Ad Tactics from Japan: Tissue Flyers
What is the best way to prevent people from throwing your flyers seconds after you’ve handed it out to them? Give them something they need — tissue wipes! These tissue paper packets that my friend brought back from Tokyo have advertising content either printed directly onto the plastic wrapping or come with a printed flyer insert placed at the base of the packet below the stack of tissue wipes.
YOUR AUDIENCE, THE RECEIVER
Consider the fact that every time someone takes out the tissue pack to get a sheet or two to use, they are exposed to the ad again and again until they finish using the tissues. Based on common sense, most people will keep these tissue packets for as long as there are still clean sheets of tissues in there that haven’t been used yet. On a subliminal level these ads are presented to the naked eye as it navigates through to find the opening of the packet. The ad presentation process is cleverly placed within the natural engagement process of a person getting a sheet of tissue. On an attentive level, people who are inquisitive would naturally let their eyes roam and analyze the literature of the products they interact with, thus allowing you that opening to send your message across.
SECONDARY ATTENTION, THE RECEIVER’S IMMEDIATE NETWORK
Here’s another possible scenario. If a tissue pack makes it around a post-meal table, other people are also exposed to these ads. I imagine some of the more attractive and creative ads would act as conversation triggers, and what better way to get people to talk about your products, services, and brand. What a smart, cost-effective, and practical way to advertise!
There are many other scenarios where such a tissue flyer may work very well for some. Everyone needs to wipe their mouths, sweat, and goo off of their faces and skin. Why haven’t western businesses caught on to this yet? I’m just waiting to see the western world get creative and adopt this smart little tactic to communicate their products and services to an audience that are just waiting to hoard some free packets of tissue paper for daily use.
COMPELLING AVENUE OF OPPORTUNITY
But of course, I would not bother discussing this little-known avenue if I did not believe there is a compelling potential for success behind it. I do however believe marketing has to be relevant or it is akin to flushing your money down the toilet. Retailers and restaurants will probably benefit from the tissue flyer the most because of its relevance. People need to wipe after they eat, mothers need to wipe their babies constantly, and women need to soak oil off of their t-zone, and people generally need tissue paper to maintain personal hygiene.
LIFE, INTERCEPTED
In any economic climate (not limited to a recessive or depressive one) businesses have to be creative and work smart to avoid sinking. That acumen should reach a breadth that is not confined to a design canvas alone. Businesses need to seek ways to appeal to an audience that are more resistant to traditional advertising, and a very controversial but promising place to start is to embrace the way of life of your target audience. By intercepting the process in which they carry out the necessary steps to complete a task, you have automatically created an awareness of your message, however effective. In the case of the tissue flyer, the goal for the user is to remove a lingering discomfort by way of drying and cleaning the body and its immediate environment of undesired particles. In order to execute that task successfully, people would need to look at the tissue wrapper’s surface to find the opening in order to reach the holy whiteness of a solution to their problems, which is tucked inside the glory that is your ad message.
I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea. What do you think?
CNN: How Obama Used the Web
This is proof you really cannot ignore the Internet. Barack Obama used Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and relied on viral marketing to further his campaign.
UPS Widget on Groundswell and Other News
GROUNDSWELL
The UPS widget project that I worked on earlier this year at McCann-Erickson got a mention on Page 34 of Groundswell. Published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008, the much-celebrated book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff goes into detail about a world that is transformed by social technologies and how you can use them to work to your advantage. I am only on Chapter 5 at the moment but it is definitely coming across as a “must-read.” I found their breakdown of the Social Technographics Profile helpful for online strategy formulation. Traditional audience segmentation unfortunately do not reflect the current participation levels and groups on the Internet and thus are not particularly insightful for the kind of work we do anymore. Forrester Research has the most relevant data and that has been the foundation to the writing of this book by two of their senior analysts. (P.S. Charlene left Forrester recently to start her own consulting company Altimeter Group. Here’s where to grab a copy of Groundswell.
SEESMIC
Johann Romefort, CTO of Seesmic has abandoned Paris for the moment and will now shake his French lovely locks for San Franciscan admirers. Although I did interview him in London, we were interrupted by un chien et une abeille at Kensington Gardens. Although the whole thing was caught on video, I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of being attacked by a buzzing bee mid-interview and show you a picture of triumphant avoiders of the bee-sting!
Johann Romefort and Jackie Miao. London, July 2008
YOUTUBE STARDOM
I’ve been tracking YouTube music stars like Kina Grannis, David Choi, TheBathroomGirl, JillianMarieThomas and SinginDork888, because these folks are really really good! Check out David Choi’s cover of How Deep Is Your Love below. Enjoy the sing-song!
