Monday 26 November 2007

Understanding why we need interactive communication

Put simply, because there is a human desire for interaction.

We have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way and more passive form of information retrieval that exists.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.

When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).
Consumers tend to filter out information they do not want to hear and this alters the effectiveness of advertising in quite a dramatic way. The purchaser’s decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety. The worry that perhaps the purchase decision was not the best or right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce his choice and begins to take more notice of his chosen product’s advertising. And, at the same time, the purchaser deliberately suppresses data, which might challenge his decision by ignoring the advertising of competitive brands.

People are often loyal to a brand simply because they do not want to readdress a decision. The opportunity to screen out undesired data always exists when media advertisements have to stand on their own and fight for attention.
Interactive Communication takes the consumer through the barrier of not wanting to address change; and this is the ultimate market the advertiser is after – the people who use his competitors’ products.

Now the consumer can say ‘Yes, I will change my behaviour and I have a very good reason or series of reasons why”, and have a well-informed opinion or image in mind.

If someone goes into a product purchase decision with a very specific image of the product and its reason to exist and why they have decided those reasons are worth its purchase, the test in reality, the use of the product, will tend to confirm that premise, and therefore conversion will be enormously enhanced.

Interactive Marketing Communication turns passive advertising into active advertising and actually alters behaviour during the communication and learning process.

Interactive Marketing Communication increases sales.

And there’s more!

It enhances relationships and dramatically improves consumer knowledge, understanding and loyalty.

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Monday 13 August 2007

Unilever & Shoppers’ Voice.

A new era for advertising!
A new age of personalised customer relations!

The guiding ethos of The 1-2-1 Solution, is the personalisation of the relationship between the brand and the customer through customer participation. Shoppers’ Voice, whatever the format or medium, is where your customers willingly become workers for you; devoting some of their time, effort and imagination to your brands.

Not only do your customers want more choice they want to be involved with the products they choose to buy and to be sure that they have made the right choice for the right reasons. The Shoppers’ Voice initiative opens up an ongoing dialogue between you and your customers, building their trust in the brand and delivering loyalty, through ongoing purchase, despite the blandishments of competitors.

The Shoppers’ Voice technique has been used within Unilever in different countries over time with spectacular results as outlined:

United Kingdom

Birds Eye Fish Fingers
Research: Nielsen & City Insights.
Actual uplift in sales + 3.2%.
Definitely/Probably will buy +9%.
Advertising awareness +11%.

Persil.
Research: Nielsen & City Insights.
Actual uplift in sales + 4.4%..
Last week purchase +2%
Definitely/Probably will buy +4%.
Advertising awareness +4%.

P G Tips.
Research: Nielsen & City Insights.
Actual uplift in sales + 3.1%.
Last week purchase +5%
Definitely/Probably will buy +7%
Advertising awareness +8%.

Birds Eye Frozen Peas.
Research: Nielsen & City Insights.
Actual increase in purchase + 2.6%.
Last week purchase +2%
uplift in Definitely/Probably will buy +5%.
Advertising awareness + 5%.




Sunsilk Shampoo.
Research: BLM division NOP.
Purchase + 35%.
Definitely/Probably will buy + 100%.
Recognition of the main product claim + 50%.
Advertising awareness +45%.
Spontaneous Awareness + 53%.

Cif.
Research: AGB.
Definitely/Probably will buy +14%.
Brand awareness + 6.7%.
Advertising awareness +150%.

Australia

Vaseline Intensive Care.
Research: AGB.
Prompted Brand/Product awareness +31.5%.
Past Four Week Purchase +90%.
Definitely will buy +81.8%.

Streets Ice Cream Deserts.
Research: Martyn Research.
Unprompted Brand Awareness increased +8%.
Actual purchase +80%.
Advertising awareness +100%.

USA

Wisk
Research: Market Research Corporation of America.
Year long purchase study.
Across the whole year + 25.5% uplift in actual sales.
The research, as usual, was carried out among those who received the program (Test) against those who did not see the program (Control).
This study, underlines the long term effect of the technique.

Finally, what have others said of the technique in respect of
Cost Effectiveness and ROI.

Professor E.L. Roberto, PhD, Coca-Cola Foundation Professor of International Marketing reviewed the £5 million of independent research conducted on behalf of Shoppers’ Voice and provided this summary:

“The Shoppers’ Voice participating advertisements generated recall scores that are more than 50% more productive than normal advertising. The effect on purchase intention is just as impressive if not much more.
All these productivity increments are attainable at a reasonably inexpensive budget. One Shoppers’ Voice client revealed that for its participating brand, its quarter television expenditure was $5.7 million as compared to its Shoppers’ Voice budget of $0.5 million.
This 1:10 ratio has been mirrored in Shoppers’ Voice events in other countries.”

Source: AGB: Gallup: Martyn Research: Bourke: NOP: Nielsen & more

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Friday 10 August 2007

1-2-1 Solutions

1. Personalisation is the key to success!


1-2-1 Solutions immediately starts to re-personalise the communication process.

2. Mass Marketing needs to incorporate Direct Marketing techniques!

1-2-1 Solutions incorporates all marketing disciplines including Direct Marketing Techniques.

3.To achieve "Personalisation" we need to humanise Mass Media.

The very nature of 1-2-1 Solutions ensures that all Mass Media is personalised by the solicitation of individual opinions!

4. Your customers want to commence a regular dialogue with you.

Shopper's Voice appears regularly allowing your customers to participate, become "vocal" and allows you to respond to their comments and questions.

5. Nowadays it is necessary to empower your customers by giving them a perception of control!

1-2-1 Solutions, through Shopper's Voice, informs your customers that their opinions are important to you and that you will listen to what they have to say and, where possible, you will act upon what they have to say!

6. You must give your customers plenty of choice for each of your products!

1-2-1 Solutions, through Shopper's Voice, allows your customers the opportunity to select which of the multiple product attributes is right for them, this provides them with the right reason to go and buy your product(s) over your competitor.

7. You must give your customers far more information to enable them to make the correct choices!

1-2-1 Solutions, through "programmed instruction" ensures that your customers have sufficient information available to make the right choices to go out and buy your brand(s)!

8. Your customers want to make connections with your brand(s) and to personalise their relationship with these brand(s)

The very nature of Shopper's Voice ensures that your customers connect and then personalise their relationship with your brand(s) thus ensuring ongoing and repeat sales!

9. Shopper's Voice allows you to understand what is important to your customer on a one-to-one basis allowing you to create long lasting partnerships!


Through skilful interpretation of the feedback provided by Shopper's Voice, you will have a data base rich in individual comments and needs, thus ensuring that you can create long lasting relationships with each and every customer.

10. And the beauty of Shopper's Voice is that it is totally accountable, highly flexible and is category exclusive!

More than £5 millions have been invested in independent research with reputable research companies over time. This research has established that one exposure to Shopper's Voice is far more effective than traditional advertising alone.

