Enjoy this best-selling updated 8^th edition – packed with new material, keeping abreast with AI, AR, VR, MR, MA and other innovative approaches to marketing communications. All integrated with the world’s most popular SOSTAC® Planning methodology that delivers a reassuring sense of order in a chaotic digital world and also that delivers success from better, MarComms’ ‘information-based’ decisions.

In Part 2 – all ten marcomms tactical tools (incl ads, PR, sponsorship, Owned, Earned and Paid Media etc.)  has a sample SOSTAC® Plan at the end of chapter.

Ze Zook and I are so pleased with it.  So much new material including AI integrating with MarComms.  We’ve tried to keep the edutainment angle so readers actually enjoy discovering some cutting-edge examples, tips and tools throughout the book. Thanks to the team at @Kogan Page including: Alison, Donna, Bruna and  Jack, Jeylan, Susie and of course, Helen Kogan.

What New Marketing and What Classic Marketing is in the 8th ed.?

What’s new and what’s old in Marketing Communications 8th ed.?

20% author’s discount can be used legitimately by following these instructions.

1. Go to koganpage.com/MC8
2. Click ‘Add to Cart’
3. Click ‘Checkout’ on the top right corner of the screen.
4. Complete your Billing & Delivery Information
5. Click ‘Continue to Review & Pay’
6. Scroll down to ‘Review Items’
7. In this section, click the ‘Add an offer code’ button – bottom right
8. Enter your code AMK20 in the box provided
9. Scroll down to input your payment information
10. Click the ‘Buy Now’ button at the bottom of the screen.

Enjoy Your Book

The post Marketing Communications 8th ed Released! appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

Shared vales; shared emotions; informative; entertaining; shocking; frightening; funny; loving……… try this one

See video below.

Thank you for reading this. If you would like alerts about my future posts please enter your email address in the ‘Subscribe to Marketing Insights’ in the right-hand column.
Perhaps also connect with me on   Twitter      Linkedin     Instagram       Youtube    or in our weekly chat in the SOSTAC® Plans Club in the Clubhouse App on Fridays at 1pm.

Leap Of Faith: Damien Walters Backflip Over Speeding Formula E Car  see http://fiaformulae.com/ 

Staff Advocacy

This employee is sufficiently motivated that he made his own ‘Shockvertising’ video for his company.  Will this start a surge of employee product demo ads?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHznDFD3V3k

Staff  need to be integrated. What does this mean? Well every customer facing member of staff is a brand ambassador. They have to feel part of it. They have to integrate with the brand values (sometimes they are selected in accordance with the brand values). This requires internal marketing (investing in internal communications and motivation). If you get this right, staff can become your most potent comms tool. Have a look at this member of staff who made his own youtube product demonstration video – eating his dinner off the subway floor (after he cleaned it with his hard floor cleaner that both vacuums and steams. [source Smith PR & Zook Z. (2016) Marketing Communications offline & online integration, engagement & analytics, Kogan Page].

The ‘between buildings’ roof top swimming pool wasn’t even built yet when this computer generated image was released. It generated almost 1billion views and £21 million revenues (sale of apartments). See How To Leverage A Graphic Image To Get Maximum Impact.

—end—

If you liked this, you might also like:

How To Leverage A Graphic Image To Get Maximum Impact 

From Boring Info to Compelling Content

Meet Ai-Da a Performing AI-Driven Artbot

The post Creative Marketing Content appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

We also mentioned metal shutters could use some art too. This post is now going to show some amazing art posted on walls (and shutters) around Dublin and elsewhere. These initiatives lift the mood of passers-by,  employees,  residents,  tourists (when they return),  the artists themselves and sponsors if they find any.

DublinWalls.com is a photo collection of Dublin Walls created by talented artists. These murals embellish the Irish capital city of Ireland and are part of ICHH

Isn’t this the ultimate selfie to send to your friends? Creating the ‘shared experience’ …  shouldn’t it be branded? What do you think? At least with the artist’s name, a sponsor’s name or even the artist’s website?  This way we might be able to fund more artists to post their art.  Brands supporting art.  Even brands commissioning art (perhaps like the beautiful Dhali Guinness mural (see at the end). WDYT?

The contemplative space gardener. Makes you stop and think doesn’t it?  That, in my opinion is part of the purpose of art.

JJ Smyth’s Music Pub, 12 Aungier Street, Dublin 2

This definitely brightens up the street, seeing the Rolling Stones smiling down on us all. It also brands and promotes JJ Smyth’s pub as one of Dublin’s best music venues. It’s a win-win-win.

You are not the only busy guy or girl out there. There’s busy elephants too. Am sure the artist had his/her own idea when creating this beautiful image.  Perhaps, if you are out there and you know what the meaning of this wonderful image is – please let me know what is this about? Again this art makes you stop and think.

Although this post is primarily about Dublin. Many of its artists (example these photos) are from all over the world.  Meanwhile a quick mural from Belfast that I absolutely love – don’t know why but it’s great. If anyone knows who created this,  please tell me and we’ll post a link to his/her site.

Please send me in your photos of anything that brightens up a street, an alley-way , a wall, a window or even a  just a door.   As marketers, we  can brighten up our streets and support our brands and /or help spread important messages  simultaneously.  I will publish another blog post with lots of creative ideas from Dublin, Belfast, Dundalk, London and elsewhere.

A final stunner, again from Belfast. This panoramic Guinness mural  adds some intrigue to the alleyway, supports the community, the pub beside it, the artist, the brand itself…. it’s a win-win-win.

Dublin Walls Map

Back to Dublin,  the ever-evolving  DublinWalls.com Map with the current murals displayed  across the Dublin City map with their exact location and a preview of the artistic image. The Dublin Walls’ Street Art Map contains 4 alternative Walking Routes to visit Dublin through its talkative walls (also some really cool speciality coffees on the way!).

More images (and stories) in the next post. I can send you an alert if you enter your email  in the ‘Subscribe to Marketing Insights’ .

 

Images  Can Add Value

Mixing murals with reality

I got off the Luas Tram in Ranelagh, Dublin and saw a painting of these 3 dodgy guys wearing balaclavas, forcing ‘a real door’. Clever art!

Brick Art in London – kids playing climbing, exploring

As they say in London, ‘always look up’ to see hidden gems like the above brickwork which tells a story, triggers a question and adds value for the observant passer-by.

Flowers painted beautifully on a door of derelict, boarded up house in the beautiful Italian medieval village of Pigna.

This door painting removes the negative feeling of a derelict old house, lightens the load of the locals and adds value to the tourist experience.  Another win-win-win.

Words Add Value

 

“You’ll never see the man again who sat across from you” words written above the waiting room in Dundalk Clarke Station

Now this is a truly extraordinary train station as it uses words to provoke the romance of train journeys, forgotten by many. I will write a separate post on Dundalk’s amazing train station with photographs of words peppered across the platforms, waiting rooms and entrance – all provoking romantic thoughts – for those observant travellers.

Lights Add Value

There is no doubt that lighting catches the eye, attracts attention and attracts some customers as demonstrated by this Dublin pub opposite what was the Technolgical University Dublin (formerly know as  Dublin Institute of Technology).

Silver Shutters Win-Win

 

If you like this post you might also like  Great Covid Idea: Walls Of Gold  where ‘thinking outside the box’ turned dirty empty poster sites into beautiful thought-invoking images from local photographers all around Dublin city.

