Cornwall based hotel booking agency Hotel Direct are launching a new TV advert campaign, starring their superhero creation Hotel Derek. You can get a sneak peak at the video below or by visiting their YouTube channel for a high definition version. Could we be looking at the new TV advert sensation? Watch out GoCompare guy and Meerkat!
We previously wrote a brief guide to viral advertising and talked about a few examples. Well we thought it would be a good idea to list some of our favourites so you can see them for yourselves and witness some of the truly great viral videos from the advertising world. None of these were produced by the advertising agencies that make up the Accord group, but we still love them.
HD Camera Trick from Samsung
To help build a buzz for the latest HD camera phone from Samsung, this viral video was created. In the video the owner of the phone films his apartment, takes the phone up to the mirror and makes it disappear. The disclaimer at the start states that no edits were made and challenges Youtube to work out how it was done. With 1,416,513 views and 2,298 comments it obviously got people talking. Around a month later they uploaded the making of video that revealed how the trick was done. You can view that here.
Old Spice
Unless you have been living under a rock or do not have access to the internet, then you do not have an excuse for not knowing what the Old Spice videos are. Here is the original that started the whole thing off. Look on YouTube for some of the hilarious replies they created the internet comments. The original video has so far had 32, 183, 386 views and 38,049 comments.
Cravendale cats with thumbs
A more recent entry in our list, the British Milk Company has created a TV commercial that answers that question we have all asked ourselves, What would it be like if Cats had thumbs? The video is approaching nearly 3 million views and has 1,890 comments.
Cadburys gorilla
Originally airing in 2007, Cadburys launched this genius advert on TV that got the whole country buzzing. A gorilla drumming to Phil Collin’s classic hit “In the air tonight”.
I’m not sure if the original has been taken down from the official Cadbury YouTube channel but this version posted by macegrove in August 2007 has had 5,343,357 views and 7763 comments.
The most recent ad from Cadbury sees giant items of clothing dancing to the song “clothes off”
The Force Volkswagen
Originally this aired in the US in the famous Superbowl ad break where all the top companies pay a lot of money to show off their latest clever ads, knowing that they will have a guaranteed massive audience. It has now started to appear on UK television and has had a massive 38,231,624 views and 27,711 comments so far. As you can tell by our previous numbers, this has to be one of the most watched viral ads of all time. Especially as it has surpassed the numbers of the Old Spice video and has only been online since Feb 2011.
Warner bros have launched an new innovative marketing campaign to mark the release of the latest edition in the award-winning Mortal Kombat series on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The marketing campaign will begin on the 17th April at the Gadget Show Live at the NEC in Birmingham and aims to bring the action of the game off screen and into the real world. This unique campaign is to feature the UK’s very first ‘sign-spinning’, where a sign bearing the logo or artwork of a company is spun around by somebody holding it, the US phenomenon which is one of the fastest growing form of outdoor advertising.
Sign-spinning traces its roots back to Ocean Beach, California in 2002 and has gone on to be hugely popular thanks to the work of Max Durovic, who went on to found Arrow which employs 750 sign-spinners and has trained thousands more.
The arrow spinners are set to hit the UK for the very first time with a dazzling display at the Gadget Show Live exhibition and then move on to delight shoppers around certain London retailers during launch week. They will use specially created Mortal Kombat signs in their performances as well as some of the famous moves from the game.
A special Mortal Kombat tournament is also set to take place at the Gadget Show Live while the game itself is set to be released on 21st April.
This could start a whole new craze for UK advertising agencies as they look to create ever newer and eye catching campaigns. So the next time you walk down the street you could well be confronted with the amazing sign-spinners who are part advertisers and part street performers.
Split Test Your Ads
One of the most important factors for any advertiser is to ensure that your advertisements are as efficient they can be. All too often advertisers will launch a Facebook campaign and see that for the £50 they just spent they got a poor return on results and generalise that this must be the case for all campaigns on Facebook. The reality is that your campaign probably wasn’t performing well because your advert was poorly targeted. The best advertisers know that performance comes from testing things out. With this in mind you should test numerous variations. Switch one component of your advertisement at a time and then compare it to another and see which works better.
Create a Click Through Rate Threshold
While some adverts will perform better than others, the last thing you want to do is throw money away at poorly performing advertisements. Because of this you should develop a click through rate threshold that is workable for your campaign. If your running a campaign and you set a threshold of £0.25 per fan, but your advert only achieves and effective cost per fan of £0.65 then its time to kill the advert for underperformance. The main lesson here is to figure out what sort of click through rate is acceptable to you, some UK Advertising Agencies even suggest immediately killing those adverts which aren’t performing up to your standards.
