MarketingMonitor: 13 February 2001, Vol. II, Issue 2
Feb. 13, 2001 Vol. II, Issue 2
Please forward this issue WITHOUT cutting. Thanks!
Free subscriptions at: http://www.marketingsherpa.co.uk
1) A special announcement for our readers...
2) News: Internet Villian Wimps Out of Event Sponsorship
3) Case Study: BBC Essentials: ijack score strong response
and maximum exposure
4) Info
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INTRO
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Sponsor:
~~~~~~~~ New Media Knowledge ~~~~~~~~~~
Cross-Channel: Broadband, Digital and Interactive TV in
France and the UK - 22 March 2001, BAFTA, Piccadilly, London.
Interested in digital broadcasting opportunities in Britain
and France? Cross-Channel offers unique insights into markets,
platforms, content production and regulations. Find out how
to win free tickets at: http://www.nmk.co.uk/crosschannel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Special Announcement:
There's been a lot of press recently on how many supposedly-
smart people did very silly things when trying to run Internet
companies. Well, now it's time to raise my hand and say, "I
was silly too."
Last March when a colleague said, "Oh you must start a UK branch
too!", I (being all full of dot-com fervour typical of the period)
said, "Why not?!" Which really was enormously silly as we are
based in America, and as any sane-minded executive knows you
can't give adequate attention to a new UK branch when you are
also managing a new American one.
Luckily I finally saw the light of reason and decided to focus
on what I know best -- publishing newsletters mostly for North
Americans. (Yes, the other MarketingSherpa.com newsletters
continue!)
In the meantime, the best of all possible people have agreed to
take on publishing Sherpa.co.uk from Britain for the British:
Chinwag.com. You'll find a note from them below.
I know they are very excited about serving you fresh weekly
issues of news from now on. So, please do be helpful and
send over all your news items, gossip and "Faux Pas of the
Week" to them as you have done for us in the past.
Thanks!
(Former) Publisher, Anne Holland, MarketingSherpa.com
....
And now a quick note from your NEW Publisher, Sam at Chinwag:
If you haven't heard of us before, Chinwag host and manage a number
of UK-based New Media discussion lists including the UK's leading
marketing forum, uk-netmarketing aka UKNM.
We are keen to find out what current subscribers think of the
MarketingSherpa newsletter and if there is any new content you
would like to see.
Good or bad, we'd like to hear from you so please drop a line to:
mailto:[email protected]
For more information about Chinwag and details of other New Media lists,
visit: http://www.chinwag.com
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NEWS
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Sponsor:
~~~~~~~~ Selling sites not space ~~~~~~~~~~
Interested in advertising on Marketing Sherpa?
Please contact Harvey Sarjant on 020 7663 3654
for full information about advertising opportunities and targeting.
Carlton Hyperactive - Selling sites not space.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Internet Villian Wimps Out of Event Sponsorship
In a "you couldn't write this stuff if you tried" moment, BT Chief
Executive, Peter Bonfield was named Internet Villain of the year
at the Internet Service Provider Association awards this week. The
twist? BT were originally sponsors of this award, but pulled out
when they learned of the shortlist.
(As you may recall, BT Internet won the "Faux Pas of the Week"
awards from MarketingSherpa.co.uk not once but twice in 2000
for running costly marketing campaigns advertising a URL
that wasn't live yet.)
Fellow flak-meisters, home secretary Jack Straw and OFTEL boss
David Edmonds, dodged the poisoned chalice...this year. Straw, is one
of the main proponents of the widely criticised RIP privacy bill, which was
forced through Parliament last year. Edmonds, has taken a great deal
of heat from all quarters, particularly over the rows between BT and
the ISPs over unmetered access and the slow roll-out of ADSL service.
http://www.ispa.org.uk/html/updateable_010207pressrel.htm
* Partnerships & Meetings Sought by Visiting Yanks
Americans persist in flying over to see if they can do business
with us. The latest two contacted us to see if any readers would
like to meet while they are here:
Airikuh (Pronounced "Erica") Marshall, Director Interactive Marketing
Cybereps.com. Will be in London 16-25 February To get the girl to
buy you a free lager, email [email protected]
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CASE STUDY: BBC Essentials
**************************************************************
Sponsor:
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* BBC Essentials: iJack score strong response and maximum exposure
CHALLENGE:
London based PR agency, iJack, were given the task of devising
and executing the launch of a new BBC site aimed at 15-24 year olds.
