Do you think that Advertising has become too parochial, too introspective, too convinced by its on hyperbole?

Two or three thousand, what would be described as, creative people, dominates advertising.
However, a major change is afoot and advertising, long regarded as the ultimate weapon in marketing – particularly the once mighty television commercial – is now seen as complacent and increasingly ineffective.

Consequently, the power of the creative is diminishing. And why is this a good thing for clients and their customers? Because, very often, these creatives have been the ‘barnacles on the bum of progress’.

It is amazing when you consider the many excellent marketing ideas that have been available, however the promoters of such ideas eventually gave up selling to advertising agencies because all advertising agencies wanted was to get their clients onto television.

That it might not be the ideal medium was totally ignored.
Our experience was typical; we developed the most potent, effective and accountable marketing communications programme – ever.
When we started the business we were introduced to Alvin Toffler who, when hearing of what we were doing simply said “Persevere but remember vested interests will be against you”.
Was he ever right!

Are you looking to engage the voices of consumers with your brands?

　


Help your Clients Face the Challenge of Innovation



Clients need solutions that allow their brands to engage with their consumers

and get the results they need to move their marketing strategy forward.

Interactive marketing communication is the key to helping clients innovate.

A year after first asking the question above, the answer is still "No." Too

many agencies still are not making themselves an integral part of the new

reality. As the world becomes more digitally connected, we should celebrate the

fact that marketing and advertising ideas are coming from everywhere. For me,

it's inspiring to see the radical evolution of an industry and watch individuals

take control of a once-closed society made up of Mad Men. The new world can

be scary for people who still work in the old model. We get that. Change is

scary.

But it's also a reality.

Part of that reality is the fact that Advertising ignores communication theory.

As the mass media have matured, the behavioural dynamics of perception and interaction, which were not address by Advertising Agencies in the 70s and 80s, during the explosive growth of advertising have become critical to the redefinition of media and its role in marketing communication. With passive, one way, forms of advertising such as media displays or television advertising, there is a certainty of a degree of non-response.

Lack of communication competence.


Most Advertising Agencies lack the skills of communication, advertising messages are more carefully prepared than interpersonal communication and yet ‘message’ comprehension tends to be lower.

Advertisements are more carefully prepared because gatekeepers (those who

prepare and send out messages) are more cautious about what they say to large

audiences than they are to audiences of one or a few, they check their facts

more carefully and they prepare their syntax and vocabulary more precisely.

And yet, because their audience contributes much less feedback, the source

cannot correct for any lapse or understanding, so people are more likely to

misinterpret what they hear or read over the mass media.

The need for Interactive Marketing Communication.


Put simply, because there is a human desire for interaction. We have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way and more passive form of information retrieval that exists.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.


　

Are you doing anything about Swinging back the web clutter?

Last summer, Starcom released a major study on internet clutter finding that the more ads on a page, the more click-through rates, brand impact and product consideration decline. Jeff Marshall, senior VP-director of the firm's online arm, said since the dot-com bubble burst, many sites have cleaned themselves up. But "not everybody's moved that way. ... We may see that pendulum switch back toward clutter."

And then there's mobile marketing, where perhaps the greatest risk lies for a new avalanche of commercial content. Though hailed as one of the ad business' great growth areas, it hasn't really taken off, partly because the jury's still out on just how receptive consumers are to commercial messaging on their phones. One commenter from New York City gave this no-duh perspective: "The cellphone is way to [sic] personal to be considered another advert medium. If companies start slamming people with messages, people will be turned off."

In the end, permission marketing may be advertisers' best bet for gaining acceptance in emerging media that don't come with social contracts of the kind that's governed, say, the TV business for so long -- that is, viewers' tacit willingness to put up with ads since that revenue's underwriting the programming they enjoy.

"Anytime there's a new destination for people, like YouTube or mobile phones, the assumption is we've got to find a way to put some ads there," Mr. Barocci said. "That's just going to make things worse because there's no social contract. If mobile-phone companies say, 'We'll reduce your bill if you accept ads,' then that's a contract and that's smart."

