The unfortunate thing in this case is that the product that was advertised is actually quite a good deal – Meteor have launched their “Broadband to go” mobile broadband service at a competitive rate in comparison to other operators, namely 3, Vodafone and O2 (although I do think that the current 5GB monthly limit is a bit low). However, perhaps a more unobtrusive ad would have caused me (and other potential customers) to check out the product voluntarily and have brought me to the product web page in a less unhappy and frustrated mood!

I saw the new Microsoft advertisement on tv earlier today. Microsoft’s response to Apple’s “I’m a PC… I’m a Mac” advertisement seems more like a retaliation than an innovation. “I’m a PC and I’ve been made into a stereotype.” Is that an admission that the smaller rival is winning or are they taking them head-on?

What’s clever about Microsoft’s ad is that it focuses on the everyday nature of the PC and the good they can do in the world. A nerdy PC-user is just a scene setter. The ad then quickly moves through lots of different types of PC users including an African school teacher, a blogger for Obama, a McCain supporter, people wearing jeans, designing jeans, and studying genes and not to mention some celebrity endorsement in the form of Pharell Williams, Eva Longoria and BG himself. This is a refreshing contrast to the Apple ads because they take place in a variety of different, colorful locations, with a variety of races and cultures, rather than existing within Apple’s clinical, white world.

Microsoft’s I’m a PC – Life Without Walls website features more information and a chance for users to become a PC on TV by uploading their own “I’m a PC’ videos, which Microsoft will use for their online advertising and TV campaigns.True, this could be considered a great Parthian shot at Apple but what about the people who use both PC’s and Mac’s? We’ve got 2 Mac’s and 4 PC’s in our house… what does that make us? *Niamh walks away saying “I’m a PC and a MAC”… Though, I’m more of a Mac! *

Watch the “I’m a PC” video on YouTube.

Driving past the illumination revealed that it is a display with a long conversational-style sentence written across it.

“Patrick! You are absolutely perfect!”

“Thank you Mr. W., I see it more a vocation than a position, it will be an honour.
When does it all begin?”

“All in good time Patrick.”

At the start of the advertisement is a separate block with the numbers “119″ across it. A google search of “119 Howth Road” a few weeks ago turned up the following link to a PDF document containing a planning application made in December 2006:

http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/MINUTES%20January%2007_tcm35-48345.pdf

The above application is from the WSM Partnership for permission at the site 119, Howth Road, & part of rear gardens to construct a “four level apartment block comprising 9 no. one-bedroom units, 45 no. two bedroom units and 5 no. three bedroom units totalling 59 units with balconies to most apartments on east, west and south elevations and balconies/terraces to the northwest and to the south east elevation all over basement accommodating 110 no. car park spaces and 59 no. bicycle spaces plus gym facilities area and swimming pool with glazed pyramid above with surrounding water feature in landscaping roadway footpaths walls railings and associated site works.”

On the way home again last night, I noticed that the display has been updated with a new conversational-style sentence and is no longer quite as bright as the white background has been replaced with a red patterned background and white text.

“Merry Christmas Patrick!”

“And Many Happy Returns Mr. W!”

“Enjoy the festivities Patrick
But leave some room for a very special surprise in 2008!”

“Vague but exciting Mr. W!”

A google search of the term “119 Howth Road” today revealed the number one site listing to be http://www.119howthroad.com .

The website contains a flash animation of the conversational-style sentence above in the same style of the display with snowflakes falling around it.

Further investigation of the website reveals that the keywords used in the pages source code are “119, Howth, Road, 119 Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin, Dublin 3, Ireland, Hotel, Spa, Luxury, Stylish, Upmarket”. On www.aboutus.org the website has been placed in the following categories: hotel, spa, dublin and luxury.

Digging even deeper reveals that there is a flash countdown timer on the website that at the time of writing this, had yet to be launched. (http://www.119howthroad.com/swf/countdown.swf).

The Irish property sector has certainly become more competitive and developers and estate agents are looking to innovative marketing techniques such as this for that added appeal and intrigue. It is still not clear what the cryptic theme and dialogue mean or refer to but I would imagine that there will be further updates to the campaign closer to and during the “countdown”. So… whatever the campaign is intending to advertise it is “stylish” and “upmarket” but is it an apartment complex or a hotel… or both? And more importantly, what kind of advertising/ marketing is this and does it have the desired outcome?

