40 days of fine weather on the way?

With the weather forecast looking good for today, Wednesday 15^th July – St. Swithin’s Day – spare a thought for Sean and Kieran Murphy (pictured) from Dingle as they face 40 days of fair weather - and thus no ‘stock’ for their Rainwater Sorbets!

The Irish-American brothers who established Murphy’s Ice Cream in Dingle fifteen years ago, decided earlier this year to use Irish rainwater to good effect and they now make sorbets with it!  “We want Irish people and visitors alike to enjoy the Irish weather in a whole new way.  So it’s just as well there was plenty of rain up until the end of May!”

The Rainwater Sorbets come in two flavours – Chocolate and Raspberry and both are dairy and gluten free. 

Dark chocolate-lovers can indulge their passion for a rich, bitter and aromatic taste experience featuring ultra-premium Valrhona chocolate and cocoa combined with pure, distilled Dingle rainwater.  While, the Raspberry sorbet provides a blast freshness and intense fruitiness to the tastebuds thanks to Dingle rainwater and at least 35% real fruit. 

The Murphy brothers now have four stores – two in Dingle, one in Killarney and one in Wicklow Street, Dublin.  For further information, see www.murphysicecream.ie

St. Swithin was the Bishop of Winchester from 852 to 862. At his request he was buried in the churchyard, where rain and the steps of passers-by might fall on his grave. According to legend, after his body was moved inside the cathedral on July 15, 971, a great storm ensued.* 

-       Ends –

*Encyclopaedia Britannica

Man City builds global brand, how long should your videos be & advice from Brian Cody

Man City builds global brand

Manchester City FC is using technology to build a global brand according to this article in “Marketing Week.”  They want to track performance “from boardroom to pitch” and support business opportunities, football performance and fan engagement.  The club’s parent company is City Football Group (CFG) and it also has stakes in NYC FC, Melbourne City FC and Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.

http://bit.ly/1JWomRv

How long should your videos be?

The most watched videos on YouTube are 3 minutes long while 15 second TV ads are growing in popularity – even though they may be edited down from the 30 second original version.  Ads for video on demand should be no longer than 20 seconds for those viewing on a desktop and 10 seconds max for mobile advises this article from the Irish Times.  Netflix preview ads for the next episode of a series are 15 seconds – the same length of time that Instagram video ad formats are.  So the message seems to be – different ad lengths for different formats.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/every-second-counts-as-ads-try-to-hit-the-sweet-spot-1.2277809

“If you lose, you’re not good enough to win”

So said Brian Cody, Kilkenny hurling manager when he spoke at a recent Smurfit UCD Smurfit Business School breakfast.  Writing in the Irish Independent, Michael Cullen tells us that Cody’s tips included - never to ignore your gut instinct, know the people around you and their way of life and surround yourself with experts but don’t tell them how to do their job.

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/cody-outlines-a-winning-formula-31362136.html

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tie Twitter to your Comms strategy, Tell your Story & 7 ways to make money from your Blog

4 ways to tie Twitter to your Communications strategy

This article features 4 tips on Twitter from the social media consultant for the American Heart Association.  While the article – from PR News - is aimed at people who work in PR, the 4 tips apply to anyone using Twitter for business.  Tip 1:  listen before you leap – this applies to any beginner of any social media – listen and observe before you jump in – and the great thing about Twitter is the ability to monitor conversations and topics easily (admission – I had to google API to see what it means - Application Programming Interfaces – allows programmes and websites to ‘talk’ to each other - but you, the reader, probably knew that!).  See other tips here….

http://bit.ly/1TOqWyu

Tell your Story

It’s vital to let customers see your strength – so tell your story – this is the leading piece of advice from Nigel Gahan of Gahan Meats in the Business section of the Irish Independent.  Nigel has worked in the family meat business in Dublin for 20 years.   He says that so many companies have great stories but they keep it to themselves.  His other recommendations include: Delegate; Focus; Recognise your Strengths & Weaknesses - and it is all about Customer Service…..

http://bit.ly/1LqGoxk

Make money from your Blog

7 tips on how to make money from your Blog from Ian Cleary of Razor Social – my favourite social media and online marketing guru as he really knows his stuff and speaks in plain English – not teccie speak!  With each of the tips, Ian recommends some tools and websites you can use.  The tips include: running webinars, promoting other content, doing product reviews and selling your own products.  See here for details……

http://www.razorsocial.com/profit-from-your-blog/?omhide=true

And finally……

Interesting info from Communicorp One – owner of Newstalk, Today FM and TXFM on the online behaviour of their listeners…….