Advertising now has to go beyond "telling" people about products using mass media,



and advanced upon "listening" to customers through Interactive Marketing Communication programmes together with loyalty schemes and market research.

Advertising is now moving towards the third generation of true customer engagement, characterised by 'talking', by engaging in open-ended dialogue with customers. Through interactive programmes we can understand customers preferences and passions, we can identify consumers across brands and experiences. For marketing and advertising to be truly effective, operators need to have customer information that enables interactive targeted and relevant communications. Giving customers the choice to opt in or out of campaigns enables them to be user specific and ultimately provide more value. The widespread use of interactive communication messaging creates a far-reaching and significant marketing opportunity for brands.

By putting a reliable interactive communications infrastructure in place, and a means of controlling and measuring campaigns, Clients can deliver some of the most highly effective marketing initiatives through well structured and relevant interactive programmes. Lets face it, without improving the understanding and content of advertising and marketing all business must remain understandably concerned that advertisings' inflexibility inherent in the concept of creativity will act as a barrier to economic growth. It is also regrettable that these barriers come accompanied by rhetoric that still sounds as though agencies still believe the words "Advertising Works" because it doesn't! For advertising to enter 2011 the message must be sent that Advertising has demonstrably improved and that only the best and the brightest will not merely be tolerated, but are actively desired. Advertising people suffer from self-esteem enhanced but talent-deprived capabilities and, sad to say, advertising suffers from an inexhaustible supply of untalented people actively encouraged by indulgent clients who appear unable to criticise them! Unfortunately we are almost alone in our willingness to tell the hard truths, and it appears that there is a growing chorus of voices trying to convince these untalented people that hard work isn't necessary any more and they're entitled to a lengthening list of benefits paid for by others and that they don't have to accept the consequences of their actions when these consequences are bad. Advertising desperately needs the return of elder statesmen. Whilst the current fashion is to get rid of old advertising people, this should be stopped...immediately. Because advertising and marketing needs to listen to their advice, these wise old men who have already been through advertising downturns, marketing reviews and outlandish waste and who could spot all the tricks and bluffs as practised by to-days bumped up experts

　

　

We becoming more and more distracted by the various media that continues to proliferate under advertising's largess.

As advertisers spend more, they extend media's restless tentacles, thus

distracting us to the point where marketers have to spend yet more to regain our

attention (if they ever had it in the first place!)

All the mounting evidence that advertising doesn't work goes totally ignored.

Recently it was written that most marketing (theory and practice) is wish

driven. The work on advertising effectiveness convincingly proves that there is

no evidence that advertising persuades anybody to do anything; advertising can

only be a 'weak' force.

The sad thing is that all this evidence is studiously ignored by many

sections of the marketing community, resulting in the terrible situation we are

witnessing to-day. Many goals set in marketing are unrealistic. They are

therefore doomed to failure from the start. Such romantic marketing dreams

include sustained growth, brand differentiation, persuasive advertising, and are

totally unrealistic!

Now, in addition, we have the craven-image of dotcom dementia 2.0

The problem is that the articles of faith among those who conquered their

fear, denial, blind faith and desperate attachments to the status quo

("Advertising works") now face the gathering reality of the chaos scenario! With

most advertising these days where is one iota of information which will

sell?

Mostly they don't tell consumers anything that matters, instead leaving that

heavy lifting to other, less sexy marketing efforts.

INTERACTIVE SOLVES ROI CONCERNS!

A survey conducted by the Association of National Advertisers found that digital marketers' main concern is ROI. In fact, 62 percent said that their main concern is the inability to prove ROI. The survey also listed which media platforms have increased the most among marketers, like YouTube and other forms of digital growth

However when you use Interactive Marketing Communication, properly executed, you can easily prove ROI!

Your complete and utter lack of understanding of the word "communication"



together with a lack of appreciation as to what can, and does, stifle effective communication.

