Archive for June 2009
BMW graffiti
28 June 2009 | 
Author 
The next time your shiny white BMW gets covered in graffiti I suggest you thank Sytner BMW.
This fine example of a new BMW 635d was at the Big Day Out at South Hill Park in Bracknell this weekend. For some reason, best known to Sytner, they were inviting and allowing everyone to write all over their car (and a Mini that was also there).
I’m really not sure the artwork being applied to the car improved the brand image of Sytner or BMW. One thing is clear though; a number of locals were introduced to a new way to show their appreciation of BMWs.
Incoming search terms:
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Posted in Marketing | 
Tags: Big Day Out, BMW, Bracknell, brand, graffiti, image, Mini, South Hill Park, Sytner | 
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Marketing circumcisions
How on earth would you advertise your services if you were offering circumcisions? This is a synopsis of a Facebook conversation.
POST: Circumcision leaflets through your door as junk mail, welcome to London, E1.
POST: Are they advertising that they come at a snip of the price!
POST: 20% off if you buy before the end of June.
POST: Don’t even joke – there is one of those little clip-art stars in the corner with the caption “Bookings being taken for this summer”. Seriously, who decides to be circumcised because of a leaflet through your door?
POST: They have to advertise via leaflets as getting product placement on daytime TV is a little tricky.
POST: It would probably do very well after the money saving section on GMTV!
Well, it all made me wonder. What other obscure services do you think are difficult to market?
Posted in Marketing | Tags: advertising, brand, business, Circumcision, Facebook, London, Marketing and Advertising, Product placement | No Comments »
Bing, it bounced
I was rather enthused about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. I Tweeted about this a few days ago saying, “Giving Bing www.bing.com a go. It’s good and localisation seems to work well. I also like the ‘format to phone’ feature; ace on Blackberry.”
Today I was further impressed by the following email that I received:
Hi Kevin,
I’m writing on behalf of Microsoft to invite you to a discussion about Bing, the new search engine that recently launched in beta in the UK.
The session will be a small round-table event to discuss Bing and since we saw your recent tweet regarding the use of Bing on a phone, we thought that you might be interested in coming along. The idea would be to get your initial thoughts and you’ll get an update on the future steps for Bing which are being developed specifically for the UK. During the session you’ll have the chance to talk with Microsoft representatives and other people from social media like yourself, who have expressed some early opinion.
This will take place in the next couple of weeks, so if you’re interested in coming along, or have any questions, just get in touch and I’ll send you some more details.
Thanks,
Colin Mercer
Excellent, cooking on gas, was my thoughts. I replied straight away and guess what? The email bounced with this message:
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
This is the mail system at host safetwo.sceur.ch.
I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.
Perhaps Bing will struggle against Google? Or perhaps this was a freak occurrence.
Apparently Colin works for 1000heads. He was representing Life Without Walls which is a Microsoft sponsored initiative run by 1000heads that organises events, social gatherings, trials and a host of other enlightening activities.
Posted in Marketing | Tags: 1000heads, Bing, Colin Mercer, Google, Life Without Walls, Microsoft, round table, Search, search engines, Social media, Twitter, UK, web 2.0, Web search engine | 3 Comments »