E!UK Jon Bains - The People vs. The Brand

1. May 2008

2. agenda
who am I?
what is lateral?
what have we done?
are you ready for web 2.0?
questions

3. who am I?

4. what is lateral?

5. lateral is…
• a strategic and creative digital communications agency
• with a rounded view of communication
• and experience in both old and new (digital) media
• we understand brands & the business challenges facing
them
• allowing us to deliver innovative & insightful yet effective
& pragmatic marketing communications
• and we’ve won lots of awards

6. a history of digital innovation
•1995: One of the first major brand Web sites (Levi’s)
•1996: First shockwave game (Shrink-to-fit)
•1997: First interstitial ads (Levi’s)
•1997: First online multi-user Java game (Riveted)
•2000: Chat bots (Flat Eric)
•2001: Audio-mails (Bloomsbury/Harry Potter)
•2003: Online video re-mixer and messenger (Levi’s)
•2004: Mobile musical instrument & ringtone generator
•2005: Social media (“Antidote” youth engagement programme)
•2006: Instant publishing (“what did you do last night?”)
•2007: ‘Ringleader’ and ‘MVM’ mobile marketing platforms

8. what have we done?

12. Five newsletters
Prison break on MySpace

33. Are you ready for web 2.0?

34. What kind of brand are you?

35. Superconsumers Consumer has power
Brand Control
Brand positioning - Cynical and engaged consumer
- Issue based segmentation
n
er
in a consumer - Cause marketing
od - Consumer agenda dialogue
t-m
controlled s Brand ownership
Po - Cynical consumer
- Responsive segmentation
world - Engagement advertising
- Brand agenda dialogue
Brands icon
- Saturated markets
- Image based segmentation
- Symbolic advertising
High differentiation
- Creative research
Low differentiation Brand personality
- Intense competition
- Value based segmentation
- Lifestyle advertising
l - Affective research
a
sic
s Brands as reference
a
Cl - Intense competition
- Targeting on demographics
- Rational advertising
- Cognitive research
Generic
- commodity selling
- Suppliers have power
- Volume & Price sales
- Market data
Naive consumers
Supplier has power

36. Super consumers
Brand control
Mapping your
brand position
Brand ownership
a quick look at tweens
Brand icons
High differentiation
Low differentiation
Personality Brands
Brands as reference
Generic
Price consumers

37. Your Marketing Calendar
• Do you currently have a fixed marcoms calendar?
• i.e. two major pushes a year / Christmas / holiday bias with
a long fallow etc.
• The old web may have been visible 24/7/365 but if you add
dialogue into the mix then you have to be able both listen,
respond and participate.
• Therefore the first sanity check is evaluate the flow from
sporadic to continuous marketing programmes.

38. Manpower versus ambition
• Do you have the resources to manage such a potentially time
consuming activity?
• Obviously that’s where your various agencies come in. Most
brands will have a Digital Marketing Manager (or
equivalent)
• Often we find upper management believes that this one poor
overworked individual who has to handle campaigns / sites /
search / mobile / etc can handle a major social media incursion
without a little bit of help.
• If you are in it for the long haul you should seriously
consider having a community manager who can potentially
be cross discipline with the research group
• it can become a pretty expensive hobby having somebody at an
agency @ £800 a day to hanging out in facebook or on the
blogs on your behalf!

39. Guardianship vs Openness
• Do you have a traditional ‘protective & precious’ marketing
model?
• Depending on your sector this may / should limit your
options on which kinds of next-gen activities you can
explore.
• It can also make it tougher to sell-in those on high who ‘don’t
get it’ even if you do.
• What tends to happen in these situations is you end up in a
perpetual cycle of ‘testing’ or ‘research’ without the
corporate clout (read cash) to achieve anything significant
enough to justify further expense.

40. Lexus: The Hybrid Debate
• Brief and objectives
• Lexus approached a number of agencies with a brief to raise awareness of
Lexus and hybrid technology online, potentially using a viral mechanism.
We proposed a broader online strategy aimed at generating intelligent
debate and online buzz amongst an audience they felt more appropriate
for the brand.
• The result was The Hybrid Debate, a website and blog where the
wider issues surrounding hybrid technology and the implications of its
mainstream acceptance could be discussed and debated.
• The specific areas proposed for discussion were:
• The environment
• Urban planning,
• Families and lifestyle,
• Politics and energy,
• Business and the economy
• Writers were asked to imagine a hybrid future and its implications in
their specialist area. The team included Chris Vernon, European Editor
of The Oil Drum, sustainable living expert Joanna Yarrow, visionary
architect Neil Spiller and Sir Bob Geldof.
•

43. Lexus: Approach
• Launch
The Hybrid Debate soft launched in Autumn 2007 with postings from initial contributors
•
and further content, including the Geldof articles, added for the official launch in December.
• Community
• To generate awareness of the project and drive traffic to the site, We researched and
targeted bloggers active in the five key areas under discussion as well as those with
an interest in the automotive sector. We also worked with Lexus on a PR strategy
designed to maximise on the comments of the key writers, particularly Bob Geldof
whose participation boosted mainstream media interest in the project.
• Press
• PR campaign generated articles - and references to the site URL - in The London
Evening Standard, Metro and Media Guardian. Over 20 articles were written on and
offline with the story picked up around the world in publications as far afield as the
Adelaide Advertiser.
• Partners
• More significantly, the online coverage lead to debate on the sites of publications like
Autocar, achieving one of the objectives of generating online buzz around Lexus and
hybrid technology. Republishing of articles on other sites also generated further
debate. Hybrid Debate contributor Chris Vernon reposted his articles on the Oil Drum
with each one leading to over 120 comments in response.

