In light of this weekend’s V festival, the end of August Reading festival, and early September’s Bestival, brands from here, there and everywhere are cashing in on that ‘happy go lucky’ festival vibe. Gone are the days when festivals were actually free and when policing was trusted to those lovely Hells Angels chaps (who only took pay in beer, may I remind). Now we live in days where live music is a much bigger business…

For the musician, festivals and live gigs are becoming increasingly the best way to earn top dollar. Brands such as Spotify and GrooveShark are to thank for that. The digital world allows for music to be downloaded at a cheaper price, if for a price at all. Live music is therefore not only more popular because of stages such as the O2 Arena (notice the brand music link) but also because it makes artists money that they may not be earning by having their track on iTunes or Spotify.

Bands are being paid increasing amounts to perform live, which in turn, increases the price of the festival or gig overall. What does that mean for brands? Well, it means that the individuals who are attending these costly 200 pound festivals have a bit of disposable income. Brands can market to the consumers through the event that these festival goers know and love. Thus it seems that the brands are trying to identify with their consumer, a topic that I have touched on before in relation to football advertising.  It’s all well and good saying this but where are the examples? Well, here’s some I made earlier:

Kellogg’s

You will have seen Kellogg’s ‘Kraving’ the festival scene at the Big Chill and will be seeing them at both V festival and Bestival. The primary focus is to promote their new Tunes and Spoons campaign which aims to get those young, affluent individuals to eat some cereal for breakfast instead of cold pizza… The Kellogg’s tent will offer both Krave and Crunchy Nut cereals whilst at the same time playing some tunes (at least they are trying to fit in).

I can actually see this doing quite well. They are targeting an audience that tend to skip breakfast because they are either too busy, or just can’t be bothered to cook – or toast for that matter. Well the beauty of cereal is you just add milk. No, it really is as easy as that! It’s convenient and supposedly healthy at the same time and if they get it right, they can turn these individuals into habitual Kellogg’s cereal eaters.

Jack Daniels

This is arguably a less complex method to look at involving that old ‘ticket give away’ ploy. The guys at Jack Daniels are offering customers the opportunity to win Reading/Leeds festival tickets when they sign up. Pretty simple I think you will agree, but effective none the less. The campaign is appropriately named ‘Mud, Sweat and Cheers’ and offers the Jack Daniels drink and a mixer all in one can.  Some may be so rash to add that this new product may not be suited to the traditional whisky on the rocks drinker; they are probably not far wrong. However that is the whole point, they are targeting a younger generation who drink, say, in the heat of the moment and don’t want to waste precious party time preparing ice in heavy glasses..

It’s that time again for football fans from all over the world to tune in on their HD, 3D and maybe even 2D TV’s to watch the best football in the land. Whether they support Spurs or Swindon, Bournemouth or Blackburn, all will be nursing that inner need to scream, shout, and spur their team on. Some will attend the matches, but most, a total of around 575m homes worldwide to be exact, will be supporting from the comfort of their own home. Teams such  Birmingham are chopping and changing sponsors, whereas teams such as  Norwich are advertising their new kit’s.  Therefore as expected, money is spent and spent again to get those punters in!

When it comes to TV subscriptions, the ‘freewheelers’ among us are endlessly targeted by brands such as ‘Sky Sports’ and ‘ESPN’, either because we are generally disloyal to brands and like to switch, or because we are young, innocent and have only just started to earn enough money to actually consider brand loyalty . So, how are we won over by these brands, what causes us to spend hundreds a year on a certain package and what kind marketing strategy works?

This time last year Sky launched their ‘no compromise’ ad staring Eric Cantona. The ad clearly suggesting that there was no better alternative to SkySports, and if you thought there was, you had Cantona to deal with. A pretty straight forward message I think you will agree. ESPN replied with their ‘it’s great to be here’ ad that cunningly embodied every football fans love for the game. Remember, this, as most football fans will tell you, is the time when English football is in its full anticipation; to be reminded of its glory in such a way, skilfully promoted respect for the brand which is exactly what ESPN wanted having just started out in the UK.

It seems that this time last year, both Sky Sports and ESPN took a different approach to advertising, focusing much less on the amount of games they show, and much more on the fan. The consumer’s feelings seemed to be at the heart of the advert. You could argue that they assumed the viewers already had an idea of how many games were broadcasting and didn’t feel the need to boast, or maybe they were offended by this sketch and decided to take a different stance.

This season’s marketing, for Sky Sports and ESPN respectively, still includes the standard fantasy football leagues that customers can join to boost that loyalty, and it still includes, for Sky Sports only, a brand spanking new website for news. Appropriately named: Sky Sports News. But for ESPN their advertising lack’s punch and is focused too much on the players ecstasy not the fans. Their ‘Next Season’ advert seems to fall into that trap of “we offer you everything”. A trap that is all too familiar. I think however with 9 days to go we still have something big to come from ESPN.

