The future of public advertising in Cameron’s ‘Big Society’

The Central Office of Information’s budget has long been a topic of debate; so much so that we featured the government’s “centre of marketing excellence” in a special general election blog. Weeks later, the shape of the coalition government’s plans for the COI are becoming apparent. What will the future hold for public advertising in the UK?

The government’s austerity budget has already found its high profile advertising victim: The ‘Change4Life’ campaign, led by M&C Saatchi, will have its £75 million advertising budget come. The move comes amongst general plans to slash public marketing budgets by 50%.
The coalition government has called upon food and drink companies, and the wider commercial sector, to provide a voice for the campaign in their own advertising and marketing. This is a new vision to tackle the public health issue, and the move promises interesting results – not least the shouldering of the public health burden by commercial brands.

The Change4Life campaign has been backed by various commercial partners in the past – but now charities and local authorities have been invited to fill the funding gap created by the national deficit. The government’s promotion of healthy lifestyles is thus to be led by businesses.

A natural and valid question is whether brands that sell ‘unhealthy’ products leading a public health campaign is really the optimal solution. Will they support real efforts to encourage lifestyle-changing habits that encourage more exercise and healthier diets? The answer lies in a new form of corporate social responsibility – which is certainly preferable to increased state regulation. Advertisements coming from brands are more likely to be heard by consumers, as those coming from government are often seen as too prescriptive and not-engaging enough.

There is a benefit for brands: If the government is relying on companies to fund public health advertising, it is unlikely that it will introduce regulations against the advertising of food high in fat, salt and sugar on television. Nevertheless, we like the idea of a collaborative effort between the public and private sector. Lifestyle and healthy eating advice is more relevant when coming from a brand that we have already bought-in to.

A further cost-cutting move by the government proves their media-savvy. Like many other brands, Change4Life will mainly be promoted through social media rather than traditional advertising campaigns. Prime Minister David Cameron has already met with Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to discuss ways that the social networking site can be used to engage citizens on policy issues. The recently implemented ‘Spending Challenge’ page invites the British public to express their own ideas on cutting the government’s budget deficit.

As the government is open to cost-saving suggestions delivered through social media, you’ll forgive us for voicing our own advice for saving money and improving public service.

Rather than relying on large agencies, through none-creative barriers to tendering, we believe that public advertising can become both more engaging and cost-effective if the COI expressed confidence in leaner, talented agencies handling public sector public projects. Prioritising creative content over well-known names should be encouraged. It would certainly stop larger agencies from becoming over-dependent on government contracts; something the new coalition government can only be interested in promoting.

Saving money by asking private companies to take responsibility for their commercial activitities is a good start for the UK’s main media buyer. Is it ready to trust responsible agencies to provide value for money?

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Camille le Goff is a Junior Brand Staffer with Vivid London

Social media is taking the fashion world by storm

Nothing is sacred on the internet. In the past five years, social media has quickly changed the way we consume our news, run our businesses and interact with our friends. Fashion, once the least ‘techy’ of industries, has quickly adapted and evolved to take full advantage of ‘smart’ social media.

Style Rookie

Tavi is internationally recognised as one of the most powerful young people in the fashion industry. Starting her own blog at age eleven led to a quick rise to fame, which in turn has led to commissions for pieces with Vogue and Pop. She’s also worked alongside respected designers, like Rodarte.

Starting with a basic blogger account, this little girl has taken huge strides to capitalise upon everything that new media has to offer.

D.I.Y.

Many of the biggest shoe brands are now listening to their customers and giving them control over the design process. Interactive features from shoe companies like Nike and Converse let users create their own truly personalised shoes from a collection of white base models. Your own creation then arrives at your door a few days later. This simply would not have been logistically possible but a few years ago, and highlights the democratising nature of the internet.

Chictopia

“What are you wearing today?” is a question many of the fashion conscious hear a lot. Now you can share your own creations and combinations with the world, thanks to Chictopia. The concept is simple: Upload a picture of your clothing choices and share them with others. It’s also a neigh-infinite source of inspiration; much more so than you could possibly take in at a club or on the street. Users can filter by age, style, events, locations and body types – making sure that the content you see is what you asked for. The site is starting to be recognised beyond the digital world; a trend we expect to carry on.

