Chanel “fashmob” – the aftermath

I posted last week about a “Chanel” flashmob – or “fashmob” – at St Pancras station in London. You can read the original post here. It was all to publicise the upcoming film Coco Avant Chanel.

Anyway, I thought people might be interested in checking out some pictures from the event. You can look at the official Queens Of Vintage page here or watch the video of the “mob” below (they all look a bit glam to call them a mob). Apparently, according to the excellent fashion blogger Holly Ferguson over at Never Love You More, there weren’t too many people there. But I guess those that did go along made up for it in terms of effort.

Dan Brown and my publishing commotion

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column in Marketing Week all about book publishing. Specifically, one campaign that I didn’t like very much in bookseller WH Smith.

Anyway, this received an amazing response from our readers, from people agreeing wholeheartedly to people feeling that I was completely wrong and entirely misguided. It even ended up making an article in The Bookseller, which is a great publication. And even the author involved – Simon Kenrick – eventually felt he had to have his say since it was being discussed on blogs etc. Wow.

But a few people have picked up on elements of the article where they thought I didn’t understand the campaign or thought I was unfair saying this wasn’t a great marketing drive. So I’ve tried to make things clear below as I’ve become fascinated by the amount of debate there is about marketing in the world of book publishing. I think it’s great that so many people are really interested in this area.

So…… (and you can check out my column here if you haven’t read it):

1. Some people claim that because the Kernick book is being given away with Dan Brown’s new novel, no-one would think it was anything other than what it was: a promotional exercise for a backlist book. I completely disagree.

In the WH Smith near me, there are no copies of any associated Dan Brown book near the stand full of copies of Deadline and the sticker saying “free” is a whole lot smaller than the massive “Dan Brown” on the cover. So I don’t think it’s at all clear to people at a glance. I genuinely thought it was the new Dan Brown novel at first. This is obviously just my opinion but one that is echoed by other people writing into me who have seen the same promotion in the flesh.

2. Some people responding to my article also felt I portrayed Kenrick as having no brand of his own. This was not at all my intention. I wrote: “Clearly Kernick has a healthy fanbase waiting to rave about his work.” I am well aware that Kernick has already built a brand of his own. I have read some of his books myself. This was one reason I felt that he deserved to have his name as the lead brand on his own book.

Anyway, The Bookseller seems to suggest that Kenrick was pretty happy with the promotion and plenty of people suggest it has been shifting copies. If it has worked out well for the author and the publisher, glad to hear it. And I’d love to hear more from Corgi/Transworld/WH Smith about how this promotion did in hard numbers when it’s over. Get in touch!!!

Thank you everyone – those who wrote to/about me (whether it was positive or negative) as it’s been a real insight into the interesting world of book publishing. It’s great to see that in that industry, people care so much about how things are marketed. Thanks!

Innovate or die: a good mantra

A reader of my blog from consultancy North (based in the US) sent me this nice little video they put together called ‘Innovate or Die’. There’s some good insights in there that serve as a mini reminder of what matters in marketing and even if you don’t like the words, it has great pictures all along a cheekily macabre theme (I especially like the Mexican Day of the Dead figures. Cute.)

Tesco offers allotments and live chickens through its Dobbies stores

Tesco is apparently planning to embrace the self-sufficiency trend of the recession by offering shoppers allotment spaces to rent in the UK and selling live chickens through its chain of Dobbies Garden Centre stores.

A report in AdAge claims that the company has applied for planning permission for the initial batch of allotments near one of its Dobbies Garden Centre stores near Southport. Tesco acquired the Dobbies chain a year ago and apparently the centres have seen sales of “grow your own” seeds boom as people start to try and produce more of their own groceries.

The allotments appear to be an initiative under the Dobbies brand, with the gardening retailer’s CEO saying that it will develop further sites in Atherstone and possibly further afield. Allotments are premium spots of land in major cities, with waiting lists of eight years or more for keen gardeners to get their hands on the land.

The live chickens – both chicks and egg-laying adults – will be available to buy after a year-long pilot at Dobbies stores, which has apparently proved successful.

There appears to me to be an irony in Tesco offering live chickens to consumers given its recent battle with chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall over animal welfare. The chef raised money from the public to put his concerns about the chickens to the retailer’s shareholders last year but failed to make an impact.

Speaking of keeping chickens at home, are you allowed to simply buy them alive and keep them at home without any sort of licence or standards check up from the RSPCA? I like to think that chickens kept at home or in gardens by consumers would receive a better standard of life than those kept on intensive farms. But I don’t think I’ll be going down to Dobbies anytime soon for a supply of live chicks, although perhaps I will pick up some nice tomato plant seeds. I suspect I may be more “try and fail to grow your own” than The Good Life.

Will ‘For Rookies’ be able to compete with ‘For Dummies’?

As one of the editors of the John Wiley book Marketing for Dummies and the upcoming Marketing Kit for Dummies, I was intrigued to notice that publisher Marshall Cavendish is bringing out a series of books called “For Rookies“.

The For Dummies series has more than 1400 titles so it’s surprising perhaps that a really strong competitor series of “how-to” publications hasn’t been published before now.  Those black-and-yellow books still seem to dominate the shelves, virtual or physical.

