There is a lot of talk about Web 2.0 revolutionising the way that organisations market themselves and their products but it is still remarkable when you come across a good example.
Price comparison site comparethemarket.com has set up comparethemeerkat.com with some funny content and an engaging meerkat character. It helps that meerkats are probably the most engaging animals on the planet but the website is more than just a shop window, you can actually compare meerkats. The facebook page currently has nearly 35,000 members, with about 150 having loaded up photos of their favourite meerkats and many more posting messages to the meerkat. And there is a Twitter page with 1,000 followers.
Even more interesting though, is to see that competitor confused.com is running some pay-per-click advertising on Google in reaction to the meerkat campaign.
We’re talking insurance here, not what people get excited about, but for those of us working in marketing this kind of froth makes talking about insurance, well, quite good fun.
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In addition to reviews of 2008 and predictions for 2009, another feature of this time of year is the resolution. I read something by the frankly quite scary personal development guru, Steve Pavlina, who recommended making just 2 resolutions – one personal and one professional – to focus ruthlessly on a single goal. Of course there are masses of websites offering advice on sticking to resolutions and in this goal-obssessed world you’ll see most of them talk about the benefits of resolutions. But there is also the idea that (failing to achieve) resolutions can bring you down.
Seems to me a much better (re)solution is to try and bring in some positivity. This page takes some well worn aphorisms to illustrate how positivity can improve your productivity. I love some of these quotes, particularly this one from Samuel Becket “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” though clients may disagree. I guess you could turn each of these into a resolution but they are all works in progress rather than things to achieve.
One thing I am keen to resolve is how to get more things done in less time. The email keeps pouring in, there are always things on the to-do list, and there are always things blocking up my diary. I am going to try a radical new system which refreshingly does not involve a software programme and relies on one of our most valuable technologies of the last few millenia – paper!
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This time of year is full of reviews of the last 12 months and predictions for the year to come. Actually I’d like to see more articles that compare last year’s predictions with this year’s reality. It’s in our nature and it’s part of our job to try and understand what will be but the strike rate can be low.
It’s been a time of enormous upheaval globally and personally so I’m a little reluctant to be so brave as to make any specific predictions for 2009. This article helps out by rounding up the tech and information trends to watch out for in 2009 with links to other organisations being a bit braver about what will happen over the next year. I think it is safe to assume that we will see growth in:
- Use of mobile devices to access the internet
- Open source software in businesses
- Rich media social networking tools as a means of communication (with a decline in, uh-oh… blogging)
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