February 2009 Archives - 4/10

Great marketing can be quick enough to beat the news

February 18, 2009 By Dan Thornton 1 Comment

Now here’s an example of a great use of marketing to respond quickly and effectively to things as they happen.

I hadn’t heard anything about Virgin Trains trying to cut down on people kissing and hugging at the passenger drop-off point at Warrington Bank Quay station. Apparently a sign banning kissing was put up in a light-hearted manner to ease congestion and suggest people should go to the short-stay car park (and pay!) if they want to hug and kiss someone leaving on a trip.

Instead, the first things I saw were:

Mills and Boon respond to Virgin

It was apparently done by St Lukes, who handle advertising for Mills & Boon, and it’s timely, considering news about the sign only appeared two days ago.

It’s also relatively low cost – there’s a Facebook group, a Twitter account, and a Flickr group. And people are being encouraged to interact and upload images of themselves kissing etc.

It’s already had a bit of coverage via Brand Republic and The School of Life.

But most importantly, it’s effective because it was done quickly, enthusiastically, and allows people to get involved.

As a result, if it becomes a huge runaway success, then it’s great. But if it only achieves minor success, then nothing has been lost except a bit of time.

And it ties in brilliantly with Mills & Boon promoting romance, rather than books about romance.

I’d guess it didn’t take much negotiation around permission and planning, which is a benefit of having clear beliefs and trust.

And suddenly a brand which I’d associate with my grandmother now seems lighthearted and fun enough to check out the next time I want to buy a romantic present.

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Filed Under: marketing, social media marketing Tagged With: ban, case study, example, facebook, flickr, goodbye to kissing, great, kissing, marketing, mills & boon, mills and boon, social media marketing, twitter, virgin trains

Will we ever learn?

February 18, 2009 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

Apparently, Woolworth’s former executive director is aiming to launch 50 stores with a very similar name and the same business model.

And they’ve got £10 million in backing to do reincarnate the business model which failed.

I really, really can’t see the logic in this.

There are definitely attributes of Woolworths which could be used in a new business, but cloning a failure and expecting success would suggest they view the changes happening during the current recession as temporary, and that once things start to get better, everything will return to normal.

My tip would be to keep the money, and invest in businesses who are doing things differently – online or offline, and finding new gaps in existing markets for services, products and better business models.

Especially at a time when most businesses would be grateful of a cash injection, and would then be well-placed when the economy improves and the migration to new business models increases.

(And as a counter-example, look how quickly Facebook responded to criticism over changes)

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Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, reincarnation, strategy, woolworths

Two Twitter things for Monday morning

February 16, 2009 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

The first is my contribution to the debate on whether Twitter and the real-time web will replace Google. I couldn’t decide which blog to post it on, as it crosses over to both my sites, so apologies for the linkage.

So to brighten things up with something more light-hearted:

Get your Status on a T-Shirt with Twitoshirt

That’s right, you can now quickly and easily post your favourite status message at Twitoshirt, and then proudly wear your (or someone else’s) genius for just $16.99.

Whether or not you’d want to might be another matter.

But it does make me wonder if I should revive the Tweet of the Week, and if I’ve missed a business opportunity there!

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Filed Under: twitter Tagged With: /message, best status messages, best twitter quotes, google, printed, realtime, search, status, t shirt, tweet of the week, twitoshirt, twitter

Why Twitter won’t replace Google search- but will overtake it

February 16, 2009 By Dan Thornton 4 Comments

The reason why Twitter and real-time information will overtake Googl e search isn’t because of the aggregation of the ‘Thought stream’ as Techcrunch has proposed, as Lew Moorman has written, or even as Robert Scoble has written.

For some reason, we still think that a new service will totally replace the old, and that the two compete on the same field, even though Robert’s post alluded to where I see the real advantage for real-time information.

Google provides signposts for where you want to go. Twitter provides you with a guided tour by your friends.

Signpost by JMC_Photos on Flickr (CC Licence)

It’s not about searching the aggregate of real-time information.

It’s about asking the members of your network in real-time for responses.

And it’s about increasingly moving towards Vendor Relationship Management, rather than Customer Relationship Management.

I don’t care as much about the general consensus of the population of Twitter about a subject as often as I care about the opinions of the core group of my 2300 followers on the specific question I’ve posed.

And that’s where the threat to Google occurs. As a normal Twitter user, I’ll occasionally look at what the general populace reports around breaking news or a major event. But it’s the closer network within my followers who provide the real value of responding in minutes, or even seconds, to my requests and questions.

It allows people (and one day, perhaps companies), to come to me with the information I need, rather than setting out on my own to try to navigate my way to what I need.

Real-time web allows me to ask for information and have it brought to me by my core group of contacts and relevant people/companies. That’s the real-time benefit – not in evolving search.

But this doesn’t mean that there is no need for search.

Guided Tours by friends don’t remove the need for signposts, for example when friends aren’t available.

I’m already finding that I use search far, far less than ever before.

Real time search is only really valuable when there is a need to guage public opinion for businesses, marketeers, journalists, writers etc. (the last two refer to print, web, blog, tv, radio, mobile).

So trust me to choose search, questioning friends, or real-time search when it’s appropriate for what I want to do, and don’t rip up all the singposts in case I don’t know anyone in a particular town!

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