Insight from this research will guide three types of marketer this year – sensible, experimental, fearless.

The research, published in The Guardian and gathered from Ipsos Mori, paints a fascinating picture of how the focus group feel towards 2012.

You’ll get many key insights from looking at the data yourself – so what I want to do is guide you towards slide 5,slide 6 and slide 7.

Slide 5 – immigration and integration

The key insight here is that, according to the research, the UK population will welcome those born elsewhere to our soil, so long as they don’t take our jobs.

Open a pizza restaurant by all means. But don’t work in someone else’s pizza restaurant and displace a British person from that job.

Immigration adds to cultural life, and enriches the things that we love to do (sport, going out to eat, music/film and so on). But it threatens our sense and place of self – negative influence on schools (“I couldn’t get my kid in to my school of choice because…”), housing (I couldn’t live where I wanted to because…”), employment (“I couldn’t get a job because…”).

Slide 6 – Optimism vs Pessimism

This slide shows that we are more optimistic about our family unit than anything else out there.

We aren’t connected to our local area, so don’t have an opinion.

There’s so much Big Stuff happening that we’re pessimistic about the UK’s chances.

And with all of the news about Europe, who can blame us for looking on the dark side?

Other information of note here – women are more optimistic and less pessimistic on all counts than men.

Slide 7 (continuation of previous slide)

This slide suggests that we don’t always welcome newcomers to the neighbourhood with open arms and, while the rest of the neighbourhood thinks that we’ve settled in, it’s entirely possible that we never really feel at home.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics – so what does this tell us?

The sum of this research shows, I believe, that we’re a nation of family units hard hit by the current recession, experiences of crime/disorder and years of being told what to do.

We will take charge within our own four walls, and make the best of things.

We will protect and nurture our families, seeing a brighter future for them than for the rest of our local, national and international societies.
(NOTE – if everyone thinks like this, then there’s a paradox here. If all of our families are going to do OK, then surely the local neighbourhood and entire country will as well?)

What happens outside of our walls is less in our control and so we’re generally more fearful of it.

We feel better about the things in our control that those that aren’t.

This therefore gives us potential to create great marketing, depending on what type of marketer we choose to become.

Type One – Sensible.

The sensible (read somewhat risk averse) marketer will use this research and explore the relationship their product has to the consumer and their family.

They’ll target women mostly, finding key trigger points to bring out those little moments in life (dare I say – The Kodak Moment or the Lurpack Saturday) which will both reinforce and fuel the feelings of optimism towards the family unit.

All of the product and brand values will be dedicated to binding the family unit together, providing inward looking experiences which aim to buffer the family from the turmoil of the outside world.

This marketer will provide discussion spaces (Facebook Groups, G+ pages, forums) etc for the consumer to share their experiences, link with others around them, share their problems and their solutions. (However, this will be primarily in-home until the consumer makes the conscious decision themselves to organise a real world meet-up – which they may never do…)

If the marketer works for a clothing detergent brand, the work will all be about freshness and softness, the feel of clean sheets on the bed etc.

Type Two – Experimental.

This marketer will look at the data and aim to provide a link between the individual family units and the immediate society in which they live.

In the current economical and social turmoil, people need support – and this will most often come from the local community in one way or another. Through the schools, the local authorities, local labour force and so on.

It’s obvious to say that no matter how optimistic we are within our family unit, we can’t employ ourselves or address our problem with rising prices etc.

Therefore, the experimental marketer will explore their brand’s potential for bringing people together within their local communities to allow sharing of experience, of knowledge, of strength in numbers.

This marketer will encourage the community to shore itself up against outer turmoils. If we’re sticking with the detergent brand, this marketer would probably organise a mud slide challenge.

Get people muddy together and let them clean up at home.

Type Three – Fearless.

From this research, the fearless marketer would see huge opportunity to link people through from their home experience, into their local community and then out into the wider society.

This marketer would seek to take consumers on a journey that enabled them to achieve something – not just experience it.

This might mean helping the consumer to push themselves beyond their preconceived limits.

