Most influential brands 2010 index: where are the FMCG giants?

December 2, 2010 Leave a comment

We often wonder what the most influential corporations or brands in the world are. To answer this, we need to pass two challenges: how does one define and measure “the most influential”? We searched for a list that could express “most influential”. We believe we found one that expresses this concept: the Thought Leadership index of TLG.

Defining influential as “Thought Leadership”

With the expression “most influential brand” we mean those brands and corporations that have impact on “opinion formers”. Opinion formers are human beings that, through their own actions and attitudes, shape those of others. They reside within several areas, such as business, politics, media, etc. Those opinion leaders often base their opinion upon the expertise available through organizations. Those companies are conceived and labeled “thought leaders” within a specific industry/sector/subject. “Thought leadership” is often cited as a strategy to build trust in your company and products – which in turn leads to growth.

Thought Leadership companies according to TLG

Thought Leadership companies according to TLG

“Most influential brands 2010 index” aka “TLG’s Thought Leadership index 2010”

The TLG index lists the “Thought Leadership” top companies aka “the top influential brands”. We believe that the TLG index is based upon a valid method: in-depth conversations with opinion leaders. We don’t have information on who exactly were the “opinion formers”, so one could question whether researcher selected “genuine opinion formers”. Let’s assume they did and analyze the list.

List trends: no FMCG concerns & dominance of web-based corporations

Have a look at the list again. There’s not a sign of FMCG concerns such as Unilever, P&G or Nestlé. On the other hand, relatively new corporations with web-focus seem to dominate the list (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon).

Do these FMCG groups realize they are not conceived (“decoded”) as thought leaders/influential? Do they need to deploy another communications (pr) strategy? Are they not striving for thought leadership? The latter is hard to believe. Let’s see whether they’re in the 2011 top list!

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Business and targeting ethics? The co-operative case.

November 14, 2010 Leave a comment

Promoting funeralcare services at a mediated sport event

Ever heard of the sport “Bowls”? We hadn’t before.

Basically speaking it’s a form of “pétanque” often played in the commonwealth nations. The goal of the game is to roll slightly asymmetric balls (bowls) so that they end up close to a smaller bowl, as demonstrated in the below video. But there’s something more to that video … something that has to deal with business ethics and marketing target groups…

The co-operative funeralcare as main sponsor

In the above video one could see multiple adverts at various locations of an enterprise called “The co-operative”. All ads promote their funeralcare services. The advertisements are everywhere: on the player’s shirts, on the left and right of the pitch, behind the players. The event visitors see it all the time – as well as people watching the game on their television.

Business ethics and customer targeting?

Is there a group that offers funeralcare services in a “retail way”? It might, The co-operative group strives to be a nation-wide funeralcare service provider with local branches all over the country.

Are visitors / viewers of the bowls sport a target group for funeralcare services? Yes, the place is full of elderly people. As the sport could be labeled rather boring, chances are big the television audience is equally old.

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Towards an augmented social reality? MediaPro review.

November 8, 2010 1 Comment

big brand speakers at mediapro

big brand speakers at mediapro

On November 2-3 we were among many others at Olympia London to attend mediaPro. The event is rather unique in its kind but brings real value to the people within the “marketing and media industry”. Or as the organizers describe it their-selves:

“Things are changing in the world of media and marketing. Marketers, agencies and media owners now know all about email marketing and websites. They tell us that what they want now is a next generation event that helps them take their marketing and communications to the next level: and that means integrating channels including offline, online and all the exciting new stuff in mobile, social media etc. And that means mediaPro!”

Mix of exhibitors and keynote speakers

Visitors enjoyed a nice mixture of keynotes and classic trade fair exhibition stands.

Our final impression after the event coincides into the question “are we heading towards an augmented social reality?”.

Let’s try to unravel what this means… and how we stumbled upon this thought…

Augmented reality … an interesting technology!

We were fascinated by the maturity of AR technology shown at mediaPro.
Have a look in the below video and be astonished about the possibilities this technology brings along!

Social media

How many times a day do you log on to Facebook, Twitter or similar “social media”?

At the show “social media” was a central theme: two theatres were specifically devoted to topics within the realms of “social media” and a lot of exhibitors (suppliers to marketing agencies, corporates, brands, media, …) stressed their social media technology (in one way or another).

What if you combine augmented reality with social media? Augmented social reality! Hooray! Tagwhat!

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