Google goes BLACK

Mark Ontkush wrote on his eco-blog an article about the energy consumption of a computer screen. According to his research, a white computer screen consumes 74 watts of energy, while an all black page uses 59 watts. So he calculated how much energy can be saved if Google turned into Black. Taking in account their huge number of page views (about 200 million queries a day), 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.

As a reaction to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle. It has the same functionalities as the standard version, but with lower energy consumption.

It's a cheap and fast way to create a buzz and to further differentiate versus their main competitor Yahoo.
I've checked on BlugPulse from ACNielsen and since the launch (April 2007), there have already been 558 blogs talking about the tool with a firm peak in July. The result is not huge, but the ROI must be positive.

Real innovation by Sensodyne

Dentists noticed that more teeth suffer from teeth erosion as a consequence of more acid food and drinks. The teeth look yellow and become more sensitive to warm and cold.

Based on this trend, Sensodyne recently launched Pro Glasur: a tooth paste that strenghtens your tooth enamel.

In my opinion, a great example of innovation because:

- it's based on a real consumer insight

- it keeps Sensodyne different from other brands or PL

- and it's right on equity (for sensible teeth).

These are necessary conditions as on average 90% of the innovations fail (cf. BMG). Very often line extensions keep the market dynamic, but with no real added value or impact on the brand. According to the book "The 22 laws of marketing", on the long term brands with large product ranges even drop in volume. This is because they scatter their marketing budget over more than 1 sub brand.

Sensodyne is the 3rd brand and the only growing brand in the top 4 of the market.

Nutella pizza !?

Nutella wants to push the volume per consumer by creating new consumer moments. Through PR and partnerships they've tried to show when and with what other side products than bread Nutella can be eaten. Go to the Nutella homepage or Google Nutella and you'll find plenty of receipes based on this delicious hazelnut spread.

In Italy, the brand's home country, they go even further and by stretching it to a real life Nutella experience: the Nutelleria. In the full branded shop, you can order Nutella crepe, Nutella pizza, Nutella burger, Nutella tacos, Nutella sundae, Nuttle ice cream rolls, Nutella shake, etc. It provides the consumer of basic ideas to use back home and therefore to buy more Nutella. And on top of that, it generates extra value for the company.

Good idea for other brands: Jacqmotte (Jacqmotte Coffee House), Dash or Tide (the Dash Washing Saloon), Tomato farmer (Tomato Restaurant, which actually exists in Paris on the place Saint Georges).

Dove for my best friend

Dove started recently an original endorsement strategy on TV. The latest Dove commercials end with a 5" tag-on showing a pack shot of the promoted range + an endorsement from the current Dove users. E.g. "92% of all current Dove Deo consumers claim they would recommend this product to their best friend." The data comes from a questionnaire on Dove.com.

searchCrystal: the next generation search engine

searchCrystal is a new tool under development. It is a Flash web application dedicated to perform powerful searches visually.
According to the developpers, it enables to see the big picture, gain new insights and interact with search results in new ways. It searches through existing search engines like Google and display between 50 and 500 results (web pages, blogs, vlogs, images, ...) in a single display that guides people toward relevant information. The more relevant the info, the closer it is placed to the display center.

Search on my name: Gerd Gossye

Carlsberg jumps on Mentos+Coke buzz

Carlsberg and a new buzz agency have created a spoof on the successful Mentos+Coke buzz. These ideas work and cost nothing compared to the production and airing costs of traditional media.

Source: www.adverblog.com

Commercial e-mail in week-end

A study around commercial e-mailing, conducted by eRoy, proves that "best days for opens are not necessarily the best for clicks".

Quote:

• Wednesday Through Friday Maximize Opens. Starting in July 2004, the best days for maximizing open rates shifted to later in the work week. For the July through November period, Friday performed the best, but it was less than 0.5% ahead of Wednesday and Thursday in average open rate.
• Weekends Rule for Generating Clicks. Weekend results are mixed, with open rates performing slightly below average, but Sunday and Saturday yield the highest click-through rates. With less competition in the inbox on weekends, people who open your e-mail have more time to actually read and respond to your message.

Source: www.emarketer.com

WoM campaigns need kick-off

This week, Hyundai started a viral campaign on their smallest car, the I30. I subscribed on Iwantani30 and within 3 days, I received a 3x4 banner. You have to place this banner in your garden or in your street, make a picture of it, upload it and then start your media campaign towards your friends to get as much votes as possible. The person the most votes wins the car.

Well done, as this campaign might create fast and relative cheap awareness through WoM. Important in this type of campaigns is a strong kick-off to trigger a minimum number of people to the URL. Without that critical mass the campaign might not take off...

Campaign developed by Duval Guillaum Brussels.

Mentos BUZZ 2

After the huge buzz with Coke Light on Youtube last year, Mentos kicked off a 2nd one. They hired a guy named Trevor, the Mentos Intern. During this summer, you can go to their homepage and give Trevor jobs to do: "Do a mexican hat dance", "Ask my boss for a raise", "freestyle rap", "Wrestle with the oversize Mentos", etc.

