I can’t believe it has taken me this long to publish a blog entry – it’s been a busy start to the year.  2012 is well and truly here and the early year honeymoon that normally gives a tiny bit of respite never really arrived.

I am proud to say that 2012 is a bit of a milestone year for Tag as we celebrate our 15th year in business.

So none of the normal introductory dribble this time around I’ll cut straight to the chase about my 2012 thoughts and what I think will be hot. There are two big areas of focus this year, social media and mobile technology.  Whilst they have been well and truly on the radar for some time, I believe the big shift will start this year.

Social Media
The growth and traction of most of the social media and networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and various blogs during 2011 was very strong. This year will see further growth and activity with more existing businesses either dipping their toe in the water or diving straight in with new applications.  There will also be an increase in the number of new ventures that launch their business off the back of social media and why wouldn’t you when there are so many wonderful success stories?

The smart businesses that use savvy social media strategists or have them within their own ranks will leap-frog their competitors by actively engaging their audience.  However, just be careful of anyone claiming to be a social media expert because frankly, I don’t believe there is such a thing. I honestly don’t think anyone can truly claim that title, because things are virtually changing daily.  Developers are constantly trying new things, trying to integrate external codes with current social platform codes, testing new campaign ideas, linking back to other sites etc. I think a more apt description would probably be a committed social monitor. Someone that is constantly watching what is happening, monitoring various platforms – continuously and has tested various methods. Unfortunately in this genre there is a lot of trial and error and one size definitely doesn’t fit all.

Social media is not a discipline that can be easily conquered; it required constant activity to keep your audience interested. We are victims of our own success – the more you give the more they want and  yes that includes you and me, unfortunately as consumers demand it regardless of whether its B2B or B2C.  Bottom line is if it’s not interesting and it doesn’t communicate it won’t engage – your audience will simply move on to something else.

Back to the success story; I recently read about a small but rapidly growing fashion house called Show Pony Fashion, they’re definitely social media forerunners and what I love most about this is they are an Australian business taking it to the world.  As recent reports have indicated, the company started just over a year ago pretty much off the back of the owners credit card, along with a dream, lots of passion and a savvy strategy.  Show Pony Fashion recently hit $1 million in revenue not long after their one year anniversary.  The owner, Jane Lu’s secret from what I can tell is the use Facebook and [fashion] blogs in an engaging and intelligent manner.  You’ve got to be doing something right if you have 34,200 ‘Likes’ and 1,400 are ‘talking about this’ on Facebook. Have a look and surprisingly most of the functions she uses are Facebook Apps, nothing fancy but clever, engaging and constant.  Show Pony Fashion Facebook

I only have one caveat that I would place on introducing or ramping up a social media strategy and that’s to be committed to it.  Please don’t take a half-baked approach, plan your strategy carefully and accept that it is a trial and error medium.  If you can afford it engage an agency or assign one person within your organisation to be wholly and solely responsible for the content. To give it an heir of importance here it is in Latin “Consilium tuum socialis media diligenter”.

If you need any stats to get your boss excited about why a social platform is an intelligent option here are some.

Facebook

• 800 million registered users
• 600 million active accounts
• 1 in 13 people on earth use Facebook
• 250 million people log in daily
• There are over 700 billion minutes a month spent on Facebook
• Every 20 minutes 1 million links are shared

Blogs

• 73% of internet users read blog reviews, discussions and comments on brands, products or services
• 43% of internet users have discussed or commented on a product, brand or service on blog type sites
• 42% have interacted with product, brand or service

Twitter

• 175 million registered users

Twitter is a little different to Facebook in that it is more reactionary to an event, comment or after a conversation has already started, so to illustrate the power here are some examples.

When Michael Jackson died Twitter averaged 456 tweets per second.

In the recent Super Bowl telecast there were 13.7 million tweets about the Audi advert So long vampires which was also on YouTube – clever ad – take a look at what all the hype was about.

My final point is to help emphasise the power and influence social media and the online world is having on business decisions and it comes from Proctor & Gamble’s CEO, Bob McDonald. He said they [P&G] spend around $10 billion a year on advertising media and the ad spend simply can’t keep going up year upon year. He is considering cutting 1600 marketing jobs.  Why? Because he believes that a well planned and executed campaign on Facebook and Google is more effective and gains more cut through than many of the traditional media channels and he cites the Old Spice ‘The man your man could smell like’ campaign which yielded 1.8 billion free impressions.  That’s pretty impressive. But it was also a bold campaign that cost a lot of money to produce and they still needed all the printed POS and collateral to support the campaign, but you get the point. Here’s the campaign creative if you’ve forgotten or have yet to see it.