Monitor Your Campaigns Closely
One thing that you’ll notice when you begin running advertising campaigns on Facebook is that the performance of your adverts will worsen over time. This is because the cost of reaching each subsequent user on Facebook increases exponentially. Generally the first people who click on an advert tend to be the most responsive to advertisements. Once your adverts have worked through this first group of people, the task of reaching the next group will be more difficult. This means that you need to monitor your daily CTR. Watch how your click through rate performs over time and when you start seeing a decline, you may want to consider either targeting a different target group or switching your advert.
Test Performance at Different Times
Quite often you’ll find that an advertisement will perform better at different times of day. While Facebook doesn’t let advertisers automatically select which time of day their adverts appear, you can turn your adverts on and off manually and experiment to see which times perform the best. This, however, requires extremely close monitoring. While Facebook may eventually add this type of fine control in the future, no advertiser has control of this at the moment.
You have poured through the recruitment adverts and have finally found a suitable job, now you have to face the tricky task of getting through the interview. Job interviews can be a potential stumbling block for anyone so it’s always a good idea to practice your interview technique, not only will it help you prepare it will also give you a well timed confidence boost.
Here are some potential interview questions to help you practice.
Advertisers and those who depend on advertising for income are keeping their fingers crossed this Christmas that after a long period of decline ad revenues might stabilize or even make a recovery.
Overall advertising is down again in 2009 compared to 2008 with many struggling to cope with the downturn. Its not just the like of local newspapers who are struggling either, big national papers as well as the likes of ITV and Channel 4 are all finding life difficult as their incomes continue to fall. Advertising agencies are also feeling the pinch with many have to scale back operation or having to close altogether.
The sign for the industry are not all doom and gloom though; many believe that this Christmas period could see advertising spend either match or beat last years spend. ITV is one such company who are predicting that December’s advertising revenue could be up 4% following a 3% fall in October and just a 1% fall in November.
It is hoped that the more positive outlook of many companies and consumers this year compared to last year and the likelihood of exiting the recession soon will see companies increase their advertising budgets. Many London advertising and UK advertising agencies are also predicting an upturn across many different advertising sectors such as TV advertising, outdoor advertising and recruitment advertising.
2008 saw the financing world dramatically hit by global economics, subsequently leading to a market where employees in banking jobs chose to stay in their current roles and jobseekers opportunities were reduced with hiring volumes greatly diminishing and supply far outweighing demand.
As an employer this provides you the opportunity when recruiting for finance jobs to pick from a highly competitive and meticulous job seeking market where more than ever before the demand for highly skilled, experienced professionals is expected and needed. 2009 has been a year of recovery and whilst job volumes have stayed relatively low, the financial sector has stabilised with permanent and temporary recruitment particularly in the financial control sector. Studies have shown that in spite of the economic downturn, there is still a skills shortage so finding the right candidate can be testing. Choosing a specialist professional recruitment consultancy to fulfill your recruitment project should provide you with a solution to meet your needs.
The right recruitment consultancy will help give you a competitive edge and find the right candidate for areas covering financial control, product control, audit, systems projects, treasury, tax, compliance disciplines to name but a few. They should be able to identify a candidate that will optimise your business performance and achieve the job role required of them. They will also be able to advise you on a range of market issues including salary surveys, organisational planning, payroll, contractual matters and training support. A good recruitment consultant will be trained to understand their market fully and their clients recruitment objectives and create and deliver a personalised service.
When choosing a recruitment consultancy it is wise to find out some key information. Consider their experience, how long they have been established, what their core values, vision and mission are. What benefits they can offer you as a client? What their recruitment solutions are and how do they generate the right candidates? Ensure that you choose one that is expert at placing accountants at all levels of business from part qualified to finance directors to ensure you are paying for a service that will greatly reward you with the candidate you deserve.
I have often considered leaving the UK. There have been numerous times, as I sit at my work desk looking out of the window watching the rain pour down that I have felt slightly depressed at the reality of the winter season. But I am not alone, we all have our cross to bear and being a UK resident is often one of them. This doesn’t have to be the case though, as more and more people are deciding to move abroad the opportunities are increasing and becoming more tangible, especially if you have a skill set that is transferrable and in demand. Moving abroad not only provides you with an opportunity of a lifetime, gaining cultural experience and a diverse lifestyle but can also provide you with strong career development opportunities if you choose wisely.
