Creativity the new driver of the economy?

Countries start to understand the importance of the creative industry. Richard Florida's book on the Creative Class did motivate the Flemish government to launch Flanders DC. This initiative inspires companies to integrate creativity in their business.
The Dutch Association of Designers (BNO) is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in its activities to promote Dutch design abroad. Visits and presentations are done in various countries to present the specifics of Dutch design.
The British government launched a program to support the creative industry, that accounts for 7,3% of the GDP and employs over 2 million. As the sector has grown twice as fast as the rate of the economy the government is eager to capitalise on the sector. The creative industry should become mainstream of economic and policy thinking and should start with providing children creative education. Many other activities should lead to the position of Britain becoming the creative hub for the world.

Wanted: online identity thieves

It becomes increasingly important to protect your corporate brand online. McAfee (a security software company) calculated that there are 1,9 million registered variations on 2771 most popular domain names. These variations are based upon small typing errors (typo's). Google for example had a number of variations of its brand name online: googkle.com, ghoogle.com and gooigle.com This technique called typosquatting makes fraudulent use of the well known company and can create a false and wrong image of the company. Typosquatting sites piggyback on the popularity of the heavily trafficked website and refer to porn sites, include gambling links or worse infect computers with viruses. What can happen to your brand is illustrated when you type www.microsoft.cm You will enter an election site of Barack Obama! A questionable technique of a Presidents candidate. The Republic of Cameroon -with 10.000 people online- and with the suffix cm understands that it can earn money from people mistyping. It now sells it cm suffix to companies and organisations outside of Cameroon that want to benefit from typo's.
Protecting the online brand and controlling the content of the online brand continues to be a challenge to brand owners.

Information stress reduction tools

I was reading about life hacking (programmers productivity tricks) the other day and that made me think of the way we select, process and memorise information. It seems to me that the abundance of information on the Internet suggests the illusion that we can know and learn everything. However because of the enormous amount of information that is scattered over the Internet we will never be able to maximalise our know-how. What is lacking are these life hacks that help us to select and collect the most relevant information. Search engines help us to identify the articles, images or video on the net, but we still have to rank them in terms of importance, credibility and accuracy. Most of us do not have the time for that.
Therefore consumers and businesses rely on editors to select the information. The continuous increase of the number of magazine titles demonstrates that consumers value editors that can put together information relevant for specific segments. And it is the credibility of the magazine or newspaper brand that is the reason to believe the information.
Online consumers and businesses develop other tools: lists, social networks and referrals are the new tools to select and optimise their information need. I believe that the need for editors will continue to exist and that they can help reducing the information stress related to the information overload.

Second life for books

Quite some librarians have been dreaming of a World Library System. Organising all books in all libraries so that they would become accessible for everybody. This dream may come it bit closer to reality with the Google Books project. Google has agreements with several libraries in the USA, Japan and Europe to scan entire collections. Google will make all of these books searchable by word and will make it possible to link words or events with Google Maps.

The Bodleian Library of Oxford University for example contains 11 million books and each year the collection grows with 3 to 4 kilometer of book racks. Opening-up these huge collections via electronic versions, will learn us a lot more about the our history. Come the questions of copyright, and the commercial ownership of what is today in the public domain. Most of the libraries objective is to reach a broad as possible readership, but will that objective prevail on these questions?
One point divides then though; scanning is a time-consuming and therefore expensive task. Of older books every page need to be turned by hand before a picture can be taken. (The Dutch use an even more laborious system: they have Philippine ladies retype entire books as that is more reliable than current OCR technology). Sheetfeeding a scanner will be a lot cheaper (€10) than scanning by hand (€ 150) but would need books to be cut apart and thus destroyed. Book lovers will hate the idea as they appreciate much more than the content of the book. The paper used, the type of binding, the spine, the feel and the smell of the book is part of the reading experience. Will libraries allow this to happen, even when they to have to sacrifice a second copy of a book? Will learning the world win out cultural heritage? To be continued online and in your book store.