All advertising is a form of learning whereby the advertiser is asking people to change their behavior after learning the benefits of the products or services on offer. However, we all tend to filter out information, which we do not want to hear. This clearly alters the effectiveness of conventional advertising in quite a dramatic way.

The final purchase decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety; the worry that perhaps the decision was not the best or the right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce their choice and begins to take more notice of their chosen product's marketing communications.

Due to a lack of understanding of the communication process we have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years, where the whole process has been de-humanized.

There is now an extraordinary reduction in interaction because conventional advertising and marketing have become a one-way practice whereby information is disseminated in a passive form.

So what are you going to do about this?

HERE'S HOW TO INCREASE YOUR MARKETING

R.O.I.

BY AS MUCH AS 50%

　

　

　

Interactive Marketing Communication wants to help you save up to as much as 50% of your marketing budget. We specialise in creating successful, accountable interactive advertising "Events".

As the founders and pioneers of interactive marketing communications we have developed "Products" to help you create totally accountable advertising. We have an extensive range of interactive products to meet all of your marketing communications requirements

Visit us online @ http://interactivetelevisionorinteractivetv.blogspot.com. There you will find research testimonials and much more. If you want to learn more about Interactive communicaion please check out our website.

Http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com

Our programmes are media neutral and highly effective, with over £5 million invested in independent research. All we want is half-an-hour of your time to demonstrate how Interactive Marketing Communication can work effectively for you.

Interaction and The Outdated Idea of Mass Marketing

Advertising together with Broadcast Media, finally bite the dust!

Because no longer is the Marketing message, "We want your money". To day the Marketing message has to be "We want your opinions".

Because the moment you put that into real practice you can have everything you've always wanted, sales, customer relationships and also Brand loyalty.

However replacing research with interaction changes all the opportunities to successful marketing. "Yes", you can say," "Interactive Events will create my new products"

However at the moment Big Business is not making the correct decisions regarding interaction. Maybe some people within these organisations know and understand what's happening out there in consumer land. But the dreadful fact is that giving their voice to such statements would, more probably, seriously damage their career growth!

These days I search everywhere for the headline "Interactive Communication is a winning combination for all…The Client…The Media…and last but by no means least…your customer"!

It never appears.

Interactive Communication finally allows the revolution to commence. The revolution against one-size fits all advertising; the bland all-knowing corporate voice, the lack lustre politicians busily furnishing their own nests…from our money.

The fact of the matter is your customers, you, me and everybody else, do not trust business. We find it highly insulting to be treated this way and we mistrust you in numbers far greater than you or your advertising/marketing people allow for.

Dialogue, two-way conversations, would start to change these hostile attitudes. You really do need to commence interactive events - right now. And you can do so in existing media.

Before I go on, I must emphasise that on no account let your Advertising Agency tempt you into spending big bucks on the Web. Already the Advertising-as-Usual crowd is pouring billions into the Web, however be warned, as they said in the "Cluetrain Manifesto", "So you advertise on the Internet…so what"? If you think you are wasting money on Advertising-as-Usual be very careful. The Internet, possibly is a bigger waste of money than Advertising-as-Usual, and, as we all know, right now that is one Mother of a huge waste of money!

"Why?" you may ask "has it all changed from the safe secure way of marketing in the past".

Simply put, Advertising-as-Usual, together with its handmaiden Broadcasting-as-Usual have treated us with too much contempt. According to a recent article in the Times, TV executives commonly think of viewers' phone revenue as "moron tax". And this attitude of utter contempt pervades the executives of advertising and Broadcast-as-Usual, and expresses itself in all the offerings of a rip-off culture, from government to TV companies.

And bear in mind that Advertising-as-Usual and Broadcast-as-Usual hold Clients in great contempt as well. They rejoice in removing large chunks of your Marketing Budgets, to then waste them in rip-off ventures that only worsen the publics' contempt for you…so in effect they are spending your money to get you into a ever worsening situation.

Customers said they would feel closer to your brand...

...if you listened to their opinions and responded to questions or comments.