Many employers regard candidates who have gained experience with international jobs as highly employable due to the experience and versatility they can demonstrate, so when the time is right to move back to the UK (if ever) your overseas credentials will work in your favour. Jobs abroad can be difficult to locate, so one of the best ways to find them is to contact a UK recruitment agency that specialises in your field of work. Many reputable companies abroad source agencies in the UK for them to find talented personnel through international recruitment. The agency will be able to present you with a range of choices and advise, from opportunities across countries and continents, market conditions, how to maximize your international experience to further your career and help you to prepare for the move. They can also identify job opportunities for your partner if this is a consideration.
Many misconceptions surround the opportunity of working abroad; one of the leading myths is that you have to be senior in your field of expertise. This is not necessarily true, international job opportunities can exist at all levels from newly qualified to Director/Partner. The main attributes an agency will look for is a confident personality, excellent interpersonal skills along with some international awareness and understanding of cultural and business practices.
Most of us are aware of our own strengths and weaknesses and it can be frustrating knowing we aren’t specialists in every field of business. The key thing to remember is no one is and it is increasingly common for businesses small and large to enlist the services of an external advertising agency to help expand and diversify their business. But how do you find one that you can trust to work hard for you and get you results? When choosing the right one for your business it is critical to consider the following factors:
1. Are they going to meet all of your requirements? Not just now, but in the future too. An agency that only specialises in one discipline could be quite limiting and you may find yourself having to deal with multiple agencies for different projects. For example, you may enlist the services of an agency that specialises in web design, they create an all singing, all dancing website but they have no expertise in optimizing the site, so know one ever finds you in the search engines. If you were to opt for an advertising agency that specialises in all disciplines, the optimization of the site would be considered during the design stage and the ongoing SEO would be offered to you as an additional service they can provide: One agency, covering two critical (but interlinking) jobs. Look into full service advertising agencies to cover all disciplines.
2. Look at agencies that are well established and are specialists in your field. It will give you the peace of mind that they understand your business and have the experience and expertise to get you the best results.
3. Shop around. Don’t just go with the first you find. Make sure you have a list of potential agencies and let them compete for your business.
4. Arrange for them to present to you. Pick 3 or 4 agencies that you think will match your criteria the best and get them in for a presentation.
5. Pick one. Once all have presented to you, you will get a feel for which one you think understands your business the most, has identified areas of growth and are going to be the best to work with.
Remember, advertising agencies are there to make a positive difference to your company and should work closely with you at all times to ensure they are meeting with your brief.
There are many places you can look for jobs online and many of those places also allow you to post resumes. You really want to post your resume because some jobs never even make it to the point of being listed. They are taken by those that posted their resumes. When preparing your resume, less is more. The longer your resume is, the less likely the hiring party is to read it (within reason). Be clear and precise. Use as few words as possible to get your job descriptions across. If you have any, attach recommendation letters, those are like money in the bank so some employers.
In order to be successful finding a job, you need to make that goal your job. This means you get up at a certain time, get showered, shaved and prepare yourself for a day of work. Then you sit down and you get to work looking for your job.
Add your job search engines to your favorites list so you can go directly to each search engine. The less time you spend looking for the site, the more time you can spend looking through the site. Many sites have an option where you can have matching job descriptions sent directly to your email. This is a good option but don’t rely on it, by the time that particular job hits your email it may already be gone. Check the search engines multiple times a day. The faster you get in touch with the job provider the more likely you are to get an interview and possibly the job.
In this marketplace, many jobs have been sent overseas. If your job is gone not only because of the economy, but also because your job was shipped out of country, you are fighting a bit more difficult battle than others. You now need to figure out where your experience with one job can fit in with another job. In order to do this, get a piece of paper or bring up a word document and list all of the knowledge and skills you attained from that career. After you have listed these down, you will have an easier time finding other career paths that can use some of the knowledge you already have. If you can use some of this knowledge, you will be able to procure a higher pay wage than if you went into a completely different field in which you have no knowledge.
If you find yourself needing to go into a totally different field and start at a ground floor position, make sure it is in an industry that is more stable in this economy and that it offers you the opportunity to advance at an acceptable rate so you can get your pay amount up quicker.