Contact: Alan Kirkland: Tel. 01276 62325 or email:capn.kirk@ntlworld.com
Contact: Paul Ashby: Tel. 01934-620047 or email: paul.ashby@yahoo.com
Or visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Thursday 9 August 2007

Consumer conversations with your advertising

These conversations substantially increase the R.O.I of your marketing budget, and develop lasting relationships with your customers. And starts to re-personalise your relationship with your customer(s)

There are four key areas within which we develop successful communication programmes with your customers:

1. The preparation of two-way "conversations
2. The selection of the medium(s) to carry these "conversations".
3. The analysis of the response and feedback.
4. The analysis of the sales effect and recommendations based on independent research findings.

We have developed proprietary applications that enable us to hold "conversations" with your target market and then analyse their shopping habits through the feedback.

Your customers' feedback creates a database, whereby we are able to segment your retail market on the basis of shopping behaviour. The aim is to facilitate stronger relationships with your end user, using the power of "two-way conversations" with your customers, together with the re-personalisation of your relationship with your shopper!

This makes your current advertising and marketing more responsive and more effective and starts to re-personalise the communication process.

With the application of our communication technique to your conventional marketing and advertising, your advertising becomes more effective and more cost efficient.

Examples of Accountability:

Colgate Palmolive Toothpaste a 25% uplift in sales.
Quaker Oats a 38% uplift in sales.
Kellogg's All Bran a 30% uplift in sales.
Nestle Maggi a 233% uplift in sales.
Unilever Rexona a 90% uplift in sales.
Pfizer Plax Dental Rinse a 200% uplift in sales.
LA Times a 3% increase in circulation.
Unilever Persil a 8% increase in sales.
British Airways Executive Club a 33% response and a 3% lift in bookings.
Quaker Oatso Simple a 15% increase in sales and a 10% increase in trial.
Natwest phone banking a 48% uptake in use and a 54% return of lapsed
users.



Paul Ashby: has been pioneering this new form of "conversations in advertising" for the past twenty-five years. Through this experience he has a unique insight into what your customers want to say.

Paul has written "conversations with advertising" for many blue chip companies in Australia, Japan, USA and UK. He wrote and produced the world’s first regularly scheduled consumer participation TV Game Show, on behalf of P & G on Channel 7 in Manila, The Philippines, taking the viewing audience rating from 6 children to 54 adults.

Alan Kirkland: has held a number of senior positions within the regional and national newspaper industry, in advertising and marketing through to MD level. He has held Account Director positions within the Advertising Agency and Sales Promotion sectors and launched the first FSI – The Coupon Book – in the UK.
Apart from a wide experience in sales and marketing, Alan has a knowledge and awareness of print and distribution and has many senior contacts within these fields.
He has worked on several programs in the UK, converting "conversations in advertising" to sales.

Contact Numbers:

Alan: 01276-62325 or email: capn.kirk@ntlworld.com
Paul: 01934-620047 or email: paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Wednesday 8 August 2007

It's very easy to use Shoppers' Voice

1. Your don't have to change a thing.
2. Happily carry on with your existing advertising.
3. All you have to do is to supply us with your existing advertising campaigns for your participating brand(s)
4. In turn, we will write all the necessary interactive copy. We will supervise the creativity for that issue of Shoppers' Voice.
5. We will brief the research company
6. We will collate your database "feedback"
7. We will present all research finding in association with the chosen Research Company.
8. We will organise all prizes.
9. We will submit all your copy for final approval prior to publication.
10. Then all you will have to do is watch your sales increase!

Simply call Paul Ashby on 01934-620047 or email: paul.ashby@yahoo.com
Or Alan Kirkland on 01276 62325 or email: capn.kirk@ntlworld.com

Tuesday 24 July 2007

The need for Interactive Marketing Communication.

Put simply, because there is a human desire for interaction. We have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way and more passive form of information retrieval that exists.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.

When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).

More information? Please visit:http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

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Thursday 19 July 2007

Understanding Interactive Marketing...by

Defining Interactive Marketing.
Interaction can be defined simply as straightforward communication between two parties. Presently we are in danger of losing the real meaning of interaction, as we tend to focus discussions on the emerging technologies and neglect the communication process itself. With an understanding of the real meaning of Interactive Communication, existing media can be made interactive, and subsequently far more cost effective.


Contact Paul Ashby on: paul.ashby@yahoo.com for more interesting information and results!

Friday 13 July 2007

ACCOUNTABILITY & ADVERTISING!

In my opinion there is ample justification for questioning a major advertising pretension that it does, indeed, work at all!

All human knowledge is provisional but it is also incremental, the sum of what we know to day is far greater than thirty years ago – with, possibly, the sole exception of marketing/advertising.

It is more than possible that people may look back on the six or seven years either side of 2000 as a period of aberration, when advertising people temporarily became obsessed with technology. And forgot that the most intoxicating thing in human existence is our ability to communicate face to face. In fact to INTERACT!

Advertising Agencies rushed into broadcast television and, more recently the Internet, the reason for this has nothing to do with advertising effectiveness, but all to do with economic imperatives. After all agencies tend to nurture their own illusions.

Similarly it is always possible to face up to any problem simply by fixating on fictional evidence, i.e. "Advertising works"

In to days over informed world (better known as clutter), magazines for example have much going for them…

1. Magazines are actively purchased
2. Magazines are technology-proof. They are very portable, they require no electricity – you can take them anywhere an iPod would go. And a lovely expression I came across the other day "bed, bog, bath…very flexible.
3. Ads add value. In the US it has been established that advertising is an integral part of every magazine.
4. Magazines offer engagement.
5.Better still magazines can effectively INTERACT with television!

Print isn't dead, however judging from the poor quality of creative emanating from agencies these days perhaps "Advertising Agencies are dead"!

Most certainly they lack an understanding of the word "Communication"

Friday 1 June 2007

Here are just two examples of ChiefSpeak:

"TV under pressure", says Accountant turned Adman, Sir Martin Sorrell. However he goes on to say, "Television is under pressure at the moment from the Internet…but predictions of a depression have gone too far. Television advertising is not going to disappear. It still has the pulling power, but the balance will switch".
I wonder if he tells that to his Client, Guinness?

See what I mean when I said earlier on "Why do people fail to even consider them"?

Meanwhile another Chief, Derek Morris, Chairman and chief executive of ZenithOptimedia attended "Media 360 Conference" in Wales recently. In a long letter in MediaWeek, he said, among other things, "But what are the lessons to bring home from South Wales? What should we actually do? And there, in the final session, reality caught up when the Client told us to "Change before you are dead".

"Digital is just media, while new, it follows the old rules. It has increased the role communication can play. To be in media requires knowing how to use it and all other channels".

Does that mean we shall be reading the obits on Accountant turned Adman Sorrell in the very near future, has anybody had the decency to point out to him that one Client even said that?

'Cos. he really needs to know!

And certainly his high powered executives should be telling him the meaning of the word "communication" assuming, that is, they themselves really know.

May we take this opportunity to inform the Chiefs of what effective communication is? Because surely it is about time they knew!