If you enter your email address  in the ‘Subscribe to Marketing Insights’ form, I will send you an alert whenever I post something new (probably once every 2-3 months).

The post Great Covid Idea: Walls Of Gold appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

They say that ‘Tech is neutral’. So, like marketing, you can use it for good or for evil. You have good actors and bad actors.  Here are some potential advantages and disadvantages of deepfake.

Advantages of Deep Fake

1. Enables global advertisements to be tailored and ‘dubbed perfectly’ to local languages and local brand names (see Just Eat and Snoop Dog).
2. Improve internal comms by enabling CEOs to speak to their staff around the world in perfect local language.
3. Act in a movie after you are deceased
4. Direct a movie using a younger version of you or a younger version of another actor.

Disadvantages & Dangers of Deep Fake

1. Catastrophic damage to public trust and to markets could come from deep fake attacks.
2. Cynical audiences will neither trust nor believe in any news or evidence on camera or video.
3. Non-cynical, ignorant audiences will gladly believe deep fake videos that reinforce their opinions and values.
4. International opponents will use synthetic media to sow the seeds of distrust plus reinforce anti-democratic values.
5. Terrorized women have had their faces faked and inserted into pornographic images and films.
6. Deep fake attacks – on markets and trust in markets
7. If everything can be deep-faked. Then everything can be denied. Worse still, untrue accusations can have ‘proof’ (deep-fake proof).
8. Hijack your bio-metrics
9. Boost fraud – intimidate/blackmail celebrities with fake porn or any obscene imagery
10. Destabilise trust

Do the Disadvantages Outweigh the Advantages?

What do you think? Can deep fake be used for good only? Have a look at  another chilling application of data, untruths and destruction of society in The Dark Arts of Marketing.

‘Just Eat’ Deep Faked their Australian Ad

Just Eat (Snoop Dog) ad was changed to its Australian subsidiary brand name – Menulog. They seamlessly switched out the word ‘Just Eat’ for ‘Menulog’ so that Snoop Dog appears to say ‘Menulog’.

Are Governments Ready For Deep Fake Attacks?

No they are not. US Military, Law Enforcement and intelligence agencies have been monitoring Deep Fakes for years. During a 2019 hearing Senator Ben Sasse asked ‘if the USA is ready for the onslaught of disinformation, fakery and fraud?’  He continued: ‘Are we organised in a way that we could possibly respond fast enough?’ The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in the USA, Dan Coates acknowledges that it poses a major threat to the United States and ‘it is something the intelligence community needs to be restructured to address.’

How do they create deep fakes?

They filmed a Tom Cruise impersonator who also looked very like him. They only deep-faked Cruise’s face. They digitally stitched Tom Cruise’s face onto the face of the impersonator on video. They start with a library of images of Tom Cruise – every possible angle and include all the expressions and all the emotions of Tom Cruise. They then train the machine with this data set.

Training means it’s going to analyse all the images of Tom Cruise. All his expressions. They then compare these to the impersonator. The computer then teaches itself – so that when the impersonator is smiling, they recreate Tom Cruise smiling.  They use AI & Deep Learning to create fake content or ‘deep fakes’.

GANs General Adversorial Networks
It is like setting up a game with two AIs competing to produce the best fake synthetic content – as these two new combat each other – one tries to generate the best image – the other tries to identify or detect where it could be improved  – continually improving until you cannot tell the difference!

What have these got in common

(apart from being all white)?

Answer – they are not human. They do not exist. A computer created them. They all come from ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com . Creating characters, avatars, bots and robots is already happening. Some bots are created others are partly regenerated (or reincarnated) from the deceased as demonstrated in Project December as well as Microsoft’s patent for digitally reincarnating dead people as chat bots (if the families give permission) as highlighted in the  Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends.

Deep fake acceleration

Cadence, tenor and syncopation are now being incorporated into fakes. You just type the words into a computer and the words appear to come out of someone else’s mouth! Estimates suggest that within 5-7 years, the average youtuber and tik-tok-er – will be able to do what elite top hollwood studios and advanced AI companies can do now.

Synthesia Avatars a UK company appears to be able to do this as they replace cameras with code.  And there are many others…coming.

What must you do…..?

1. Watch this excellent,  albeit frightening, Bill Whitaker report from the 60 Minutes series (the video is only  13 minutes).
2. Understand what a deep fake is and what is synthetic media?
3. Discuss, how do we inoculate ourselves & understand that this content is coming and exists – without being cynical – without losing trust in authentic media?
4. Explore/discuss how do we authenticate stories, photos, videos, media, journalists, bloggers, tweeters ….?
5. Read: Nina Schick Deep Fakes – the coming infocalypse.
6. Understand how AI can create dialogues and even relationships between humans and avatars – read Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends.

Bill Whitaker reports. “60 Minutes” is the most successful television broadcast in history. Offering hard-hitting investigative reports, interviews, feature segments and profiles of people in the news, the broadcast began in 1968 and is still a hit, over 50 seasons later, regularly making Nielsen’s Top 10.

Subscribe to the “60 Minutes” YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/1S7CLRu

Please do post a comment and I will reply to you.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy:

AI and Data – Crisis Coming?

Facebook Data: How it was used by Cambridge Analytica

The Dark Arts of Marketing

Chinese Girlbot with 465m boyfriends

Will ChatGPT + ChatBots + Avatars Make Us Immortal?

If you would like me to send you any of my future posts by email – please enter your email address in the ‘Subcribe and Get Cutting-Edge Alerts’ section (top right corner).

Join my free 30 minute Friday chat about AI, Innovation and Ethics in Marketing and Business.
1pm (Dublin/London time)  on my Linkedin Profile (scroll down to Activity and then select ‘Events’) .

I also issue a 60 Second Summary of all previous chats here.

The post Deep Fakes / Synthetic Media in Marketing – Advans & Disadvans appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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NFTs – for Dummies (like me)

This is a dummies guide to NFTs.  I will try to answer: What are NFTs? Why NFTs – the benefits? Why all the Fuss? How Do NFTs Work? How to Create an NFT; How to Buy an NFT?  How to Sell an NFT? What do NFTs actually look Like? Please note this is not given as consultative advice. These are observations from a non-expert- trying to understand NFTs from a marketer’s perspective.

What are NFTs?

Let’s start with a song (and a visual) about NFTs. Not from Elton John, but rather, Elon Musk, who is tweeting about selling his own animated audio NFT song (hit the play button below). NB It can take a minute to load.

I’m selling this song about NFTs as an NFT pic.twitter.com/B4EZLlesPx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2021

Although most people, including Elon Musk, call the above, an NFT, it is, strictly speaking, not an NFT. The above is just a video clip on a  loop (or a ‘video print’).  An NFT is more than this. Think of an NFT as an envelope (Evenden 2021). The historical information about the ownership of say the above video clip is on the front of the envelope, along with a unique identifiable number. Inside the envelope, there is for example, the above video clip and a smart contract.  Beyond standard copyright law, additional requirements or specifications  can also be added to the NFT.  

An NFT is a Non-Fungible Token (a unique digital token), which many see as a certificate of authenticity, or a  deed or proof confirming you own the right to display the above art on your wall or in your wallet (digital wallet). It might give you the right of ownership of the copy you bought (for your private use) but not necessarily over the ownership of the original artwork. Production rights and copyright are automatically retained by the artist unless otherwise specified in the contract.  Regardless, non-fungible means ‘irreplaceable’ since each token is unique. And ‘Unique’ creates scarcity which, in turn, increases the market value for NFTs.