It will probably mean partnering with other brands to make the connection and make it happen.

It’s a huge task – which is why it would take someone fearless to try it.

There will be failure, lots of it. But if the fearless marketer can fail fast and evolve faster, the opportunity’s there for the taking.

It could be scary to find another brand and share the glory with them. But if the marketer can choose their bedfellows wisely, the combination of effort might well propel the consumer on the journey we need them to take.

This marketer will see the opportunity to convert pessimism into optimism – and to own that optimistic space, not just be a part of it.

Can you get any bigger than that?

One piece of research. Three potential outcomes.

But my question is simple: Which kind of marketer will you be this year?

The lead image for this post has been used under Creative Commons from Amy Fleming’s Flickr photostream. What’s it got to do with marketing? Everything and nothing. It’s just the right image for this post. Trust me.

I know – it’s simple isn’t it? (Take this from a man who sweats – profusely – at the terror of a slipped apostrophe on a mailing to a couple of hundred people).

But check this bad boy out, sent from Virgin Media at 17:42 on January 13th 2012:

Virgin Media have millions of subscribers. I can’t even begin to imagine how many this went out to.

But it seems right enough, yes? It’s spell checked, looks pretty, has lots of exciting information held within it.

The fact that they haven’t even bothered to personalise it with a first name (which their database would have) is another matter.

So, check out this second email, which arrived at 22:35 on 13th January 2012:

Customer service fail, anyone?

Quite apart from the fact that the second email shows that the company clearly doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to email marketing/scheduling, I’m bemused by the fact that the logos are different on the two different emails.

One has a Union Jack flash to it, the other doesn’t.

Now, that flash is nothing new. In fact, it even featured in the image used on this BBC story published on 11th January (two days before these emails arrived).

In fact, the two emails display completely different brand cues.

Who on earth signed that off?

There’s an easy lesson for us all to take away here.

And I’ve already said it.

Check your mass mailings. Then check them again.

Then check the time that they’re due to go out.

Double check that your system isn’t set to US date format when you’re in the UK or vice versa.

Double check your design – do you have the right logo in the template? Is the typeface code correct? Does it look right?

And only when you’re 100% happy, then click send.

Your email marketing campaign isn’t just a collection of bits and bytes winging through the ether. It’s a touchpoint for your brand in the hand of your consumer.

But if you want to give an entirely different impression, check, check and check again.

But now that email’s taken over from physical mail, how can non-profit organisations still get their donors to do their marketing for them?

I used to receive hundreds of charity address labels. Puppies, kittens, seals, ponies would stare balefully at me from their printed sheets, exhorting me to drop a few coins in their direction.

Such mailings work for two simple reasons.

1) A ‘gift’ such as a sheet of address labels, a key ring or badge aims to set up a mental accounting imbalance in the recipient. The way to right the scales again is to make a donation – to assuage your guilt at using a free product with a few shiny coins.

2) The address labels bear the logo, name and website of the donating organisation. Therefore as they pass through the mail system, get handled by the post person and opened by the recipient, they have enormous pass-on value for the brand. The original recipient of the labels becomes a distribution house for charity recognition.

But there’s a problem with free labels. Email.

As more of the world’s population get online, the volume of hard copy mail decreases. We’ve seen it here in the UK, with the Royal Mail having to diversify its offering as people send each other pictures of fluffy bunnies between Gmail accounts rather than post boxes.

People aren’t sending physical mail as much these days. So they’re not using your labels as much.

This makes your labels a cost overhead, rather than a revenue raiser.

And your spontaneous brand recognition might not be as high.

Don’t panic. There is a solution. Email labels

No, stop laughing. This is serious.

Every email has a footer facility, no matter what provider or client.

As a non-profit hoping to raise donations, this is your very own goldmine.

What I suggest you do is this:

Decide how you’re going to use this rich seam of possibility.
Are you going to produce a graphic which is a bumper sticker – e.g. Stop Animal Testing! – or a graphic which allows your supporter to show that they’ve actually done something for your cause?