The campaign to my mind could be described as a combined form of ambient, viral, guerilla and guess marketing.

Ambient because it somewhat fuses with everyday surroundings and complements the behaviour of the target audience – it is located on a main road in an middle-class area that experiences heavy traffic in the mornings and evenings with commuters having to wait in traffic and are therefore, well positioned to notice and read the dialogue on the display.

Viral because some people living in the area or driving past the display will talk about it.

Guerilla because the campaign cannot be missed as you drive by (the first version of the dialogue was so bright that one resident in the area commented that it could potentially cause a crash; but then again it could be argued that most outdoor advertising could potentially cause a crash; remember the case of the advertisements for Wonderbra in 1998?), it is somewhat unconventional and it involves minimal cost for maximum impact (so far the campaign has consisted of one illuminated road-side display and one flash web page though I would imagine that further updates to the campaign may include an expansion of these probably into print, radio and television but the again maybe not).

And finally, guess marketing because most people would guess that yes, this is an advertisement for a new apartment complex or a hotel but that is not being made clear through the campaign itself and the cryptic dialogue only adds to the intrigue.

The success of viral marketing campaigns often rely heavily on “getting personal”. However, this can for some be an irritating and intrusive form of selling. Ambient media that works, however, can show intelligence and creativity. Ambient communication ensures that the emotional bond between the brand and the consumer is stronger as the consumer has chosen to actively take notice of the message and can decide to find out more about it rather than having it forced into their environment.

In ethical terms, viral marketing is less desirable because it is more pushy whereas ambient marketing is often static but exhumes creativity. A combination of the two then, done in the right measure and in a stylish and classy way must almost certainly achieve the desired outcome.

The secret to any successful marketing campaign, to my mind, is to simply create a great product, service or user experience. Once there is a product out there worth talking about, people will do just that! Letting the masses know that that product is available is one of the main challenges and certainly this campaign has aimed to do just that. Whether or not the campaign will have the desired outcome remains to be seen. However, they did succeed in getting me to write about it and I would imagine that there wont be too many that far behind me!

Related links:

• Shaping Youth: Kids Are A Captive Audience With Ambient Advertising
• brand dna: Freshly brewed urban spam
• Advertising objects for baggage claim belts: Excellent Ambient Marketing campaign at Venice Marco Polo Airport – *Read this: great idea (and more about it here).
  
• Is Ambient Marketing Good for Customers? « Customers Rock!
• Read between the Ps: Guerilla Marketing – Latest Campaigns using Ambient Media
• Ambient media – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

]]> http://www.niamhredmond.org/2007/12/11/119-howth-road-clontarf-guess-marketing-at-its-brightest/feed/ 0 http://www.niamhredmond.org/2007/11/23/digital-marketing-marketing-breakfasts-golden-spiders-thanksgiving-turkeys/ http://www.niamhredmond.org/2007/11/23/digital-marketing-marketing-breakfasts-golden-spiders-thanksgiving-turkeys/#comments Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:31:09 +0000 Niamh Redmond http://www.niamhredmond.org/blog/2007/11/23/digital-marketing-marketing-breakfasts-golden-spiders-thanksgiving-turkeys/ I recently embarked of some further study. I am three weeks into a Diploma in Digital Marketing with Advertising, Public Relations and E-Commerce (Dip. Dig. Mkting) with the Fitzwilliam Institute. This is the first time that the Institute are running the course, which can always be a bit of a gamble. However, I’m not new to this having been the 2nd year group of undergraduate students to undertake the BSc. Multimedia degree at the School of Communications in Dublin City University in 2000, and that gamble paid off in the end. So far, the diploma course has been very good and has reached my (high) expectations. One of the key things that attracted me to the course, aside from wanting a formal qualification in the digital marketing and advertising arena, was that the Institutes approach in selecting lecturers that are directly working or involved in their area of specialisation and that can demonstrate their experience with examples related to their own jobs and companies. I was interested to see that one of the lecturers, Anthony Quigley, was recently interviewed by The Innovation Magazine, the monthly supplement of the Irish Times. Quigley, founder and CEO of Online-Marketing.ie, is considered one of Ireland’s leading experts in the areas of online and internet marketing.

