Australia at Cannes Lions

Australian Ads have had the most successful campaign in the history of the Cannes Lion.

The 60th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has become a proud part of Australian advertising history. Never before has Australian creative talent fully dominated the list of Cannes Lions winners. In my opinion, the Cannes festival is highly conservative – a kind of bourgeois event where you, as an advertiser, needs to prove your creativity, rather than being simply recognised for your talent. With this in mind, just it is impressive to see the performance of by Melbourne’s McCann for their advertisement for Metro Trains entitled "Dumb Ways to Die". As well as reaching viral status, the cute and slightly morbid cartoon scored five Grand Prix: film, PR, direct, radio and integrated.

It was a truly massive event in Cannes this year, more than 12,000 advertisers with about 35,000 ad works out lion hunting. A numbers of creative icons held inspiring speeches guiding the audience on the future of advertising. Speakers such as Apple ad-man Lee Clown, Chuck Porter - whose provocative anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign is already cutting down the number of school smokers, fashion guru Vivienne Westwood, and many others talked about two popular trends that’s going to modify the advertising world.

The first aspect is the real social impact that ads create. It doesn’t matter whether you serve not-for-profit campaigns or are creating commercial advertisements; it is time to take greater social responsibility behind you commercials. Nearly all the cases and communications at Cannes gave the impression of this idea. From public campaigns like Metro Trains’ to Coca-Cola’s “Small World Machine,” the trend of taking social responsibility when marketing a message is growing.

Technology is the other buzz topic at Cannes. This can’t be communicated better than Lee Clown, the “Think Different” creator, when he stressed:

“When the camera was invented, artists didn't just throw away their brushes and start taking pictures. It was technology for many years before artists discovered what they could do with it. I think the artist still hasn't discovered the possibilities in new media and the Internet and how you use this technology to beautifully and intelligently express brands. Technologists have had the lead for a while, but the artist will take over.”

From the 60th Cannes Lions, one simple idea can be the most valuable take-away. The capacity of technology, utilised by creative minds may be the way forward to finally support our daily life and brand experiences.

You can see a list of all winners and nominates on the Cannes Lions website.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Is social media really a worthy marketing tool?

No one would deny that social media is the major marketing buzzword nowadays. And it’s definitely going to generate buzz for a while. Nearly all companies are already on the way to become even more digital and “social”. It seems so exciting we can achieve cost effective direct collaboration and communication with a customer that was never achievable before.

But the question is whether social media, like many other innovations before it, is good or evil. While we are getting more social with our marketing, the risks involved with reputation management should not be underestimated. Only one online post by a dissatisfied customer or unhappy employee may profoundly affect a brand or company’s reputation. One can recall McDonald’s ‘social’ failure when an online campaign was hijacked by consumer’s complaints, along with many other examples of social media disasters.

Recent research from The Chartered Institute of Marketing discloses that only 44% of conducted firms not only identify the possible reputational issues but also have already applied guidelines and polices to regulate their presence in social space. 60% of those surveyed companies introduced such policies only in 2011-2012.

http://theraconteur.co.uk/risk-and-reputation-preparing-for-reality/#sthash.1H4B2Vsm.dpuf

As marketers we all want to generate attention for our brands. And social media brings enormous opportunities for this. Every single post may be a great channel for storytelling and engaging with customers. But we also need to keep in mind the risks related to social media. You can never really estimate what trends will catch on, how people will react, or predict the success of social media endeavors. It is all about how you estimate the risks you take.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Interbrand, VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE, and Us!

A few weeks ago Interbrand held their annual Brands Under the Spotlight event at the Griffin Theatre Company, focusing on the very important people who connect you to your brand: employees. The half-day event featured a series of presentations and panel discussions with speakers from Bain & Company, 8 Hotels, Realestate.com.au, RedBalloon, Telstra and Interbrand. A few of our Master of Marketing Students were lucky enough to be in the audience for such an inspiring and insightful morning. Here is Michel Caux and Sumi Yoshioka.

Although we are not employees of the Business School, speakers that morning made me realise that we, as students, are very important people, to the brand of the University of Sydney. So, as a way to better communicate and understand our brand, I wanted to introduce some of our finest brand ambassadors!

Michel Caux
With a background in Engineering and Economics, Michel has been working in B2B and B2C Marketing for more than ten years. Working in big multinationals have gave him the opportunity to choose an area within Marketing where he feels most passionate about: Health Care.

Why did you choose Marketing?
To be part of the Master of Marketing program is a great opportunity to formally validate work experience, expand knowledge and to be up to date in marketing trends, which will open new doors to career development.

What is one thing that stuck with you from the Interbrand event?
Very interesting Event. The utilisation of Telstra’s NPS has been fantastic, taking advocacy to the next level, making their employees real brand ambassadors, empowering with customer service capabilities. What stuck with me is that the marketing responsibility not only lies with the Marketing department, but all the different functions within a company. It sounds obvious, but it is an every day battle. Other departments of the firm also need to understand that success for the company is also their responsibility. We all have a direct impact on the processes that adds value to the customer. The consumer / end user has multiple touch points with different functional areas of the firm, and all of them have a direct impact on the Brand Equity. Again, it sounds obvious, but is very easy for them to forget.

Sumi Yoshioka
Sumi is originally from Tokyo, Japan. She has a background in PR of a luxury automotive company in Tokyo and architect agency in Sydney. Previous to the Master of Marketing at the University of Sydney, Sumi studied communication & media in Tokyo and California.

Why did you choose Marketing?
When I was working at Audi Japan, I developed strong interests in the influence and potential of brand marketing. In addition to my experience in public relations, I thought studying marketing will be essential for me to pursue my career in brand management.

What are you getting most out of the program?
The ability to study and communicate with my talented classmates from various industries and cultural backgrounds.

What is one thing that stuck with you from the Interbrand event?
I found there were many topics related to our Internal Marketing classes. Richard Hatherall, from Bain Company, really stuck with me. He started with his personal experience at two airplanes with humour, which I thought he successfully grabbed the audience's initial attention. He then spoke about the importance of the net promoter score with real life examples.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Six Questions: James Watson

Last month the University of Sydney’s Business School held Branding You, a showcase reception at the new Business School CBD Campus. We were lucky to get the chance to hear about personal branding from an esteemed panel, including a graduate of the marketing discipline here at the business school, James Watson.

