Jayne Andrews

Sunny (as in the Egg) is my friend. Well, on Facebook anyway. He is also friends with 87,051 people, who skim their newsfeed once or twice a week to check out the egg pun yolks (sorry, couldn’t help myself).

This week I noticed the makers of the Sunny the Egg Facebook page had put together a rather elaborate Facebook promotion – called Sunny’s Gonski . The evil Eqqor (what you might call a bad egg) had hijacked the page and kidnapped Sunny. I call it a promotion – but it wasn’t even that, as it really had no call to action, other than to ‘like’ the page. Which, you most likely had already done, if you were seeing this eggstavagant (okay, last one, I promise) page activity.

A few of us in the office had a giggle about the page. It was kind of cute in a cheesy way. But as someone who has worked on a bit of web and Facebook stuff, it looked like it would have been time consuming to create and probably quite expensive too. Was it worth it?

This got me thinking. Have I ever bought Sunny the Eggs when I do my weekly shop? What brand is Sunny the Egg? I actually have no idea. Why are Sunny the Eggs better or different than other egg? Other than telling jokes, which has no relevance to the factors which affect my purchase decision: price, taste, size, free range.

So, I did a small experiment and actually took a closer look at the egg aisle when I last went in to Coles. Could I even find Sunny? Where was he? Even if I wanted to choose him, he didn’t stand out on the shelf.

We all know by now that ‘likes’ on a Facebook page are no indication of brand loyalty (as they can be stimulated by a one-off promotion). We’ve now started to talk about engagement on Facebook as a better measure. i.e. the number of comments back on status updates. But is this even enough?

If what is happening on the Facebook page doesn’t translate to the shelf, if there is no obvious integration, is there really going to be any discernable effect on sales?

Maybe sales of Sunny have gone up since the Facebook page. But my gut feel tells me that the Facebook Page has now become bigger than the brand. Another example of this (from the UK) is Compare the Meerkat – 785,630 fans, but surely not all of these are insurance purchasers. Who is the brand, by the way? I’m still not sure.

Have you noticed it’s the same people who whinge and complain about the rain and the cold on Facebook, are also in shock at the first sign of the heat in summer?

Could it be they just don’t have anything better to say?

Some brands are guilty of saying irrelevant things just for the sake of saying something. Telling me what the weather is like or asking me how my weekend was on Facebook is simply (boring) elevator conversation, if you ask me. I mean, we’re patronised enough by a lot of mass media advertising, so if I have chosen to engage with a brand, I need a reason to care.

I am quite selective with brands I like on Facebook, but a couple I have recently ‘liked’ have certainly lived up to my expectations. The first is Batlow Cider which gives me useful information like where I can purchase the product as the brand grows, the highs and lows of growing the apple harvest to make the cider and how it affects the Batlow community. Plus, it has a strong affiliation with music that I can relate to.

I’ve also ‘fanned’ a couple of my favourite music artists after seeing them live and have been given great content like a preview of a new album, discounts on songs, and competitions engaging fans to contribute to album covers etc.

The lower involvement products do have a harder task to involve and engage; but by keeping the content relevant, having a level of exclusivity, and humanising the people behind the brand to encourage a sense of community, then you will have a far better level of influence with your fans.

As the philosopher Plato is credited saying: “A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something”.

PS: For people living in Sydney – we have an average of a metre of rain (40 inches) each year, but few years are average years. There is no rainy season, and the rain usually goes quickly, but sudden storms can be common, and “showers” means downpours in some places and nothing a few hundred metres away. Learn to live with it.

I am one of the people who agreed with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce’s decision to ground the flights a few weeks ago. I have always been against trade unions and striking (may be being a child of the 70s born under Margaret Thatcher influenced me). It is possibly also because I’ve always worked in advertising, so if there was a strike every time we worked overtime, there would be no industry. Anyway, back to the point – I have a few friends that work at Qantas who can’t speak more highly of Mr Joyce and his decisions. Their stories of how he treats his staff certainly have created some positive word of mouth for the brand in my peer group.