Mobile Technology
This is another area that is still maturing but is moving in leaps and bounds. When there are 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide you know one day they will all have a smartphone of some kind and that day isn’t too far away and with those kind of user numbers businesses really need to sort out how they will interact with their target audience.

Once again some companies are already surging ahead and using mobile devices cleverly, while their competitors are still stuck on old-school methodologies. In reality, the companies that haven’t made the shift won’t necessarily be left behind, but it will become increasingly difficult for them to match the ease of offering to the same clientele so maybe they will lose some market share. It’s a bit like the retail store that doesn’t want to offer eftpos facilities – cash only, sure they’ll survive but they’ll never have a lion’s share.

There will definitely be some decent advancement this year but it will be over the next 2-3 years where we’ll really see some significant changes happening with so many new smartphones and tablets earmarked for release during this time.

When it comes to usage the Australian statistics don’t appear to be reflecting the trends from around the world.  Apple has an enormous presence down-under [comparatively speaking] and takes the lead.  On the world stage they are actually ranked No.3 to Nokia and Samsung.

The introduction of Android will give Apple a serious run for its money but what this will also do is open up greater opportunities for businesses to deliver information more effectively.  Admittedly it may be more expensive development wise at first as content will have to be configured to more than one platform but I believe this is a good thing. Rest assured Google will be working extremely hard on something special with all its new technology patents recently acquired with the purchase of Motorola.  Reports predict Nokia to be the dark horse based on their pillow talk with Windows.  And let’s not forget about companies like HTC, Sony Ericsson who both have great pedigree and even Huawei is snatching some market share – watch them carefully as they have the world’s largest test market. What saddens me most is the demise of Blackberry, as a former advocate I think it will die a death by 1000 cuts.

The long and the short of it is, all of these companies have seen the light and are moving towards it as fast as they can and the major benefactors are the end users and of course smart businesses wanting to deliver information and engage more interactively with their customers. So hang on and get ready for the ride.

When it comes to smartphones, this year will see mobile browsing improve exponentially as operating systems process faster and mobile web developers writing better code with faster loading speeds not to mention the clever interactive stuff.  Location based services will improve and be better utilised as will near field communications. Push notifications will be taken advantage of and used more strategically. Finally I think mobile advertising will continue to grow as consumers want more and more information for free such as applications and content and companies will provide it to win over customers, but as we all know nothing is for free and the only way companies can monetise this is to get advertising revenue and thus the cycle begins.

In regards to the tablet market, ditto with most of what I said above plus I believe this is where we’ll see the biggest shift this year, especially across the B2B landscape as more companies move away from printed material and laptops and have the convenience and wow factor of a smaller finger swipe device with clearer pictures, greater power and more possibilities.

Built-in Wi-Fi and 3G makes them even more powerful, especially with companies engaging developers to create central hubs that push and pull dynamic data to and from each device.  This delivers a benefit to all parties involved, management can see what is happening, the field force members have all the information they need at their fingertips and the customer receives a far more interactive experience.

Think about the applications that are already helping businesses.  Many medical and pharmaceutical companies are using them to present their products to doctors such as Abbott and Medtronic. Airlines like Qantas and Jetstar are using them for in-flight entertainment. Mercedes Benz in the US rolled them out to dealerships to allow the sales people to complete loan applications and all the other paperwork there an then – imagine this could actually be done whilst the customers are still in the vehicle. The Inter-Continental Hotel chain provided them to their concierges because it provided better and faster local destination advice. The IT Infrastructure giant SAP rolled them out to provide their field force with real-time access to important business intelligence and enabling videoconferencing to happen anywhere, anytime.

We’re proactively working on this kind of stuff for a number of our clients and it’s great because it’s not only different, but for the client’s that are a little bolder we are able to discover new technologies and navigate through uncharted waters, which definitely adds spice to the day and keeps the young digital minds interested and a few of the older ones.

Are you reading this on your smartphone, tablet, laptop or desk top?

Doing pro-bono work is something that should be a part of every agencies DNA. Our designers and account managers really enjoy giving something back to society and especially to those who may be experiencing difficulties in their life.

At this time of the year it seems that many of our pro-bono client need work completed. So it’s a busy time for our studio manager ducking and weaving trying to make sure all our projects are finished before the year’s end.

