And not necessarily to immediately close the deal, but to continue the courting ritual ... or to work the analogy, the "cup of coffee back at my place".

It suggests a new role for mass communications: to steer your date (or customer) to a place where you can charm the pants off them away from the din of the crowds and other potential suitors.

Far too often a brand's URL is treated as a mere mandatory inclusion in a TVC or print ad - like an ugly strapline, difficult to art direct, and worthy of only a fleeting moment of exposure, or 8 point font. The campaign is then evaluated against web traffic and disappointingly remedied by "more frequency" or some even less direct course of action.

A better approach might be to treat the ad as the invitation and the web experience as the date. Many single people will agree - a date at a bar is safe territory compared with the dinner date at home - which is tantalizingly more serious.

Obviously this has implications to ad messaging. There is an extra, more influential, step between the ad and the sale and communications should really do more direct people to it - not as a side effect of the ad, but as a main outcome.

Failure to take this step could mean a long, lonely walk home for many brands.

Having just returned from a brand workshop with the  'Eat Big Fish' team in London, I thought that putting some learnings into practice might be a good idea.

An interesting tool was used to articulate a brand's identity which was called "the elevator pitch...."

Living in Asia, one spends a lot of time in elevators and hence I have written an elevator pitch for the bellamyhayden brand... admittedly it would need to be a fairly lengthy elevator ride, but damn it would be interesting!

bh has always believed that:

• consumers connect with brand communications across an infinite scope of touchpoints.
• certain touchpoints or channels have greater influence than others. It is not always the high reaching touchpoints that are the most effective.
• a strategic solution should be unique to a clients category, brand, consumer and specific to their objectives.
   

bh as a brand:

• is unique, because its' approach is genuinely neutral.
• embodies genuine brand connection without the baggage or assumptions of mass media traditional advertising approaches.
• is a thinking brand, that makes a difference. We are not an implementing brand and this ensures our impartiality.
   

That is why we have created a product:

• called realconnectionsbh  which starts by identifying a channel hierarchy through bespoke quantitative and qualitative research and ends with a strategy that defines how the brand should behave in all of the identified channels (based on their unique nature.)
• that is built on the basis that influential channels such as P2P, WOM, experience (both virtual and real) should be a startpoint for communications, which should then spread to more traditional higher reaching mass media, if we see these as necessary to the brief.
• that is highly awarded for its efficacy and innovation.
• that also drills down deep into media strategy and creative amplification.
   

Our audience is:

• anyone who has responsibility in optimising the connection between a brand and a target audience in order to drive sales metrics or brand equity.
• anyone who is finding that their current communication mix is delivering less than it used to.
• anyone that is having difficulty in getting all their communication channels or agencies to work together.
   

Our audience become bh superfans because:

• Our influence adds real value to our clients business.
• We deliver tangible results.
• Input is given to the process at the inception of briefing and we have an opinion that helps shape the entire communcation process.
• We share our clients' aspirations and ambitions (whether they be challenger brands or market leaders.)
   

This is different from the past because:

• We come from the perspective of 'all channels' not just advertising channels.
• We take the consumer journey from a  message, to an experience, thus creating conversations and relationships.
• We prioritize channels by "influence" rather than reach.
   

This is different from our competitors because:

• We have a track record in true integration (our awards in both the account planning and media arena speak for themselves.)
• We can identify the best channel to use relative to a category and consumer with bespoke tools.
• We bring to life a brand idea in an orchestrated campaign flow with measurable specific delivery against every channel.
• We do not segment new media from old.
• We are neutral, independent and entrepreneurial, empowered to raise the bar without hesitation or vested interest.
• We take due diligence in understanding a clients business in order to deliver insightful, relevant and category redefining strategies.
• We run a tight ship of dedicated communications specialists from many different backgrounds.
   