But, what was Qantas thinking when it created a Twitter campaign inviting people to tweet in about their Luxury flying experiences? “What is your dream luxury inflight experience  (Be creative!) Answer must include #QantasLuxury.” The prize – a luxury amenity kit and a pair of pyjamas.

Obviously the hashtag began trending across the Twittersphere. But it doesn’t take a genius to anticipate that the tone of the tweets was not exactly in line with what management hoped for.

Just one example of the gags that followed

@the-aaron-smith said: “#qantasluxury is chartering a Greyhound bus and arriving at your destination days before your grounded Qantas flight”

You would think after the drama of the last few weeks, the PR pros at Qantas would be all over such a promotion. Wasn’t it obvious that consumers would love an opportunity to take a dig at the brand? Perhaps Qantas should have asked Ashton Kutcher to be involved in their PR, instead of John Travolta. He can’t fly a plane but he has certainly learnt his lesson on Twitter recently too. And, as for @Mrs Kutcher. I bet she had wished she’d chosen a different moniker when she joined up. The 4.29 million people that follow her will know immediately when those divorce papers are signed.

My colleague shared this infographic from WOMMA with the office. Infographics always inspire me; I’m a very visual person and I love stats and numbers, so they’re a great way of visually representing statistics. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about in my blog.

Apart from the fact this infographic is a great summary of what word of mouth is all about and how effective it is, it also reminded me of a fact that we experience every day at Soup, but which, if you believe everything you read about digital marketing, seems hard to believe: Nine in 10 branded conversations happen offline.

People talk about our clients’ campaigns with their friends, family and colleagues. Give them something to share around (a product, for example) and they have even more to talk about. And, of course, they also share things on Facebook or on a blog, but the vast majority of the conversations happen in the real world.

I find it frustrating that there is a disproportionate focus on online media and social media when it comes to word of mouth.

This is not to deny the role the internet plays in marketing and word of mouth. Our Soupers spread the word just like anyone else; through real-world conversations and online conversations like Facebook and blogs.

A great example is one of our recent campaigns where there is an effective online element is for Vita Weat Lunch slices. For this campaign we have a blogger element where we’ve asked bloggers to post a review. The bloggers go above and beyond. Have a look at this post, seriously, it’s amazing. Or this one. Sometimes we launch a Facebook page as part of a Soup campaign where influencers are the first to be engaged. A great example is the Tailwagging Facebook page we just launched together with Novartis Animal Heath Australia for Sentinel, which results in great consumer content.

Of course, our clients (and we too) are very enthusiastic about the online parts of our campaigns, because it’s so visible that people go above and beyond for their brands.

But although it’s not as visible, what’s happening offline is actually much bigger and therefore more influential. I would never suggest ignoring online media, just keep it in perspective and remember we still mostly live in the “real” world, not just a virtual one.

Sharyn Smith

You may have noticed lately more than the normal amount of blokes sporting serious soup strainers. Of course, it’s in aid of Movember, a fundraising and awareness campaign for prostate cancer and depression – and men’s health more broadly.

This illustration is a lovely representation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as applied to the Mo-Movement.

The beauty of Movember is that its mainstream recognition and popularity is the result of influencer engagement and word of mouth. From its inception in Australia 2003 with 30 “mo-bros” and “sistas” and no funds raised to a global movement with $72m raised last year.

Facebook has had a huge effect on the way we communicate and it’s a potentially powerful place for brands to engage with consumers, but to confuse simply being present on Facebook, or even having someone like your page with word of mouth is to misunderstand word of mouth and how it works for brands.

Leading WOM researcher Ed Keller put it really well in this post — brands on Facebook may get millions of likes, but on average, 0.45% are actively engaged fans. For example Coke has 34 million fans, but just 56,000 of them (0.2%) are “engaged”. But offline there are 860 million conversations involving Coke in one month.