Click the link to see Peruvian Luis Tamani’s amazing animation: La Medicina Vive en Mí / Medicine Lives in Me. You will also see the details of the NFT included.

Luis Tamani’s La Medicina Vive en Mí / Medicine Lives in Me

Click Here to see the stunning animation plus you can see a brief description of the piece,  information about the artist, the trading history and the chain history, the bid history (including any bids that were subsequently cancelled), the winning bid, the price, the buyer (Wise-Crow) and an invitation to anyone else who might now like to bid and buy it from Wise-Crow. 

An NFT is technically an ERC-721 token on the Ethereum Blockchain. Another meaning of ERC is a ‘collectable’. The artwork is minted into the ERC-721 token. This token contains:   

(1) the historical information of any transactions plus artist information (including the artist’s public key) plus the number of likes (see the tiny ‘heart’ symbol above the image in the NFT).
(2) a unique identifiable number = the token ID (click ‘chain info’)
(3) a picture of the art  
(4) a smart contract (the NFT is effectively a smart contract – you don’t need humans to sign signatures). Standard copyright law applies and more specific conditions can be added to the description section.  
(5) a list of unlockables  (additional optional extras e.g. a table mat or even a jigsaw with the art printed on it accessible via a link in the description. 

NFTs can include art (paintings, graphics, videos, GIFs, songs, poems, tweets, posts even video games, virtual real estate, books), even birth certificates and an awful lot more. Fungible means ‘replaceable by another identical item’. Non-fungible means irreplaceable or unique.  Another way of thinking about NFTs is as a process of documenting authorship and ownership.

Beatles Paul McCartney’s ‘Hey Jude’ Song Notes NFT for Sale

“This NFT is a 1 of 1 edition of the physical item and does not include the physical item.” It does, however, come with an “exclusive audio narration” by Julian Lennon (John Lennon’s son). Buyers become the proud owner of a unique digital item, rather than the unique physical item. So buyers get a digital copy of the actual song notes plus an audio narration plus proof of purchase of the NFT.  The song was written by McCartney and originally called ‘Hey Jules’  to comfort John  Lennon’s son, Julian, during the break-up (when John left Julian’s Mum, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono). ‘Take a sad song and make it better’ meant “Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing,” McCartney once said and continued: “I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces …”.  They are all good friends and Julian is now selling these song notes NFT.  Bidding for the notes starts at $30k (£22k) – Jan 2022.

Why all the fuss?

The frenzied excitement around NFTs possibly comes from the feeling of ownership of something scarce – typically a digital asset.  NFTs create scarcity by definition since each NFT is unique. Plus perhaps, some FOMO (fear of missing out). Finally, NFTs can insert trust in what might have previously been a trust-less system where it was difficult to prove ownership and originality. The Wall Street Journal has hailed NFTs as: ‘NFTs Are Fueling a Boom in Digital Art’ (Wall Street Journal 11 March 2021).

A digital artistic renaissance?

Artists are excited by this, as finally, instead of them getting 10% they can get up to 90% revenues in their contracts. They now have a world where the interest in art appears to be growing. Perhaps the beginnings of a new era where art and artists thrive instead of struggle.  Is this the dawn of a new renaissance?

London auctioneer’s Christie’s recently sold its first purely digital art NFT.  It is from the relatively radical artist Beeple.

Christie's is proud to offer "Everydays – The First 5000 Days" by @beeple as the first purely digital work of art ever offered by a major auction house. Bidding will be open from Feb 25-Mar 11.

Learn more here https://t.co/srx95HCE0o | NFT issued in partnership w/ @makersplaceco pic.twitter.com/zymq2DSjy7

— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) February 16, 2021

Beeple’s piece sold for $69 million and is claimed to be the third-most-expensive work ever by a living artist. It was simply a montage of 5,000 graphic images. It was a ‘product of the climate of nonstop social media outrage that defined the Trump years’ (with one image amongst the 5,000 showing baby Trump feeding from a large tube coming from Hilary Clinton’s crotch. Not everyone was enamoured by the piece/s!

Then we had the Nyan Cat original Gif which went viral in 2011, was shared by all and then, the unique NFT of the original Gif was sold.

The Nyan Cat Gif went viral in 2011 and ten years later, in 2021, its unique NFT sold for almost $600,000.

This gif went viral in 2011. Then ten years later, its NFT is sold for just under $600k. How come?  The Gif of a rainbow-casting feline went viral in 2011. Feb 2021 the original Gif was sold at an online auction for 300 ether (just less than $600k). The Wall Street Journal asked: ‘How come an original Gif of something that was already pervasive around the internet  could sell for almost $600k?’ WSJ answer: ‘Because it was sold as an NFT!‘

Why NFTs – what are the benefits?

A new product type or art type is emerging where many traditional artists are now also collaborating (or even creating )  ‘printed video’ or animated video of their art. See Luis Tamani above stunning work above.  

A new marketplace for artists, this is a new channel for artists to display, promote and sell their art. It brings digital and non-digital art into the digital world. Non-digital art can be digitised by photographing, video-ing, animating, converting into 3D renderings, creating montages and more.  NFTs Are fueling a boom in digital art.

Revenue boost for artists, NFTs are effectively smart contracts and smart contracts are 100% programmable. NFTs can also have added built-in royalties, rights and any other functionality. More artists can be compensated for their work.   Instead of contracts where artists end up with a 10% royalty – they can now earn 90% revenue for their works of art.

Add value to art, NFT buyers can be given unique privileges and unlock new experiences. The rock band, Kings of Leon ‘dropped’ (published) three NFTs linking to some artwork from their latest music along with some ‘privileges’ which include 4 x front row tickets for their concerts for the rest of the buyer’s life.

For art buyers, it is another way to support artists, start a collection, build an art investment portfolio or just show off your creativity and/or show off your art. NFT buyers can display their digital artwork in a TV frame. Some framed TVs (Samsung) come preloaded ( e.g. 100 pieces of art categorised in a different genre to suit your mood plus an optional extra $5 monthly subscription to access even more art. Or just show your own digital art acquisitions.  NFTs can be the first step for many people to show off their creativity and become art collectors.

Track Ownership and see who created the NFT, who owned it, where it came from, and more. There is a permanent history stored on whichever Blockchain is used. This potentially gives NFTs more value than ordinary art since on-chain art history is easily traceable.

NFTs – the future of the art world?

IIIII

NFT’s Layers of Added Value

In addition to being seen as a potential art investment, or pure artistic pleasure, or creating emotional value (particularly bragging rights),  NFTs can also offer layers of privileges and ‘unlockable benefits’.  PLus conditions can be attached to the contracts. In fact, unlimited complexity can be built-in to these smart contracts.

Conditions: For example, conditions can be built into the NFT that the original artists earn, say, 10% royalties on every subsequent sale of the NFT in the future. So that as buyers sell on their art, the artists (or the artist’s estate) still get a royalty with every sale of their art. Hence some artists see NFTs as a renaissance. Yesterday they perhaps would get 10%, whereas today they get 90% plus an ongoing 10% royalty on any subsequent sales. Perhaps NFTs will help more artists to survive and thrive?

Privileges and Unlockable Benefits: The only limitation is the artist’s imagination when it comes to NFT privileges and unlockable benefits. All sorts of added value extra features and benefits can be layered into NFTs. Artists can add t-shirts, calendars, jigsaws, coasters/drings mats with the artwork printed on it, as well as a specific right to print or display and/or own the particular version/edition of a piece of art. NB Standard copyright law exists and any variation needs to be specifically added into the digital document.

