media Archives - YouCom

Yarn Bombing

Philip Wimbledon — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 13:48:51 +0000

Guerrilla Marketing is a form of advertising that can be highly effective. It is where a company uses unconventional and often unexpected interactions with the public that promote a product or service or brand.

Yarn Bombing is one form of Guerrilla Marketing. In short it is where pre-crocheted squares or other large segments of material are suddenly sewn together with a few quick inter-linking stitches to form a colourful change of an ordinary everyday outdoor object (shown above a tree).

Guerrilla marketing uses a series of techniques to establish direct contact with customers. If the goal is to create an emotional reaction in potential customers (which it is) then Yarn Bombing ticks all the boxes.

The ultimate goal of advertising is to get others to remember products, services or brands in a different way than they are accustomed to (because that cuts through the advertising noise). Yarn Bombing such as that shown outside the museum of Comic Art in Frankfurt, Germany on a previously unambiguous sculpture of a moose*, certainly achieves memorability.

In 2013 Toyota commissioned the Yarn Bombing group known as Knit the City to create an outdoor advertising and guerrilla marketing piece. As Toyota are the sixth largest company in the world (by revenue as of late 2018), Yarn Bombing is no longer the province of ‘risk-taking young brands’ but should be considered by all marketing managers.

Knit the City is a group of “graffiti knitting and crochet” street artists founded in London, UK in 2009 and consist of four members known as Deadly Knitshade, The Fastener, Shorn-a the Dead and Lady Loop (which we think is fantastically funny and suits the light-heartedness of this medium).

Miller Lite are another international brand known to have used Yarn Bombing in their marketing campaigns.

Above the Jan Karski bench in New York, USA is a yarn bombing piece that achieved notoriety (though we presume Jan Karski or anyone else wasn’t sitting there at the time of the yarn bombing..).

Yarn Bombing has spread worldwide showing wide-spread appeal which means it becomes a useful platform for a clever brand and one can imagine the above installation** in Alicante, Spain depicting Pepsi for instance (Pepsi being said to be seen as more young and edgy than Coca-Cola).

When you consider that some yarn bombing installations don’t last more than a few hours (once can imagine the owner of the car in Alicante removed it before he/she went to work in the morning), its obvious careful planning is required.

YouCom Media plan and execute advertising strategies based on meticulous planning and focus group testing ensuring your brand is croch(yay) rather than (k)not.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Data source:

* By Superbass – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

** By Joanbanjo – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Aug 2019, London, ‘Yarn Bombing.’

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Media ROI

Philip Wimbledon — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 23:04:47 +0000

When you put in the effort, you want to see that it’s rewarded. You want Return-on-Investment.

ROI is an analysis of what is invested, how it is invested and what you gain from that investment. Marketing managers and brands who run marketing plans without full ROI analysis risk diminished or negative ROI as a result of lack of change.

Many big-name brands are guilty of falling into complacency. Proctor & Gamble on the other hand challenges its marketing executives to ‘build on their learnings’. They are asked to show what they have learnt from the marketplace. They then build those learnings into the next marketing plan and ROI inevitably goes up.

ROI analyses the profit generated from an integrated marketing communications plan as a percentage of the budget taken to produce it.

That profit can be in the form of extra sales generated from the marketing activity or may be something less tangible (but still measurable) such as brand awareness.

If increasing awareness is the advertisers goal (brand marketing) then the agency will calculate the correlation between brand awareness and market share.

If market research shows the brand’s awareness has increased, market share can be said to follow.

Each of these marketing tools within the communication mix will have specific ROI analysis methods;

Advertising

Includes ATL channels such as Television; Radio; Print and BTL channels such as OOH advertising. This also includes online such as PPC marketing; display advertising, remarketing and retargeting.