Yours brands should throw out ideas or topics amongst customers in which

they can start their own discussions, which don't necessarily have to be about

your brand, and could involve negative comments.

Negative comments need to be answered, not ignored, and

comments kept up, not removed, as an exercise in transparency. Your

conversation with consumers has to be of interest to them, such as giving them

something to engage with, rather than directly asking for feedback on a project.

Your brand, by listening to friends or fans points of view and concerns,

and accepting criticism while giving users honest information, allows a deeper

relationship to be formed, thus increasing brand loyalty, and especially

increasing sales Further findings reveal that social network users become

largely irritated and tend to ignore promotions from brands and a

majority of users would not remain a fan, or friend of a brand, that regularly

sent them promotions.

The lack of accountability has damaged the advertising...
 ...and marketing industry, it is the real flaw behind the advertising crisis. There has to be a complete change of thinking and regulation of the world’s marketing industry. Certainly Clients cannot risk again the degree of unaccountability that have been practised up to now. Advertising agencies need to change their behaviour, they need to re-establish relations with their Clients and gain a better understanding of the communication process.

In the past British advertising was based on protecting and looking after the client’s interests as well as their own. Advertising agencies should not be ashamed to return to these principals.

I am amazed at the spinelessness of British advertising people in defending the lack of accountability, the gross commercial clutter. They appear as parties to a conspiracy to fleece monies from marketing budgets under the futile guise of creativity.

There have been few outspoken admen, those that do speak out as to the inefficiencies of advertising are mocked and reviled never receiving a satisfactory response to their, valid, criticisms.

However Interactive Communication, properly structured, will allow advertising to return to more honest, accountable marketing!

Just some of the benefits of using Interactive Communication

　

Produces measurable results.

Greater Product awareness.

Longer Product Recall.

Substantial Sales Uplift.

Better Customer Data.

Stronger customer interaction.

Less expensive than regular advertising.

Cuts thru commercial clutter.

Resolves selective perception & cognitive dissonance.

Gives greater response to your mainstream advertising.

Strengthens consumer purchase commitment.

Improves perceptions of your brand(s) benefits.

Raises Brand awareness & preference.

Maximises revenue.

Increases the communication value of your marketing activity.

And...Is Media Neutral.

Showing the results of just one exposure to an interactive "Event" against the reach and frequency model of traditional advertiing.



Client: Reckitt & Colman.

Brand: Setamol 500

Category: Analgesic.

Research: AGB

"Findings from this Post Event Survey shows impressive increases in scores for those who saw the Event in comparison for those who did not. Results are consistently superior in all three key market measures: Prompted-Brand-Awareness +92.6%, Past-Four-Week-Purchase +47% and Definitely-Will-Buy +47%.

　

　

Client: Warner Lambert.

Brand: Listerine.

Product Category: Mouthwash

Research: Market Intelligence Corporation.

　

"Gains in all key measurements were recorded among consumers exposed to the newspaper interactive event, versus those not exposed. These gains were: Unaided Awareness 39%, Aided 11%, Past-Four-Week-Purchase 55% and Next-Purchase 97%. This translates in total market gain of 8% for Unaided-Awareness; 2% gain in Aided-Awareness; 11% increase in Past-Four-Weeks-Purchase and 19% in Brand-Next-Purchase."

　

　

Client: Warner Lambert.

Brand: Listerine.

In-Store Sampling Programme.

Research: Market Intelligence Corporation.

Research Protocol: Interactive Sampling was conducted in 6 stores with other 6 matched stores used as a control group where sampling was conducted without the interactive elements. Additionally, other stores that had no sampling programme at all were monitored. Purchase behaviour was monitored for three months. Actual inventory and cases sold were monitored.

"For the month of November (time of sampling and commencement of survey) an increase of 129% in actual purchase was obtained in those stores where the interactive sampling programme took place versus those (control) stores where the interactive sampling did not take place.

The average for the three month programme, November, December, January was a gain of 36% in purchase, versus those stores where the interactive programme was not held."

　

Client: Nestle.

Brand: Nescafe Excella Coffee.