Considering the number of people on the chat and the number of jobs Trevor already got, this might be their 2nd on-line success for a minimal investment!

DASH: Altijd het schoonste verhaal

P&G starts with a completly different media strategy on DASH. They'll stop their success proven testimonials and replace them by their first strategy ever: soaps.
This is a link to kick-off of the campaign on VTM including a trailer, first episode, billboards and advertorials:
http://www.mm.be

Great impact with a drama right on their benefit. And it's even funny :-)

Developped by Leo Burnett.

Côte d'Or goes Out of Africa

Since years, Côte d'Or wants to evoke the mythical world of cocoa origin, based in Africa. The TVC were based around dark chocolate and their strong icon, the elephant.
The set-up and idea of the activation is good. The 3 black man in traditional african clothing make enough noice on their djembe to be noticed. The jeep looks sportive and evokes African values. Good branding through look&feel, packshots, and flags. And the sampling has always been the best tool to sell your product.


The formula is expensive but proved its long term profitability to Coca Cola and Red Bull. The contacts are sometimes very low, like on these pictures. The cost / contact must be huge, but the conversion rate must be huge as well and remains.

By the way, interesting as well is the relaunch of their chocolate bars. They repositioned them as a snack by changing the traditional aluminium and paper foil into a closible plastic candy bar looking wrap.

Average FMCG turnover in Belgium

For all those Belgian FMCG marketers who want to optimize their promotional investments: The GfK ConsumerScan Barometer measures the private household consumption on FMCG + fresh products at supermarkets and special outlets, based on a panel of 3000 households. There's a direct correlation between promotional efficiencies and the in-store turnover.

Internet trails TV in VS

The Internet and multimedia report 2007 of Edison Media Research and Arbitron (via: Marketingcharts) shows that internet in the VS has become a more important medium than radio. 33% of 12 years and older, who might choose which medium is the most important in their life, choose internet. TV is still leading with 36%.



Among 12-44, internet has become the most essential medium:

Baby boomers prefer mail

Baby boomers are becoming a more interesting target group as they represent 1/3 of the Belgian population and spend on average 7% more than other age classes. They're at the maximum of their salary level, the house mortgage is paid, the children left home and they're still extremely active.

And they are easy to target! You already knew regular TVC is overselective on 50+, but a recent poll on the famous baby boomer's website www.seniorennet.be showed that they are extremely sensible for direct mail!

Sommelier, go away!

When foreign wine houses started to market their wines in Europe, they understood the wine consumer was confused in the complex world of French and Italian wines. He was unable to combine or appreciate the wines with food.

Making it as simple as possible, the Amazing Food Wine Company has launched a fool-proof line of Wine That Loves. Each wine is specifically suited to one dish, which leaves no room for error; these are wines that singularly 'love' pizza, grilled salmon or pasta with tomato sauce. The dishes were chosen based on popularity in American households.

Great insight!

Cannes winner

Inspiring viral ad, by Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto.
According to Ad Age, this 75" viral ad generated already more than 1,7 million views. Interesting if you know that the 30" Dove commercial at the 2006 Super Bowl costed 2,5 $ million for 500 million views.

Other winners are:
Videogame - Coca-Cola (Gold - Film)
Dangerous Liasons - Levi's (Gold - Film)
Happiness Factory - Coca-Cola (Silver - Film)
Ideal For Seduction - Havaianas Slim (Gold - Press)
Smoked Venison - Little Boys (Silver - Press)
Mum & Daughter - Monaca (Silver - Press)
Trees - Greenpeace (Silver - Press)
Builders Of Tomorrow - LEGO (Gold - Outdoor)
Mother & Child - Heinz (Silver - Outdoor)
Globe Fish - Chupa Chups (Silver - Outdoor)
Heidies 15 MB Of Fame - Diesel (Grand Prix - Cyber)
Gettheglass.com (site) - California Fluid Milk (Gold - Cyber)
Impossible Is Nothing - Adidas Spain (Gold - Cyber)
Dynamite Surfing (film) - Quicksilver Denmark (Silver - Cyber)
Kid's World; Sky - Terra Portal (Bronze - Cyber; Silver - Press)
XBox King Games - Burger King (Titanium Grand Prix)
Axe 3 - Unilever (Integrated Grand Prix)
Tate Tracks - Tate Modern (Integrated Lion)
MTV Switch - MTV Networks Int. (Gold - Film, Young Creatives)
Sport & peace - Right to play (Silver - Print, Young Creatives)

Half a coke is worth double

Since long, Coca Cola is visible everywhere. It's omnipresence in out-of-home channels is sponsored by the retail marketing to push top of mind brand awareness to a constant maximum level. This strategy was very effective until the moment we all got so used to it: the branding became a blind spot.

Therefore since summer last year, Coca Cola started to cut its logo in half. The blind spot became noticed again.

A great way to push the stopping power of a brand, without additional budget!