James, one of our first class Honours graduates in Marketing, has had a meritorious career with Procter and Gamble in Australia and Singapore, Reckitt Benckiser in Australia, the UK and USA and PZ Cussons in Australia. James spoke about many different aspects of branding and shared with us his own experiences in building his personal brand. One of the most important aspect James spoke about was staying on message and consistent. Although it’s a given when it comes to thinking about brands, often we forget to be very honest with ourselves, and that’s when our personal brand strays off message – we do something out of character, take a job we don’t really want, or forget our goals and what we are trying to achieve.

On the topic of consistency, we’ve remained consistent, and asked James our Six Questions.

1. What is your favourite thing that you do in a regular day as a marketer?
Regular? Define regular? I chose marketing as a career path, because no one day is the same as another and the opportunities are endless. That said, just like bringing up kids, you have a responsibility to feed, nurture, protect and develop brands in your custody or they won't grow and survive. Seeing the hard work, energy and passion you put into doing this manifest itself in great business results is my favourite thing.

2. Describe your job in 5 words or less:
No right or wrong answers.

3. What keeps you motivated?
Having a very clear focus on where I and my family want to go, what we want to achieve, by when we would like to achieve it, understanding what it will take to get us there and then actually taking ownership for doing something about making it all happen.

Family matters. Learning inspires. Collaboration creates outcomes. Results are rewarding. Experience is priceless.

4. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years?
I don't think, I know as a family, we will be back in Australia for our kids' secondary school education. We have a long-term horizon as a family with some critical milestones outlined. There is and naturally needs to be some flexibility around what happens or what we choose to do based on emerging opportunities in between these milestones, but at least we know what we are shooting for and have a road map for where we are going.

5. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
A Tiger. Largest of the 4 big cats and known in the childhood book about Pooh Bear for having lots of 'bounce'. They are a species that adapts to their location. Skills like this are critical to successfully managing and influencing stakeholders in the business world. They have excellent sight and hearing. Awareness plays an important role in your success as a marketer. They are most active early in the morning and in the evenings. I am an early riser and known for getting a second wind in the evenings. Tigers are also strong swimmers. I am a passionate and competitive Masters swimmer. Tigers are found in a variety of habitats. If you want to succeed in fast moving consumer goods marketing, you need to be willing to work across a variety of brands and move internationally. They do like their solitude. As a strategist and innovator, I value my thinking time. Tigers aren't afraid of more formidable predators. Some of the most rewarding career experiences for me have come from working on smaller and non market leader brands within a business and taking on the big guys. Finally, Tigers are strategic about how they hunt. I know from experience that if you plan to succeed, you increase the likelihood you will.

6. What is the one book you would recommend everyone to read?
I'd prefer author and genre... Iain M. Banks. Iain sadly passed away over the June long weekend. He wrote Space Opera and is famous for his books about 'The Culture'. Think differently and look for inspiration in places others don't necessarily think to look.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

3-Bee Printing: Clever Advertising

3-D Printing. Who hasn’t heard of 3-D Printing? I can tell the hot-topic is on the minds of the creative team at Dewar’s Whiskey, and they’ve very cleverly jumped into the bandwagon with their campaign for the new Dewar's Highlander Honey.

The very cinematic clip depicts “The sweetness of honey. The bite of 80,000 bees.” The ‘trailer’ is for a documentary on the process of how the bees build real sculptures out of natural honeycomb. Part nature, partly encouraged by designers, you can say this is co-creation taken to another level!

This ongoing project shows how brands can still stay fresh and relevant, even if they are for something as old and classic as whiskey. Started in 1846, the Scottish whiskey is now manufactured by the Bacardi Company. A fine balance of classic nostalgia - the traditional shape of the bottle, the quaint design of the label – mixed with contemporary applications – associations with movie stars, embracing technology trends – has seen brands such as Dewar’s stand the test of time.

Even if you’re not a Whiskey drinker, it’s a nice way to spend a couple of minutes.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Mid-year Intake closing soon!

For the first time, the Master of Marketing programme is taking applications for the second semester. Whether it’s a career change, or taking the decision to broaden your skill-set, now’s the time to apply!

I can confidently say that for myself, as well as my fellow Masters of Marketing students that semester one has been intense, but fulfilling. We’ve tried to share some of the things we have encountered during our time, but the experience and learning is definitely one that is cannot be shrunk down to paragraphs and sentences. The below video captures some of the aspects of our degree while showcasing some of our current students.

If you have any questions about enrolment, or just how we, as students, have found the course, please do not hesitate to ask a question in the comments.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Can Sushi change customer behaviour?

I came across this interesting article about a Sushi Restaurant in New York City, bucking the American tradition of tipping.

Brought to attention by food critic, Ryan Sutton, Sushi Yasuda has implemented a “Gratuities not accepted” rule. In Ryan’s blog post, he goes into detail behind the owner’s decision to cut out tipping. The main reason, as explained on the restaurant’s receipt, is that service staff are fully compensated for their services with a living wage – so why the need to tip?

I feel this also addresses a very important internal communication issue. Whether the owner knows it or not, buy implementing this rule, his staff – from kitchen hands, to waiters, to chefs – are united under the same wage system. I know this sounds a bit stale, but think about it: when you go to a restaurant in America, you tip your waiter. But the experience is not solely reliant on their hard work. By treating all Sushi Yasuda’s staff as equal employees, entitled to a living wage, it unites them to do a better job TOGETHER.

With the minimum wage is still laughable in America; a few places are starting to implement the same strategy. Providing a living wage for your employees mean they are happier, work better and work smarter. What is difficult about America is that it is not only about changing the economics of the system, but to eliminate or alter the whole social custom.

So, although on paper it all sounds good, especially for the employees, but can sushi change customer behaviour?

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

News digest: with Elena

It’s great news that the first semester is behind us. Honestly, it wasn’t easy. And it’s not just my personal feelings as international student, being pretty unfamiliar with a new study environment from the very beginning. Communicating with other classmates, it seems we all have made sacrifices to ensure good study results.

After taking a long breath…hooray! I am on the surface again. So I’m letting myself eagerly jump into the information and social media flows I had restricted myself from, during the semester. Yeah, lots of things have happened in the world, Russian President getting a divorce, for example. What a shame that the President missed out on our Consumers Insights class, where a guest speaker from Google showed us how to create the most attractive dating account:

Here is my top three news points for this week:

1. PRISM AND NSA 
There is no total privacy with your social media accounts any longer. As was revealed, The National Security Administration is secretly collecting phone record information for all U.S. calls. Although nearly all tech giants like Facebook, Skype, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo were rushing to say they are not involved; it makes me feel pretty upset knowing my personal info is out there. The only chance to be safe is to simply stop using your Facebook. “The New Yorker” gives a good summary of this scandal.

