Get ready to be surprised and delighted with our local deals… are you LivingSocial?

In the hope of creating some buzz and showcasing the many great discounted things you can get from LivingSocial, they decided to deck out a cab with a mystery take-it-or-leave-it challenge.

The idea was that once you are in the cab, the driver presents you with a challenge. Continue on your way or take the mystery LivingSocial experience… People would touch the screen to activate a random prize draw, which the driver would immediately take you to, to complete the experience. What a great little piece of experiential marketing!

I can see their share price continuing to rise despite any blips caused by the uncertainty in the markets.

The guys from Amsterdam have launched a Facebook sharing initiative for Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, a first for the hotel industry.

Hotel guests, and everyone who attends the concerts, are given the option of wearing a slim RFID wristband synchronised to their Facebook profiles. Throughout the hotel are various points where guests can check in, take pictures or post a status according to where they are positioned in the hotel, simply by swiping their wristband across a sensor.

Fantastic work and sure to create a buzz online whilst making their network extremely jealous – would be interesting to see the affect this has on bookings for the remainder of the summer and next!

Some fantastic stats and pretty powerful stuff I think you’ll agree!

We’ll I’ll stick my neck out and say that one of the areas I’m tipping to see exponential growth next is Social Commerce.

We’ll no longer have to search for products and services, they’ll soon start to find us! We know ‘word of mouth’ is one of the most powerful tools in a marketers armoury, and the technology is now in place for customers to see what their friends, colleagues and wider networks have purchased, found relevant, liked or commented on.

Imaging looking to book that summer holiday but noticing in your social network, news feed or status update, that one of your friends have booked a holiday to destination ‘A’ and another five of your friends and colleagues with similar imterests have liked or left positive comments about their choice. Imagine then being able to book the same holiday or similar through the same companywithout having to leave the site you are on! This could apply to any type of product or service. It would be fully trasactional, secure, searchable, marketable and be conveniently integrated in to the sites you visit most – your social network.

The trust you have in your network would be so much more powerful, than anything we have seen before such as blind reviews or testimonials, and the benefits this would bring for customers would include peace of mind, saved time, energy, fustration and money.

Now granted we have seen some steps in to this area with success stories such as Dells ‘Outlet’ store on Twitter, but I’m envisaging a much wider adoption which will be fully transactional with increased viral awareness across social networks – think referral programmes on steriods!

So what form do I think this will take? Well, the most ovious place and the social network most geared up to this currently, would be Facebook. Perhaps this will be in the form of custom tabs or canvases on a companies page and feature a secure shopping cart and checkout process.

Does this mean I’m predicting the end of the standalone e-commerce site? Of course not. Well, not in the short term anyway, there are numerous benefits for having multiple online precence across the web but this is another example of how companies should now be thinking, engaging with and leveraging the power of the customer, providing them with a choice of how to interact with your brand.

For those wanting to know more about how the best to implement social-commerce in to your social media presences, feel free to get in touch.

The brand in question is of course Nike who managed to leverage the relationships they have built with many of the worlds top footballers such as Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba and Robinho, effectively showcasing a number of their products without a single reference to the World Cup in their communications and more importantly any Official Sponsor fees to FIFA.

Who could have failed to notice that the majority of the worlds top players were wearing Nike’s distinctive CTR360 Maestri Elite FG boots! Now whilst I’m sure Nike’s endorsement fees are considerable, these will have been dwarfed by the figure required for the equivalent airtime, ad space or the figures paid to become an official sponsor. And despite rival Adidas being an official sponsor, kitting out more teams (12 to Nikes 9) and providing the infamous Jubulani ball their brand awareness throughout the whole tournament ranks at only 14.4% of the ‘official and competitor buzz’ provided by Nielsen, compared to Nike’s 30.2%!

I make that Nike 1 Adidas 0 in the battle of the sports brands and there’s now certain pair of new boots on my birthday list for next month!

I was recently contacted by the Head of Ecommerce for leading clothing retailer Superdry and asked to carry out an appraisal of their website and propose a digital marketing strategy for the super-cool brand.

Now, it’s not everyday you are contacted directly by such a well known fashion brand, let alone one which is currently going from strength to strength. The company recently floated with a value of £395m and have posted sales of £139m with profits up 83% on the year before. Not bad ehy for a company who has only been around for 7 years! However, there digital presence could be working much harder for them.

I fall in to the target market for the brand and already own a number of their products. Together with my unhealthy appetite for all things digital, I have a relevant personal as well as a professional interest in their online efforts.

A copy of the presentation can be found here, but for those short on time, 5 key online areas of opportunity for the brand include:

- Optimise site user experience
- Allow users to filter & share products
- Enhanced eCRM programme
- Integrate offline & in-store digital strategy
- Embrace social media & ‘outside looking in’ thinking

Now don’t get me wrong, Superdry have a fantastic product (which is often half the battle), as mentioned I already own a number of their products, they do have a cult following (no pun intended!) and you don’t achieve the success they have without being on top of your game. However, if we specifically look at their digital communications, they really do have an unbelievable opportunity to take their business to the next level and maximising online revenue simply through re-assessing their digital strategy.

They are guilty of ‘inside looking out’ thinking as opposed to ‘outside looking in’ thinking, which of course is nothing new for a business. But the marketer’s job has changed from creating and pushing messages to one that now requires listening, engaging and reacting to both potential and existing customer needs. However the rewards are there for those who embrace this shift.

One example of the current approach can be found by carrying out a product search. For example, clicking on ‘t shirts’, generates 135 results with no option for the user to filter by colour, size, in-stock, style or even to ‘view all’ filtered results on one page. Instead users are expected to scroll through all the results.

One suggestion would be to make it easier for the customer to find exactly what they are looking for, which will ultimately make it easier to purchase, result in a more pleasant user experience, reducing shopping cart abandonment and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.

Another example is through the existing email programme, where recipients are currently sent details on non-gender specific items – a more beneficial and targeted approach would be to segment the database so that recipient ‘A’ who is Male – only receives details on products for men along with the details of the nearest stores, thus making the communication more relevant and work harder. A nice touch would be to also allow the recipient to share the email with their social network on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ultimately SuperGroup are in a fantastic position, there are vast opportunities to do some really cool, unique and interesting digital comms with this brand whilst making a fundamental and positive return on investment. By making a few tweaks here and there and adapting their digital strategy the brand could really take their online presence to the next level and continue to experience phenomenal growth.

I for one will be watching with fascination over the coming months and hope this has provided some food for thought for others with a similar product or offering.

The Marketers job has changed from creating and pushing hard-sell messages to one that is now fundamentally about listening, engaging and reacting to existing and potentially new customer needs.

The Old Mantra

- Push messaging , good marketer’s can sell anything
- We know what’s right for the customers
- Products and messaging developed in house & pushed to customers
- Brand guidelines and key message critical

The New Mantra

- It’s critical to listen and respond to customer needs
- The product/service is paramount
- We may not know what is exactly right for the customer, but we will engage in dialogue with them and fine tune our offering
- Customers can often market the products better than we can, utilising one of their ideas or influence is beneficial to everyone

The marketers job has changed, it is important to realise that a fundamental shift is now required throughout all departments if organisations are to succeed. And whilst this may concern some, there are many benefits to this new approach such as being able to identify and adapt to changes in your market place quicker and building stronger customer relationships.

Ultimately, the customer is now more powerful than ever before! They won’t let you force them in to your database and communicate through traditional channels such as phone, direct mail and email.