Rock band, The Kings of Leon created 3 pieces of NFT art supporting their latest album and buyers receive NFT perks like 4 front row tickets for each of their tours for life. Highest bids at the time of writing are in the $12k range.   Below is Ruke’s NFT which is called RAWK.  The unlockables for his deluxe edition are listed below this animation.

Types of NFTs

NFTs have been applied to just about anything including art, sport and surprisingly, already-published viral Gifs (Nyan Cat), collectable Penguin Pixels, plus even more surprisingly,  a tweet.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO recently made the first tweet ever into an NFT.  and sold it for just under $3m. Jack Dorsey says he will give it all to charity.  Here is Jack’s tweet.

just setting up my twttr

— jack (@jack) March 21, 2006

The bidding started at $1 on 15 Dec 2020 and ended up being sold on 6 Mar 2021 for just under $3m  to @sinaEstavi.

Meanwhile, Mick Jagger is creating  a loop of his new track ‘Eazy Sleazy’ (with FooFighters frontman Dave Grohl) as an NFT to Raise Money for struggling Indie Venues during COVID.

Singer Shawn Mendes uses NFTs to sell digital versions of his guitar, necklace, vest and earrings to fans (who, in turn, then use them on their own digital avatars).

NBA (National Basketball Association) Top Shot allow collectors to buy NFTs of basketball highlight video clips (e.g. a ‘dunk’) as NFTs.  $338m of these scarce NFT collectables (in 6 months). Buyers don’t actually own the video clips – just the NFT. The clips cannot be duplicated or used commercially.

Champion Sportswear Fashion company use NFTs to display their new season’s designs. NFTs are newsworthy – if you create one – you’ve got a story. So champion sports clothing launched its Spring edition with NFTs being used to display the new line of clothes.  Buyers also get a sweatshirt with their NFT on the front.

Pixel Penguins

Pixel art is trending in the NFT world. Here are the much-loved Pixel Penguins by Buuvei aka i3uuve1. There are 100  x 1-of-1 Pixel Penguins. People really like these collectables.  Each penguin portrays a particular emotion or a character.

The Penguin Pixels Collectables

The penguins are part of a pixel penguin lovers community. At the time of writing 78 have sold with 4 still available to buy. 18 are still yet to mint. The pricing is interesting.  The first ten penguins were  ‘dropped’ (published or released) and then priced at 0.01 ether ($20 approx). Each drop has 10 penguins. Each drop price increases.  The first 10 were 0.01 ether ($20 approx). Next 10 are priced 0.02 ether ($40 approx) etc.  Buuvei calls this pricing ‘a bonding curve’.  Explore it yourself by clicking PixelPenguin or just clicking  www.opensea.io and then search for PixelPenguins NFT. 

The Mischievous Girl

An amateur photographer asked his daughter to smile while a house burned in the background. It was a controlled burn i.e. removing a house.  This photograph won an award three years later and went viral.  Zoe made it into an NFT and sold it last month for $500k to 3F Music Production (Dubai) who said: “Our management team is always in cooperation with some highly knowledgeable and experienced art advisers who believe that we must grow with technological movements that help us to not only promote our business but also to support artists and the art market.”

Girl Smiles while Fire Burns – staged photo wins award goes viral and sells as an NFT for $500k

NFTs for offline art
Imagine you are a sculpture.  You have created a real-world statue. It’s in your workshop. Can you create a NFT for a real world piece of art? Answer: Yes. You could digitise the sculpture (create a photo, a rotating video or a 3D rendering). Upload these onto an NFT platform, set a price, add a description, define any other privileges, clarify the terms (which could include ownership of the real sculpture), click ‘sell’ and wait for someone to buy the NFT.  

LLLL

How Do NFTs Work?

An NFT is stored on a blockchain. It represents a unique digital asset. NFTs are different to cryptocurrencies in so far as they are not ‘mutually interchangeable because they are unique’. NFTs are not fungible/ not interchangeable. Most cryptocurrencies are fungible i.e. they are interchangeable – each cryptocurrency unit has the same value. All NFTs are different.

If you want to get into the NFT market and ultimately sell your art. Here are the steps required.

1. Go get some ETH – go to somewhere like binance.com  (check you got the right name as there are lots of similar names waiting to rip you off); set up an account and buy some Eth (Ethereum) crypto-currency. 

2. Set up an Ethereum wallet that supports ERC-721 (the NFT Token Standard). For example Metamask.io extensions are available for (Chrome or Mozilla). Read T&C.  Add password. Set up your secret word  or your ‘Backup Phrase’ – this is your private key (12-24 words in exact order). NB if you lose these words/phrase you lose access to your wallet and its money permanently.  

3. Set up your account/profile on a gallery/publishing platform  e.g. opensea.io – a marketplace gallery & auction house which uses: Ethereum cryptocurrency.  Opensea earns 2.5% commission. Plus there are GAS fees (the cost of computer energy required to create an NFT on a blockchain). Gas fees are often paid by the buyer. Double check who pays what? 

4.1 Upload a file of your digital art*  to opensea.io  to exhibit it and include it in an auction. *NB Do not upload the full high-resolution artwork (you can make the full high res file available as an unlockable).  This offers some protection – so that the high res does not get copied by a viewer. Some platforms won’t give you the space to upload large files anyway. 

4.2  Describe your art and set the price. Set the terms (e.g. copyright retained by the artists, ongoing 10% royalties from future sales, any reproduction rights etc. )

4.3. Add any unlockables – when you buy something – there’s a box (with a description) that also says ‘click here to unlock’. When you unlock you will see further instructions often including a code to access either the full high-resolution art file or an additional gift e.g. t-shirt with the art printed on it.

5.’Drop’ – announces that your art is available to buyers. It is sometimes also referred to as ‘post your listing’. The official term is ‘minting your NFT Token’. ‘Drop’ can also mean you have minted the art piece i.e. you are ‘dropping’ your NFTs in your wallet and on a gallery/platform like Opensea, rarible, foundation or nifty gateway. Announcing a drop presents a great publicity opportunity.

6. Promote your art.  Getting it into a gallery or a platform is not enough. An exhibition is not enough. You have to promote and market your exhibition heavily through all of your social media platforms, your networks including Clubhouse.  Publicity and publicity stunts can also help. In fact your promotion should start long before your ‘drop’.

7. Sold! When someone bids or buys, you receive an alert.  Once your artwork is bought it is then ‘minted’ on a blockchain.  When you sell your NFT, the token is transferred in exchange for ETH, from wallet to wallet.

Here is an NFT Listing called ‘Birds in a Monastery’ by i3uuve1 aka Buuvei. A ‘an NFT Listing’ means it is on display in a gallery (opensea.io) and available for sale. This is an ERC721 token otherwise known as an NFT:

Birds in a monastery by i3uuve1 also known as Buuvei is on linktr.ee/Buuvei is listed or exhibited on OpenSea (here’s the link so you can explore yourself. Have a look around. 

The Token ID is highlighted above. This is an administrative number – once an NFT gets minted it gets a token ID. 

The contract address is your public key which is your wallet address, so that other buyers can pay you ethereum. 

LLLLL

How Do I buy an NFT?

Once you have your metamask wallet with some cryptocurrency in it, you are ready to start buying NFTs.  You can visit galleries or platforms like Opensea.io or foundation.app. Once you click ‘buy’  – you get authorization from your wallet to click ‘sign’.  This authorises the commencement of the ETH transfer to another wallet.  