  

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=297482

No doubt Disney have the best of intentions but while their "imagineers" (and who wouldn't want that title!) are hard at work designing the patient experience, they cannot actually lay claim to this extension of the Disney brand experience as an original idea.  In fact, a hospital executive turned Disney "cast member" (Fred Lee) literally wrote the book on this as far back as 2004. 

Lee's book is a serious look at how Disney's corporate and brand values can translate into the healthcare environment to provide superior levels of service and empathy to patients.  Apparently someone at Disney was paying attention and took Fred quite literally.  I do hope he gets an invitation to the opening! 

One of the most interesting things about the project was the volume of (off topic) spontaneous discussion about depression.

Specifically male depression.  Men openly talking about themselves, and wives openly sharing their concerns about their husbands. 

This might have triggered something in me because it also coincided with the beginning of the rugby world cup, which has been accompanied by a lot of coverage about how the current Japan coach and former world-cup-winning All Black John Kirwan has suffered from the condition- he is now the public face of an advertising campaign in New Zealand.  I think there's more to it, though.

It's easy to draw cultural stereotypes about the Australian way of life and to talk about men not having the emotional support network that women have always had.  It's also easy to look at the changing roles within society, where service-led economies put a premium on the more 'feminine' relationship skills and 'emotional intelligence' and think that it must be quite a difficult adjustment to make for men brought up within a strong manufacturing, mining and labouring economy.  Equally neither of those may be any more than a red herring.

One thing I do think is true is that this problem is significant and is becoming more so. 

Curently the most prescribed drugs in Australia are for cardio-vascular and related issues.  Over the next 10 years, it wouldn't surprise me if anti-depressants stepped up to join them.

There's a fantastic job that communications could do to help with this situation.  Sadly, when it happens, I don't think that campaign will be a government initiative, it'll come from one of the drug companies.

I've been recently asked if mobile will ever be considered a serious channel by marketers...

Right this minute the mobile phone is bigger in its reach than the car, TV or internet.

Already in China, Japan and South Korea the majority of internet access is via mobile phone. In total over 750 million people access internet content via a mobile phone today

The Communities Dominate Brands post Putting 2.7 billion into context puts forward some great stats: There are 800 million cars, 850 million personal computers, 1.3 B fixed landline phones, 1.4 billion credit cards, 1.5 billion TV sets and at the beginning of 2007, 2.7 billion mobile phones. That's three times as many mobile phones as automobiles or personal computers. About twice as many mobile phone owners as those of fixed landline phones or credit cards. And almost twice as many mobile phones are in use as TV sets.

Australians love their mobile phones and there are more than 16.5 million mobile services in use in Australia, according to the Australian Communications Authority (ACA). We spend, on average, an hour on the mobile phone every day and 35 minutes of that is spent texting

It is inevitable that the mobile phone will become an important part of the communication mix. While the Australian telco's walled gardens and premium content focus have restricted advertising innovation, the times are changing.

It's important to keep reminding ourselvers that we are in the message delivery business. The ability for marketers to deliver timely and targeted messages to specific audiences is one reason that media planners still knock on the telco's doors. This, in addition to the mobile phone's ability to provide a procrastination destination and information a service for the 3.5 million people browsing the mobile internet in this country, means that there is a large and growing opportunity for brands to connect with their consumers by using this channel.

About six years ago, in the UK, IKEA launched a campaign called 'Throw Out Your Chintz'...it was a brilliant way of getting the UK to strip off the flock wallpaper (obviously flock is now inhenrently cool again but hey), throw out the chair and sideboard that you inherited from Nanna (again de-mob utility furnishings are de jour) and get yourself down to IKEA.

That was cool but this is even cooler. Now that those $15 stools and $50 shelving units are looking...well, decidely 2002...someone has come up with this little beauty. IKEA Hacker is brilliant! It's ingenious, it's creative and it ticks the box of sustainability too.

Part of a world map illustrating the origin and content of the most popular search queries via Google, revealing the preferences and interests of the world population. The map is based on data from the Google Zeitgeist statistics of 30 different countries from April to June 2006. Found on the Incom Project.

