Gen Y Marketing Podcast - Episode 1

So we have been hard at work recording the Gen Y Marketing Podcast of late and its now available for you to listen to here. If feedburner does the job it says it does then it will also be available on iTunes in the comming week or so.

This week on the Gen Y Marketing Podcast we take a look at the following:-

Marketing News this week:-

• RTA's new ad to target young male drivers
• 12% of Senior marketers see value in consumer generated content
• Text my t shirt and the t shirt responds?
• Greenpeace beams their message to the world
• 7 eleven joins the Simpsons joke and rebrands to Kwik-e-Mart

Feature Discussion this week:-

• Ambient Marketing - What works and what doesn't.

Campaign focus:-

• "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" Ads - preaching to the converted?
• itsyourfuture.com.au - making manufacturing sexy?

BigPond - Customer Service Slobs

A Phone Call I had with Bigpond (Telstra) yesterday

(BigPond / Telstra Phone Rep) Emily: Hello, welcome to Bigpond. How can I help you?
Me: Hi Emily, how are you?
Emily: Good thank you, how can I help you?
Me: I have an DSL home account with bigpond, and I have reached my monthly download limit.
Emily: ok
Me: I was wondering if I could buy a data block to up my speed until the next refreash cycle. Do you guys do Data Blocks
Emily : No we don’t
Me: you don’t
Emily: No
Me: hmmm
Emily: whats a data block?
Me : right. Thank you…

Just another great example of customer service representatives more eager to end a call than provide good customer service and solve a customers problem. Seth Godin does some great post on this (one of my favourites here…)

It is astronomical how many companies are guilty of this. Yes, cost are a concern, but we must realise that every touch point of our organisation is a marketing opportunity (however subtle or instantaneously unfruitful).

Heres an idea – perhaps instead of calling your company's customer servives reps just that, perhaps call them customer problem solvers or customer mechanics, or customer Einsteins. Change your reps view of themselves, how they view their job and how they exceed at their job (satisfiing customers rather than measuring number of calls taken) and make them feel empowered to help people. Its true – but helping people is rewarding and empowering – even if it is your job.

Aside: for some info on how telstra views its customer reps (and ultimately their customers), check out the Four Corners report here!)

Can Dave Hughes sell Gen Y on Manufacturing Jobs?

It seems the Australian governments educational push towards a white collar workforce over the last 10 years have left them with a problem. Generation Y'er don't seem to be turning to their parents saying "when I grow up, I want to work in manufacturing!", so to counter this the leaders of our great country have embarked on a novel campaign to entice youngsters back into the field with a website and a TV campaign headed up by none other than Dave Hughes.

Being that this is a marketing blog, I wont go into detail about my thoughts on the future of Australian maufacturing and the influence China has (and will continue to have) on the western world. But I would like to take a closer look at the campaign from a Gen Y marketing perspective.

Dave Hughes may not be the ideal character to promote the cause and heres why:-

Firstly, Hughesy plays up his persona in the media as being the average bloke, the kind of guy you would expect to find working on the factory floor of a cheese factory (a job that his brother actually does), cracking jokes during smoko. But from looking around the Its Your Future site it seems that this is exactly the type of image they are trying to steer the youth away from.

Secondly, as much as Hughesy comes across as the "maunfacturing industry" type of guy, he actually works on the media (with regular spots of TV and his own breakfast radio show) an industry that is very attractive (and consequently overrun) with the current batch of Gen Y'ers seeking a career path. So by making Hughesy as the spokesman on the basis that the youth look up to him the government actually runs the risk of steering kids up a totally non-manufacturing path.

That said its great to see a guy who has spent years doing stand up routines about his life on the dole now being employed by the government to promote kids getting a job.

Zune, Iphone - Keep it Simple!

What’s the exchange rate between a Zune point and an American dollar? Equals the ratio of Unicorns to Leprechauns! (Courtesy The Office NBC)

Does anyone own a Zune? I have not seen a single person with one. If you did own one, I wonder how much value you are getting from the wireless sharing function (Not much I would guess). But I digress…
My real problem with the Microsoft Zune is the online store. The geniuses at Microsoft decided that consumers found simplicity, well…too simple. So in an attempt to hit a nice sounding price point for customers, they introduced “Zune points”.
Ok so a single track from the Zune market place cost 79 points. One Zune point equal one cent, right? WRONG! Works out one point equals 1.25 cents (roughly), (which would mean one track equals 98.75 cents, hey that’s better than itunes store – best not to market this simply to consumers – could result in increased sales!!!).
Is money as a form of exchange too simple for the geniuses over at Microsoft? KEEP IT SIMPLE!!! Seems like they forgot to run this past the Department of Common Sense. Is it just me, or does Dwight Shrutt look a little like Bill Gates?
It seems companies are getting so caught up in design simplicity, and design capabilities as the best way to deliver value to consumers. But processes have to be simple too. It must be simple to buy, activate and start using your product to.

