McEWANHACKETT.COM

The BBC reported this story today. Private equity (the current demon figures in the UK economy at present) company Carlyle are bidding for Virgin Media. They're valuing it at £5 billion. But there is one interesting angle...

iPhones have finally been sold to the public in the States, amidst crazy scenes. Although not available here in the UK until later in the year, the news prompted me to think about why people are willing to put themselves through such hassle to own one.

We give our politicians a tremendously hard time in this country. Some would say that’s the sign of a healthily functioning democracy - and by and large I’d agree with them.

However, from a marketing perspective, I think you have to give politicians some credit for being leaders in one field, and that’s the area of branding – though not always with a capital B.

After their "I'm sinking" ad that did the rounds a few months back, Berlitz now storm back into the viral stakes with this effort. For anyone who remembers the original track and Hammers loony pants - enjoy.

Check out this post from The European Union (I guess it's the part that promotes EU cinema). No subtitles necessary.

Alan Johnston has been released. Excellent news, and an example of the power of new media. Countless people have signed up to the online petition, added images of Alan to their websites and participated in online discussions and forums.

A rare and powerful example of the good the web can do.

It looks like China is bucking the online trend for social networks. Or at least using them in a different way from other marketplaces. Because in China, members of web communities are being encouraged to group together to obtain cheaper prices on goods and services. It works something like this...

So the trend for established brands to jump onboard the digital bandwagon continues. After being seen as the face of DRM for a while and also as something of a slaveowner (remember George Michael's run-in before he took up herbal cigarettes and power naps at traffic lights?), Sony has signed up to a deal with internet radio/music company Last FM.

I'm really disappointed that Alastair Campbell has agreed to self-censor his diary in order not to give David Cameron ammunition against Gordon Brown. This for two reasons:

1. I'd love to hear what really went on.
2. I want to know whether he called anyone a c**t during the course of his day and if so how many times and to whom.

Having watched the latest Thick of It I was hoping that Al would reveal that he really was the model for Malcolm Tucker. In any case from a marketing point of view, it's letting the cat out of the bag - I certainly won't be buying it now.

Not sure if he should anyway. But Obama seems to be reaping the rewards of this, and it's a sensible move to differentiate himself as the man who's down with YouTube, FaceBook etc.

I'm interested if anyone knows whether this post is from a genuine (although partisan) member of the public or from a PR agency. Anyone out there know?

Recognise the quote from The Godfather?

In this post from Seth Godin, we are told to embrace the potentialities of the web, but be aware of the pitfalls too. I agree with Seth most of the time and do here. Most of my work to date has specialised in the promotion of the education sector to students, where this message doesn't seem to get through. Missed opportunities galore...

Check out this post from Ian Lurie. It's all good stuff and very timely. I mean has anyone else suddenly got loads of friend requests for Facebook in their inboxes?

So it seems that Boris will throw his hat into the ring. After "Shagger" Norris and that other fellow, it seems the Tories are going for personality this time.

We've all got an email list that we use as a marketing channel, and it's still the most cost effective direct marketing channel. But if you don't do it right, it won't work and more importantly, it can also turn people off. Use these tips to optimise your efforts:

Do BBC employees need to go on a training course to learn right from wrong? That's a direct quote from Eddie Mair to Mark Thompson DG of the BBC. Now apart from the obvious schadenfreude of listening to the boss being grilled by his own attack dog, this raises some obvious points about how things can go so wrong for the right reasons in the new multi-channel world we all live (and work) in.

If you've ever wondered whether you're using the correct method to connect with your customers, then check out this post from Seth Godin.

Basically he's saying that you need to know the purpose of your communication before choosing what the customer (or potential customer) will get from you.

Email is a powerful medium (especially opted in email) because its entire purpose is to prompt for a response, to start a conversation or discussion that may end in a sale, but will result in more knowledge on both sides.

Heard the news today that FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerburg has been named in a case brought by a rival social networking company ConnectU. Not sure whether this one will run or not (FaceBook 31 million registered users, ConnectU 70k anyone), but it made me think about the tremendous value (potential or otherwise) of social media and networks, precipitating cases like this.

Here's a good one for you:

How many people visited your recruitment site this week (or last)?

Where are they coming from?

Which is the most popular page on your site?

What page has the highest drop-off rate?

Is there a planned route through your site for every segment of your audience - and if so can you tell if it's working?

All of these questions are extremely obvious and you would probably know the answers to them if they were referring to a mailshot or printed advert. But incredibly some people responsible for the online channel cannot answer them.

Those of you who've read this blog before will recall the Saturday night out and talking about fragmentation of audience and channels with friends. During the same evening, I was airing my knowledge of Google's current policy of building new server farms near dams in the States in order to be closer to sources of power (probably no one was listening having had enough of the previous conversation!)...

In the rush for everyone to get on board the web 2.0 bandwagon, and the dominance of online marketing (at least in terms of coverage and "chatter"), are we in danger of marginalising traditional (off-line) marketing?

With the growth of social networking sites and other new online applications like blogging, its easy to see why some businesses may be tempted to put all their marketing eggs in the online basket. But this would be a mistake.

There's a trend back to traditional marketing's principles in the online marketing space. By this I mean that the concepts of brand and brand marketing are becoming more important in the online marketing mix, and online marketing is becoming more important to brand marketing activities. And ultimately, marketing is still about satisfying the customer.

The biggest advantage of online marketing is that it is now easier for a marketer to connect cause and effect. For example it's extremely hard to connect the purchase of a car with the buyer watching a cinema ad for that car. Nowadays, with Google Adwords and other online marketing collateral, it's much more viable to track the purchase and the effectiveness (or not) of the banners, paid for search or other interventions.

The point though is that we are not very good at monitoring or understanding the longer term effects of off-line marketing (like that cinema ad) on someone performing a search through Yahoo or Google. In brand marketing it is going to be increasingly important to integrate both on and off-line measurements.

The key thing for marketers is to be able to be sure that the experience that a consumer has of a brand, whether on or off-line is consistent. This means that the consumer who sees an online ad for a car, receives the same experiences and messages throughout his interaction. If at any point there is deviation, a rude salesperson, a car that is not prepared for a test drive, or one that is unreliable, or even if the after sales experience does not match his initial expectations, then the brand promise has been broken.

With the transparency that the web brings its never been easier for a customer to find and select other providers...