Personal Selling

Sales force; Tele-marketing staff; affiliate marketing

Public relations

Editorials; Advertorials; Newsletters; Viral Marketing; Press Releases

Sponsorship

Advertising via celebrities; TV shows; products; services; events

Event Marketing

Exhibitions; virtual exhibitions; webinars; conferences; roadshows

Direct Mail

post DM; email DM; Circulars; Leaflets; Inserts

Directories

print directories; online directories; link-building; review marketing

Retail

In-Store POS; Website (SEO)

Promotions

Incentives; Rewards; Data-marketing loyalty cards; Content marketing

Merchandising

QR Codes; Augmented reality apps; Virtual Tours; Package advertising

Each communication channel has the ability to measure the ROI from the activity. Some channels such as business directories are now highly ROI focused and therefore becoming a performance marketing channel rather than a brand marketing one.

In 2013, YouCom Media created a specialist business directory advertising team to bring our Japanese ROI focus to the channel. This Direct Response team were the first business directory specialist agency staff in Europe to deliver pay-per-call advertising for Yell.com at a time when all advertisers had to pay for 12-month advance tenancy advertising.

ROI was measured by every call and click resulting from the advertising.

The lifetime value of a customer acquisition can be difficult to calculate. But the short-term ROI isn’t. Event marketing for example divides the profit from sales orders by the total cost of the exhibition. Sometimes definitive sales orders aren’t known, or aren’t enough to produce positive ROI, but then it is possible to identify potential sales orders using a conversion rate for the sales enquires gained at the exhibition.

This is one way we produce pay-per-lead advertising campaigns at YouCom Media.

Some marketing managers (and some agencies) claim that certain channels cannot be measured for ROI. Social media is often seen as just such a channel.

But all channels can be measured if the marketing staff are inventive enough.

Social media has a wealth of data, follower numbers and frequency / recency studies can be made, propensity modelling applied, social sentiment correlated to sales etc.

Marketing managers must always remember that any activity made by a business has to show tangible added value to the bottom line.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

ATL- Above the line

BTL – Below the line

DM – Direct Mail

OOH – Out of home

POS – Point of Sale

PPC – Pay per click

ROI – Return on Investment

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, April 2018, London, ‘Media ROI.’

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TV Advertising ROI

Philip Wimbledon — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 17:09:54 +0000

At YouCom Media we ask the question, ‘is TV advertising still relevant for good ROI?’.

Young Milan graphic designer, Kevin Niggeler, designed this above image to ask “how influenced are we by adverts on TV?”.

Well, the Television Bureau of Advertising and Knowledge Networks Inc. seems to think we still are, by reporting that 37 percent of those watching TV adverts will decide to buy something, compared to only 7 percent watching an advert on social networks.

Television ads have had to evolve however and are now something of an art form, utilising new technology and special effects. They must convey many different kinds of emotions to sway your purchase patterns within just a few seconds.

A good TV advert has to tell a story in 30 seconds. That’s tough to do. Many are only 15 seconds and require real skill not just to art direct but also for the advertising agency to conceptualise.

In the Old Spice advert, they achieved a large spike in search trends during the adverts, but also there were more people searching for Old Spice 1-3 years after the campaign, than prior to the advertising campaign.

Many of Hollywood’s top film directors like Ridley Scott, began directing TV adverts because to tell a story in 30 seconds allows them to hone their craft.

That makes TV adverts engage with consumers and deliver ROI. Jessel Monteverde says “A good TV commercial provides a clear message for the promotion of product/service/brand. It reaches the maximum number of a specific target audience and rises above the clutter of ads. A great TV commercial offers the viewer some other value over and above just the promotion of the product/service/brand”.

TV advertising must fight for every percentage of ROI with so many alternative platforms vying for consumer attention, but it is still a powerful centre-piece of any integrated multi-platform campaign.

According to a 30,000-strong study by market research firm Nielsen, 58 percent of respondents said they browse the internet while watching TV.

Another 47 percent said they are using social media while watching TV.

To make good ROI from TV advertising, brands need to run effective paid and organic search campaigns for online media.

Timing is everything. Brands should increase their PPC bids for text ads and PLAs in the 30 minutes before and after their TV adverts go live to ensure brand exposure when consumers go to search for additional information.