Every month the top 10 search terms in Australia can be found here.

The Communication industry really has become over complicated these days....

Of course there is always a need for hard numbers, particularly around how much do you need/ can you get away with shifting online to get results.

A great question to ask is:

- if you took 5% away from the ATL TVC media budget
- what would you need to spend online to create the same reach and frequency to the conquest audience?

For one of our clients, bellamyhayden was recently able to evidence:

- that we could gain almost 3 times the exact target audience we needed to reach to make up the budget shift
- with less than half the budget
- delivering 4 times the time with brand
- and articulate the product benefit in a way the would also increase packaging recognition in channel.

Trying new channels needn't be a huge risk, and one of the underexplored benefits of digital engagement is the insights that can be gained.

For example at KraftFoods.com, the strategy is to empower the consumer with relevant information such as recipes and nutrition information; to demonstrate the values and attributes of Kraft's brands in interactive ways that can't be achieved offline; to involve consumers in the brands, and to help them integrate Kraft's brands into their everyday lives.

One involvement initiative that targets "millennials," young adults born between 1979 and 1994, is the Kraft Cooking School. Since many of these young adults haven't learned to cook at home, Kraft addresses their need with on-demand videos that explain basic tasks and methods needed to cook a meal. As many people in this group are online, it's an ideal way to reach them and involve them in Kraft's brands.

Insights Kraft wants to learn, and address, about its consumers include things such as which consumer behaviors Kraft wants to change or reinforce and whether the experience should be emotional or functional.

Kathleen Olvany Riordan, VP of global digital marketing strategy at Kraft Foods, explains: "In traditional advertising, the rule has always been 'think of one thing you want to say.' With digital marketing, it's 'think of one thing you want the consumer to do. It's not whether we gain the consumer's attention -- it's whether they give it to us."

Twenty-eight stage one finalists have been announced for the awards, which will be held on 9 August, including BWM's popular Rabbits campaign for Telstra BigPond and Clemenger BBDO's launch of Hahn Super Dry for Lion Nathan.

Colin Wilson-Brown, effectiveness committee chairman of judges, said there are "some terrific campaigns among this year's finalists".

"Entrants now have the opportunity to finesse them into award-winning case studies," he said in a statement.

"The stage one judges consisted of 43 highly regarded planners, agency principals and marketers, and we are confident that each entry has been rigorously examined by our panel."

The finalists will be considered for the gold, silver and bronze awards together with the other major awards. The most important award will be selected from the gold award winners.

The full list of finalists are:

Lamb - BMF - Meat & Livestock Australia
BigPond/Broadband - BWM - Telstra Bigpond
Red Meat - The Campaign Palace - Meat & Livestock Australia
Energizer Lithium - DDB - Energizer Asia Pacific
Masterfoods Finishing Sauces - Clemenger BBDO MasterFoods
XXX Gold - BMF - Lion Nathan
Mitsubishi Motors - Clemenger BBDO - Mitsubishi Motors Australia
Sunbeam/Espresso Machines - bellamyhayden - Sunbeam
Maxibon Package Icecream - Publicis Mojo - Nestle
Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky - Leo Burnett - Diageo Australia
Sunny Queen Farms, Natural Grain Eggs - BCM - Sunny Queen Farms
Thredbo - Clemenger BBDO - Amalgamated Holdings
Coca-Cola Zero - Naked - The Coca-Cola Company
Hahn Super Dry - Clemenger BBDO - Lion Nathan
National Drugs Campaign - The Campaign Palace - Department of Health and Ageing
Skins - The Furnace - Skins
Hyundai A-League - Lowe Hunt - Football Federation of Australia
Olympus Tough - Saatchi & Saatchi - Olympus Imaging Australia
Toyota Yaris - Saatchi & Saatchi - Toyota
The Australian Institute of Music - Lowe Hunt - The Australian Institute of Music
M&Ms, Miss Green - Clemenger BBDO - MasterFoods
Nescafe - Publicis Mojo - Nestle
Residential Property Development - DDB - AV Jennings
Campbell's Real Stock - Clemenger BBDO - Campbell's
Mini - Naked - Mini
Adalat DROS - Medicus Sydney - Bayer Schering Pharma
Slurpee - Leo Burnett - 7 Eleven
Bundaberg Rum RTD - Leo Burnett - Diageo Australia

