46% of online display ads not seen, location-based marketing & 'resourcefulness not resources'

Location-based marketing – it’s not about you!

You have to give customers something they want and value in order for location-based marketing to work, says the author of this article – Amanda Phillips, Head of Marketing at research company, Millward Brown.  And it’s vital not to reveal everything you know about your customer as this is ‘too Big Brother’. She cites some examples of location-based marketing – their own project with a mobile phone company and she also outlines case studies from Virgin Atlantic, Macy’s and McDonald’s in China.

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/mar/23/location-marketing-brand-relevance-big-brother

46% of online display ads not seen

A new ad viewability model will lead to different pricing models for people buying online display ads.  Ireland’s first ad viewability study found that 46% of online display ads served in Ireland were never viewed.  This article tells us that in the

US, they say a display ad impression is viewable if half of it can be seen in a user's browser window - and remains there for at least a second.  The study found that only 39pc of viewed ad impressions were seen between five and 10 seconds.

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/getting-message-to-click-with-public-31077685.html

“It’s about resourcefulness not resources”

This Q&A with Pat Divilly of Pat Divilly Fitness in Galway reveals the determination that helped him become the 2015 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award winner.  Pat says, “It’s all about resourcefulness, not resources“.  So he wrote articles, recorded podcasts and YouTube videos and helped out anyone he could.   Using social media and online marketing, he focused on making money not spending it!  He also focused on making the 45 minutes that his customers spent with him the best 45 minutes of their week.

http://www.davidmanleyawards.ie/a-qa-with-dma-2015-winner-pat-divilly/

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Using Snapchat for business & lessons from Sainsburys....

Using Snapchat for Business

This is food for thought as the author claims that people are moving en masse from Instagram to Snapchat – personally I wouldn’t be so sure.  Currently Snapchat users are generally 16-24 – but Andre Kay predicts this will expand out to encompass 18-40 year olds.  This offers opportunities for business whose target audience matches that of Snapchat - but they need to make the time to get familiar with the medium, learn from what other brands are doing and be real-time ready.   A Snapchat function – Stories- endures for 24 hours as opposed to the usual few seconds – this will obviously make using Snapchat more attractive to businesses.

http://bit.ly/1ByS9sj

Lessons from Sainsburys

UK retailers, like Irish ones, have had challenging times over the past few years with the recession and the discounters biting at their heels – and the latter succeeding.  Apparently Sainsburys’ 1.9% drop in sales is considered a good performance versus their competitors. More people are buying more products from Sainsburys stores.  They did cut prices but customers seem to find shopping there a more pleasant experience and less of a chore than at other retailers – and are prepared to pay a small premium for that.  Apparently their non-food offering and their bank are also contributors to their steady performance.

http://ind.pn/1x1yqWT

Making a global campaign look easy

AT&T used 23 images of painted hands and a phone for their global campaign – such a simple idea, brilliantly executed.  Apparently it debuted in 2009 – so I’m a bit late to the table here – but good work should always be acknowledged!  AT&T devised it to promote their international wireless leadership.

http://bit.ly/1GYy9Ur

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Create your own website, You can't be all things to all people & tips from 20 best small shops...

SMEs – create your own website!

If you’ve put off getting a website due to resource issues – whether cashflow or time constraints, I highly recommend doing a Workshop Website course with Dan Mulcahy.  I did one and my new grainne byrne PR website will shortly be revealed to the world.  I was a bit apprehensive at the start as I feared a lot of teccie speak – but I needn’t have worried.  In fact, so confident am I of my ability to produce a website, I will shortly commence work on finally having a DIY PR site – having talked around it for about two years!

http://www.workshopwebsites.ie/

You can’t be all things to all people

With 1,650 stores in the UK, Greggs is bigger than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined in that market.  The 75 year old store ran into problems because they were trying to be ‘all things to all people.’  So they took fairly painful and drastic action, closing some of their in-store bakeries, some stores and laying off staff and turned their focus to the dining al-desko and breakfast-on-the-go market – to excellent results.  Worth a read…….

http://ind.pn/1DYLNqt

Tips from small shops on how to survive & thrive

Another UK story featuring tips from the winner and some runners-up of the “20 Best Small Shops” - including a village shop run by one paid manager and 50 volunteers which ploughs all its profit back into the small community in which it operates.  This article also tells how a food store, convenience store and bookshop chose to thrive during the recession despite the economy, competition from the multiples and  internet shopping.

http://bit.ly/1MVlc2u

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Alan Shearer's first game, 4 other new TV ads & how to pitch a feature story

Feature journalists on how to pitch a feature

Your story idea has to  stand out, be different and - don’t pitch on topics the newspaper has already covered – these are just some of the tips from Roisin Ingle, daily features writer with the Irish Times in this very interesting podcast from MediaHQ.  Roisin also advises that you read the features in the Irish Times regularly so you’re familiar with the kind of stuff they do.  CAPS and exclamation marks are a complete no-no, she advises – I have to say I’m 1000% guilty of overuse of the latter. 

To get John Meagher’s attention – he’s a feature writer with the Irish Independent – make sure there is a strong human interest element and that it’s a long read.  He also likes to meet the subject of the feature in their own environment.  He finds the use of text speak in emails “offensive” and talked about the trend for much longer features (100k+ words) in both Irish and UK newspapers.

Henry McKean of Newstalk urges pitch-ees (my word, not his) to get to the point quickly when phoning him.  In an hour, he’d average about 40 story ideas via email, most of which won’t make it to air, including his own ideas, he says.  Henry has to sell the better ideas on to his producer or an editor. 

This podcast is 30 minutes long but well worth a listen.

http://linkd.in/1Eh5nkd

The Best 5 Ads?

This Guardian ‘Ad Break’ features 5 TV ads – for cancer research, the Danish ballet, a Barclay’s soccer promotion, Fairtrade and German sex toys.  The latter is the most entertaining and is funny – wonder when these kind of ads will air here?!  The Barclays ad, “Alan Shearer’s first game” is a lovely story, well told which harks back to his first game.  Same applied to the Fairtrade “Tea Farmer” which uses a real farmer to tell how his life and that of his community has changed for the better.  I don’t like the Danish ballet ad at all, it’s grim and joyless and I’m not sure at all about the Cancer Research “Race for Life” ad which renacts an old battle scene – but perhaps people who have cancer find it motivating – I’m sure some or many cancer sufferers were researched in advance of this being produced and that they related to it – take a look…….

http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2015/mar/03/ad-break-cancer-research-alan-shearers-sex-toys

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