http://www.communicorpone.ie/insights/online-behaviour/ 

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advertising to youth audience, Audi #womendrivers & the referenda campaign

Advertise to youth audience via online video

At a recent IAB (online advertising) event, Nielsen, the market research people, expressed surprise at the extent of change in viewing online video in the last six months. 67% of those aged 16+ watch video on demand for 1 hour or more daily (+5%) while 91% of those aged 16-24 do (+12%). This article tells us that advertising on online video allows brands to connect with audiences that other media, particularly TV, can’t reach.  Viewers see this advertising as a way to get free content.  But, it says, TV still rules the roost as it’s still the mass medium and with TV stations all having digital platforms, it’s all about “following the content.”

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/youtube-is-great-for-kids-but-tv-rules-the-roost-31228565.html

Audi targeting women

I’m not sure how I feel about this campaign – “Audi for #womendrivers# - it’s very well intended I’m sure, and it's well produced – but would it make me more disposed to buying an Audi?   Tweets feature #womendrivers so people might expect to find stories depicting women as bad drivers but when they click on the link, they’re directed to “stories about female drivers of innovation and employment, in an attempt to subvert people’s perceptions of women drivers.”  Audi say they are changing negative perceptions to positive ones and the sponsored page on irishtimes.com features a number of articles including 44 female Nobel winners, women driving SMEs to succeed, women in sport, women in technology and also some female champions in local Audi dealers.  The fact that previous editorial articles written in the Irish Times about different women appear on the right side of the page helps blur the distinction between sponsored content and editorial content.  Audi must be happy about that. People who work in marketing, advertising and PR are well aware of the difference – but I think the general public sometimes don’t notice.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sponsored/audi-for-women-drivers

The campaign around the Marriage Equality referendum    

Well only a few days to go and it will be really interesting to see how Ireland votes on Friday – will it be a runaway Yes vote – or are the No’s hiding in the tall grass?   Let’s hope the voters turn out, for starters, so it is reflective of the country’s opinion.  No surprise that it’s been dirty – I really object to the way the No campaign are muddying the waters by bringing adoption and surrogacy into it – even though Friday’s decision won’t affect either of these issues. The Church’s involvement will sway a certain segment – but will probably drive others to the Yes side.  And while I’m voting Yes - I’m pretty fed up at this stage of being ordered to do so – whether it’s by celebrities, friends on Facebook (gay and straight) or by multinationals – I fail to see why the latter got involved?  Sure, it’s about human rights – but they didn’t voice an opinion – as far as I’m aware – on the abortion referendum – another issue that features both human rights and people’s own sense of morality? Oh yes, there’s another issue we’re being asked to vote on - reducing the age to 21 that someone can be a candidate for President of Ireland – can’t comment on that campaign as there hasn’t been one!

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55 ideas for your blog. Sponsorship - local, national & international...

55 ideas for your next blog!

If you’ve put off starting a blog because you worry you can’t sustain it i.e. worry that you won’t be able to think of things to write about on an ongoing basis – this is for you!  I put off writing a blog for that reason for years!  I then decided I’d focus on marketing and PR campaigns and ideas that I thought would appeal to SMEs either as something they could consider for their own business or just because they’d find it inspiring or helpful.  And I haven’t looked back!  This infographic from PR Daily lists 55 suggestions which are grouped under the following headings: Be useful; Be human; Be generous; Be promotional; Be controversial; Be entertaining; Be timely and Be engaging – choose the ones that feel best reflect your voice and get writing!

http://bit.ly/1F594rH

Sponsorship - nice local example

This is a really lovely and innovative local sponsorship from coach company, Matthews – every six months they’re promoting a local arts person from Louth, Monagahan or East Meath.  That person is featured on a large ad on the back of some of their coaches. The first recipient is a singer songwriter called Sinead McNally and Matthews also co-produced a CD with her.  Everyone wins!

http://www.businessandleadership.com/marketing/item/50591-matthews-coach-hire/

Sponsorship – national/international

I heard an interview on Newstalk’s Moncrieff show with Mel Evans, author of “Artwash – Big Oil and the Arts” and it whetted my interest in reading this book.  According to Amazon, the book “describes how corporate sponsorship of the arts erases unsightly environmental destruction and obscures the strategies of oil company PR executives who rely on cultural philanthropy.”  Rather a large claim – I’m sure this sponsorship strategy certainly distracts attention away from environmental impact – but ‘erases’, I don’t think so.  But I haven’t read the book yet so I’ll reserve judgement and see how the argument is made. I looked on newstalk.com for the podcast of the interview but couldn’t find it – so here’s how Amazon describe the book:

http://amzn.to/1JFveln

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Facebook's 'Restricted' option, an Imaginative Spin & JNLRs.....