SkySports have also got in there early with their ‘this is football’  advert along with the potential viral ad staring the sky sports team . I cannot help but feel that Sky Sports have gone with a similar approach to ESPN’s last season. A campaign that fans, or should I say consumers, can relate to, one that fans can say “yes I’ve been in that situation, I’ve experienced that high, that low, and I loved every minute of it”. That is the surface emotion, the primary reaction. The secondary reaction seems to say “I’m going to spend 30 pound a month because I like this brand, they are offering me something I can relate to”. Well, that’s what SkySports desire, that same desire that in my opinion, will go unchallenged for a few years yet..

If you need a great campaign why not submit a brief?

A great man once said: “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves”. Jung suggests here that creativity is not the ability to recite the whole works of Shakespeare for example, but to take Shakespeare turn it on its head and write the new Twelfth Night, or what you will…

The gist is that creative ideas are novel, original and flexible. They cannot be taught and certainly cannot be forced. Ok, so it’s easy to throw in these words and say that’s it, that’s what creativity is, but how do you measure creativity? Well it’s one problem that has baffled psychologists for years; the problem is that we are all different and have different opinions as to what is creative and what is not. One example would fall in the form of differing opinions to music. Some individuals will enjoy the pleasures of listening to the inimitable genius of Bach and his chord variations of ‘Air’, whereas some may take preference to the dub step number ‘I need air’.

It’s hard to subjectively say one piece of art or music is more creative than another because we are all different and all have different opinions. Well, that does leave us with a slight problem. How can you scientifically measure something that ultimately differs from person to person? The answer is you can’t…….Or can you?

So you can’t measure creativity in accordance to the strict scientific rules that maybe an Oxford Biology professor would worship, but that’s not to say it can’t be measured at all. We can generalise findings from a few select individuals to many, when measuring the mind, I mean we have to, otherwise there would be no point in testing it. The catch is that nothing can be ‘proven’, only ‘suggested’ when it comes to psychology.

When measuring creativity a researcher named Guilford is your man with his ‘alternative uses plan’ it’s actually ‘alternative uses test’ but rhyming is creative right…… Imagine an object, say for an example a brick, and come up with as many uses as you can for that object. The more uses you can come up with, the more creative you are (that’s the ‘suggestion’ anyway) the uses are also being tested for novelty and originality at the same time. For example keeping the brick as a pet would rank low on the novel chart, where as heating it up and putting it under a mattress for warmth would rank quite high.

Guilford is one of the few who has actually tried to measure creativity with this simple test. Other tests include solving the famous 9 dot problem and simple personality tests that measure traits such as open mindedness. It’s highly likely that a lot of HR departments use some of these tests in recruitment. You may have come across a personality test at some point in your lives because open minded individuals tend to be more creative you see! These measurements, although not strictly scientific, are still arguably valid measurements of the mind and its ability; again ‘suggesting’ things rather than proving them.

In summary it seems we have always needed creative people in society; in fact we wouldn’t really have a society without them. I mean what is now proved was only ever imagined once upon a time right? Thus the importance of measuring creativity and getting that measurement right is imperative. And so it is fair to say that we can to certain extents measure creativity, but as with most things in creative industries you can never be 100% sure. Sometimes it’s just ordered randomness..

Do you feel like testing the creative minds in our exchange? Submit a brief.

When it comes to the Internet, your cup runneth over with ways to promote your brand. From email marketing campaigns designed to target specific audiences to casting the wide net of social media into the sea of the world wide web to capture more customers, there is no shortage of ways to get word of your brand out to the people.

Email

A service that’s been around since the beginning of the Internet, email is the original social media. With the myriad ways there are to captivate net surfers, some may think email is outdated, but a good email marketing campaign is great for building a loyal audience. It brings about repeat sales/visits and keeps you connected with the customer.

This tried and true method for getting word out to people is still being used because it works.

Blog

You have the most amount of control over a blog, and that makes it a fantastic place to develop your brand. Each blog is a blank slate, and you can customize it to reflect your brand in endless ways. Your color scheme, content production, font selection – all these things say something about you (and therefore, your brand) so put together an interface that will wow viewers!

There are more types of blogs than there is food at the grocery store, so pick something that makes sense for your brand. If you are an illustrator, you could start a photo blog that showcases your art. Writers often start blogs where they can show off poems and stories for people who like the work or are looking for writing talent. Create the best blog for your brand!

Twitter and Facebook

These two goliath services are essentially two sides of the same coin. Twitter offers a global text messaging service that works for telling a lot of people about something really quickly. Facebook can hit a similarly large audience, but offers rich contextual infrastructure. The difference is that Twitter is constantly pointing to something else, whereas Facebook is designed to keep people on Facebook.

If you want Twitter to work for you, you’ll have to do a few basic things: make your profile open so people can always see and retweet your messages (sharing is caring!), ride the wave of trending topics so that when people search a hashtag, you’re likely to pop up and finally, be clever. Wit is the currency of Twitter, and bon mot guarantees maximum followers.