2. Time Spent Online 
What do you usually do when you are online? Ok, maybe not you specifically, we’ll give you a little privacy there, especially after all the scandal with the NSA. Let’s say, as marketer, do you know your consumers social media habits? “Business Insider Australia” provides 10 stunning facts about what people are really doing on the Internet.

3. Money and Happiness
Whether or not you believe that money really matters, and a huge paycheque makes you better off, a new study definitely states that money is still as a synonym of happiness. Scholars have even made an effort to uncover what is the exact amount that could make us happier. Not surprisingly that “Forbes” brings us this topic though!

Do you know what your wealth rank is worldwide? Yes, it’s probably not on the “Forbes” global rich rank, but who knows. So let’s count it now with this simple tool.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Six questions: Peter Drinkwater

This week, we bring you Peter Drinkwater from House of Brand Research. He gave us such an interesting talk on Innovations in Insights. In particular, I was engaged with the ideas he presented surrounding brands and links with culture. Although often overlooked, brands have a place in culture, and many times performance of a brand can be related to how well it fits into a culture. We asked Peter the six questions to get to know him better.

Six Questions

1. What is your favourite thing that you do in a regular day as a marketer?
It has to be tackling the brand and business issues of our clients – there are always interesting and different challenges that pop up each day.

2. Describe your job in 5 words or less:
“Solving brand issues through research”

3. What keeps to motivated?
I guess what keeps me motivated is bringing the voice of the customer to some of Australia’s biggest companies in an impactful way! Also working with a great team of super-smart and “stretchy” researchers.

4. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years?
Hopefully still running House of Brand Research and having more time with my family!

5. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
A chameleon. I like to think I am adaptable to lots of situations!

6. What is the one book you would recommend everyone to read?
The Hero and the Outlaw: Building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes By Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

“Half the size, twice the happiness” Coke taking sharing seriously.

Recently, my group conducted a presentation and research assignment around The Coca Cola Company’s co-creation efforts in our Internal Marketing class, with Professor Pennie Frow. We found that, while with good co-creation intentions, a global company like Coke ultimately still held a lot of control when it comes to co-creation, as they simply have too much to lose if anything goes wrong. In saying that – they also have a lot of power and ability to roll out adventurous and fun campaigns that still give the experience and feeling of co-creation.

In line with co-creation, and a word I feel we’ve started to talk about a lot, is sharing. And that’s exactly what Coke is doing. In their new video, featuring their twist-and-share can, the usual tagline of “Open Happiness” is switched with something different – “Share Happiness.” This organic development of both product and value proposition is a pretty good example of those ‘Ah ha!’ moments – the sentiment of a cute little Coke can you can share is so obvious; you wonder why they haven’t had them all along!

Ogilvy & Mather’s French and Singaporean teams developed the idea and campaign. Although not actually available in vending machines yet, the twist cans were available in limited quantity during a trial stage via a "happiness truck" in Singapore. Coca Cola has done a lot of this in the past, rolling out ambitious projects in certain locations, then utilising the YouTube platform to spread the impression of one campaign. Very clever! We get all the fuzzy feelings, without Coke having to pay to roll out campaigns around the world.

Nevertheless, it’s worked on me. I not a regular Coke drinker, but I’d definitely buy a little twist can for the novelty, and to embrace this new age of sharing.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Come rain or shine

Whenever it rains in Sydney I always get told, “This is so unusual”, or “Don’t worry, it will pass quickly.” And though it’s mostly proven to be true, when it rains in Sydney, it REALLY rains.

Despite the storm on Sunday, our cohort all showed up to our final class this semester for Associate Professor Marylouise Caldwell’s Contemporary Consumer Insights class. I wanted to share with you this adorable and hilarious evidence of our endurance.

Come rain or shine, we are eager to be in class! It’s been a great semester, and the whole group is looking forward to what next semester will bring!

Current students: tell us what you enjoyed most this semester in the comments.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Six questions: Andrew Moss

Today we bring you the very first installment of our SIX QUESTIONS series, where we ask a few fun questions to our friends in the industry to not only try and get to know them better, but maybe get a better insight into what marketing is for them. Today we have Andrew Moss from Pegasus Strategic, Insights and Brand Strategy. Here he is with our lecturer, Associate Professor Marylouise Caldwell.

I quickly learned that the Masters of Marketing was going to be a pretty hands-on course, filled with group projects, problem solving, class involvement – and best of all, Industry experts as guest speakers. This gives us one of the best learning experiences: hearing how they stuffed up. Well, maybe not so much ‘stuffing’ up, but how they overcame real life problems and situations. Andrew came and spoke to us about this experience rebranding the A-League and creating a new image for soccer in Australia, producing some of the best advertisements out there.

Andrew Moss:
1. What is your favourite thing that you do in a regular day as a marketer?
Being allowed to (by clients and colleagues) and paid to wonder.

2. Describe your job in 5 words or less:
Thinker, Dreamer, Finder, Problem-Solver

3. What keeps to motivated?
The innovation process – being invited to develop new ways of doing things – and the buzz that occurs when the thinking and planning works!

4. Where do you think you'll be in 10 years?
I would hope a wide variety of things – and certainly a bunch of creative type pursuits – personal and business.

5. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
Tricky – maybe something like a sea eagle – scanning the environment, travelling large distances and looking for and seizing on opportunity!

6. What is the one book you would recommend everyone to read?
For business learning I think biographies of people are always good reading – and the one on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is well worth reading.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

“Branding You” Event at the New Business School in the CBD

Last week, a showcase reception was held in the new Business School CBD Campus. Being a student of the Masters of Marketing, we are often privy to events such as these that provide invaluable networking opportunities, as well as a chance to broaden our knowledge and insight.

I’ve got to be honest, the canapés and beverages always draw me in, but I always leave with more than just a satisfied tummy. The highlight of “Branding You” was around a panel discussion between three leading marketing practitioners around the topic of personal brands. We had explored this in class before with Pennie Frow, but it was great to hear a lot of these aspects from real life experiences. Being somewhat of a hot topic at the moment, there was definitely a lot to discuss.