Please also visit:http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com
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Tuesday 29 May 2007

The coming Television and Advertising Storm, what you need to know about the future!

The current methods of advertising/marketing are based on deluded knowledge of communication and human behaviour, and are about to implode.

People in advertising are bad at thinking coherently about the future, they prefer whatever is present to the distant and remote.

One thing is for sure, with the changes already occurring they are going to have to make huge sacrifices on behalf of the future.

Advertising Agencies have allowed widespread short-termism. With no long-term view on the actual process of communication and all the other attendant problems, clutter, the Internet, the process of communication, accountability, customer indifference, lack of attention, the loss of trust, to mention just a few!

The Storm 1.?

Well, to start with the traditional TV stations are being buried beneath a blizzard of devices, and there are new services such as ViewmyTV which claims to offer "hundreds of live streaming channels from all over the world".
People are watching TV differently, fast forwarding through TV adverts or waiting for a drama series to come out on DVD to "Binge" watch all weekend.

Television broadcasters face "severe pressure" as advertisers abandon traditional media in favour of the Internet. So says Sir Martin Sorrell, head of WPP.

Television is under severe pressure at the moment from the Internet. There has been a fundamental shift and the pace will quicken.

There speaks a person who is himself under severe pressure, he cannot help but think short-termism, it is in his financial interests to remain the one-way passive advertising scenario advocate.

Please also visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Monday 21 May 2007

Why? Simply put they were not concerned with solving their Clients problems they simply wanted to maximise their profits!

This communication technique reduced frequency, thus less clutter, enhanced awareness of TV commercials, used existing media, and was totally accountable – just one exposure was far more effective than reach and frequency. And they didn't like that one bit!

Now here they are, having nearly ruined one perfectly good media establishment madly going off to then disenchant clients as to the efficacy
or otherwise of the Internet, a medium totally hostile to the concept of advertising.

And so Advertising Agencies, in their ignorance, go on wasting billions of dollars on ineffective advertising!

Now please visit://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Sunday 13 May 2007

Industry Fixates on Plummeting Live Audiences

As Ratings Wither in Face of DVRs and New Nielsen Methodology, Broadcasters Pursue Other Metrics

Why the big drop-off? Part of it may be Nielsen methodology, and part of it is the continuing defection from live viewing to time-shifting. And things are only going to get worse, according to a consensus of analysts who predict the TV environment will be subjected to unheard-of patterns of erosion.

"The decline this year is staggering," says Shari Anne Brill, VP-director of programming at Carat USA, New York, and a veteran TV-research executive. "The delayed viewing puts [the ratings] back [up]. A lot of delayed viewing occurs within that first day. For [the week through Tuesday, April 17] in broadcast prime, 46% of minutes were time-shifted minutes."

Source: Nielsen Media Research

All this could have been avoided...however the Advertising Agencies avoided the answer which was INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATION
An answer to the problem? Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com


Friday 4 May 2007

Demonstrating that terrestrial TV together with interactive print events can produce staggering increases

When interactive “events” have been prepared together with a direct request for the viewer to pay particular attention to participating TV commercials, there has always been a substantial and measurable lift in brand awareness, message comprehension, which always lead through to increases in sales.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of interactive programmes linked to terrestrial TV here are just some examples of the increases recorded by independent research.

Increases in television advertising awareness as result of exposure to an interactive “Event”

Birds Eye Fish Fingers + 11%
Sunsilk Shampoo +233%
Duracell Batteries +200%
Plumrose (Canned) Ham +400%
Sara Lee + 83%
Sources: AGB, NOP, Gallup

These results are just the tip of the iceberg in demonstrating that terrestrial TV aligned with interactive events can produce staggering increases in all key measurements including sales.

Want more? Please visit:http://effectaviveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Saturday 28 April 2007

If I were Grade I, in turn, would say to Accountant turned Adman Sorrell,

"Well mate the problems with commercial television are firmly in your court, you have, slavishly, stuck to the 30-second format without any new thinking emerging about the commercial break and the fact that viewers are turning away from the, what I understand is called, "The interruption model of advertising".

"Also there is absolutely no accountability so now your Clients appear to be turning away from Terrestrial TV and are now being advised by the Advertising Industry to go onto the Internet. A totally unproven medium, and, from everything I have learned, a medium that is very hostile to the whole concept of one-way advertising"!

"So when are you going to address all these little issues mate"?

Then accountant turned Adman Sorrell would most likely reply, "What about your viewers being ripped off all the time with Commercial Televisions' not so little scams with Premium Rate telephone call-in Games…scams that are likely to amount to several million pounds"?

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION COULD SOLVE ALL THESE PROBLEMS RIGHT NOW!


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Friday 20 April 2007

The rising blizzard of commercial messages sweeping through TV shows

and other traditional and non-traditional communications channels, has become a blinding, deafening force heavily cutting into the overall effectiveness of advertising (if there ever was any effectiveness in the first place!) . Yet little is being done to quantify the massive financial drain of clutter on marketing campaigns or, even more importantly, organise a practical solution to the problem.

There has been an answer to all of AdLand's problems and it has been around for years, unfortunately the advertising industry, being wrapped up in its delusional beliefs of "creativity, reach & frequency" vehemently rejected this solution…called…interactive marketing communication.

TOTALLY EFFECTIVE-TOTALLY ACCOUNTABLE-USE INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATION NOW!
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Sunday 8 April 2007

You're a Client? Then be afraid – very afraid!

Because they are spending your money the wrong way, the advertising industry is shattering all our illusions, one by one the marketing institutions once considered bastions of integrity appear to be falling into a mire of sleaze and mediocrity.

Firstly consider this, has your agency ever once come to you with evidence that the highly expensive advertising campaign you have just concluded has produced sufficient sales to justify the huge investment you have just made?

And they keep on saying "Advertising Works", hmmm well I guess it does, it works very well in removing huge sums of money from you with virtually nothing in return.

INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION...THE ONLY WAY FOR YOU TO ACHIEVE MARKETING SUCCESS!
Seeking more information on interactive communication? Please visit http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Tuesday 27 March 2007

There are more people online than ever…but please remember this…

They are not there to see your advertisements!

Please try to bear in mind that "yes" they do use search engines but they go there to look for something else, somewhere else to go…most certainly they do not go there to see your advertising!



Seeking more information on interactive communication. Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

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Sunday 18 March 2007

Interaction is where the outdated idea of Mass Marketing, Advertising together with

Broadcast Media, finally bite the dust!

Because no longer is the Marketing message, "We want your money". To day the Marketing message has to be "We want your opinions".

Because the moment you put that into real practice you can have everything you've always wanted, sales, customer relationships and also Brand loyalty.

And the next time you hear those words "Let's research it" remember that research works against the very thing you desperately need in your Marketing efforts, creativity and risk taking, both crucially necessary to the successful development of your products or services.


