June | 2010 | Social Networking and New Markets

Credit Agricole pulls out Ad campaign for France | Advantage Sports

June 22, 2010 1 Comment

In a startling development, sponsors of the French soccer team, Credit Agricole pulled out their TV campaign celebrating the French Soccer team after the team performed abysmally and as the sponsors put it - “is embattled in controversy”

The team’s corporate sponsors have held conference calls to voice their anger at the players’ refusal to train.

There are very few active sponsors out there who take pains to step on to the field and some may still debate whether they have such a role to play , in any sport. However Corporate sponsors and budgets are an important part of the team’s brand and they need to carry a fiduciary responsibility, to be executed in a formal role withe the team. It may seem opportune here that this might happen thru an existing sports functionary on the team. Similar fracas in IPL with team owners or the clubby nature of teams in NFL or the NBA show light on the critical role team owners and sponsors play.

However sports persons are right in their sometimes standoffish stance to these entreaties in that this role is sprung on them and typically on a bad day. Though formal processes are over hyped and narrow in approach, sports persons can’t be expected to absorb the role of the sponsor/owner as and when it happens and debates on such interventions during disruptive climes are warranted.

In this particular case as well, there will be popular support for the action and sports officials will be on the wrong side arguing for the sake of argument or apologising for their poor performance in front of a theatrical act. It may now become important for everyone to assume the important role of corporate sponsor into the team’s fabrc and provide a discerning option for sponsors and/or corporate owners that want to distance themselves from the game.

While we were tempted to carry this opinion in our financial research streams, we thought it wise to let the game go on without this undue stress.

Ft.com

Sponsorship and TV rights of the French national team are worth €70m ($86.3m), according to Les Echos. The team sponsors are retailer Carrefour, utility provider GDF Suez, Crédit Agricole, SFR, the telecoms company, and sport goods maker Adidas.

And China never qualified

In a eerie blast of icy change, today’s LA Times blogs carry Asian stories prominently leading with rural BPO in India and blogging about how Soccer is still alien to China. Knowing our asian brethre, they wouldn’t be far behind next time in Rio..

Filed under Sports, Sports Marketing Tagged with 2010, China, Credit Agricole, FIFA world Cup, Football, France, Jo'burg, South Africa, Sports Marketing

Facebook results show social user volumes | Advantage social

June 21, 2010 Leave a comment

Attacking Google – Pt. I

While the Facebook crowd has developed its own fangs, social business is here to stay with Facebook users celebrating Facebook’s mega results with great aplomb. Ahead of our own estimates at $500m and even more optimistic estimate at $650 million, Reuters reports Facebook as having completed the first round of its internet conquest with $800 million in revenue, tons in profit nd fallen faces and fuming engines at Google. The social web has declared war on the Google dominated ARPANET and life is new and rosy for users with minutage on Facebook increasing significantly every month without any dent in the pocket. We are still looking for turning points that bring out collaborative marketing as a commercial success having rejected subscription models and advertising based models. Zynga however estimates year 2 will not be as rosy enough for it. Shares of Facebook are trading at select online portals featured here earlier.

(Reuters) – Facebook’s financial performance is stronger than previously believed, as the Internet social network’s explosive growth in users and advertisers boosted 2009 revenue to as much as $800 million, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

MEDIA

The company also earned a solid net profit, in the tens of millions of dollars last year, one of the sources said.

That growth in profit and revenue underscores how Facebook is increasingly making money off its 6-year-old service, which ranks as the world’s largest Web social network with nearly half a billion users.

That sort of performance is likely to whet the appetites of investors keen for a public share float, despite the company’s insistence that an IPO is not a near-term priority.

HOLY KAW!

Filed under Lifestyle Brands, Social Media Tagged with Digital, digital web, Facebook, social, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0

Mining Brand Capabilities in a recession? | Advantage Brands

June 21, 2010 Leave a comment

Significantly, during 2009 Measured media spending at Leading National Advertisers in the US and the Domestic Industry overall was down 10%. It could have been higher in terms of the cuts as most advertisers would have asked agencies to hold and at least part of the blame, even after restructuring, lies in the leading national advertisers plying their trade across myriad offices and brands, each brand manager trying to guard hs turf and avoiding significant decisions. Diktats from HO finally mean much less even at a GE organisation and unless objectives are v ery clear deeper cuts are unlikely.

Also as the world goes digital, the budgetary cuts next time will be tougher especially if social forms like facebook and twitter are able to de-google-ise the generation and deliver higher yield where like in emerging markets today, prices may continue moving north along with increases in spending on the media on the web. That promise is however a significant distance further down as we continue to delievr customization and freemium benefits to a growing generation of unemployed entrepereneurs unable to measure, support or evince interest in rebuilding the large corporations.

However, closer home there are lessons in the sustained brand support during 2009 not in China alone but right in Uncle Sam’s backyard/warehouse/main street.

Among the Top 100 advertisers, one in four spent more, betting on opportunity in the Great Recession. While there is no easy way to prove cause and effect, the sales gains at spending boosters should help reinforce the idea that advertising delivers.

If 25% decided their advertising yielded higher benefits during the dull season. the prime cuts ofcourse landed with such advertisers, Walmart pipping Macy’s in spending and sscoring a net 1.1% increase in sales in a brutal market beating the national sales graph by 3.2% s it went south in that same dull season. Even as a proportion of global sales, Walmart spent 0.59% on advertising against 0.52% in 2008 and that is a substantial investment in 2009.

