Friday, 18 November 2011

Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted

Growing up I always worried about Bill Posters.

Who was he? What did he do? Did they ever catch him?

If the makers of This Space Available get their way, old Bill may still end up in front of, well, The Old Bill.

Subtitled the Grass Roots Movement Against Visual Pollution,
the documentary depicts activists ‘who want to reclaim the integrity of their cities against an onslaught of visual pollution.’

Cool.

But for one thing.

Why does a film decrying the visual pollution of billboards and commercial messages have a promotional poster?

Bill Posters would be proud.

Stephen Flewell-Smith
Business & Creative Director
THE DM GROUP

Monday, 25 July 2011

Closing the book on brands

One of the benefits of strong brands is their seeming permanence.

We think they’ll be around forever.

But last week we reached the final chapter for one of the world’s global brands.

Borders.

Not only did the doors close on its last Australian store but in the US the 399-shop chain also began liquidation.

It’s a reminder of how fast even big brands can go bad.

We may now think of Borders with the same cynicism we have for Starbucks. But I remember the public’s excitement when Borders launched in Australia in the late 90s.

…a bookshop…a big bookshop…BIGGER than anything we’d seen before…with the latest overseas magazines even…and CDs you could scan and listen to…a bookshop that stays open until midnight…with armchairs…search kiosks…a coffee shop…where you can take a book to read…

It was like a library but better – you could buy the books.

The fact is Borders was truly revolutionary for Australia bookshops (a fact I’m sure the 300 retailers at this weekend’s annual bookseller conference failed to celebrate).

But Borders isn’t the first big brand to disappear from our lives.

In Australia, Bankcard, Ansett and, most recently, Colorado spring quickly to mind. And I know there are many more stories. Good. Bad. Gripping. Roaming. Starting. Ending.

What chapter are you up to in your brand’s story?

Stephen Flewell-Smith
Business & Creative Director
THE DM GROUP

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Giving the bird to digital

Penguins are an endangered species according to federal Minister for Small Business, Nick Sherry, who yesterday forecast that online shopping would wipe out general bookstores within years.

‘I think in five years, other than a few specialist booksellers in capital cities we will not see a bookstore, they will cease to exist.’

According to The Age, representatives from the bookseller industry were ‘gobsmacked’ at the Senator’s comments.

But I wonder why.

Were their heads stuck in a first edition War and Peace when news of Angus & Robertson and Borders broke?

Still, I don’t necessarily agree with Senator Sherry just as I don’t agree with the demise of direct many digital evangelists have predicted over the last decade.

In fact, in the ever-expanding online world, offline communications will become even more cherished and effective.

And for a simple, human reason – you can touch it.

Nothing compares to that feeling of buying a new book, pages unturned, spine unbroken and the anticipation of getting home to begin unravelling its secrets.

Navigating the newspaper on your iPad doesn’t bring the same joy as exploring a pristine copy of the Sunday paper over a coffee in your local cafe.

Equally, receiving a crafted piece of direct mail, produced with metered copy, paced art direction and perfectly weighted stock, cannot be rivalled by an eDM.

It’s the difference between high tech and high touch.

The difference between Corey Worthington and a Facebook party invitation, and Catherine Middleton and a Royal wedding invitation.

Digital is perfect for delivering information with high utility but may not be the best for conveying a message of high emotion.

So take a page out of THE DM GROUP book and consider the most appropriate medium for maximising the effectiveness of your marketing message.

It’s not always the newest.

Sometimes it’s a classic.

Stephen Flewell-Smith
Business & Creative Director
THE DM GROUP

Friday, 6 May 2011

Evidently, the bird is the word.

The shifting of sands in the digital world is nothing new, and rarely does an acquisition of one online powerhouse by another raise an eyebrow – but this one certainly has me befuddled.

News out of the US last night is that Twitter has acquired TweetDeck, the small yet very popular piece of software that makes it so much easier for you power tweeters out there to manage the torrents of tweets flying across your screens on a daily basis.

Ok, so there’s nothing new there right – one software maker buys another – easy. But here’s the rub. Twitter is a free service that’s not funded by advertising. TweekDeck is a free tool that runs on that free service – yet it’s valued at $50 million simply because of its staggering reach? Yikes. That’s a lotta cash for comment.

To my mind though, it’s clear that someone, somewhere is hatching a plan to monetise this thing in a very big way before all the venture capital runs out. One little birdy told me that Twitter might even start delivering the occasional contextual ad into their streams – which means big opportunities – and big questions for brands. Like…how the hell do I make sure my bird gets heard?

Ian Ross – Technical Director

Monday, 2 May 2011

From puffin muffins to destroying brands…

iSelect has changed its advertising with a campaign reaching both offline and online.

So whether you love her or hate her, as its seems so many people do,  it’s ‘goodbye’ quirky, bubbly little blonde with the penchant for ‘puffin muffins’ …

… and ‘hello’ portly bald guy in a suit who gets the name of the large lady in his call centre wrong and doesn’t care.

As a brand specialist this ad sent a shiver down my spine. You’d have to be ‘burying heads’ to believe I’m going to be thinking nice things about iSelect after this misguided attempt at humour.

I agree that iSelect needed to do something new, but for me this misfires badly. I get the message that iSelect is not a health fund, I got that from the previous ads. Now I also get the message that iSelect has a culture that rides rough-shod over the feelings of individuals. Their names and feelings don’t matter.

For many people there are few bigger faux pas than getting someones name wrong.

Well actually there is a bigger one. Getting a name wrong, not giving a stuff  and then insisting on using the wrong name over the protests of the victim of your poor manners.

At the DM group we work with many major brands to construct the framework of  their brand strategy and bring their brand personality to life through considered and insightful creative executions on and offline. If you’d like to discuss how we might help you do just that for your brand why not give us a call.

Malcolm Harvey

Client Services Director