BBC gets TV on-demand service approved

At last! Brand Strategy is celebrating the news that the BBC has finally okayed its on-demand service for later this year, which will allow viewers to watch programmes online for seven days after their first TV broadcast.

The move, which comes after both Channel 4 and Five in the UK made some programmes available for download online for a limited period after they appeared on TV, got the go-ahead after consultations with the public.

So – good news for those Brand Strategy Blog readers who love Doctor Who but don’t own a video recorder or PVR! (Also great news for some of the Brand Strategy team.)

Are you being ‘brand jacked’?

Media brands are more likely than any other type of company to be ‘brand-jacked’ and receive some type of abuse online, according to a new quarterly report from MarkMonitor.

Thirty-one per cent of brands receiving abuse including cyber-squatting, phishing and false association are media businesses, 16% are car companies, 15% are consumer electronics, 13% are high-tech brands, 11% are financial, five per cent are apparel and another five per cent are food and drink. Three per cent are consumer packaged goods and one per cent are pharmaceuticals.

Charlie Abrahams, vice president and general manager for MarkMonitor EMEA, explains: “Media is where the traffic is; for people who want to get as much traffic to their site as cheaply as possible, they can use the inherent value of the media brand to drive people to their own, non-associated locations online.”

Hed Kandi and Monarch get their brands to dance together

Clubbing and dance music brand Hed Kandi, now owned by Ministry of Sound, has formed a partnership with airline Monarch to capitalise on the latter’s new summer routes to Ibiza. The campaign will have several components, including aircraft branded with the music label’s logos and images (see below).

The flykandi website, designed for the partnership, will be updated throughout the summer with various flight and accomodation offers from the two brands along with blogs from Hed Kandi’s DJs.

Visa Europe logs onto Second Life

Visa Europe has bought an island in Second Life. Users can visit the island and offer feedback on what experiences they would like to see on the island, which currently boasts only a building site. Would people like a testing ground for new products and concepts? Or just a world seen through the eyes of the Visa company?

If you’re a Second Life user, tell us your views. Should Visa be in Second Life at all? If so, what do you want to see on its island? What next, virtual payment cards in Second Life?

Al Gore and H&M: genius or madness?

This is an interesting one. Stefan Engeseth, an old brand consultant contact of ours here at Brand Strategy, has posted an unusual idea: get Al Gore to design H&M collections. (Click here to read his full concept.) He reckons that after collections with Madonna, Kylie and Chanel supremo Karl Lagerfeld, the politician with global warming on his mind should be next.

Engeseth argues that marrying fashion with a big name in sustainability issues would really push ideas of consumer responsibility to front of mind.

What do you think? Could this ever happen or is this just wishful thinking?

Orange Surfs The New Media Sphere

While some brands are getting wise to niche media including the growing popularity of on-line gaming as a way to target hard to reach groups, others are slacking.

Orange is the brand considered to make the best use of integrated communications techniques says the UK marketing and research world. According to a new pan-European research study by Ipsos MORI’s specialist advertising division Ipsos ASI, Orange comes top followed by Nike, Coca-Cola, Vodafone and Tesco.

“The importance of integrated communications has been understood by the marketing community for many years,” comments James Mundell, Managing Director of Ipsos-ASI. “However, despite being conscious of the benefits of integrated communications, many advertisers find it difficult to make the most of new media techniques, with the inability to measure relative effectiveness proving the principal barrier.”

The new long tail

According to the New York Times, a dog’s tail wags more to the right than the left when it’s happy. Humans use more right side facial muscles than left when they are content. The reverse being true when they are not.

It would be so much easier for marketers if we all had tails. Can I get a job at Pedigree Chum?

Soft soap

Caught the following story from Marketing Diva and thought she made a good point. Unilever’s Neon Girl ad for its Lux soap brand is catching the eye of those in the know in adland. Good news for the brand as we enter the awards season madness.

Like all well-informed bloggers, Diva heard the buzz and thought she’d check  it out for herself.  Cue a quick click over to YouTube. Yes, she thought, the plaudits and  pundits are right. Good for Lux.

But let’s check out Unilever’s own site for more info. Not a pip or a squeak regarding this ground-breaking ad. Diva wants to know why a billion dollar multinational is relying on the equivalent of the student noticeboard to show its wares. The company will be sticking on tear-off telephone numbers to its billboards next.