People watching TV adverts mostly don’t remember the brand but they do remember the product need.

When they hit their tablet or iPhone, you want your product to be found and to link back to your TV advert imagery because this will create a memory link that increases the probability consumers click on your online result and not the competition.

To produce good PLA results, remember that these reflect products and product categories, not keywords. So here, brands will bid on a product and Google will decide which keywords are relevant when they decide whether or not to display your item in the search result page.

PLA’s appear at the top and top-right corner of search results. A good PLA bid placement and PPC advert can link up nicely with your TV advert to maximise ROI from TV advertising.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

PLA – Product Listing Ads

Data source:

Home Page Image – You can see more graphics designed by Kevin Niggeler on his website

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Jun 2017, London, ‘TV Advertising ROI.’

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Facebook Moderation

Philip Wimbledon — Fri, 26 May 2017 11:44:16 +0000

What constitutes animal cruelty? Most people have a pretty good idea. It seems Facebook policies on violence, non-sexual child abuse and animal abuse indicate a desire to allow freedom of expression whilst at the same time banning horrific images.

However, their own moderators tend to remove content ‘upon report only’. This means that distressing content will be seen by many people before it is flagged and removed.

Facebook state that “Generally, imagery of animal abuse can be shared on Facebook” and “some extremely disturbing imagery may be marked as ‘disturbing’ as a warning to other users”.

Facebook categorise ‘disturbing’ as ‘photos of animal mutilations’ or ‘videos only of the act of abusing an animal or repeatedly kicking or beating an animal or an act of torture resulting in serious injury to an animal’.

Facebook state they will “ignore, without viewer protections, photos of acts of abuse, human kicking or beating an animal, photos of bruised or battered animals, sick or starved animals.”. As well as using human moderators for supervising possibly alarming content, Facebook also uses A.I. algorithms to review images before they are posted.

Recently, the UK government’s Home Affairs Select Committee strongly criticised social media companies for not tackling the spread of hate speech and other illegal or distressing content.

This comes after major brands including Verizon pulled their adverts after they found they were appearing next to videos promoting extremist views and hate speech.

After some of Google’s high-profile advertisers left, Google publicly apologised for their lack of content moderation and pledged to give brands greater control over their advertising in an attempt to win them back.

“This marks a turning point for YouTube. For the first time, it’s dealing not only with reputation damage but revenue damage,” said Alex Krasodomski-Jones of Demos.

Facebook’s head of Global Policy states that ““We’re going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help.”

But the fact remains that moderation of content is lacking and you can still find articles on how to make a home-made improvised explosive device like the one used in Manchester.

Perhaps pressure from advertisers is the key to changing social media sites…

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Data source:

Facebook graphic content policy sections 15.5 and 15.9.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, May 2017, London, ‘Facebook Moderation’

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Michael Kors Campaign

Philip Wimbledon — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 16:51:08 +0000

On the 12^th May 2016, Michael Kors opened their biggest store in Europe on Regents Street, London. For the first time there is now a men’s product range in-store. YouCom Media looked at the marketing on offer from past campaigns and devised a course of action for how to take product marketing of fashion brands like Michael Kors to the public.

Product marketing for a retailer examines what products will be offered (in the case of Michael Kors, this is identifying the number of items in a range on offer. How strong is the product line?); It looks at who will be their target customers (how does your marketing communications connect with the type of segment the product wishes to attract?); How are the products going to reach those customers (the distribution channels); And what pricing will the products be offered?

The 16,000 square-foot space in London’s West End is Michael Kors’ largest boutique in Europe, boasting three floors of Kors collections. Michael Kors is celebrated the world over for his affordable must-have-handbags. Nearly every woman has either got a Michael Kors bag in her wardrobe or wants one. His aim, he said, was to make women ‘fall in love’ with his designs.

Michael Kors wanted a façade that houses a kitsch modern interior, with dark Macassar wood floors, Venetian wallpaper and made-to-order marble fixtures. The ground floor has the Michael Kors accessories range, the first floor has a wide women’s wear range and below-ground is the men’s collections.

