╠ Who needs the truth, when lies are more believable? ╣

So over at the good old Facebooks I was invited to this curious event. The event instructed people to go 30 days without eating Arnotts shapes.

The event claims Arnott's have 'snuck' palm oil into their products and are therefore lying about their claim of using vegetable oil. The side effect to this being that palm oil is a 'leading cause of deforestation'.

So therefore to save the forests of the world everyone should stop eating Arnott's for 30 days. The curious thing is that the event offers no proof, nothing more than one paragraph of information. This event currently has over 3600 attendees and it's still going considering the event will only end come Oct 22nd.

So with zero actual proof that's 3600 that have potentially changed their habits for this event. The fact that it's 30 days as well is quite interesting because if you do something straight for 21 days, say not eat shapes, then any cravings are meant to leave your system...of course this is on average and ignores things such as cigarettes. This points out that it will not simply be 30 days of damage, but there could also be follow on.

So who's behind it, surely some random page that no longer has any admins? No just one person, who if they are fake has gone to a lot of effort to be fake. The amusing point from here is that effectiveness leads to damage and damage has to be paid. So Miss Amy Smith I hope you have very deep pockets when Mr. Arnott comes to sue for damages.

╠ To lie, to cheat or to steal? Where is the line ╣

This is an old campaign and for those of you who don't remember it basically this video was posted, went viral and then went to such a stage that it got actual media coverage on TV. What was criticized though is that it was a complete lie, and when asked if it were true, lied some more.

From stories like this there has been a sort of established guideline that marketing and promotions should not be fake. However I believe that is too broad. I don't think the problem here is that it was fake...personally I actually think its because you can't tell the brand of the jacket and therefore have no idea what you're meant to be getting an interest in. However branching along the fake vein I believe where they went wrong is lying. The video was fake yes, however I don't think that's a big deal, it may irk some. But clearly coming out and saying it isn't fake and then doing a 180. That cost them dearly.

It's always good to get other peoples thoughts though. What do you believe? Is being fake even too far? Or do you believe I may be onto something with separating fake from lie?

╠ Not so Hidden Pizza ╣

Yesterday I'd finally seen enough of this hidden pizza on facebook and twitter to actually trial it. Seems everyone else had a similar idea and thus caused quite a line leading to a 45 min line ride before the pizza.

Now for those of you completely out of the loop there is a hidden pizza restaurant in Melbourne. The idea is that you find the number via the yellow pages website, call up, order your pizza and they give you an address. Now the trick is that the Pizza is free and the restaurant is only open for 2 weeks.

So who is possibly sponsoring this campaign? A Pizza company? Pizza product company? Drinks company? I puzzled my head on this thinking about it. Then I discovered the answer Yellow Pages.

Now depending on which blog you read some people think its amazing, others less so.

My personal opinion is that it is effective and now yellow pages is a little more prevalent in my mind....however it isn't enough to change my habits. So yes I think better of yellow pages and remember its there...But its not enough to stop me using google which is currently much more integrated into my everyday life and also more powerful in most cases.

Now this is only if you recognize Yellow Pages as the sponsor, which is the hard bit. You go to this restaurant and there is no branding at all. It literally is branded as its own restaurant. So the entire feel is nice and everything, but no mention of anything yellow pagey to make you like that brand.

So the actual feeling that I got is actually that perhaps I would like to go to the hidden pizza restaurant again...therefore my brand loyalty is built for that more than yellow pages. Further more you have to wonder how much is spent on this. It isn't a cheap excersize to build and setup something big. Once you consider the time its open, setup and other expenses as well as the fact people will come back multiple times in some cases I'd estimate cost per person at $5 which would be a really hard cost to recoup.

That being said there are still other elements to look at. This is a unique event and for Yellow pages this makes them look quite smart which is good for their business relations. So I'd say this would be a great excersize for increasing business attention for them. This is especially good considering yellow pages is definitely something that would be in decline.

So overall I don't think it's worth it on the consumer level but on the business level I think its incredibly clever marketing and overall I have to say kudos...even though my pizza did seem undercooked...>_>

╠ Of Facebook and Ads ╣

With Critical Hit's launch I decided to use Facebook as the best tool for quick advertising. However I quickly ran into a pitfall. For those of you facebook users think of the amount of ads you see and the amount you click...very minimal.

