Warner Bros in Marketing Spin

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Dave

200472538-001

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 17^th 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 21^st 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.

Facebook Advertising Tips

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Dave

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.

Royal Wedding to Boost Advertising

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Gerard

The Royal Wedding will not only mark the union of two people madly in love but it will also mark a big boost for the UK economy.

Leading experts expect the UK economy to see an upturn in April thanks to the Royal Wedding, with the big day and extra bank holiday leading to a shopping spree plus a general feel good mood across the country.

With a million or more people expected to watch the Royal procession from Westminster to Buckingham Palace travel firms and London business can also expect to see a big upturn in sales.

Its not just business such as hotels and shops that will see an increase in customers though, UK advertising agencies too are expecting a good start to the second quarter as companies are looking to cash in on this upturn by increasing their advertising spend.

One area of advertising that is expected to do very well is TV. Industry experts are predicting that April will see an 18% increase thanks to the Easter Holidays and Royal Wedding.

The wedding itself will offer a prime spot for companies to advertise on as well as other inevitable royal themed shows that will be broadcast in the build up to the big event. The broadcast of the wedding is likely to attract one of the biggest ever TV audiences with millions of people across the country tuning in to see the future King and Queen marry.

UK Advertising Grows in 2010

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Gerard

The Advertising Association in the UK has revised their marketing spend forecast for 2010 upwards. Previously they had predicted an advertising spend growth of 5.4 per cent in September which has now been revised to a massive 6.6 per cent.

If these levels are met it will mean the biggest year growth in advertising since 2004, which is welcome news for UK Advertising Agencies who were hit hard by the economic slowdown of recent years.

The Advertising Association has had to revise their forecasts after a stronger than expected third quarter which saw an increase of 7.3 per cent. It had been predicted that the third quarter would grow by just 4.8 per cent.

Amongst the best performers of the third quarter were TV, out of home and Internet advertising which saw respective increases of 15.8 per cent, 12.4 per cent and 11 per cent. During the same quarter direct mail saw its first growth since quarter one way back in 2006.

Tim Lefroy, chief executive of the Advertising Association stated, “It’s encouraging to see such growth during tighter economic times and the figures illustrate the continued importance of advertising to the UK economy.”

The recent increase in TV ad spend has been helped by a number of big television events. This summer was the world cup hit our screens once again. While England failed to perform in South Africa viewers loved the near 4 weeks of non-stop football with massive ratings for the best games. Then this autumn saw the return of the biggest show on TV, the X Factor. The current series proved to be the most popular yet and brought in record ratings and record advertising spend.

It is hoped that 2011 will be able to continue the strong growth seen throughout 2010.

Advertising is not as easy as it looks

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Gerard

For those of you who saw last nights Apprentice (Wednesday 10^th November) you will know just how wrong an advertising campaign can go, thus proving that advertising is not as easy as it always appears.

I’m sure we have all sat at home watching a TV advert or have driven past a billboard poster and thought ‘that was rubbish, I could do better than that!’ yet when it comes down to it creating any advertising and marketing campaign is a minefield which needs to be tread carefully.

In the recent Apprentice advertising challenge the remaining 10 finalists were tasked with coming up with an advertising campaign for a new cleaning product. Despite the two teams having 10 of the best young business brains in Britain between them both failed spectacularly by creating ads that were old fashioned and completely missing there target market.

This is why using a UK Advertising Agency is always the best way to go when marketing a product or service. Even though the apprentices thought they had a brilliant original ideas that couldn’t fail it took the experienced minds of professional marketers to point out all the many ways in which they had gone wrong. While using these professionals may be more expensive than going it alone a failed advertising campaign is a waste of money and could do more harm to a business than good. So if possible always seek out UK Advertising Agencies who can help you avoid the pitfalls that many of the apprentices fell into.

When Branding goes Wrong

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Geoffrey

It’s the dream of all UK Advertising Agencies to come up with branding that is that good it is universally recognised and appreciated. Take Coke Cola or McDonalds, we all recognise the infamous golden arches and coke cola swoosh’s, wherever we are in the world and when you achieve a formula that works and get an image and logo that is right then many people agree that it is best to leave it as it is. Why fix something that is not broken?

Unfortunately, one of the most recognisable brands in the world, Gap, decided that it was time for a makeover and having spent thousands of pounds rebranding their ever popular logo which is the blue box with capital letters reading ‘Gap’, they changed it to a white box, with a small blue box sitting over the letter P.

There was an online furore with 2, 000 people protesting through Facebook and Twitter collecting 5, 000 followers along with a ‘Make your own Gap logo’ site that went viral. Gap were forced to reconsider the launch of their new logo and in the end opted to do an embarrassing U turn on the whole thing. They have decided that if the Brand needs evolving in the future they will be much more inclusive and listen to what their consumers would like.

Gap is not the only corporation to get things very wrong. The Royal Mail decided in 2001 to rebrand their postal service and call themselves Consignia, after spending £2 million on the venture, they reversed the changes 16 months later.

