Off the radar with wacky look

5:30 AM Saturday Apr 2, 2011

 

Air New Zealand’s wacky marketing strategy is designed as a cost-effective way to get noticed. But marketers are asking where that leaves this great Kiwi brand.

How does a comparatively small airline like Air New Zealand make a bang in a big market like the United States?

Chief executive Rob Fyfe notes that one 30-second ad during the Superbowl would wipe out the airline’s entire marketing budget.

Space in traditional media is expensive. “We can’t match United Airlines, Delta or probably even Qantas,” he said.

So the airline’s approach is to stand out with a mixture of online and social media.

The hope is that viral media campaigns will spread like wildfire and, like the recent duet between muppet mascot Rico and singer Snoop Dogg, get picked up by mainstream media.

The airline’s online content is a mixed bag, as Fyfe admits – not everyone will like everything.

But the hope is that people who choose to view clips or other material will think they are fun, will associate that with Air New Zealand, and if they’re planning a trip to New Zealand will choose the airline.

On a purely retail-focused view of “getting bums on seats”, the strategy makes good sense.

But some in the marketing industry are looking askance at the state of the iconic Air New Zealand brand and wondering if it has lost its way.

One branding consultant says there are dangers in using controversy and “smash and grab” cam-paigns – retail-focused strategies designed to get cash registers ringing.

These have been popular with many companies as they try to rebuild after the global financial crisis.

In Air New Zealand’s case, there are the added factors that they’re using controversial products on new media and are dealing with an extraordinarily strong local brand.

Midway through the last decade, Fyfe was drawing admiration for classy, innovative approaches to traditional branding campaigns, working closely alongside its branding agency Colenso BBDO.

The “Nothing to Hide” commercials – featuring staff in body paint and G-strings and even featuring Fyfe in a cameo – marked a shift to a retail-focused campaign using Colenso’s retail division, .99.

Some content in spots featuring All Blacks has touched base with the old brand values.

Yet the focus hasn’t been on those traditional values but on a crude puppet specialising in double-entendres.

Last month, Rico appeared with rapper Snoop Dogg in an online clip that has been picked up by American breakfast TV, which Fyfe points out gave coverage you could not buy.

This week, 80s aerobics star Richard Simmons featured in the airline’s in-flight safety video – in a duet with polarising TV star Paul Henry.

Fyfe agrees there are risks in the marketing strategy and says that the adventurous approach could become “too successful”.

The danger is that offbeat ads aimed at niche online audiences are being picked up and, as Fyfe says, “leaching” into editorial coverage in mainstream media with a different market.

Toby Talbot is executive creative director at DDB advertising and, in a previous role at branding agency Colenso BBDO, worked closely with Air New Zealand.

He applauds the airline for taking risks and says it is being talked about, scoring big hits online.

But there is a danger if different ad campaigns are run in unison.

“You must stay within your brand and consistent in the way the brand talks to people. People should love the brand, not flinch,” says Talbot.

Retired Colenso founder Roger MacDonnell is more direct. “My own view is that they have lost their way.”

“They want to be in the new media, they want to be new and be different. Which is fine, but I don’t like what they’re doing.” he said.

“Whether you like it or not, Air New Zealand is an iconic and much-loved New Zealand brand. I’ve seen one [ad] featuring Richie McCaw and Graham Henry – but it works because it connects back to the core brand.”

James Bickford – the managing director for the New Zealand arm of branding specialists Interbrand – also sounded a note of warning.

“Smash and grab” promotions like those employed by Air New Zealand could erode the brand and Air New Zealand could lose the real essence of who they are.

New Zealand was a small nation that was extremely passionate about the Air New Zealand brand.

If Air New Zealand continued on its present path, consumers would be confused about what it stood for.

It was fine to have distinct approaches for different media, Bickford said, but Air New Zealand wasn’t pulling together the threads.

Fyfe acknowledges there are risks in the strategy to stand out at all costs but has no concerns about the effect on the wider brand.

Richard Simmons, Snoop Dogg and Rico the rodent puppet reflect New Zealand-ness, he says.