I also attended my first “Marketing Breakfast” organised by the Marketing Institute of Ireland yesterday morning, which took place in the Dome Restaurant at the top of St. Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre in Dublin. Yesterday’s breakfast focused on E-mail Marketing. “What Matters Most in Email” was presented by Denise Cox, Newsweaver’s Newsletter Specialist and one of Ireland’s leading authorities on best practice e-mail marketing. Denise presented an overview of email from both an acquisition and retention perspective and discussed the latest trends in email marketing and how this can affect a company’s marketing efforts. Denise also offered some tips on design, deliverability and how email fits into multi-channel marketing as well as how to write content that works and how to create email marketing that nurtures and builds customer relationships. For a short breakfast, the talk was very good. A lot of the points made would be familiar to people in the industry but it was great to be reminded of the fundamental best practice techniques in order to ensure success and to gain broader knowledge of the email marketing landscape in general. Last week Denise was awarded the “Best Blogger” at the IIA and Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards. Interestingly, Anthony Quigley was a nominee in the “Internet Entrepreneur” category but just missed out to Lulu O’Sullivan at 4GiftsDirect.com. O’Sullivan started her business 20 years ago, delivering teddy bears on the back of a moped! The business was one of the first commercial internet shopping sites in Ireland when it went live 12 years ago. Since then hampers from 4Gifts have been opened on an episode of “The Osbournes” and Colin Farrell has also been a recipient of one.

Lorcan O’Sullivan from Enterprise Ireland, the awards sponsor, said:

“There is a new breed of Irish company that is harnessing the ongoing potential of the internet as a medium without boundaries. The nominees and winners of the IIA Net Visionary awards are testament to the creativity and calibre of those involved in the industry today. Lulu O’Sullivan is a great example of an entrepreneur who started from literally nothing and has harnessed technology to build a successful business.”

Hmmm, I wonder what I could start selling from the back of my own moped?!

Speaking of awards, the Golden Spiders Awards 2007 took place yesterday evening. I was interested to see that a few new categories have been added to the Awards this year; namely “Best Blog”, “Best use of Film/ Animation/ Motion Graphics”, “Best Social Networking Website”, “Best Entertainment & Games related website”, “Best FMCG website” and the “User Generated Content award”. Another one of the lecturers from my Diploma course, Rosey Broderick, was short-listed for “best website launched in 2006″ at the awards. Broderick is Managing Director of Homewise.ie, Ireland’s “Home and Garden search engine”.

On a separate note, yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in America (Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada). I was asked to design my first Thanksgiving card for distribution to my company’s American & Canadian clients. It was a nice detour from usual tasks and got me thinking about the approaching holiday season. The Christmas lights that adorn Grafton Street, Georges street and the other main streets in Dublin city centre were turned on last weekend and I got to see them in the flesh last night. They really do put you in the Christmas spirit. I’m looking forward to Christmas this year and for once I might actually get my shopping fully done before Christmas eve! With a little help from the internet that is

The top sites that I predict that I’ll be visiting are:

www.amazon.com
www.apple.com
www.e-bay.ie

I must also check out 4GiftsDirect.com! And I also just came across ArmChair.ie, which also looks like it’s worth a browse. Interestingly, Deloitte in the UK are predicting a 100% increase in online shopping this year. In Ireland, E-bay, Apple and Amazon are the top three online shopping sites with Buy4now.ie, Argos, Littlewoods and even Tesco’s following behind them.

I must track what percentages of my own online shopping are divided among these!

“Dial this number and wait to hear option 3 – 1890 866 07″.

Pretty funny, livened up our days anyway (we are obviously easily entertained! – Ah, small pleasures!)… Turns out it is a marketing ploy for Perlico, an Irish Internet and Phone company.

The duck appears to have had the desired outcome anyway, people are spreading the word. But how successful is viral marketing such as this? There is a current post about this on boards.ie; http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055142608 . Some posters there believed that the Perlico phone line had been ‘hacked’ and were wondering if it would be possible to do the same to Eircom! Another poster thinks that this type of marketing is really unprofessional. Regardless of these people’s various opinions of the marketing ploy, has it proved to be a success?

If you go to the Perlico website, www.perlico.com, you can click on a “Hear the Duck” link at the top of the page. (*Editor’s note: Blog started on Friday 31st August 7pm, published Monday 3rd September, 8pm – Please note that the link on the Perlico website has now been replaced with ‘Hear the Perlico Duck – Get the Ringtone’.) Once you click on the link, you are brought into a page that gives a little bit more information about the campaign, suggesting that it could be “Ireland’s most successful ever viral marketing campaign”.