44. Lexus: Results
• Facts and figures
• Over 6000 words media coverage (print and online publications)
generated via the PR campaign including articles in the Metro, Evening
Standard and Media Guardian (online edition).
• Over 3,000 unique visitors spending an average of 4.10 minutes at
www.thehybriddebate.com
• Over 12,000 page views
• Peak visitors on one day = 434
• Over 12,000 words of user comment on The Hybrid Debate website so far
• Over 4000 words of user comment generated on Autocar in response to
an article about The Hybrid Debate
• Over 300 comments posted on the Oil Drum website in response to
articles republished from The Hybrid Debate
• The Hybrid Debate has been picked up in over 600 blogs so far and a 25%
uplift in blog buzz has been noticed (from .005% to .0075% - where the
number equals the % of all blogs tracked
• Nomintated for a webby

45. Internal Motivations
• Why are you doing it anyway?
• Was your boss sitting reading Marketing one day and decided it
was about time you did a open a shop in second life.
• Did you sit in a brainstorm and decide it was time to make a
facebook application since all your mates were on it?
• Did your PR folk finally wise up to the wonders of aggregation
and decide now was the time for brandXNews24? etc etc?
• The magpie complex is one of the most common features of
modern marketing.
• If you are asking ‘Why’ and the only answer is ‘because’ then
you probably shouldn’t bother.

46. ROI – Models & Expectations
• How do you currently measure ROI against other media?
• Do you have a culture of qualitative and quantitative kpi’s
to give that holistic view of what’s going on?
• Many of the activities you can engage with these days can
be di cult to track in absolute terms with old media and
hence the ‘softer’ brand impact metrics might be over
looked in favour of the ‘harder’ (and usually less
impressive) direct conversion numbers.
• If your organisation is fixated on short term wins and hence
measures activities thus then perhaps this ain’t for you!

47. Commitment & Longevity
• Who is going to be there in the next six / twelve months.
• You may have developed the best long term engagement
programme in the universe but it doesn’t help if the
power’s that are become the power’s that were and you
have to start again.
• The key to this is strategic phasing. Plan in six month
increments and insure you’ve got a tight exit strategy
should budgets be killed / priorities changed / the next
sparkly thing comes along.
• Ensure you understand the social contract you are making
with you consumer.
• Much of the 2.0 world is one of service – I feed you / you
talk to me / we are happy together.
• If you over commit early on and don’t manage consumer
expectations they will revolt further down the line.

48. Antidote:
• Objectives
– Bring the brand closer to its target audience and
create collective experiences to develop and
sustain Consumer Intimacy.
– Be culturally relevant to consumers across
Europe.
– Encourage direct participation with the brand
through Facilitation and Application.
– Demonstrate innovation and foresight across
channels.
– Leverage existing relevant local consumer
passion activity.
– Tie in with the Levi’s® Stores.
– Be sustainable as a long-term proposition, min 2
years.

49. The deal in brief
• The purpose of the first phase was to recruit a network of communities and to
establish credibility on the street
• In order for this to happen and really what is at the core of Antidote is a social
contract with youth.
• It is critical that all parties feel that they are getting a fair deal and not yet
another brand trying to exploit.
• The deal is simple:
• The Content Partners will support Levi’s® via
• access to content & community
• documentation of activities
• promotion of the program where applicable
• allowing association with Levi’s® in press
• Levi’s® will support CP via:
• antidote content area on eu.levi.com
• aggregation of content in Levi’s® print zine
• facilitation of relevant events
• In this way it’s fully reciprocal relationship

50. Slide of cp’s
www.lateral.net

51. Antidote TV
www.lateral.net

53. Online & Print
• Print
• Online:
– to add additional engagement collateral
• Designed to be a ‘pile of
to Levi’s® controlled retail
stu ’ to give a taste of
– to promote the overall program
what’s out where and to
– to deliver on our promise to the CP’s
enable recruitment of new
partners
• Distribution
• Launched Summer 2005 – Distributed using the existing Levi’s
network
• Approximately 150 pieces
– Translated into 5 languages
of content available on site
– Published quarterly
• Monthly Updates
– 1.5M copies across 19 Countries
• In terms of results, Antidote – 1.2M Distributed in 233 Levi’s® Stores
accounted for – Language Split
approximately 8% of all • 35% English, 25% French, 5% German,
10% Italian, 25% Spanish
tra c to eu.levi.com which
– 300K copies distributed through non-
is signficant given it was
Levi’s® distribution
only promoted through
– Cost to date £~60k per issue (.5m)
events and the print zine.

54. Events
• Frequency
• The first season of events was
from October-Dec 2005 – 17 cities in 7 Countries
– 30 Events in 3 Months
• The purpose of funding events
is to
• Reach
• Demonstrate Levi’s® ability
– 259 000 Branded Flyers
to facilitate youth
– ~22 000 Total Venue Capacity
communities
• Generate word of mouth • Production Costs
interest in the brand – £30,820 Funding
• Generate content – £34,450 Documentary
– £17,000 Promotional
• Give opportunities for
depth research
• In addition we generated over 40
• Recruit new partners hours of broadcast quality
interviews and documentation
• Key point to remember about • Average cost per event Approx £3k all in.
the events is that the content I.e. not very much
partners, concieve, promote
and execute them and hence
us.

55. Questions?
Contact:
jon@lateral.net