Interested to read this morning that the UK is leading the world when it comes to using mobile devices to shop. Reported on the BBC, the average annual UK spend/head is £1,083. (Australia is second with £802). The exciting context of this is the size of the inexorably increasing prize that’s on offer. In 2011, only 8% of total online sales (£68B) were generated by mobile in the UK, up from 4% the previous year.
Posted by James on December 13th, 2012
Plato said “those who tell the stories rule society”. That was more than 2300 years ago. So why is storytelling now seen as critical to modern marketing and why have companies such as Nike, P&G and Motorola hired storytellers to their marketing department and even the board?
It’s largely driven by consumer’s mass consumption of content across platforms. And because without a guiding narrative weaving through your content marketing efforts, your product or service, is just a product or service, it holds no emotional connection with your customers.
Stories give your business meaning, stories are shareable, stories are less likely to be turned off or tuned out from, they’re unique and they can move people to action.
Redbull understands the art of transmedia storytelling beautifully. Its Redbull Stratos stunt saw 8 million people tune in live to its youtube channel to watch Felix Baumgartner hurtle to earth from space. It succinctly distilled its proposition “Red Bull gives you wings”, into a captivating stunt, which in turn garnered millions of pounds of earned media. And without one single product mention or cutaway. And yet in a heartbeat you get the brand.
Where authenticity was once the buzz word, brands should feel empowered to make their fact more interesting with fiction. We’ve been taught to make our comms single-minded, simple an uncomplicated, but now, we should perhaps be a little rough round the edges, adding layers and allowing consumers to co-create and unfold the story themselves.
Great examples include Rayban’s All Tomorrow campaign turning its Facebook fan’s stories into personalised animated films, Hiut jeans adding a unique history tag to its clothing and allowing consumers to upload pictures and storied of where they went and what they did to the HistoryTag website. Even Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto album, which has now transcended into a comic, and potentially even a film. Social media is helping to fuel this storytelling revival, and it’s by no means brand-led. Social Samba, a Facebook application allows users to develop their own storylines and then share it with friends to join in the narrative has seen hundreds of thousands of new stories created.
Our role as marketeers is to burn through the indifference of consumers and give them a compelling reason as to why they should choose our brand over the next. The art of storytelling delivered through content marketing is that very tool.
Posted by James on December 4th, 2012
Each month we host 3,2,1 Share, a chance for the agency to get together and share knowledge. Back at the beginning of the year, I blogged about the ever growing trend of collaborative consumption; a shift from ownership and mass consumption to sharing, bartering and lending.
Last night I clocked an advert from Argos, pushing its Toy Exchange campaign. This caught my eye, as it was a surprisingly different, and very modern approach for the retailer. In short, you donate unwanted toys in exchange for a £5 off voucher, the toy is then given to Barnado’s for them to sell and raise money for the charity.
For a retailer which is in a pickle with its finances, this appears to be a bold move, clearly focussing on brand. However, as consumers demand more and more social responsibility from the companies they buy from, this will be an interesting one to keep watch of, to see whether the Toy Exchange will help play a role in improving the fortunes of this ailing retail business.
Posted by James on October 30th, 2012
It has been an ongoing thread of discussion here at Finn, and on our blog, about how young talent goes about searching for job opportunities.
Unfortunately, all too often the approach is either needy “What can you do for me”, lazy (through a recruitment consultant) or lacking creativity or stand out.
So, it was refreshing to receive a fantastically untraditional and creative approach from Matt Rennie, dubbed ‘A Message From A Graduate’.
Posted by James on October 17th, 2012
As the rain comes down, the award season is hotting up, and at Finn Towers we’re delighted to have earned a place on the shortlist for the PRCA’s Small Consultancy Of The Year Awards 2012.
We’re up against some great PR talent, including Manifest, Dynamo, Third City, Cubaneight and Voice Communications. Looking forward to meeting the competition, in what will no doubt be a standard, raucous PR tear up at the awards do on Tuesday 13 November.
And in other news, the digital team has treated themselves to a trip to the freezer, as our digital work for Fab ice lolly has secured a place on The Grocer’s MAP awards in the Best Use of Social Media category.
Pass the Berocca.
Posted by James on September 26th, 2012
Our approach to digital is content and user-led. Because if you can first understand your consumers’ online behaviour, and then unlock how they use and share, you can encourage your fans to do the heavy lifting for you, thus reducing your reliance on digital marketing spend. And who wouldn’t want to be more efficient when it comes to budgets?
