Richard van Hooijdonk

Wehkamp creates hype with 'film your catalogue' campaign

Create a funny movie and you've got a chance at 20,000 euro. Last year, such were the basics of post order catalogue Wehkamp's campaign, which resulted in a true hype among its customers. The campaign, called 'filmjouwgids' (film your catalogue), caused quite a stir in the Netherlands: Wehkamp even extended the deadline to have more people enter the competition.

 

In a few weeks time, Wehkamp gathered some 70 homemade videos, all of remarkably high quality. Having a go at the 20,000 euro prize money, people submitted movies ranging from cool to hilarious, touching to crazy. Wehkamp's campaign was based on a similar campaign from Nesquick, which gathered over 320 entries from American consumers.

 

Wehkamp asked the question: what exciting things can you do with our post order catalogue? Movie entries were uploaded to Youtube and a link to the entry was submitted on filmjouwgids.nl. The first prize was 20,000 euro; second prize an Acer notebook and third prize a Sony Playstation 3.

 

The judges had quite a hard time nominating the top three videos. Wehkamp is looking into developing the winning entry into a commercial.

Parcel International: “UPS and FedEx need to change their thinking”

“UPS and FedEx need to change the way they think”. Courier comparison website Parcel International is talking big, but not just to get noticed. They wish to expose the lack of transparency among courier services to the world. Parcel International offers comprehensive comparisons of all the major courier services, such as UPS and TNT. Users can instantly find out which service handles their specific deliveries the fastest and the cheapest.

 

Customers of Parcel International also save money because they don't have to sign up to each particular courier company. Instead, they sign up to Parcel International, who then lets its users choose between companies like TNT, DHL and FedEx to handle their delivery.

Online platform matches consumers to car dealers

Online trading websites like eBay or Marktplaats.nl are doing very well. Over 2007, a significant rise was noted. Dealerdirect is trying to squeeze in among them by developing specialised websites for selling and buying cars. The company recently launched its third website, Handelsbod.nl.

 

The more usual websites like eBay and Marktplaats are platforms aimed at individual consumers primarily. On Handelsbod.nl however consumers can sell their cars directly to car dealers and vice versa.

Online car sale websites matching consumers to dealers are seen as greatly beneficial to the large transactions: they greatly diminish the risk consumers are scammed. People abusing eBay or Marktplaats are known to use counterfeit money or even downright steal cars during test drives: the approved car dealers Handelsbod.nl uses instead are much more trustworthy for consumers looking to sell their car.

Older adults less 'skilled' in internet

Although more and more older people are discovering the wonders of the web, there is still a big difference in how they use the web compared to younger online surfers. Less than half of people over 55 use the internet for sending and receiving e-mail, for instance. The Netherlands Institute for Social Research/SCP studied the digital knowhow among different social groups. According to the study, many older consumers aren't online and simply aren't interested in the medium.

 

Besides digital knowhow the study also describes digital behavior among foreigners, young adults, unemployed, well-educated and less-educated. In terms of computer ownership and internet usage, people from the

Antilles and Suriname score about as well as native Dutch citizens while Turkish or Moroccan Dutch score lower. The cause for a lack of digital knowhow is often found in financial issues.

Short URLs more popular as search engine results

The longer a search result's URL is, the less likely it is visitors will follow the link. Research agency Marketingsherpa studied the connection between URL length in Google search results and click-through behavior. Users who were confronted with long URLs were 2.5 times as likely to click the next search result instead, compared to users confronted with short URLs in their search results.

 

Marketingsherpa suggests users try to read and understand the search result URL. Length of the sentence plays a big role in reading speed: a shorter URL is much easier to read and thus often preferable. Also, a long URL visually splits the page in two parts. Users tend to look at the lower part of the page, the part below the long URL.

 

Although URL length would seem insignificant, the study advises organisations to keep it in mind nonetheless when designing their websites.

Average age in social networking rising

At this moment, the largest group of social networkers is between 16 to 24 years of age. But according to research agency Forrester Research, it'll only take a few more years for that to change. People aged 36 to 54 and who have been online for seven years or more will soon take the lead. Forrester studied the adoption of social media and presented their conclusions during the Forrester Marketing Forum in

Barcelona, last November.