“You come back to brand personality as a small airline and the notion of being yourself,” he said – citing Prime Minister John Key as exhibiting the same traits.

“We think that is what New Zealand is about. It’s a little quirky – a little bit different.

“Social media campaigns have to stand out. A lot of content we put on social media – where people actively choose to watch – we would not put on TV,” he said.

Fyfe’s view reflects the world of retail advertising where turnover is fast and relatively cheap. If campaigns don’t work, they’re quickly pulled.

Last year, Air New Zealand took the approach further. It dropped its affiliation to a single agency, invited freelancers and agencies to pitch ideas direct to clients, and ran its own creative department.

Perhaps significantly, Air New Zealand has reverted to a “lead agency” relationship with Colenso’s .99.

Fyfe’s background working for British broadcast company ITV Digital may be an added factor for his interest in content.

Perhaps more than any other New Zealand chief executive, Fyfe takes an intimate role in his company, which is 75 per cent owned by taxpayers.

Surprisingly – given that the CEO appears virtually naked in a TV ad and the annual report includes five photos of Fyfe – he sees himself as an introvert.

But Air New Zealand itself has a vibrant image, he says.

“I have to lead by example. Any CEO embodies the brand and personality of the company.”

This blogpost is written by Denise Wakeman

I think it’s a great idea! I will try it! Watch this space for feedback!

In the last couple of months I stumbled on a great way to generate a lot of activity and buzz on my Facebook page. In my post on 6 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans, #5 was about inviting your fans to share links.

5. Invite your fans to share links to their site/blog/fan page/twitter. My monthly Brag About Your Blog Day has become quite popular. Recently over 200 people bragged about and posted links to their blog. It was an awesome way to learn about what people are doing, what their interests are find potential JV partners and guest posting opportunities.

I just hosted another Brag About Your Blog Day and the results surpassed last month. Nearly 300 people posted links to their blog along with a short description about the topic of their blog.

This screenshot was captured about 24 hours after I initiated the event.

As a result of this one day “event”:

* Added over 130 new fans to my page
* Over 436 people clicked the link to my page in 24 hours
* Lots of people (I didn’t count) tweeted about the event
* The post was shared on countless profiles
* I got a great testimonial from a former client
* Everyone was thrilled that they got to promote their site and said nice things about me which made me feel warm and fuzzy and happy!

You can do this too. It does not take a lot of effort and it’s a lot of fun. I love seeing who shows up, what they have to say, and what they’re writing about.

Here are the steps I took that you can easily model:

1. Come up with a clever hook. What can you invite people to share on your page? A picture? A link to their favorite xxxx? A link to their book? A tip on your topic? It’s got to be about them for this to work really well, in my opinion.

2. How often will you host the event? I like making it a monthly (or weekly) event that people can look forward to. I started getting questions about when I was going to host the new Brag day. Since I’m actively engaged with the thread throughout the day, I prefer doing it monthly.

3. If you’re creative or can spend a few bucks, get a graphic image designed to help draw attention to your event. You’ll be able to use it on blog posts, Facebook, twitter, your website.

4. Craft your copy and post it in the morning. I like to give BABD a full day of my attention (dipping in throughout the day). Be patience because due to Facebook’s mysterious algorithms, you may not see activity right away. Click the like button and post your own comment to start the ball rolling.

5. Create a tracking link with budurl.com or bit.ly to use in your promotions so you can track your efforts. (click on the date/time of the post to get the unique URL for the post)

6. Let everyone outside of your Facebook network know what you’re doing.

* Tweet about it (3-4 times thoughout the day)
* Post info to groups you belong to on LinkedIn and Facebook
* Got an email list? Send an announcement with a link to the direct wall post. This one tactic alone will net you new fans. In order to comment or like and contribute to the wall post, they have to like your page first.
* Post in discussion groups and forums you belong to
* Write a blog post

7. Participate. Once you start to get activity, pop onto your page throughout the day and “like” every single comment. Add a your own comments, respond to questions, thank people for playing. When you like and comment, a notification goes to everyone who has already commented. This brings them back to get updates AND increases your visibility in the Facebook News Feed (very important!).