Then a 2nd pop-up appears and this is for the amount you want to set the gas fee: low, medium or high (equals slow – medium – fast minting). 

This is also called minting or putting your art on the Blockchain. It is also called: issuing your NFT token on the blockchain – creating a token – in the ERC721 format on Ethereum.

So when a buyer buys the above – they see in their wallet the NFT which is like a smart contract including the picture – which you can download or display wherever you want (however other people can also look at it also). The buyer, however, is the only one who can claim ownership of the NFT. Behind the wallet (or user interface) is a smart contract with a bunch of code.

LLLLL

What do NFTs look Like?

NFTs are really a process document authority (prominence) clarifying authorship and ownership (receipt) of say, art.  

NFTs contain information about who owns the digital asset; who sold it and when it was sold. In fact, all transaction history (time, date and amount of ETH paid) is registered on the blockchain.

This info is encrypted – ensuring the NFT’s authenticity and scarcity.  When it is sold onto another buyer – another ‘block’ in the Blockchain is created with a different ‘Unique Identification’.  

All NFTs are connected to Blockchain.

Opensea NFT contract details – where you’ll find the details

Digital assets on a  smart contract are typically represented solely by a unique identifier (e.g., the token_id in ERC721), so metadata allows these assets to have additional properties, such as a name, description, and image. This meta-data allows galleries like Opensea to display more information. 

LLLL

NTF Challenges

Carbon Footprint – NTF minting leaves a large carbon footprint (as does mining for cryptocurrency). Some cryptocurrencies are more energy-efficient than others. Some NFT artists create an offsetting environmental impact – like planting trees.

Fake Creators – not all NFTs verify the person selling the original art piece – is actually the original creator. Theoretically, anyone could, illegally, create an NFT for a piece of someone else’s art and claim they are the artist who created this token and it can be very difficult to verify this – especially if you don’t know who they are.‘ WSJ

Hidden Fees – Selling crypto art can come with huge hidden fees, leading some people to lose hundreds of dollars. In addition, gas fees of $80 might not seem much to western economies but in many developing countries this is simply unaffordable.

NFT Digital Bubble – ‘Critics are wary that it could be a digital bubble in the making.’ WSJ. Perhaps akin to the infamous Dutch tulip bulb bubble bursting in 1637 after frenzied buying tulip bulbs caused some buyers paying extraordinary high prices for a tulip bulb. Houses were sold to buy tulip bulbs as prices escalated until Feb 1637 when the bubble burst. The market crashed. Prices collapsed and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Or will it level out after the ‘Trough of Disillusionment (as demonstrated by Gartner’s  Hype Cycle below.

Gartner’s Hype Cycle – will this apply to NFTs? 

LLL

Or a renaissance?

‘NFTs Are fueling a boom in digital art’ (Wall Street Journal 11 Mar 2021). NFTs are creating a new market, and channel for artists and definitely are creating new revenue streams for many artists. NFTs also encourage artists to expand and create added value unlockables to strengthen their value propositions and ultimately, enhance the customer experience. While art buyers can track ownership and delve into NFTs to support artists, start a collection, build an investment portfolio or just show off a buyer’s creativity, or simply enjoy art in a different way. Certainly, NFTs will be adopted and used in many different industries beyond art. This is just the start – with plenty of room for creative minds to leverage this new opportunity.

The world is changing and so too is the world of art. Perhaps the beginning of a new artistic era courtesy of NFTs?

The Cyber Chef from SuperFarm       SuperFarm – NFT Platform where you can Buy, Create and Sell Crypto NFTs

LLL

“Build me a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to my door” is commonly quoted* but it just ain’t true – great products, and even great art, and great NFTs need to be promoted. Some artists don’t like this but even the world’s biggest bands, actors, authors and artists have to promote themselves – do interviews, tell stories, do social media, send press releases etc. *Ralph Waldo Emerson did make similar statements way back in 1889. Regardless, It was wrong then and it is still is today, great art will not always get a crowd beating a path to its door. Sometimes this happens but for most artists it just doesn’t – hence you got to beat your own drum: Networking, Clubhouse, publicity, PR, social media, adding unlockable  benefits like having dinner with the author (with up to 6 of your friends) once a year  (or once only if you prefer) to hear why the artists created the art and also, perhaps, to hear why the buyer bought the piece – call it marketing or call it common sense (however common sense ain’t common) call it whatever you want – you still got to beat your own creative drum in this exciting new world of NFTs.

Many thanks to those that have helped me to learn about NFTs and suffer my endless questions. This includes: 

Tyrone Post, founder of New NFT Daily who is an NFT Educator, an NFT artist and a philanthropist.  Insta: tyronepost801 
Buuvei, our artist from Mongolia, with his Birds in a Monastery NFT – and his PixelPenguins, you’ll also find him linktr.ee/Buuvei 
RUKE of RUKEink in Orlando, Florida or Instagram rukeink and his rawkdrop.com site
Olga Evenden a Dublin artist olgaevenden_art  wrote a more succinct NFT Basics Guide including the excellent ‘envelope analogy’*  https://linktr.ee/olgaevenden 
Wise Crow who is researching and investing in crypto’s and NFTs insta: wise.staking
Jason Voges for the idea of artists, dinners, feedback and more  jvoges78

Get Well Soon Tyrone Post who is now suffering from COVID-19. We wish you a steady recovery and send you lots of warm wishes, love and positive thoughts.

NewNFTDaily.com by Tyrone Post

Thanks also to everyone in the room ‘NFTs, Penguins, Genesises and more’ – a Clubhouse room and the other Clubhouse rooms (I will add more later – I am searching for them!).

A clubhouse room NFTs, Penguins, Genesises and more – apologies to Wolf and others who got chopped – post me a comment here and I’ll add your names.

Please do post a comment (at the end of the page). Please do correct me if I got any of this wrong. Any suggestions or additional information is most welcome. I know I have missed some other NFT rooms on Clubhouse – please let me know and I will add them. 

I will be writing a NFTs for Dummies part 2 which will include AI Driven Avataar Artists that can create an infinite amount of NFTs plus NFTs that self generate their own NFTs soon.

Meanwhile here’s an interesting post  NFTs What, Why and How by Pamela Tatum.

If you enjoyed any of the above – you might also enjoy: 

• Great Covid Idea: Photo Exhibition Transforms 500 Unused Dublin Poster Sites

• Engaging at Scale with Personalised Videos in Conversations

• Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs

• Artificial Influencers – Meet Shudu & Miquela
• How Trump Won (Part 2) – using the Magic Marketing Formula – a SOSTAC Planning Analysis
• How Rats Work = How Twitter Works?
• Facebook Data: How it was used by Cambridge Analytica & Might Be Used Again

Warning: You might find these disturbing

• Marketing Gone Wrong: Is the Dark Web* Worse Than Subliminal Seduction? – this is not about the traditional ‘dark web’ – it is however, a must-see TED talk
• The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD -is this really happening?

One other NFT article you might like

by Pamela Tatam  Purchasing and Displaying NFT Art at Home: Expert’s Advice (porch.com)

The post NFTs for Dummies (like me) appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Imagine you could personalise videos so beautifully that the recipients couldn’t stop themselves from sharing? What if you could personalise the videos using an individual’s own comments and photos. What if the photo and comment were embedded into the first 3 seconds of the video? What if you could collect comments made about your brand, product and/or market and embed it into an intriguing video, personalised with your name – at scale? Like 150,000 high quality, highly relevant, personalised videos created and despatched in 2 hours? But only dispatched to micro-influencers with networks of more than 500?