We’re applying this thinking to yoomoo, a new brand of frozen yogurt which has recently hit the supermarket freezers. The brand has two distinct audiences; the main shopper – mums 37+ who are interested in consuming content, participating ocassionally in social media and to a much lesser degree, creating their own content. Then there’s the end consumer; 15-25 year-old women, and true digital natives who love to create and share visual content with their friends.
We took the brand’s central creative theme – how do you moo?, a simple call to action encouraging consumers to show how and where they consume the product, and encouraged the younger fan base to unleash their creative flair. This wave of content would widen awareness about the new product range, carried with the powerful endorsement of its new users.
To superdrive the viral nature, the website has been developed with Facebook Open Graph. It allows users to express how they interact with the brand and product range, through different actions, making the web experience much more shareable. So, if you’re an Angelmoo fan, then we make it easy to tell your world through Facebook.
In addition, visual-based social media channels, including Instagram and Pinterest, have been integrated into the site to fuel further content creation and sharing, all of which will drive further viral brand awareness and web traffic. And finally, a suite of fun digital apps and games have been developed which are rolling out over the course of the year, to keep the site live, and content fresh.
It’s early days yet, but since going live just two weeks ago, traffic has increased 150%, and engagement has doubled.
So, just one question remains, how do yoo moo?
Posted by James on April 5th, 2012
Delighted to announce we’ve been appointed by single malt whisky brand, Glenfiddich as its retained consumer PR agency for the UK following a four-way pitch.
Our remit will include consumer media and blogger relations, sponsorship maximisation, experiential events and content production.
Richard Rawlins, managing director at Finn PR, said: “This is a major win for us; we are delighted to be appointed. With such rich heritage and provenance, as well as a product range which oozes quality and craftsmanship, the Glenfiddich brand lends itself to wonderful story telling.”
Glenfiddich, which is celebrating its 125 year anniversary this year, is the world’s most awarded single malt Scotch whisky and remains family-owned by William Grant & Sons.
Annabelle Clarke, senior brand manager for Glenfiddich, said: “2012 is a big year for Glenfiddich, celebrating a key milestone for the brand. We needed an agency with robust, strategic thinking, commercial understanding and focussed, well thought out ideas. We’re confident our programme of activity will be a great success and are looking forward to developing our relationship with Finn.”
Posted by James on March 22nd, 2012
Posted by James on February 29th, 2012
Posted by James on
At the risk of over-egging this with such a grandiose title, I apologise, but Collaborative Consumption (CC) is a trend you can’t ignore. It’s the explosion of sharing, lending, auctioning, bartering and swapping on a global scale and is the result of tectonic shifts in socio-cultural and economic changes.
Where the 20th Century was defined by hyper consumption, including credit, advertising and individual ownership, the 21st Century will be defined by collaborative consumption, characterised by reputation, community and shared access.
It’s all about community driven marketplaces.
You may have come across CC in your day-to-day life, but maybe not known you were participating in this exciting, global movement. Have you recently Ebay’ed? Maybe you’ve picked up something from Freecycle? Or downloaded a free music track from Limewire or joined Spotify? What about visiting the Burning Man Festival, or have you used a G-Wiz City Car? Perhaps you’ve spurned Tesco and decided to choose local? Maybe you’ve joined a book club? These are just a few examples, but there are many, many more, spanning all industries and sectors.
The key levers for CC, fall around Trust, and our ever decreasing lack of it towards big, corporate beasts, a renewed sense of Togetherness and Community, and a redefined notion of Ownership.
To gain a succinct overview into what’s driving collaborative consumption, watch this great little vid (3mins 40secs):
Throughline with Mindful Maps presents Collaborative Consumption: An RSA/Nominet Film Competition Short Film from Kate Hammer on Vimeo.
You may think that this is either a load of hubble bubble, or that it spells the death knell of businesses as we know it. I don’t think it’s either. But it does mean we as marketeers need to think differently, and plan ahead. Just how do businesses play a role in this ever growing and pervasive revolution?
If you think it’s just for tree-hugging, cottage industry, sandal wearing hippies, consider this; that BMW, Ford, Peugeot, VW and GM have all entered the car sharing sector. Why? Because they realise that they can either try and fight it, like the music industry – and fail- or join in and shift their business from that of an ownership model, to a business built on offering ’mobility services’.
This has to be one the most exciting challenges in marketing, and something we at Finn are considering in our planning and creative sessions.
And finally, here’s two great live examples of businesses built on this powerful trend, which are rapidly gaining traction:
Posted by James on January 22nd, 2012