8. Read every comment. I found a wonderful testimonial from a former client. That’s gold so I did a screen capture with SnagIt in case I want to use it later.

9. Follow up. Report on what happened. Feature some of the people you connected with. Write another blog post about your event.

Did I forget anything? What would you add for getting the word out?

A lot of people said they wanted to “steal” this idea. Hey, go for it! I don’t consider it stealing. I’m sure I got the idea from someone else as well.

If you do host something like this on your Facebook Page, please let me know.

LONDON–A day might be coming when the power of Facebook means that major companies no longer bother with their own Web sites.

That was the startling if self-promotional possibility sketched out by Stephen Haines, commercial director of Facebook’s U.K. operation, while speaking today at the Technology for Marketing and Advertising conference here. Essentially, Haines argued, companies’ interactions with their customers could take place so often on Facebook that company Web sites would fall by the wayside.

To bolster his argument, Haines showed statistics comparing how many times Facebook users have clicked a company’s “like” button with how many times per month people visited that company’s Web site. For Starbucks, a top Facebook advertiser, the ratio was 21.1 million likes to 1.8 million site visitors. For Coca-Cola, it’s 20.5 million compared with 270,000; for Oreo, 10.1 million compared with 290,000; and for Dr. Pepper, it’s 4.1 million compared with 325,000.

It’s no surprise to hear that Facebook, trying to convert its social-networking dominance into corresponding popularity with advertisers, likes a future in which it’s the hub of commercial activity. In a sign that bodes well for that ambition, Haines’ talk drew an overflowing crowd of marketers eager for any tips on how they, too, can capitalize on Facebook usage. In the U.K., millions of Facebook users spend an average of 28 minutes per day on the site, Haines said.

His idea isn’t totally outrageous. After all, plenty of individuals and companies rely on existing online services rather than building everything from scratch. At the individual level, tools such as Google’s Blogger or Yahoo’s Flickr are easier to set up than a custom-built blog or photo-sharing site. Facebook interactions let companies tap into a wealth of customer information and a communication channel, and there’s no need to coax a user to set up yet another username and password.

But the prospect of Facebook becoming powerful enough to make a sort of parallel Web inside its own walled garden is also no doubt fearful in some ways. Sure, the social-networking site is embedded increasingly deeply into people’s lives, but relying on it for customer communications means subordinating a key part of a businesses’ operations to a middleman that has shown no shortage of ambition. Many companies are happy to use Microsoft products and Google services, but companies and antitrust regulators get antsy when too much power is concentrated in one corporation’s hands.

There’s also the possibility that Facebook users, not just companies, might get cold feet. Thus far the site has continued to attract members despite controversies over privacy and other matters, but it’s possible the company might go too far.

It’s music to marketers’ ears to hear Haines say Facebook’s targeting tools can tell companies exactly who are the “22-year-olds in Surrey who like football and cricket.” But Facebook users might not find it so melodic when finding out that companies, not just their friends, have a keen interest in what favorites they list on their profile.

Even if Facebook doesn’t somehow supplant lots of Web sites, though, there’s no denying the social network is becoming more important to marketing, and it’s adapting to the idea.

Facebook has a variety of tools available to marketers:

• Ways to offer free samples to customers, something ketchup maker Heinz has used.

• The ability to attract the attention of smartphone users making local check-ins. Clothing retailer The Gap gave away 10,000 pairs of jeans to the first 10,000 customers to use the Facebook local check-in service, and Mazda sold 100 cars–exceeding expectations–with a 20-percent-off offer at five U.K. auto dealerships, Haines said.

• The ability to build e-commerce sites into Facebook pages. Max Factor didn’t want to lose visitors to its Facebook page to another site when customers were ready to buy something, so a partnership with Amazon lets the customers buy products without leaving.

• “Reach block” ads that change as many as five times in a 24-hour period to send a sequence of ad messages to Facebook users.

• Surveys that let companies try to engage customers in company decisions. Vitaminwater used voting, among other mechanisms, to generate 1.3 million “connections” with possible customers during its “find a new flavor” marketing campaign.

