Alexander Alexandrou

Ermis Silver Award for Byte Digital Agency and Bank of Cyprus…

This month we won a Silver Ermis Award in the ‘Digital’ category, ‘Financial Websites’ for our interactive microsite, entitled; ‘The Compendium of Savings’.

The Ermis Awards is the only institution awarding creativity within the field of communication in Greece and Cyprus and is organized by the Hellenic Association of Advertising and Communications for the past ten years. It is the highlight of the industry both in Greece and Cyprus, and this year was even more interesting, because after last year’s cancellation of awards, agencies and campaigns competed amongst two years worth of work.

Winning awards manifests when agency and client share the same goal and the work produced meets certain criteria such as; relevance, creativity, differentiation, functionality, passion and professionalism. The award winning microsite informed the public about five particular savings accounts offered by the Bank of Cyprus. Our microsite was media-rich in that it expressed and most importantly explained the details and benefits of each of the five accounts, through animation, video and audio.

Besides this particular success, Byte’s work distinguished itself and was shortlisted in another three categories; The ‘Can you Handle it?’ campaign in the ‘Integrated Campaigns’ category, the augmented reality campaign ‘Samsung Play Galaxy’ in the category, ‘Other Interactive Solutions’ and the corporate social responsibility viral campaign, ‘What If…’, in the category ‘Viral’.

Automatic Cuteness…

How do we create an environment where consumers will market to each other? The answer is raw emotional gratification or simply… PLEASURE. Pleasure not only from experiencing, but more importantly from sharing that experience.

Viral content is such that you (the sender) imagine that your friend (the receiver) will enjoy the content that you have sent and that you will receive much kudos! It’s an act that is selfless just as it is selfish.

What has this got to do with a baby monkey and a piglet?

Take a look at the video below…

Did you see the number of views? Yes that’s 14 MILLION, 233 THOUSAND AND 402 VIEWS to date!

This wasn’t the original video, this was the original video. As you can see it achieved 635,401 views to date. This content was so cute and funny (did you watch the video yet?) it was spread virally; emails, social media, and blogs like this one.

It doesn’t stop here! From the original video, a SONG was made that was put on the video above, the MP3 was released on ITUNES: Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On a Pig) by Parry Gripp. It was also made into an IPHONE APP: Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On a Pig) by Kihon Games. There are 50+ Facebook pages with the name Baby Monkey and the video thumbnail as their profile picture with anofficial Facebook page supporting the iphone app.

So there you have it, from user generated content into a marketable Brand, courtesy of the viral effect!

Social Media 101…

What does social media mean for brands? Let’s see what Mark Zukerberg, founder and Chief Executive of Facebook has to say:

“For the past 100 years, media has been pushed out to people. Now marketers are going to be part of the conversation.”

It’s clear that social media has become a trusted source of information; Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, review blogs. Just because consumers trust other consumers more than they trust us, it does not mean that we no longer control our brands. It means that:

We can listen to consumers and each other. We can understand and inform our point of view before our brands speak.

We can anticipate by understanding and responding in real time. We can create new opportunities to make connections with each other and with consumers.

We can create the catalyst that sparks new ideas. We can engage at every touchpoint between brand and consumer.

We can participate by delivering value and relevance through our content. We reconnect.

In effect we can utilize this CRM cycle infinitely. If we look at this as real people the idea is simple. Imagine yourself in social situation, perhaps an event. What steps would you take to be socially liked?

1. You will need a personality! That is you and how you want to be perceived. (Identify your Brands’ Personality).

2. You need to be introduced (Shared) or introduce yourself. (Your Brand reaches out to consumers).

3. You should listen using all your senses (Analytics, research tools, evaluation) in order to understand the other persons personality (Defining target audience).

4. You should talk to the other person, finding mutual points of interest will enable a meaningful conversation and perhaps friendship (Brand Storytelling, communicating your Brand message and being relevant to your target audience).

5. You now need to keep the relationship going (CRM). You need to call once in a while (post updates) and be valuable to your friend (Advice, information, service).

6. You should give them something, ie buy them a coffee (Give gifts, special offers, prize draws/competitions).

7. You make the relationship stronger (Your Brand becomes appreciated).

8. You are now well liked and you are talked about by your friends.(They have become Brand Advocates).

9. You now meet up with your friends’ friends (Virality of your Brand).

10. You keep it going! (CRM).

The concept is easy to understand as it is based on a human model. How popular you become is another question and depends on many factors, but that’s exactly what advertising is about!

We’ve heard it all before… Or have we?

Knowing your Generation X, Y, Z’s as a marketer has been invaluable as the sociological research behind these demographics has enabled us to form distinctly appllicable communication strategies.

A little rusty?… I’ll hum it for you:

Boomers –  Born between 1946-1964. Witnessed dramatic social change. Defined as Hippies and Yuppies. Idealistic and competitive.

Generation X – Born between 1965-1976. Witnessed divorce and economic unrest. Defined as Latchkey Kids. Individualistic, skeptical of authority.

Generation Y – Born between 1977-1992. Witnessed inter-community conflicts and digital technologies. Defined as Millennials. Optimistic and brand loyal.

Generation Z – Born between 1993-2010. Witnessed terrorism, social networking and major environmental issues. Defined as Digital Natives. Flexible and diverse.

Generation Alpha – Born between 2011-?. Witnessing widespread economic downturn and technological innovation. Defined as Google kids. Educated and materialistic.

Currently there is a lot of excitement surrounding Millennials. The are defined as such, not only by their birth year but also by their mindset, a major factor towards this mindset is the internet. Why do Millennials matter: 80 million strong, they have purchasing power, they are agents of change, they are trend-setters, they have political influence, they are distrustful of marketing and are socially conscious, they are determined to make an impact and are advocates of social responsibility.

Interestingly, they are putting family, flexibility, balance and lifestyle ahead of career and money. (At variance with their Gen X parents).
What does this mean for marketers? Well, it means that they filter content aggressively, they expect content to be free and on demand and competing for their attention is fierce.

They become brand advocates for brands that are ethical, inspirational, socially conscious, responsible, sustainable, original, economically sensible and shareable.

For more statistics and case studies of brands that have become relevant to this Generation see Millennial Marketing.

“Play it again Sam?” Perhaps we should be saying. “Rewind Selectahh!”