Product Marketing Managers are the Voice of the Customer to the rest of the company. They have to gain a deep understanding of customer engagement with the product and drive that engagement. Michael Kors ultimately went for the GQ man with an underground pool table, drinks bar, white lighting and many models serving the customers.

To launch the new products for the opening of the new store #MyArrival was launched across platforms to follow four European men on their journeys to London. Each man has a unique style and social following to push the new men’s product range to the London audience; Matthew Zorpas, founder of The Gentleman Blogger with 128,000 followers; Parisian blogger Romain Costa; Mattias Swenson, a co-founder of bloglovin.com used by over 20 million; And DJ Laurens van Leeuwen (dating Victoria’s Secret Angel Romee Strijd and pictured above). This followed #SetYourSights a campaign more tailored to the female product range that has noted over 2.8 million hits.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, April 2017, London, ‘Product Marketing with Michael Kors.’

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Generation Z attention spans

Philip Wimbledon — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:26:55 +0000

For Marketing staff to reach their audience effectively it is necessary to categorise people into age groupings. Here is a brief history about the list of generations leading up to Generation Z;

The Lost Generation

Also known as the Generation of 1914. This is the age group who fought in World War I. The members of the lost generation were born between 1883 and 1900. This was the first of the list of generations marketing categories created. Sadly, none of this group are alive today.

The Greatest Generation

Also known as the G.I. Generation. This includes the veterans who fought in World War II. The members of the G.I. Generation were born between 1900 to 1924. This group had high attention spans like their predecessors of approximately 1 hour plus, as they spent their time reading detailed newspaper articles that looked more like academic texts than the snappy stories we read today, or authors like Dickens. They required intelligent marketing, editorials, localised Direct Mail works well. They are of high morality and ethical. They fought, they served, they gave us our freedoms we enjoy today.

The Silent Generation

The Silent Generation are also rather romantically known as the Lucky Few. This includes men who fought in World War II, the Korean War and many who fought during the Vietnam War. Similar to the Greatest Generation, the Lucky Few respond well to localised direct mail and (formal) personalisation, possessing long attention spans like their ‘greatest generation’ parents. Typically an attention span of this generation (decline of older age aside) is between 40-60 minutes as they often read the lengthy novels and newspapers of their parents. The members of the silent generation were born between 1925 and 1945.

The Baby Boomers

This is the generation that was born following World War II. Members of the baby boomer generation were born between 1946 to 1964. At this time due to the end of the World War, there was a marked increase in birth rates and prosperity. This generation is the generation still alive today which common consensus agrees has the most wealth for brands marketing products and services to sell to. They are also widely regarded as the most educated and self-motivated. The baby boomer is most likely to own more than one home in more than one country with more than one car. They worked hard and saved for a good pension.

Baby boomers were the first generation to see a marked decline in attention spans due to the changes of the world around them. Consequently, they respond well to localised direct mail and personalisation, catalogue marketing, coupons and voucher marketing, cinema advertising, billboards, signage, TV advertising, editorials, radio advertising and PPC. Baby Boomers are less knowledgeable for online marketing (unless their career required later learning), so PPC to this group is simply the first results on the search page and more effective than natural search results.

Directory marketing run by our Direct Response department works very well for this generation and most would use their local BT Phonebook rather than look for a business online. Attention spans for baby boomers would be typically 20 minutes as their novel of choice became more Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel or Jack Higgins than the Dickens of their parents i.e. shorter novel length, smaller vocabularly and faster plots. With a penchance for broadsheets requiring more time to digest, 20 minutes was broadly what the brain required and therefore became the approximate attention span of this generation (Darwinism states the brain evolves to meet its environment and advertisers must evolve to meet the same changes).

Generation X

Usually abbreviated to Gen X, this generation were born after the baby boom and retained a lot of their parents’ traits. They also desire to exceed their parents’ achievements. Generation X are highly educated, active, balanced, happy, and family-oriented. They were the first generation to have a great surge in entrepreneurs. These are the go-getters and self-starters. They are ambitious and were the last generation to have a good attention span (although further decline was noted in comparison to their baby boomer and silent generation parents).

