(Note: Picture above from: http://newslite.tv)

I, for one, was. My general morning rush meant I happily recieved the crisps from a lady in the street as a free promotion without really looking. Only realising half way across Waterloo Bridge that my crisps has the Liberal Democrat candidate Nick Clegg on the front and I had apparently chosen the Lib Dems by accepting my crisps. I was, to say the least, a little perplexed.

I inspected the packet further and realised the different coloured crisp packets at outside the station were in fact not flavours, but parties, and that this was an interesting little piece of marketing.

The back of the crisp packet informed me that I ought to visit their website http://www.therealcrisps-election.com/ to register my vote and also requested I add them on Twitter and Facebook. On the notes on the packet it also said the crisps were a sampling pack not to be claimed on expenses (which I found quite funny) and had a disclaimer stating the use of the image of Nick Clegg is in no way an endorsement of the crisps from him. No mention that the use of his image and the Liberal Democrat Party were not an endorsement of the party by the crisps though – something I would have thought mandatory since the crisps are likely to be seen alone separate to the other party packets which could give the wrong impression.

While I was pondering this (still walking on Waterloo Bridge, it’s a long bridge) I also noticed how many people had eaten theirs and littered the packets, missing the information entirely, and how many other people looked a tad confused by them. Presumably having done the same as me and not realised what the message was.

I was left with the distinct impression I had missed the point. It took me a while to realise REAL was a brand, having not heard of them before, and that this was a crisps promotion. I also felt the people handing them out needed better signage and posters to explain what they were doing so we knew to look for the small web address on the back of the packet. I also wasn’t sure why I would go online to vote with no incentive.

I checked out the site regardless when I got into the office – it was down. Too many visitors? I am unsure. But after a while it was back up and I could have a look round the site and see what this political crisp related marketing strategy was all about.

Voting was indeed accompanied by an entry into a prize draw for some rather good prizes, although these were hidden in a very undesigned popup window and seemed much an afterthought. The website design apart from this was clear, fun and had a nice real time animation of voting percentages on the front page. There was however no number of votes counter, so the percentages of people voting on parties due to receiving the free promotional crisps is unclear. There was quite a buzz about it on Twitter and elsewhere online though, so I suspect the marketing campaign was fairly wide reaching and was getting them attention.

My main thought was that the prizes ought to have been more prominent to drive more traffic, and also that the action wanted by the unsuspecting free crisp eater could have been clearer on the packet. ‘Vote online now and win’ would be the phrase that springs to mind as being missing from the design of these packets.

 Had I not been interested in finding out what the marketing strategy was and who was behind it – I might not have visited the site. As a designer and marketing professional with a strong interest in viral and social media marketing strategy however, I needed to find out who these people were. Overall, a fun and interesting marketing idea, but one which I feel could have been better executed to achieve a higher response rate. An interesting one to add to the list of companies using the election to market their own products and services (Marmite anyone?) and one to watch out for.

Which pack did you get? Did you realise the promotors aim? Did you vote? Are you more likely to vote in this crisp related marketing promotion than the real election? Let us know!

(Note: Picture above from: http://newslite.tv)

The crisp packets come in 3 designs – which feature the faces Gordon Brown on red, David Cameron on blue and Nick Clegg on yellow all contain sea salt crisps - and seem to be being given away at shopping centres and train stations around the country today – keep your eyes peeled and check out http://www.therealcrisps-election.com/ to register your vote. Or check out http://www.realcrisps.com/ to see the company behind the political based promotion.

In response to the new Tory ads a range of spoofs have gone viral. The spoofs are not merely anti-tory responses to the adverts but also responses to the posters themselves – the first of which featured a rather heavily airbrushed Cameron photo which had many reaching for photoshop within minutes. The posters are a strong simple idea with a instantly recognisable aesthetic style, and due to that very fact are a prime target for spoofers. Like the ‘I’m a PC’ adverts before then, these are just too easy to spoof and sites such as http://mydavidcameron.com/ are there with downloadable PSD files so you can photoshop away to your hearts content then upload and share your spood poster with the world back to http://mydavidcameron.com/ or onto http://ivenevervotedtory.wordpress.com/ in a LOLcats style viral communal joke.

Since the first ads have gone to press the Conservative party brought out several other poster series which are now also available as templates on http://mydavidcameron.com/ ready for usage. The resulting posters made it onto news headlines and the better ones have been passed around the web to the point where I suspect the number of people viewing spoof ads outweights those who have ever seen the original posters…

Since the adverts went live the Conservatives have taken another tact, now utalising an image of Gordon Brown as the focus of their new poster campaign from M&C Saatchi.  Far less of a target for online hoax versions than the previous campaigns but some spoofers were already creating alternative messages within days of the posters being hung.