• Applications built atop Facebook’s interface that let companies create custom-made interactive programs.

On top of that, Facebook is experimenting with new ideas. One is “newsfeed story ads,” in which commentary that ordinarily would appear as updates in a Facebook user’s news feed appears in advertisements, too. Another is “application social context ads,” in which an app can show a user which of his or her contacts also is using it.

Regardless of the extent to which Facebook actually replaces in-house Web sites, Facebook as a marketing channel isn’t for everybody. Naturally, Haines had plenty of examples of companies that have benefited from Facebook’s marketing potential, but he also had cautions for those thinking of using Facebook seriously in this way.

First, be prepared for a long-term commitment to keep a site on Facebook lively.

“If it doesn’t change, it’s probably not worth dabbling” with a Facebook site, Haines said. For a social-networking site to be useful in marketing, it’s got to “stimulate” the customers, he said.

Second, plan to respond to very public criticism.

“If you ignore [criticism], it’s the worst thing you can do,” he said. “Be prepared for it, because it will happen.”

Ideally, good responses can turn critics into fans, though.

Third, companies should be judicious about the fine line between engaging customers and annoying them. One company, which Haines didn’t name, had 200,000 people liking its page.

“They sent sent seven messages a day,” he said. “Their fan base dropped off.”

Stephen Shankland
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science.

When we talk more, we believe more people will listen, but the opposite is the truth. Everybody wants to be heard and if you just talk and don’t listen, you miss opportunities in your daily life – and in Social Media.

Check out many Twitter messages and LinkedIn forum posts: “My company does this” and “I can do this for you”. Do you think this approach works?

The most important question for anybody is consciously or subconsciously: What is in it for ME?

Always remember this when you want to talk to your target market – or even to your loved ones. Everybody wants to be heard and the best you can do for your people is to listen first, not talk first. Listen to their problems and questions. Then you can come in and help them. Give advice, give genuine opinions without asking yourself what’s in it for you. Your clients and target market (and loved ones) will thank you for it.

How will they thank you for it? By following you, trusting you, liking you and eventually buying from you.

That’s what Social Media Marketing is all about. Look out for opportunities to help the people on your forums of choice and don’t spam them with your company messages. This is how you gain their trust and how you become known as an expert in your field.

Start with it today! Social Media is called Social Marketing, but it is more so Social Communication. Bonding, trusting, sharing, acknowledging, listening, discussing, building groups, making friends, helping are the most important marketing methods in the Social Media realm of Web 2.0.

I went to a local workshop for coaches on Social Media and Marketing and noticed that many newer, and even established, life coaches are having trouble with Social Media and its relevance for their coaching practice, and ultimately their bottom line.

Some coaches particularly asked about Twitter and LinkedIn and why one should even consider using it. Today I’m going to briefly look at why a life coach could benefit from participating on LinkedIn.

The first thing to consider is the overall Social Media and Business Strategy. Unfortunately, we can’t just dive into a Social Network and expect great results, we need to deliberately plan it. Why are we using LinkedIn and does it actually fit into our business model? Very important questions.

Research is always a good start. Stroll around in LinkedIn.com and look who’s around. What kind of people do you see on the forums, what kind of people do you see in the profiles? Do they fit into your target market? How about your colleagues, are they on LinkedIn?

If none of them is on LinkedIn, this could either indicate that coaches like you don’t need to be on this social network or maybe coaches are still a bit hesitant about using Social Media in general. This doesn’t help you, of course. So scroll through LinkedIn’s groups and see what kind of groups are available and what kind of questions are posted on the forums. Is there something that catches your eye? Are there interest groups dealing with coaching? Are there groups that may have the answer to some of your business questions, such as Internet marketing or Social Media questions? It may be a good idea to join those and watch the questions and answers and learn more about online marketing.

Another aspect to consider is the exposure from simply having a LinkedIn account and profile for you and your business: it definitely helps you to get found online if someone types in your name into the search engines. Social Media networks rank extremely high in search engines and it is beneficial for you to have a presence online.