Attention spans of Gen X people declined by approximately 9 minutes from the previous generation to approximately 11 minutes. This generation grew up with Thundercats rather than Thunderbirds and with Dungeons and Dragons rather than The Jetsons (childrens cartoons for Gen X and Baby Boomers respectively). However compare both those differing cartoon types to the Teletubbies of 1997 (Millenial generation era) and you can see one example of why attention spans shorten from an early age. Members of Generation X were born between 1964 and 1980 and will still be found reading a broadsheet or novel.

Generation X are the greatest group for multi-channel marketing, able to process the editorials effective with the Baby Boomers, yet still be at ease with mobile app advertising and natural search results. Cinema advertising works well with this group the most frequent audience and radio advertising also. Localised direct mail starts to become less effective with this group and personalised mail whilst still effective is starting to become less able to stop the journey from the letterbox to the bin.

Outdoor advertising such as out of home and alternative marketing like guerrilla marketing is effective for Generation X people. TV advertising is still effective but less so as people can now pause live TV and turn to services such as NetFlix and Amazon TV. Generation X looks past the PPC results for the natural search results. In some studies, participants ignored PPC completely beginning their reading at the first natural search result. Printed directories are less effective for this generation although the earlier members still use them. Online directories are however highly effective because of how they filter through into the natural search results on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Members of Generation X were born between 1964 and 1980.

Millennials

Often known as the Millennial Generation, or Generation Y. The Millennials are generalised as having traits of greater confidence and tolerance, but also a new sense of entitlement and narcissism that wasn’t seen in such numbers from the previous list of generations. In the millennial generation this group are a mix of those still with traits of generation X and those whose attention spans were beginning to shorten dramatically. By the end of the millennial period, attention spans had shortened to just 12 seconds (compare that to 11-12 minutes of their parents). This has had a great impact on advertising campaigns to this audience and many brands were too slow to adapt their marketing.

Advertising messaging needs to be much shorter to this group with more imagery. Millennials have a sense of being let down, that the world isn’t the way they thought it would be. This entitlement factor mostly isn’t met by reality. Sujansky (2009), states that Millennials “continually show up late for work, ask to leave early, always turn down overtime requests and wonder why they haven’t been promoted after just one year on the job”. There is a lot of ‘job-hopping’ in this generation, rather than patience to learn a trade. In fairness to this generation, they are simply adapting to the changing world around them and will be more tech-savvy than their predecessors, less content to accept the status quo and more likely to question saying ‘why not?’.

Offer based advertising, money off, price match advertising all works well to this group. Aspirational advertising and advertising better suited to storytelling using real-life examples of other customers work best. Channels such as radio isn’t suited to that. Cinema advertising works, Mobile apps, outdoor, out of home and natural search including online directories all works well for this generation group. Signage is less important as this group are less brand loyal and drive vehicles less than previous generations. Members of Generation Y were born between 1980 and 2000.

Generation Z

The list of generations concludes (until 2025) with the group that follows generation Y (the millennials). They are occasionally referred to as Generation Alpha but more known as Generation Z. Generation Z is highly skilled with technology. But they are also under more social pressure than any other generation before them. Their lives are all shared and online. Society has moved toward expectations for all young people to aspire to University education while apprenticeships and early employment are all but unheard of.

Unfortunately, due to the changes observed in the millennial generation, the average Generation Z member has a documented attention span of only 8 seconds (for context and we apologise to use such a worn analogy; a goldfish has an attention span of 7 seconds). Yes Generation Z multi-task, yes they can do more simultaneously than their parents, but 8 seconds is not anything to be proud of and is something brands need to adjust to with their marketing plans. Members of this generation were born from 2000 and the category won’t close until 2025.

