The Truth in Ad. Sales

Series:MarketingTalk Series:AdTalk

Anyway, one thing we noticed as we stalked the stands was that many visitors simply wanted a basic intro to that company. So we thought we’d film BrainJuicer’s short ‘what we do/what we’re all about’ spiel for their website. It’s only 4mins, go ahead and watch below if you’re interested.

But here’s the really interesting bit: it’s easy to produce, fast and free to upload, and you, yes you, can do it yourself. Specifically, Jim Rimmer, BrainJuicer’s UK MD, never prepared for this filming – we simply asked if he was game and he obliged and nailed it in one take. And later that evening we got the clip uploaded to YouTube, all within 30mins!

It’s not broadcast quality, but then again it doesn’t need to be. And for those who want a short, no nonsense intro, it should do the trick.

We hope more agencies follow suit and start using multimedia to tell their story and say what’s different about them. So, what’s your excuse for not trying this?

Filed under ‘I’ve had enough and I’m not taking it any more’, this is a video from someone who’s a bit hacked off with his Apple Mac.

So where’s the value to researchers in all of this? After all, surely it’s an embarrassment that marketers/PR folks need to deal with directly. Moreover, researchers are there to identify consensus opinion, since we’re all told that loud voices in e.g. a focus group can overwhelm other voices and so give a distorted view of consumer perceptions.

But that’s where the Internet’s different. Loud voices such as our friend above don’t quell others around him. If nothing else, they encourage free and open expression. The reality is, social media sites such as YouTube, Digg, blogs, podcasts, etc. are a great source of information for researchers because loud voices like this become a dynamic focal point or hub for opinion and conversation. At the time of writing, there were 133 comments linked to this video. Read those and you get a deeper take on what consumers think. In short, you don’t just get one opinion, you get many more.

Many more voices that are arguably more authentic and passionate than those gathered through traditional survey techniques. It’s the way the industry needs to go. Plus, I can’t see ‘respondent co-operation’ becoming an issue any time soon, can you?

Was John asking for money? No. Was he asking for any sort of commitment? No. He was merely hoping for an email from listeners saying ‘I support this cause’.

Simple? Well, we thought so. But something clearly went gone wrong. Because, out of the hundreds of listeners we received only a couple of replies.

So, by way of constructive feedback we’d like to know where we failed. Please leave a comment (click on the word ‘Comments’ under the heading) or email us at letmetalk *at* gmail *dot* com (of course replacing *at* with ‘@’ and *dot* with ‘.’). Thanks.

That said, we’re getting to know some of the players, big and small in this modest $24bn industry, and it’s good to see some deserved successes at last night’s UK Research Excellence Awards in London (not that we had the privilege of being there, we had to wait like the rest of the hoi polloi for the list of winners).

Congratulations to all winners and nominees, and particularly to those who have graced our podcasts including Danny Wain, Jem Fawcus, John Samuels, Marc Brenner, Ruth Buchanan, Steve Wills, Flamingo International, Nunwood and Spring Research.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our growing base of listeners for giving us your attention. Although we offer our content free, we appreciate that you pay us in a far more valuable way: with your time. Our gratitude also goes to the increasing band of evangelists including those who give us link love (the hip term for linking to us)