“This week, Perlico embarked on a new viral marketing campaign featuring the now famous “duck quacking” option on its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system on 1890 88 66 07.”

It would seem that the marketing department at Perlico have certainly done a good job. Perlico COO, Mark Cleary commented that “Since this launch, based on the volumes of calls, the campaign has been a phenomenal success. In just over 3 days we have received over 70,000 calls and added a significant number of new customers as a result which make this one of the most successful viral campaigns in Ireland.”

Perlico have even released a press release on Business Wire to the same tune:
“Ireland’s Most Successful Ever Viral Marketing Campaign?”

Yes, the campaign certainly has had the desired effect. I was one of the 70,000 callers to ring within those 3 days and do indeed remember hearing about the Perlico services and savings offering for Irish consumers (I especially remember the direct comparison to Eircom!). However, this can’t exactly be described as a “new” viral marketing campaign and certainly isn’t unique to Perlico.

When was the “duck” born?

Back in August 2000, the New Jersey-based online brokerage company National Discount Brokers, adopted this interesting menu choice. COO, Chris McQuilkin, is credited with thinking up the quirky or should I say “quacky” campaign. But it wasn’t even designed as a campaign to begin with. Apparently, the brokerage firm decided to throw in the sound of a duck quacking as an option on their toll-free line as a joke at first.

One month later, NDB was getting nearly 500,000 calls and paying $10,000 a day in 1-800 charges. McQuilkan claimed the exposure was worth any costs and said the number of people signing up with NDB had gone up nearly 75 per cent. NDB didn’t spend any money in advertising the duck. Word spread about their voice mail on the Internet and over email.

So, why a duck?

Apparently, the duck first became the NDB’s mascot in 1994. The founder, Arthur Kontos, an immigrant from Greece began associating ducks with wealth when he would visit the homes of rich people and observe that they all seemed to have their walls adorned with pictures of ducks! From this, the NDB logo was born. In September 2000, one month after the duck viral marketing campaign was launched, Kontos sold NDB for $1 billion.

Six years later, Copywriter Michel Fortin posted a blog entry titled “All Your Base Are Belong to Us” on his website about viral marketing referencing this campaign (so it was still talked about 6 years later!)

No doubt, the people at Perlico heard about it somewhere along the way. So, could this be an example of viral marketing re-producing itself, or should I say re-infecting us? Cleary adds at the end of the Perlico website page to “look out for more antics from the duck in the near future.” … We will!

Additional Note: Slightly off the point but interesting nonetheless, Perlico also publish their daily Customer Service statistics, which provide statistics such as average wait time, number of calls answered in under 30 seconds and the initial call resolution times. Now, that’s something that Eircom definitely don’t do!

Related Links:

• Wikipaedia – Viral Marketing

• Perlico Website – www.perlico.com

• The 98FM Media Coverage of the Perlico Duck – http://www.perlico.com/DuckRecordings/98FMSnippetOfDuckQuacking.mp3

• PublicityInsider.com Article – The Public Relations Hall of Fame – “#5 ” href=”http://www.publicityinsider.com/HallOfFame.asp#5″ target=”_blank”>Viral Public Relations to Quack About“.

• ArticleBiz.com – “Humor in Customer Service and How It Can Help Your Business” Article.

• “E-mail Fuels Duck Quack Craze For Online Broker” – Company Business and Marketing

• Business Review Article – “Would you ask prospects to listen to a quacking duck?“

Other Notable examples of Viral Marketing: (from Wikipaedia)

• BusinessWeek (2001) described web-based campaigns for Hotmail (1996) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) as striking examples of viral marketing, but warned of some dangers for imitation marketers.
• Burger King’s The Subservient Chicken campaign was cited in Wired as a striking example of viral or word-of-mouth marketing.
• In 2000, Slate described TiVo’s unpublicized gambit of giving free TiVo’s to web-savvy enthusiasts to create “viral” word of mouth, pointing out that a viral campaign differs from a publicity stunt.
• One Six Right’s viral HD film marketing campaign, as chronicled by the Hollywood Reporter, led to sponsorships and support from many large media companies, including Apple Inc., Sony Electronics, Toshiba, Technicolor and Dolby.
• 2007 Boston Mooninite Scare
• 1-18-08
• The Dark Knight (film)
• Red Herring (2007) Buzz Kill – Are the new FTC regulations going to kill Viral Marketing
• Buy n Large (2007) to promote the movie WALL-E.