Archive for Strategy
New L2 Report. The Mobile Side of Luxury & Prestige Brands.
Januar 12th, 2012 • Brands, Reports, Strategy
Tags: Brands, l2, luxury, prestige, Report, Reports, Strategy
I think I can admit I am quite jealous of L2′s business idea. Providing digital business insights for the luxury and prestige industries is a good idea. But adding a sophisticated benchmarking that highlights the different facets of digital marketing, that adds specific (and needed) industry knowledge, and that’s probably even very very very well paid? High five.
I spotted L2 for the first time about a year ago when they first published their Digital IQ report on the most successful luxury and prestige brands in the digital space – the first compendium that I am aware of. And now they took the next step by publishing another extremely well founded report: The L2 Mobile IQ 100. A report on the mobile expenses, aspirations, and capabilities of the top 100 luxury brands worldwide. Well done L2 – you guys really understand your business.
Key insights
- Luxury & Prestige retail brands by far outperform luxury & retail brands mobile
- M-Commerce is nascent in the industry
- The majority of brands & retailers has no specific mobile strategy
- But: Per-capita revenues and searches in the industry by far outweigh more traditional means
L2 Prestige 100®: Mobile IQ — The Video from L2 Think Tank on Vimeo.
Agencies and Briefs. And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, you can see: The Problem.
Januar 6th, 2012 • Advice, Strategy
Tags: Agencies, creative briefs, Funny, Strategy, Truth, World
I cannot really figure out whether I am disgusted or fascinated. Clearly this fictional Creative Brief is a great example on why so many Creatives think these documents are useless.
via ibelieveinadv
Insights. TNS Launches Largest Global Study on Digital Behaviour.
November 30th, 2011 • Reports, Strategy
Tags: 2011, Business, Insights, Lifestyle, Media, People, Planning, Presentation, Report, Reports, Research, Social Influence Marketing, Study, target group, TNS, Trends, World
Research company TNS has launched its 2011 version of TNS Digital Life. Based on conversations with over 72,000 people in 60 countries this is the world’s largest global study into people’s attitudes and behaviours online.
I particularly like how they underline the necessity to think (before yelling Facebook or iPad or Flashmob):
‘Digital waste’ pollutes the online world as brands fail to listen to what people want.
It [the study] found that 57 per cent of people*** in developed markets* do not want to engage with brands via
social media – rising to 60 per cent in the US and 61 per cent in the UK. Instead, misguided digital
strategies are generating mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to blogs no
one reads. This is being combined with ever-increasing content produced by consumers – the study
shows 47 per cent of digital consumers now comment about brands online.
The result is huge volumes of noise, which is polluting the digital world and making it harder for
brands to be heard.’
Of course: This study does not at all say brands shouldn’t be digital. The opposite is true. But it repeats the one thing that I never get tired of to repeat: People are not interested in a brand’s content. And they are not interested in brand experiences. They are interested in stuff that is relevant for them – and sometimes this is a brand.
Check out TNS Digital Life here .
Thanks to Rubbish Corp for the link.
APG Netherlands. Shaping a new Home for Strategists.
Oktober 18th, 2011 • Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Amsterdam, APG, apgdigital, Article, Netherlands, new biz, Strategy, World
Most of you know that I live in Amsterdam for a while now – a city with many agencies, some Strategists but almost without connecting links between them.
A couple of months ago I wrote about an idea that some of my fellow Strategists and I carried around with us for a while: Founding an Account Planning Group in the Netherlands. I don’t want to go too much into detail here but all of us sensed that the small but very international Planner community in the Netherlands needed more exchange, progress, representation and also standardization. The result was one of the most pragmatic professional processes I have ever been part of. Yesterday we simply founded the Dutch franchise of the British (and Global) Account Planning Group – as guild of Planners here.
Our plan: to create a professional community for strategists that serves as forum for knowledge exchange, inspiration and networking for our little group of Strategists. We haven’t got many resources right now. But we are happy to welcome any brand and communications strategists in the Netherlands who want to help us shape this platform for the Strategists in the Netherlands (be they Dutch or not)
If you are one of them…
- sign up for our Linked-in group and spread the news
- join us for our opening event on Nov 17 at Strawberry Frog Amsterdam
- help us shape this group
A couple of weeks ago I have written an article for German magazine New-Business (which is closely connected with the German APG) about this process. I am looking forward to see us make the new APG NL become part of Europe’s Planner guilds.