Design up your banner accordingly.
Don’t make it too big. Remember that people use different screen resolutions. About the size of a stick of Wrigley’s gum held up against the screen might be just about right.

Write a few short user guides.
Make sure that you provide step by step instructions so that your supporters know how to add an email footer to all of their messages. You’ll need to decide if this is a flat image or whether it’s a clickable image link. If it’s a clickable link, make sure that you provide the link – and my advice would be to link to a specific page on your site that’s only accessible from the email link (this way you can track uptake).

For best effect, provide these guides on your website with screen grabs. If you don’t have time, then here are some links to online resources by client: Thunderbird | Outlook | Outlook Express | Hotmail | Yahoo! | Gmail

(If you want to get really clever, you can give your recipients HTML code which will pull the image live from your website, allowing you to change and update the images as/when you need to. You’ll need a different set of instructions for this, but it’s possible and will open up incredible possibilities for your organisation…)

Upload the banner and instructions to your website.
And, in essence, that’s it. How you then choose to market these to your supporters is up to you.

I believe that this simple, nearly free, approach will leverage awareness and donations for two primary reasons.

Reason 1: In the same way that physical address labels raise your profile, these will too.
Just think of the number of emails that most people send and receive a day. Now imagine how many times your image and message could be seen as it travels across the web.

All without costing you a single penny.

Reason 2: Social capital theory.

Including something like this in an email footer allows the sender to transmit part of their story with the content of the email. It’s a prop for part of their social capital – their standing within society as seen by others.

Further more, this social capital element has another strand – endorsement.

People used address labels because they were free and inoffensive. They fulfilled a need and a function pretty well.

Having an email footer implies endorsement over utility.

If you get someone who is at the centre of a local network and they’re prepared to take five minutes of their time to include an email footer banner for you, they’re endorsing your organisation, your goals and your achievements. Every single email they send from their societal niche will be endorsing you.

This is far, far more powerful than sticking an address label on an envelope.

So there we have it. Over to you.

I’ve thrown the idea out there, and I’m not charging you for it. That would be unfair.

What I want in return is for a non-profit to try this approach for six months and let me know how it went.

I know it will work. I know it has the potential to widen networks, deepen engagement and connect more individuals with your cause.

I know it can replace the physical address labels.

I just want you to prove it. After all, what will it cost you?

So here’s some thinking to help you increase your brand awareness over the summer and make some money, without getting sued to hell and back by LOCOG.


Let me begin with three predictions.

1) People will watch the games. Despite some cynicism in some quarters, research has suggested that 64% of people think that the Olympics will have a positive effect on the mood of the country.

2) High Streets will be pretty quiet while the bigger contests are on. This is self-evident – i.e. at the 100m final, most people will be gathered around a TV somewhere rather than shopping.

3) Pubs and other communal spaces will probably do well. Just look at the way football fans congregate in pubs/clubs up and down the land every weekend. This will be particularly relevant if Team GB do well and get through to any finals.

Onto the consideration…

While the national mood may be lifted for a time, that doesn’t change the fact that we’re teetering on recession, people are losing their jobs and communities are worried about prices/bills increasing.

So against the optimistic (and, potentially triumphalist) view of the Olympics is the very deeply seated sense of unease and unrest that most in the UK are feeling.

This needs to be borne in mind at all times. Even if Team GB sweep the medals board, we’ll all wake up the next morning with the same levels of national debt, unemployment and so on. To believe anything else would be to put our hopes in a trifling panacea.

Now for the five actions which you can take to put yourself ahead this summer.

1) Look at your media buying. I’ve predicted above that the High Streets will be pretty quiet, and pubs/gathering places will do well. This should inform your media placement strategy – look at where you’re currently advertising and ask yourself whether that placement will be seen by the highest number of people as the competitions really heat up.

Try looking at where people will be congregating – what does this do to your message distribution model?

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to afford TV and radio, check out the times of the contests and try to buy accordingly.

