Getting the soundtrack right for your brand is a crucial part of getting your message noticed and remembered. A brand new track from Beyoncé or a punchy rap about sanitary protection is sure to do the trick.

O2 – Priority Moments, Beyoncé, VCCP

O2’s priority moments campaigns have become a defining feature of the mobile phone company’s value proposition.

But the value attributed to the brand is just about to go stellar as the most talked about woman on the planet lends her music to announce their latest coup. If you are an O2 Customer, keep the 21st February free so that you can get your tickets to see Beyoncé before they go on general sale.

Mooncup – Rap Battle, St Luke’s

Sanitary Products’ online comms activity has, in recent years, led the charge for honest, direct communication with the public.

Ever since Mooncup originally launched loveyourvagina.com and Bodyform corrected Richard Neill’s misconception about periods via their brilliant YouTube film, the gloves are off and frank conversations have become the name of the game. Now Mooncup are back with a feisty rap, taking on the old guard of tampons and towels.

Read more from Haystack online in our exclusive, member-only Clubhouse.

Posted: February 12th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: haystackonline | Tags: beyonce, Haystack, haystackonline, mooncup, O2, priority moments, rap battle, sanitary products | Leave a Comment »

From The Marketing Society’s quarterly journal Market Leader, Elen Lewis, Editor for The Marketing Society.

D is for dialogue…and daemons. Remember that writing is like talking, because if you’re not writing for someone else, why will they want to read it?

I was lucky enough to sit next to Philip Pullman, one of my favourite novelists, two years ago at dinner in Merton College, Oxford.

Philip wrote the His Dark Materials trilogy – Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass – widely regarded as the thinking reader’s Harry Potter.

These books zing with magic and storytelling and they’re also beautifully written. Philip was talking about the creative breakthrough he had while first writing Northern Lights. His young heroine, Lyra, was prowling around an Oxford college, but he couldn’t seem to move the story on. Then he realised it was because she needed a companion – she needed someone to speak to.

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Posted: February 6th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Market Leader | Tags: Daemons, elen lewis, Market Leader, Northern Lights, Philip Pulman, writing | Leave a Comment »

As part of our partnership with Haystack Online, each week we showcase penetrating marketing campaigns. This week on haystackonline – As January, the month many people become obsessed not drinking alcohol and getting their bodies back in shape is behind us and we enter the month surprisingly free of abstemiousness, we look at two diets that are looking  to kick start 2013. LighterLife are trying to break what has become the category convention of clichéd ‘celebrity’ endorsement among weight loss programmes, and Diet Coke have relaunched the Hunk, this time on facebook, to begin the celebrations of 30 sizzling years.

The Diet Coke ‘Hunk’ – The Coca Cola Company
BETC London

To celebrate Diet Coke’s 30^th birthday, and part of the ‘Sparkling Together for 30 Years’ campaign, the soft drink company has reintroduced the hunk to a new generation of women, this time in the form of a gardener. Once again set to the tune of Etta James’ ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, the ad, first aired in 1994, and with refreshes in 1997and 2003 rejuvenates the original concept blending female power and humour. The new film was launched on Facebook at 11.30, the time the ladies, in the office 30 years ago, stopped everything to watch the builder strip to the waist to drink his refreshing Diet Coke.

My Lighter Life – Lighter Life
Brothers and Sisters

For this year’s rush for the dieting , Lighter Life needed a campaign that separated their dieting strategy from their competitors. Whilst it depicts a life journey that is familiar to many of us, it takes a different turn to other weight loss adverts. Rather than show ‘before and afters’ it is a story told with honesty, warmth and humour and avoids celebrity endorsements. Perhaps best described as a personal timeline, the ad ran on TV from boxing day and throughout January.

Read more from Haystack online on our blog and in our exclusive member only Clubhouse.

Posted: February 5th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: haystackonline | Tags: BETC London, Brothers and Sisters, Diet Coke, Haystack, haystackonline, Lighter Life | Leave a Comment »

David Wethey, founder AAI, shares his thoughts on decision making and business meeting challenges.

My book DECIDE will be published on 5th February. To celebrate, I’d like to share with you five thoughts on decision making in general, and five on that most frustrating of business experiences – the Meeting.
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Posted: January 30th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Makes You Think | Tags: AAI, business meetings, David Wethey, decision making | Leave a Comment »

In our regular article, Say Media analyses the week in a Venn diagram. This week, The Real Secret to Premium Content

‘Yeah, everyone’s not me’.
Carrie Matthison, Homeland

Premium is becoming an overused word like amazing (is that sandwich really amazing?), or a misused word like literally (most people are “literally” using it wrong). Just because a company uses the word premium to describe its product – it doesn’t make it original, high quality, distinctive or even valuable to the consumer. As any fan of Homeland, Shameless or even, Gigolos will tell you, Showtime is definitely a premium cable channel, worth every extra dollar you spend for entertainment. Any car owner who spends more at the pump for premium gasoline understands higher-grade fuel means better engine performance.