The article (in German). Please click it to see it full size.
Facebook and I. Or: Doubt Creeps in.
September 27th, 2011 • 1 comment Social, Strategy
Tags: Facebook, Philosophy, Politics, Truth, World
Last week’s Facebook update has left me perplexed. I simply do not quite know what to make of what I see – what I perceive as the significance of their latest plans.
No longer do apps prompt you just to “like” something on Facebook. Instead, you’ll share that you “hiked a trail” or “rode your bike” or “kissed a girl” (and liked it). Any action can be shared via Facebook, and the only limit is the imagination of developers.
The second addition is the new permissions screen for giving apps access to your Facebook account. It’s more robust and explains exactly what an app will be sharing with it. The result is that the prompt will only appear once. Once you accept, the app can share exactly what you’re doing to your Facebook wall as you’re doing it. (Ben Parr on Mashable)
Oh…did we mention that Spotify for example forces all new users to login via Facebook? In other words, will there be any choice at all? And where will it stop? Are we accepting sensors in a year that share our location once we enter a club or shop? I am 100% sure you can turn such an application into a great CRM program.
From my perspective the key privacy problem does not lie in Facebook’s blurry analytics approach or the thesis that Facebook tries to track me even though I am offline. As my colleague Allan Chang pointed out, google is doing this for years while Intel has integrated unique Processor IDs in every PC since 1999.
This Morning’s Hot Shit. The new Facebook Features.
September 23rd, 2011 • 1 comment Experimental, Social, Social Business, Strategy, Tech, Tools
Tags: Facebook, Semantic Web, social network, Social Networks, Timeline
My new Facebook Timeline has arrived. After yesterday’s f8 announcement (great overview here) I really think we are about to see the ‘profound changes’ that mashable talked about yesterday morning.
Hacking Facebook to set up Timeline is a rather simple. Techcrunch has published a handy DIY guide this morning. But only I am currently able to see my timeline right now.
What it does is really to replace my profile with a nice, interactive biography on one page. The Timeline stops everytime Facebook identifies important steps in my life. My sister’s birth certainly was one of these events (even though at that point I didn’t necessarily agree). And I am invited to upload baby photos of her. Cheesy and nice.
Timeline is a new, pretty cool metaphor that really adds a new perspective to Facebook. Facebook as a lifelong diary – well actually…a living diary. Long term not just super-today.
But there is much more that I find interesting.
Planner Survey 2011. The State of Marketing-Strategy Worldwide.
September 18th, 2011 • 1 comment Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Jobs, Money, Planning, Report, Salary, Strategy, Study, Survey, Truth, World
I have to admit I am a bit late with this post. But I have been travelling so please forgive me if you know about the ‘Planner Survey 2011‘ already. Many of you know this survey which my colleague Heather LeFevre conducts annually. Heather is Head of Planning at Strawberry Frog Amsterdam and for the seventh time she has tried to shed some light on the state of Marketing-Strategy worldwide – a remarkable effort for such a niche ‘industry’ within a ‘niche industry’.
I don’t want to say anything about her research. Just check out the 2011 document below. But I really want to thank Heather for her continuous curiosity in this topic. Great insights. I particularly the more localized character of this year’s survey compared with 2010′s data.
By the way: If you want to follow Heather on twitter, do it here.
Consumer Love. IBM shows how not to ask the right questions.
August 15th, 2011 • Reports, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Facebook, IBM, Media, Prediction, Presentation, Report, Research, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends
IBM has just published a study called ‘From Social Media to Social CRM‘ (PDF download). I first liked it because it was not boring. It did not repeat the same old shit that you read anywhere else. In fact…it seemed quite uncomfortable and innovative. At first.
So at first some of the study’s claims did not sound very surprising, nevertheless heretic for many people in the industry. IBM found out that most people are not so much into learning about your next campaign on social networks. They are actually almost exclusively interested to meet their friends. And pretty much the only reasons why they friend a brand – according to IBM – is VOUCHERS.
Yes. All of us hate these types of relations.
