It's that time of year again!

Tim Hortons RRROLL UP THE RIM TO WIN

I think I have been playing for 25 years and I have never won a thing, I swear! But this year, on my first roll I won a donut. WOOT.

Now typically this would cause great excitement -- finally a Roll up the Rim to win win. But then I remembered this week's horoscope for Libras as predicted by Georgia Nicols, a most entertaining prognosticator. I specifically remembered this line, which I hoped was an indication of future success due to my business development efforts:
"In some ways, you have that feeling that your chickens are coming home to roost. You see that your past efforts are now bearing fruit." 

Will a free donut be the fruit of my labours for this week?

An update on a Twitter - YouTube Campaign

Last Thursday I referenced an emerging trend utilizing Twitter and YouTube to gain some awareness: Use Twitter and YouTube to get something viral going.

Lets take a look at how a tweet by Molly Lewis to Stephen Fry has driven YouTube views:
Thursday Feb 10th - Video uploaded

Thursday Feb 10th - Sir Fry receives a direct tweet from Molly, he retweets
Thursday Feb 10th - my first viewing  - 304 views

Monday Feb 14 - 60,657 views
Friday Feb 18 - 86,913 views

Hmm, not bad results for a week and a day. I did a search on Twitter and tweets about the video remain current.

Today I did a Google search for "Molly Lewis an open letter to Stephen Fry" and there were 1,470 references specific to that search. A Google search on "an open letter to stephen fry" yielded 19,400 results. Obviously many people like me were blogging about her video.

She has received many positive comments on her song for Stephen Fry. She has a lovely voice. Not sure if there has been any immediate increase in revenue or downloads for her music on her site but she has exposed almost 90,000 people to her music. To take it to the next level, maybe she needs to get Ellen Degeneres and Stephen Fry talking.

An issue with this type of awareness campaign is you have to keep the conversation rolling. They can draw interest quickly but then fizzle out if you don't have a plan in place at the start to keep the momentum going or find a new venue to create momentum. But if you have a specific audience that you want to reach out to, Twitter and YouTube are great viral tools to get the job done. If you plan to use these tools to drive awareness PLEASE build the complete plan first and then roll it out with many of the elements ready to roll so you can create awareness and then sustain it.

Let's keep watching Molly Lewis and see if there is a plan in place.

Grey on Fast Company Top 10

Grey is the only advertising agency to be featured in Fast Company Magazine’s “50 Most Innovative Companies In the World” issue in each of the past two years. Very Cool!

Fast Company 2011 Top 10 Advertising Agencies

# 08 / Grey NY

For surprising, clever, story-driven marketing that penetrates the culture


Fast Company 2010 Top 50 Innovative Companies - #24 Grey Advertising

Hey, Baby, Look Who's the Most Innovative Ad Agency

When Grey New York's new chief creative officer, Tor Myhren, decided to boot his team of 120 creatives from their posh offices into a sea of '70s-brown cubicles, he skipped the pep talk on the cultural virtues of the open office. Instead, the bald newcomer shot a music video spoofing Sinéad O'Connor, crooning his own "Nothing Compares to Two" -- the new floor -- and setting an example of the new DIY spirit being unleashed at the stalled 93-year-old Madison Avenue shop. In the two years since his arrival, Myhren has transformed Grey New York into a multimedia powerhouse that is anything but colorless: In 2009, as ad spending plummeted 11%, the WPP -- owned agency's operating profits were up 44%.

One of Grey's most effective moves was to build up its own production department, allowing it to produce TV and Web spots in-house quickly and cheaply, rather than outsourcing them. That lightness of foot helps explain how Grey won a startling 17 out of 19 new business pitches in 2009, including BMW, DirecTV, Ketel One vodka, and the NFL. The work, best exemplified by Grey's now ubiquitous E-Trade babies, oozes zeitgeisty appeal -- from its thousand-frames-per-second Phantom HD spots for the NFL to the creepy YouTube videos that transformed Penguin's teen novel 13 Reasons into a best seller to the viral "Obammcain" ad for the presidential election. "We have to keep pace with the rest of culture," says Myhren. "If news is coming out in real time, we have to be able to get our marketing out just as fast."

Face to face connections - impact on societies

I listened to two very interesting interviews this week that at the core were about connecting; one demonstrated how face to face connections empower movements and one discussed a current breaking of traditional face to face connections within a community.

