brands, identities, clutter

Stats are often bounded about claiming how many ads or brands we come across in one day. How accurate they are is very hard to figure but I'm sure the number has gone through the roof since the massification of broadband and the birth of the smartphone. Fillstroke, a collaborative based in Phoenix Arizona have mapped out the number of brands and ads into a rather cool clock shape. After much research, they've come up with a total figure of 1,035 brands, logos and ads - a frightening amount for any media planner trying to make best use of a budget.

More crucially however, it doesn't begin to answer the question of engagement - I'd love to see a similar survey based on the number of brands an individual actually interacts with in a day, whether it be by an iphone app, an MPU or billboard at the train station. It's this relationship that is of true value to a brand, not plastering your logo all over any available surface.

Knowing the Score

The new cadburys ad is here and thank God they've changed tack after the underwhelming airport cars - did it just all go over our head or was it just not very good? the debate rages on.

There seems to be more agreement however on the new ad, two children sitting together ready for the typical school photo suddenly break out some of the most incredible eye brow manouvres I ever seen committed to celluloid...

The best thing about the whole cadburys thought process however is not the individual song or the randomness of the content of each ad but instead the knowledge that the individual wants to be entertained rather than educated when it comes to chocolate - they already know the market like the back of their hand and will be able to recite their top 5 chocolate bars at the drop of a hat - so whats the point in just ramming the same message down their throat about how great it tastes?

I'm just really hoping the toothpaste industry is watching and learning, i'm sure I'm not the only one fed up with a bloke in lab coat telling me about decaying teeth or seeing endless faux - sciency diagrams...

so far...(in wordle)

T-Mobile Makes First Move of 2009

We've already seen the wonderfully innovative 3 minute dancathon at liverpool st proclaiming that 'life is for sharing', now T-mobile are taking the fight to their competitors with the announcement of a 15% increase in their marketing budget.

The move comes as experts warn that the Deutsche Telekom-owned brand must do more to raise its performance. As the fourth player in the global market, T-Mobile, with its 16% share, will have to move aggressively to acquire new customers and regain service revenue growth.

It lags behind O2, which in September held 25.5% of the subscriber market, Vodafone with 25% and Orange with 21.1%. And it suffered a year-on-year service revenue fall of 6.3% in the third quarter last year, even as market leader O2 grew by 9.6% and Vodafone recorded a fall of just 1.7%.

T-Mobile is expected to expand its marketing from its traditional value-led positioning to include communications around its Google Android-powered smart phone, SIM-only products and its products in the fast-growing mobile broadband arena.

This could be an interesting case study to watch over 2009, will consumers react and put T-mobile back on the path towards competitiveness in the market or could this increase in budget be looked at in years to come as a failed last throw of the dice from an increasingly desperate board

Winners and Losers

Just how the economic downturn is going to affect the consumer magazine market is yet to be determined however there is good reason to believe that we could see a number of mass market titles across various sectors see damaging declines in audience and revenue.

In an article by Oliver Luft in last Mondays Guardian, Luft sights niche and top end luxury magazines as relatively recession proof due to the prime value placed on the early pages within these magazines. If an advertisers oxygen lies in reaching a very niche or hard to reach audience, a magazine that is trusted by this group will be on steady ground during times of cut budgets. On the contrary, titles which are easily substituted or fail to create a strong enough sense of identity to the reader and advertiser find themselves in the firing line as media planners and buyers endeavor to make the budgets work even harder.

The luxury market, whilst overloaded with titles, ever so slightly bucks the trend due to the nature of the advertising going in the magazines...these are excercises in branding meaning pages are the equivalent of prime real estate. Pulling out only creates opportunities for rival brands with enough conviction to sight opportunities during this time of economic doom and gloom. In this respect, the winners could well be those savvy enough to see this as a small window of opportunity upon which to lay their claim for a bigger market share.

Investing In Online

So, yes it's a all a bit depressing at the moment - redundancies, queuing up in Lidl, a january cold snap and most puzzlingly of all there still aren't that many last minute ski deals around to compensate for it. what a travesty.

On the plus side, according to research carried out on the other side of the pond small businesses are more focused than ever on making the web work for them with increased investment in their own websites, branding, email marketing and blogging. At last some common sense in the face of all the armagaeddon like sensationalism going on...

The Keyboards Days Are Numbered...