Here’s an example: For radio, think about your customers’ plans around the games. If they’re going to be watching from home, when will they be going out to the shops to buy last minute food/drink? Should you choose to purchase radio time at this ‘sweet spot’, you could find them sitting in their cars in a traffic jam while waiting to get into the car park. A captive audience…

2) Examine your supply strategy, especially in relation to in-home. Although I predict that pubs/communal spaces will do well, I think that the market for in-home (IH) is even bigger than that for out-of-home (OOH) entertainment.

I think that the Olympics presents an incredible opportunity for friends and neighbours to gather (over a BBQ perhaps) in gardens and streets up and down the country, enjoy each other’s company and cheer the teams on.

Furthermore, eating/drinking IH is cheaper than doing so OOH, so if you bear the above consideration in mind, the market could be substantially increased by virtue of the economy.

With this in mind, your business might need to consider how it facilitates an IH experience – helping your customers to get the most out of the summer atmosphere without breaking the bank in the process…

If you’re a retailer, you might consider putting together ‘finger food’ menus and advertising those in the run up to the Olympics (no-one’s going to want a three course dinner while watching the Games live, are they?). Guide your customers into their purchase patterns by suggesting things which will make their enjoyment of the Games at home stress-free, affordable and convenient.

3) Facilitate OOH experience. As far as I can work out, there’s nothing to stop you putting a new TV in your local pub or sports club, even if this act happens to coincide with the Olympics. If you’ve got people congregating in one area and you’ve got the opportunity to put your product in front of them, you need to take it.

If you’re a bigger brand, why not look to organise an OOH experience with a big screen TV, some food and a party atmosphere?

Use community links and bonds to bring people together in an experience facilitated by you – create an event to remember.

4) Read Gary Burt’s comment on my original Olympics post and think about how it applies to you.

How can you access the prevailing mood of sporting optimism, without relying on the Olympics? If you’ve been thinking about sponsoring a local sports team, this could be the time to roll out the agreement.

Think about how you can market to the people who don’t want to watch the Games. Versions of Ikea’s Man-creche idea could start to circulate (although I wouldn’t recommend you do this – Ikea already own that precise space).

5) Don’t mention the Games. Whatever you do this summer, the biggest impact on your bottom line will be mentioning the Olympics, the Games, TeamGB or drawing a link between your brand and the London 2012 Games.

In other words, you’ll get sued.

IF you’re not an official sponsor, trying to use Olympics wording, motifs or even subtle design cues just aren’t worth it.

Over to you.

These are ways I think that you can take advantage of the Olympics this year, without breaking any of the rules.

There will, of course, be many other thoughts, and I’d love to hear them – so please comment below!

If you’re interested in hearing more, or want me to discuss your precise needs in greater depth, please get in contact>. I would love to do business with you.

Disclaimer: The above are my suggestions and this editorial piece is in no way sanctioned by LOCOG. Should you choose to try and leverage the Olympics and choose to use any of the banned words or symbols, or in any other way appear to make an official link between your business and the Olympics, that’s your risk and in no way am I responsible for any outcome.

I know, because I am one. So it comes as no surprise at all that Tesco’s bid to lure footfall and wallets has slumped over Christmas.

I’m going to share with you why I think – why I know – that this has happened and what the company need to do to get back on track.

Let me be brief, and let me be honest.

Tesco’s problem is not in providing a low price service to their loyal customers.

Shelf front image - found on UKRetailers Blog: http://ukretailers.blogspot.com/2011/09/tesco-big-price-drop-goes-live.html

As a loyal – and loyalty card waving – multichannel Tesco customer, their Big Price Drop campaign has moved them into the realms of Lidl, Morrison or Aldi as far as I’m concerned.

Their own campaign has redefined their market positioning – downwards.

Competing on price is a race to the bottom.

If I want an overtly price sensitive shop and am not too worried about buying anything special or particularly tasty, I’ll go to Asda or Morrison’s (branded alcohol, branded frozen produce etc is generally cheap by volume).

If I’m feeling flush and want something terribly posh, I’ll head over to Waitrose or Sainsbury’s. But I won’t shop there regularly. I’m not made of money…

Before the Big Price Drop campaign, Tesco filled the middle ground nicely. Now, they’re competing for the cheapest basket.