The other interesting story from the crisis we featured here has been Bank of america, which plastered itself on FOX History as part of programming on American History, living a great showcase presence as it came out bleeding and needed to shore up loyalty

Good briefs.

Filed under Digital Media, Marketing Tagged with Ad Spending, Adage, Advertising, Branding, Brands, Marketing, Recession, social

Agency, Marketing, Consumer – More of the same | Advantage Brands

June 7, 2010 1 Comment

First, a byte from Adage on the ‘wired’ [not mispelt] creative-approver nexus. We all go thru the pangs of the creative getting us exactly and wondering if we need a second ‘discontinuous’ check for the go to market..or if we could do it in-house..what the research says is that the creative likes the same assertive punches or digs such as the brand manager and 4 out of 5 consumers might actually think differently

WORD NERDS: Xyte’s model relies on factors including learning styles and reliance on thinking vs. feeling to classify people into 16 groups.
When Xyte, a unit of online-sampling firm StartSampling, last year branched into the new area of research, it started having prospects in the marketing, agency, media and market-research community take the test. The company found people throughout the marketing industry tend to fall into the “word” category — people who prefer to work with words and have a longer-term focus.

That’s no surprise, given the nature of the work, said StartSampling CEO Larry Burns, a veteran of Information Resources Inc. (now SymphonyIRI), who himself falls into that quadrant. But word people account for only 18.5% of the population, and the ads that appeal to them often don’t work so well with the other 81.5% of people.

Testing TV spots

As part of its “Xyting Insights” service, which applies the behavioral segmentation to members of Knowledge Networks’ consumer panel, StartSampling also has been testing TV commercials. And it found ads also tend to do disproportionately well with word people.

..

Xyte’s “hand” category — people who prefer working with their hands and have a shorter-term focus in their work — make up 30% of the population, a bigger portion than word folks.

“They like touching things, tangible things, practical jokes and wisecracks,” Mr. Burns said, and they often don’t like ads that appeal to word people. “If you’re communicating with them from an emotional advertising standpoint, it’s not going to work terribly well,” he said. “They like products [backed by] facts.”

To take a rain check however, those ‘wild’ consumer driven Doritos and GM ads have got themselves a big thumbs down too..apparently all the green brainstorming produces is nasty vitriol that does not do the brand much good.

Filed under Marketing Tagged with Adage, Advertising, Branding, Briefs

Brands become the new Cadillac Records | Advantage Brands

June 7, 2010 1 Comment

Adage has become very insistent on twitter with a catchall for the lifestyle brands McDonalds’, Coke and Pepsi fronting contracts with artists to give them direct visibility with new artists. While McDonalds has its own agency “Artists & Labels”, Coke has signed up Universal’s artist K’naan using his “wavin’ flag” adaptation for the $100m FIFA World Cup campaign.

Artists & Brands is also partnering with Rodney Jerkins, a legendary music producer and Music Attorney Daryl Jones. Pepsico America Beverages has roped in Green Label Sound to dig up mountains of consumer love for ‘Do the Dew’

“You’ll see through Green Label Sound the rethinking of ownership of music, a rethinking of how to monetize it, how to build the brand of an artist,” he said. “And I think you’ll see where it’s coming from artists, managers, record labels and alternative methods of funding — and brands will play an incredibly critical part in that.”

Shops like Music Dealers in B2B Music Licensing have stepped up to a staff of 30 in the last two years, while shopping for clients such as Maxwell House, Corona and GMC

Brand spends can definitely make much more sense with new artistes offering a life time commitment for just a snatch of dollars. According to Adage, the Coke song is already no. 1 in China, Mexico and Germany. Social media is also likely to be an all pervasive influence giving these artists much to play for, and the intensity of the superlative reach might well translate into shorter tracks and thus jingles, with brands able to support artists directly.

Filed under Lifestyle Brands, Marketing Tagged with Coke, Lifestyle Brands, mcdonalds, Music, Pepsi

Soccer Aid for Social Champions | Advantage Sports

June 7, 2010 1 Comment

Live Aid Pioneers inspired Robbie Williams to start this charity game for the English Team vs the Rest of the World. Every year it raises $3 million dollars though yesterday’s game saw Rest of the World team beat England at Old Trafford. The Soccer Aid game includes quiz shows etc and is held biennially, the next in 2012 and then on the eve of the 2014 Rio World Cup.

SA is generating revenues form second tier national sponsors and some more local sponsors while FIFA agreements have been discussd earlier in a April preview.

Football Clubs still value at more than $500m for the top 3-4 clubs but most from Italy and Spain ( Inter Milan / Barca )

New infrastructure in Jo’burg includes revamped Soccer City and Ellis Park stadiums at a cost of R$ (ZAR) 1 billion each and redesigned slums near the Ellis Park area..A dozen odd stadiums with a min capacity of 50K will play host starting Friday

Coca Cola is continuing the Open Happiness campaign at least in Asia during the Cup with a lot of pubs in the region stymied by the midnight games

Filed under Marketing, Sports, Sports Marketing Tagged with Carlsberg, Coke, Fifa, SA Airways, Soccer, Socia, Social Media, World Cup

It’s in the beer | Advantage Soccer

June 6, 2010 1 Comment

The sport that is watched by 200 million people well ahead of any other sports fest, even as Asia tunes on bleary eyed and US watches in hope of being called into the ring.

But it’s orbit is equally and more so defined by Beer and Coca Cola. YOU ARE YOUNG! Drink Up. [I am a great fan of the beer in question..Here's to FIFA World Cup, Germany and Brazil]