Moo Talk

First up is the (frankly staggering) news that legendary tinned-meat brand SPAM is set to launch a 21-week marketing drive in an attempt to both educate consumers and banish prejudices as well as introduce their new offering - SPAM fritters. This will be achieved with the use of a travelling roadshow and experiential offerings at Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison’s branches across the country. The supermarket based operations will feature chefs preparing SPAM dishes, brand ambassadors and daily giveaways.

One of the many blogs we read on 'tin-ternet' is 'Online Spin' at mediapost. Joe Marchese wrote an interesting article on influencers in the marketplace and how they impact on a brands acceptance in the marketplace. We'd recommend it as a good read here. Online Spin Article

We thought that this was just a perfect example of 'on message' experiential activity. If they had done the usual bill board poster advertising nobody would have taken a blind bit of notice. But this was just a really creative way of getting there message across! I can imagine late at night lots of people taking sledge hammers, drills and pick axes to this fine example of work. Great stuff!

Buzz marketing, throughout its brief history, has been characterised by constantly shifting parameters. After all, when a marketing form tries to capture the human imagination or social zeitgeist it’s bound to be hard to pin it down to hard and fast rules. Whilst there are “guides” to the art of the buzz none of them can really offer more than a study (albeit an in-depth one) of the theories behind the actions in a word of mouth campaign – and we shouldn’t expect any more. By its very nature viral marketing (as an aside all the terms used so far – buzz, word of mouth and viral – refer to the same discipline) is an art that delivers more knowledge through observation and practice than it can through book-learned theory.

Foster Grant is the UK’s leading ready-to-wear glasses distributor and they’re just getting ready to reveal their fabulous 2008 collection. So what did we do? Well, since we can’t share with you some of the clients that we’re working on right now (well we could... but then there would be that whole “having to kill you” thing... and that inconveniences us both), we decided to get to work on another hypothetical exercise of wonderfulness and worked out a promotional campaign.

This guy has a talent, a talent for cleaning cars. And we don't mean in the ordinary sense! Just take a look at some of his works. Now add your own brand message and voila, a great talking point about your brand around the dinner table.

News from an Ogilvy Action release that their global research (taking in 10,000 subjects worldwide) has shown that an association with a charity or good cause is more likely to persuade consumers to buy a brand than links with sport, music, TV, film, gaming and the arts.

Respondents across ten global markets including the UK were quizzed on their lifestyle and product preference in a study to discover the links made between brands and categories.

Several items of interest this week…and first up is the news that Cadbury will be reintroducing the Wispa this year some five years after the product was axed from its brand offerings. The return follows a successful spell as a limited-edition product last year.

Of more interest to us is the story behind this reintroduction – Cadbury claims it followed a Facebook campaign last summer (ah, the power of viral marketing on the internet) but industry insiders say that the campaign itself was planned by Cadbury as a way to inspire nostalgia in consumers after it was hit by the salmonella scare last year.

Buzz marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing – all of these are terms for what is, essentially, the same thing; the promotion and advertising of a brand using non-traditional and innovative means.

As an advertising and marketing discipline it is now firmly established (and more of the hows and whys of that later) but where did it come from? Why did it gain favour so quickly?

The last week has been a busy one for news, so we’ve tried to pick out the stories that have got us talking over here at Hotcow Headquarters.

First up is the news that Microsoft have given Yahoo just three more weeks to accept their $44.6 billion buyout offer – this potential deal is significant in so many ways and has so many ramifications that we’ve actually devoted a whole other article to it elsewhere…so we won’t go on about it any more here!

The talk doing the rounds this weeks all seems to be about the massive power struggle on the other side of the Atlantic – and not the one involving Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. No, all eyes are firmly turned to the attempted buyout of Yahoo by Microsoft.

The sums involved are staggering (Microsoft are offering $44.6 billion) – but what is more important is that the outcome is likely to have a highly significant effect on internet business in the short term and, in the long term, may even dictate where the future of the web lies.

News is in that Boots.com is to become the exclusive online stockist of Amie, A Teenager’s Best Friend. This skincare range (for that is what it is) is formulated specifically for teenage skin “using natural formulations and 100% recyclable packaging.”

Having noted this we had the usual frank exchange of ideas in the office and came up with the bones of a promotional campaign for Amie.

Check out this installation art. Sometimes, it's the simplest of ideas that work the best. Not long ago we were looking into ideas for a travel business and how we could represent different seasons....

This piece of work is a fantastic example of installation art. We loved this piece of work and how well the agency had put the piece together. What a brilliant way to get a message across.

This melted ice cream van/ installation art work, created by the Glue Society, is a fantastic example of how to get peoples attention. Unfortunately, it isn't for any kind of promotion but we put it here anyway to show you what can be done with a great idea, and a lot of time, patience and effort. This piece of art was for The tenth annual Sculpture by the Sea. It is Australia’s largest annual outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture with more than 100 sculptors exhibiting.

The news that one of the more famous names in the sweetie market – Chewits – is set to expand its range with the introduction of three new variants was met with some interest here at Hotcow.

As you by now know, we like to play around with concepts and hypothetical proposals – it tends to keep the mind fresh - and this broadening of Chewits’ market has had us thinking through an idea for a campaign.

It’s the time of the year again when people start talking about Cannes…a film festival so famous and influential that, well, the fact that there’s a film festival there isn’t even mentioned… The furore surrounding Cannes (pretty much the entirety of the world’s film press appear en masse) leads to a peculiar, almost surreal, atmosphere for the festival’s duration. And, with so many filmmakers, film stars and film promoters kicking around as well as the press it takes something pretty special to get your film noticed.

It’s been another busy week for most people – us included – and, for those who may have missed things, here’s our take on the more interesting news from the last several days. With each week more and more news comes in of web-based initiatives, link ups and ad campaigns – the future appears to have arrived. Here are a couple of the most recent and interesting campaigns coming up.

Customer location doesn’t, at first glance, seem to be a burning issue when it comes to marketing. After all…we, as campaign co-ordinators and creators, dictate where we put our focus and advertising. They come to us right? Well, not if you’re in experiential marketing, no.

Too often a product launch is little more than a product with a party hastily tacked on to it. And, whilst this is all very fun and good for some media exposure it does very little for the product itself.

The use of an experiential marketing company (such as Hotcow for instance…) can ensure a range of beneficial aspects to any launch event. Here’s why.