Equally the new Labour posters depicting Cameron’s head onto 80s throwback DCI Gene Hunt sitting on a Quattro with the slogan ‘Don’t let him bring back the 80’s’ has been the target of spoofing to be a very pro-tory message championing the Conservatives hard hitting inititatives on crime.

It is interesting to see how these hard hitting and high risk stratagy posters will fare. It has been decades since the famous ‘Labour isn’t working’ poster which is still arguably the most influential political poster in modern British history – but it does leave you wondering: How would such a poster have fared had it been released in a day and age where comedy spoofs can be circulating on twitter and blogs within minutes and effectively turn the gun on the shooter.

The question posed is an interesting concept, I must admit that I hadn’t until now considered the idea that share to social might ever fully replace forward to a friend in email marketing.

Social networking offers users a place where they can share links and comments with a much wider audience with a single click – and I can see how that would be appealing to both the sender and he recipient. The uptake on social networks is also still growing so it looks likely that this trend is only likely to increase in the near future.

I think in the B2C market there is a high probability that share to social will begin to completely replace forward to a friend, although I think they will always co-exist to give the user the choice – and also to cater for emails which by nature people would only want to share with one or two people and would not want to publicise on their Facebook wall or similar.

For the B2B market I suspect that forward to a friend will remain predominant – as businesses often have one persona on a social network and not one per employee. Sure employees are likely to use social networks, but often they want a separation between their work and employed life. People do often have work twitter accounts though, and if tweeting continues to gain popularity I can see this being something which might potentially tip the B2B scales away from forward to a friend… I am not sure, as it is hard to tell is Twitter for employees will continue to rise, or if there will be a backlash against it in the future when someone posts confidential company info and subsequently has their twitter account hacked… it is a bit of a guessing game to see how that particular usage of the network will progress long term.

You can read the original blog post with it’s stats and figures based on their tests by click the link below:
http://www.emailresponsibly.com/2009/09/15/is-share-with-your-network-killing-forward-to-a-friend/

Is the use of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and other social media really something that can directly increase profits and return a high ROI? Are such activities useful for brand awareness and for increasing your online presence in a way which will only ever indirectly increase businesses and will always be a secondary activity? Or is it just something everyone is doing, so we feel we should be doing as well – even if the market is so full now, with a mix of those doing things well and badly, that people are beginning to ignore attempts to engage them in their social networks… will they end up being ignored more and more and go the way of the banner advert?

I think the answer is yes and no – for some companies the use of social networking is more about shouting information to their potential consumers – asking them directly to buy or do something that benefits the company asking. Those people will find their use of social networking will fail quite swiftly. However, for those who use the channel to give potential consumers and existing customers what they want… I can really see a bright future ahead.

One of the best examples of a combined marketing strategy (and I say combined as I do not think social media is a reason to stop using other avenues of communication with customers) to engage consumers which has worked has been Compare the Meerkat – http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/.

Compare the Market started their kitch tongue in cheek adverts with Alexander the Meerkat and simultaneously launched a dedicated spin off website, viral ‘out takes‘ clips on the dedicated site and Youtube as well as a whole host of other strategies including setting Alexander up with a Facebook page and twitter account. Now a lot of people I know added those pages and shared those Youtube clips. They interacted directly with the character Compare the Market had created and he has become a household name, people share the new ads over Facebook as they are looking forward to the next installment – they also pass around the website URL via social networks. Compare the market have sucessfully turned their entire image around by creating this character and endeared themselves to their target audience.  No one dislikes the campaign, it is spot on and has successfully grown from one TV ad spot into a fully fledged character in it’s own right. The advertising serves to greatly improve the consumers idea of Compare the Market as a company, as the use of the Meerkat idea shows they have a sense of humour and are able to poke fun at themselves, making them more human to the consumer. It also allows them to subtly include links and ads to their main site within all the media for the meerkat items, which encourage sales via a non-offense series of funny banners which say ‘Not looking for Meerkats? Try Compare the Market.com for cheap car insurance’. Compare the Market were just one of many, many comparison sites, until they launched this campaign, now they are a household name, and one which we enjoy talking about.

Another company who were heading in the direction of getting it right were Burger King with their ‘delete 10 people and get a free burger’ campaign, sure it was pulled after a week – but a lot of people installed that app and passed it to friends and the follow up marketing was quick, intelligent and spread the word further than if they hadn’t been blocked. (I recommend you read my review of the rather brilliant BK campaign here if you missed it – http://www.bubblegumkitten.com/2009/01/burger-king-gets-peope-to-dump-facebook-friends-for-free-burgers/)

My last example is from a article I read on the ‘Email Responsibly’ blog: here.

