Telling Tales - Stories from Semi Permanent Wellington

I'd heard great things about Semi Permanent Auckland so when a one-day Wellington conference was announced it was the perfect opportunity to see what all the fuss was about. Secretly I was a little concerned that I would stand out amongst all the proper creative types. Heading along with three super talented graphic designers I did feel like a bit of an impostor.

Upon arrival I half expected a left brain - right brain quiz at the door. Luckily there weren't any admittance tests and I wasn't outted as the only marketer in the room. Semi Permanent Wellington turned out to be well worth the hype and far more relevant to marketing than I'd expected. In fact, the only point I felt out of place was when Jon DRPNZ, Wellington based street artist, used crime scene tape to connect the negative space between a few confused volunteers. I don't think I was alone in this feeling though!

So here's some of the wisdom I gleaned from just a couple of the Semi Permanent speakers (and attendees) - hopefully it will encourage you to attend in 2013... 

Unlock the 007 in you

It's work like this that made me become a marketer. Bravo Coke!

A bank with personality

It's not often you think of a bank as having a personality, or better yet a sense of humour. I had to chuckle when I saw this print ad by Kiwibank inviting NZ columnist Kerre Woodham. It's nicely played and a good approach to the bank switching wars currently in progress.  

For those of you unaware - National Bank will soon be rebranded with customer account being switched to National's owner ANZ bank.

With so much potential to draw National Bank customers to change banks it' suprising that most advertising is focused on brand without compelling reasons to make the jump.  At the end of the day, even if customers don't like losing the NB Bank brand, it's still easy to do nothing than actively switch from ANZ.

Here's what some of other NZ banks are doing to get entice National Bank customers across:

One lonely polar bear

Television will always be one of the most effective advertising mediums for conveying emotion. TV commercials allows brands the opportunity to entertain, amuse, inform or  move an audience like no other medium. If the budget allows a TV campaign is a fantastic way for a charity to tug at the heartstrings and most importantly inspire action. 

I dare anyone to watch Greenpeace's "homeless polar bear" and not be moved. While I'm not the usual Greenpeace supporter, this ad interrupted my TV viewing and made me want to head online and find out more. And yes, as a result I did sign the petition, the power of a TV ad.  

The campaign has some big names supporting it including Sir Paul McCartney, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Radiohead (the soundtrack to the ad is their song "Everything in it's place") and Jude Law (who voices the ad). 

If you too feel moved to action, visit www.savethearctic.org to sign the petition. 

Westfield Facebook Competition Doubles Page Likes

Westfield recently ran a competition on their Facebook page to give away $10,000 worth of shopping vouchers. What caught my eye was it's spin on the regular giveaway format. The "Show us the likes, we'll show you the money" competition was pretty self-explanatory. Every new like added $1 to the prize pool and entered the visitor to win the total amount. The normal concept of a competition actually discourages organic sharing - afterall you want to win - the less people entered the greater your personal chance. In this case, the more of your friends that enter the greater the prize value.

Enviable Elements
The current number of likes appeared in the clothing so you could see what you could win, no cap was mentioned so their was a feeling that this go keep rising. Unfortunately the competition just closed at 10,000 likes. When I first saw this yesterday the page had around 5k likes - so they have at least doubled their previous likes very quickly through this promotion.

The competition is really simple - no entry form to be completed - just click "like". This did make me wonder though, even though this is housed on an app does the "like to enter" model breach Facebook's compeititon rules? [Update: unfortunately yes this model does break Facebook's competition rules]  

So what do you think - is $1 a good price for a "like"?
A quick look at online information available estimates the cost of one like from $1 (The Next Web) up to $3.50 (Panorama) meaning this actually might be a cost effective approach - but will this engagement last past this giveaway?

Social Media NZ: Best Use of Social Media Award

There's always a lot of talk about social media and what it can do for brands but it's hard to separate the facts from the hype. I was the guest judge for Social Media NZ's Best Use of Social Media Award for June and decided this honour should go to Whitaker's for their Chocolate Lover's Facebook page. I sat down with Jasmine Griffin, Brand Manager at Whittaker's to learn about what they are doing and what results they are achieving. From sell out product launches to having over 129,000 fans these guys are a shining example of how social media should be done. It was a fascinating discussion with valuable lessons for anyone using Facebook to promote a business or a brand. You can read the full article here.  

I would love to hear your feedback - please leave a comment here or on the Social Media NZ site with your thoughts. 

Shout an Olympian a Moa

The Olympics is now just a couple of months away and hoping to gain some of the associated glory of the games sponsors are launching their campaigns. Cadbury, Coca-Cola and Sky so far released TV campaigns but brands with slightly smaller budgets need to find other ways to leverage their involvement. Moa, the official beer of the NZ Olympic team have launched a Facebook competition allowing you to shout an Olympian a Moa.