marketing your business online: The Wall > Paddy Power's anti-homophobia Twitter campaign is a hit

Friday 29 November 2013

The Wall > Paddy Power's anti-homophobia Twitter campaign is a hit

Paddy Power's anti-homophobia Twitter campaign is a hit

29 November 2013, 12:18PM

Paddy Power is known for the jokey tone of its marketing campaigns and has had its run-ins with the Advertising Standards Authority in the past. But it recently showed a more serious side, undertaking its first brand-led corporate social responsibility campaign, tackling the issue of homophobia in football in a tie-up with Stonewall.

Peaches Geldof apologises for tweeting names involved in Ian Watkins case

29 November 2013, 12:00PM

Screen Shot 2013-11-29 at 12.27.10 The awful case of Ian Watkins, the lead singer of Lostprophets who pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to rape a baby and other offences this week, obviously triggered a lot of conversations on Twitter. Not only were his crimes extremely serious and upsetting, but many users remember Watkins as the singer of a band they grew up liking.

Nine tenets of retail experience strategy

29 November 2013, 11:00AM

Having executed immersive retail experiences for several big-name brands across the world, I’ve observed nine simple tenets that ensure companies get maximum impact and return-on-investment from their activities. Of course, it may not be immediately possible to hit all of these aspects in the first iteration of a digital engagement (in this case the digital reinvention of a bricks-and-mortar location), but the plan should be to properly explore as many as make sense for the strategy, budget, brand and business context.

Instagram's instant messaging - a no-brainer innovation?

29 November 2013, 10:42AM

Instant messaging has been on the rise in recent years, as a way to keep people using social networks, but also to help maintain privacy for users. For instance, it is widely known that social networks have had problems, such as Facebook with its trouble keeping its teen audience. They are therefore moving towards using mobile messaging services. It is therefore not surprising that a report from Gigaom suggests that Facebook-owned Instagram may be working on its next big feature - instant messaging.

Tyson preserved Holyfield's ear and returned it after 16 years

29 November 2013, 10:37AM

Brand Viral Trends:

When Mike Tyson caused a sporting scandal by biting off half of Evander Holyfield's ear back in 1997, I bet nobody ever imagined that he would have kept it preserved in formaldehyde, only to return it in a gift box 16 years later!

If Facebook were to shut overnight what would happen?

28 November 2013, 12:58PM

Imagine this. The morning alarm goes and you rise. You're midway through your morning routine when you first swipe to open your phone and face the day. You check Facebook (in fact some studies suggest that almost half of us check on social media app during this time[1]). It fails to load for some reason. You head to Twitter and read the news that Facebook has shut down.

So, if Facebook were to shut overnight, what would happen?

To hashtag or not to hashtag, that is the question...

28 November 2013, 11:49AM

Hashtags. They're so ingrained in our social platforms now that we basically don't see them. They just exist. Like a breath, or a piece of punctuation in a tweet. But recently, they've started appearing everywhere. Writ large in high street windows across Britain. Emblazoned on t-shirts, adshels, billboards… So what happened? When did the humble '#' symbol emerge from a dusty forgotten corner of the keyboard to become the pre-eminent advertising icon of the digital age

It's all about context, you know

28 November 2013, 11:00AM

With the holiday season coming up some of us might have to make trips to the airport to pick up visiting relatives. If you happen to be going to Heathrow, try to get a look at BA's latest outdoor campaign.

Partnerships make brands sexy

28 November 2013, 12:22AM

How do you make cloud computing sexy? Add Stephen Fry. How do you make Starwood sexy? Add Bayern Munich. How do you make The Hard Rock sexy? Add Linkin Park.

Brand partnerships are an amazing way for one brand to leverage the positive brand values of another brand to 1) target a new customer audience 2) reinforce loyalty in the existing customer base 3) change brand perception 4) double marketing and brand power.

Out Of Home creativity: the communication challenge

27 November 2013, 1:18PM

Is the Out of Home sector communicating its digital capabilities and, in turn, the medium’s creative opportunities well enough?

It’s a question I could not help but ask myself during the Out of Home creative awards ceremony I attended recently. Not because there weren’t enough great executions honoured at the event, co-sponsored by MediaCo Outdoor – Mini’s ‘Not Normal’ digital ads using dynamic tailored messaging to Mini drivers, for example, or the Lynx Apollo campaign with its innovative astronaut installation encouraging interactivity at Westfield Stratford. But because all the technological strides the industry has made over the past 12 to 18 months have made me wonder whether the development and growing sophistication of the medium is out-pacing the evolution of its creative.