But for every real premium experience, there are plenty that aren’t. An entrepreneur in Malaysia has launched a premium coffee served at luxury hotels in Asia and the Middle East, that sells java to connoisseurs for $50 a cup. The “premium” refining process? The coffee beans are fed to Thai elephants, plucked from the pachyderms’ dung and, then, prepared for roasting. Makes you reconsider any grumbling over paying more at Starbucks.

The same holds for premium content. Almost every publisher believes their content is premium. And yet, too often a premium content experience for readers means articles about a topic you care about surrounded by stories of moisturizing jeans and cross-dressing virgins.

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Posted: January 29th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: A week in Venn | Tags: A week in venn, Homeland, Premium Content, SAY Media | Leave a Comment »

Hundreds of British troops could be deployed to Mali, General Sir Mike Jackson has warned of guerilla warfare. We revisit General Sir Mike Jackson talking about Leadership at The Marketing Society’s Annual Conference 2010.

Member’s of The Marketing Society can watch the full video in our online Clubhouse.

Posted: January 29th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Annual Conference, Features | Tags: Annual Conference, General Sir Mike Jackson, leadership, The Royal Opera House | Leave a Comment »

As part of our partnership with Haystack Online, each week we showcase penetrating marketing campaigns. This week on haystackonline – Two new campaigns for 2013. Both use emotional storytelling to drive brand awareness. One comes with high expectations as Guinness release the second in their Made of More campaign. The second is Brittany Ferries’ foray into brand building. Not a wave, not a captain’s cap, not an on board restaurant in sight.

Diageo – Guinness Clock
AMV BBDO

Set in the 1890s, when Guinness would have been already around 140 years old, this commercial uses the town clock as a metaphor for not settling for the ordinary. The clock is the centerpiece of the commercial, controlling time for a town’s residents, including stopping time for the return of the army, making the important moments, less momentary.

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Posted: January 29th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: haystackonline | Tags: AMV BBDO, bray leino, Brittany Ferries, Guinness, haystackonline | Leave a Comment »

Joss Davidge, Business Director of brand experience agency BEcause, continues his weekly search for innovative marketing ideas that get people talking. This week he looks at a highly targeted campaign from British Airways in Brazil.

British Airways recently devised a campaign that spoke directly to potential customers in Brazil. According to the video, the airline has found that having “British” in its name has made people think that the airline only flies to the UK. So, British Airways installed scanners in travel sections of bookshops across Brazil and waited for people to scan their chosen travel book. When they did the display announced the cost of a flight to that specific destination with British Airways.

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Posted: January 25th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: Talking Points | Tags: BA, BEcause, Brazil, British Airways, Joss Davidge, Talking Points | Leave a Comment »

Apple is developing a lower-end iPhone to strengthen its position against Samsung.

As part of our partnership with Marketing magazine we spark debate amongst senior members of The Marketing Society. This week we ask – Is it damaging for premium brands to introduce cheaper types of products?

NO – KRISTOF FAHY, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, WILLIAM HILL

Apart from the pure luxury brands, you would hope that most well-run brands could introduce cheaper products without compromising their values or standards.

On a BA flight, there are four different experiences, usually separated by a curtain, within the same metal tube. Yet, they all work with each other. It’s a distinction of how much you want to pay. A low-end iPhone will probably be as good as an iPhone 2.

More people being able to afford an iPhone won’t damage the brand, and could improve the iPhone apps eco-system by bringing greater distribution opportunities for developers.

Brands should be able to stretch their offer, as long as they remain true to what is at their core.

NO – TRACEY FOLLOWS, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER AND EXECUTIVE PARTNER, JWT LONDON

Not if you have a high-level product you can keep at a safe distance from the low-cost entry-level product, and as long as there are distinct targets.

In the telecommunications sector, innovation moves so quickly that a significant distance can be maintained, so that the high end always stays high end, and that will probably be the case for the extended Apple portfolio.

Conversely, the Waitrose Essential line doesn’t count here. That was still available only via the premium experience of Waitrose: it was all just to make the same Waitrose shopper feel less guilty about where they shopped.

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Posted: January 24th, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: marketing forum | Tags: apple, Bloom, Daryl Fielding, Daryl Fielding Consultants, ED HAYES, JWT, Kristof Fahy, marketing forum, tracey follows, William Hill | Leave a Comment »

As part of our partnership with Haystack Online, each week we showcase penetrating marketing campaigns. This week on haystackonline – From Barclays we look at a new mortgage product designed with the pressures of modern parenthood in mind and from SAB Miller a beer that was first brewed by monks in 1295, but which has been reintroduced by the brewing giant as the first modern beer to mature in the bottle.

St Stefanus – SAB Miller
Inferno

Brand story telling is already set to become the buzzword of 2013, as the race to create relevant content for brands takes a grip on every brand marketing team. But when you are marketing a beer that matures in the bottle, changing taste and hue, the beer connoisseur will do the storytelling for you. But will letting him discover it for himself drive enough volume to make the brand a hit? Time will tell. But for now, you cannot deny the detail and craftsmanship that has gone into the supporting campaign.

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Posted: January 22nd, 2013 | Author: admin | Filed under: haystackonline | Tags: Barclaycard, BBH, Haystack, inferno, SAB Miller, St Stefanus, Unconditional love | Leave a Comment »