Facebook allows for a more streamlined method of sharing. Photos, videos and music are easy to post and are equipped with options like sharing, commenting and liking that ripple throughout the Internet bringing people back to you.

Google+

Google+ is the newest, most high-profile entry into social networking. It’s been built on the information Google has been collecting from you for years. It’s a little Twitter, a little Foursquare, a lotta Facebook, and places existing Google services in one place for use in a social network environment. The premise of Google+ is to share information with the right people, and benefits you by allowing you to separate out your personal and business lives. All your contacts fall into Circles, and if you want to share a picture of yourself at a soccer match, you can choose to share that with just your Friends circle. On the other hand, if you’re promoting a launch event for your company you can choose to share that with your Business Contacts circle.

It’s a smart, streamlined process that focuses your brand in one place, so people don’t have to follow you across the Internet; if Google is successful, a Plus profile is all you’ll need to increase awareness of your brand across multiple social media platforms.

Parting Tips

Only use social media that make sense. Joining networks is fun, but as a freelance screen printer, do you really need a profile on Hamster World, the social network for hamster enthusiasts?

When utilizing social media to grow your brand, don’t be redundant! Many aspiring entrepreneurs get so caught up in the social networking that they over post the same information across all platforms. Use the unique qualities of each service to create a consistent whole instead of a bunch of versions of the same thing.

Engage people! Showing up is half the battle, but once you have a network set up, go out and comment, link, and post. Do whatever you can to be interactive within whatever community you are in; people pay attention to the movie, not the people watching it!

Holly Lee is a graduate student studying physical therapy in Florida. She enjoys yoga, running, social media and writing. She is an avid traveller, dedicated vegan and animal lover. You can check out her blog here.

If you need a social media campaign for your business why not submit a brief?

So let’s start off talking about Heineken’s new viral video campaign. It seems that Heineken have gone all ‘digital’ on us with ‘the date’ advert, and are now, instead of just advertising using traditional methods alone, using viral video ads.

Let’s cast our minds back to around January when Heineken launched their ‘Perfect Entrance’ ad, the advert in which a man charms his way into a restaurant and seems to know everyone there regardless of their nationality. Maybe there is a message there? If you drink Heineken you will end up charming and confident and you will, without fail, be able to charm everyone in that restaurant. Well, maybe not, maybe you may just get thrown out, but you see what they are trying to do there. They are targeting the right demographic (young males) and are almost hinting at aspirations to this cool, cultured man who happens to drink Heineken.

Anyway back to the figures and the ad reached a million views in just a week! Not bad, but why not just advertise on TV, and then you are guaranteed views instead of having to earn them through good content. Well, arguably the beauty (if you can call it that) of online viral videos is that people actually ‘want’ to watch them, and that makes the marketing purer in a way. If the viewer is watching the video out of their choice then they must hold an interest in the topic to start with, helping the company target their specific market. The viewer, if they like the video, may also share the video with their friends, which is also pretty good I suppose…

So we see a video in the ‘most viewed’ on youtube, we like the look of the title, and we watch it because we have nothing more important to do. We notice that it has a lot of views and so the universal thought is, “well if everyone else is watching it, it must be interesting for me”. Did we actually want to watch  the video? Or are we just watching the video because ‘everyone is doing it’? The basic principles here are the social cues of attention. Sorry to get all psychological on you but it’s instinct for humans and animals (especially sheep) to both respond to, and follow what everyone else is doing. It’s set in this cognitive ability that we call attention.

If everyone at a bus stop is looking to the left what do we do? Look left. The same or similar concept applies to viral videos on youtube. Some firms these days even pay private companies to boost their views on youtube so people will instinctively watch them. A view boosting technique for example may be using a title that will catch everyone’s eye, like this one. However it’s important to note here that this is only really the case when advertising via Youtube. If a company was to pay Facebook to display their ad on Facebook’s special ‘sponsored’ section, they would just pay Facebook, a bit like a TV ad. It’s just people don’t pay as much attention to them.

So what does make these viral ads so special if it isn’t the viewers clean desire to watch them in the first place? Well, first off people don’t necessarily want to watch a TV ad but they still watch it, and they still go out and buy the product or service being sold. The difference here is that although it takes more time and effort to create and make a viral ad go ‘big’, it’s much cheaper and more organic. Ads can be shared over social networks and watched over sites such as Youtube as many times as they like and so in a sense they are less forced. Ads are shared over facebook because they’re ‘must see’ videos: that’s what makes them viral.

OK, so going back to Heineken’s success on viral ads, it seems that their new ‘the date‘ video is actually enjoyable to watch. In fact it would have to be to get that many views. If people like watching the advert and the ad is targeting the right demographic, with the right messages, it will, with a bit of luck, become viral. Evidently this is what has happened. When watching ‘the date’, its wit and humour fool you into actually appreciating it. Yes they are trying to sell you something, and that sometimes puts people off liking adverts, but it’s not pushy, it’s not bland, it’s, well, it’s viral.

And if you’d like to start devising a viral campaign of your own, why not submit a brief?