March 2nd, 2010 by Chris Measures

Multi-channel communication? Marketing Fail

I had some great news on Friday – my final results for my Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Diploma came through in the post.

I scraped a pass in the final module, meaning after 18 months study I’m now a ‘proper’ marketer.

However imagine my surprise when a couple of hours later I had an email from CIM telling me that my results were now online. But (and rather a big one this) “due to an unprecedented flow of web traffic to our site“, I may not be able to access them. I could telephone during business hours, but “our lines are very busy and there may be a delay in answering your call.”

Luckily I’d already got my results through in the post but imagine the frustration of anyone still waiting. Your potential life-changing results are there, but you can’t get them. Given one of the major topics on the course was integrating multi-channel communications and being able to predict web demand surely it is time for the CIM to practice what it teaches…………

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February 1st, 2010 by Matthew Watson

Speed Quiz: And the winner is.. @crossy

Matthew Cross (@crossy) has won Speed’s weekly quiz. He correctly identified that Social Media Week kicks off today with events taking place around the world. Matthew wins a box of delicious mini cupcakes!

Follow @speedcomms and every Friday at midday we’ll tweet a question. To take part simply send an @ reply with your answer. The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the day and will be announced on the Speed Blogs and on Twitter on the following Monday morning.

Click here to find out a bit more about our weekly competition.

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January 25th, 2010 by Matthew Watson

Speed Quiz: And the winner is.. @ashswindells

Aisling Swindells (@ashswindells) has won Speed’s weekly quiz. She correctly identified that John and Edward Grimes were 17 when they shot to fame on The X Factor. Aisling wins a case of wine!

Follow @speedcomms and every Friday at midday we’ll tweet a question. To take part simply send an @ reply with your answer. The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the day and will be announced on the Speed Blogs and on Twitter on the following Monday morning.

Click here to find out a bit more about our weekly competition.

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January 18th, 2010 by Matthew Watson

Speed Quiz: And the winner is.. @Maxicom

Zorbing!Max Tatton-Brown (@Maxicom) is the first winner in Speed’s weekly quiz. He correctly identified that GoCompare.com’s advert was named as the most irritating advert of 2009 by Marketing Magazine. He wins a zorbing experience.

Follow @speedcomms and every Friday at midday we’ll tweet a question. To take part simply send an @ reply with your answer. The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the day and will be announced on the Speed Blogs and on Twitter on the following Monday morning.

Click here to find out a bit more about our weekly competition.

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October 22nd, 2009 by Chris Measures

Living in interesting times………

The challenges facing today’s marketers were starkly laid out at yesterday’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) East Anglian Autumn Conference.

Whatever sector you operate in, how you reach and influence your audiences is changing. Much has been written about digital marketing, but essentially whichever marcom tactic you are using (advertising, direct marketing, PR, sales promotion or personal selling) there is a digital aspect to it.

However understanding and incorporating digital isn’t the only challenge. John Drummond outlined the opportunities that Social Marketing provide for companies – essentially working with stakeholders to achieve positive change. In a time of recession, growing legislation and global issues such as climate change, social marketing must move up the agenda for the private as well as the public sector.

Turning to technology Phil Eames of iome showed the power that location based services offer to marketers. With smartphones like the iPhone increasingly prevalent being able to deliver targeted information and offers, it truly offers a whole new channel, albeit one that needs to be handled with care.

So how can marketers survive in this brave new world? In my view it is time to go back to basics. Identify your audiences, what makes them tick and from that work out which tactics will best engage with them. Sounds simple but will require a lot of re-educating both internally and with your agencies. Marketing as usual is no longer a feasible option.

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August 26th, 2009 by Matthew Watson

Is Woofer barking mad? Or a great ePR stunt?

Following on from the success of Twitter, the micro-blogging site which lets users publish 140 character updates, a new social network has launched that allows users to post messages that are at least 1,400 characters long. The novelty macro-blogging site Woofer, now has more than 4,600 users, many of whom have already posted several wordy ‘woofs’.

While social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, have changed the way that PROs can communicate and collaborate with colleagues, clients, journalists and industry peers, Woofer is really taking the biscuit!

Although the macro-blogging site with its 1,400 character woofs is clearly a joke, it has attracted a lot of media attention and is currently one of the most shared web pages on social bookmarking site Digg. But rather than just being a novelty site setup to point fun at Twitter, it looks like the developers have cleverly created Woofer as a digital PR stunt to drive traffic to their website ShuffleTime.

A PR stunt can be defined as the creation of a strange or sensational story that has the sole purpose of generating media and public interest in order to raise awareness of a product or business that is associated with it. That is exactly what Woofer does, but online. By developing a humorous site that ridicules one of this year’s most talked about topics they have created something that many people will be interested in and will choose to share with others online. This personal recommendation is key to helping the site to go viral and attracting yet more attention and traffic to the site.

It will be interesting to see if any more companies opt to create digital PR stunts now that the silly season is in full flow.

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