Another culprit is Apple….
I guess we have all read about the problems that people are having trying to activate their iphones.
From what I have heard the iphone is nice to use. It doesn’t have everything (nor does the ipod) but it is user friendly on the whole. With one design flaw: it needs to be activated to be used.
Despite network connection problems (which a lot of people seem to be having) the activation process seems quite convoluted. . Buyers need access to a Mac or PC computer running Apple's iTunes software, a connection to the Apple online music store and a valid American Social Security number. Read BL's post for some good information on these problems.
Seems Apple got caught up in their design bubble and forgot about the foundations of their recent successes – Simplicity. It’s great for a product to be simple to use, but if you can’t buy it, turn it on or activate it simply, then all the nice design in the world doesn’t help Joe Q with his un-activated phone.

NetRegistry end of year sale - A great campaign or a desperate grab for cash?

When I received the following email from the General Manager of Net Registry I wasn't quite sure how to take it..

This has been an exceptional year for NetRegistry. Having surpassed all our financial targets for 2007 I would like to reward both NetRegistry staff for their exceptional performance this year, and also reward our valued customers.

From now until 5pm Friday June 29, I am authorising our sales consultants to accept any reasonable offer for ANY NetRegistry service (except domain names) with all net revenue going directly to NetRegistry staff as a bonus.

As you can imagine they are very excited by this and standing by to take offers. Just call on 1800 78 80 82 and make an offer to secure yourself a great deal to help you grow your business online.

Best Regards,
Larry Bloch
Chief Executive Officer

On one hand I think its a great marketing ploy. If a sales team has indeed exceeded the sales targets for the year then this would be a great way to reward them, and even if they are technically limited to a moderate discount, its still a great way to get customers on the phone talking to their sales staff. On the other hand the sceptic in me wonders if this is the sign of a sinking ship struggling to make targets before end of financial year.

Regardless, an email from the CEO of a company is far more likely to be read than one coming from salesteam@Xcompany, and I applaud them for trying something different.

Has Diggnation uncovered the secret to successful IPTV advertising?

For anyone who has ever watched Diggnation (the IPTV show comprising of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht sitting on a couch staring at their laptops talking about the most popular stories on Digg in the past week) there is no doubt that had they pitched this to a network executive they would have been shown the door in the first 5 minutes. But each week 250 thousand people download the show and for the advertising pioneers who have loaded up the wagons and taken their ad spend over to Digg land, they are getting far more than they bargained for.

Diggnation offer their sponsors an advertising system that would send shivers down the spine of most media buyers. The ads all appear in one block at the end of the show, presented by the hosts themselves in a loosely scripted manner with no guarantee that the brand message will be concisely articulated and they employ no flashy CGI or smooth as silk voice overs. So what's the advantage for companies like to GoDaddy advertise with them? Unlike traditional commercials people actually watch them! Not only do viewers stick around to watch the 2 hosts bumble though their sponsorship announcements (which are usually just as entertaining as the rest of the show) their is also a feeling of obligation from the viewer to support the company that supports the show. Digg watchers are no doubt aware of how difficult it is for net cast shows like this get sponsorship and the more Rose and Albrecht position themselves as "the little guys" of broadcast television the more their viewers feel like helping them out in any way they can. If this means checking out the sponsors website or mentioning their name here and there then so be it. After all "any friend of Diggnation is a friend of mine".

So is it worth it for the advertisers? definitely. They may be tapping into a smaller audience than a 30second ad spot during prime time, but they can be sure that the viewers will watch the ad, pay attention to the offering and given the opportunity support the company that's supporting the show they love.

Cat and Mouse - How Facebook marketers risk chasing away users

The concept of "cool" is a fickle thing. For the cutting edge trend setters its a constant game of cat and mouse trying to stay ahead of the crowd, for the moment they all arrive what was once "cool" now becomes tepid.

I read a post on the Duct Tape Marketing blog about Facebooks new open API and how there is now an "opportunity" for marketers and small business to get in on the massive popularity of Facebook. The question here is, now that the cats have arrived, how long till the mice move on?

The open API is a good idea don't get me wrong, but more from a tech point of view than for any "business opportunity" reasoning. Mark Zuckerberg has said that he wants facebook to become somewhat of a platform for social networking and by opening up the system, he is well on his way to making this happen as developers start making cute little widgets to integrate into the facebook platform. But by flinging open the front door to marketers, Facebook runs the risk of driving off the trend setters and with them the masses.

Its unfortunate but the bulk of the marketing world is always going to be one step behind croud. The reason being that marketers wait until the crowd arive before they see any value in getting involved. Consumers are getting smarter by the minute and the opertunistic approach taken by the marketing fraternity is becoming more and more obvious. As long as marketers continue to take this approach the marketing cats will continue to find the trend setting mice frustratingly out of reach..