And because I shop at Tescos, a firm competing for the cheapest basket, I feel cheap myself.

I’m looking at the cheap graphics that are obviously competing only on price, and wondering where the corners have been cut (see this shelf-front image – cheap and nasty or what?)

Shelf front image - found on UKRetailers Blog: http://ukretailers.blogspot.com/2011/09/tesco-big-price-drop-goes-live.html

I’m looking at my bill and wondering why my prices haven’t dropped that much (Big Price Drop is obviously on everything that I don’t buy).

I’m looking at the competition and wondering if I should give them a go. Because they’re just as cheap, if not ever so slightly more so. And if there’s little difference in price, there probably isn’t a difference in quality. If there’s little perceived difference in quality, then I am more likely to take a risk and try something different.

So here’s a simple suggestion to stop slumping sales.

Tesco should stop competing in a race to the bottom and start concentrating on value once again.

Don’t Drop Prices.

Show me how much more I can get in my basket for the money.

This is a subtle, subtle difference, which needs to be reinforced with messaging about the quality of their low-rate goods (i.e. ‘value’ product ranges still taste good even if they’re a 10th of the price of the branded product).

Competing on value is a race to the top.

How can we give our customers more value? How can we make a £1 own-brand frozen dessert taste like a £5 frozen dessert from a competitor?

How can we give our customer something special back? How can we engineer the prices so that they can afford a bottle of something nice to drink with their meal, for the same price as the starter and main course alone in a competitor’s store?

How can we give more to make more?

How can we race up, not down.

I guarantee that if Tesco are willing to ditch the Big Price Drop and focus on value (of which price is a function), they’ll see their sales slump cease.

Whether they will or not is another question entirely…

The images used in the body of this post were discovered on an excellent entry on the UK Retailers Blog – a great source of insight into current goings-on in retail-land.

You’ve got one chance. Get it right, and it could be wedding bells. Get it wrong and you’ll have a drink thrown in your face.

So if you’re in the habit of mass-mailing your customers or prospects, re-read your subject line before you click send.

Then get someone else to read it. Someone not connected with the campaign.

Your window cleaner, perhaps. Or your mother.

In other words, a normal person. Not some creative or sales manager too close to the action.

Make sure that what you mean is what the customer reads.

If you don’t, I can guarantee that you’ll lose sales.

You might be wondering what has inspired this minor rant.

It would be this:

Oh dear, Thomas Cook.

I know what you meant. But I know what I read.

You meant: This Weekend Only – Save £100 Guaranteed*!

I read: This Weekend – Only Save £100 Guaranteed*!

As your (potential) customer, you need to mean what I read. Not what you read.

Yes, I accept that Save £100 and Only Save £100 come out to the same thing – a £100 difference in holiday price.

But that one little word – Only – limits the £100.

I only ate one chocolate [don't blame me if they're all gone].

I only said no [it's not my fault he burst into tears].

Only is a limiting word. It’s a word that makes the successor smaller, subtracting significance.

I know that Thomas Cook didn’t mean “Only Save”. They meant “Save”.

But in failing to punctuate properly or be clear in their copy, they’ve triggered a natural response in the viewer.

“Only Save £100? Well I may as well shop elsewhere then.”

I bet that little slip, that little dip into the consumers’ time stretched, attention poor subconscious, has cost them clicks and sales…

Can you afford to make the same mistake?

However, my advice to any business hoping to ride the promotional wave, so to speak, is simple.

Don’t.

You will, of course, know what I’m talking about.

However, if you think I’m being particularly cryptic, I am of course referring to the once-in-every-four-years gathering of people intent on pitting skill, stamina, technique and so on against the top representatives from other countries, usually in events involving getting from A to B faster than anyone else, throwing stuff a long way, leaping high into the air…

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the [City] [Year] [Event].

Oh dear. This isn’t getting any better, is it?

All of this ridiculous posturing has a serious point – one which every UK business needs to know.