Here’s how it’s done. Watch this 6 minute video to see how this is done so beautifully (plus the results), or just jump to 2:06 to see the 15 second Red Dwarf personalised video or jump to  5:04 to see the 20 second Race For Life personalised video.

But what about GDPR?

The above video is the first in a series of seven short videos demonstrating how personalised videos , at scale, are used successfully by a variety of brands who have different goals.

Many thanks to Tim Redgate, the former CEO of Echomany.

Post a comment, or contact me for more info.

Happy Easter.

If you liked this, you might enjoy:

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) – Opportunity to Boost CX or a Threat of Closure? (Part 1)

Artificial Influencers – meet Shudu

Artificial Influencers Use My Magic Marketing Formula 

or

AR  converts competitors ads to your ads

Please do ‘submit a comment‘ below and I will reply to you.

Tell us your story, experience, tip, insight or just ask a question – whatever you prefer.

The post Engaging at Scale with Personalised Videos in Conversations appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Provocative, Angry Twitter Rants = More Attention/Followers?

“If bad behavior or provocative and angry and ranting tweets lead to more attention,” says Deb Roy (2018), director of MIT’s Lab for Social Machines who continues, “well, you’ve just incentivized that behavior on the platform” emphasises Roy in an article for Time magazine by Katy Steinmetz (2018).

Buttons placed prominently – attracting viewers to like, retweet or reply – might be creating counter-productive incentives. Since one feels disappointed, or even bad, if the engagement numbers are low. But, when those numbers go up, users get ‘boosts of pleasure’.

Followers numbers fall = depression?

“This Is How Rats Work. Press A Lever, Get A Pellet”

Suggests Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University who says, “The human brain is structured the same way.” Van Bavel is referring to Professor Skinner’s experiments with rats in the 1940s when he explored how behaviour (& learning/remembering) can be conditioned with rewards/incentives (in the rat’s case, pellets of food).  Today, angry tweeters get rewarded with more followers.

Outrage outperforms moderate

Moral Outrage Tweets tend to Outperform Moderate Tweets
The problem is that ‘mindless outrage’ type of tweets tend to perform better (& therefore reward their authors) more than rational, considered tweets. One report suggests that provocative angry and ranting tweets outperform other tweets by approximately 20% (Van Bavel 2018).

Moral outrage is more likely to get more retweets

Van Bavel has found that tweets containing strong moral and emotional language, those with “moral outrage,” are about 20 percent more likely to get retweeted.

Outrage

Moral Outrage Generates Bigger Number of Followers = Trumpism?

‘Politicians on the ideological extremes — be they Democratic or Republican — tend to have bigger followings than their moderate counterparts.’ (Steinmetz 2018).  “Taking strong, polarizing stances, that’s what gets rewarded,” Van Bavel says, describing President Donald Trump as “off the charts” regarding polarizing messages.

Moral Outrage Generates Bigger Number of Followers?

So Who’s At Fault:  Twitter’s Algorithms Or Us Humans?

‘Algorithms that select popular content may be prioritizing and spreading the very types of posts that make people the most angry’, says Yale psychologist Molly Crockett (2018), who also suggests that therefore the social usefulness of outrage itself, may be depleted in the process.

So Who’s At Fault: Twitter Algorithms Or Us Humans?

A Culture of Mindless Outrage = Vulnerability to Manipulation

So it looks like provocative, angry and morally outraged tweets are contributing to a culture of mindless outrage. This, in turn, may make the heaving masses of people more susceptible to manipulation. Shades of 1930s Germany?

Kanye West (with his 28m followers) Agrees

Although the popular American singer, Kanye West, has 28m twitter followers, he agrees.  “[W]e should be able to participate in social media without having to show how many followers or likes we have,” he tweeted. “This has an intense negative impact on our self- worth.” This is the disappointed feeling we mentioned if ‘suffering’ low engagement levels. But when the engagement goes up users get ‘boosts of pleasure’.   

Kanye West objects to twitter accounts showing number of followers  (28.4m in his case)

This Threatens Twitter’s Own Survival

Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, testified during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing about Twitter’s transparency and accountability (5 Sep 2018). He confirmed that he is willing to rethink not just twitter policies but the fundamental design of the twitter platform itself as part of twitter’s effort to beat: hate speech, fake news, trolls & disinformation – the curse of social media.

Twitter must now beat hate speech, fake news, trolls & disinformation – the curse of social media.

In The Long Run, Helping Customers Must Come First

Twitter CEO, Dorsey, confirmed that the need to improve the health of public conversation is a “long-term growth factor” for Twitter. And that this is more important than short-term twitter numbers going up or down, since “no one is going to use it (twitter) in the first place.”

In The Long Run, Helping Customers Must Come First

The Big Social Media Dream – still lives on…..

The big dream, MIT’s Deb Roy suggests, is “to build a leaderboard for having a positive effect on the public discourse.” A Utopian dream or can social media help to reduce the growing numbers suffering with anxiety and depression – partly induced, some say, by social media’s very visible approval ratings. Perhaps this negative can be turned into a positive?

What do you think?

Source: Steinmetz, K. (2018) ‘This Is How Rats Work.’ Why Twitter’s Emphasis on Follower Counts Could Be Backfiring, Time Magazine 19 Sep.

If you like this you might also like:

How Trump Won (Part 2) – using the Magic Marketing Formula (IRD) & including Pavlov’s ‘Classical Conditioning’ of dogs 

How Trump Won (Part 1) using the SOSTAC framework

The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD

Take the 60 minute introductory SOSTAC® Planning course (8 x 7 minute video presentations)

Take the full 20 hour online full SOSTAC® course and become a SOSTAC® Certified Planner

The post How Rats Work = How Twitter Works? appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Many are still wondering how Donald Trump became president of the United States Of America, despite himself? Here’s an analysis, using SOSTAC^® Planning Framework to explore some of Trump’s plan and to give some insights into his subsequent successful campaign. Comments are most welcome. Situation analysis (where are you now) , Objectives (where are you going?), Strategy (how do you get there?), Tactics (the details of strategy), Action (how do you ensure excellent execution) and Control (how do you know you are getting there – what will you measure?). I will use these to categorise various aspect of the Trump campaign but please remember this is just an outline not an in-dept detailed analysis.

PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Planning Framework

Situation Analysis

Customer Analysis

Who – are Trump’s potential voters?

Trump focused on “left-behind” voters, specifically white working-class men (and women). He initially gambled on targeting one powerful voting bloc, (some pollsters thought this would alienate too many people) suggests Harvard’s professor Stephen Greyse (Fottrell 2016).   Clinton’s target audience was far broader, reaching out to the middle-class and “left-out” voters and black and Latino ‘left-out’ voters (many of whom had not yet a slice of the American pie). A month before the elections Trump had 57k transactors (contributors) of whom 68% were male and 32% were female, compared to Clinton who had 914k transactors of whom 36% were male and 64%  were female. Far more variables were eventually used to segment the market into dozens of target segments. In fact, a small English company who had also worked on the Brexit ‘Leave’ campaign for UKIP, worked for Trump and divided the US population into 32 personality types, and focused on just 17 states (see part 3).

Why – do Trump’s potential voters vote (what are their needs)?