Women’s Housing Company is one of our pro-bono clients and we recently designed their annual report for the 5th year in a row. They do a wonderful job and provide such an important service to single, non-dependent women. In a country like ours there shouldn’t be a single person that should have to live without a roof over their head or not feel safe in their own surroundings – unless it is their own choice.

Two other pro-bono projects we recently completed were both for Kid’s Charities and they focus on the Christmas period.

The Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation – This is the 2nd year we’ve done something with The Little Lights Campaign designed to raise money for seriously ill children at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, NSW. It was a great concept of theirs and last year’s response was fantastic so it’s up again this year with a few additional tweaks.

The other pro-bono site was for the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Subiaco, Western Australia.  They’d seen what we did for the little lights site and sought  permission to do something similar as they too  hold a Christmas light appeal to raise money to ensure better healthcare outcomes are achieved for young kids and adolescents. So we obliged and help them develop a donation site of their own.

Their campaign is a little different in that they encourages households and businesses across WA to collect gold coin donations from the viewing public at their Christmas Lights displays. Check out some of this year’s participants on their Facebook page – www.facebook.com/PMHFoundation

If you can help by making a donation, we know they’d appreciate it and we would also be extremely grateful – It’s all for a good cause.

If you still believe in the saying that children should be seen and not heard you’d better wake up and start asking them to talk to you if you want a chance of adapting to this [their] new world order.

If you’re under 25 you’re already embracing it, if you’re between 25 and 30 you know it’s happening and chances are you’re successfully integrating its power into your daily life; if you’re over 30 you are likely adapting to it however, if you’re over 40 you may be in no man’s land, if you’re smart you will be weaving into your life and learning as much as you can as quickly as you can and if this is the case then great, but avoiding it, suppressing it or ignoring will be a decision you make at you’re own peril.

We’re talking about the digital age where virtually everything has an ‘i’ or ‘e’ in front of it. Its ubiquity is phenomenal and it’s infiltration into our lives will only get stronger as time goes on – like it or not it’s here to stay. Technology designed to [supposedly] make our lives easier for example phone Apps – there is now an App for almost anything you want.

I revert back to our headline that ‘children are the future’ and if you don’t believe me watch this YouTube video, even those in their 20s may be surprised. Remember this kid is in year 6.

There is not a doubt in my mind that a new Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is rising through the ranks of our schools every day.

B&T posted this campaign in their eNewsletter and for reasons my simplistic mind can’t explain it resonated well with me.

Congratulations to the agency – AJF and the client – Herald Sun.

Simplicity at its best – Not a new concept but definitely superbly executed and the talent scout that cast the two kids needs a big pat on the back, great copy writing, excellent art direction. Our industry needs more of this kind of stuff.

It really made me chuckle.

The epic lunch time battle continues…

At Tag, Friday is the agreed day where the crew tend to let their guard down, throw their sense of good health out the window and put all their gym sessions during the week at risk. Bugger it they say, it’s worth the glory and recognition amongst their peers.

It was talked about for days – the concept, the construction, the anticipation, the excitement and finally the reality!

This is what happens when Cheese Burgers are only $1. Thank goodness there was a limit of 4 per person.

Inspired by the renowned Man vs Food series, a brave volunteer attempts to scale the golden arches and take his place in history.

On this occasion Tag Wins!

Even after such a mammoth effort the unnamed volunteer was overhead saying “there’s always room for ice cream”. Rumour was the boss had re-stocked the fridge with ice cream.  The Tag Crew has grown quite fond of the ice cream sandwich on the odd Friday from Pat & Stick’s Homemade Ice Cream – Highly recommended, but be careful they’re addictive not to mention delicious.

Overnight Tag’s Design Director morphs into the demolition man

Apparently Snowboarding changes the molecular structure of your DNA.

The truth is out there [and also here]…

Before

Only 5 minutes After

Watch out for this guy he’s apparently a bully

Can you believe the Australian advertising watchdog spent almost two months investigating a complaint made about the M&Ms TV commercial?

Apparently the complaint accuses the TVC of sending the wrong message to children, which is that bullying is OK. Seriously? I certainly don’t advocate bullying and of course I would like to see it eradicated but realistically – that’s pie in the sky stuff. Bullying has, is and will always be part of everyday life – unfortunately. It exists in every corner of our society.

The complainant really should get a life. This person probably sits watching the TV with a pen and pad waiting and hoping for the word ‘shit’ to be said before 8.30pm. Have you ever been near a bus stop or in a shopping centre when school is out and heard some of the colourful language, if ‘shit’ was the only word used society would be a better place.