Kodak : Make Yourself or Anyone Super
One of my ex-colleagues Husani who is the former Head of Technology at RSCG New York and now Director of Technology at EVB San Francisco has just launched MakeMeSuper.com for Kodak. I went in and tinkered around with it and made myself super!
HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF SUPER
You start by selecting your gender and entering your name (there are some preset names for your selection), and if it is available for selection you then upload your photo. If your name isn’t on the list, you can choose a generic identifier like mom, girl, dad, or the like.
The next step would be to browse and upload a photo of yourself. After you have done that, you’d need to adjust the photo to fit in perfectly within the face frame of the character. There is an option to scale and rotate until you’re happy with it. When you are satisfied with the way your face is framed you can then make yourself into a super hero or a super heroin!
You are then presented a video of how incredibly super you are with your own theme song. Below is an example of what that looks like.
POSTER OF SUPER “YOU”
The system also generates a Super “You” poster which you can download for free, but what would be the whole point of it if it didn’t have a business case to support its creation? As such, there is merchandise you can buy of your own superhero character. The choices include a mug, mousepad, deck of cards, t-shirt and a tote bag, and although as of my writing the super product section doesn’t seem to be enabled just yet, it looks similar to a Cafepress.com service.
TECHNOLOGY
Strictly technically-speaking, MakeMeSuper.com is like a lo-fi version of Schick’s revolutionary website Hige-Chen.com, which is able to go one step further in transforming a 2D picture into a photo-realistic 3D animated sensation. The website is in Japanese, and if you are not comfortable with Japanese you can watch this video which talks about what JWT did for the Hige-Chen project.
Makemesuper.com is an entertaining website that is good for a laugh, gives the option of personalized gifts and would probably do well with the younger American demographic and those Gen X folks who secretly have always wanted to be a superhero. Do check it out if you’re in need of some entertainment, and in the meantime here’s Super Jacqueline!
Google: Got a $10 million Idea?
Project 10100
In conjunction with Google’s 10th birthday, the search engine gigantum is luring the world to offer their ideas for $10 million dollars. If you have an idea that can change the world and create a positive impact to as many lives on planet earth as possible, you could be awarded serious money to fund its fruition. Go on then, submit your ideas before the October 20th deadline. For more information on how to enter your $10 million dollar idea, visit http://www.project10tothe100.com
The Web’s Eventful Week in July
Last week was so eventful as far as the web world goes that it would be blasphemous not to make a note of it.
FIRST, THERE WAS THE IPHONE 3G FRENZY…
The crazy queues you witnessed have generated $330 million in sales over a few short days and caused a month-long inventory shortage. It is just a month’s wait if you really want one. However, If you find that you are being tempted to lie, cheat and steal to get one, don’t do it because there are always some on eBay.
FORRESTER LOSES TWO
Earlier in the month, Charlene Li one of my favorite analysts (co-author of Groundswell) announced that she was leaving Forrester and Friday was her last day. Coincidentally Peter Kim announced that Friday was also his last day at Forrester. He will be joining Jeffrey Dachis (founder of Razorfish, Inc.) to start a social computing endeavor. Their insight and presence as analysts will be missed, but I’m sure the wealth of information and skills that they have gathered at Forrester will be used to the fullest extent to excel in whatever they will be dabbling with moving forward. In short, we won’t be hearing the end of them.
Let us all hope that Josh Bernoff and Jeremiah Owyang will continue to stay with Forrester for a while longer, and that we didn’t just witness the beginning of an exodus of top-class talent from the IT research company that many of us really smart people have come to depend on for insight. Saying that, Forrester is hiring more researchers and analysts so if you would like to give it a shot now is the right time to send your résumés and CVs across!
JASON CALACANIS RETIRES FROM BLOGGING
An even more dramatic news last week was Jason Calacanis‘ announcement that he will be retiring from blogging. The CEO of Mahalo.com states that he will be maintaining an exclusive mailing list of no more than 750 people (so far that is the news) so for the hundreds and thousands of people who have fallen in love with Taurus and Fondue… this is your cue to go get your own pet.
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
Other than that, Twitter acquires Summize, FriendFeed has been getting a lot of coverage and a spin-off aggregator called Moopz is all-the-buzz. I thought I’d cover last week’s underground headlines for you in a neat and nice little summary.
Seesmic: A Video Hello from Jackie
Triathlete Magazine Goes Digital
About a week ago, I was listening in to a conversation in Singapore about the high cost of print published content that will ultimately be out of date sooner than you are able to refer back to it. Question is, why are we still printing on paper?!