The study serves as a heads-up to marketeers who may want to re-evaluate their target audience. Soon it's not just young adults reading weblogs or visiting social networking profiles: experienced, more mature internet users will be doing those exact same things.

Mobile phone as extension for desktop computer

Social networkers, internet surfers who frequently visit social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, increasingly use their mobile phones as an extension for their personal computer. Compared to non-social networkers, they download three times as much video and music content to their mobile phones. These insights are published in 'Profile: Social Networker', a study done by Ipsol Insight.

 

Social networkers send more text messages, download and play more games, do more payments and download more ringtones to their mobile phones than non-social networkers. They also send more e-mails and surf the internet more using their mobiles. Advertisers and mobile phone companies may pay close attention to social networkers' extensive use of mobile phones. Conditions for these users to thrive are high bandwidth connections and high tech phones.

 

Compared to other social networkers, American social networkers in particular own, on average, more technological equipment like DVD players, digital cameras or videogame consoles. Besides a strong preference for technology there's another apparent difference between American and non-American social networkers: according to Ipsol Insight, the split between male and female social networkers is a lot more even in the US than it is abroad. Globally, significantly more men are social networkers than women.

New! 16 Marketing 2.0 rules to guide you through the recession!

We are in an economic recession. It's something we all have to get through, it's something businesses have to deal with. A recession also offers opportunity: it's when things get rough that people and marketers are forced to critically reflect on what they're doing.

Sales figures are under pressure, and with it so are marketing budgets. Accountability now plays a more important role than ever while attention for existing clients is top priority. I offer 16 rules you can use to face the economic recession. These rules enable you to take a critical look at your current approach, cleaning up your business accordingly. The rules are based on my 'The New Marketing Cycle' model, as well as years of experience with optimization, innovation (video) and start-up companies.  Apply for the free book!

Consumer Eyes' nine types of consumers

According to the New York marketing agency Consumer Eyes, the current world of consumerism contains nine different types of consumers. For many organisations, these 21^st century consumers are considered trend setting and certainly decisive in their markets. A brief overview of Consumer Eyes' nine consumer types:

1. Denim Dads: These male parents have taken up the role of raising their kids. They're found online several hours a day. Usually they play a decisive or influential role in family purchasing decisions. They use several different media channels and are to be considered the male replacements for stay-at-home moms.

 

2. E-litists: E-litists are high income, high education consumers who value luxury and a clean environment. They care greatly for environmental issues.

 

3. Mrs. Independent: Female consumers with plenty to spend, but who mostly spend on themselves.

 

4. Middle men: Teenagers and young adults, mostly male, who prefer a lifestyle of gaming and fastfood.

 

5. Karma Queens : Middle-aged women who eat and live healthy and who like to pamper themselves.

6. Culture Crossers: People with a great interest in other cultures, and who are also consumers in these other cultures.

 

7. Innerpreneurs: Consumers with great plans which don't just involve and influence themselves, but others around them as well.

 

8. Geek Gods: Young males who are addicted to having the latest high tech toys.

 

9. Parentocrats: High income consumers for whom their children come first. They take great care for their offspring's future, safety and environment.

 

Ron Rentel is the author of 'Karma Queens, Geek Gods and Innerpreneurs'. His book dives deeper into the nine consumer types.

Confidence in conversational marketing growing

According to research agency TWI Surveys Inc., marketing expenses in social media and conversational marketing will be growing over the next five years. Conversational marketing is a young trend where marketers try to personify their marketing efforts, making their advertising look as natural and 'human' as possible.

 

The study had been requested for by the American Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and Joseph Jaffe, author of the book Join the Conversation. Jaffe's book, released last year, was written with the study's results in mind. Some 260 marketing and PR professionals were interviewed and the interesting conclusion is that most of them expect to spend more of their budget on conversational marketing in upcoming years. Right now, most marketers spend less than 2.5% of their budget on conversational marketing but over 80% expects to spend twice as much on conversational marketing within five years. 65% of the respondents indicated to be allocating more budget towards that goal this year already.

 

The biggest barriers keeping professionals from undertaking conversational marketing are lack of manpower (51%), lack of control (46%) and the inability to measure results with this type of marketing (45%). Another issue that's often mentioned is the company organization's inability to cooperate on spending more on conversational marketing.