Would you like to discover more? then please visit:http://effectiveaccountablecommuication.blogspot.com

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Tuesday 13 March 2007

Is advertising dead…I don’t think so

However it sure seems that way, at least in my life as a consumer. I rarely click on a Web page banner, I assiduously avoid ads in most consumer publications. I most certainly do other things during the TV commercial break.

Newspapers, magazines and television are also facing the assault from technology.

The gist of all this is simple, persuasive and unavoidable. Interactivity, the hallmark of computing technology, fundamentally calls into question the viability of a model based on being able to force people to watch, listen, and read, advertising.


Interactive communication is the way forward


If you have the time please visit http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Thursday 8 March 2007

Finally the truth that dare not speak its name

is beginning to emerge!

The age of the 30-second TV commercial is over.

There’s a lot of hand wringing on Madison Avenue these days. Companies like Virgin Atlantic are concluding that advertising on TV is too pricey and the effects too difficult to measure.

The industry must adapt to a coming world where consumers enjoy total control and will no longer tolerate tedious commercials that hold them hostage to messages they care nothing about.

And the best way for you to go is with:
Interactive Marketing Communication.

Would you like more information as to just how effective interactive communication is? Then please take the time to visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com



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Wednesday 7 March 2007

Another fine mess bought to you by those fine people at Top-Down-Management Limited!

Revelations emerged last week indicating that viewers tuning in to the 'X-Factor', broadcast on ITV1, had been charged an extra 15p for phone votes during the last series.

It identified that incorrect payments were collected through red button applications on the Sky platform during the last series of the 'X Factor'.

The scandal grew with the news that the BBC One show 'Saturday Kitchen' had encouraged viewers to phone premium-rate lines to vote on a competition during a pre-recorded show.

Is it any wonder that people are turning away from terrestrial broadcasting and resorting to the Web, after all the Web has some limited interactive (FREE) capabilities. Thus allowing all those frustrated one-way viewers to vent their rage and frustration at all those wonderful Top-Down-Management boffins who spend their highly paid days dreaming up these scams!


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Monday 5 March 2007

UK CONSUMER GROUP TALKS TOUGH OVER SKY/VIRGIN ROW

LONDON: A UK consumer body has blasted warring media companies BSkyB and Virgin Media for "behaving like children" following the former's decision to pull its channels from Virgin's cable platform in a battle over fees.

The National Consumer Council is threatening to make a 'super-complaint' on behalf of Virgin (formerly NTL) customers whose Sky Basics channels were switched off last week [WARC News: 02-Mar-07].

Deputy ceo at the NCC, Philip Cullum, says the organisation could invoke its statutory powers to push for an Office of Fair Trading review of the entire UK digital television market if the situation is not resolved.

THIS SAYS IT ALL!




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Saturday 3 March 2007

Sky & Virgin Television…

...A disgraceful episode that exposes “Top Down” management at its worst!

So Sky & Virgin, you obviously don’t think that you ought to start a regular dialogue with your subscribers!

Because the disgraceful public row you both have had very recently provides enough evidence that you really still haven’t got it. Your advertisers are not that important to you, certainly your very own Top Management is not important to you, after all they are in the process of ruining your business!

As they said in a recent American Presidential Election…”It’s your viewers stupid.”

This headline says it all. “Sky channels disappear from Virgin cable TV.”
And, low and behold, in the day when viewer/consumer empowerment is causing great concern to the advertising/media industries. These companies decide, arbitrarily, to remove Sky’s basic channels from Virgin’s cable platform “in the early hours of yesterday morning after an extended and unedifying public spat between BSkyB and Virgin Media”


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Thursday 1 March 2007

Discover why we think David Beckham should concentrate on football!

An interesting piece of research has just emerged which confirms what I have long suspected, whilst, at the same time, going along with my suspicion about the creative ego and the use of very high priced Hollywood directors!

Advertisements starring high profile celebrities such as David Beckham and Jamie Oliver do not sell products as well as those featuring every day people, new research suggested.

A study by the University of Bath and the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, found that ordinary members of the public are more effective in selling products than super stars paid millions to endorse them. That’s because people are more worried about keeping up with the Jones’s than the rich and famous!

Never-the-less we guarantee that those Advertising Agencies will keep on using highly paid Hollywood movie directors as well as using the rich and famous as models…there goes millions more of the poor old clients budget…again…again…again!


You can discover more about interactive communication on: http:effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Tuesday 27 February 2007

The fact of the matter is,

once you understand just how effective and accountable interactive communication is, then marketing, for what ever product or service, is not a secret, and allows your business to be carried out according to serious business principles.

The trouble is that your Marketing people have become caught in the trappings of Marketing, by that I mean…the award presentations…jetting off to attend a “shoot”, and all else, they have completely forgotten that their job is to sell product!

This has resulted in many Companies to day regarding Marketing as ineffective and therefore is considered to be strictly non-essential.

To prove this point, however simply look at their actions, whenever budgets are tight, Marketing is one of the first budgets to be cut.

Once you come to understand the sheer effectiveness of interactive marketing communication yes, you can cut your budgets, by as much as half, and be far more cost effective and totally accountable. Now that is a piece of information most Marketing Directors and Advertising Agencies do not want to hear…for obvious reasons!


Interactive communication is the ultimate marketing experience, please visit http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com ALL will be revealed!

Friday 23 February 2007

The Oscars – 2007!

And the winner is…? ABC television of course. The network will get roughly $1.7 million per 30-second advertising spot during its exclusive broadcast of the awards.
The total revenue of more than $80 million is double what it was in 1998,
despite the show’s variable ratings!

Out there in the real world, the world were all these millions of dollars are spent. The world where we, the ordinary people who do not attend the awards ceremony, it emerges that only 57% of consumers are inclined to trust companies and resistance to marketing is also now at a peak:
With just 6% of consumers admitting to trusting any form of advertising!

THAT SAYS IT ALL

Rather that waste your money on The Oscars, simply visit http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com and save a bundle!

Wednesday 21 February 2007

Interactive Communication consists of three important elements:

Programmed Instruction.
Dissects the logic of a communication into smaller parts. Asks the reader/viewer to think about and respond intelligently to each broken down statement, thus ensuring that the consumer understands the ‘whole’ of the communication.

Game Playing
It embodies the principle of game playing to gain maximum consumer attention.

Presented as an advertising ‘event’
The advertising message is perceived as meaningful information rather than an interruption to the normal reading or viewing process.

Interactive Communication alters the way people perceive advertising and will increase consumer awareness, increase message comprehension and increase sales.

Interactive Communication, properly executed, creates an open, focused and receptive mind, and will:

 Eliminate the problem of commercial clutter

 Increase advertising effectiveness

 Make all advertising more cost effective

 Make people receptive to the content

Do you require more information on interaction? Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com
http://www.quickregister.net
http://www.articlesbase.com/

Tuesday 20 February 2007

Just how dumb are they?

The entire history of commercial television appears to have been a big plot erected on control from above rather than choice from below.

The consumers have then been coerced into watching programs in which they have no real interest. The advertisers who pay for the commercial break believe, on amazingly weak evidence, that some great percentage of people actually watch their commercials.