Product: Instant Coffee.

Research: Market Intelligence Corporation.

"Substantial gains in all key measurements were recorded among those readers who were exposed to the interactive event versus those who were not. Unaided Awareness of the brand increased 19%; Aided-Awareness increased 10%; Past-Four-Week-Purchase increased 33% and Brand-Next-Likely increased 31%. In the total market these increases translated to a 4% increase in Unaided-Awareness; 2% increase in Aided-Awareness; 8% increase in Past-Four-Week Purchase and 8% increase in Future Purchase-Intent.

Follow-up programme in same publications seven months after above programme.

As a result of the feedback from the above programme, the creative was strengthened to focus on a secondary feature of the above. OpinionGram responses from this programme event suggested this repositioning.

"Increases in all key measurements were recorded: Unaided-Awareness + 60%; Aided-Awareness +8%; Past-Four-Week-Purchase +70% and Next-Brand-Purchase +54%.

The effect on the total market among those exposed versus not exposed was in the magnitude of: Unaided-Awareness +12%; Aided-Awareness +2%; Past-Four-Week-Purchase +15% and Brand-Will-Buy-Next =11%."

Advertising will fail for three reasons:

There are three problems with advertising in any form, whether broadcast or

Consumers do not trust advertising.

Dan Ariely has demonstrated that messages attributed to a commercial source have much lower

credibility and much lower impact on the perception of product quality than the same message

attributed to a rating service. Forrester Research has completed studies that show that

advertising and company sponsored blogs are the least-trusted source of

information on products and services, while recommendations from friends and

online reviews from customers are the highest.

Consumers do not want to view advertising. Think of watching network TV news and remember that

the commercials on all the major networks are as closely synchronized as possible.

Why? If network executives believed we all wanted to see the ads they would be staggered, so that

users could channel surf to view the ads; ads are synchronized so that users cannot

channel surf to avoid the ads. Consumers do not need advertising.

My own research suggests that consumers behave as if they

get much of their information about product offerings from the internet, through

independent professional rating sites or community content rating services like


www.ratebeer.com/" http://www.tripadvisor.com/"

Somewhere. there is a new, Post-Modern, British Advertising Agency struggling to emerge!

Struggling to emerge from the wreckage left by the crisis. It will be a differently shaped advertising agency than the pre-crisis unaccountable model: Indeed it has to be. And it is not likely to be a "back to the future" communications model. But based upon a sound understanding of what "communications" really means The new advertising may take a while to emerge. But it is not too soon to sketch out the main lines and ensure that Clients, across the board, are supportive. These have to be a complete understanding of Interactive Communication, involvement, learning, decision making. Based upon the fact that the advertising process is a learning process, and the more effective and easy you can make the learning process the more effective becomes the marketing of Clients' Products and Services.

The Worst Possible Cure!

Every day you're exposed to more than four hours of media. Most of it is

optimized to interrupt what you're doing. And it's getting increasingly harder

and harder to find a little peace and quiet. The ironic thing is that marketers

have responded to this problem with the single worst cure possible. To deal with

the clutter and the diminished effectiveness of Interruption Marketing, they're

interrupting us even more!

Few Companies have a larger or more loyal audience than...

...Facebook, with more than 900 million users and reams of
the personal information that marketers covet. Many analysts expect that
Facebook will continue to find ways to make money from that vast global reach;
it already brings in $3.7 billion a year.
Yet Wall Street's evident frustration with the stock price reflects growing
concerns about the long-term prospects for companies that are popular but do not
charge users for services.
Solve the problem? Yes we can but first of all make all marketing and Advertising people understand the true meaning of Communication!

The need for Interactive Marketing Communication

　

　
Put simply, because there is a human desire for interaction. We have created a media society during the past 40 or 50 years where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way and more passive form of information retrieval that exists.

People desire to be taken account of, to affect change, learn and personalise their relationships with their environment. There are a phenomenal number of reasons, which cause people to interact, which go far beyond just giving them things.

