Something smells here…

Is it college students with dirty socks?  Or is it that one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world is now creating a word-of-mouth/viral campaign?

Yes, that’s right, Grey is in the process of developing a word-of-mouth campaign for Febreze, the solve all anti-smell product from Proctor and Gamble.  Their target audience is 18-22 year old American university students, a group not previously targeted before.

"Targeting this potentially huge demographic presented a problem,
however. "Our mainstream media buys are not effective for 18- to
22-year-olds," said John Paquin, exec VP-global account director for
Febreze at WPP Group’s Grey Worldwide."

"That’s when Febreze opted for an online and viral approach, at the
center of which is Facebook, a real no-brainer these days when it comes
to youth marketing.  That WhatStinks.com, an interactive website all about Febreze spray, is
actually housed within Facebook, and that P&G plans media buys and
banner ads on Facebook."

So not only is Grey and P&G taking a new approach by using word-of-mouth as their sales tool, but they’re doing it for a cheap, mass market product that retails for $3.  It’s just another example of how even the big advertising agencies are recognizing the ineffectiveness of their old methods and developing word-of-mouth campaigns.

Read the full article here.

The big news coming out of the music industry is surely Radiohead’s (British Roack band) decision to release its latest album online, without a record label, and let fans pay whatever they wanted to for it (i.e. nothing at all!). How much is Radiohead’s CD worth to their fans is anyone’s guess. I’d sure be keen to find out.

For the band, this means that they get to keep the entire cost of any album sold. No promo/marketing costs. No record label taking a cut from the sales proceeds.

Of course Radiohead is no small fry in the world of music. And they, along with other big name artists will continue to make tons of money through concert performances, sponsorships, etc. What about artists without the huge following?

Madonna just announced that she was leaving Warner music. I wonder if she’s next on the Digital bandwagon? Meanwhile, record labels executives are quaking in their boots.

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive.  We’re in the business of
connecting with consumers.”

Who would say such an audacious thing?  What crazy marketing person speaks like this?  Media companies watch out – that quote is from Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management.

Turns out that last year, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States
advertising budget on ads with television networks and other
traditional media companies, which is down from 55% the year before.  Nike’s focus is now turning to engagement – executives say that much of the company’s future advertising
spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout
advice, online communities and local sports competitions.

So how are you spending your budget?  When the Nike’s of the world focus their budget on connecting with the consumer, don’t you think you should be too?

Read the full article here.

In an interesting poll of several hundred top marketeers, it appears that ‘conversation marketing’ will supersede all other types by the year 2012.

Accordingly, marketing budgets seem to be going in the same direction – 57% of those polled say they think that in five years they will be spending more on conversational marketing than traditional marketing.

“The results of this research indicate that the industry is currently
in a state of cautious experimentation with regard to social media and
conversational marketing,” Jen McClure, SNCR executive director, is
quoted as saying. “But most organizations seem to be preparing
themselves for a significant shift in strategies and resource
allocation.”

Read the full article here.

Me, very nervous, doing a live TV interview on Primetime on Channel News Asia