The first interview was on 60 minutes profiling Google executive Wael Ghonim who created the Facebook page that began a New Age Revolution. What started as a means to create awareness about police violence became an information channel that changed the face of a nation. He said that the biggest turning point was when the government shut down the internet because that brought people into the streets for their information. While in the streets they bonded together as a unifying force that became a more powerful movement, more energized than individuals sitting behind computer screens. It also forced believers of the cause to face their fear of anarchy, a fear the government had been using against them as a means to control them.

And then on Valentines Day Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Q spoke to Ann Wroe an Obit writer from The Economist who discussed her article about the demise of the British pub. She stated that since 2005 more than 6,000 pubs have closed. She felt that the ban on public smoking played the biggest part of their demise but she sees many traditions slipping due to the new world order of electronics and societal changes due to immigration. Are more Brits staying home to drink their pints, smoking in the comfort of their home while connecting via FaceBook?

Interesting the juxtaposition between these two interviews. One about pulling people out of their homes into a community, within a movement, to gain more information and to connect over a cause. The streets of Cairo became a hub for information and empowerment of a cause. And the other about pulling away from a long standing community and cultural tradition of connecting at the local over a pint. We can only ponder the impact on British society as communities become more insular.   

Happy Valentine's Day - A retailer dream day

Retailers love this season. And as USA Today reported - Valentine's Day is no longer just about the significant other -  "What each consumer will spend on average for co-workers ($32.77) and friends ($27.99) will hit an all-time high, according to the retail group's research. Spending on children and parents will reach $37.92, the highest level in four years."

In my household a variety of retailers benefited, from Scholars Choice for PlayMobile to Bark & Fitz for doggy treats. We love to share the love.

Oh, the wonder of the retail holiday seasons. As I was collecting various confectionery items for the family, I noticed great competition for shelf space. The fight was on between the chocolate hearts vs. the bunnies and eggs. For heavens sakes, Easter is not until the 3rd week of April! Could you not let us enjoy Valentine's Day first and then bring out the bunnies.

We are still on the retail roll that began with Back to School then Thanks Giving -- Halloween -- Christmas -- Valentines -- St. Patrick's Day -- Easter and ends with Canada Day.

Are we done then, after Canada Day? Is that the end for the retail holiday roll? They give us a week or two before Back to School? That would be nice.

I love this digital age - a fun way to encapsulate it

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Online Marketing



BlogCatalog

Use Twitter and YouTube to get something viral going

Interesting Twitter post by Sir Stephen Fry, who I love to follow because he has a wonderful turn of phrase and is always up to something interesting.

A very clever move by a young artist who would benefit from some exposure by Fry's more than 2.2 million followers. Or are they in cahoots? And would it make a difference based on the quality of her voice? Well done I say. We will have to watch the progress of this artist, Molly Lewis. When I first viewed the video based on the tweet by Sir Fry, there were 304 views.

NFL Best Fans Ever Super Bowl Commercial

The epic NFL Super Bowl commercial that aired Sunday night has been Top 10 in all the polls that rate the Super Bowl 2011 spots. This Grey New York spot has been called the “best and most understated ad of the game” by Adweek. 

Did you catch the 180 changes Grey made to the original scenes? Take a look again.

Now check out this crazy "side-by-side" of the old and new versions of the spot ... a breakdown of the current spot and the original resources for the ad.

I love how they brought The Fonz back to TV. Love the Fonz!

Super Bowl Sunday - Football vs. TV spots

Ok, for us Canadian viewers we get ripped off in a key part of the whole Super Bowl experience because we get the Canadian version of the TV spots, they are not all fresh and new and wrapped in the American Super Bowl Hype. (Check our this blog for thoughts on how the Super Bowl has earned its position as a US cultural phenomenon.)

Following the tweets during the game yesterday I wasn't able to agree or disagree with the various opinions that were expressed about each spot. I had to focus on the game action, which was a tad lopsided until the 2nd half ... I was cheering for the Steelers.

For those who work in the ad biz, Super Bowl Sunday is like a redemption to all the negative things people say and believe about the value of advertising. The spots get just as much hype as the game so we claim it as a small demonstration that indeed Advertising works. The buzz around the spots demonstrates that good advertising can create new awareness and new found perceptions. As Fast Company reported last week,  " Three years ago, during Super Bowl XLII, eTrade entrusted its public image to a talking (and puking) baby. The next day, eTrade registered more new accounts than it had on any other day in the company's history."

Thankfully there are now sources for us to view all the great spots we miss on game day...and many of them were available long before the coin toss. YouTube has been filled with posts for all the spots. So enjoy today what you missed on game day. 