The television advertising business is a science based on suspect data. That data is based upon a small sample, which decides how many households watch an actual programme, and doesn’t even measure the commercial break!



Seeking more information on interaction? Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com
http://my.soflow.com/Paul-Ashby

There is an old adage in technology:

intelligence always moves to the edge of the network. The same is true of most other things, especially advertising and marketing; there are far more intelligent ideas outside of advertising agencies and marketing departments.

Existing advertising agencies were fat and dumb and happy with the status quo together with monopolistic profits and their general situation, so they badmouth any new idea which threatens their incumbency or profits, or both. Advertising Agencies are also in denial until their profits are really threatened.



Seeking more information? Please visit:http://affectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Monday 19 February 2007

1. The Consumers need for Interactive Communication.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.

When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).



Would you like more information as to the effectiveness of interactive communication?
Then please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com
FreeWebSubmission.com

Sunday 18 February 2007

“It’s not sexy…”

...and other asinine observations made by ad agencies!


Interactive Communication has been extensively researched by independent companies in Australia, The United Kingdom, U.S.A. Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and The Philippines. A total investment of £5m has been made to make the technique totally accountable. This research has established that whilst the technique might not be very "sexy" it is far more effective in producing verifiable sales than conventional advertising as espoused by todays crop of Advertising Agencies!



Would you like to learn more about interactive communication? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountabablecommunication.blogspot.com

Blog-Search.com

Saturday 17 February 2007

Hey there…don’t rush into change too fast...

the old model of
Client-Product-Advertisement- (Old) Media wasn’t so bad!

Advertising Agencies, having practically ruined a nearly perfect marketing communications system, are now trying to lure their Clients onto a totally unproven communications system…the Web!

And, to add insult to injury, charge more for doing less!

It would appear that all that glistens is NOT gold. The Internet Advertising Bureau boasts about record online ad spend, however we must remember that the bulk of these monies are spent on “search”.

Just remember “Search” is not advertising. Take a look at IAB figures, just under 60% of what it calls “advertising” are in fact search. Nearly half of the remainder is classified…the remainder, 24% is display advertising…and this on an unproven medium that has software, and is in the process of developing more sophisticated software, to block advertising!

Do you need more information as to the superiority of interactive communication?
Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Thursday 15 February 2007

TERRESTRIAL TV TOGETHER WITH INTERACTION

Helps the terrestrial networks to become much more cost effective… and totally accountable!

Commercials sometime look good and yes, viewers enjoy them, but make them buy the product?

However this is not the fault of the television industry .

When interactive "events" have been prepared together with a direct request for the viewer to pay particular attention to participating TV commercials, there has always been a substantial and measurable lift in brand awareness, message comprehension, which has always lead through to increases in sales.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of interactive programmes linked to terrestrial TV here are just some examples of the increases recorded by independent research.

Increases in television advertising awareness

as result of exposure to an interactive "Event"

Birds Eye Fish Fingers +11%

Sunsilk Shampoo +45%

Duracell Batteries +200%

Plumrose (Canned) Ham +400%

Silkience Shampoo +233%

Sara Lee +83%

Streets (Walls) Deserts +100%

Sources: AGB, NOP, Gallup

These results are just the tip of the iceberg in demonstrating that terrestrial TV aligned with interactive events can produce staggering increases in all key measurements including sales.

SO AS THEY SAY… "PLEASE DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER", TERRESTRIAL TV IS STILL HIGHLY EFFECTIVE…MORE SO THAN EVER!

Seeking more information please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot or contact Paul direct on paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Wednesday 14 February 2007

Finally the truth that dare...

not speak its name is beginning to emerge!

The age of the 30-second TV commercial is over.
There’s a lot of hand wringing on Madison Avenue these days. Companies like Virgin Atlantic are concluding that advertising on TV is too pricey and the effects too difficult to measure.

The industry must adapt to a coming world where consumers enjoy total control and will no longer tolerate tedious commercials that hold them hostage to messages they care nothing about.

Seeking more information on interactive communication? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Monday 12 February 2007

IT SAYS IT ALL!

Jill Howard-Allen, online marketing manager, Southwest Airlines, said her company got used to giving up control several years ago when it started participating in A&E's "Airline," a reality TV show that follows the daily travails of the airline business through Southwest.

"Customers just want a chance to talk to you and interact with you," she said.




Seeking more information on interactive communication? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommuniction.blogspot.com

Sunday 11 February 2007

Your Ad and self-expression!

The one thing many of us have in common is simply the desire to express ourselves or to communicate our tastes and enthusiasms to others.

Its called self-expression. The web has unleashed the opportunity for millions who never believed they would ever have a moment in the spotlight.

You to can create your own TV channel! Welcome to the Internet, we are developing new ways to communicate, to innovate and be creative en masse. More importantly for the advertising industry people can combine ideas and skills without a hierarchy.



Seeking more information on "New Media" opportunities please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Even the movie industry is going to suffer!

Cinema is floundering and risks losing touch with a new generation of digitally literate viewers and filmmakers.

One of Britain's leading directors, Anthony Minghella said that the medium is in the midst of a convulsion that will change dramatically as the invention of the printing press revolutionised literature.

He believes that an increased familiarity with making and watching moving images on the Internet, mobile phones and cheap digital cameras is making viewers increasingly critical of the type of films emerging from Hollywood.

....just as the invention of the printing press democratised the written word by creating more critics, so a generation steeped in the literacy of the moving image will challenge assumptions that have underpinned film for more than a century.

....Up until a handful of years ago film-making was the province of a privileged few to the passive many. Now the ownership of moving images has passed into the hands of practically everybody and the articulation of moving images has passed into the hands of everybody with access to a phone, laptop or digital camera. They can now have their say.

Substitute "advertising" for "filmakers" and it says it all!

Seeking more information on the future of advertising? Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Saturday 10 February 2007

"The year of consumer empowerment!

Becoming part of the conversation between consumers is far more powerful than traditional ads.

Becoming part of the conversation between consumers is infinitely more powerful than handing down information via traditional advertising.

It encourages and facilitates consumers to become part of the process, rather than being dumb recipients of the message from on high - and that is of huge potential value to brands."

And that's interactive communication for YOU!



Seeking information on the undoubted, proven effectiveness of interactive communication? Then please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunicatin.blogspot.com
or email: paul.ashby@yahoo.com

Just do what your told!

1.Business created mass markets through broadcast advertising, the same bossy voice of command-and-control it used on workers, however in this instance, applied in the market place. “Just do what you’re told” is not that very much different than “Buy our products.”

2.And you could effectively tell people to keep quiet, because that element of a conversation was banned in broadcast media – there was never a way to ask questions. A 30-second TV commercial was never an invitation to converse!

3.The tragedy for the media business is that many current brand managers and most advertising and media agencies are, in our experience, unable or unprepared to calculate the contribution of advertising.

4.A new media age appears to be dawning one in which many of the old rules of salesmanship will no longer apply. It is hard to believe that anyone will sit still for numbing repetitions of intrusive jingles, or for 30” spots of unrewarding commercials.