ASOS

ASOS, an online only brand, is now a real rival to bricks-and-mortar Topshop and River Island. How? Though competitive pricing, extraordinary customer service, and by capitalising on the lunch-hour push. ASOS is thriving in a competitive market from a web-only base.

ShowStudio

An experimental group that has been utilising the crossover between fashion and the internet since the late 1990’s, ShowStudio is a success story that regularly falls between the gaps in fashion, art and technology. Masterminded by the photographer Nick Knight, the experiment has embraced the internet since its inception. Recently, the website ran a live, online interview that featured a transcript simultaneously alongside.

Burberry

As part of Burberry’s new Spring/Summer 2010 campaign, the haute couture brand has been paving the way with their online output. Recently showing their catwalk show online, in full 3-D, photographer Mario Testino has also shot an interactive catalogue of the new collection. Featuring models that seemingly step out of the screen upon a mouse click, the campaign is regarded as being the future of online fashion advertising.

Social media may have taken the fashion world by storm – but it’s a storm that fashion world has fully embraced. It makes sense: Fashion magazines have now been replaced by their new media cousins, democratising and personalising fashion and bringing it closer to customers.

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Andrew Beedle and Anisha Chandarana are Junior Design Staffers at Vivid London.

Image credit: Andrew, Anisha and Conal Kelly, who is on work experience with Vivid London from the John Fisher School, Sutton.

Mobile Apps: Beware of Standing Still

“There’s an App for that”

There can be no doubt that Apple has changed the way we use the web on the go. Since opening in 2008 over ‘200,000 ways to make your iPhone even better’ have been added to the App Store. If you visit the Android Mobile Market you’ll find more than 25,000 apps to enjoy, whilst Blackberry’s App World offers 5,000. It’s hard to keep an accurate track on the total number of apps available across the platforms, but one thing is for sure: We are surrounded by mobile apps.

Retailers, game designers, social networks and publishers have all pushed to get their own mobile application into the App Store. Now they are constantly pushing to get their apps into the top spot and receive positive user feedback. This multitude of apps fascinates users and keeps blogs full of “Ten of the best mobile apps” list. A company recently made news when they launched an auxiliary app that taught users how to use their main ‘killer app’.

In the face of this app frenzy, it’s good to keep in mind that some apps have longer lifespans than others – and this lifespan usually correlates to how useful they are in the long-term. While trying to break the score of ‘Robot Unicorn Attack’ reaches its saturation point very quickly, an application that lets you read content from your favourite newspaper, or that makes navigating social media much easier, offers a longer and more valuable user experience.

Many of us will have downloaded and accumulated too many apps – attracted by what’s new and what’s trending. After a certain point we realise that they take up too much space on our phones, and the less engaging apps end up in our trash folders. It might be time to consider the use of our beloved mobile apps.

Mobile search company Taptu have released a report arguing that the future will belong to mobile browser optimised sites, not apps. They make a very good argument. The proliferation of new smartphone models, different operating systems (Symbian, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry OS…), and tablet devices means that optimised sites that work across platforms will have a larger audience than a platform specific application. Current estimates put web optimised sites at about 326,000 – and this number is likely to increase with more companies moving to a mobile-web app strategy.

Mobile sites can be optimised to work well on most devices – they are also less expensive to develop, and have the structural advantage of being constantly updateable, without having to rely on a user to download an update. A mobile website makes economic sense.

That’s not to say that mobile apps will die out – we think their best days still lie ahead. But for a lot of companies and brands, a mobile website will be cheaper to develop and provide a better return on investment in the long run. We’re happy to offer our thoughts on your mobile app or web dilemma – give us a call (it’s the green app with the phone symbol).

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Camille le Goff is a Junior Brand Staffer with Vivid London.

It’s time for the creative industry to take responsibility

Our thoughts on COI Reform and today’s General Election

On the eve of the United Kingdom’s most interesting General Election in modern times, many in the advertising and marketing sectors are still concerned about the future of the Central Office of Information (COI), the British government’s marketing agency.