Prior to Sunday you could enjoy a few previews and here is site to scroll through the last few years of spots. ETrade released a compilation as a fun way to wet appetites before game day. As of Friday morning this YouTube video was at 1.2 million views after being posted for only 2 weeks. And yes, Etrade is a Grey client:




Last year SPIKE ran this contest post game. I really liked the Career Builders ad, just for the fun of it - The Top 10 Super Bowl Commercials of 2010

Inundated with stupidness - I just dont get this guy

In the last 2 weeks, at least once, sometimes twice a day I get an email generated from www(dot)colmwynne(dot)com.

Now it is very possible that I am naive to the ways of "evil virus spreaders" or "overwhelm them with info marketers." Or maybe there is something much much bigger behind Colm Wynne. His onslaught of contact attempts is connected to this blog as he seems to have found me and wants me to buy something he is selling. I am not 100% sure what it is but he will offer me a discount.

I never click on a link that he sends. Stupidly I do open the email which gives him an open rate. There is no way I am going to click to unsubscribe to confirm a real person at the other end of my email address. That could really open up a flood gate "oh, I've got a live one now!"

Lately I have been saving his email for the sheer curiosity of it all. I just don't understand this guys approach.

Maybe his strategy is clever. Inundate them with stupidness to spark curiosity. Keep sending them email until they reach the point of extreme curiosity and they will respond. And in that moment of weakness they will be most susceptible to the charms of Colm Wynne. Maybe his power of persuasion one-on-one is much too intense to resist. Maybe that is how he swoops in for the sell and locks up the deal. Better not to open myself up to that kind of charm.

This video on his website seems to indicate that he wants to help me make money online. That is indeed very nice of him.

A Loyalty Match connection

The Hub is a GREAT place to make connections. The casual conversations that start in the hall can turn into new business opportunities or initiatives or partnerships. You are constantly meeting new people with new ideas.

Sometimes you discover interesting global connections that already exist. Just before Christmas Brad Ball, President of LoyaltyMatch, asked me about supporting a connection he was building in Singapore! Loyalty Match was responding to an inquiry by Yolk  to build a loyalty program for one of their prospective clients located in Asia Pacific. On December 20th Yolk was acquired by Grey Asia Pacific, a division of Grey Group.

Brad asked me to reach out to Yolk, now a part of the Grey network, to help authenticate LoyaltyMatch credentials. Here was an opportunity to ensure his prospective client, on the other side of the globe, that LoyaltyMatch was indeed a viable company ready to do business anywhere in the world.

So who is LoyaltyMatch? They are a tenant here at the Hub, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that offers customizable loyalty program platforms. They build the back end system for companies who are looking for exciting and engaging ways to build customer loyalty. 

In today's digital world, LoyaltyMatch is a key service and intelligence provider for companies looking for ways to dispense virtual currency in exchange for time, loyalty or insight; trading time or loyalty for rewards that can be redeemed in a multitude of ways.  They provide the platform and the capability for companies to develop new ways to engage a viewer, a participant, a customer, while also measuring the experience through real time analytics. 

The latest demand from their clients is to incorporate game mechanics into a web experience as a means to rejuvenate a brand with a fresh, current experience or reach a new audience. LoyaltyMatch has created the platform for a number of companies in a range of sectors including retailers, manufacturers, service providers and technology companies. Check out some of their stories.

And as the future is mobile, they build systems that are executable on mobile devices and on individual kiosks. Social Loyalty is also a key component of their service, helping their clients leverage  Twitter, Facebook, Gowalla, Foursquare, LinkedIn and other social media to support social loyalty efforts. 

Loyalty Match was one of the first tenants here at the Hub and during the opening ceremony  Brad Ball spoke as a representative of the startups, and as a recognition of the innovative technology behind Loyalty Match. They are a prime example of the potential success for all companies here at the Hub.

The official cutting on of the ribbon for the Hub - Iain Klugman President and CEO of Communitech; Tom Jenkins Executive Chairman OpenText; Glen Murray Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation; John Milloy MPP Kitchener Centre Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities; Kevin Tuer Managing Director at Canadian Digital Media Network; Brad Ball President and CEO LoyaltyMatch; Carl Zehr Mayor of Kitchener; Tim Jackson CEO of Accelerator Centre.

And just in case you are interested, here is the announcement about Grey and Yolk:
Grey acquires Yolk, a leading interactive and digital media agency in Asia
20 December, 2010

Latest Acquisition Elevates Grey’s Digital Position in Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE — Grey, the advertising network of Grey Group, today announced a majority-stake acquisition in Yolk, one of Asia’s fastest-growing interactive and digital media networks. Effective immediately, Yolk’s service offering will be integrated into the operations of Grey Asia Pacific.