The panel was:
Christine Bishop, the Managing Director of Social Business Strategy Group, specialising in the areas of social media, strategic marketing, branding and business strategy. She is also a recent Executive MBA Graduate of the Business School.

Mike Read, HR and Corporate Culture Director, Starcom Media Vest, Australia’s largest Media Agency.

James Watson, one of our first class Honours graduates in Marketing. James has had a meritorious career with Procter and Gamble in Australia and Singapore, Reckitt Benckiser in Australia, the UK and USA and PZ Cussons in Australia. 

Christine, Mike and James lead the panel discussion about using appropriate marketing tools to create “Brand You”, a critical factor in meeting the challenges of today’s highly competitive employment marketplace. We were lucky enough to harvest more than a few pearls of wisdom from the esteemed panel, and in the coming weeks, will share with you what we learned from each of them - So keep an eye out!

Thanks to the University of Sydney Business School, Program Director Pennie Frow and particularly Associate Professor Terry Beed for putting on the event and allowing us the chance to engage with such an amazing group of people.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Google Glass, Surfing, and Marketing

Since Google Glass was released, it immediately sparked big debate whether Google glass is the next big player in digital changes or a privacy aggressor. Having a computer basically linked with your mind is a geek’s dream. With this, Google’s device has stridden further than any other. I assume Glass would be very welcome within certain professionals like engineers, doctors, scientists and, of course movie makers. As for layfolk usage, I guess, very few people do want to be into a computer 24/7.

But the fact that someone can take a picture of me without permission make me think whether Google Glass is changing our life in a positive way. Can imagine how it would be awful talking with someone with Glass that could be doing who knows what. Whether it taking photos of me, or capturing my social accounts by using my identity? From this, it will become a big ethical challenge once Glass is available not only for professional usage.

Google Glass is still in its early stages and there are still lots of bugs reported by early adapters in terms of its functionality. However, being very enthusiastic in terms of all things digital, I would definitely like to try Glass in any way. It looks so futuristic, like it was drawn from the Wachowski brother's movie, "The Matrix".

Fortunately, a friend of mine has already tested Google Glass. Vasily Gatov is a respectable Russian expert in the global media market, and was one of the lucky few who Google introduced its new device to. I've asked Vasily to answer a few questions to find out what Google Glass is all about.

Q So, how did it happen that you tried it?
I was at Google Campus in Mountain View, with an educational research purposes, and, thanks to the googlers who invited us, we were given a chance to try the Glass. A demonstration was about one hour long; we were able to put the device on our heads, try the software and ergonomics. The presenter also gave us an overview of the use cases and his personal experience (he was using Glass for some months).

Coleman Rusnock, the googler who introduced Glass

Q What are the main features and functionality?
Actually, I don't feel it's a practical device yet. Glass is a massive research project that establishes new frontier in the gadget design, gadget capacity to communicate and to be "smart". It's also a research project that studies those who use Glass and establish its place in the world of the geeks. Speaking about the functions that are available now: voice command system that works quite well with an international English (both words and simple queries like "show me the way to the hotel I have booked"); great camera that does both stills and video (both 1080i). Some standard Android/ChromeOS features like Google Maps.

Q How cool is it in terms of design?
It is cool but very technological. Imagine that someone took glasses out and embedded a small (7 mm cube over your right eye). And there's nothing on the left one. The cube projects a screen that feels like a LARGE computer screen just above your line of sight. Due to the specifics of the projector, Glass emits a bit of pink light to the right of your eyes. Also it feels strange but the Glass is very well balanced - although the computerised right side of the device is big and has a certain weight, you don't feel that it presses your ear or nose.

Q In terms of marketing, from your point of view, who will be the potential customer?
Today? Mad geeks and developers who should create an application ecosystem for Glass. Again - the device is a research it is not a commercial product, and much has to be done to put it on the market. But, featuring, one can see it as a professional tool for those who need a lot of data all the time (brokers, air controllers, traffic police and SWAT squads), as well as people whose life is documenting the reality - journalists, perfectly.

Q How does Google describe its target audience?
Not yet is there an audience. The Glass is only available for developers now and this is just a beginning of product design.

Q Can’t avoid this question; do you think I can surf with Google glass?
Yes, and the footage will be amazing, if Google dares the waterproof version or Chinese manufacturers will create some kind of water protection to it.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

A “cool solution” to a “hot issue”

 

Tea and coffee seem to be fine to drink hot or cold, but when I ask you to think about drinking a soft drink, you’ll probably think of a refrigerated drink with cold sweat beads running down the sides of a can or bottle. When taking your first sip, the icy cold fizzy liquid startles your taste buds and tickles your throat.

But have you ever drunk a warm or even hot soft drink? Just the thought makes me want to opt for water instead.

A few weeks ago, Ian Alwill, the former Executive Director of Group Marketing and Communications at Nestle Oceania presented a case study in class for the Contemporary Consumer Insights unit of the Master of Marketing program.

Much earlier in his career he was the Asia Pacific Region Marketing Director for The Seven–Up Company.

The Taiwanese franchisee of the business was complaining that the formulation of the well-known soft drink 7-Up was too sweet. They felt that this was dramatically affecting sales of the product in the country. They were understandably a little hot under the collar … and said so!!

When he was presented with this dilemma by the franchised bottler he was quite surprised. Neighbouring Asian countries were happily drinking the exact formulation with no similar complaints. The global policy was not to change the formulation of such a well-known product until the market situation was well understood. His instincts and “gut feel” was that formulation was not the problem.

A market visit to the Taiwanese market place for 7-Up showed that the majority of the 7-Up sold in the country was in market stalls or in small stores… but most of these did not provide a sufficiently iced or refrigerated product, the way it was in other regional markets. His basic knowledge of the product was that temperature affects the sweetness of a product. The higher the temperature, the sweeter the product; and conversely, the lower the temperature, the less sweet the product tastes. Who would have known?

The product being sold in Taiwan did in fact taste sweeter because it was being consumed at a higher temperature since it was not adequately chilled. This explained why neighbouring Asian countries were not complaining of the same issue as they were selling the product for the most part refrigerated!

The real issue was now understood and the franchised bottler finally agreed that a different approach was needed.

A change in marketing support to the franchisee was in order. Rather than funding traditional brand advertising, the Seven–Up Company invested in 7-Up identified market coolers over a couple of seasons. As the product was then consumed chilled rather than warm/hot, there were no more complaints of the product being too sweet.

