Frontiering Talk

Imagine you are in the delivery business, and want to show that you deliver anywhere in the world.

DHL, with the help of a swedish artist Erik Nordenankar, and a GPS device have managed to create what they describe as the biggest drawing in the world.

The website documents the creation, along with detailed instructions and delivery documents, and even contains video footage of the drawings journey.

In a world of increasing clutter, it takes something unique to stand out and get noticed, and judging by the number of blogosphere conversations, the initiative appears to be something that will help raise awareness for DHL’s global delivery service.

When I was young, radio shows such as American Top 40, or Billboard were the established authorities on determining the most popular artist or album.
The internet has revolutionised the distribution of music and it’s no surprise that there is no shortage of innovation in the delivery of informational services.

Recognising that popularity includes discussions, consumption as well as purchase, the BBC has created an index of bands and tracks.

The index is updated every 6 hours, using IBM’s Semantic Super Computing which scans sites such MySpace, Bebo, Last.fm, iTunes, Google, YouTube, monitoring conversations, music listened to, artists watched, and songs downloaded, to establish the most popular 1000 artists and tracks on the web.

The more conversations an artist or song receives and the more it is is downloaded or played, the higher up the Sound Index they are listed.

The Sound Index can also be filtered based on genre, location of people and age group.

Whilst you are unable to “click through” to the actual conversations for a given artist, this index represents a good indicator of their marketing performance.

I can see these type of measures being applied to almost any industry or category. The Food Index, The Restaurant Index, even the Agency Index.
Are you monitoring what is being said about your brand or service?

Most of us remember the Mission Impossible series which immortalised the saying “This message will self destruct”.

Deadline Couriers created an effective PR stunt by building a billboard message that included a 8 day countdown timer. At the end of the 8 days it literally blew up.
I just love the way the message ties to the service offered by the brand !

Here’s a very clever animation made entirely from street graffiti by Blu.

It’s quite amazing how a story can be created like this.  Because it’s different it rises above the clutter of content.

Can your brand message do with a new canvas?

via Chris Brogan

Social Media is becoming an important channel for hosting conversations as evidenced by US presidential candidate Barack Obama’s  response to an invitation by a leading social women’s network BlogHer.

Obama sat with BlogHer on Sunday to answer key policy questions developed by this community of bloggers specifically for 2008 presidential candidates.

Blogher is one of the largest collection of blogs by women, and therefore a ripe audience of influential people that brands should include in their communication plans.

MSNBC have released a NewsWare site, which provides an interesting news spectrum which can also be customised into a widget to embed on your blog, social network profile, or desktop.

The news experience includes this spectrum which is very engaging.

There is also a Newsblaster tool which lets you read the news while you are playing an online game.

To promote this feature, MSNBC setup the world’s first interactive cinema crowd game.

Cinema goers became human joysticks as the collective crowd body movement controls the functions of a game controller.

NBC New’s social education iCue site is also mixing news videos with study guides and educational games in what they hope will satisfy Generation Y’s shorter attention span.

Dr Martens are running a campaign allowing consumers to create a boot design at http://dmbootdesign.com/

After selecting the boot canvas (8-hole or 14-hole), and then using the sites pen and paint tools, or using their own tools, 2 consumers will be selected to have their boot designs manufactured and sold in shops worldwide.  One will be chosen by the people, and the other by a panel of industry insiders.

This isn’t the first campaign of it’s type, but it is still a good fit for the brand.  It’s a pity that they don’t provide an option for consumers to purchase their design, even if there was a premium price point.

Personalisation is a trend we see continuing and whether your brand is a car, or a toothbrush, providing consumers some way to be involved in the creation is a clever strategy.

Google has just announced a new web based purchasing and analytics system that allows anyone to run television commercials.

The system has been available as a trial program for about a year, and this announcement now opens the system up for everyone to use using this simple process.

-  Select your target audience

-  Choose the networks, days and times, and  the specific programs you want your ad to run on.

- Choose the cost-per-thousand impressions you’re willing to pay

You don’t pay until your ad airs on TV.

Like Adwords, Google is hoping to reduce the complexity of advertising and also providing the necessary self service tools that make the process scalable. 

Google’s Ad Creation Marketplace also provides you with the tools to connect with pros who will provide scripting, copywriting, editing, production and voiceovers for your ad.

The interesting thing about Adwords is that it levels the playing field for the advertisers, so big global brands don’t get a significant benefits for large spending volumes.  For TV advertising, companies get rewarded by distribution networks for bulk purchasing, effectively reducing the appeal to large brands. However, the transparency of the pricing may have an effect on the TV media buying industry.

Google is no doubt hoping that it can take advantage of monetising video content in the same way it has monetised search.

Video content will continue to grow, and whether the content is consumed via television or online, providing a simple interface that is open to everyone to both sell and buy advertising is going to have wide appeal.