If you are considering rebranding, then before you start to spend thousands of pounds it might be an idea to test the market and see what consumers views are on your existing brand first.

Facebook Furore

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Geoffrey

The leading social media network Facebook is once again in trouble regarding privacy issues. This time it concerns some of the popular applications on Facebook which can pass on the user’s identity and that of their friends to internet tracking agencies. It can affect even the most diligent of users who have the highest privacy settings.

Popular applications like FarmVille and Texas Hold em up were just two of many applications that grab a users ID number which is unique and transmits personal information to external companies. The data that can be captured allows these companies to look up the users name and also reveals any data that has been set to be visible to everyone on the site, which in turn means visibility across the internet.

Gaining data from users and friends ID’s allow companies to build up an individual profile of the user and many UK Advertising Agencies benefit from this by achieving highly targeted ads that go direct to the user based on their detailed profile, likes and dislikes etc. This is widely used across the internet and whilst it is not new, the latest revelation with Facebook which could affect the 500 million members is cause for concern as many people don’t know what data is held about them personally.

It has also been revealed that many people’s phone numbers are retained by Facebook without their knowledge, by capturing the details when the user uploads photos from their mobile phones or external systems on to their profile page.

Facebooks advertising revenue to reach £1bn

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Geoffrey

Facebook has just released a forecast for its advertising revenue for next year that cites the company will make just over 1 billion pounds. Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and several of his college roommates whilst studying at Harvard University and has seen its popularity increase over the past few years immensely.

People could be wrong in thinking that this will be a trend within the online advertising market as other companies such as MySpace have unfortunately reported 14% shrinkage in their advertising revenues.

Facebook now has over 500 million users globally and relies on 65% of its revenue from the US. It is very big news that it has now dwarfed its rival MySpace that is currently owned by Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation. With advertising profits rising by 165% since 2009 the company is set to soar even further over time and reach its own goal of 1 billion users in the near future.

Most of Facebooks revenue is served by its advertising partner Microsoft in the form of Banner advertising. Facebook has a much lower click through rate than many other large websites but is still extremely successful and used by many UK advertising agencies.

One of its reasoning’s for its low click through rate is its reckoning that many of its users are very young and technically minded and in turn use advert blockers to bypass adverts. It has been reported that some adverts used within Facebooks wall posts have had click through rates as high as 6.49%, which is one of the reasons as a Direct Response Advertising Agency there is no better time to start using social website Marketing.

Media Sector set to lift

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Geoffrey

It has been a turbulent old time for Direct Response Advertising and other elements of the media sector which over the last three years have seen a drop in revenue. Today there seems to be a surprise recovery though on the global advertising markets, having seen for the past three months some positive growth. Some large UK Advertising Agencies have actually boosted their forecasts for industry spending this year by more than 50 per cent and have predicted a further spike in 2012 which can only be good news for an industry that has been suffering.

Drastic falls in advertising have historically been followed by a good rebound approximately three years later, so for example, after the big slump of 1991, spending went up by 6.8 per cent three years later. The same can be said for the dotcom bubble when spending went up 7.4 per cent about three years later.

Whilst the media industry diversifies all the time and opportunities arrive in all manner of new places like online, via mobile phones and even through television programmes with the latest allowance of product placement then the scope for companies to get their products and messages across to consumers is as exciting and innovative as ever. Companies need to lead with their innovations and pave the way against their competitors in what is an incredibly cut throat, competitive industry. Consumers are more demanding than ever and expect great value for money along with well designed, high quality finished products.

Footballers and Advertising

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Geoffrey

As the world cup kicks off, England had their first game on Saturday night and in true form managed to have the nation in states of tension, frustration and at times embarrassment. Robert Green, England’s chosen goal keeper, managed to let a goal in that even I could have saved and in the wake of his embarrassment, UK Advertising Agencies have told him that he should have a fairly good career in advertising, presumably being the butt of his own joke.

So, who else has managed to make a career in advertising?

Gareth Southgate, Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce who all famously missed penalties in crucial matches gained roles in the Pizza Hut advertising campaign. Southgate was seen with a bag over his head in the restaurant whilst trying to eat a pizza, trying to hide his identity from fellow diners.

Gary Lineker was a household name for his football abilities and clean record on the pitch and become the face of Walkers crisps in ironic roles as Mr. Bad Guy, stealing crisps off unsuspecting crisp eaters in a series of very successful adverts.
Eric Cantona retired early from an extremely successful football career playing for Manchester United and his country, to become an actor. Along the way he starred in a fair amount of adverts, the most famous being his Nike commercials which featured a whole host of world class players in a dungeon playing football, he was the dungeon master hosting the tournament.

It will be interesting to see which players sign up to a UK Advertising Agent and start to appear in adverts as a result of their success or demise in the World Cup.

Online Business Blog

Business News & Information

Tag Archives: advertising