Ian then went on to stress to the class of Master students, the importance of understanding the culture, the consumer, and the market environment in which the sale occurs... to not assume that the standard mix of marketing activity is always the solution to marketing problems. In this case it was capital expenditure not marketing expense!!

He recommended a simple and important principle when formal market research is not available and your instincts say something is not right!

GO… SEE…… THINK……… DO!!!

Sounds simple, but it’s paramount, especially when working in a culture that you did not grow up in.

Mina D’Souza
Alumni of the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Are we prepared for the ‘Technology’ in Information Technology?

“According to one recent report, in the next decade American colleges will mint 40,000 graduates with a bachelor's degree in computer science, though the U.S. economy is slated to create 120,000 computing jobs that require such degrees. You don't have to be a math major to do the math: That's three times as many jobs as we have people qualified to fill them.” – Kirk McDonald (Read more)

Okay, this is pretty bleak news. After reading the opinion piece by Mr. McDonald, the president of an ad tech company in Manhattan, I’m questioning how far I can get with my Fine Arts degree. Thank goodness I’ve ventured into the field of Marketing …but according to McDonald, it won’t have saved me completely either:

“Even if your dream job is in marketing or sales or another department seemingly unrelated to programming, I'm not going to hire you unless you can at least understand the basic way my company works. And I'm not alone.”



Although his open letter is quite specific to the situation in America, it’s hard not to be concerned as a recent graduate – and now post graduate student – in our current global economic situation. Mcdonald talks about the necessity to be able to understand simple programming in order to function in a modern day company. Perhaps it’s too much to ask for, and extremely hard to deliver, especially when many universities do not see the need in creating dynamic programmes that create well-rounded graduates.

But Mr. McDonald, I implore you to have more faith in us. Have faith in us like I have faith. While technology is constantly made redundant and updated, our passion will never whither. And it is this passion that will get us through.

To say that you would hire someone with skills in programming over someone with passion could be one of the biggest mistakes you can make. I believe you neglect the fact that it is also the role of the company to support and encourage your employees to grow, learn and develop. I am sure, Mr. McDonald, that being the successful businessman you are, you already understand this. But you must not lose faith in us.

So while I suggest all recent graduates, graduates-to-be, and just anyone looking for a job to read Mr. McDonalds open letter (because I feel it’s important we understand where employers are coming from), I suggest you read it with an open mind, and have faith in yourself.

I may be an optimist, but I’m sure the future is not as bleak as it appears.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Are you ready to pay extra to protect your personal data?

European Union is already taking action to protect the personal data of their citizens. A proposed new data collection reform directly refers to the way companies are able to collect and use consumers’ personal information. With these protection rules to be elected by June this year, this new policy has become a highly controversial topic.

EU officials believe that it could protect the people’s privacy, so neither IT companies nor digital marketers are able to make personal data available for commercial use, or create user profiles without prior permission. According to the new rules, users should also be given the right to be forgotten when they request it.

However, the question is whether too much government regulation could deter potential benefits for consumers and the economy. In terms of marketing, it could mean a big step back to traditional TV and outdoor advertising, since there would be significant limitation in targeted ads and direct marketing. Without user clear-cut agreements, companies wouldn’t be able to generate consumer personal data, so it could make direct marketing less effective, as well as very difficult to manage.

Some more radical opponents to the policy said that the EU's data protection reforms are a way towards "user-paid internet." They argue that if web giants such Facebook or Google couldn’t gather the personal data of users for advertising needs, the services would have to look elsewhere for funding. Users will have to pay for services, or service remains free - but we will be exposed of hundreds of adverts because personal data was not used to create targeted ads. This is why those whom the EU thinks they are protecting, are in fact not really satisfied with such initiatives.

Yes, it’s true: I don’t want somebody to take my personal details without a clear understanding of how, and whom, this data will be used. Just one glance at my junk email inbox, there are companies from somewhere in Latin America that knows I like mounting ski more than snowboarding. How did this completely unfamiliar company get my personal details? And in this case, I would definitely like to be protected from such annoying interference in my private life. But honestly, I am still not sure whether I want to pay to be protected.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

The Long Hard Road of Social Media

There has been plenty of hype surrounding the potential of social media as a low-cost, high-impact promotional tool for business.

Much of the social media hype has been fuelled by the various success stories, in particular the YouTube sensations that have generated millions of views from relatively low-cost production videos. A few of the classic examples in recent years include Blendtec, Old Spice, Tippex and the Dollar Shave Club.


Blendtec is a premier example as it has managed to make everyday food blenders look cool and exciting. From their collection of videos, where they blend a range of bizarre items such as iPads, super glue and golf balls, they have reached a broad audience and have now surpassed 220 million views. But what is particularly effective about their videos is that they have generated such interest by simply demonstrating their blenders in action.

 

Another great success is the Old Spice campaign from 2010, which helped repositioned the brand to being a younger, more modern brand, and was able to generate around 1.4 billion total impressions in just six months through the combination of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and mainstream media.

So it’s no wonder that businesses are now increasingly looking at social media to dramatically grow their brand awareness, substantially leverage word-of-mouth and deliver significant increases in sales.

But unfortunately it’s not as easy and effective as the hype suggests. And as time goes on, it is becoming more apparent that social media is not a magic pathway to building a strong brand and growing the bottom-line. Indeed, for many organisations, social media is now proving to be a long, hard and expensive road paved with many pitfalls.

One significant pitfall is brand integrity. To generate social media interest, the campaign needs to be innovative, funny, controversial and/or grossly entertaining. That is often hard to do within the confines of a well-crafted brand image.

As an example, a couple of years back, Perth-based pie manufacturer Mrs Mac’s had a very successful online campaign in Australia that utilized numerous social media platforms. Their YouTube video from this campaign now exceeds 2 million views. However, I would suggest that the campaign was not overly consistent with the traditional image of their brand. 

Therefore, in their next online campaign, which was in aid of a new product launch, they took a more conservative approach in line with their traditional positioning. The end result was only a couple of thousand YouTube views in total and little interest in the new product as a result.

The growing cost and effort of social media, coupled with a long payback period, is also becoming more apparent. A good case study for this point is Westpac Bank. Westpac have had a social media team in place for a few years now, with the main goal of trying to leverage their 10 million or so account holders.