Who wants to date a girl that only spends time with you because you pay all the restaurant bills?
IBM has got an explanation for you why you spend time with this girl (the social consumer): Simply because you want to think the girl loves you.
Businesses are three times more likely to think consumers are interested in interacting with them to feel part of a community. Businesses also overestimate consumers’ desire to engage with them to feel connected to their brand. In fact, these two activities are among the least interesting from a consumer’s perspective.
Consumers are willing to interact with businesses if they believe it is to their benefit, feel they can trust the company and decide social media is the right channel to use to get the value they seek. That value could be in the form of a coupon or specific information. Engaging with a company via social media may result in a feeling of connectedness for consumers – an emotional, intangible gain – but the wish for intimacy is not what drives most of them.
I agree with the latter claim even though IBM streamlined the study to make sure everyone understands VOUCHERS as the key consumer desire. How? By benchmarkting the girl’s (social consumer’s) top reasons why she dates you compared to your top reasons why you date her. The result could not be much different. And yes: According to this study most of her top reasons to date you are connected to restaurant bills.
So does that mean all of us should forget about investing into next year’s social activation? Definitely not.
15 Years Later. A Conversation with my first Creative Director, Steffen Herbold.
Juli 24th, 2011 • Allgemein, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Experimental, Germany, Interview, People, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Media, steffen herbold, Strategy, Trends, WOB
A couple of weeks ago I talked about first jobs with a friend.
WOB was/is the name of my first employer/agency. And before anyone asks: Yes, Werbung und Organisationsberatung sounds awfully German. But I still think this dedicated B2B agency from the south of Germany is one of the most professional agency brands I ever worked for. B2B is tough. B2B is rarely considered as cool. And even though marketing Supply Chain Management Software or Nanotech solutions is definitely not for everyone, I am still happy I took my first steps in the agency world as part of the team from Viernheim (yes, Viernheim). It was one of the best ‘schools’ for a young marketing guy like me.
Back in the days when I realized I am better in copywriting than in Project Management there was one guy who thought I might be right. Steffen Herbold is Creative Director at WOB (pretty much since God created the Earth). He is a great copywriter, a very, very smart man, and he is one of the people I definitely do not meet as often as I should.
I kind of rediscovered Steffen (sorry Steffen) two years ago. After not being in contact for a while, we connected on Facebook and hold a steady dialogue since then. I was really interested to find out about how a dedicated B2B agency like WOB perceives the challenges by the Digital revolution in general and the social web in particular. And Steffen was so nice to answer a couple of questions. I am sure if you leave a comment he will gladly answer your questions as well.
Hi Steffen. Which role does Social Media play for a B2B agency like WOB nowadays?
A big one.
How different are B2B and B2C in this regard?
Well, obviously buying a chocolate bar and a ERP software have absolutely nothing in common. Apart from one thing: There are emotions involved. But whereas the purchasing processes of FMCG’s are individual and impulsive by nature, the buying process in a btob context is collective and reflected – so it is no wonder that these differences become manifest in social media too. I would put it this way: In b2c social media are capable of creating something like a “virtual nearness” between a brand and its target group, in b2b they’re an adequate tool to truly deepen existing relationships. You might as well say: b2c is brilliant flirting, b2b is serious marriage.
Read more »
google Plus. Why it’s not about becoming another Facebook.
Juli 2nd, 2011 • 6 comments Social, Strategy, Tools, Trends
Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, google, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Twitter
Unless you have been hiding under a rock you probably have heard about google+ or you are already registered user. And just in case you hid under a rock, I let the guys from NMA News explain what google+ is…simply because I love their videos.
So after testing google Plus for two days I am as positive about it as most others I talked to. google simply built a platform with more Pros than Cons. Something you can imagine to use in the future because it combines some of the best features of everything you already use and wraps them in one platform. Ooooh…and a couple of nice new concepts come with the package: google hangout for example (definitely a winner). And I guess Facebook really jumpstarts now to get the Skype cooperation up and running. Among other things.
Stupid debates usually start with terms like (fill blank) killer. Can you remember one game changing product that was announced as the iPhone/Facebook/whatever killer and lived up to it? Not one product out there. And I think the industry has become smart enough not to put this into the focus of discussions around google+ too much. Simply because it is pointless.
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