How to Advertise to Generation Z and to prepare for when they form your main customer audience

Generation Z are most notably at ease with today’s communications. They have grown up with the internet and social media. They are familiar with viral videos, virtual interfacing, international gaming, and comfortable with technology in general. Unlike previous generations a greater than average proportion of their social interactions is from social media websites.

It is a widely held view that growing up through the crisis or recession of 2008 has given this generation a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity. This combination of social factors makes Generation Z one of the hardest to advertise to. They are clued up and will switch off from traditional advertising. With today’s options to pause live TV they have more resource to remove themselves from brand messaging.

Indeed, Generation Z watches more YouTube and online video than traditional TV (and TV advertising or sponsorship). In a way, this shows how brands must change how they organise their advertising and marketing (more emphasis on digital, social media, video, imagery and reviews).

Advice 1 – Images Are Important

Generation Z has grown up with visual communications. Every one of them has tablets or big screen smartphones. They can filter and edit pictures and have entire conversations with just photos (think Pinterest, Instagram or Snapchat). We advise clients to keep imagery as a constant central theme through their messaging to this generation.

Advice 2 – Short Attention Span

The average Generation Z member has an attention span of only 8 seconds (a goldfish has an attention span of 7 seconds). Generally, attention spans have decreased by 4 seconds since the Millennials (Generation Y) who were the last to actively challenge the world around them in a way where they were forced to memorise, learn, adapt and multi-task without the help of an electronic device or peer sharing.

Therefore, Generation Z marketing must maintain short, snappy content. Lots of soundbites, use of repetitive slogans and jingles. You will begin to notice politicians adopting the same strategies of repetitive short slogans to cover both this (increasing) generation plus their parents.

Reach out and yank their attention fast or they will be past your content and on to other brand messaging.

Advice 3 – Real Life Reviews

Generation Z is the social media generation. They will share content and therefore will more quickly identify advertising. If brand messaging is or appears to be genuine advice and useful guidance (or just interesting to their group) Generation Z will retweet, repost, or share it digitally or by word of mouth. This increases importance to review management and review gathering (services offered by our Direct Response team). Good Google+ reviews will increase your brand engagement with this generation.

Advice 4 – Hunt Them Down

Facebook is now more popular with the previous generations (including the baby boomers). As it becomes populated with mum’s and dad’s, Generation Z are turning to other channels such as Twitter or Tumblr. For this reason, YouCom Media had chosen to focus our own brand engagement on social platforms other than Facebook.

Social Media Management will become increasingly important for your brand as this generation Z gets older. Remember, the first of this generation Z (born in 2000) are already 16 years old now. In a few more years they will become your main customer audience, looking to move out, requiring driving lessons, insurance, storage, banking, finance, car rental, solicitors, and with increasing disposable income for opticians’ products, mobile phones, clothes etc.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, January 2017, London, ‘Generation Z attention spans’

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Guerrilla Marketing

Philip Wimbledon — Thu, 05 May 2016 17:34:30 +0000

Guerrilla Marketing is the choice of every brand. It’s fun, engaging and low budget versus other channels. There is some risk involved, but it is often surpassed by the results (and of course outweighed by a huge budget saving).

Wikipedia catalogs it as an advertisement strategy concept designed for businesses to promote their products or services in an unconventional way with little budget to spend. This involves high energy and imagination focusing on grasping the attention of the public in more personal and memorable level.

Above GuerillaComm.com has some good examples of effective Guerrilla tactics at an obviously low cost. Of course such examples would be unlikely to attract much publicity for your brand. This is where a good brand marketing team will have a multi-channel marketing approach bringing it to the attention of wider media publishers and audiences.

Guerrilla Marketing is often misunderstood for a requirement of outdoor placement. Not so as the above example illustrates (although this was used as a billboard ad too). 78 percent of millennials are more inclined to become part of a brand if they have the face-to-face interaction offered by Guerrilla Marketing.

Further reading / Attribution: http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/50-awesome-guerrilla-marketing-ideas/

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Apr 2016, London, ‘Guerrilla Marketing the Brand’s Choice.’