I applaud the complainant for taking affirmative action but surely there is a more effective course of action? For example teaching those close to you about taking responsibility for their actions, understanding the meaning of accountability and having real consequences for those that do the wrong thing. Nowadays it appears that the difference between right and wrong is subjective and that’s a problem. We complain about the lawmakers, but who is controlling those in charge of the lawmakers? We are and we’re clearly not doing a good job.

The irony about the complaint is it can actually escalate bullying. Why? Because the silent majority don’t like chronic complainers, whingers and those that adhere to the strict political correctness. The bullying may not necessarily be overtly expressed but it is the covert innuendo style of bullying that undermines the people that genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. So which is worse?

Before you accuse me of not understanding the impact of bullying, let me tell you that I understand it very well – firsthand – on the receiving end. It’s not nice but life isn’t always going to pave an easy path. Life gets harder not because of things like bullying, it’s people like the complainants that simply soften societies underbelly and give the weak an every bigger crutch to use. As a society we just need to toughen up.

Of course it’s the Brits advertising watchdog to make the bold decision to ban L’Oreal’s ‘miracle foundation’ ad – what a joke!

With or without airbrushing Julia Roberts is still a beautiful woman and that’s what most of the women that see her would think.

The only thing misleading is the misnomer relating to the level of consumer’s gullibility and the fact that banning the ad won’t actually achieve anything – women will still buy the product.

I think it’s fair to say most people realise airbrushing is present in many of the beauty ads and that people in those ads – especially in beauty and fashion – always look better than they really do and that’s the point.

The whinger who made the complaint sighted the fact it was “distorting our idea of beauty”, well instead of complaining about an ad for a beauty product, why not work on making the models  in the fashion industry eat some food or those that run and/or design clothes for the industry change the perception they want to portray? What about forcing clothing manufacturers to adhere to universal sizing so it doesn’t distort reality.  Better still, maybe this politician should just tell any person who is beautiful to stay indoors because others may get jealous and it may distort their opinion of themselves.

Seriously, where do we draw the line?  I am not advocating outright dishonesty, although I guess that is what some people think L’Oreal are guilty of, but my point is if you are going to try and make an example of one, be consistent and take all companies on.  Impossible you say? Then don’t touch any of them.

I just hope the same British lawmakers are banning all the fast food outlets for misleading the public about the way food is portrayed on TV, now that’s misleading. I have never, ever received a burger or a serve of fries that look as good as they do on TV, nor doesn’t my fried chicken or potatoes and gravy look so inviting and the cheese on my pizza never oozes the way the TV version does. What about the household items in the aisle of the supermarkets, the stain removers, bathroom cleaners, odour eliminators. Most of them don’t live up to their claims. I am outraged they are not banned because stupidly I still buy them – it must be the power of advertising!

What about the banks, what consumer believes the touchy, feely stuff they try and portray in their marketing.  It is wishful thinking and I am sure it makes management and the board feel better about themselves because some of them actually believe the BS.

Of course they have to do it and of course we would love to be doing some creative for the banks, but generally small agencies never get a real look in for a myriad of reasons that I would prefer not to go into at the moment – may be another time and another blog. But here is some free strategic advice – the general public would rather see  honest creative and instead of spending so much on the production  give something tangible back to the consumers such as less fees, rate reductions or rate freezes for loyalty, in other words give existing customers reasons to stay – now I believe a campaign like that would gain traction and win customers. It’s strange how so many well qualified executives ignore the simple rules associated with the opportunity cost of retaining customers opposed to trying to always win new ones, but I guess when it’s so hard for consumers to change banks we’re all over a barrel with our pants around our ankles.

In summary, I say to the lawmakers, get a life and ban something that is going to actually make a difference to people’s lives instead of trying to hook a big fish to make yourself feel better or win brownie points. L’Oreal is probably laughing…all the way to the bank with the added publicity.

PS: Speaking of banks, good on Choice partnering with Messrs Harris and Hunyor to test the waters with their  One Big Switch concept, mind you I think they need more than 1000 to approach the bank with and make a real impact. I am guessing it won’t take too long for 50,000 to sign up and that would surely speak volumes.  If the average mortgage is say $250K and you get 50,000 people on board that equates to serious bargaining power, $12.5 billion worth of power. Now what board or shareholder’s quorum wouldn’t hang the CEO out to dry if they let that go or didn’t fight to try and win it? Good Luck I say!