Brands battling it out as World Cup looms large

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

The FIFA World Cup is the biggest event in the world and therefore seen as the biggest branding opportunity known to man.

In terms of global reach, it knocks spots off The Olympics, Super Bowl or the Rugby World Cup. Almost every country in the world will be watching.

Here’s Nike’s effort. Is it over-produced and slightly ridiculous? Yes. Did it cost an enormous amount that could have gone to any number of charities? Undoubtedly. But is it a lot of fun? You betcha. Read the rest of this entry »

An engaging online strategy doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in bottom-line revenue

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

I’d never really noticed it before, but Burger King has a really cool homepage.

Take a look for yourself, but the website has three volume bars (‘Fun’, ‘Food’ and ‘King’), which control how big the central icons are.

For example, if you max out the ‘Fun’ bar, and minimize ‘Food’ and ‘King’, it makes it easier to see all the advertorial video content on the site. Read the rest of this entry »

Creating online communities: the journey doesn’t stop there

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

Working in PR, marketing, advertising etc, we need to pull ourselves back from situations and realise that we don’t all spend the entire day behind a computer screen engaging with Social Media.

We should always, at the very least, ask how the offline is being influenced by the online. Jeremiah Owyang recently alluded to this in a post on his Web Strategy blog.  If we don’t, then we can end up with a campaign overflowing with clever ideas that create dynamic online communities, but build limited relevance for the company in question and, as a result, limited revenue and ROI. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it a trend or is it a ‘megatrend’?

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

In the media we are always speaking about ‘trends’. Twitter was/is a trend; Google Wave is a trend; apps that drive core business revenue also seem to be an increasing trend (just take a look at the Pizza Hut app )…but what’s a ‘megatrend’? Well, according to Adam Kleinberg , CEO of a Traction, a creative agency out in San Fran, it’s something that transforms society as we know it; “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” and all that malarkey. Read the rest of this entry »