When people participate in interactive marketing communication they are told that their efforts and feedback are of positive help to the advertisers. Moreover, by participating, they then learn and understand the message from the advertiser, personalise their relationship with the advertiser and their products (or services).

Consumers tend to filter out information they do not want to hear and this alters the effectiveness of advertising in quite a dramatic way. The purchaser’s decision is invariably a compromise and this leads to a certain amount of anxiety. The worry that perhaps the purchase decision was not the best or right one. In order to minimise this anxiety the purchaser seeks to reinforce his choice and begins to take more notice of his chosen product’s advertising. And, at the same time, the purchaser deliberately suppresses data, which might challenge his decision by ignoring the advertising of competitive brands.

People are often loyal to a brand simply because they do not want to readdress a decision. The opportunity to screen out undesired data always exists when media advertisements have to stand on their own and fight for attention.

Interactive Communication takes the consumer through the barrier of not wanting to address change; and this is the ultimate market the advertiser is after – the people who use his competitors’ products.

Now the consumer can say ‘Yes, I will change my behaviour and I have a very good reason or series of reasons why", and have a well-informed opinion or image in mind.

If someone goes into a product purchase decision with a very specific image of the product and its reason to exist and why they have decided those reasons are worth its purchase, the test in reality, the use of the product, will tend to confirm that premise, and therefore conversion will be enormously enhanced.

Interactive Marketing Communication turns passive advertising into active advertising and actually alters behaviour during the communication and learning process.

Interactive Marketing Communication increases sale.

And there’s more!

It enhances relationships and dramatically improves consumer knowledge, understanding and loyalty.
1. Strong Company or Brand Values.

To be effective communication has to be single minded in choosing a specific proposition which by definition cannot appeal to all. Yet every product, service or retail outlet can offer several attractive benefits and in some cases these can be numerous. Interactive Communication presents consumers with a ‘menu’ of powerful benefits, both rational and emotional, and asks them to choose the one which they find most relevant and appealing to them.

This allows them: -

a) Personalise their relationship with the communicator.

b. To absorb and retain the majority – or even all – of those extra benefits while making their choice.

Facebook Unconcerned That Advertisers pay for Thousands of Fake "Likes"

Facebook has previously admitted that 5-6% of its 90 million accounts are fake. But this is the first time evidence has emerged that spam accounts are rooking advertisers who pay for campaigns on Facebook that reach no one "real."

The BBC reports:

Michael Tinmouth, a social media marketing consultant, ran Facebook advertising campaigns for a number of small businesses, including a luxury goods firm and an executive coach, they became concerned after looking at who had clicked on the adverts.

While they had been targeting Facebook users around the world, all their "likes" appeared to be coming from countries such as the Philippines and Egypt." Mr Tinmouth asked Facebook to investigate the issue of questionable profiles after one of his clients refused to pay for his adverts on the basis they had not reached "real people".

Tinmouth then created a fake business, "Virtual Bagel," And found that it too gathered Likes from fake accounts. Facebook told the BBC it was not a big deal: We've not seen evidence of a significant problem," said a spokesman.All of these companies have access to Facebook's analytics which allow them to see the identities of people who have liked their pages, yet this has not been flagged as an issue.

Use Interactive Communication, properly executed, and overcome all these problems immediately...and for ever!

The power of collective intelligence

Yahoo music ratings, Google PageRank, MySpace friends, Netflex user reviews – these are all manifestations of the wisdom of the crowd. Millions of regular people are the new tastemakers. Some of them act as individuals, others are parts of groups organised around shared interests, and still others are simply herds of consumers automatically tracked by software watching their every behaviour. For the first time in history, we’re able to measure the consumption patterns, inclinations and tastes of an entire market of consumers in real time and just as quickly adjust to the market to reflect them. These new tastemakers aren’t a super-elite of people cooler than us, they are us

We are leaving the Information Age and entering the Recommendation Age. Today information is ridiculously easy to get you practically trip over it on the street. Information gathering is no longer the issue – making smart decisions based on the information is now the trick .