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Paid To Walk. Bitwalking

Philip Wimbledon — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 11:32:45 +0000

Imagine being paid to walk. Every time you walk to the shops, walk to work, walk to school, walk anywhere, someone pays you money. Well that’s what Nissan Bahar and Franky Imbesi have created and it’s taking the world by storm.

Their mobile app counts and verifies each step you take, earning the walker 1 BW$ for approximately 10,000 steps (about five miles). Immediately you can see it won’t earn you vast sums quickly, but hey you’re paid just for walking to work which you’re going to do every day anyway..

The mobile app reports the speed and type of movement as measured by the ‘accelerometer’. However, the total amount a person can earn in one day will be capped at approximately 3 BW dollars (nearly 30,000 steps). That’s potentially 90 BW dollars a month (£65 approx.). The Bitwalking team have also developed algorithms to prevent users operating multiple accounts.

In 2015 and early 2016, there has been a trend for fitness trackers with Sony, Garmin, Fitbit to name a few all producing wrist bands that monitor how far you’ve walked. The Bitwalking app just goes that one ‘step’ further by offering an extra incentive to keep fit. In 2016 a Japanese electronics manufacturer is already working on a Bitwalking wrist band that will let users earn without needing to have their mobile with them.

There are many potential advertisers and partners for such an idea. Shoe manufacturers will be quick to come on board, health insurers (think of the advertising campaigns by Prudential life insurance), environmental firms and anyone courting publicity (Virgin are already linked to Bitwalking). Imagine the data insight potential advertisers could have access to, which alone would generate the real-dollars needed to get the scheme off the ground.

Concerns over privacy of individual users walk patterns were answered by the co-founder Nissan Bahar who stated “That won’t be for sale. We may explore offering advertisers the opportunity to focus on different groups depending on how active they are, but we won’t pass on any information relating to individual’s movements.”

Employers could be invited to participate where their employees are encouraged to be healthier and the Bitwalking currency that they earn could be converted then paid in their salaries.

It’s estimated that western world users would earn on average 15 BW dollars a month. It is unlikely users could swap BitWalk dollars for real money but they would be used to buy goods much like the barter system in place before money was invented. Businesses that offer free coffees when you buy nine drinks (think Café Nero) could very easily get on board.

Franky Imbesi says “For some Bitwalking will be a free cup of coffee a week perhaps offered by local businesses to encourage people to explore their local shops. For others it could be a game changer, transforming their lives by enabling them to earn and trade in the same way with the rest of the world.”

That is a major point of appeal in the developing world. Poorer individuals where people have to walk far to go to work or to school or just to collect their daily water, could all see real tangible benefits. In this way the western world that has long taken part in philanthropic charity events to help those in need, could help the poorest in the world. Some charity donations never reach their intended recipients due to charity overheads, corrupt local government officials or local gangs who steal food and other goods funded from Western charities. But if Western companies working with Bitwalking could provide goods that users can exchange for their Bitwalking dollars, those poor individuals would directly receive the benefits.

The online store will sell goods for the same price in BW$ as US$. Now the 15 BW dollars per month doesn’t seem so low. $15 is approximately £10.00. There could be many goods bought for say three months’ worth (£30.00) and all from just walking.

Keeping the virtual shelves of this online store fully stocked will be one of the first challenges for the new idea, but so far, so good.

Of course with such a new platform it isn’t available to download in the app store. It is invite only but YouCom Media hopes you succeed and you can try your luck via the link below;

[APPLY].

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Jan 2016, London, ‘You Can Be Paid To Walk.’

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Great Video Marketing

Philip Wimbledon — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 08:55:47 +0000

73 percent of people are likely to purchase a product or service if they’ve watched a video explaining it beforehand.

Videos are increasing in popularity every day and with more smartphone usage than ever before, they look set to see exponential growth. Yet many advertisers do not have a video on their business directory listings for example (contact our Direct Response team for advice from their content marketing ideas).

Secrets of great video marketing

Begin.

This is the hardest part for a brand, but if you begin creating video content, you’re already moving forward. Videos are a proven effective way for customers to remember your product and engage with your brand.