5.Recent research concludes that television advertising may actually be harming, rather than enhancing, companies' relationships with their customers.

6. All advertising is a form of learning whereby the advertiser is asking people to change their behaviour after learning the benefits of the products or services on offer.

7.Advertising has become too parochial, too introspective, too convinced by its own hyperbole. Two or three thousand, what would be described as, creative people, dominates advertising.

8.However, a major change is afoot and advertising, long regarded as the ultimate weapon in marketing – particularly the once mighty television commercial – is now seen as complacent and increasingly ineffective.

To summaries: One thing they NEVER taught you whilst working in an advertising agency…or a marketing department for that matter…
And that’s the human desire for interaction. If this had been taught and the lesson put into everyday practise then billions of pounds and dollars would never have been poured down the black hole of television advertising!
Interaction is not technology, it is human behaviour!

Are you seeking more information on interactive communication then please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

So what is communication?

After a little thought, most people come up with a definition that is about transmitting and receiving information. A little more thought might produce the word exchange. This is more satisfactory, but still assumes that communication is about moving something about conveying, or sending, or delivering, some commodity called ‘information’.

In fact, the word has quite a different root meaning. It derives from the Latin communis, meaning ‘common’. or ‘shared’. It belongs to the family of words that includes communion, communism and community. Untill you have shared information with another person, you haven’t communicated it. And until they have understood it, the way you understand it, you haven’t shared it with them.

Communication is the process of creating shared understanding.



Seek more information on effective communication? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Friday 9 February 2007

AND NOW A WORD FROM YOUR CUSTOMER…

We have known for years that an ongoing dialogue with your customer is crucial to the success of your brands.

Once you start a dialogue you can’t just turn it off, you have to keep communicating because your customers demand response and engagement.

AND WE KNOW HOW JUST TO DO THAT!

Would you like to discover more about the effectiveness of interactive communication? Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com
http://quickregister.net
p
dir="ltr">Click
here to submit your free, permanent ads to TheFreeAdForum.com!

Thursday 8 February 2007

They’re not in the business of communication!

Advertising people tend to think of communication as ‘message sending’, and thus spend hours and hours crafting a message, primarily a 30 second TV Commercial and then arranging for it to be transmitted.

Marketing people are moving away from that totally inaccurate picture, however fmcg marketing people still haven’t cottoned on to the fact that “you can sell more goods to less people, and still be more effective”, that is if you understand the benefits of ‘conversations’
Media people, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio lovingly call themselves ‘the communicators” and say they “are in communications.”

They are not…never have been… all they do is prepare messages and then send them…they most certainly not communicators.

It is the ego that chooses to ignore the word communication, the ego and that other overworked word ‘creativity’, hence the rush to hire, at greater and greater expense the latest creative genius who is going to sell all those wonderful goodies! Utter rubbi



Seek more information on effective communication? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Wednesday 7 February 2007

The Cannes Lions Festival…

Still celebrates ads-a position, one suspects, roughly equivalent to the Cannes Film Festival honouring silents. The One Show held two concurrent programmes this recently-one for conventional ads, another for online. (One wonders who in this mix felt like a second-class citizen).

In a transparent world, the power of an “ad campaign” to change minds is strictly limited, and getting more so every day. It’s way past time for the marketing services industry’s leaders to get naked and outsource this outmoded way of doing business.”

Seek more information on effective communication? please visit:

http://effectiveaccountablecommunication
p
dir="ltr">Click
here to submit your free, permanent ads to TheFreeAdForum.com!

Tuesday 6 February 2007

T.V advertising together with

The interactive communication technique results in…


An increase in the number of people involved in the communication process resulting in:

A. An increase in measurable consumer awareness.
B. A measurable increase in message comprehension.
C. A measurable increase in consumer commitment.
D. A measurable increase in sales
E. Feedback of invaluable value and content.


Seek more information on effective communication? please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Tuesday 16 January 2007

Lack of communication competence

Most Advertising Agencies lack the skills of communication, advertising messages are more carefully prepared than interpersonal communication and yet ‘message’ comprehension tends to be lower.

Advertisements are more carefully prepared because gatekeepers (those who prepare and send out messages) are more cautious about what they say to large audiences than they are to audiences of one or a few, they check their facts more carefully and they prepare their syntax and vocabulary more precisely.

And yet, because their audience contributes much less feedback, the source cannot correct for any lapse or understanding, so people are more likely to misinterpret what they hear or read over the mass media.

There is scant, if any, attention paid to the actual process of communication within advertising agencies!



Do you seek more information: Please visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Monday 15 January 2007

So just who is running your organisation?

Your customers, that’s who!

Or should be!

So don’t you think that you ought to start a regular dialogue with him or
her, as the case may be?


The word empowerment is a very overused word. However in the near future the primary strategic marketing communications battle will be to see who goes furthest in empowering their customers.

To empower your customers you will have to:
1. Provide them with far more information than you currently do.
2. Allow them to make decisions about you and your company together with your resources.
3. Give them plenty of choice.
4. Give them the perception of control!
5. Allow them to feel that they are running your organisation!

Because anything that tightens your relationships with an existing customer increases the revenue you get from your customer.

And the only form of communication that can do all the above so that you do tighten your grip on your customer is….interactive communication!

Sunday 14 January 2007

The most exciting opportunity...ever!

Interactive Television uses the principals of Game Playing together with rewards; Education (in the form of Programmed Instruction). Interactive TV creates Game Show programmes out of advertising materials ,the current 30-second TV commercial being the source of information, evolving into other forms of presentation as a result of the interaction & feedback, similarly with programme content.

This form of interactive communication dramatically alters the way the viewers perceive the commercials, instead of being seen as an interruption the commercials now become a meaningful source of information (a form of programming) and thus are watched in a totally different way.

Presenting advertising within this format allows the most dramatic evolution of advertising itself. This renaissance in this period of the ongoing history of advertising will be know as advertising by true, accurate, more predictable, instant and measurable results.

Clients will pay only by results. The interactive nature of the new technology will allow Transactional TV to measure the results and present these results as a post-evaluation of their participation. Clients will then pay for participation based upon these evaluations.

Seek more interactive information? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com






Saturday 13 January 2007

A thousand choices

Everybody has a thousand choices

For any product they might want to buy and there are a million different products competing for our wallets.

So marketers increasingly need to speak to customers individually, or in smaller and smaller groups.

But are they really doing so or simply deluding themselves as usual and paying lip service to the idea?

As questions about the effectiveness of mass marketing have grown, advertising has been assailed by other doubts too.

Where once it was thought that commercials sold goods and increased brand awareness, it is now acknowledged that many of them do no such thing.

Most people never actually buy the majority of products they see advertised on television!

But if mass-market advertising does not sell products, what will?
Interactive communication…that’s what!

Seek more information on how to save your money? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Media neutral planning

In a marketing magazine supplement the other day there was an article “Media-Neutral planning”.