LinkedIn is a bit different to Facebook and Twitter. The audience is more “professional”, that means you will find lots of professionals and even corporate companies on it. This can be a good thing as many life, business, leadership, life balance, and career coaches target this segment of the market. Many coaches deal with people who are employed or who are executives in a company. So you are in the right place to attract ideal clients for your coaching services.

If you join groups where these people hang out you have one foot in the door. Look at the groups these professionals would be interested in, such as business, leadership, marketing, etc. Try to post meaningful messages, helpful tips and ask good questions in these groups to stand out from the crowd. You’d be surprised how easy it is to get noticed with helpful, informative posts on the right messageboards! But beware of spamming and advertising your services. A great way around this is to have your profile well written, fully filled out and a signature created so that each post shows who you are and what you do, for example: “Linda Doyle, Career Coach, website address.”

Be aware that a good(!) photo is highly important. Don’t make the mistake and download a casual holiday photo, one with friends around you or in too casual wear. Many photographers take a nice headshot of you for little money, make use of this.

Summing up, yes, LinkedIn can be a great Social network for a coach, especially for those coaches who deal with professionals. You are doing it to find out more about your target audience, read their questions, see their troubles and get them to know, like and trust you through helpful and informative participation.

Jay Bear, Social Media consultant, was interviewed by Social Examiner’s CEO, Michael Stelzner, about Social Media Marketing, and brought up very interesting thoughts.

Jay Baer Interview from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

This interview gave me a different view on Twitter’s development during the last year. Jay felt that Twitter used to be the Social Network that described “where you are and what you are doing”, but has moved into a more resource sharing tool where people tells others about good resources and important news they feel others need to know about. Foursquare and Yelp are increasingly taking up Twitter’s former role of “where am I right now” with local/ized Social Networking. Jay also stressed to not undervalue Yelp for its role of local social networking.

Facebook’s Fan/Business pages can be viewed in a way of replacing company’s newsletters and convert previous customers into repeat customers through relationship building communication.

Jay also described that “tools”, such as Twitter and Facebook, are only “tools” and usually interchangeable. He stated he believes  current dominant Social Media networks will change in the future, just in the same way as dominant Social Networks of the past, eg. MySpace, lost its dominance and got replaced by Facebook. It is important to have a content strategy using the Social Media tools, but not solely seeing the Social Media networks as the end all without having a proper strategy. Without a strategy that connects all utilized tools and social networks the social media campaign is worthless.

Jay also pointed out that many companies have different people handing Social Media and email marketing, which leads to a lack of coherence in their campaigns. It is important to link them together and also make sure that email newsletters have “share” buttons included so that your messages and blog posts can be shared easily by readers.

Video and Youtube is still underutilized by companies in its importance of improving search rankings. Companies need to catch on to use video more often.

Many people come to my website because they search for more information on Traffic Geyser. Traffic Geyser has been strongly promoted in the past half year as the new way to earn money online. So what’s the story about this? Is it just another “get rich quick” scam?

No, it is not. If you want to set up a business and are prepared to put in the work to run this business and help other small business owners, you will have a good resource and system in Traffic Geyser to make this happen.

The system leverages the whole Internet Marketing “pie”, which means it sends out your message (about your business and services), to the whole spectrum of Internet Marketing media. Traffic Geyser makes it easy to make use of Mobile Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Blogging, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing in “one click”. Ok, it’s not really one click, but the Traffic Geyser system enables the user to spread information and relationship building messages in an easier way and ion a less time consuming fashion.  It utilizes a variety of tools to get the message out to your audience and in different media channels so you can be sure that your message, and the message of your clients, will be heard and found.

Many small businesses have a website and engage a bit in Social Media, but don’t really get much traffic to said website nor get known in their target niche as the expert. They are one “player” in a big pool of” players” and have little chance of being found by clients. Webdesigners promise their clients to optimize their website to get an optimum number of traffic, but in reality it’s not that easy and even if potential prospects find your website, it’s not guaranteed that they stay on your website nor buy from you.

That’s where relationship marketing and Social Media comes in because you can foster relationships and become visible and trustworthy in the eyes of your target market. Video marketing is one of the best tools to help with this and Traffic Geyser relies heavily on Video Marketing. Additionally, it helps re-purposing content to get your marketing messages out in different forms, such as articles and blog posts.