Jordan Lane explores the ways in which email and social networking can be combined into successful campaigns to gain sales and also promote social media channels to people who use their other channels such as email or their website.

His example is a company called ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’, one of the larger retailers of sporting goods and clothing in the USA. Dick’s released a simple but effective campaign which gave the consumer what they wanted. Rather than going down the humour route they have opted to offer an incentive – with retail this is often a good way to gain interest and engage the customer – also as they sent this via email and their site, they are looking to improve relations with already engaged consumers rather than spread brand awareness, making this a sensible strategy. Rather than just the promise of interesting tweets and offers if you join, they make the offer first. Add them on Twitter and receive 20% off just for the add. We aren’t talking rocket science here… this is a plain and simple bribe and they aren’t pretending it is anything else. An open approach adds transparency and the email also details the future benefits they will receive. But really, this is a win/win situation. The more people follow them, even if they immediately unsubscribe after receiving their voucher, the more sales they receive – their is a direct and high ROI on this offer. Emails are cheap, Twitter is free, sales will go up. People are also likely to send this offer onto friends virally as well, so really they cannot loose.

It makes me wonder why more companies aren’t taking this approach. I see so many companies either half heartily offering entertainment and their campaigns falling down and even more just asking people to subscribe or add / follow them online but without giving them a reason.

I think the key is, do not directly approach consumers and ask them for something, give them something they want and they will share without you even having to ask, just use social networks to make it as easy as possible for them to share, used a mixed media approach and link everything together.

In the land of B2C marketing, all the useful information & statistics in the world will not get much of a response – because consumers want to be engaged more as entertainment – they need a completely different approach. And depending on the audience you want to attract completely different strategies are needed… If you want them to feel valued and for customer relations to improve, telling them why they are good won’t help, they are not on social networks as a source of factual information spoon fed to them. It is for the very reason implied in the name – they are there to be social, have fun, share fun and be entertained.

Companies such as Burger King and Compare the Market have done just that, and are reaping the rewards – their campaigns became household names, with consumers eagerly awaiting their next installment.  I believe making social media work for your company isn’t about how large a budget you throw at the campaign but rather how much time you spend coming up with the right idea and tone of voice. But it is a risky strategy – aim for humour and miss and you risk a lot of negative publicity… Try to spend 70% of your time and budget on the idea and only 40% on the execution… If you want to know why this approach works, think about how successful the rather silly Icanhascheezeburger.com is, and try to think of anyone who uses social networks who hasn’t heard of or received a lolcat image in their inbox in the last few weeks… think how many people you might have sent an email onto had it followed that Dick’s Sporting Goods example if it was for a brand you shopped regularly with. Would you follow Amazon on Twitter for an instant 20% off? I think so…

With such a crowded online space, ideas are the things we need to get right, the execution is important. But a poor idea well executed will have a negative effect, whereas a great idea on a low budget can still make the headlines…

I will leave the old blog live for a while for those people who have links to it – but if you could repoint your favourites and RSS feeds to this URL: http://blog.bubblegumkitten.com (The RSS feed being now http://www.bubblegumkitten.com/feed/) you will receive uninterrupted service.

Links:

Please bookmark the new blog URL: http://blog.bubblegumkitten.com

I have collected some examples of business cards (and should point out I own no copyright to any of these, the rights remain the property of the cards owners) and posted my favourites here. Many came from this blog which has large archive collections of inspirational designs by broad category.

These ones really strike me because they are the personality and brand of a business and the card’s holder themselves in such a small format. In some ways they are a mini flyer that embodies the services provided rather than being a business card at all. They are also all rather fun. Some completely ignore the standard commonly held design conventions for business cards, others just play with the idea and are a new take on the standard rectangle with text. The use of colour and often unique printing methods or simple die cut aspects seem to make such a difference in personality.

First up a rather subtly lovely design for an acupuncture therapist using holes int he card itself to create a stylish design and mimic the physical action of the therapy:

Next, a card for which I use the term loosely, for a chest physician, playing on the action of testing your lung capacity in a fun and unique way. Not the most practical of cards (as people with chest complains would have to stretch it to read rather than blow it up) but still a lovely idea in principle:

Another using the physicality of the card itself – a simple die cut hole for the camera lens makes a simple card just that more intriguing for a freelance photographer. It makes you want to pick it up and look through the hole to see the world from his point of view:

A Greek restaurant uses pieces of seemingly random broken traditional Greek china tableware to embody the idea of the meal and the tradition behind it in a fun and playful take on the business card:

An ornithologist’s card allows the user to mimic his action of bird watching & studies through binoculars in a fun and simple card:

I really love this one – a personal trainer tests your finger muscles with this stretchy unique card idea that reminds me of those horrid Stretch Armstrong toys people used to have, I can imagine people playing with this card and showing it to friends – a great form of viral ‘word of mouth’ advertising if ever I saw one:

A property management company show you how you can improve your lawn with this quirky card and gift in one. I really like this idea because it is not only fairly cheap, but also inspires the recipient to take some sort of action and look at their property and garden. Any flowers grown will also act as a reminder of the person who gave the card:

This custom stationary and book making company draw on the history of their industry as well as the bespoke nature of their services with this antique fan style card. The antique paper feel really gives the idea that this is an established and trusted traditional company, family owned even. Definitely small but professional and unique in what they offer. The shape would make it somewhat awkward to carry as the corners would bend, but I think in this case it is worth it as the card is a lovely item in itself, in fact due to it’s aged appearance such creases or folds may just add to the idea that this is a beloved old piece of paper rediscovered by the owner:

And the last card for now is for a yoga instructor – where you fill in the gap in the picture to create a fun yoga finger puppet of sorts. Memorable, and again very simple to do with just two die cut holes turning what would otherwise be a simple card into more of a familiar toy to the recipient. Yoga is a demanding activity and there are many providers around, the card would be likely to raise a smile and therefore people would remember the friendly face of the instructor fondly because of it making going to classes less daunting – a clever piece of psychology in a tiny card:

Links:
Quite a few of the cards came from this design blog’s collection

Am still sketching out the typography to go with this.

You can see the original hand drawn sketches for these elements here.

Links:
My original sketches and scamps for this

The branding needs to reflect the style and tone of voice of the main reviewer as well as the interests and fashion style of the target audience of alternatives and anime / Visual Kei Band / Japanese culture fans.

Taking Zoe’s alternative dress sense and Japanese Swallowtail Butterfly tattoos as my inspiration I have started to sketch out some drawings for the logo design.

Just a badly taken photo of one of my sketchbook pages for now – but I will endeavour to put up something more finished as it happens.

UPDATE:
Half way there:

UPDATE 2:
You can see the finished colouring by clicking here.

“Design and illustrate a logo for a military (but fun) themed 21st Birthday weekend called ‘Operation Pink Menace’ for use on invites, stationary and other items. Include something iconic about the woman whose Birthday it is and also bear in mind she is a professional pastry chef / cake baker in training.  She also prefers farmyard animals with ‘good flanks’, preferably cows, as her mascot so one was to be included in the creation if possible.”

I created two versions based on this. A full coat of arms design (loosely based on real examples to add authenticity) including her favourite pink Dr Marten’s boots, a cow. I expanded the chef theme in a clockwise direction by following this with a whisk and a finished chocolate cream cake. The second version used just the boot as a simple alternative. Both work well in either full colour or black and white. The amount of detail on the crest also looks quite official printed onto the aged hand typed paper invites.

It was nice to work on a small personal project like this. I had fun creating these and hope to take on more similar work in the future.

The finished coat of arms logo design and alternative logo option for a Birthday event:

I will post some pictures of the stationary and other items when they are produced to show the logos in action.

links:
Want a logo designed or an illustration for your event? Email me at bex@bubblegumkitten.com

iFrogz have also brought out a service where, for not much more than a cost of standard headphones, you can customise your set by changing the colours and graphics on them as a special service on their site for their Nerve Pipes, Flow and Fallout ranges.

I was really impressed when Nike started doing this with trainers a few years back with their Nike ID site which had a really nice interface and really made it fun to design your own trainers. iFrogz headphone design service is pretty much the same thing and is just as fun to use. You can have a go at designing your own headphones by clicking here. The site uses a fast loading and easy to use set of JS similar to the Nike ID site to allow you to easily colour and change the look of the headphones and then either buy them or add them to your  wish list for future purchase.

I really love the fact that more sites are offering this kind of custom service, and at a fair price. It only costs an extra 10-12 pounds for the custom set over one of the standard designs. I think products with a simple modular design, especially one which is essentially a set of moulded plastic parts, are ideal for this kind of customer led service. With the prevalence of mass produced and marketed products there is a real drive from some parts of the community to have something more unique, and they are prepared to pay more for such a service. It also ensures that companies can retain their customer base as the internet, as well as allowing this kind of long tail style marketing and sales structure, also means that if the headphones aren’t quite perfect, another provider online is likely to have something more ideal. The net has brought about competition between retailers on price and variety. Using this kind of model is likely to pry my brand loyalty slightly away from Skullcandy – whose current range doesn’t quite have a set that I think is idea (and I can’t afford to part with so much money for anything less) and this custom service is likely to be where my hard earn pennies end up when my current pair really give up the ghost and die.

With the rise of custom book publishing sites, custom t-shirts and the like, I hope this kind of services continues to become more popular.

I suspect I might be back on this site in not too long…

Screen grabs: