November Marketing Brekky 2014

AGENDA

1)    Cool Technology

·         Hendo Hoverboard: Hendo Hoverboard has four disc-shaped hover engines that are essentially giant downward-facing electromagnets that work together to create a powerful magnetic field which literally pushes against itself, thereby generating the lift which levitates the board above the ground. Because it doesn’t make any contact with the ground and uses electromagnetic fields to levitate, the board is completely frictionless. Therefore, a rider could glide across the rink without slowing down after a single push. Better yet, Hendo has also figured out a way to modulate the strength of the hover engines to create directional thrust, so with a more development, you could drive the board around without touching the ground at all.

·         Dexmo exoskeleton glove: lets you ‘feel’ virtual objects with your hand. This exoskeleton glove is designed to provide your fingers with resistance; thereby enabling you to ‘feel’ the presence of virtual objects with your hands. When switched on, individual braking mechanisms will prevent the user’s fingers from moving up or down when they come into contact with a ‘solid’ virtual object. If the wearer were to grab a virtual ball, for example, the brakes would stop the person’s fingers at a certain point, making it feel as if there’s a spherical object in their hand. In one of the demo videos the creators show how it can be programmed to recognize sign language and provide a nearly instantaneous translation.

·         Pavlok: the wristband that uses electric shock to break your bad habits. This device is designed to give you a small electric shock each time you don’t meet your goals. The idea is that by providing a negative stimulus whenever you act out a bad habit, your brain will gradually begin to associate that stimulus (in this case an electric shock) with the action you perform. Over time, your brain will eventually form such a strong connection between the action and corresponding punishment that you won’t need the shock — you’ll instinctively feel inclined to stop biting your nails, or get out of bed instead of hitting snooze, for example.

·         Invisibility Cloak Device: Scientists at the University of Rochester in New York have managed to produce a cheap ‘invisibility cloak’ effect using readily available materials. Through a combination of optical lenses, any object that passes behind a certain line of sight can be made to disappear from view. ‘The Rochester Cloak’, as it’s being dubbed, uses a simplified four-lens system that essentially bends light around any objects you put into the middle of the chain — you’re able to see the area in the background as normal, but not the item in the foreground. According to its inventors, it can be scaled up using any size of lens, and the team responsible for the setup has used standard, off-the-shelf hardware.

2)    Social Media

Greggs (Bakers in England): They found their Wikipedia page defaced so they decided to get Google to help them fix it ASAP via Twitter.

 McDonalds Marketing Campaign: Honest is attention-seeking: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2014/11/the-most-revealing-responses-to-mcdonalds-our-food-your-questions-campaign      

Fining People for Bad Reviews: Surely this goes against free speech and fair trading?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/19/tripadvisor-couple-bad-hotel-review-charged-blackpool-broadway   

Alex from Target speaks after finding fame on the internet

Two weeks ago, 16-year-old Alex Lee was your run-of-the-mill teenager. He had 144 Twitter followers.

Then on Sunday, November 2, that all changed. After going to church, Alex's father dropped him off at 10 am at the SuperTarget on Eldorado Parkway where he works. Alex clocked in for his shift, turned off his phone as the battery was low, and took his place behind the cash register.

But as everyone on social media now knows, something bizarre was about to happen to him online. A teenage girl from Britain said she randomly came across a Tumblr photo of Alex that was surreptitiously taken a week earlier. She thought Alex was cute and posted the picture on her Twitter account, @auscalum, with the caption "YOOOOOOOOOOO."

Within minutes, the image seemed to explode on the internet. Soon a meme was born and the hashtag #alexfromtarget became a trending topic. (Yet the dark side of this marvel, including death threats against him and his family, would not become clear for several days to come.)

Alex, who was working the register all day, had no idea he had become an internet sensation. His first glimpse came sometime that afternoon, when he started noticing that his checkout line was unusually long. Young girls soon appeared, animatedly giggling and snapping photos of him as he rang up their items

At 6.09 pm, Alex walked out of Target, hopped into the front seat of his mother's Mercedes and looked at his Twitter page, which had over 100,000 followers at that point. He tried to tell her what had happened, but he wasn't sure himself. Alex then asked his new disciples, "Am I famous now?" This message has since been retweeted more than 42,000 times and favourited by 86,000 users.

He has been approached by news outlets around the world, and he has turned down interview requests from ABC's Good Morning America, E! and dozens of talk shows. He's been offered advertising deals and sponsorships. Television, movie and modelling agents want to meet with him.

Alex now has about 730,000 followers on Twitter — five times the population of Frisco. More than 2.3 million people follow him on Instagram. And according to Google Trends, the term "Alex from Target" has been searched on Google more than "Nash Grier" or "Justin Bieber" since this adventure began.

But while Alex's rise from high school student to global celebrity may be the stuff that teenagers dream of today, there is also a negativity to instant web celebrity that rarely gets discussed.

While Alex is clearly enjoying some of the attention, he and his family have also had to deal with more serious consequences of web fame. A crafty marketing firm, Breakr, tried to take credit for Alex's rise. (Everyone the company claims it worked with, including Alex's family and @auscalum, has denied ever hearing of Breakr. In a report, BuzzFeed said that the company's claims simply don't add up.)

Thousands have taken to social media to call Alex names (including vulgarities) or fabricate stories about him being fired. Twitter is littered with posts that denigrate his looks ("Alex from Target is so damn ugly") or spew envy at him ("Alex from Target is a nobody who doesn't deserve fame").

There have even been dozens of death threats on social media and in private messages ("Alex from target, I'll find you and I will kill you").

People have leaked the family's personal information online, including Social Security numbers, bank accounts and phone records.

Wire Wax: Interactive Videos:  http://www.wirewax.com/

One of a host of new companies that offer the ability to make truly interactive videos. Mainly used for clothing brands for the moment, its gives the customer the opportunity to make a video such as an advert, music video, short movie etc with the characters wearing their merchandise. The user is then given visual ques to click on items of clothing or interact with the video/story. The user is then given a brief description on the item/price and provided a link to purchase the item or continue watching.

This ushers a new take on social media interaction and takes advertising and film to the next level of interesting with their customers. The videos act as more of a direct sales pitch for specific items that the user can purchase on immediately, as opposed to previously being intrigued and resarched later as per standard advertising.

ONLY because we can:  http://onlybecausewecan.com/

This is a great example of video interactivity. The clothing company made a short movie about a group of rebellious girls who stumbled upon a small town and decided to cause chaos over a few days. The movie has the option to click on clothing (to check pricing and purchasing info) and the ability to interact with the story line such as stealing jeans for the girls, spying on people or starting the engine of a car to progress the storyline.

Marketing Spend Benchmark

•             Overall marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue were 10.7% in 2013

•             They’re expected to increase to 18.7% in 2014

•             Digital marketing budgets made up 3.1% of revenue & expected to increase by 10% in 2014

•             Organisations are focussing on digital for both purchasing & communication with their audiences and increasing online marketing budgets.

•             Average annual digital marketing budgets increased from 3.1% to 17% of a company’s annual revenue (2013).

•             Digital advertising, mobile marketing, digital commerce & corporate websites are the most crucial investments for success.

3)    Updates with Google

Google: Material Design

 We challenged ourselves to create a visual language for our users that synthesizes the classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science. This is material design. This spec is a living document that will be updated as we continue to develop the tenets and specifics of material design.

GOAL: Create a visual language that synthesizes classic principles of good design with the innovation and possibility of technology and science.

Develop a single underlying system that allows for a unified experience across platforms and device sizes. Mobile precepts are fundamental, but touch, voice, mouse, and keyboard are all first-class input methods.

What is Retargeting?

https://www.adroll.com/retargeting

Google Releases Penguin 3.0 — First Penguin Update In Over A Year

Penguin targets sites deemed to be spammy, especially those found in violation of Google’s guidelines about linking. If you’re hit by it, even if you make changes, you have to wait until the next release to see if your changes have done what Google wanted. Publishers hit by the last version of Penguin (October 2013) have been waiting until now to see if removing spammy links have worked.

Some people may see ranking drops but not actually be hit by Penguin because if Penguin causes a wide range of links to be discounted, those links will no longer pass along the credit or act as “votes” as they once might have.

Sites that gained from these fake votes — as Google would consider them — lose that credit and thus potentially visibility, even though they weren’t penalized by Google directly.

REMINDER

*If you would like to invite someone to an event, please email their name, company and position to christina@exa.com.au (there is a waiting list to attend). The Marketing Club is open to marketing/communication managers working within medium to large organisations (not start ups, marketing/web service providers or agencies etc.).

Quote of the Day: “We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

Buddha

Well, that's it for this month and I'm looking forward to the next Marketing Club. At this stage we are thinking February.

Christina Marie Giuffré