'Cross The Breeze

What if … I could actually find it?!

March 31, 2007 by Kris Hoet 3 Comments

I don’t get it! PUB, the Belgian magazine on marketing, advertising and media show us a creative campaign from the agency ‘What If’ for a Pioneer navigation product. This interests me because it’s in integrated campaign with print, POS, tv, internet and a viral element running in 17 countries. And also, not unimportant as some of you know, it features a Ford Mustang Shelby which I could see in the image on the article.

The funny thing is that there’s no link with the article so I can go see for myself (traditional medium remember). Let’s check the PUB website then, nope nothing. Let’s try the agency website, a lot of cases but not the one I’m looking for. The Pioneer website? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Sigh… It’s a viral campaign as well, launched in 17 countries, but even though I’m having about 20 pure advertising blogs in my RSS reader I can’t remember seeing anything of this campaign. I checked Youtube quickly as well, but all of this without results.

Do you see what I don’t get it? I find this really unbelievable, honestly. I would have loved to see this campaign “with the 3D city you can drive through for real” and I would have blogged about it here for sure and on http://iblogmustang.com as well. Too bad, I give up. Good luck on the viral!

Final note: I didn’t think of this before, but actually this is all extra funny since the campaign is to promote navigation products :)

Technorati tags: viral, pioneer, what if, ford mustang, advertising, tv, print, pos, blogging

advertising, blogging, internet, media

Made to Stick

March 30, 2007 by Kris Hoet 4 Comments

First things first, this really is a great book. I’m not done with it yet, so my review will be for sometime soon. This is more about a curiosity, as the book reminded me of a classic Stones album.

Was it the ‘stickiness factor’ of both products? Well, it wasn’t actually. ‘Made to Stick’ reminded me of ‘Sticky Fingers’ because of the 3D effect on both. You probably have to be thirtysomething (or older) to know this so as a reminder for the others, the ‘Sticky Fingers’ vinyl album actually had a real zipper on the front (designed by Warhol). The duct tape on ‘Made to Stick’ is not real (nor is the cover designed by Warhol) but the effect is definitely there.

It’s just a curiosity as I told before, most important, both the album & the book are rocking! Seems like Boing Boing likes the cover of the book as well by the way.

Technorati tags: sticky fingers, stickiness, made to stick, curiosity, warhol

art, books, design, marketing, music

What we want from our PR agencies

March 30, 2007 by Kris Hoet 2 Comments

The Twelve Consultancy – a PR consultancy themselves for the record – did a survey of some sort with 100 marketing directors to name the five key things that they want from their PR agency. This resulted in this list:

A thorough understanding of their business and industry sector – the best PRs understand their clients’ complete business landscape, which allows them to make strategic recommendations based on the marketplace or competitive climate and achieve quality coverage rather column inches for the sake of it;
Creativity – successful PR programmes always have one thing in common: constant innovation and challenging conventional thinking;
Strong writing skills – agencies must bring their clients’ stories to life in a way that will engage the media;
Strategic thinking – clients depend on PR agencies, as a third party with an objective but still knowledgeable perspective to offer up another way to look at any given situation;
Access to senior people – it’s reassuring for clients to know that individuals throughout all levels of the agency are invested in the account. PR is still a people business and clients want to see that they’ll get experienced and knowledgeable people working on their business.

Definitely not bad and not limited to PR really. Change the 3rd into ‘strong design skills’ and you get the list of 5 key things you want from your advertising agency if you ask me.

[Via the Marketing blog]

Technorati tags: survey, marketing, pr, agency, advertising, hotlist, consulting, wishlist

advertising, marketing, media, pr

Life outside the 30″ spot

March 29, 2007 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

There’s not much to say about this other than go see it for yourself. I guess this is life outside the 30″ second spot, rather than after ;) Great online promotion for the clubinternet TV on demand service.