The words 2012, London, Olympics, LOCOG, Team GB and Javelin are protected “either as registered trade marks, registered designs and/or by common law” (source: Guide To Protected Games Marks)

The words ‘Olympic, Olympian’ are protected by the Olympic Symbol Act.

Then there’s the ‘Listed Expressions’ which include Games, 2012, Twenty Twelve and so on (with a sub-clause for every colour of medal).

The very language that you might be considering using in your promotional work this year could land you in very, very hot water, because the Olympic organisers have taken huge steps to protect ‘the brand’ (check out their FAQs here for more information).

In fact, the protection is so deep that the organisers have even got an official Linking policy…

There is a legitimate reason for all of this, naturally (although saying that 2012 is protected just for the summer’s events is, in my view, ridiculous. I mean, how else am I meant to date letters all year?).

Brand hijacking is a serious business. Guerilla marketing is even more unpopular.

A lot of time and energy has been invested in the summer’s events and LOCOG don’t want any old business jumping on the national zeitgeist, because it will devalue the millions of pounds worth of sponsorship that they’ve been able to raise from the likes of BP.

What does all of this mean in practice?

Essentially, you need to ensure that you don’t create any marketing, advertising or other publicity works (including video or audio) that in any way suggests a link of any kind to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In fact, that phrase alone could get you in deep water (I’m using it in a strictly editorial context so I’m OK. I hope. I’ll let you know – if the next post sees me clapped in irons and suddenly good friends with a 19-stone ex biker called Dorothy, you’ll know it’s all gone wrong).

If you own a chip shop, don’t offer ‘Olympic Portions’ – they won’t like it.

If you write a customer newsletter, don’t suggest that you’re Supporting The Games anywhere within it. That’ll also get you into trouble (even if you are supporting the Games by purchasing the official merchandise, watching it on TV, holding a street party to celebrate the huge medal haul that the UK will be obtaining…).

And it goes without saying that you must never, ever used any of the images associated with the Olympics or the Paralympics – their artwork/logos etc (but then you wouldn’t – that’s common sense). Read the Guide For Businesses for more information.

Following on from this, you also need to make sure that nothing you produce could be interpreted as tapping into the Olympic ideal through subtler means.

A dude running for the bus carrying a torch? Forget it.

Someone vaulting the bar set by other company’s customer service reps? I don’t think so.

Even schools aren’t immune. Setting up a mini-Olympics so that proud parents can watch their progeny hop in a brown sack from one of the field to the other isn’t going to get you any friends in high places, especially if it’s sponsored by an outside organisation. (Source: Guidelines for Non Commercial Use)

So where does this put businesses wanting to get in on the act and not let the biggest sporting event of a generation pass them by?

Somewhere out in the cold, I’m afraid. Which leaves me to offer one simple piece of advice for two simple reasons:

Advice: Don’t do anything relating to the London 2012 Olympic or Paralympic Games, unless you are an official partner/sponsor

Reason one: You’ll probably get told to cease and desist immediately, if not sooner.

Reason two: All your message will be is wallpaper. The media are going to be in a frenzy. The official partners are going to be in a frenzy. The athletes and their supporters are going to be in a frenzy.

So why waste your precious time and hard earned money yelling into a tornado, even if you can do so legally?

The old phrase Pick Your Battles has never felt more true.

So this year, crack a beer (or beverage of choice) and settle back to watch your favourite lycra clad athlete getting one over on the competition. Just don’t try to make a buck from it…

Later this week, I’ll be looking at what businesses CAN do to increase their brand awareness and bottom line from the Games, hopefully without getting sued into 2013 along the way.

(Just to clarify once more, this is an EDITORIAL piece. Not promotional, not linked to the games in any way, not trying to make a fast buck. So don’t sue me, LOCOG, please.)

Featured image used under Creative Commons from tableatny’s Flickr stream.

I know what they were aiming for.

And I’ll tell you not only that, but also why they failed.

Before I can even show you the advert, let me explain failure number 1.

The failure to load into Youtube.