So how successful have they been in leveraging and engaging their customer base? Well, as at May 2013, they had less than 15,000 Twitter followers, just over 50,000 Facebook likes and only about 370,000 total YouTube views. Clearly, at this stage, I would guess that their social media investment has a negative ROI and is likely to have a long payback period.

Therefore, it appears that social media is becoming a long, hard grind without much of the magic that we’ve been led to believe. And for every success story, there are probably 100’s or maybe 1000’s of campaigns that went nowhere. While, I am still positive about the long-term value of social media for many firms, I would strongly counsel against the extent of optimism and high expectations that normally accompany social media activities.

Geoff Fripp
Lecturer – Masters of Marketing at the University of Sydney Business School

The end of one journey and the beginning of the rest of our lives

As I sat in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney on graduation day waiting patiently for my name to be called so that I could collect the degree that I had earned with its fair share of sacrifices along the way, I thought of what Graduation from the Master of Marketing Program at the University of Sydney meant to me. My immediate thoughts were: an upgrade in my LinkedIn profile, a few pictures on Facebook, and something new to frame and hang on the wall.

Past the short term posts on social media, what this degree has really offered me is a change in direction. A second chance. The opportunity to start a career better suited to who I have become beyond the Bachelor degree that I obtained about a decade ago.

When I started the program over a year ago I wasn’t entirely sure that I had made the right decision to continue my education. The idea of not working full time (although a number of my classmates continued their full time employment while doing the program) and getting back into assignment writing and presentations was quite daunting. Now that I’ve graduated, I can honestly say that doing this degree was the best thing that I have done.

I have drawn as much from the lecturers and industry specialists that have presented in class as I have from interacting with fellow classmates from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Hands-on exercises and engaging lectures always made me look forward to attending class.

And as the 2013 graduating class gathered outside the Great Hall after the ceremony to congratulate each other, we took a moment to savor our accomplishments by tossing our hats in the air. Then we all rushed back to work to begin the rest of our lives.

Have you considered applying to the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney?

Mina D’Souza
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Nike, Adidas, New Balance and PUMA Team Up for Boston

It’s hard not to feeling something when Boston is brought up. Amid tragedy, it’s undisputable that a sense of humanity is brought out in all of us.

This is so clearly shown with sportswear rivals New Balance, Nike, PUMA and Adidas coming together to deliver a simple message of solidarity. Their latest print ad has a simple message: “Today we are in the same team.”

It’s hard to be critical of this ad. When we are constantly being sold to, this simple message reminds us that at the end of the day, the companies out there are not only servicing us, but they are one of us. Sure, you can pick out all the financial motivations behind an action like this, but sometimes we just need to savor these moments of sentiment.

In terms of a lesson in marketing, perhaps the most important thing I take away is that fact that there are certain truths that apply to all of us. Sure, this advertisement is only a small gesture, but these gestures mean so much, because it accesses an aspect of humanity that lives in us all. It’s not really a matter of a common good, but an innate ability to care.

As a student in marketing, there are so many things we are learning, especially in terms of how to engage with people. We are constantly asking questions, looking outward, doing experiments and researching. We are so busy; we forget to look internally at ourselves. We cannot forget that we are also a part of the system.

So when I saw the collaborative ad, I thought it was great. Then I asked myself a simple question of “why?” I have concluded that it is because this ad has the ability to bring out the care in all of us, and this communal sense of care brings comfort in times of hardship. For four rival shoes companies to be able to do that with a simple message should show that we don’t need cheap tricks to engage with people. We should look deeper and have more faith in our audience and their ability to care.

I know this theory probably isn’t appropriate for every situation, but it’s something I feel is important, and that we shouldn’t forget. We should care.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Saturated by new ‘News’

So these last couple of weeks has seen an immense amount of information passed around on the Internet regarding Daft Punk. I’m sure you’ve already heard/read/seen/watched the fake fan made version of Daft Punk’s new song, Get Lucky. If you haven’t already, it’s incredible – listen to it here.

If you don’t know who they are (a French electronic music duo), that’s fine too, just follow along and I’ll get to my point soon.


So the abbreviated timeline goes something like this:

• Daft Punk announces new Album: crowd goes wild. 
• Speculation and fake ‘leaked’ albums pop up all over the Internet. 
• Hype fades ever so slightly 
• Daft Punk releases online series, The Collaborators, featuring videos of all the super famous musicians who have also worked on their album.
• Daft Punk announces that they will be releasing their new album in rural Wee Waa, NSW at an agricultural show. • Everyone is a bit puzzled…but hype skyrockets.
• A teaser of Get Lucky is played during Coachella festival. The Internet almost breaks when this news was released.
• THEN, Hedi Silmane, fashion designer, photographs Daft Punk for his new campaign for Saint Laurent (previously Yves Saint Laurent.)

And now, after officially releasing Get Lucky, Daft Punk has broken the Spotify record in the US and UK for the biggest streaming day for a single track. I am sure they are not done surprising us with all their other hype-building tactics hidden up their sleeves just yet, but I’m beginning to worry this hype is going to break the internet for good. I know that sounds silly, but you get what I mean.

Google Trends Data for searches containing "Daft Punk"

Since the news of a new album in February, searches in Daft Punk grew pretty healthily. After March, ‘Daft Punk’ has been trending so much; it looks like it’s going to fall off the graph.

I know I probably sound like a crazy person, but it’s getting hard to keep up, and this ‘news’ is becoming a little old, pretty fast. Despite the obvious benefits of building all this exposure, there is the potential for the general public to get sick of it all, before the album is even released. When they are swamped repetitive information, there is a likelihood they may become desensitized to it.

However, on the other side of the argument is that when information is regurgitated so quickly in our hyper-connected age, could this tactic be a way of sustaining the audience’s attention? Repetition can really drill information into heads. When each day, we are bombarded with thousands upon thousands of snippets of information, perhaps this strategy of more is more could work?

I can’t decide where I sit between the two. I guess it all comes down to the circumstances, and to employ a strategy that is appropriate for what you are trying to advertise for. For Daft Punk, I think it’s getting hard to remember that while every other day more ‘news’ appears on the internet– this ‘news’ is actually just strategic, planned, and well executed advertising. Perhaps the very fact that I’ve forgotten I’m being advertised to means they’ve done a pretty good job.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Does the size of you connections on LinkedIn really matter?

A common joke nowadays is that the difference between networking and not working is just one letter.