I read the whole issue. Cover to cover, in the usual hope of finding something mentioned about the communication process. Many of the ‘practitioners’ had things like this to say… “Ideas are at the heart of this debate because they create genuine value for businesses.

Agencies must become idea-centric.” Or, try this for size… “The most profound insights, in terms of media-neutral planning, come from a blending of data and ad planning.”

Wow! Stunning stuff don’t you think?

But, not surprisingly, none of the ‘experts’ had anything to say about the communication process, or for that matter, accountability!

So perhaps, we, the tiny band of individuals pursuing the true meaning of communications, should do something about this lack of understanding…after we are all paying for the wretched advertising through, what the Americans call, a brand tax!

We should have banners saying “Unfair to consumers”; “What a waste of money”. Or, how about, “Advertising is nothing more than a Brand Tax”; “TV is the biggest waste of money for Brands” “Consumers don’t read advertisements”… and parade outside of the large Ad Agencies and their Clients offices. Then maybe the appalling waste of time …and money!, undoubted but misdirected would cease!

Seek more information on how to save marketing money? Then please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Friday 12 January 2007

The truth that dare not speak its name!

The age of the 30-second TV commercial are over!

There’s a lot of hand wringing on Madison Avenue these days. Companies like Virgin Atlantic are concluding that advertising on TV is too pricey and the effects too difficult to measure.

Advertising must adapt to a coming world where consumers enjoy total control and will no longer tolerate tedious commercials that hold them hostage to messages they care nothing about.

There are still a lot of people in the business that don’t accept what is about to happen. That is myopic. Perhaps it is time for the advertising and TV industries to get contact lenses, because the latest research suggests that trouble lies ahead.

However it is what was not said in the article that confirms the impression that most people in the industry(s) still do not understand what the process of communication is all about.

To start with, advertising people tend to think of it as ‘message sending’, and thus spend hours and hours crafting a message, primarily a 30 second TV Commercial and then arranging for it to be transmitted.

Marketing people are moving away from that totally inaccurate picture, however fmcg marketing people still haven’t cottoned on to the fact that “you can sell more goods to less people, and still be more effective”, that is if you understand the benefits of ‘conversations’.

Media people, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio lovingly call themselves ‘the communicators” and say they “are in communications.”

They are not…never have been… all they do is prepare messages and then send them…they most certainly not communicators.

They are totally unaware of those delightful words cognitive dissonance; selective exposure and selective perception. Wonderful words that, however, profoundly affect the meaning of our message and we ignore them at our peril!

However it is the ego that chooses to ignore the word communication, the ego and that other overworked word ‘creativity’, hence the rush to hire, at greater and greater expense the latest creative genius who is going to sell all those wonderful goodies! Utter rubbish!

Certainly in this day and age of commercial clutter creativity alone is no longer the answer, as if it had ever been, to the commercial needs of marketers. Creative genius is not the sole criterion to the success or otherwise of the marketing campaign.

Most advertising today depends on a single-step communications model. A message sender – the message – receiver.

This basic model assumes that the sender is active, whilst the receiver is inactive or passive and the message is comprehended properly.

In this case if the advertisement is creatively prepared and sent through the right medium and, if it cuts through all the other noise, and then if it is decoded correctly the advertisement has done its job!

Dealing with the future will require significant changes in the ad industry. Media research- how advertisers measure what people watch and how they respond to ads-will have to get considerably savvier about gauging media consumption habits. Creative ad teams will have to understand the communication process better and then make involving ads that people are actually interested in reading/watching.

Would you like more information? Please visit:
http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

A win-win-win scenario, that's Interactive Communication

Interactive Communication, properly executed, provides a win-win-win scenario for all participating parties.

For the first time in the history of commercial communication, participating parties can expect to benefit from appearing in interactive communications "Events".

For communication to be successful mutual self- interest has to be satisfied.
1. The Consumers need for Interactive Communication.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.
When people participate in interactive marketing communication "Events" they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).

2. The benefits for participating advertisers.

For the first time advertising becomes totally accountable with payment by results only.
Interactive communication provides intelligent sales through feedback and involvement. Thus allowing the building of intelligent databanks.
.
3. Thus the interactive Medium becomes accountable and more effective.

By the very nature of interactive "Events" the audience are captivated by the technique. Interaction alters the way viewers/readers perceive advertising, instead of being viewed as interruption advertising becomes a pleasurable and meaningful source of information. There is a substantial increase in the reading/viewing figures and it readily counters zapping.














































































































































effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Thursday 11 January 2007

Understanding Interactive Communication!

"Tell me & I'll forget,
Show me & I may remember,
Involve me & I'll understand".
Old Chinese proverb

























http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

The secret of communication!

"It is not what you say but how a person interacts with what you say that determines the effectiveness of the communication process. Further, a direct request to a reader or viewer to pay attention to a particular advertisement significantly increases the numbers doing so and the level of concentration they devote to it."

Professor Wilbur Schramm –University of Harvard











http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Wednesday 10 January 2007

So how much more cost effective is Interactive television?

Interactive communication is really much more cost effective!

Professor E.L. Roberto, PhD, Coca-Cola Foundation Professor of International Marketing reviewed the £5 million of independent research conducted on behalf of Shopper’s Voice and provided this summary as to the techniques cost efficiency:

"The Shopper’s Voice participating advertisements generated recall scores that are more than 50% productive than normal advertising. The effect on purchase intention is just as impressive if not much more.

All these productivity increments are attainable at a reasonably inexpensive budget. One Shopper’s Voice Client revealed that for its participating brand, its quarter television expenditure was $5.7 million as compared to its Shopper’s Voice budget of $0.5 million.

This 1:10 ratio has been obtained in Shopper’s Voice experience in other countries."

Source: AGB: Gallup: Martyn Research: Bourke: NOP. City Insights & more.

Interactive Communication... a win win scenario!

Interactive Communication, properly executed, provides a win-win-win scenario for all participating parties.

For the first time in the history of commercial communication, participating parties can expect to benefit from appearing in interactive communications "Events".

For communication to be successful mutual self- interest has to be satisfied.

The need for product information.

Communication results from an interaction in which two parties expect to give and take.

Audience members must be able to give feedback. Media practitioners and their Clients must be sensitive to the information contained in the feedback. This give and take can result on real understanding or real feedback.

1. The Consumers need for Interactive Communication.
People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.

When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).

2. The benefits for participating advertisers.
For the first time manufacturers advertising becomes totally accountable with payment by results only. Interactive communication provides intelligent sales through feedback and involvement. Thus allowing the building of intelligent databanks.

It allows the brands to differentiate themselves from their competition. Substantially reduce their heavy marketing investments. Additional benefits will allow the analysis of the feedback through a mass focus group allowing brand development. Whatever the consumer & manufacturer deem appropriate.