As well as being Britain’s largest advertiser, the COI is the Government’s main procurer of advertising and marketing services. Most British agencies are therefore stakeholders in the organisation.

The COI’s current way of working has been called in to question; both by the Government in recent months, and by the battling governments-in-waiting during this election campaign.
As things stand, the Treasury, led by Chancellor Alastair Darling, has ordered a 25% reduction in the marketing and advertising budgets of all Whitehall departments for the current two years. Both main opposition parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have no objections to this cut.

But there is more to the parties’ plans for the COI. Campaigns that have worked in the past are now failing to reach their audiences or drive them to action. There have been success stories, like the recent binge drinking virals by VCCP which certainly caught the public’s attention.

Generally, though, the political consensus seems to be that COI campaigns aren’t as effective as they once were – mainly because they are becoming increasingly middle of the road, arguably as larger agencies begin to count on COI business regardless of creative content. Campaigns that fail to reach their objectives and don’t provide a great deal of return on investment are a problem for the taxpayer.

The Conservatives have announced plans to move COI contracts to a pay per results model. At Vivid London, we’d be happy to work under those conditions – we are confident in our abilities – but a lot of other agencies see the practice as unfair. They argue that ads can only promote behavioural change, not guarantee it.

Nothing’s certain in the world of marketing. You can never guarantee that a press release you send out, however interesting the story or full of hooks the content, will be picked up by the media. You can never guarantee that any advertising campaign that you run will change the audiences behaviour (purchasing or otherwise). And you can never be sure that your shiny new communications strategy will reach all of its audiences.

But you can mitigate these uncertainties. Our work at Vivid London is informed by thorough research – meaning that we audit all previous marketing efforts, analyse target audiences counterintuitively and focus on measurable deliverables. We’re upfront about our expected results and are happy to be judged (and paid) by them.

All in all, this will mean more efficient use of taxpayer money and more heated battles for part of the COI’s £232m annual budget. It will also lead to more stylish, effective and better advertising in the future. This is better for both agencies and consumers – after all, talking to the audience in a way that they understand is what creative agencies are supposed to do! Becoming reliant on government contracts not only impedes an agency’s creativity, but can also lead to disaster when these contracts are withdrawn. Just ask i-Level.

Whatever the colour(s) of the next government, the creative industry needs to become more efficient and adaptable – and it needs to accept direct responsibility for campaign performance. We always have – and always will.

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Adam James Morecroft & Camille le Goff

Should news websites be free of charge?

Picking up a newspaper each morning gives you the most essential bits of information about what is happening in the world around you – keeping up with changes in economics, politics, society and culture. But the UK press is changing. With the evolvement of social media and the rising power of the internet it is getting harder for the newspapers to maintain their readership.

Nearly 80% of the UK population now have internet access and use it regularly. Of those, 16 million people use the internet through mobile devices – to update statuses on various social networks or to catch up with the latest news. Twitter and co. make it easy to see what’s happening throughout the world right now – how are the newspapers supposed to keep up?

Over the last decade the newspapers have been engaged in a price war. The Times is a case in point as it has been constantly battling with The Guardian for both price and readership. However, recently The Times bucked this trend by putting its cover price up to £1.00 during the week, £1.50 on saturdays and £2.00 for the Sunday Times.

Furthermore, The Times and its complementary Sunday paper have decided to be the first published papers to charge for their online services with a £2 fee per week from June. This may come as a shock to their readers, and questions are already being raised as to how this will affect readership and if the website will yield a profit.

So, increasing the price for the paper and announcing a pay-per-view arrangement on their website, all within a few months – the stakes are high for The Times. However, they might not have made the worst decision according to a study by Baba Shiv, a marketing professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He argues that prices are changing people’s experiences of a product and therefore the outcomes from consuming this product. Research has shown that people are mentally influenced by the price of a product. For example, Shiv has shown that ‘people who had paid a higher price for an energy drink, such as Red Bull, were able to solve more brain teasers than those who paid a discounted price for the same product.’ Are consumers being psychologically deceived by pricing? If so, how will it affect The Times?