Selling books and PDF's with a profit

The US-based National Academies Press won the prestigious ISMS Prize at Wharton University. The publisher developed a model that took advantage of the growing number of orders for electronic books. Research showed that 65%-70% of visitors of the website came to view only one page. Visitors were split into online shoppers and buyers of a printed book opposed to who were browsing books that had a PDF version available. They determined that selling the electronic version of a book at 75% of the print price would generate the highest profit. With the book price at the same level and a bundle of print + electronic at an 18% mark-up, total sales rose by 10% (and web sales by 14,4%). In the meantime the electronic books sell at 85% of the print price demonstrating the success of the model.

Green direct mail in USA

A study among 1000 Americans shows that consumers greatly overestimate the environmental impact of direct mail. DMNews and Pitney Bowes found that respondents ranked the delivery of 10-11 pieces of transactional mail per year as the third most polluting activity (in terms of carbon dioxide emission). Only driving a car 1000 miles a month and the electricity usage for a top-freezer was more polluting.
Whereas in reality advertising mail accounts for 2% of all municipal waste, respondents vastly overestimated this: 48% thought that half of the municipal was advertising mail.
There is obviously a lot of work to do to change this perception. When no action taken the perception of the medium might be in jeopardy.
Consumers seem to be unaware of the sustainability programs of organisations as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that promotes sustainable forest management. Over 60% of respondents said they would think more highly of the industry if it planted trees to offset paper production. Such a green label would even make unsolicited mail more positive.

Shifting channels

I few weeks ago I listened to a presentation at the annual congres of the Stichting Marketing of Patrick Tillieux COO of the TV holding ProSiebenSat1 and was rather shocked by his revelations. His presentation was on the globalisation of the TV industry and was referring to a program format bought from a US channel. The program, "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?", was put on air in various European countries. The audience metrics indicated that the program was no success in most countries. The channels' audience was reduced to one third when the program started! Just imagine that from one moment to the other readership plummets with 70%.
Also simple phrases can make viewers shift channels. Dutch research demonstrates clearly the impact of for example a journalist covering daily politics. When he says in a life program " Well, nothing really exciting happened today" viewers zap "en masse". A very floating and expensive audience indeed.

Quote 2

"The question is whether we need to push our products or push the marketer as he has problems understanding the online market."
Peter de Mönnink, Chief Strategy and Internet Officer Reed Business Global (In Adformatie).

The Poster Magazine

Imagine a magazine the size of 1.5m by 2m, with no advertising, on display at café's, bars and bookstores, with no strict editorial goal but with a very strong design appeal. This one sheet magazine is called "Is not Magazine" and available in major cities in Australia. It is pasted on outdoor posters sites in Melbourne and Sydney and also available at indoor poster sites in bookstores and bars. The poster magazine can be read like the "wall papers" in China and can be ordered for €17 and will also do great as decoration.

Great creative and venue

This week Amnesty International Belgium launched its end-of-the-year campaign "I save lives "with a major media initiative. Part of the campaign -developed by Air- is this huge poster that has been attached to the scaffolding of the Brussels Palais de Justice. Where to get more attention for human rights than here? The illustration is made of hundreds of signatures and therefore uses the essence of what Amnesty does as part of the creative. A great idea on a unique location. Air developed two other themes on the same idea.

The Power of Print/Posters

On the website of De Standaard -a leading Flemish newspaper- you can choose for a winning cultural poster and win a culture cheque. Of a total of 140 posters 10 were selected by a jury and are now open for voting by everybody.
I'm still experiencing that reducing the message to the essence and reproducing it on a poster is a lot more difficult than doing that on an A4 size advertisement.
This contest therefore demonstrates the Power of Print via the medium posters. It is organised by Prospecta and sponsored by Agfa Graphics.