I used to be relatively sceptical about the importance of LinkedIn for my career improvement until I moved to Sydney from Moscow about a year ago. In Russia LinkedIn is still not considered a useful tool for job seekers, as potential Russian employers would be more satisfied having a conversation with former employers rather than rely on information from the Internet.

In Australia, I see a ‘LinkedIn-mania’ among professionals. Everyone here talks about LinkedIn, thinks about LinkedIn and looks at your LinkedIn profile as soon as you get to know each other. Having just glanced at my LinkedIn page, a friend of mine immediately responded - you have no chance of using LinkedIn successfully unless you contact list is much longer (I have 82 connections). This makes me think: “What is LinkedIn really all about, and how does it work for professionals?”

Honestly I like LinkedIn since it enables me to keep track of my professional contacts in the cloud. However, I receive a lot of invitations and often cannot even figure out what the motivation for connecting is. The majority of these invitations appear to be meaningless and probably will never be converted into useful business opportunities. There is no doubt that LinkedIn makes business communication easier, but it could also make our network useless if the connections that we have are merely strangers. Does a sizable network provide the wrong impression: that quantity is equally important as quality. But let us look at our connection list from a practical angle: can we communicate with each of our connections in a business environment?

To what extent are these connections personal and thus to what extent they are valuable? In this case, the invitation process is a crucial step in gaining a connection. Even more, there should be an ethical standard where by when sending an invitation to a person, that you clearly state how you met or the purpose of why it would be valuable to connect. If this were the case, many people similar to me would be better off accepting invitations to connect rather than not even opening them at all.

However, I try to keep my connections down to those who I really know and I am comfortable with. I also frequently monitor my connection list and disconnect from those people I cannot recall.

This is why I am distrustful of those who get “over 500” connections. Have they just sent invitations to all their mail accounts (there is an easy tool in LinkedIn to assist with that)? Does this number of connections really mean business?

I have no doubt that the honest answer would be “no”.

Elena Sveshnikova
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Do you read EDMs?

Electronic Direct Mail. Those pesky emails you receive every other day from that contact lens website you used that one time. You don’t read it, but you also don’t unsubscribe.

Last month before I moved to Sydney, I happened to glance at a friend’s empty inbox. “How could it be? It must be an internet anomaly!” I thought. I asked him where were his ‘opened but not dealt with messages’ and the endless unread mail from ‘newsletters you intend to catch up with one day’. He didn’t have any. He systematically unsubscribes from any emails he doesn’t want to receive.

Now I thought about this…mail I don’t want to receive… Sure, I delete 99% of EDMs I receive without even glancing at the subject title. But the idea of missing out on the potential of one day, missing out on an inkling of information may be of interest to me, really freaked me out. I’d never thought about ‘unsubscribing’ until now.

So what are people like me doing to people who are working hard at trying to market though EDMs?

In our Evaluate Market Performance paper, we talked about the power of amassing a list of email contacts. Email, considered to be more reliable than addresses or phone numbers, is highly valuable as a way to get in touch. But are people like me ruining the point of having a big list of emails in your database?

At my pervious employment, creating daily EDMs was even a part of my job! Just like any other webpage, we were able to analyse how long a person opened the email, whether they then clicked on a link, whether they made a purchase, or browsed our website – or whether it was sent to trash without being opened.

Even so, their purpose is totally lost on me. I can’t speak for others, but the ‘delete’ button is just a bit too convenient. So this battle between the desire for a streamlined inbox and wanting all the information all the time will never be resolved for me.

What I do take away from this realisation is that perhaps it’s not about how big your database is, but rather a database full of people who are not going to simply delete you. Companies now are too focused on tactics that pressure any passing visitor to join their mailing list, and neglecting the fact that not every person on the Internet is their target audience. The electronic age means information is so quickly transferred, but it also is so quickly forgotten.

The benefit of having a very specific database means that your EDMs could become a two-way thing; a portal for communication. When you are dealing with a specific market, there is the opportunity to target that market in ways you would not be able to if you were casting your net wider.

I guess the blame isn’t solely on the companies. We are also the ones who go and sign ourselves up for this in the first place. We, the ‘deleters’ of EDMs, are equally at fault for not understanding and aligning our personal brands with those companies we actually care about.

I have no solid answers to this dilemma. I will keep subscribing, and keep deleting, in the hope that one day my inbox will magically be empty of it all.

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Even Margaret Thatcher has a Personal Brand

When Facebook has a group with nearly 40,000 ‘Likes’ whose sole purpose is to track your death, you know that you’re not in the running for a popularity contest. The Facebook group: ‘Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet?’ was created in 2010, and only changed its profile picture on April 8th from ‘NOT YET’ to ‘YES, Margaret Thatcher is Dead’. According to comments on the group, there were people that checked the page daily to see if she had passed.

Lady Thatcher, who also goes by a number of names including Iron Lady, Tin Ear, and other colorful names that I will not repeat in this blog, continues to have such a controversial presence. Margaret Thatcher’s 15 second elevator speech would consist of a few facts including being Britain’s first female Prime Minister, and then being re-elected twice to the position. Her ‘personal brand’ is quite a unique one. She has truly left her mark on history.

Some love her, some hate her. Those who love her seem to be the winning side of her reforms, while her enemies are amongst those whom she showed little remorse for as she steamed rolled through her terms.

Personal branding and how we portray our personal brand is very important, especially if you are in a communications based role such as Marketing, Advertising and Politics. In the Internal Marketing Unit of the Masters of Marketing program, we focused on personal branding, particularly what it is, how to develop it, and it’s importance. It still surprises me how many people are not on LinkedIn, especially those who I would have thought surely would have invested enough time to create an on-line professional presence.

Even Margaret Thatcher is on LinkedIn. Her profile might not be very strong, but she still has a personal profile as well as a number of groups about her. And she’s on Facebook as well. Isn’t it time that you spend the time to create or update your on-line personal brand? Hopefully you too won’t have a Facebook group following your death, but rather your on-line presence will lead to positive things.

Mina D'Souza
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Tic Tac Knocks Out a French Town

At one time in our lives we’ve all had to share confined quarters with someone who has bad breath. The worst part is that the only person who doesn’t suffer the consequences of the noxious odors is the person who has bad breath, as they often are unaware of their effects on their neighbors. Breathing by your mouth, usually relieves you of the effects for a while, but if you have to spend 8 hours a day boxed up in a shared cubicle with Mr. Coffee-Breath, or Mrs. Smoker-Mouth, not even mouth breathing can help you.