The Essentials site, backed by BBC Radio One, aimed to provide
young people with impartial, independent advice and information on
key issues such as careers, pensions, mortgages and travelling.
All valuable stuff, but how do you communicate this to the 'yoof'
without sounding like a parent?
BUDGET:
The client, BBC Education had a limited budget with which to
firmly plant the Essentials brand in the minds of the target
audience as well as driving traffic to the site and the topic
areas within the website.
Costs were restricted due to the limitations imposed by the BBC's
public service remit, no £1m lotto prizes, here. The whole campaign
was all non-paid for activity negotiated by iJack. The cost to the
BBC was only the agency fees and prize costs.
THE CAMPAIGN:
Janet Hare, Associate Director at iJack, explained how the agency
developed a two phase strategy to tackle the challenge. "This is a
difficult audience to reach, with a huge amount of media targeted
towards them. To cut through this, we needed to make sure our tone
was just right and that we engaged the audience."
# Phase One
The launch promotion was a competition with a "money can't buy"
prize. The winners would get the opportunity to regularly write
for the website, effectively working with the BBC, whilst
runners-up could win prizes of Palm Pilots.
The competition, 'The Write Stuff' ran over a four week period.
Entrants were asked to respond to a set question (e.g. "What is
the worse vice you can have?") relating to one of the sub-brand
topic areas, Work, Money, Life, Student, Travel. Entrants were set
a 500-word limit and submissions were taken online.
"The Write Stuff" competition was promoted across five key
high-traffic, youth-orientated ISP sites - AOL, Netscape,
WHSmithonline, Hot Toast and madasafish. Banners could not be
used to promote the competition due to the BBC's advertising
restrictions as a public body. Instead home page positioning
across all portals was negotiated without cost. Further activity
included mentions in the ISPs house newsletter and editorial
space on the relevant channels.
ISP promotion was combined with offline PR and radio coverage to
reinforce brand awareness and drive traffic directly to the website.
"Getting the target audience to interact with the brand was an
important aspect of the campaign. The unique prize encouraged
entrants, whilst giving the website a credibility once the winners
were regular contributors." says Hare.
# Phase Two
The initial month long promotion was followed by a second phase using
a much more broad-ranging competition with multiple choice answers.
This was incentivised by prizes, bought at standard cost and included
a second set of PalmPilots, crates of beer and flights to Amsterdam.
The second phase ran throughout October and was designed to continue
increasing the exposure of the site and encouraging straightforward
interaction between audience and site.
Over the following months, iJack went on to run another 5 promotional
competitions. Each competition ran for 4-6 weeks across youth and
student sites such as Studentuk and Push.
Hare says, "To enter the competition, entrants would need to
click through to the Essentials website, the idea was to get
people exposed to the website and start to build an association
with the site, its brand and its content."
RESULTS:
Despite the onerous entry criteria, 'The Write Stuff' received several
hundred entries. The total number of entries for the second phase of
competitions totalled over 4,500. The campaign period saw a significant
rise in traffic on the site - through the ISP promotion, the Essentials
site was exposed to over 40 million page impressions.
Entries for 'The Write Stuff' competition were judged on writing skills,
coherency and the ability to engage the audience. The response came from
a broad cross section of the 15-24 target audience (the youngest writer
was 15 and the oldest 24). The quality of entries was high, boosted by
the credibility of the BBC brand which provided a motivating force for
young, aspiring writers.
Through the promotion, the Essentials site automatically became a prize
winner itself - the competition provided free content with an authentically
young tone and the provision of content on an on-going basis for editorial
each of the Essentials topic sections.
Related links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/essentials
http://www.iJack.co.uk
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(c) Copyright 2001, Chinwag.com
13 February 2001 by Sam Michel
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
Sam Michel is the founder of Chinwag and blogs here for work, and more randomly at Toodlepip. He runs Chinwag Jobs, Digital Mission and tends to focus on murky place where technology, community and marketing collide. You'll find him on twitter @toodlepip.