Putting an Imaginative ‘Spin’ on it!

I like this initiative from Imagine Marketing.  Their challenge was to let media buyers in ad agencies (i.e. the guys n’ gals who decide which media are best suited to clients’ target audiences) know that the listeners of Spin 1038 radio station have ‘matured’ with the station over the past 10 years. Spin traditionally has been known as a youth station. So, instead of hosting the usual party night, they devised an adventure challenge, ‘Sandstorm’ for listeners and media buyers.  This was a 5k adventure race on Dollymount Strand – the first adventure challenge held on sand in Ireland.  They also ran bootcamp training sessions in the weeks running up to the challenge. The average age of those who signed up was 29 and 70% of the entrants were 18-35.

http://mii.ie/insights-articles/spin-1038-sandstorm-case-study/

Facebook’s ‘Restricted’ Option

If you have ‘friends’ on Facebook whose invitation you felt you had to accept but didn’t really want to – this is probably one of the most useful articles you will ever read.  Like the author, Karlin Lillington, I usually reserve Facebook for personal use but every so often, people I know through work send me a ‘friend’ request which I feel duty bound to accept.  But if they’re prepared to sift through my posts which are mostly about animals or hill-walking, fair play to them!  I did file some of them as ‘acquaintances’ but the ‘restricted’ feature is completely knew to me. Very useful! I did know about the ‘lists’ on Twitter as a way of organising tweets but it’s something I badly need to update. Have a read…..

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/a-guide-to-hiding-from-unwanted-facebook-friends-1.2202394

Who’s listening to what on Irish radio?

The JNLRs track radio listening figures for both national and local radio stations in Ireland and the latest ones came out last week. Irish people love radio and RTE still holds many of the slots in the top 20 (see table when you click on the link.)  You can see how Anton Savage (who replaced Ray D’Arcy on Today FM) and others are doing on the national airwaves.  With local radio, there used to be a trend that the further away from Dublin, the higher the listenership for local radio – there is still some truth in that.

http://www.thejournal.ie/jnlr-results-are-out-2077979-Apr2015/

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How to speak to Gen Y, 5 steps to building a digital team & the Alpen/Amanda Holden campaign

How to speak to Generation Y

Generation Y are a ‘headstrong lot’ according to Greg Dybec of “Elite Daily” – a platform which has built an audience of 43m in less than two years!  Millennials consume content primarily from YouTube and other online channels and care about being inspired or emotionally touched by what they consume.  Pinterest and Tumblr are the platforms to watch and every brand should have in-house video and mobile teams, he says.  “I think brands and businesses will be successful in the future if they can finally begin to understand not just what digital consumers want, but why they share what they are interested in."

http://www.independent.ie/business/media/how-to-speak-to-generation-y-31163679.html

Campaign content wouldn’t brighten my morning

I only became aware of this Alpen campaign today as I saw a piece with Amanda Holden in The Guardian entitled “How I get ready” and this ‘Brighter Mornings’ campaign was mentioned.  Unless there is more to come and/or there are greater depths to this than I’ve found in search, this is a very weak concept.  There’s a lot of good activity around it such as using Amanda Holden to front it (because of her work on “This Morning”), and that it’s an integrated campaign which includes various initiatives with retailers and so on – but the premise – a ‘challenge’ whereby the consumer keeps a 7 day record to see if they feel better after eating Alpen 7 mornings in a row?  Weak.  But it will most likely be very successful because of Amanda as she features prominently on-pack and she is very well-liked, recent silly tweets aside.

http://www.alpenmornings.co.uk/index.php

5 steps to build a digital team

This is a good common sense guide from Ian Dodson of the Digital Marketing Institute on building a digital team with limited resources.  My only query would be that he quotes Facebook as the way to reach a young audience – but a lot of that age group have left – or never joined – that platform.  Ian suggests that the first thing you need to do is identify the objectives you want the team to achieve.  Then choose your online channels carefully – and focus on just a few.  It’s important to make the most of the talent you have in-house and he recommends a 15 minute test - www.TestYourDigital.com - as a way to find that out.  See here for the rest of Ian’s tips…..

http://bit.ly/1NalipK

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