Tic Tac has used humor in the above ad to show the devastation of the effects of bad breath on a small town in France. This ad is a take on the flash mob videos that have popped up in the past few years. The best part of the ad is that you don’t need to speak a word of French to understand the key message: Tic Tacs will take care of your bad breath.

When completing the Innovative Marketing Strategies Unit of the Masters of Marketing we analysed how humour can be used as a powerful marketing tool, but also how when humour used poorly can have devastating effects for a product and/or brand. When using humour an ad agency has to be careful not to put a market segment offside by negatively stereotyping a group ex. all old people are grumpy, or all young people are reckless. Country, political situations and target audiences are important to consider when creating your campaign.

Ideally you want your ad to be memorable: people remember your ad AND the product being advertised AND one key message. The icing on the cake comes when people talk to their friends about your ad, that’s when you really know that your ad has been successful.

I think that Tic Tac has done a great job in the above ad because it has met all those criteria. It also has international relevance, which not all humourous ads can boast of as it can easily overcome the language and cultural barriers of most countries in the western world.

Next time you’re in a confined space such as a lift, a car, or even on the street asking someone for direction, have a Tic Tac handy!

I would love to know what your favorite humourous ad is.

Mina D'Souza
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Branding the Un-Egg-spected

The other day when deciding on which eggs to buy during my weekly grocery shop, I stumbled upon branded eggs. By ‘branded eggs’ I don’t mean that there was a company name on the egg carton, these were literally branded eggs with the company logo printed on each egg shell.

Twelve beaming smiling faces greeted me as I opened the carton of eggs from Sunny Queen Farms to check that all the eggs were intact. These eggs looked ‘happy’ and were sparkling clean (no feces, feathers, or other egg debris… gross!). Just looking at these eggs gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness. These eggs HAD to come home with me. And they did!

Branded eggs? Brilliant. And ‘about time’, especially as everything else that I bring home from the shops is branded.

Eggs without branding are just eggs. They could be from organically fed chickens that were taken for walks twice a day, or even read a book at night, but for all I know, once eggs get taken out of their packaging and put into my egg-tray in the fridge, an egg is an egg, is an egg. Unless it has a smiling face on it or another branding stamp to differentiate it.

So why haven’t all egg companies jumped upon this very simple and probably not too expensive concept? It sure beats me.

Egg companies in my opinion waste money by trying to differentiate themselves by their carton packaging. They should really focus on the natural primary packaging of their product: the egg shell. Brand logo, expiry date, and even a short key message or company slogan should be printed on the egg.

Even my hubby likes the smiling eggs, and although he doesn’t yet remember the name of the brand, he no longer has to ring me in a panicked state from the grocery store to ask which kind of eggs to buy. He knows that the smiling face eggs are a sure win in our household.

What other products do you feel still have a long way to go in terms of branding opportunities?

BCM Sunny Queen Egg Case Study

Mina D'Souza
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Reinventing a best seller

How do you re-invent and improve an already good product? Saatchi & Saatchi LA have decided that a re-invented couch should be made up of toned and attractive females in bikinis, and should also be made available in a male version of topless buff men in shorts.

This ad however isn’t for the re-invented couch, or edible pizza curtains, or for plants that fight crime, but for the launch of an improved Toyota Camry. The creative touch of re-inventing the ordinary almost ‘un-re-inventible’ is quite funny, but I didn’t find that Toyota, or Saatchi and Saatchi on Toyota’s behalf, communicated the crux of their campaign… the improved features of the Camry in this particular ad.

But do the details of the sedan’s ‘re-invention’ really matter in this ad? I don’t think so. This ad is all about gaining attention and having people remember the ad rather than the car. Remembering the car and linking it back to the ad comes later in the campaign. This strategy is often used in advertising, where making a lasting impression in 60 seconds or less is challenging with so many ads bombarding our daily lives.

So what makes an ad successful? When evaluating ads in the Integrated Communications unit of the Master of Marketing Program, we used the acronym ‘S.C.O.R.E.’ to critique the ads.

S.C.O.R.E.: S = Simple, C= Creative, O=Original, R= Relevant, E= Effective.

Successful ads would rate high in every one of the criteria.

For this Toyota Camry ad, the ‘re-invention’ concept is Simple, and focuses on improving an already solid product. Making an analogy to a reinvented couch, curtain, and crime-fighting household potted plants is highly Creative. I would give this ad two thumbs up for Originality, how refreshing is it to see a car commercial without seeing the car wind along a quiet country road with a picturesque backdrop. Was this ad Relevant? No, in my opinion, but the fact that the ad isn’t relevant to the car’s improvements makes it Effective because the ad makes the car indirectly memorable.

What ads have you found to be so creative that they become highly memorable?

Mina D'Souza
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School

Taco Bell’s Internet Personality

I LOVE Taco Bell. I love them so much; I would take any opportunity to talk with people about how amazing Taco Bell is. All of their marketing efforts have worked on me, and I am a proud advocate for their brand. Which is a bit strange, considering I’ve never even eaten there.

Why all the passion?

Because Taco Bell’s Internet personality is someone I’d like to be best friends with. Sure, they’ve run the regular kinds of monetary driven promotions, donations, fundraisers so on and so forth. But it’s all the little things they do that add up to a quirky sense of humor, and a brand that isn’t afraid to have a little laugh at itself.

If you ever stumble upon Taco Bell’s Twitter or Facebook page, their online teams are often quick to respond – and respond with a bit of delightful tongue-in-cheek. Many service companies find social media hard to deal with because the nature of the forum can lead to disgruntled customers openly tarnishing your good name. Taco Bell is not immune to this, but instead of standard replies, they often respond with personalized solutions. Not only that, it’s obvious that their web team are given the authority to reply to customers with something a little unconventional.

 

So why is this so important in social media? For me, it’s the feeling that I am engaging with more than just a company – that there is a personality behind it all. You can find endless examples, like the one above, of Taco Bell just being a nice guy. And isn’t it much easier to engage with a ‘nice guy’ than a company that sees you as another statistic? Engagement goes both ways, and Taco Bell proves that giving a little back has huge returns.

Although some can argue this is all just a part of the marketing strategy of an emotionless company, when it comes to Social Media, the notion of ‘perception is reality’ rings true. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt for other companies to take a leaf out of Taco Bell’s book, and spend some time being a ‘nice guy’ on the Internet (or at least a guy with a sense of humor).

Hongi Luo
Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School