3. The Medium becomes accountable and more effective.

By the very nature of interactive "Events" the audience are captivated by the technique. Interaction alters the way viewers/readers perceive advertising, instead of being viewed as interruption advertising becomes a pleasurable and meaningful source of information. There is a substantial increase in the reading/viewing figures and it readily counters zapping.
It also allows the medium to provide evidence as to the effectiveness of the medium in terms of sales, awareness. message comprehension thus proving that TV advertising is effective (as well as magazine advertising).

Please don't shoot the messenger!

Lets take a look at to-days papers and see what, if anything, they have to say about advertising….

Yup, here’s something that appears to support my position.

"In a world that’s full of bull and kipple, it’s time we were told the simple truth.

…Branding for example, often you see two brands of toothpaste or two brands of paracetamols, or anything like that, just buy the cheapest. It’s all exactly the same stuff!"

"Kipple is the word the writer Philip K Dick coined to describe the ever-growing tide of mental rubbish that clutters the world. Kipple is, in a word, rubbish.

What is kipple? Where is it to be found? Kipple is everywhere.

Kipple is the advert that tells you a fizzy drink is a statement about yourself. It is the cold caller saying you have won a competition you never entered, the friendly bacteria, the meaningless graphic in the shampoo ad, the "clinically proven" miracle face cream…."

AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM I KEEP RETURNING TO – THEY DON’T TRUST ADVERTISING OUT THERE!









Seek more information on Interactive Communication:
Please visit http://effectiveaccountablecommuication.blogspot.com

Terrible advertising clutter!

Consumers today encounter
from 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages a day vs. 500 to 2,000 in the 1970s.

The result: There are so many ads out there today to an extent never before realised. No matter how many more ads out there, it’s not going to work…because it’s not registering!

Finally, finally, the whole dismal story is emerging, the biggest confidence trick in this or any other century is, finally, being exposed.

The confidence trick of Advertising!

Nowadays the problem is so bad that serious discussions about accountability never occur, advertising could never be totally accountable because it never worked to the extent believed – period.

The huge problem of clutter was never seriously addressed, as they had no answer for the problem. Meanwhile the swine lavishly ate at the Clients table and then laughed all the way to the bank.

The days are numbered for TV ads’ dominance. However and surprisingly, many marketers remain reluctant to look at new media alternatives, in part because they don’t know how to use them: They don’t know what to replace (TV) with.

Clients continue to spent a majority of money in a very dinosauristic medium perhaps they are hoping they can retire before (change) happens!

The marketing industry must adapt to a coming world where consumers enjoy total control and will no longer tolerate tedious commercials that hold them hostage to messages they care nothing about.

There are still a lot of people in the business that don’t accept what is about to happen. That is myopic. Perhaps it is time for the advertising and TV industries to get contact lenses, because the latest research suggests that trouble lie ahead.

Last month a long essay called "The Chaos Scenario" in the trade publication Ad Age worried that the industry might not be prepared for the collapse of the old advertising model. And a book to be published next month, "Life after the 30-Second Spot", surveys the formats that might replace the industry’s workhorse. Says author Joseph Jaffe, "Unfortunately nothing in this industry has changed except consumers, who don’t take commercials at face value any more."

In his book "The End of Advertising as we know it," Sergio Zyman, former Chief Marketing Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, argues that current advertising practices are dead.

He contends that advertisers have lost sight of their primary goal: to sell the product. Fortunes are wasted on hip, award-winning commercials that often fail to even communicate the brand. The reality of business demands that advertising answer to the bottom line!

Tuesday 9 January 2007

WHY INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING?

Because among consumers a major change is underway best summed up by “We are immune to advertising. Just forget it”
That was said a few years ago as part of the Cluetrain Manifesto, true then, even truer to day!

Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious minds."

Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.
Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.

Up until a few years ago advertising was the province of a privileged few to the passive many. Now the ownership of moving images has passed into the hands of practically everybody and the articulation of moving images has passed into the hands of everybody with access to a phone, laptop or digital camera. We can now have our say."

In essence, the behaviour of the audience is moving from passive to active participation so that TV watching or listening to radio in the future will be a very different and less sedentary experience than it has been in the past 80 years.
Ultimate power isn’t with brand owners or even with broadcasters, and most certainly doesn’t exist with the Advertising Agencies at all! It's with the viewer. And it's the on/off switch.









Seek more information on just how effective interactive communication really is?
Visit: http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Monday 8 January 2007

Television advertising...who watches...who cares?

Television Advertising…so who watched…so who cares!


Interestingly, there is no demand for these advertising messages. Past research conducted by the Advertising Industry (and hastily suppressed I may add) showed that of any television station commercial break the vast majority of the “reach” (a nonsensical term again developed by the ad industry) were simply doing other things! Let’s face it, consumers don’t want to hear from business.

The message that gets broadcast to you, me and the rest of the population has nothing to do with me in particular. Consequently, it’s worse than noise. It’s an interruption in my life and like most people, I would rather do without it thank you very much. Just leave me to watch/listen to my program without any facile interruptions.


And that is the awful truth about marketing and advertising. It broadcasts messages to people who simply don’t want to listen or see it. Every advertisement, press release, publicity stunt and give-away designed by the Marketing Department, or Advertising Agency is coloured by the fact that all their hard work and planning is being presented to a public that doesn’t ask to hear or see it.







































































































































http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Consumers are very suspicious

Research published recently by Beyond Philosophy, a UK company specialising in customer attitudes, claims 82 per cent of people never believe their experience of an organisation will match the image promoted by television advertising. Beyond Philosophy concludes that television advertising may actually be harming, rather than enhancing, companies' relationships with their customers.

Similarly, research by the Henley Centre has shown that while nine out of ten people will trust their spouse or partner and eight out of ten their children, fewer than a third (27%) trust retailers or manufacturers, while just 14% trust either the government or advertisers!

And here is our Government, the largest advertiser by far, hiring advertising agencies to prepare information that the majority of the nation increasingly distrusts… shouldn’t someone be telling them that this is an unacceptable waste of taxpayer’s money?

As suggested, the Enron collapse and the circumstances behind it is nothing compared to the waste and misuse of monies that has been fostered by the advertising industry!





http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Friday 5 January 2007

Interactive Television or Interactive TV

Mass communications media enhanced industry’s ability to address even larger markets and mass marketing truly came into its own. With larger markets came higher rewards and these higher rewards had to be protected. More bureaucracy, more hierarchy and more command and control.

A new media age is here in which the old rules of salesmanship no longer apply. No one will sit still for numbing repetitions of intrusive jingles. To-day people can talk back to their television sets, and the question of just how advertising works – and whether it works at all – will be answered.

We represent the future, a group of like-minded people with many years of media experience and expertise. One of us actually pioneered the use of interactive communication to the marketing community over thirty ago.

Thus we have an extensive research portfolio demonstrating just how interactive communication (properly executed)works. We have produced interactive "Events" in the U.S.A. Australia, United Kingdom, Japan, we even produced the world’s first regularly broadcast hour long interactive TV Gameshow. Hence this blogg, we want your opinions, we want to share our knowledge and expertise with you all so as to ensure that the process of interactive communication is fully understood and executed.




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