At the time of writing (noon-ish, Friday 06 January), the advert is not on Youtube.

So the only way that you can watch it – at this very moment (and that’s the moment that counts because, soon, something else will come along) – is via The Drum’s website or Danepak’s own site.

Great for The Drum and the brand’s owned space. Rubbish for the rest of us who might conceivably want to watch it and share it via Youtube (or, gasp, a blog) as soon as we hear about it.

In the interests of being helpful to my readers, I’m trying to embed the video. But grabbing the code from The Drum’s website doesn’t seem to be working in WordPress. And searching Photobucket for ‘Danepak’ doesn’t bring up any answers.

Face/palm moment? Perhaps or maybe it’s me not being that bright (but if I find it hard, others will too).

So, if you wouldn’t mind checking the video out over on The Drum, I’d appreciate it. (I’ll add the video into this post if it ever gets released somewhere I can grab).

Now that you’ve checked it out, I’d like you to watch this next video – which I have been able to stream from Youtube.

So now you’ve seen both, let me compare, contrast and attempt to explain.

As far as I can see, Danepak were trying to do a Lurpack.

The ‘Welcome to Morning’ concept is strong – incredibly strong. It should make us reflect on how we feel when we’ve just woken up – the promise of a new day, the fight to banish sleep from the corners of our eyes, the sensory titillation of breakfast.

Danepak fails. Miserably.

Lurpack, on the other hand, manages to take us on a journey that we’re all familiar with – the day the alarm doesn’t go off, the gentle drift into wakefulness as the sun rises, the long, languid promise of breakfast and a newspaper with nowhere to rush off to or deadlines to meet.

The butter brand manages to become my breakfast buddy, allowing me to have a culinary experience while easing myself into a weekend.

All Danepak manage to do is make me think how ridiculous it is to leave the house in your PJs. (Let’s face it, on 6th January 2012, you’d probably catch your death from hypothermia). By the end of the ad, where you’ve got the entire village strolling about in their night-wear, I’m thinking about Dawn (or Shaun) of the Dead.

The voice-overs show another point of difference.

Lurpack’s voice-over artist reminds me of Garrison Keillor (Honda voice man), which is no bad thing. It sounds classy, relaxed, laid back.

Danepak’s ‘Morning!’ could, on the other hand, be replaced with ‘Boring!’ and you wouldn’t miss anything from the ad.

More to the point, the ad is meant to be about waking up with breakfast. Our key protagonist is already so darn cheerful he probably doesn’t need a bit of backside to wake him up.

The imagery is another failure.

There are three parts to this:

1) Colouration. Lurpack went with bright-sun natural light. Danepak meanwhile chose who appears to be a muted palette which doesn’t even brighten once the bacon has been brought home.

2) Composition. The tight cropping of the food/kitchen utensils in the Lurpack ad manage to make it all look a little bit luxurious (like the lazy Saturday breakfast itself). Danepak’s faux 1950′s drama compositions look dated already. But not in a retro-tastic kinda way. In a cheap kinda way.

3) This one is the absolute, total, complete killer. Lurpack have stuck with their clean branding. It’s not quite sophisticated, but it’s tidy.

Meanwhile, Danepak is the bacon delivered in a brown cardboard box by a guy in a baseball cap with a box-cart.

The actual packaging is seen so briefly that you can’t really get a fix on it (in fact, I thought it was an Asda own brand when the ‘wife’ took it from the fridge).

A brown box? All that this suggests is a low quality product – which makes it even more confusing as to why anyone would leave the house in January, in their PJs, to purchase it.

And the final fail is one that I don’t even profess to understand.

The Danepak website is like some kind of demonic Where’s Wally (Waldo for my treasured American readers). You spin a wheel, drag a pretty illustrated map of the Morning village around while church bells toll and people keep saying ‘Morning’ out of your speakers.

The aim of this is to find different people, click on them and then enter a prize draw (fortnightly) to win some clothing (to cover your morning nakedness presumably), a teapot or a fridge magnet.

Ooh. Exciting.