Many people wanted change. Many others were frustrated and maybe even angry about their lives. Some have fears rather than hope. Is it possible that Trump’s upbeat’ #MakeAmericaGreatAgain or #MAGA hashtag played into the unconscious fears that if you don’t vote for Trump, America will get worse ie whatever is bad about America will become far worse? See the word-cloud graphics (in the final, ‘Control’ section) which demonstrates how Trump repeated these messages.

What the elite missed was the sources of the anger & resentment that has lead to the populist upheavals in the US & Britain & many other parts of the world (Harvard’s Professor Michael Sandel 2017).

Why were voters angry? What the elite missed was the sources of the anger & resentment that has lead to the populist upheavals in the US & Britain & many other parts of the world. (They) assumed it’s anger against immigration and trade and at the heart of that is jobs. But it’s also about even bigger things., about the loss of community, disempowerment, & social esteem (a sense that the work that ordinary people do is no longer honoured & recognised (& rewarded).’ Sandel 2017)

How – do Trump’s potential voters decide (how do they process information)?

Shorter attention spans. Research from Harvard revealed that attention spans for the first ever telivised political debate between JFK and Nixon back in 1960, was only 42 seconds (the maximum time to get a serious political message across). This fell to just 5 seconds in 2008 and even less since in 2012. There are many other variables involved here also, but, short attention spans is significant and perhaps gives a clue why Britain voted marginally for Brexit (short anti-EU messages had far more impact than long economic pro EU messages). 

Voter Personality Analysis – Cambridge Analytica & Trump

UK Company Cambridge Analytica analysed facebook data of millions of adult Americans, so that they could categorise personality types and then subsequently send them tailored messages that reflect their specific needs. ‘The company’s former boss, Alexander Nix, claimed, before the election, to have predicted the Big 5 score (personality analysis) of every adult in America. On Facebook, hundreds of ads were posted everyday targeted at specific personality types tailored towards people’s innermost fears, needs and emotions.’ BBC News 2018

It used an algorithm that analyses what people like (and don’t like ) on facebook to predict your personality. With just 10 likes it can predict what kind of person your are, better than your colleagues can. With 300 likes analysed, it knows your personality more accurately than your spouse does.

For more frightening insights into how this analytic tools and subsequent tailor-made ads were targeted precisely to each personality type, see The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD when a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower reveals the dark marketing techniques that were employed.

Major Market Trend – A Gap In The Market

We live in a post truth-era. ‘Dishonesty in politics is nothing new; but the manner in which some politicians now lie, and the havoc they may wreak by doing so, are worrying’ says the  Economist magazine (2016). The worrying phrase ‘post-truth’ was even named Word Of The Year by Oxford Dictionaries (Flood 2016). Defined by the dictionary as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. The spike in usage, it said, is “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States”.

This is compounded by the moral vacuum which opens the gates for extremist politicians. Here is Harvard Professor Michael Sandel’s chilling observation: “… in the face of pluralism  and for the sake of toleration … to insist on a non-judgemental, value-free politics .. that creates a moral vacuum , a void, that will invariably will be filled  by narrow, intolerant moralisms.” Sandel (2017)

Competitor Analysis

During the Republican nomination race, Trump saw a right-wing gap and went for it. He also analysed the political establishment through the eyes of disenchanted voters. Trump became the Republican candidate for the presidential election. Next, he analysed his opposition, the Democrats’, Hilary Clinton. When he found a perceived weakness that resonated with his voters (see the Control section in part 2) he went for it. President Obama had unprecedented success in targeting, organizing and motivating voters, we imagine Trump’s team studied this blog post How Obama Became America’s First Black President to understand his competitor’s strategy and tactics.

This image went viral during the 2008 campaign with the caption: ‘This seat is taken’

Current Performance

With the election just a month away, donations raised by October 2016: Clinton had $298m from 914,000 transactors (donors) and Trump had just $50.1m from 57,000 donors (Cortana et al).

Opinion polls favoured Clinton.

Objectives

Originally to win the Republican Nomination and then, win the presidential election (after that we just don’t know).

Strategy

Old Strategy

Trump initially raised his own profile by making headline-grabbing statements, often by calling in to television shows, supplemented by a rally once or twice a week to provide the appearance of a traditional campaign (Bertoni 2016).

New Strategy

Trump’s crystal clear positioning as the ‘controversial (non-establishment) ordinary guy’  was supported by data driven highly targeted tailored messages on facebook & twitter to “left-behind”  white working-class men (and women), combined with sentiment manipulation, machine learning, constant beta culture and, almost instant, reactions to audience mood swings

Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, took over the campaign, created this new strategy and, amongst other things,  set up a secret data operation-like a Silicon Valley startup. ‘Kushner eventually tipped the states that swung the election. And he did so in a manner that will change the way future elections will be won and lost.’ (Bertoni 2016).

Positioning

Trump positioned himself as a non-establishment guy. An ‘outsider’ – a ‘non-political establishment guy’.   He simultaneously positioned Clinton as an establishment person. An ‘insider’ (a politician linked to Obama’s policies) (Kanski 2016). Trump played the confrontational card which helped him to establish authenticity amongst frustrated voters. So he became a ‘controversial (non-establishment) ordinary guy’.

Meanwhile, Trump positioned Clinton as an untrustworthy ‘insider’ and threatened to take her to court after the election. Clinton’s authenticity was challenged by high-lighting the fact that ‘she seemed to say one thing in her speeches and another behind the scenes, illustrated in her emails leaked by Wikileaks and “basket of deplorables” comments (Kanski 2016). The CIA revelations days before the vote appeared to attack Clinton’s authenticity. Or was all this information fed by the Russians? There’s definitely a movie in this story.

‘controversial (non-establishment) ordinary guy’    v     untrustworthy ‘insider’ establishment lady

Was it like this?

a possible perceptual map

Apart from Clinton’s followers, one wonders whether the average American could relate to Clinton as easily as they could to Trump (or Obama in the previous two elections).

The ‘Ordinary (non-establishment) Guy’ Created Authenticity

While Trump followers believed Trump had authenticity as he, rightly or wrongly, ‘says it like it is’.  The difference in authenticity, according to Kanski, was simply that ‘People can relate to bankruptcies, to locker room talk, to tough talk on terrorism, and that was the difference. Whilst Trump might be a billionaire, but he’s been bankrupt, uses locker-room talk i.e. his life experiences somehow seemed to resonate more with the average undecided voter.’  

ordinary people

white working class

blue collar workers

Targeting

Trump stayed focused on the “left-behind” voters, specifically white working-class men (and women). As mentioned earlier, this was deemed risky (targeting one powerful voting bloc).  Clinton’s target audience, on the other hand, was far broader, reaching out to the middle-class and black and Latino ‘left-out’ voters (many of whom had not yet a slice of the American pie). Trump’s relentless use of data continually sharpened his targeting of those battleground states (the ‘swing states’, that over recent elections have gone both ways). They are the key to winning the election. In recent elections Florida and Ohio (3rd and 7th largest states, with 29 and 18 electoral votes respectively) have been swinging back and forth between the parties.

Data-driven Decision Making

Within three weeks, in a nondescript building outside San Antonio, Kushner had built what would become a 100-person data hub designed to make more informed decisions (which leveraged the magic marketing formula – see part 2) across a selection of decision points regarding:

• messages (topics of speeches)
• targeting
• travelling / rally locations
• fundraising

Kushner built a custom geo-location tool that plotted the location density of about 20 voter types over a live Google Maps interface

Trump combined his crystal clear ‘non-establishment’ positioning, data-driven targeting, with agile use of the Magic Marketing Formula to win. His subsequent tactics were driven by the over-riding strategy. Part 2 explores the second half of SOSTAC® – Tactics (including the Magic Marketing Formula), Action and Control.

