Kookmeyer Institute

The Kookmeyer Institute learned a lot in 2009, perhaps most of all from two websites for adidas.tv and 221B. The former made me realise that destination sites really do need to be supported by an integrated marketing strategy – be it a seeding campaign, above-the-line advertising, POS, swing tags or whatever – to drive traffic. Because if nobody sees it what’s the point? The latter made me reassess my approach to content. AKQA will probably win some craft award for its online game to promote the new Sherlock Holmes movie. But it’s so comprehensive that in appealing to the most diehard fans it might have lost the opportunity to hook borderline punters. Perhaps a better approach would have been to simplify the game and keep more users involved for longer. Interesting. I wonder if the guys at ViralBlog will get their hands on the stats and share some kind of report with us in the new year.

Quote unquote, “Lingering longer than a kiss under the mistletoe and more useful than a dodgy jumper, Most Contagious 2009 is our free review of the most talked-about trends and technologies to have influenced global marketing over the past 12 months. Unlike H1N1, feel free to pass on.” Everything in it is really strong, except maybe the Puma Index, which for me is too unrelated (sportswear/stock market). If your agency doesn’t subscribe to Contagious – it’s only £985 per annum – you may as well dump it and call the Kookmeyer Institute. We’ve never had this magazine but at least  you won’t be paying all those ‘expensive agency overheads’.

More essential reading from Razorfish on the way consumers engage with brands in the digital world. One of the most interesting findings was that 44% of ‘connected consumers’ follow a brand on Twitter for exclusive deals or offers. In the words of the authors, “The myth of marketing-free social spaces is just that.” I guess this explains Dell’s amazing success on the site. It also re-affirms to me that there is no one recipe for success on Twitter – you need a mish-mash of offers, insights, breaking news, engagement and customer service delivered in a more friendly way than most corporate comms. What might work for one brand might not for another.

This is a year old but it’s the most engaging Christmas idea I’ve seen from an agency. Simply walk up to the Wieden + Kennedy office in London, get your photo taken as Santa or whoever and go online to create a personalised Christmas card! Much better than microwaves going off or, in the case of Hewlett Packard NZ,
a ‘12 days of convergence sing-a-long‘. You might also like to check out W + K’s advent calendar for 2009 (I tried but it wouldn’t open for me). PS Vimeo’s so much cooler than YouTube don’t you think, even if it’s not as popular. Not that it does anything better but it’s like buying adidas when everyone else is buying Nike (if you know what I mean). PPS Merry Christmas.

W+K Xmas Interactive Window from ezblaine on Vimeo.

I love simple, cheap ideas that work their buns off, like this one for the opening of the new IKEA store in Malmö. The guys at Forsman & Bodenfors created a Facebook campaign that invited people to tag products for their chance to win. Now the stuff IKEA comes out with is hardly Charles Eames but Swedes love it and word about the new store – and interactive IKEA catalogue (extra brownie points F & B) – soon spread. I guess this is a more sophisticated, more engaging (and more sincere – i.e. legit) version of those junk emails that promise a reward if you forward it to 10 friends. I got one just the other day promising me a brand new Sony laptop. Yeah right.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all clients were as adventurous as Red Bull (online I mean). The beverage giant has built pro snowboarder, Shaun White, his very own halfpipe deep, deep, in the heart of Colorado, in the interests of taking the sport to a new level. Now as you know, every good deed deserves an equally good website to shout about it and what a website this is. The art direction, photography and video production are simply too cool for school.

What a coincidence! I was just  listening to Shane Carter (Straitjacket Fits)  belt out the lyrics “saw truth explode through false windows” when I came across this site by Honda. I can’t quite bring myself to buy into their ‘model citizen’ argument when it comes to the environment. But I do find the way they have delivered their message, through the lens of children, very powerful and engaging. It strikes at the heart of why we all need to be environmentally aware from the beginning. A word to corporate affairs however: don’t put words in the mouths of babes – it tends to suspend belief.

Casting Robert Downey Jr as Baker St’s most famous detective is like placing Tom Hanks in the role of Robert Langdon – it’s rubbish. But I digress. AKQA has orchestrated a cool new online game to create buzz around the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie. All of the action takes place via Facebook because it takes a TEAM to solve a mystery. Alas, the profiler deduced I would be best in the role of Dr Watson, meaning I must play second fiddle to a Harvard geometer. The production values are slick and the copywriting first class, so sign-up and see what unfolds!

You know, we get a lot of email from people, clients and agencies, guys like Fred Wilson and the dairy owner next door, all asking about the state of play in social media right now. Our standard reply is, “Give us $5,000 and we’ll look into it.” But now, thanks to an email from Andy Monk at the NZRB, I can point them to “The State of Social Media” and they don’t have to spend a cent. It’s the executive summary of a new report put out by MarketingProfs, which is worth a quick flick through. These guys have interviewed 5,000 marketers so the sample size is pretty good. Pre-order the  full report – all 200 pages – before 30 November and you can SAVE US$200!