Why? Why do this when you’ve got the most incredible opportunity to build a social site allowing people to share their great mornings, swap ideas for using your product, get new thoughts on how they can make a bit of bacon just that little bit more thrilling?

I could cry for the missed opportunities.

The end result is that Danepak’s ‘Mornings Made Better’ is, for me, the first advertising fail of 2012.

If asked, my advice to those behind the ad would be this:

Read the description on Lurpack’s Saturday Morning Youtube entry. This is how you run a breakfast campaign:

Continuing to demonstrate that taking your time over good quality, simple ingredients pays; the new Lurpak campaign sets out to inspire people to make the most of their Saturday morning and cook up a homemade feast.
The media and creative strategy have been woven together: media has been bought only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday mornings – in antipation [sic]of the Saturday breakfast to come.

(Note: emphasis in bold is mine)

I rest my case.

[EDIT] I’ve just noticed that Danepak aren’t even on Twitter. Their Facebook Page was last updated on 12 November 2011.

While I don’t necessarily think that every brand should be on Twitter or Facebook, it would make sense for a food producer to at least make an effort, wouldn’t it?

Postcard from Small Change Fund

Never mind the fact that I’m on a different continent to the Small Change Fund team.

Never mind the fact that they’d already said ‘Thank You’ on Facebook and Twitter for the donation I’d made just before Christmas.

Never mind the fact that this is a postcard – hardly the cutting edge of marketing technology.

This ‘Thank You’ means something because it was handwritten.

Someone in the team had taken the time to handwrite a postcard to me – and to me alone.

Not mail merge.

Not ‘Send All’ to an emarketing database.

Not spend thousands on a generic ‘Heart Felt Thank You To You All From The Chairman‘ Youtube video.

The team had taken something valuable and irreplaceable – time – and spent it just on me to say a deeply personal ‘Thank You’ for the relatively small donation I’d made (it’s not as if I was able to donate hundreds or thousands of dollars).

I feel special. I feel honoured. I feel valued by the brand.

If these guys were a commercial outfit, my propensity to purchase would be spiking. As they’re a charitable organisation, my urge to donate again is massively increased.

My brand loyalty is at an all-time high.

So, as we move towards 2012, I’ll ask you this question:

What big bucks campaign will you initiate in the coming twelve months which will make me love your brand more than a dollar or two’s worth of postcard and postage has made me love Small Change Fund?

My bet is that you won’t manage it. Now, go ahead, surprise me…

For the rest of us, it’s worth repeating. You are not insignificant.

There are a million things out there that threaten to drain away our feelings of significance.

The email that says “We’ll get back to you if we think that your enquiry is of interest”.

The thousands of blog posts and ‘experts’ on any subject that you care deeply about and want to make your own mark in. I mean, do you really have a chance against all of them?

The way a store clerk dismisses your custom as they continue to talk to their friend while serving you.

The daily struggle to make yourself heard over the background chatter and noise.

All of these things conspire to make us feel less significant.

Less worthy in the world.

Less valued.

Smaller.

But you are not insignificant.

If you’re a blogger, a commentator, on Twitter, Facebook or any other social platform, you’re making an impact.

The words you write today can be indexed, searched, retrieved for posterity. You are making history.

You have an impact in your local community, whether you realise it or not. On the friends and family around you. On your work colleagues. On the lives of the shop keepers and producers from whom you buy your milk and eggs.

You have an impact on the future of this planet, whether you like it or not. One day, your bones will be worm food, feeding new life. Between now and then, the choices you make influence how our planet will face tomorrow.

You are not insignificant.

You have significance.

Significance scares some people.

If you’re significant, you’re known. Your actions can be monitored and held to account.

Significance can be a burden that some would rather shirk from shouldering.

But you are already significant. In the simple act of existing, you bear significance.

Therefore the question is not “How can I become significant?” but rather “What will I do with the significance that I already have?”.

How you answer that will define you.

Good luck.

The amazing image used on the header for this post is used under Creative Commons from Flickr, courtesy of Raymond Larose’s stream