Seeing someone in a video instantly makes them feel familiar. A website itself will never bond with an audience as well as a person in a video will do. We are people and we love looking at other people.  Around 30 billion videos are watched in the USA alone per month and they make up almost 60% of all web traffics, so you can confidently say that video marketing is a good option for you to get “known”, “liked” and “trusted”, the foundational pillars of Internet sales.

Traffic Geyser is a complete system tool that helps non-techy people use online tools successfully without knowing as much as an online expert or virtual assistant would know about the technical things. When you log into your Traffic Geyser account you will get instantly to the tools you need to market your services or you can use your Traffic Geyser account to help your clients, such as local business owners, get visibility online for a fee. This is the trick of earning money with this system. You are the person offering the video marketing service to your small business clients and they will pay you a fee for it. If you employ all the tools that Traffic Geyser uses by yourself, without the system in the background, it will take more time and you will require more technical skills and training to do so.

That’s why Traffic Geyser is so popular. You can do it without the system, but it takes more time (and time is money, we all agree!) and you need a lot of training in the technical side of Internet Marketing and Online business tools. And not everybody is happy to put in that time or wants to become a technical person. Many people rather utilize Traffic Geyser’s help and “done for you”-services and sell the benefits of the system to their small business clients for an instant reward.

Some hot news from Hubspot: as Facebook and LinkedIn already cater for businesses and their communications with the public, Twitter is now rolling out a specific Business Centre to help businesses with their client relations even better than before.

Some businesses already employ staff members to manage customer services and complaint issues via Twitter with those staff being online on Twitter all day long to deal with clients in 140 signs or less, so the new Business Centre functions will be a more streamlined and customizable solution for many businesses. Read more here: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5967/Twitter-Gets-Business-Savvy-with-New-Business-Center.aspx?source=Blog_Email_[Twitter+Gets+Busines]

This is a welcome addition to Twitter and will make it more competitive in it competition with Facebook.

I couldn’t resist embedding this Video by Mari Smith in here. It’s a great announcement of the awesome Social Media Summit, happening in May 2010. I have joined already and am excited about the excellent topics and line up of speakers.

Everybody who’s the who is who in Social Media will be there, such as Mari Smith, Guy Kawasaki,Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Denise Waikeman, Michael A. Stelzner, etc. etc. Just too many to mention, check it out on http://www.socialmediasummit10.com.

I’ve also joined the Social Media Summit LinkedIn group with many interesting threads and am amazed at how many different industries are represented. If you think only online entrepreneurs would attend, think again. There are many industry professionals and corporates mixing and mingling as well as doctors and coaches and trainers and …

Check it out in Mari’s video, I’m looking forward to seeing you at the SMS10 forum:

A few days ago I read an amusing article on my favorite Social Media site, Hubspot, about the excessive automation in Social Media. Here you will find the post: Sense and Sociability – Why Zombies don’t belong in Social Media.

This post came really timely because I have to admit that I’m getting quite bored with some of the zombies on Twitter, for example. I am a big believer in automation in online business, but too much is too much.

I have to even admit that I don’t read direct messages from Twitter anymore. It’s bad, I know, but almost every Twitter member sends out those typical “visit my website to buy blabla” or “become rich by doing that on this website” messages automatically. I am sure I’m not the only person who feels like that (otherwise Hubspot wouldn’t have a post on it, anyway).

Social Media is a relationship building tool and despite all of us talking business and sending out links and advice on business related topics, we can still be human and responsibly use the social networking channels to talk to people, not to plaster our environment with braindead messages that no one reads anyway. This defeats the whole purpose of Social Media.

The same applies to faceless Twitter profiles. Ok, there are some big networks that have a profile which is administered in a less personal way, such as news profiles (CNN and the like), but if you sell Internet Marketing and you ARE an individual, why do you need to disguise yourself and post some photo with cash on it?

This is not intended to anybody in particular, but these are the profiles that I often discard and not follow.

What do you think? Do you feel the same?