Posts in Business
Direct TV’s Genius Viral Marketing Campaign
A little more than a year ago, DirecTV aired an ad 
featuring a purported Russian billionaire. The focus on the ad was his extravagant lifestyle, detailing the many luxurious possessions he owned. At the end of the commercial, he talked about his DirecTV service. It was a simple enough sell, but what really caught the attention of users was the mini-giraffe featured in the ad. From here, one of the most brilliant viral campaigns in recent memory came to be.
Finding the Hook
The viral campaign’s brilliance started with DirecTV realizing that it was sitting on a goldmine. The company took note of how the mini-giraffe had hooked viewers and started discussions on the internet. Instead of resting on their laurels, the company was proactive in building onto their success.
Tags: DirecTV, social media, viral marketing
Epic Marketing Failures
Sometimes a marketing strategy can 
do wonders for a business and help increase your market share. In other cases it can severely harm your company’s reputation, and even cause you to file for bankruptcy. These are just a few examples of spectacular marketing failures:
- Blockbuster Video commits suicide
In 2003, Blockbuster Video announced what they thought would be something revolutionary: no late fees on late returns of DVDs. Most people thought, ‘Great! I’ll return the DVD when I feel like it.’ And so it went that most people never returned them. Those who returned the DVDs after too long were then charged with the entire price of the DVD. As you can imagine, not many people would rent a movie from a place that does idiotic stuff like that.
Tags: marketing, marketing disasters
16 Ways Blogging Helps Your Business
You can get more eyeballs and 
advertise your brand more effectively by blogging than through any other means. Effective blogging can increase your business’s visibility and generate leads from different areas. Here are a few ways in which blogging can help your business.
1. Create Brand Awareness Cheaply
Provide great content and network on social media sites; make sure you always post your company’s brand message everywhere with a link back to your blog.
2. Learn from your Audience
A blog helps you gain valuable insight into your customers’ needs, thinking, preferences and challenges. You can turn feedback forms, visitor comments, polls and surveys into spontaneous, instant market research tools. Think of your blog as a free focus group which gives you insight as to which products you should develop and why.
Tags: blog, blogging. brand awareness
Making Loyalty Card Marketing Work
I’m not really one for loyalty cards 
but I recently signed up for Pick ‘n Pay’s Smart Shopper card. I shop weekly at Pick ‘n Pay and spend a lot of money, as do most of us, filling my fridge and cupboards, so it made sense to get some of that money back.
But I was suspicious as to what Pick ‘n Pay wanted from me in order to give me points. Too often the company gains but not the consumer. As it turns out, they did not want much. They needed some personal details and gave me the option of whether I wanted to receive any promotional advertising and in what format (by SMS or email) I wanted to receive them in. The clincher for me was that I did not have to agree to receive advertising in order to get the card.
The Age of Amazon?
The latest scandal in the digital world is between 
Amazon and publishing houses, and it’s not the first time. First, we saw Amazon pulling books from Macmillan, one of the largest publishing houses in the USA, due to a scandal over the pricing of their e-books. Then we saw not only small bookstores but also the second largest chain of bookstores in the USA, Borders, shutting down. It did not stop there; Amazon released the Kindle, which started treading on the toes of publishing houses. Now, Amazon is going straight for the heart of publishers; their authors.
Tags: Amazon, digital publishing, publishing, publishing houses
Luanda Postpones Car Insurance Enforcement
In Luanda, a city so notorious for traffic 
that there are YouTube videos of accidents, the decree that compels car owners to purchase civil liability insurance is not being enforced. As reported by The Road Traffic Police Department, enforcement of required insurance for car owners will be postponed until an undisclosed date. This decision was passed down from the General Command of the National Police.
Luanda, which is the capital and largest city in Angola, is home to 5 million people. The city itself was designed to only house 500,000 residents, making this overly populated area a danger for commuters. Street vendors, scooters, and pedestrians add to the dangers of driving in Luanda. With most accidents only resulting in fender benders, civil liability insurance would cover the cost of damage to those involved.
Tags: car insurance
The start of a great brand starts with a great name
There are two things which first catch 
our attention when looking at a brand, the name and the logo. The name and logo go hand in hand, and if neither of them is memorable, we are most likely to quickly move on. Your business name is all about first impressions as customers may infer a lot about your business from your company’s name. The start of a great brand starts with choosing a great name, so what is involved in choosing a name for your business?
Tags: brand name, choosing a name, company name
France Telecom and Deutsche Telecom to join forces
Two giant telecom companies, Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA, will be joining forces in an attempt to save around $1.9 billion a year. Not a bad figure is it?
According to Telco News, the two companies want to set up a venture that will allow them to buy telecommunications equipment jointly every year. This will apparently save them almost $2 billion (over R12 billion).
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s top telecommunications companies with a spectrum of information technology and communications services on offer. It enjoys a client base of over 200 million customers and is represented in about 50 countries. France Telecom SA is France’s leading telecommunications company and the third largest in Europe. It has approximately 192 million customers worldwide.
New digital agency on the web
It’s all about being digital nowadays 
and if you’re a business owner or service provider and you’re not listed on the web somewhere you’re losing out on business. If you want your company to make more than a ripple on the net it’s best to leave branding and such to the professionals. But it’s difficult to choose exactly which digital agency to go with because there are currently so many; and now there’s one more.
Tags: digital monarchy, johannesburg, new digital agency, ogilvy, stonewall+
Panorama launches new office-focused magazine
Will OfficeLife help improve your office experience.
Panorama Publications currently publish a number of popular customer magazines, specialist publications and consumer titles, and it looks as if the publishing giant is set to branch out even further with the launch of a new magazine focused on the office and the workers in it.
According to Bizcommunity, the new quarterly publication, OfficeLife, offers workers in the office guidance on how to maintain productivity levels, deal with office politics and manage their stress levels. The publication includes other tips on surviving the office too and is edited by Kate Kennedy. Kennedy has been working in the publishing industry for seven years so the magazine is in good hands.
Tags: new office publication, new publication, officelife, panorama publications
