MTV EMA nominations announced

MTV has announced the nominations for the European Music Awards to be held in Munich later this year. You can see the full list of the artists and bands below. As we reported before, MTV has added a user-generated section to the awards this year. Viewers and interested parties can vote in the New Sounds of Europe Award category, with voting carrying on right up until the awards themselves.

Should make this year’s ceremony interesting, we think! We shall bring you more news on the sponsors or experiential marketing when we have it…

Nominees:

Main Categories:

ROCK OUT
30 Seconds to Mars
Evanescence
Fall Out Boy
Linkin Park
My Chemical Romance

Agent Provocateur

Upmarket lingerie brand has appointed Maggie Gyllenhaal as its new brand spokesperson, taking over from Kate Moss. Now we see that the brand is advertising by using four ‘illustrated  stories’ online.

To see more, visit the website here.

Brand Finance Forum themes

Brand Strategy attended last week’s Brand Finance Forum which had some very interesting speakers from brands such as HSBC, Visa and Vodafone.

We have handpicked the top three themes under discussion at the event:

1. Nation branding. Simon Anholt, who runs his own index on national brand worth (and wrote a piece in last month’s Brand Strategy about the fallacy of ‘Brand Africa’) talked about how countries need to start thinking about their own brands. He talked about how running glossy advertising was often useless when people had outdated understanding of different countries (“oh yes, Rwanda = war, I suppose”) and didn’t have enough mindspace or knowledge about countries in depth to change their views. He called for countries to integrate brand strategy into their national strategy at all levels rather than seeing it as a communications issue.

2.  Geographical certification. There was much discussion about how rooting a brand to a particular region could add “authenticity” to its makeup and allow it to command a higher price. The Ethiopian Embassy discussed how best to protect your brand from becoming a commodity using the example of its recently trademarked coffee varieties.

3. How to take a brand from having local relevance to international scope. David Wheldon from Vodafone talked about how the brand is underpinned internally with certain values – ‘red, rock solid and restless’ that it uses to help business units that are acquired in other regions feel part of the company. He discussed how it was important to get the emotion behind ‘Vodafone behaviour’ across to people so they understood why they were expected to act in a certain way. The alliterative phrase is intended to make people remember to be passionate (red), reliably good (rock solid) and always aiming to do better (restless). Wheldon explained this was not an external branding campaign, but an internal motto designed to help people understand how the Vodafone brand ‘thinks’.

And this is just a taster…..over the next couple of months, we will be bringing more to you from the Brand Finance Forum in the shape of pieces from Keith Reinhard of DDB and John Elkins, global VP of brand and marketing at Visa in Brand Strategy magazine.

You can trust the web

According to the latest study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), FMCG marketers who rely heavily on internet advertising enjoy increased consumer trust. When combined with TV advertising, the brands were more likely to be deemed ‘quality’ products.

The study, in partnership with media evaluation agency, Carat Insight, also determined that the greatest impact on brand engagement came from TV ads, with an online presence the next best option.

Brands average online spend was 4.8% of total spend, and allegedly delivered 2.4 times the return on investment. Part of the reason was that the online environment encourages interactivity, leaving the consumer in greater control and resulting in deeper brand engagement.

More than a bear can bear

Brand Strategy is fond of a certain tattered old bear with a bit of a thing for marmalade sandwiches. In fact, one of our number passes through his eponymous train terminus daily. But now the ad men have got their hands on him and, despite our passion for all things branding, we can’t help but think it’s all a bit wrong.

Paddington Bear (for tis he) is renown for his love of marmalade sandwiches. Indeed it is all you will find in his trusty suitcase. He truly feels that all is right with the world when a bear has a spare marmalade sandwich somewhere about his person.

So why is he being used to promote Marmite? Aside from sharing an opening syllable, the two condiments could not be more different. One, a sticky golden sliver of orangey tartness, the other a yeasty, warming, autumnal spread that works as well between bread as it does in a hot flask.

To mix an iconic lover of marmalade with a divisive, savoury brand such as Marmite is both inauthentic and just as plain wrong as putting both in the same sandwich.

Here at Brand Strategy, we have members partial to a dab of both marmite and marmalade.  Marmite’s key sales proposition is that you either love it or you hate it. We love the spread, people, but we’re really not sure about the marketing…

Online Generation

Whilst consumers remain reluctant to pay for content, new survey findings from video streaming company Vividas say there is a knowledge gap amongst broadcasters on generating revenue from online video.

Most broadcasters in its recent UK survey are looking at online advertising models, but only 7 per cent consider Pay Per View (PPV) as a future revenue generator.

Andrew Wilding, European CEO at Vividas, says: “Broadcasters would do well to aim PPV models at advertisers, rather than relying on obtrusive adverts or trying to convince the consumer to pay for one-time content. By sponsoring online clips, advertisers will have the advantage of targeting individual users and the viewer gets to watch video online for free, which is a real win-win scenario.”

The research also highlights confidence that live sporting streams (40 per cent) and repeat episodes of soaps online (30 per cent) will continue to be the main revenue generators.

Dame Anita Roddick

Brand Strategy would like to express its condolences to the family of Dame Anita Roddick, who died yesterday aged 64. We interviewed Dame Anita, founder of The Body Shop, only a few months ago about her attitudes to corporate social responsibility, green issues, community involvement and many other issues.

Dame Anita’s views on corporate responsibility, supply chains and green issues have moved into the mainstream in a dramatic fashion, particularly over the last five years. Ideas which seemed to be those held by a hardcore environmental lobby have now become good business sense, thanks in part to The Body Shop’s example.

She will be missed.

HP and MTV launch global design competition

HP and MTV are running a global consumer design competition for young people to create graphics for an HP notebook PC. The competition, which runs until October 17, aims to build on the partnership between the two companies, who already work together on the series Meet or Delete, which has just announced a second series. The winner’s work will not only be showcased by HP but they will als get a chance to attend the MTV European Music Awards.

If you have a good design within you – click here to see more about the competition and enter it. Or visit the site to vote on the existing entries.

Canny canines

Researchers in Wisconsin have discovered that stout brand Guinness’s former claim that the drink is ‘good for you’ may actually have some scientific grounding. Initial test results suggest that there may be antioxidants present that reduce clotting in narrowed arteries, a potential contributor to heart disease. Alcohol in any form can manage this, however comparative tests with lager showed that the Guinness had a positive effect while lager had no impact at all. They subjected dogs with narrowed arteries to a little over a pint a day of either Guinness or Lager to measure the effects.

So far so interesting, but what is exercising Brand Strategy’s little grey cells is this: The researchers in America chose to conduct this experiment on dogs.
While Brand Strategy is aware of the ethical debate over animal testing regarding medicines and chemicals destined for human consumption, it is a little fuzzier over the pros and cons of testing pints of beer on dogs. The question foremost on our lips is : could they find no human subjects willing to sample a pint of beer a day in the interests of science?

Ebay users generate ads

eBay has launched the use of video on its site today in the UK, Ireland, USA, Spain and Italy to make vending and shopping more alluring.

eBay’s customers, who traditionally rely on static images and text when buying and selling, will now be able to use sites like vzaar.com, a dedicated service designed to help eBay sellers add video, to listings.

“Video is going to make a big difference to eBay sellers,” says Sevitz, vzaar’s Chief Technical Officer and eBay’s Site Experience Manager until earlier this year.

User generated content takes a new twist as the technology allows users to get more personal with their audience and create their own adverts.
An item can be filmed using a digital camera, mobile phone or video camera and inserted into a product listing via vzaar.com.