Featuring big, almost innocent-looking branding, ‘For Rookies’ certainly reminds me of the ‘For Dummies’ series in its look and feel, even if that is not Marshall Cavendish’s intention. It will be interesting to see if the series can make a dent in the For Dummies market of offering basic advice in an accessible way.

I guess if MC does a really good job, I had better get in touch with ‘For Rookies’ if I want to write another book!

Starwood Hotels brands let guests live ‘Entourage’ lifestyle

Fancy being a Hollywood star? The closest you may get to it is checking into one of the new Entourage-themed bungalows at Starwood Hotels‘ new W property in Florida.

The bungalows’ decor and contents are based on the lifestyles seen on the popular HBO show Entourage, which follows fictional actor “Vinnie Chase” and his buddies through the ups and downs of life in LA. The rooms feature posters of the cast, video cameras for you to make your own films, VIP access to the hotel’s club, a private cruise, basketball court resevation and more.

Good brand extension for HBO and Starwood? What do you think?

The UK government’s Twitter strategy – compressed

So the government has created a strategy for Twitter use by government departments over here in the UK.

I love this. The idea of Twitter is to get over what you happen to do doing or thinking in just 140 words. So this is a 20 page document setting out how, why and what Twitter should be used for by central government. There’s an irony there.

But obviously getting your Twittering right (and I don’t pretend I have got mine right all the time) is important. So I’ve created my own corporate Twittering plan below drawing on the government plan but in much fewer words:

- Get your tone of voice right when Tweeting. It should suit your corporate voice.

- Make sure you have some analytics in place to measure your Tweeting.

- Don’t slag off the competition. Or reveal too much business-sensitive information.

- Try and use information that can get “retweeted” or passed on.

- Make sure you read Twitter policy on following/followers so as not to fall foul of its rules.

- Try and remember to use hashtags (#), which allow your Tweets to be searched.

- Monitor your Tweets to pick up on any customer complaints in real time.

In 140 characters, you could sum it up like this: “Use appropriate tone of voice, hashtags and make posts go viral. Don’t spam. Read the rules. Have fun. Measure your progress. #howtotwitter“

LifeGem creates diamonds from Michael Jackson’s hair

Best story ever? I think this could be.

LifeGem, which uses carbon from human remains and compresses them into man-made diamonds, is apparently using the charred locks of hair from Michael Jackson’s disasterous Pepsi  ad shoot and turning them into sparkly jewels.

Want a diamond made from the King of Pop? Could any idea be more deliciously fitting to the whole circus around the popstar’s life and death?

The hair apparently comes from Randy Cohen, a producer who scooped up Jackson’s burnt locks on the shoot and stuffed them in his pocket at the time. He in turn passed on the hair to collector John Reznikoff, who previously got LifeGem to make diamonds from Beethoven’s hair. Reznikoff also apparently has hair from public figures including Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. You can watch a video about him here.

The limited sample means that there will only be a set number of diamonds available, although how many has not yet been revealed. I think it’s fair to say that devoted fans will go mad for them.

I don’t know whether to be horrified by this slightly odd scheme or have a grudging respect for the level of cashing-in on Jackson’s untimely demise; fair to say that I find the whole LifeGem enterprise fascinating and I am greatly impressed (if a bit disturbed) by the speed with which the company has announced the Jackson jewels collaboration……

Could your hot dog bear a cancer warning?

We all know that smoking is bad for your health. And we shouldn’t eat junk food either.

But what if you got up, opened the fridge and saw that emblazoned on your breakfast was the term “Warning: May Cause Cancer”?

This could be reality if The Cancer Project gets its way. The group has filed a lawsuit in New Jersey in the US demanding that companies selling processed meat, including Kraft, should have to print cancer-risk warning labels on packages sold in the state.

The Cancer Project claims that research from the American Institute for Cancer Research finds that eating just 50g of processed meat a day can increase the cancer risk by 21% for an individual.

If the case is successful, could this open up a whole new world of labelling issues for brands?

Until now, it’s been a case of being transparent about ingredients. In the UK,  many items bear a type of “traffic light” labelling, where the contents are flagged up as “green” (healthy), yellow (consume in relative moderation) or red (keep to a minimum). Could this lawsuit kick off a whole new style of labelling or is it unlikely to succeed?

Best Buy seeks marketer with at least 250 followers on Twitter

Reports show that retailer Best Buy in the US is seeking a marketer with at least 250 Twitter followers. A healthy interest in Tweeting is not just a desirable attribute; the job profile for its “senior manager – emerging media marketing” vacancy demands that any applicants have at least 250 followers as one of the criteria to be eligible for the post.

Is it crazy that a shop marketer should have 250 followers on a social network to demonstrate that they can do a job like this? Not at all. This is a role all about social media, so it would be strange for Best Buy not to hire someone that embraces that way of working and lifestyle completely. In fact, you might argue that hiring a marketer of any type who doesn’t engage with social media these days is pretty crazy.

While Best Buy may be the first mainstream business to specify a particular number of Twitter followers in a job ad, it probably won’t be the last. Best Buy even handles a lot of its customer services online through a Twitter-style function – a recently-launched service called Twelpforce. Nice to see a brand moving with the times.