Corporate Storytelling should be as alluring as the Dance of 7 Veils (courtesy of rjg329)
One of the things which I have been wrestling with lately is this:
How can I keep my customers continually keen in my products and services beyond a short-lived campaign?
More importantly, can we sustain their interest over a longer time span and find different ways to build on it?
Yesterday evening, as I was going home from work, I was handed a packet of free tissues outside City Hall MRT station along North Bridge Road. Considered one of the oldest promotional gimmick in the book, it came from QB House – famous for its 10 minute haircut costing $10 – which recently opened a branch at Basement 2 of Raffles City.
Despite the small rectangular area of the tissue, the company has cleverly done a few things right:
Source: Frat House Sports
By now, almost everybody plugged into social media (including my friends Ivan Chew, Kevin Lim, Siva and Lucian) would have heard of how Old Spice, a heritage toiletry brand (used by one’s granddad) managed to reinvent itself through the Old Spice Man Youtube channel. The idea was developed by marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy and involved the shooting of real-time marketing videos while leveraging on social media networks.
Here’s an example of the commercials which have been circulating on Youtube and garnering massive views:
T-Mobile’s Flash Mob at Trafalgar Square
In the world of advertising, it is common for one to think about generating Attention first before anything else.
After all, that age-old mnemonic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is predicated on the ability to capture your target audience’s eyeballs/ eardrums in the cacophony of marketing clutter.
Finding treasure requires a lot of investigating and digging. Just ask Indiana Jones! (source)
In any successful marketing endeavour, one must be willing to think, live and breathe like one’s potential customer. This also means that preconceived notions and prejudices must be tested and thrown out the window if they are proven untrue.
What are some of these common misconceptions and myths? Let me offer some examples.
Active Ageing award winners show the tremendous potential in the silver market (courtesy of mylifestylemap.com)
A recent news article in The Straits Times got me all excited yet again about the oldest but most neglected market opportunity.
Namely, the silver-haired (or seniors) market.
Coke Pavillion at Shanghai World Expo (Courtesy of Coca-Cola China)
Have you wondered how Coca-Cola became the world’s leading brand?
Well, thanks to Coca-Cola, I’m about to find out.
I’ve been selected by Coca-Cola to be one of two bloggers (the other is Alvinology) to fly to Shanghai for the World Expo to cover the launch of its pavillion, explore its new Global Innovation and Technology Center (GITC), and attend events such as its Founder’s Day ceremony and an Expo Celebration Concert.
The art of curating and storytelling drew 8.5 million visitors to the Louvre in 2009 – many just to catch the Mona Lisa here!
One of the insights which I have gleaned in the hectic past few days from Steve Rubel and his thoughts on digital curation was this:
We should all be curators. Every single one of us in the fields of marketing, public relations, and advertising. And not only in the digital realm, but all others too.
Are these brands or logos? (Courtesy of search-this.com)
What is a brand? How does one understand the art and science of branding in the digital driven age?
First, a brand is not a logo. Certainly, logos represent one dimension in the embodiment of corporate or product brands. However, they are just a visual representation and a signpost rather than the true meaning of the brand itself.
Dubai was all about the dream without the reality, and landed itself with a huge debt. (courtesy of Bobesh)
There are two school of thoughts in marketing. The first belongs to the world of imagination while the second is centred on pragmatism. Do these spheres of marketing always have to sit on opposite poles?
Let us look at this in some detail.