Word of mouth is not social media and social media is not word of mouth – we live the majority of our lives offline and this is where the majority of branded conversations happen.

Ed Thornley

Being fairly new to these shores (I arrived in Australia just eight months ago from the UK), I am still in adjustment mode to the differences. Fair enough, the changes from the UK to Australia aren’t exactly massive, but it is in fact the little differences that you seem to notice more.

Don’t get me wrong the improvements in lifestyle in the land down under are there for all to see, however there is one thing that really bugs me and that is the nature of online shopping here.

As a mid 20s guy, I am a massive consumer of online shopping in the UK. I mean, how many guys my age like wasting their free time traipsing round the malls on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when you can just click online in your lunchbreak and get it delivered the next day?

Yes, there are a few general online shops around in Australia, such as http://www.oo.com.au/#, http://www.crazysales.com.au/, http://www.myshopping.com.au/ as well as specialised high-street stores also having an online site, such as JB HIFI and GAME etc and there is always an option to shop on US, or UK sites, but who really wants to pay more postage than they are paying for the product?

But what all these online shopping sites are missing is a form of community, a place where comments can be read and products can be reviewed. This provides visitors to the site information about a product that is independent, not directly from the manufacturer or a marketer and can therefore be trusted by the everyday consumer.

Back in the UK I would buy everything from blue tack to TVs online, partly due to convenience and partly due to price. As a typical male non savvy shopper a site like www.amazon.co.uk  has always helped me to choose the best and most suitable product on the market simply by reading the 1000s of honest reviews and seeing how highly the product has been rated on a simple scale.  Yes, this type of site exists here, such as http://www.productreview.com.au/ and without too much of a shameless plug http://www.thesoup.com.au/ but why not have an all-encompassing site that can deliver cheap prices, fast delivery times as well as trusted reviews. Working at Soup, has only confirmed just how important these reviews are; people trust other people not marketing spiel or ads.

Maybe living in the UK has made me a spoilt consumer with multiple easy options or maybe someone is missing a massive gap in the Australian online marketplace to deliver products and trusted reviews under the same umbrella.

Restaurants and pubs know they live and die by the word of mouth they create from the experiences their customers have with their establishments. Those that get it right build empires from their riches. Unlocking the secret to his success and, perhaps, the building of his empire Justin Hemmes tells us how he created word-of-mouth success for his latest venture.  Justin says there are four pillars to building word of mouth:

1. Get the product right. Probably the most important part of any word-of-mouth campaign is having something that is worth talking about or creating something that is worth talking about
2.  Know your audience and make them your advocates. Justin knew his audience was going to be the local people living in the area so he made them his VIPs and targeted them for the launch, not some media VIP launch that might get some column inches but few ongoing sales.
3. Use social media to amplify their experience. Justin made time-lapse videos of his fit-out and invited his community to check it out and pass on.
4. Finally, make it personal. For Justin this mean having himself and his staff out engaging with the community and bringing the brand to life. I think this means showing that you care that the management of the company cares about their customers and there is no better way to do this than to talk to them, directly.

Justin has lots of great points which could help brands be more innovative about how they build word of mouth. It’s not just restaurants and bars that live or die by word of mouth anymore, but all brands.

Most people who come into contact with insects instinctively want to kill them, however, there seems to be a different mindset when it comes to old Louie the Fly who has been the face/icon of Mortein since 1957. In recent news, Reckitt Benckiser, the brand that owns Mortein, announced that they intend to fumigate Louie the Fly once and for all, only to change their mind after public back-lash on the topic. Call it a coincidence if you like, that Mortein just happened to have a new TV commercial ready about the axing. Cue an even bigger backlash over media manipulation and publicity stunts.

Social media is buzzing at the moment (pun intended), specifically the facebook page, which seems to be playing the most vital role in the final decision about Louie’s fate. With over 50,000 facebook fans that are growing by the minute, the fans get to vote whether to keep or kill Louie. Will social media have the power to save him? Or will the truth get the better of him?