New strong evidence for magazine effectiveness in media mix variants

When magazines are added to a mix of online and television advertising purchase intention increases with 7% (vs TV and online 5.6%), brand favourability increases with 7.3% compared to 4.5% with TV and online. On other brand metrics as aided brand awareness and advertising awareness the effect of adding magazines is important but less impressive.
Recent research of 32 cross-media campaigns across ten categories by Dynamic Logic (a Millward Brown research company) provides strong evidence for the use of a mix of different media. And the important role magazines play in the effectiveness of advertising investments. Magazine effectiveness represent for example 62 % of the combined effect on brand favourability. The research also shows the limited value of online advertising on the five metrics. The incremental effect of the online investment tops at 22% of the combined effect.
This is the second analysis made by Dynamic Logic, I have reported on earlier research (17 cross-media campaigns) in the Sappi publication Life with Print. Comparing both pieces of research the striking decline of effectiveness of online media becomes apparent. Online advertising' share topped at 38% on the brand favourability metric.
It seems that this new research -based upon more cases- includes the effects of diminished newness and therefore attention of online media.

Company documents remain printed

A survey from EDSF indicates that the budget for printed documents (invoices, bills, statements, explanation of benefits) companies use to communicate with clients modestly increases. Almost 43% of respondents of the survey say that the budget for paper-based communications increases by approx. 10%. This despite the fact that more than half of the companies already make more than fifty percent of their documents available over the Internet. Transactional documents will make increased use of digital colour. Half of the companies will increase the use of colour by 5% or more in the future. A new trend in the use of transactional documents is Transpromo, this is the use of colour on documents as bills and statements and integrating selected promotional offers.
EDSF concludes that electronic delivery will only have a limited impact over the next years as firms will have to address legal and compliance requirements and security/privacy issues.

Mind mapping with Tony Buzan

I was invited by Gino Togni of IMS to attend an interactive session with one of the worlds promoters of mind mapping: Tony Buzan. This 65 years old energetic and gifted Englishman is one of the best presenters on a hugely interesting subject of brain functioning and learning. His full-day workshop covered insights in how our brain functions and also on how we can best describe what we hear or read by presenting it in a mind map. A visual description of the information makes it stay longer in your brain. He did not refer to how that relates to obtaining information via audio-visual, electronic or print media. Probably an interesting subject for a research project.
In the meantime media are already using the technique of mind mapping and showing it in ads to illustrate for example the profile of its radio listeners.

Magazines increase web traffic

The MPA (Magazine Publishers of America) published a week ago further proof of the effects of integration of media. I've written about integration before, the various pieces of research confirm with strong evidence that magazines boost traffic to websites. And have a strong effect on purchase intention. The effect on website visits, after having seen an automotive ad in magazines, was strongest, traffic almost doubled. Online media need offline media to generate traffic was confirmed by a survey of BIGresearch. Magazines scored best among the Top 10 media to trigger online search, TV scored second and newspapers third. Internet advertising scored only a ninth place at slightly more than half the score of magazines. Magazine brands are strong brands as another study showed. After having watched an online video ad on a series of sites, consumers turn most to magazine sites for further information, significantly more often than going to online portals.

Integrating media and the interaction between media is making media planning a lot more complex and interesting. Understanding the role of print media in this new media landscape goes beyond readership surveys. Tools need to be put in place to trace the path consumers follow after reading.

One title, one million copies, one country, free

In October 2001 the Mockingbird was the most discussed bird in Chicago. Not the animal but the book by Harper Lee titled To kill a Mockingbird. The book was selected to cultivate the culture of reading and discussion in Chicago and inhabitants were suggested to talk with friends, family and neighbours about the book. The idea was that everybody in Chicago would read the same book at the same time and discuss it.
This idea was picked-up by the Dutch and is now organised for the second year. Talking about this years book will not be too difficult with the title "De gelukkige klas". All public library members can receive a free copy like all fourth graders but on the condition that they read it. A total circulation of almost 1 million free books! (A luxurious copy is also available for € 10). Plenty of activities in 100 cities are organised to get people to read and discuss the book. The popular and sometimes clumsy news anchor Philip Freriks is touring with a theater show, 10.000 people can get a book with a blank cover that they can design and a nostalgic train will tour in Holland.
Last year 725.000 copies of the book "Dubbelspel" were handed out, over 1 million people participated in Nederland Leest and public library visits increased with 20%.