Graphic Savings

Animation videos look professional yet are a fraction of the cost of a top brand’s video budget.

Insertion.

YouTube and Vimeo are widely used. Others also exist which just like YouTube offer people the ability to search as they might on Google. Twitter is a great outlet for your video. Short clips work best using apps like Vine. More Info.

Popularity by association

If you can get a known celebrity to endorse your product or brand within your video, you gain instant access to their followers and fans. By that rationale it doesn’t have to be an A-list celebrity either (good luck with those), it could be a D-list celebrity. TOWIE stars are widely known within a particular demographic and will want the publicity that your product and advertising might bring.

Keep them short

People no longer have time for anything. Customers need to understand your marketing message within 2 minutes maximum. 30 seconds is ideal. Video is more an awareness and interest medium to direct traffic to your website or to call your company.

Social Media

Publishing the video on YouTube and Vimeo as previously mentioned is the first step, next you need to tell people about it. Social media with a Tweet link or on Facebook, is the ideal opportunity to do so and there are numerous advertising opportunities to promote your tweet or page to non-followers.

Cultural divide

Videos (particularly an animated video) won’t need a language option, anyone can view it. If necessary you could add local language captions later.

A.I.D.A

A boring video is just that, boring. How many customers are you likely to bring in if you only explain your product in the video? Create awareness, but most importantly create interest and desire to engage.

Life cycle

A video can last. Don’t be afraid to reuse it.

Copy cat

Don’t be afraid to copy something that’s working for another brand. Particularly if not in your sector. If The Priceless campaign emphasises MasterCard payment as the best way to pay for “everything that matters.” It is one of the most recognisable campaigns and has enabled MasterCard to build and maintain strong brand value and trust among consumers. Priceless ads run in 110 countries and in 51 languages, and focus on using a MasterCard card for what matters most in life. Has your sector got something similar?

Diversify

The MasterCard Priceless platform houses everything from their renowned Priceless adverts to consumer-based card promotions and competitions. Once you have a successful video, use social media to assess traction and then utilise it within other media and merchandising, signage etc.

Follow the YouCom Media news posts to see the next developments.

Glossary:

A.I.D.A – Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action

TOWIE – The Only Way Is Essex

Required reference:

YouCom Media News, Aug 2015, London, ‘secrets of great video marketing’

The post Great Video Marketing appeared first on YouCom.

Data Dead-Drops

Philip Wimbledon — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:37:57 +0000

You’ve just found data you shouldn’t have access to. Men in grey suits are coming to kill you. What do you do? YouCom identified a new viral craze with the answer. Data dead-drops.

Imagine the scene. Highly sensitive files, the sort of data that Hollywood tells us attracts men in grey suits ready to kill. Where do you offload it? A new viral craze has the answer. A media artist, Aram Bartholl, created ‘data dead-drops’. USB sticks embedded in walls all around the city, all around the world. Peer-to-peer file sharing in the physical world in true Banksy style.

YouCom has found the idea is spreading, growing to 1,500 dead-drop locations worldwide. It allows for anonymous, offline, file-sharing as a new kind of social network. If you have some homework or coursework for a friend, leave it in the wall by the side of Starbucks. Possibilities are endless and a new form of media sharing is born.

USB flash drives are embedded into walls, buildings and even curbs! Accessible to anybody in public space. Aram Bartholl invites everyone to take part and drop or find files on a dead drop. Each dead drop is installed empty except a readme.txt file explaining the project. If you want to install a dead drop in your city or neighbourhood follow the ‘how to’ instructions and submit the location and pictures.

To find out more, watch this upbeat video https://vimeo.com/16620712 or follow these instructions https://deaddrops.com/dead-drops/participate/

And don’t forget to Tweet YouCom Media about what you uploaded and where.

To reference data from this article, please use: ‘YouCom Media News, Mar 2015, London, ‘Peer-to-peer file sharing goes viral.’

The post Data Dead-Drops appeared first on YouCom.