I love the internet because of the things that I get to see that I wouldn’t without it

Why more women aren’t sitting at the top

Made for me – BMW owned driving earned

I enjoyed reading an article in the FT this morning about BMW’s built to order business that is starting to take off in the US .  For some years now BMW have already sold cars on a  made to order basis in Germany but now the US consumers can also get involved.  From their Spartanburg factory you can order an X3 and with over 70m possible configurations you can get quite personal.  Allowing your customer be part of the product creation without actually having to change anything that you do is a smart way of making your owned assets work harder. In this example BMW have been clever in also giving their customers a film that shows their car being built at various stages of the production line.  The built to order models are no more expensive to the consumer and actually are potentially a better business model for dealers to avoid them having speculate over which cars to have in the showroom.  This product gives people a reason to choose BMW and most importantly gives them motivation to talk about it.  If you ‘designed’ your own car you would tell all your friends wouldn’t you? and you may even want to show them the film…

BT paid owned and earned for the second biggest wedding of the year

I quite enjoyed the 1min 34 second BT advert at the weekend showing the wedding of Jane and Adam.  I especially admire the fact that BT have told a consistent story that more recently had the input of their fans along the way.  They have once again modernised the BT family communication to connect better with todays consumer. Whether you like the ads or not is somewhat irrelevant, I think BT have put themselves out there much more than usual and have been innovative in their approach to capture some emotion and engagement from UK consumers.  480k votes were cast over what dress she should wear, what car they would travel in and what song would be their first dance.  As far as I can see they seem to have done things in the right way and showed the finished ads and extra behind the scenes content to facebook fans first as a reward for their input and fans even got the chance to be extras at the wedding.  Last year 1.6 million people voted on Jane’s pregnancy, based on numbers alone the wedding doesn’t seem as quite as successful but it certainly grew the facebook following.
BT have successfully used a long standing owned content asset to generate conversation and positive sentiment from consumers as well as delivering impact through traditional paid media channels.  This integrated campaign is a good example for other advertisers to see how a story can be told simply across multiple channels which encourages sharing and contribution along the way.

Where is hot in May? Branded utility from BA

When I plan a holiday I either know where I want to go or I know when I want to go.  The first is ok but when you only have a time slot it can he hard to know where to start.  This month BA launched Tripseeker, an interactive planning tool that allows you to find a destination based on time, price and temperature.  You can play with the variables and see on a map what your options are (uses Google Earth).  This tool is built with BA destinations in mind so might not cover everything but it is a good start.  Imagine if you could also add recommendation data to this tool as well.  So once you have identified your ideal destination you could then get pull in recommendations and reviews for hotels, restaurants and sights.  Feel like getting away?  Try out Tripseeker http://www.britishairways.com/travel/TRIPSEEKER/public/en_gb?refevent=HomeBannerBlue&openxzoneid=301&openxcampaign=Tripseeker-A&openxbanner=7310&openxtype=click

Uniform trumps female charm

A friend of mine wanted to buy an iPad 2 last week and tried to do so at the airport.  She went into the store at the airport and spoke to the manager.  They had sold out for that day but said they were getting some in tomorrow, so she fluttered her eyelids and asked if there was any chance they could save her one.  The manager said ‘under no circumstances can we do that, it is first come first served’.  So she went away disappointed.  5 minutes later her husband went in to the same store wearing his Pilot Uniform.  He spoke to the manager and made the same request, and this time the manager said no problem and that he would put one aside the next day.  Obviously my friend was delighted and also slightly bemused about the power his uniform appeared to have.  I have shared this story because it made me think about the power of influence and the importance of context for getting results.  Who is saying it has more value that what is being said and when we build social marketing programmes this has to be at the centre of our thinking.  Quality over quantity will always be more powerful when it comes to influencing people to act.

Women in technology

Today I attended the inaugural CWT everywomen in Technology awards and have come away inspired by the amazing work that women are doing around the UK with technology in their businesses.  Winners talked about mentors, finding inspiration and leading teams.  One of the winners (Nikki Walker from Cisco) shared a quote from one of her mentors; “you don’t need a title to lead’.  This really resonated with me and reminded me that it is about what you everyday to influence the people around you to make a better company and create more success, it is not about waiting for the promotion or title to make a difference.

When I stated my blog I chose to focus on how I think technology makes advertising better.  As I sat there today I was wondering if I felt out-of-place being from a media agency rather than from an ‘IT’ company and then I was reminded of this original thought.  Technology has slipped into the media world and taken quite a few of its inhabitants by surprise and I’m quite sure if asked they would deny all knowledge of working in the technology industry at all. 

For me having spent my career to date in digital it is the technology element that I find most interesting and it is that technology that is changing our industry beyond recognition. Technology affects both how we do business and what business we do.

Everyone in the room today was there because they believe in the power of women working in technology and want to see more representation for many reasons but particularly because on the consumer side it is women with the spending and decision-making power.  When you look at the billion dollar digital businesses (facebook/groupon) they might be run by men but they are driven by the female customers so it makes sense to reflect this in the business structure. 

Wendy Tan-White founder of Moonfruit and winner of the entrepreneur of the year award said that when she was in Texas last week for SXSW the VCs were talking about actively looking for new businesses being run by women.  So there has never been a better time for women in technology.  

If you are in Media then you are in technology (or at least I think you should be). The companies that our clients want to spend time with are tech based and if we as media agencies truly want to understand them we must become more like them.

Next year at this event I would love to see a woman from media winning an award for how she has developed or used technology to change something for the better.

Falling angels

Great use of augmented reality  to bring the new Lynx campaign idea to life.  Currently at 869k views on youtube.  Good example of owned content driving earned media value.

Very tweet bit of co-creation

http://thefeed.orange.co.uk/2011/2/7/isnt-it-tweet/?page=34

Orange created little aminated stories based on the sweet love stories shared with them on twitter for valentines day to create new content their ‘the feed’ project.  You just have to tweet us #feedlovestories  https://twitter.com/search/%23feedlovestories#search?q=%23feedlovestories

It’s the small things that matter..

The DAWN team have been busy preparing for our next (sold out!) event this coming Wednesday.  The theme, approrpriate for the New Year is ‘balance’.  We are asking the question ‘How Balanced is you Life’ and attempting to give the attendees some new ideas and tools to make a difference to their worlds.  On the night we will be joined by a stylist, careers advisor, life coach and nutritionist to give a holistic point view on how to bring life into balance and achieve your dreams.

Today I came across a TED talk from Nigel Marsh about this very subject and thought it was well worth sharing.  Nigel talks about taking responsibility for your life and designing around what makes you happy, set your boundaries and be honest with yourself.  Large companies will try to get as much from you as possible, it is just in their DNA.  So, it is up to us to take responsibility for our own worlds and just by making a few small adjustments we may see some big results.

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