[Via Pietel]

Technorati tags: clubinternet, advertising, internet, pietel, duel, microsoft tv

advertising, fun, internet, media, signup

Let’s interact

March 28, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

A few days ago I was asked to be part of the blog IAB Europe set up for it’s Interact Congress that will take place in Brussels on June 4th-5th. This invitation probably was a result from a presentation I did at the Netcafé on blogging organized by IAB Belgium in February. I accepted the invitation of course together with 15 other bloggers (until now), some familiar faces – Jesse, JP, Bert, Marco – and some more new ones. It’ll clearly take a little more time to get the blog going, but this definitely should become interesting so be sure to check it out, add it to your RSS reader.

And if you’re planning on coming to Brussels for the congress, let me know, always good to meet up with fellow marketers ;)

Technorati tags: marketing, iab, europe, congress, interact, blog, blogging, presentation

advertising, blogging, internet, marketing, signup

Marketing hotlist

March 28, 2007 by Kris Hoet 9 Comments

With top marketing bloglists popping up all over, from the ‘original’ Top 25 Marketing blogs from Mack Collier to Todd And’s Power 150. From the z-lists to Jaffe’s March Blogness, … I’m reading many blogs on marketing but if you would ask me which are the ones I like most, which are the ones that I think stand out on a continuous basis – this would be my list:

I’ve had a chance to meet few of them in real life or via email already, all great marketers really, and I can only hope I’ll get to know all the others on this list as well.

If you want to have a look at the other feeds that I check on a daily basis, I share them over here. I’ll probably do a hotlist on Advertising one of these days as well.

[Update: added Jaffejuice and Guy Kawasaki which should be on that list as well - note to self: focus!]

Technorati tags: marketing, hotlist, marketers, gapingvoid, blogs, power 150, viral garden, top

blogging, hotlist, influence, internet, marketing

Youth sentiment

March 27, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

For those who figured out my blog is named after a Sonic Youth classic… you’ll like this: youth sentiment on Youtube by Bart Van Belle – subscribed!

[Via Pietel | Claudia]

Technorati tags: youth, sentiment, sonic youth, youtube

music, other things

A passionate reader

March 27, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

It’s very sad to see things like this happening. Freedom of speech still doesn’t allow hate speech, nor should anonymity be a freeride to threads like these. I know like most of you that things like these (although less extreme I hope) are probably happening more than we would want, but maybe the blogoshphere should have stood up to that already long time ago.

And for you Kathy, hang in there, I hope to be reading a lot more of your passionate stuff in the near future ;).

Technorati tags: kathy sierra, headrush, hate, freedom of speech, passionate

blogging, community, internet, news

Virtual customer satisfaction

March 26, 2007 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

Last week I wrote about the very traditional approach of many brands in the new space that is Second Life. My colleague Philippe points out to a customer satisfaction survey that was done in Second Life, which confirms my point:

““We were able to detect that companies are transferring their challenges like-for-like from the real world, without creating sustainable solutions for the virtual one,” says Dr. Nils Andres. “The brand sites on Second Life currently look like they’re being treated in pretty much the same way as advertising campaigns, placed with the hope of getting high visitor frequency and good PR scores”. The success of brands in Second Life, on the other hand, will depend on lasting engagement and well-thought out content management in order to generate sustainable interest among avatars. Only then will it be possible to create a positive brand experience. “Experiences and learning effects from real-world leisure and pleasure parks could serve as a very useful basis for planning for manufacturers,” says Andres.”

This results in a low satisfaction score from consumers with the activities of companies in Second Life:

“The first thing to stand out is that 72% of respondents expressed themselves as being disappointed with the activities of the companies in Second Life. Over a third of them were unaware of the branded presence and 42% said they thought it constituted nothing more than a short-term trend, lacking durable commitment from the companies. Just 7% consider that it has a positive influence on brand image and their future buying behaviour.”

Maybe companies need more time to thoroughly think through the opportunity Second Life offers. The ‘being first’ effect for companies is wearing off, maybe this well make brands think more about their presence in this virtual world. But first, time for a break…

Technorati tags: survey, second life, customer, satisfaction, brands, companies, kit kat, virtual world

advertising, community, influence, marketing, media, software

That luggage looks like a good bet

March 26, 2007 by Kris Hoet 3 Comments

As a marketer and frequent flyer I must say I just love this advertising campaign. I’m thinking my luggage will drop 35 black, what do I get when it does? :)