A digital services company renowned for strategy, creativity, technology and engagement, Yolk’s holistic digital offering includes digital strategy, social media, rich media, online advertising, viral marketing, interactive marketing, search marketing, e-marketing, e-customer relationship management and web-based capabilities.

Founded in 2001, Yolk is headquartered in Singapore, with a presence in Malaysia, Thailand and Australia. The company employs 40 full-time staff and its roster of clients across Asia includes Canon, Microsoft, Ciba Vision and Singapore Economic Development Board, among others.

Yolk has been recognised regionally and globally, having won multiple accolades at the Webby Awards, Asia Interactive Awards, Hitwise Online Performance Awards, Tokyo Broadcasting System DigiCon6+2 and Singapore Creative Circle Awards.

This acquisition will boost Grey Asia Pacific’s presence in the rapidly growing digital marketing sector as well as enhance Grey’s total communications capabilities.

Jim Heekin, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group, said, “The acquisition of Yolk is another clear signal of Grey’s commitment to place digital at the core of our business and deliver powerful, seamless offline and online marketing solutions. The digital services space is growing exponentially and this move adds to our competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific, said, “Yolk is a digitally creative, innovative and daring agency, and at the same time, results-oriented. The team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and comes with an outstanding track record. By combining Yolk’s best-in-class digital and interactive capabilities with Grey’s proven expertise, I am confident that we can provide our clients with a new level of excellence in integrated marketing solutions.”

Prakash Somosundram, Director, Yolk, said, “We are excited to be joining Grey in Asia Pacific at this time of dynamic growth, energy and success. With our multifaceted digital services offering, there is no doubt that we will contribute positively and achieve great synergy together. We look forward to working with the numerous talents across the network to lead the industry in digital innovation, creativity and effectiveness.”

The acquisition of Yolk represents the latest initiative in Grey’s growth strategy, as the agency continues to expand and further develop its capabilities in the Asia Pacific region. In September, G2, the brand activation arm of Grey Group, acquired DPI, Greater China’s leading shopper marketing consultancy, adding on to other premier investments by the company including G2 Star Echo in China and G2rams in India.

Cool to be part of something big - WPP Group

I have worked at companies that range in size from 5 people to 24,000  and now 141,000. WPP is definitely the biggest organization that I have ever worked for but I must say, WPP doesn't have that BIG organization feel. You have all the benefits of a big organization without any drawbacks.

Yesterday I completed mandatory training in two courses - Global bribery & corruption awareness and WPP Code of conduct: How we behave. The courses were really interesting. I feel a little removed from the evilness of bribery and corruption (thou I know my judgment can be swayed by chocolate) but I learned a lot about WPP from the How we behave training. You will be secure in knowing that I was already well behaved before I took the course but I was impressed with WPP Code of Conduct.  It is important to be reminded that a companies reputation is only as strong as each employees commitment to it.

If you want to know more about WPP and Grey, here are some details:

WPP is the world's largest group of communications services companies. WPP is made up of over 150 companies, and growing - check out the full list.  Services include Advertising; Media Investment Management; Consumer Insight; Public Relations & Public Affairs; Branding & Identity; Healthcare Communications;  Direct, Digital, Promotion & Relationship Marketing; Specialist Communications.
There are 2,400 offices located in a 107 countries. And in one of those offices is a hero of mine, Jon Steel, the author of Truth, Lies and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning.


Grey Group, a WPP company, is one of the ten largest advertising agencies in the world, with offices in over 96 countries and employs 10,000! We are a full service agency and our brand promise is to help our clients build famous and effective marketing campaigns.

Grey Group includes a range of subsidiaries including G2, GHG, GCI Group, MediaCom Worldwide, Alliance, G WHIZ and WINGLATINO. In a future blog I will detail out these companies.


Grey Group’s international clients include: Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Nokia, ETrade, NFL, Diageo, Volkswagen, Novartis, Wyeth, Canon and  3M.

The really cool thing is that although we are a big company, with wide spread marketing expertise and global support, we are a company of regional offices. The Canadian Grey offices (Toronto, Vancouver and KW) employ just over100 people in total and we are a fairly tight knit group. Each regional office has a strong understanding of their market with the ability to tap into larger global markets as needed.

And so far, throughout this global organization I have only encountered friendly, committed, interesting, smart people. There is no big city agency attitude with this group. For a small town girl that is so refreshing.