Thinking Out Loud

The days of thinking are over. With Google at our fingertips it is much quicker and easier to Google “name of the blonde actress in James Bond” than it is to actually try and think of the answer ourselves. Google has become such a crucial part of the internet that no search engine can even dream of competing with it. Or can they?

Ali Birston recently blogged about Facebook releasing their own search function, using the vast amount of personal data they own as a competitive advantage over Google. While it seems like another great idea from Facebook , we have to ask the question “can Facebook provide the answers search engine users are actually looking for?”

A 2011 Business Insider Article analyzed the things people search for the most. These include:

• Adult content
• Online games
• News
• Mortgage calculator
• How to lose weight fast
• Vacations
• Sports
• Products

And they are only to name a few. Well we know because of Facebook’s content agreement, their new search function won’t be producing any adult content and I am not sure how much information Facebook has on mortgage calculators. I can see how they could, however, spew out online games, news, weight loss methods, vacations etc based on what users have been sharing and posting about. It is safe to say though that Facebook alone could not do everything Google can without creating it’s own complete search engine.

Unless, they partner with another search engine who is also trying to take Google down! And it looks like that partnership might just happen. Bing has already partnered with Facebook to create My Bing News, an app that allows you to search for the latest news articles right on Facebook. It’s a small step but it might not be long before Google has a new serious competitor.

When it comes to an online marketing strategy, every company dreams of going ‘viral’. Whether it’s a youtube video or an entire marketing campaign, organizations hope that the online community will do the mass marketing for them…for free. Some content goes viral without even intending to, while other companies will do everything possible to include components for viral success, with the result being nothing more than a handful of tweets.

This success story is an original one though. The XX released their second album on September 3 but instead of the traditional radio release, record stores, itunes, and as much mainstream publicity as possible, they only released it to one person. The unique part, however, is that it was released through a web app that visually tracked the streaming of the album across the globe. So as that single fan shared it with a few of his/her friends, and they shared it with a few of theirs, everyone could see in real time where this album was going.

There are hundreds of articles written about how to make your content go viral and it seems as though company’s like Smartwater have read them all. But the simple honest truth is it just has to be something new, creative and original…something that has never been done before. People didn’t facebook/tweet/email The XX’s album because the music was great, they did it because the story behind it was unique and awesome. They didn’t share the music, they shared the experience of being a part of the visual network unfolding on the map in front of them.

Just as, after the invention of the camera, artists started painting about the act of painting, The XX  sent their album viral by utilizing the concept of viral marketing itself.

A classic activity in any marketing class is the brand recognition game. Show a famous logo on the screen and have students call out any and all words that come to mind when they see that logo. Apple: sleek, innovative, simple, clean, efficient. Brands and logos are taught hand in hand and the common misconception is that the logo generates the brand, instead of just representing it.

You would never be able to describe a stranger’s personality just by looking at their face. The same goes for a logo and a brand. Its easy to describe brands like Coca-Cola and Apple when we see their logos, because we know the brands so well. But what about companies we have never heard of before? We could never describe their brand just by looking at their logo.

A company’s brand is its personality and character.  And just like a human’s character, it is built by the choices the company makes, the endeavours it pursues, and the ideals with which it associates, not the logo.

Logos are used to represent a brand that the company has worked so hard to develop, just as you remember your best friend’s personality and the experiences you share, when you look at their face.

I have recently completed an 8 month marketing competition with NESTEA, Coca-Cola and Inventa called NESTEA TheRecruit. Think of it as the apprentice but for marketing. 24 teams from universities across Canada competed in a series of marketing challenges until only 8 teams were left.

The final challenge was to create a 30 second television commercial for NESTEA’s new core creative idea. It was a challenging and stressful process to design a concept that captured the NESTEA brand and to which the target audience would respond.

The fun part, however, was last weekend! NESTEA flew us out to Toronto to present our commercial and the rationale behind it to top marketing executives from Coca-Cola, Inventa and NESTEA. We had to explain EVERYTHING, from why we chose the actors and locations that we did, to why we think the concept fit the NESTEA brand.

We spent HOURS in our hotel room practicing the presentation over and over. There was so much on the line, and we wanted to win so badly. I have never been as nervous as I was that morning.

Finally the moment came. We stood in the board room of the Coca-Cola head offices giving the presentation we worked so hard for, and it was such an incredible and exhilarating adrenaline rush. I loved it. I felt so comfortable up there and had so much fun that I didn’t want the presentation to end. We walked out of the room and wanted to jump up and down screaming.

We came 2nd!!!

This experience gave me such good insight in to a career at an advertising firm. From working with the needs and wants of a client to create their advertising material, to actually presenting our ideas to them with huge stakes on the line. I LOVED IT!!!

Morgan Surlock is most famous for eating nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days during the filming of his exposing documentary “Supersize Me”. Now he is back with another creative and out-of-the-box project; a documentary about product placement, entirely funded by product placement.

In his recent TED Talk, Morgan explained that the concept behind this documentary is transparency. He wants to give viewers a clear look into the world of marketing and product placement. And while the movie has not yet been made or released, it has me thinking about my own personal opinions on product placement.

From the perspective of the consumer, I find it one of the more tolerable forms of promotion, but only when executed well. We are unimpressed and unresponsive when product placement is executed poorly: an actor is drinking a can of pepsi with his hand in a very awkward and unnatural position to insure the pepsi logo is in full view, drinking at a very slow rate and for an abnormally long length of time. Not cool. We can clearly see companies are doing it in the hopes of making more money and we will not fall for those tricks.

Subtle product placement, while running the risk of being so subtle consumer’s do not notice the product, is far more unintrusive, leading to more favourable positioning in a consumers mind. If an actor is playing basketball with his friends, clearly thirsty so casually and naturally reaches for a can of pepsi on the table, takes a few gulps and places it back down again, I am far more likely to register my own thirst and venture to the fridge for a can of pepsi.

In a world so saturated with marketing, sometimes it’s the subtle that stands out.