With facebook ads I learned that they are best used for a non-demanding purpose. Simply showing a product and a price isn't enough. You have to sell the message and that message is easier sold if the link is say look at this site or look at this video and stuff like that so that they don't feel like it's blatant advertising demanding you buy now.

Facebook is certainly a powerful tool. But you need to learn how to use it right.

...And that's the story of how I wasted $50. More blunders coming soon.

╠ Critical Delay! ╣

Hey everyone. You may have noticed a large amount of not much going on around here. The reasoning for this is that I have devoted my time to setting up my own business. This business is first of all a learning tool to not only test my marketing skills but management as well, but also a god ay to try and embrace something I care about in that of Video games. Critical Hit as it is called is a video game and anime merchandise e-commerce retail operation.

Using this will allow me to actually apply my ideas to a real business, hopefully with success. So expect to see more real life examples with actual outcomes. I'm excited and I hope you are too.

To see the site in action head over to www.criticalhit.com.au

╠ Boy is dead around here! ╣

Apologies for my inactivity around here. Every year I have periods of heavy activity and unfortunately some things fall by the wayside. One thing I have found is that marketing is definitely something you have to stay active in. The longer you go without using it or thinking about it you forget.

I fear for the marketing grads who have to wait 6 months to get their first job and don't do anything active like blogging.

Anyway I was walking to work the other day and I noticed this truck drive past. I thought it was one of the most clever thigns I've seen in a while. It attracts attention wherever it goes but also has positive connotations. The material they used is commonly associated with fresh or health which is a good thing for water. On top of this what I think is really good is that it probably wasn't that expensive so it's certainly a win-win situation. So kudos Another Bloody Water

╠ My Bank isn't a bank! ╣

One thing that has left me pondering over the last year or so is the shift in banks. Some of the advertisements are almost literally trying to say that they aren't actually a bank. Commonwealth advertising their 'unbank like conversations' or others advertising that their workers have the best work-life balance...

I'm not sure about the rest of you but when I go to a bank I go there because they have special attributes and benefits suited to a banklike profession and to have banklke conversations.

It's amusing that the bank as a type of institution is such a damaged reputation that those under it have to pretend they aren't to get ahead.

However on top of this another interesting fact is that they're all doing it together. Each bank is trying not to be a bank in its own oddly similar way.

This change is sort of evidence to one of the biggest things I've learned from my years of studying marketing. Innovation does not guarantee success...instead what you have to do is find a way to be the same different.

If you can make sense of that maybe you should be telling the banks how to be unbanklike next.

╠ Is making no money really the better option? ╣

I'm sure a lot of you have started to hear about the SarcMark. A punctuation mark that can be added to any text to infer sarcasm. In theory its a good idea, and there is demand for it. However the issue that seems to be stirring people to rebel against it is that it costs $1.99 to download.

Now the reason this is so bad is that people don't like to pay for software over the internet normally. Those who aren't scared of internet transactions are usually savvy enough to find ways around paying for things, even if illegally.

So now you're left with a problem. You've got this little mark that noone understands because only fractions of people have downloaded it. This means that instead of having peer pressure to downlad it because everyone else has it, instead there is ridicule for being silly enough to pay.

But the question stands as to what was the alternative? Not charging? Where would the profit be in such an activity?

Well my recommendation would be first off that if you're going to get a lot of people getting this advertising on your website can do wonders. Further more once everyone is stating to get one you can release premium ones for sale so that people can use sarcasm in style. At the moment there is just the basic one...but imagine how cool you'd be if you had a hollow one...or during christmas time one wit a santa hat. Now these aren't million dollar ideas...but overall they would probably make the business more than just initially charging.

╠ Experimenting outside your field ╣

This picture is of the soon to be opened Ludia's bar in Japan. What relevance is this?

Well this bar actually originally featured in a video game series called Dragon Quest. The bar itself will also serve themed meals and beverages.

Now this brings up an interesting point of whether such endeavours will be successful. Now it's hard to know just what the Japanese market is like, however thinking of it in a more local context I cannot see it succeeding unfortunately.

Gamers are those who usually spend their time inside...valued bar patrons spend the majority of their time outside. Thus wherein lies an issue.

However I hope that this type of thing does succeed as I would love to have the potential to build some video game locales :P