Brand Strategy experienced a similar problem this month when sourcing information for our joint supplement with New Media Age. We were desperate to get hold of some more information about the winning user-generated ad for Dove that was aired during this year’s Academy Awards (Oscars). Not a pixel.

We’ll happily exhort the use of resources such as YouTube to get all the way to the end of that long tail of branding, but brands are now in danger of getting lazy. Control your content people, starting with archiving it where people most expect to see it – on your website.

Sure, your ad may be on YouTube, but it could well be posted above or below a ‘hacked’ version, where activists have taken your raw material and bent it to their needs. And those needs often run counter to yours.

PS And as this story works its way round the internet, all interactions are with YouTube’s brand, not Unilever’s…

BrandZ Top 100 – what do you think?

The Millward Brown Optimor BrandZ Top 100 global brands list is here again and there are some interesting findings. You can view the full report here.

The top 10 table is as follows:

BRANDZ Top 100 = The 10 most powerful global brands (value in $million) 2007:

2006 value
1. Google                            66,434               37,445
2. GE (General Electric)  61,880              55,834
3. Microsoft                       54,951                  62,039
4. Coca Cola                      44,134                  41,406
5. China Mobile                41,214                  39,168
6. Marlboro                      39,166                  38,510
7. Wal-Mart                     36,880                  37,567
8. Citi                               33,706                  31,028
9. IBM                              33,572                  36,084
10. Toyota                        33,427                  30,201

While old ‘top brands’ contenders such as Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart are still in the list, it is some of the other companies represented which tell a more interesting story. Google, a company which essentially offers its service free to consumers, has turned freedom of information into one of the biggest brand-building stories ever told.

China Mobile is also an interesting candidate. After all, is it really a strong global brand or a strong Chinese brand? Yes, it may be used by more people than any other mobile operator because China is the world’s most populous country, but can it really claim to be a top brand with such limited presence elsewhere? Or does its strength in China simply give it enough brand strength in numbers to be a player on the global brand stage?

It is also fascinating to see Toyota in there. The Japanese car manufacturer is the highest-placed of all the car brands, four places above its nearest rival BMW. Is this the sign that the American and European car-making giants are being superseded by Asian brands? Or perhaps more interesting, has Toyota’s overt commitment to environmental issues won it consumer interest (even if people don’t actually buy the hybrid model themselves)?

Let us know your views. In the meantime,  if you are a Brand Strategy subscriber, you can read our columnist Alan Mitchell’s take on the results in his next column!

If you are interested in what trends Millward Brown Optimor are highlighting as the result of the research, carry on reading……

Toxic Teddies

The number of recalled toys due to dangerous components is up 114% in the UK compared to the same time last year. Forty eight per cent were manufactured in China. And yet, these weren’t unknown rip-offs, fakes or me-too brands. Some products belonged to trusted brands such as Ladybird and Polly Pocket. What does this news mean for toy brands, and also for China’s reputation as an emerging power in consumer products?

Jonathan Hemus, global head of crisis and issues management and pr consultancy, Porter Novelli, explains: “On the one hand, brand owners are recalling more products, erring on the side of safety so it’s only natural that the rate of returns should rise. For the consumer the issue is not so much how many recalls are made, but how they are handled.

“I would offer five clear steps for any brand involved in a product recall:

1. remember perception is crucial. Take care of customers and be seen to be taking care off customers2. Take control. Don’t let third parties communicate on your behalf. Set the agenda

3. Make sure you have a well trained spokesperson. People will make judgements on how brand spokesperson comes across.

4. Prepare beforehand. Put plans in place. Do you know how to get messages to customers, retailers and suppliers.

5. Practice. Run some simulations to give people practice of doing this.”

Hemus also insists that the standby of placing an ad in national newspapers is no longer an effective way to communicate. He urges brands to look to new media where it is possible to target consumers more effectively.

With regard to the possible impact on China’s reputation, Hemus again points out that the statistics are perhaps skewed simply because China is by far the largest manufacturer of consumer goods. However, he states that China must recognise the importance of establishing trust in the global market, and should work towards establishing some kind of industry standard.

Porter Novelli will be hosting a seminar on the 26 April to further explain how brands should manage similar recall events. Click here for more information.