It is well known that people are curious. It’s human nature. But users will ask what is so different about the website, what does it offer that others don’t? This curiosity will drive traffic to both sites during the first few days of launch. After they have experienced the digital presence they will be more likely to consider a repetitive purchase of that service.

One thing that will happen is that the changes will reposition the newspaper in the marketplace. The Times has been known as qualitative paper and it will continue to create qualitative content. It promises to increase the engagement of its online users by offering the opportunity to talk to staff, writers and experts to create deep and intelligent conversation.

Should others follow in The Times footsteps? Only time will tell, the battle of gaining and maintaining both paper and digital readership will continue to change the landscape of the UK press as we have known it.

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Lisa Beck

Product Placement – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It is undeniable the impact that Lady Gaga has had over the world in the past 12 months. From New York club kid to global superstar in a relatively short space of time; the woman packs out stadiums and receives diamond (yes, diamond) record sales on an almost weekly basis. She may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but the Lady keeps going strong. This past week, the self appointed ‘Haus of Gaga’, with the help of acclaimed director Jonas Åkerlund, unveiled their latest music promo video. Entitled ‘Telephone’, the video features Lady Gaga and Beyonce launching a prison escape across the American desert.

Like most promo videos of the past decade, there is no lack of product placement. But as with most things Gaga, it isn’t done with any hint of subtlety. This is the product placement equivalent of a slap in the face.

On first count, there are 12 different (and blatant) examples of product placement. These range from the fake ‘Poison TV’ channel, all the way to the powerhouse of Diet Coke. These, of course, are the obvious examples. To the trained eye, this number will triple with the countless costume changes and accessories each character wears. But behind every example is a story — and be it good, bad or ugly — Gaga is presenting them all.

Firstly, the good. Some choices are purely business led, while others are ‘artistic vision’. Sometimes, the two can be the same thing. The characters wear Gaga’s own brand of earphones and listen to her past songs. There is also a huge focus on the (previously ailing) brand of Polaroid; a company, in which Gaga was recently named ‘Creative Director’. Although in your face, these placements just make sense.

But with the good, must come the bad. We are continually confronted with the Virgin Mobile logo; and featuring on a song called ‘Telephone’,this can only be a huge triumph for the brand. But when something is so obviously forced into the video – it’s clear that the logo could have been replaced by a higher bidder at the last moment and when Gaga uses a jail cell pay phone, rather than a Virgin mobile – the message isn’t exactly crystal clear.

Finally we come to the ugly – something Gaga is not afraid of. We see the prison guards log onto a dating website called ‘Plenty of Fish’. Upon further research, this is a real website. Enough said.

When it comes to music videos, Gaga is fast becoming the leader in the field. But with so many examples of product placement forced into one video, there are too many voices shouting for attention. None of the brands come across as being particularly memorable.

Be more memorable; stand out in the crowd. Learn from the video and don’t let Lady Gaga overshadow you. Why not say hello to Vivid today?

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Andrew Beedle

Let the Sunshine In

It’s only the second week of March, but already the first signs of spring are starting to appear. The brave few are already shedding their coats in excitement of the morning sun. This past week, in London at least, has been a pleasant break from the bleak, grey skied, sombre mood of winter – as the sun has returned to us finally. Despite the temperature hardly pushing six or seven on the thermometer, it feels like spring has sprung (for lack of a more original term).

Now, you only have to look outside of your window to see this fascinating news, but you should really take a closer look. Take note of the sudden attitude shift that grips people at this time of year. Sullen and downtrodden is so passé, positivity and optimistic is the new trend. Turn your frown upside down. Always look on the bright side of life. You’re walking on sunshine. Remember those delightfully upbeat catchphrases? You can use them at this time of year – all you have to do is blame the sun.

The weather isn’t the only thing to change in spring, of course. Things are changing across the board. Spending habits, new business directions, a whole heap of creative renewals. Refresh yourself, refresh your brand, refresh your outlook. Refreshed is the only acceptable default during springtime.