Reaffirming my position on the last posting, here’s more indication that news, articles and literature that are susceptible to expiration simply do not make sense to be on print. It is insanity to proliferate the more chopping of trees for information that expires as soon as your eyes leave the trail of words behind.
Although light years away from how I see magazines should be, I’d like to commend Triathlete Magazine for going digital earlier this year. They deserve a medal for promoting “green” business practices if anything. Gone are the days of sourcing for the popular U.S. sports magazine in Asia at exorbitant prices and questionable availability. Gone are the days of settling for Triathlon 220 as a substitute in the U.K. Now you can get your issue anywhere, anytime, anyplace as long as you have a net connection. People who want to get in on the triathlon scene in places like the Caribbean can now do so without information being withheld from them due to analog challenges.
Smart move guys. Virtually microscopic distribution cost, bigger revenue margins and you’ve now extended your market globally. I can only hope Runner’s World, Conde Nast Traveller, and Yachting magazines will head this direction.
Critics may want to quickly discredit the digitization of a print magazine because it is still working with a print format. Delivering news in this manner do not offer the kind of interactivity that a news portal provide, but this is the first step toward changing the way we receive our monthly magazine. Discussing the overall future of publication and a profitable and working business model is outside the scope of this post, although it is something I wish to revisit when time permits.
Moreover, media giants will not revamp their business models overnight because they are still collecting revenue from their usual channels (however futile), so changes will likely be introduced gradually and the phasing out of print will happen over time. It is the change in attitude about the digital medium as a viable delivery channel in traditional publication companies that I am happy to highlight, because this shift in consciousness will make it that bit better for the millions of people who want access to that information for the pursuit of their happiness.
I believe other publications will soon follow suit, so keep your ears and eyes open!
Printed Newspapers Are History
Since 1998, I have held the position that there was no need to read news on newsprint, especially when most of the news sources were publishing the same articles online. I often argued that websites were the preferred choice of news because:-
a) Up-to-date dynamic news feeds keep people informed as fast as the news would be posted online by the publisher,
b) Reading online does not incur additional charges other than the internet connection (which allows the facilitation of thousands of other tasks),
c) It prevents the unnecessary collection of stacks and stacks of paper, which requires human propulsion energy to sort out and transport for recycling purposes,
b) Reading the news online is much, much greener, as web pages are completely paperless…
Although the economics have finally arrived with The New York Times reporting ad revenue decreases as being the worse this year for newsprints, I am dying to ask why it didn’t happen sooner? Were publishers hanging on to dear life trying to milk consumers for all they are worth before digital news became more portable, mobile and widely used? What were advertisers doing wasting a decade of ad dollars on newsprint, chopping 10 years worth of trees for? Why haven’t the media giants stepped up and exercised social responsibility way back then when they could have?
Greedy, so greedy.
That aside, may I just note in the most brief of manner that this is how I foresee the future of newsprint would be. Due to falling ad revenues, publishers will downsize, cut costs, and reduce their output. Primary news delivery will be online-based, and newsprint will be slowly reduced and eventually faded out over the next 10 years. Ad dollars will be moved to online, but I do not see a completely paperless industry, but newsprint will become more exclusive (not unlike magazines), with consumers paying more for the luxury of physical copies. I’m thinking it will go up to $3.00 per newsprint. There will be more quality advertisers from blue chip clients, while rogue advertisers will definitely avoid the high cost of advertising with newsprint by meeting their purpose online.
Media giants must now compete with each other (not that they haven’t already begun), to beef up their online efforts by innovating products and services to serve the changing behaviors of advertisers and readers.
Benefits of Changing the Way You Get News
One sure way to make your life easier is to learn how to receive news via an RSS reader. Dump the e-mail newsletter route, unsubscribe yourself and where there is an RSS option from the news sources that you get, switch to getting your news that way. Why? There are plenty of advantages to getting your news via RSS feeds. Here are some…
a) Avoid unnecessary bandwidth taxation so that you get to watch more videos
b) Maintain a cleaner inbox environment. It is good Feng Shui; “A cluttered room , a cluttered destiny.”
c) If you don’t have to sift through your email to delete things, you save valuable time! Tick-tock-tick-tock. Go out and meet the love of your life!
Here’s just two but if I think of anything else of if you think of anything else, feel free to add to this post in the comments section. Alrighty, Friday afternoon means, Friday mood. Have fun!
Who?
JACQUELINE MIAO
Web Strategist
PRINCE2 Project Manager
Location: London, U.K.-