Story by: Adnews - 05 Apr 2007

The synopsis is that Dawn has found out that she is the child of sperm donor and she now has the list of the other 27 siblings who are scattered across Europe. After contacting her new found brother Ian they begin the search with Jonti, the director filming their journey.

Besides being a funny (and interactive) show it is also a large marketing experiment sponsored by Ford that utilizes various web services and projects to deliver and process content. As the actors travel through Europe they write a blog that is a central "hub" for all the content. When new videos are available you can watch them on YouTube, photos are hosted on Flickr. They also use Twitter, MyBlogLog and many other web tools.

The whole project is interactive. Not only you can comment on the content but also you could influence the storyline and work on screenplay. This part of the project is hosted at wherearethejoneses.wikidot.com

Quite differently, in a sweetly dark and twisted effort, Scion has created an underworld for users to play in. Existing amidst the pages of a gnarly old pop-up book titled "Book of Deviants", users get to be a "Deviant" whose goal is to take back the world which is populated by "sheeple". The book flips through a series of chapters to reveal pop-up scenes, each with its own novel challenge.

SYDNEY: Media strategy and planning agency bellamyhayden has launched its first overseas office just six years after opening its doors in Sydney.

More than 11 months after first pitching for the Pepsico Foods account in Thailand, the agency has announced it has secured the planning component and opened a Bangkok office.

This is the agency's first international base, which will act as a regional hub for further expansion into South East Asia.

The Pepsico Foods account will be managed by Thanasdh Kasemchaiyanandh, who joined the Bangkok division from Initiative Bangkok, and Ceri Reed, who joins from Freud PR in London. bellamyhayden will add an agency manager and continue to build staff numbers as it shifts into new business mode.

Phil Hayden, director of bellamyhayden, said Thailand is the biggest market for Pepsico in South East Asia, and one of only seven markets in the world where Pepsi holds a greater share than Coca-Cola.

In addition, the agency has been awarded the communications planning account for Pepsico Foods in New Zealand, and is planning to establish a presence in Auckland.

"It is fantastic that they have invited us to get involved in other parts of the world, and, ultimately, it is opportunities like this, around our existing client base, on which we will base our geographic expansion," Hayden said.

Pepsico is just one client Hayden believes will allow bellamyhayden to further push into Asia, New York and London. Others include GlaxoSmithKline and National Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of the San Miguel Corporation and Asia's biggest foods and beverage company.

"Our focus in this regard, in 2007, will be to get ourselves up and running as a fully fledged regional offering in the South East Asia [and] Australasia region," Hayden said.

"What makes it exciting is that we are a genuinely 100% Australian company pushing out into the world. There are very few precedents of this happening from companies and brands from the Australian communications industry."

As well as launching into Bangkok, bellamyhayden has commenced work from its Sydney head office on global communication planning briefs for Pepsico and the Panadol brand for GlaxoSmithKline. The agency is two months into a project with the New York head office of both clients.

Since launching in Sydney in November 2000, bellamyhayden has caused nothing short of a ripple in the media market, snaring a stream of global and local clients, such as Sony Consumer Electronics, Jaguar, AMF Bowling, Sunbeam and Meat & Livestock Australia.

The start to 2007 capped off a big 2006 for the agency, which launched a Melbourne operation on the back of winning the planning business for dairy giant National Foods. The agency's other director, Simon Bellamy, said there would be a lot of focus on growing the Melbourne operation in 2007.

"Clients in Melbourne are waking up to the fact that things are changing," he said.