But what does this mean for the work environment? Basically: people are happier. They haven’t just been splashed by a bus on their way to work, or ice skated their way along the street. Happy people make happy workers. Happy workers make a happy office. Offices take a new vibe in Spring. It’s obvious, the sun brings out the best in people.

What better time to give your marketing a shake up (or even a small nudge)? We’re all in a happier place. Catch the attention of these laid back customers with a fresh new approach – something that will capture the attitude of the day. Vivid London offers you a fresh take on your marketing strategy; whether you’re feeling like spring, summer or even winter. Just don’t take the return of the sun (and it’s effect on people) for granted!

Talk to us about embracing the spring mood by refreshing your brand today!

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Andrew Beedle

Three ways to be noticed in a cluttered inbox

On any given day, if you’re an average internet user, you’re now more than likely to receive five or more solicited marketing messages a day. Five is of course the minimum; many of us, myself included, often get many more. Whether it’s Amazon stalking my movements through their site, stuff from my favourite eBay sellers, another cheap television deal from Misco, or news that London Underground is broken (again) from TfL, the information doesn’t stop coming.

What do you now have to do to make sure that your marketing message isn’t lost in the ever-mounting virtual inbox?

There are, of course, the obvious technical tips: ensuring that your message doesn’t upset spam filters, making sure that your lists, especially the opt in and outs work, and ensuring that your e-mails are set up to make links and calls to action obvious. But there are other tricks to ensure that your marketing stands head and shoulders above the clutter.

Make sure you’re consistent

A consistent look and feel across newsletters will make a huge difference. By keeping the design and tone consistent, you help to build, maintain and strengthen your brand. This builds trust with your subscribers, which will encourage them to take your recommendations and make it far easier to close sales when they follow your links.

It’s not just the look and feel: timing is everything. Once you’re into the swing of sending out marketing mail, make sure that you’re sending your mail out at the same time each day and at the same interval. So if your newsletter goes out on a Tuesday at 2pm then it’s a fair assumption that many of your subscribers will come to expect your message to arrive every Tuesday afternoon. Many may even subconsciously clear some space to read your content and will generally be more receptive if they’re expecting your message to arrive.

And while we’re talking about timing…

Studies have consistently shown that people are more receptive to marketing by e-mail on Tuesdays and Wednesdays: they’re more likely to read your mail, click your links and follow through to buying or subscribing to your service. There’s good reasoning behind this: catching people just after they’ve finished recovering from a hectic weekend and before they’ve begun to get bogged down with end of the week work-rushes and weekend plans, they’re more likely to concentrate on your message. If you send your e-mail between lunchtime and 3pm you’ll get noticed more by people trying to defocus from work while they have their lunch.

But they’re not just subscribers…

They’re people, they’re your customers – so tell them that you love them. Personalisation is key: it might cost a little more to code, but think about it: if you’re in a crowded room and someone calls you by name, you’re so much more likely to turn around than if they just say ‘hello’, no matter how familiar the voice might be. Research into e-mail marketing has shown that you can increase both your open, read and click-thru rates by up to 650% simply by personalising your marketing by adding your subscribers name.

These are just three simple ways of increasing the visibility of your messages. In my next blog I’ll be looking at more complex ways of maintaining subscriber loyalty, the importance of ‘above the fold’ content, and how you can turn your marketing into genuinely appreciated sources of learning.

Apple and Google: Stealth Marketing

I’ll admit that ‘stealth’ marketing seems somewhat counterintuitive. Marketing has traditionally been a high-profile business; the bigger the better. In recent years we’ve seen innovative campaigns that have challenged this preconception — ‘Viral‘ and ‘Guerilla‘ marketing — which have, in more than a few cases, been wildly successful.

Let me be clear: when I use ‘stealth marketing’, I’m referring to a new set of practices that are recent in nature, namely the gradual, intentional, but completely deniable leakage of information about a new product or service.

The closing months of 2009 provide two outstanding examples of the practice, by two companies adept and experienced in the field.

The Apple iPad is perhaps the case in point. It was impossible to peruse a tech site, newspaper or magazine in the later months of last year without reading something about this product; the actual existence of which wasn’t confirmed until its actual launch on 27 January.

