers that a jingle shouldn’t just have you tapping your foot, it should have you singing that annoying tune, because let’s face it, they are annoying, they’re supposed to be. It creates brand awareness.

Case in point;

GO HARVEY GO, we could have put the video up, but we want you to keep reading.

or,

We hear people singing “123.ie just log on and save money” all the time, even when they don’t want to.

They are annoying, granted, but as much as they grind on you, they work.

Now consider

Would you sing that?

We hate the tune, we hate the ad, why show a guy singing your jingle with subtitles? LAZY.

But moreover, you may tap your foot but who’s gonna hum that tune, who’s gonna repeat it?

And don’t start us on the point of the ad. The out door was far more impressive;

More to the point.

We googled it.

Flagship

Coca Customisation

Global versus Local.

We love the local work Coca Cola did in Ireland.

It resonates so well with the local consumers, and Coca Cola, gigantic corporation, one of the biggest brands in the world engaging in local marketing communication. Genius.

We are looking forward to the Coca Cola Longford and Coca Cola Sligo 6 sheets next, we expect bigger logo!

Flagship