"We're advancing on all fronts and achieving some pretty aggressive goals."

In response to growth, and the broadening remit of communications planning, bellamyhayden restructured its business in the last quarter of the 2006.

National planning director Matt Perry relocated to head up the Melbourne office, while the Sydney team hired DDB account planner Paul Warwick as brand planning director, Katie Chatfield, previously at Creata, as digital strategy director, and Natalie Musico to head the experiential and PR channels.

The Melbourne office recently picked up the $3 million Melbourne University business, and is currently working on projects for Country Road and earth moving business Cat.

The agency is one of the most high profile companies within the publicly listed Photon group - Photon owns a 40% stake - but Hayden, and partner Simon Bellamy, are not looking to offload the remaining 60%.

Laughing at such a suggestion, Hayden said simply: "We're not for sale."

PATH TO SUCCESS

Launched in Surry Hills, Sydney, in November 2000, bellamyhayden quickly secured the 3M Australia Consumer Products account from MediaCom. The agency then went on to win major accounts for Tourism Tasmania and Johnson & Johnson. bellamyhayden's planning system, realconnections, has developed a number of major projects for Sunbeam, Macquarie Bank's leisure division and Australasian manufacturing and marketing group GUD.

Story by: Matthew Eaton Adnews - 09 Mar 2007

Story by: Matthew Eaton Adnews- 19 May 2006

Falling audience numbers for the finale of Network Ten's reality juggernaut, Big Brother, coupled with controversy over the crude behaviour of its participants hasn't stemmed the enthusiasm from sponsors, with preliminary reports indicating positive results and plans already underway for a sixth series.

Media agency Bellamy Hayden's Phil Hayden, representing GlaxoSmithKline's Nicabate and Yum Restaurants' KFC, said while ROI data is still some weeks away from release, the success the Nicabate brand experienced last year encouraged it to recommit as a sponsor for the fifth series.

"We had an outstanding result last year, with a year-on-year sales increase of over 50% during the three-month period we sponsored Big Brother," Hayden said.

And it seems Ten is optimistic about the program's future, announcing its return next year, with sponsorship renewal discussions expected to begin soon.

This has been despite the fact that audience numbers for the Big Brother 'Final Eviction' and 'Winner Announced' shows last Monday night have fallen sharply compared to the previous year.

It experienced a 17% fall, from 2.2 million viewers to 1.8 million for the final eviction show and a 23% fall, from 2.9 million viewers to 2.2 million for the announcement of the series winner.

Group director at Zenith Media, Procter & Gamble's media planning and buying agency, Allan Griffiths, said the fall in total viewers was not a concern as the show remained as popular as ever in the 18-35 market targeted by Procter & Gamble brands Clairol and Pringles which sponsored the program.

"They're not final figures, but sales have been up there with record numbers for Pringles," he said.

Griffiths said the only concern in sponsoring Big Brother was the level of "risquéness" inherent in the show. But he argued that as long as the brand's target market fitted with the 18-35-year-old audience typically attracted by Big Brother, there was unlikely to be a problem.

He also said Procter & Gamble had made the decision not to be involved with the highly criticised Big brother Uncut, in an effort to protect its brands from the negative publicity attracted by the adults-only spin-off.

KFC took the same step, and Yum Restaurants' chief marketing officer, David Ovens, said he felt consumers were able to differentiate between the late-night and primetime versions of the show.

Ovens said he would not discuss exact figures, but confirmed the show "delivered us sales growth in line with our targets."

He also said falling viewer figures for the reality series were not of concern as KFC's target market was still tuning in.

"Our target is under 30 and female skewed, and in that sense [Big Brother] has been even more successful than last year," he said.

Brand Behaviour founder, Karl Treacher, said many of the food brands associated with the show are likely to be unaffected by any controversy associated with Uncut.

"KFC and Pringles...have never really tried to be particularly meaningful...so I'd expect that their involvement with the show will be successful, because it's really just exposure for exposure's sake," he said.