A great marketing idea to boost reading and using different media to announce and stimulate talking about literature.

Print Sells campaign launched

This month partners of the United Print Chain launch a pan-European advertising campaign to support the use of print as an advertising medium. The campaign, that runs in 13 European countries, presents print as the perfect medium to build a brand image. The unique combination of partners from the paper, printing and printing machine industry, magazine publishers, Postal Associations and Cepifine allows industry-wide support and a major investment to change the perception of print media.

Very much like the Life with Print programme from Sappi this campaign combines emotional aspects of printed communications with hard facts and cases about effectiveness.
As perceptions will not change during one advertising wave, it is necessary that the Print Sells campaign continues over a longer period. Advertisers and their agencies are, despite what is often believed, conservative decision makers. And we know that advertising works through repetition.

Systematic creativity?

I joined a workshop about creativity thinking some days ago and became quite impressed. I'll explain you why. The Israeli company SIT developed a methodology for creating innovative ideas based upon the idea that innovations share a certain pattern. (The basis for this thinking comes from a Russian engineer who analysed thousands of patents). Starting as a tool for engineering Systematic Inventive Thinking has now become a tool to the advertising world. It identifies five ways of thinking that explain 70% of all successful innovations. Innovation and creativity can for example be achieved by taking away certain product features, or by combining some. In doing so SIT follows five principles of which "form follows function" is probably the best known.

SIT analysed winning advertising Print campaigns at the Cannes Advertising Festival and came to the conclusion that in 2000 77% could be explained via a SIT tool. In advertising ten creative techniques like extreme result, metaphor, inversion or extreme promise are used to present products. Winning Print campaigns use in 38% of the cases extreme result as technique. Not only does SIT help to be creative and innovative it also helps in analysing creativity. I find it a most helpful tool in my work.

Illiteracy levels boosts direct mail response

The Frankfurter Buchmesse, that just closed its doors, revealed that the illiteracy level in western Europe and developing countries is perceived as one of the biggest threats to the publishing industry. Professional visitors listed the threats to the industry, the list also includes other media competition, over-publishing and piracy.
At the Buchmesse cases of new and traditional media integration were discussed. For example launching new children books via SMS and podcast. Creating a community of children and extending the experience of reading a book proved to help stimulating literacy.
Not taking any action could make this threat a self-fulfilling prophecy. Plenty of research indicates the declining number of young people reading printed information. It should become a task of the government, education and the media industry to develop programs to correct this evolution.
There is however also a positive side to this threat; internet savvy young people seem to be more interested in hard copy direct mail. At the DMA congress in Chicago research was shown that relates high internet usage and response rates to direct mail. It all comes down to the long-known advertising adage: surprise people by standing out.

Inkjet printing into new applications

I was just reading about an interesting new application for the inkjet printing device we all have at home. As the inkjet head can print micron small dots on different surfaces Panasonic has lodged a patent for an electronic spraying device to apply liquids on skin. This could become an alternative way to apply make-up and would allow for sensational make-up effects comparable to airbrush. Buying blush or foundation will never be the same once the product has been introduced!
But inkjet is also going into very different applications. Most of these applications use electronics. And because inkjet heads can print pico millimeters, integrated electronic circuits can be printed. Printing will go beyond simple colour and coatings printing, but will include printing of electronic conductive materials. In this way circuits and sensors can be printed on various substrates.
Probably the best known application is the integration of RFID on paper or film. When I visited the LabelExpo in Brussels this was one of the highlights of the fair. However most of the RFID tags were still made separately and not immediately printed on the substrate. Inkjet printing will allow to do that directly on the substrate offering higher flexibility and smarter paper. This paper can be used to develop smart products like packaging that integrates diodes that light-up when the date for consumption is approaching or paper that is sensitive to pressure or can light up.
It sounds like a science fiction application but is reality: the elaboration of cells, tissues and so called bio paper for veins in medicine