There were mock-ups, wild speculation , and — in a minority of cases — very accurate predictions. It’s no secret how these pre-launch facts were obtained, but their ‘unconfirmable’ nature led them to be seen as part of the general furore of speculation.

Google’s ‘Nexus One’ came to market much the same way, with Google employees twittering and messaging about a new phone they had been issued in the run up to Christmas. Google’s press office explained that they were merely testing new software features, and that the phone ‘wasn’t for consumers’.

Few of us were fooled, and most weren’t shocked when the Nexus One was launched.

Therein lies the problem.
There is beauty and sound thinking behind these strategies. Apple and Google were able to dominate tech headlines for weeks on end, by little more than a carefully dropped sentence here or there. Talk about marketing return on investment!

The press run your first advertising campaign before you even launch your product, working fans into a frenzy so they can hardly wait to open their wallets. There are other advantages too; independent surveys more or less told Apple what they needed to know to price the product to reach the an ideal supply and demand equilibrium, and the media furore meant that a great deal of TV covered both products launches.

Apple used the same tactic with the iPhone and MacBook Air to high success.

Great strategies usually have a catch. They lose their ‘freshness’ after a while.

During the iPad launch I was reading tweets from the most die-hard Apple fans calling the product a ‘bore’ or ‘yawn’. The Nexus One was quickly dubbed ‘just another Android device’.

Where did it go wrong?

As far as Google’s Nexus One is concerned, I think it really is just another Android device. It’s pretty, for sure, and seems to have the fastest processor around; but we’re talking consumer electronics here — you need more of an edge to impress. The end-product didn’t live up to the ‘iPhone-killing’ and ‘game-changing’ device we were ‘promised’ by the stealth marketing campaign.

The iPad is, for all intents and purposes, a large iPod touch. Which is great for me, because that’s what I am looking for. But so many die-hard ‘Jobsians’ are disappointed: The device IS revolutionary and game-changing – but not as much as was rumoured.

The ‘real’ leaked information got mixed in with the wild speculation surrounding the product. No single consumer could tell the difference between the two.

Professional-looking mock-ups gave us some ideas as to what the iPad could look like. Supposed leaks told us of features we could only dream of. And, because of the lack of definitive, ‘hard’ facts, we all had our own conceptions about what the product would be.

To many, the iPad doesn’t live up to the hype – but it’s the hype that they fell for.

Stealth marketing is an arena where the marketer gives up a very large degree of control; you do not control the message. Which is fine, when you’re launching a huge product that no-one could have conceived to be as good as it is, like the iPhone. It doesn’t work where consumer’s expectations are likely to be underwhelmed by your offering, like the iPad.

But that won’t stop me from getting one.

Typography is Porn

We’re always proud to call ourselves geeks at Vivid. We love what we do, we spend far too much time doing it at the expense of the usual eating/sleeping/normal social relationships things. And we get unreasonably excited by our particular specialisms.

The creative team, flushed from their success designing our new website, were meeting this afternoon at the development stage of a new project. The name of one particular font (more particularly, its name and whether it had a particular weight) eluded us. Out comes the trusty Font Book.

Which falls open at a particular page – our favourite font for a while last year. And then two pages fell out (fonts for an arts project). A horrified developer goes “It’s true – type is porn!”. The well thumbed pages, the book falling open at the sexiest bit, the fact that it’s impossible to leaf through the book without getting diverted for a while – the similarities are certainly there.

But it’s not quite that simple. Like so many of our areas of work, it’s simply that type is an obsession of our creatives. Typography matters to our design – the essential idea behind good typography, that the type should never intervene between the idea and the reader, and be so beautiful that it facilitates and enhances communication rather than obstructs it, resonates with our ideals of coherence and congruence. Signature Vivid type design is not about flashes and bangs – it’s about simple, elegant clarity. Anyone can do flash and bang. Clarity requires obsessive attention to the use and meaning of the type and of the word, of the design and the message.

And that requires a comprehensive knowledge of type itself, which is where the Font Book comes in. That, at least, is our excuse, and we’re sticking to it.