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See How Trump Won (part 2) – using The Magic Marketing Formula – a SOSTAC® Analysis and later  – How Big data was used to win the election (part 3).

You might also enjoy:How Obama Became America’s First Black President

You might not enjoy, but perhaps need to see this video on behavioural analytics and precision targeting:
The Dark Arts Of Marketing – Breaking Down Society to Create a New Culture – Using Data & IRD

How SOSTAC® Works – a 4 minute video by PR Smith

The SOSTAC® Guide to your Perfect Digital Marketing Plan 

For more on SOSTAC® Planning System and Certified SOSTAC® Planners see www.PRSmith.org/SOSTAC

The new SOSTAC (r) Guide for Digital Marketers

Become a SOSTAC® Certified Planner  visit www.SOSTAC.org

Sources:

Bertoni, S. (2016)   How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House , Forbes December 20

Economist (2016) The post-truth world: Yes, I’d lie to you, 10 Sep 

Flood, A. (2016) ‘Post-truth’ named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries, The Guardian, 15 Nov.

Kanski, A. (2016) Change and authenticity: The messages that won over American voters, PR Week 09 Nov.

Sandel, M. (2017) ‘ Why The Democrats are so out of touch with the People‘, World Economic Forum, Davos 2017

The post How Trump Won (a SOSTAC Analysis) – Part 1 appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Staff Advocate Eats Dinner Off Subway Station Floor

Now that is commitment. That is motivation. When a member of staff believes that the floor cleaner they sell is so good that he cleans a subway floor, then pours his dinner on it, opens his serviette, tucks it into his collar and proceeds to eat his dinner off the floor, so that he can make a video that demonstrates the power of his company’s product.  Do not try this at home!

This employee is sufficiently motivated that he made his own ‘Shockvertising’ video for his company.  Will this shockvertising staff-made ad start a surge of employee product demonstration ads?

Staff need to be integrated

What does this mean? Well, every customer-facing member of staff is a brand ambassador. They have to feel part of it. They have to integrate with the brand values (sometimes they are selected in accordance with the brand values). This requires internal marketing (investing in internal communications, motivation and training). If you get this right, staff can become your most potent comms tool.

Now, have a look at this member of staff who made his own youtube product demonstration video – eating his dinner off the subway floor (after he cleaned it with his hard floor cleaner that both vacuums and steams).

Staff advocacy. This is staff advocacy. How many companies’ staff use their own company’s products and services? How many are passionate about their products and services & become real advocates?

Integrate staff and promotion/comms

Integrating inbound and outbound with online and offline communications delivers higher impact and more cost-effective ‘joined-up marketing’. Any staff wanting to produce promotional materials (like a video) obviously need to check with the Marketing Communications team to ensure it fits (integrates) with all other comms.

Integrate the marketing mix

As promotions (like this ad) become part of the brand experience, they become part of the product. Similarly, Location-based advertising is ‘promotion’, but it is also ‘place’ (as it extends the distribution/places where you can buy) and so it becomes part of the brand experience. You can see how the marketing mix is morphing into a brand experience. You can see how people, physical evidence, process and price have to be integrated carefully to ensure a consistent CX (customer experience).

Integrate customer data

Since customers are touched by many contact points or ‘touch points’ such as social media, Point Of Sale, ads, email etc. Customers need a consistent (integrated) message. Equally, companies are collecting information from many different customer touch points (web site registration, web site body language, customer service, social media and much more). It’s a gold mine if they collect this safely and store it safely in a data warehouse and then use it all to build better profiles of customers. Customer data needs to be integrated. This a major challenge for many organisations.

Unintegrated databases cause many problems and complications, as there is no single picture of the customer and therefore customers have many different types of experiences and messages form the brand. This confuses customers and dilutes the brand’s presence in the marketplace.

Staff Advocates Are Powerful

It is a nice endorsement – staff that use the company’s products and services. After all they are at the coal face, the place where customers meet the real live breathing brand. One sloppy comment, facial reaction, posture or even dirty nail can kill a sale (or stop repeat sales). On the other hand, staff that are proud of their products is often the ultimate endorsement. Are your staff passionate about your products and services?

How can you get them onside? Internal marketing – training, motivation and communication.

Reproduced from Chapter 1, Marketing Communications 6th ed. (2016) by PR Smith & Ze Zook, published by Kogan Page.

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The Magic Marketing Formula

Here is my Magic Marketing Formula: IRD. It always works.

• Identify Needs
• Reflect These Needs (through ads, sales presentations, key phrases etc.)
• Deliver (a reasonable product or service – that meets the promise made)

If you identify key phrases people use when searching for your type of product or service and then if people see these phrases appear alongside your web site in the search results (in the SERP – the search engine results page), they enjoy a Eureka moment. You know the feeling? That buzz when you see EXACTLY what you are searching for appearing in the SERP.  That’s the Magic Marketing Formula in action.

Think of ads. If Coca Cola identify people need to be loved they reflect this by showing ads of people drinking Coke and/or having a good time (whether polo bears or people). If a B2B IT supplier identifies a segment’s main need is, say, security, then it reflects ‘security’ in its ads, exhibitions, social media and optimises for these key phrases. Here is a shock example of the magic marketing formula in action in a very serious ad campaign – one that can save lives. Warning: This imagery in this ad might upset you.

Magic Marketing Formula Begins With Research 

Here’s a shocking example of the Magic Marketing Formula in action. Road deaths from speeding drivers is an issue in Northern Ireland. In-depth research by the Department of the Environment, revealed that ‘speeders feel it is their right to drive at whatever speed they want. They won’t change this for anything. ‘What about if you killed someone?’ No this would not stop them. ‘What about if you killed a child?’ A resounding silence. The idea was born. These shocking ads reflected this.

The ad went viral. Speeders are slowing down.

Going Viral

Ad showed Tues night on TV in Northern Ireland during ‘Dentist’ – no reaction; Played again at half time during half time in England v Uruguay game (19 June) .

7,000 youtube views (19 June).

Rang ad agency next morning (20 June) – by the end of the phone call 23,000 views;

53,000 end of the day (20 June)

4 days later 2.2m views (24 June)

2 months later 3.9m views (23 Aug)

How Do You Measure Return On Investment?

With the economic cost of a death estimated at £1.68m (source: Oxford Economics) and the campaign cots of  £400,000 you can see that this ad can be justified on a purely economic basis. On an emotional basis you might find this disturbing, but it does increase awareness and, most importantly, change behaviour.  In fact, the economic payback is £42 per £1 invested in advertising (4,200% ROI) when the full cost saving is calculated (this includes ‘human cost’ of a death).

Global Impact

In fact, AdWeek praised the one-minute ad for “driving the anti-speeding message into the public conversation far beyond Ireland. Many tweets say this ad goes too far. The debate continues on a reddit thread dedicated to the ad (apologies in advance for any fowl language used). What do you think (please leave a comment at the end). Regardless, I personally think if it saves one life, it is an excellent piece of work by Lyle Bailie International and driven by research commissioned by the Department of The Environment. Thanks to Bridin Beckett (DOE) and Paul James (Lyle Bailie) for this fascinating case study.

All comments are most welcome (please do scroll down and ‘leave a comment’).

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