Month: May 2011

Following text from Tom Fishburne about the creative brief which will make a lot of sense to anyone in advertising.

“Creative briefs may be brief, but often they aren’t very creative.

Rupal Parekh wrote an AdAge article on poor creative briefs last week: “Marketers, Quit Blaming Your Agency — It’s Your Brief at Fault”. It includes this illustrative quote from Casey Jones:

“If you rated the industry on a scale from one to 10, with one being a horrifying piece of direction and 10 being optimal, I would say that companies are currently somewhere between a two or three. The norm is partial, incomplete and sometimes no brief at all. A phone call or a text message comes across to the agency, and the agency is trying to read the client’s mind and they go off and start executing. Agencies go off and do stuff and then the marketer comes back and says ‘That’s not what I wanted’”

I’ve worked on both sides of the client/agency table, but learned the real power of a well-written creative brief from Eric Ryan at method. As an ex-agency planner, Eric understood that a quality creative brief unlocks quality talent at an agency. He put as much energy into a creative brief to an agency as he would to a creative pitch to method’s biggest customers. With so little marketing spend, the quality of the creative had to carry the weight.

Instead of a brief, write a manifesto. Instead of a brand promise, convey your brand purpose. Instead of bullet points, tell a story.

A creative brief should not just inform. It should inspire.”

Great stuff from Fiat USA here, perfect music, quick shots. Like it.

Brilliant concept by @iamchampagne and @waldermarwegelin. I hope this actually happens.

http://robbinwaldemar.com/work/soundtracks/

Europe Sees 40 Percent Growth in Mobile Banking Through Smartphones

Males Nearly Twice as Likely as Females to Use Mobile Banking

LONDON, UK, May 27, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service which showed that 20 million mobile users across the five leading European markets (UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy), representing 8.5 percent of mobile subscribers in these markets, accessed their bank account via a mobile phone in March 2011. Since August 2010, the first month this activity has been measured in MobiLens, there has been a 15.4 percent rise in mobile bankers which has been largely driven by smartphone users who accounted for 70 percent of the mobile banking market in March 2011. Among Smartphone owners the number of banking users has risen by 40 percent since August 2010.

“Consumers want to be able to access information on the go at any time, and with mobile banking becoming more user-friendly through apps and mobile optimized pages, people are gradually becoming accustomed to it”, said Jeremy Copp, vice president mobile for comScore Europe. “It will be important for service providers, such as banks and credit card providers, to watch this development as it can certainly be seen as an indicator of increased trust in mobile services.”

French Emerge as Most Avid Mobile Bankers
During the 3 month period ending March 2011, France boasted the highest penetration of mobile bankers in EU5 with 10.3 percent of consumers accessing bank accounts through their mobile phones. Spain ranked a close second with 10.2 percent penetration. Germany, which is the largest smartphone market in Europe, had the lowest penetration of mobile banking users with 6.8 percent accessing their bank accounts. In the EU5 region, 8.5 percent of mobile subscribers overall accessed mobile banking, whilst 5.1 percent accessed credit cards and 5.2 percent accessed electronic payments via their mobile device.

UK mobile phone owners were the most conservative with regards to accessing credit card accounts and only 3.9 percent of the mobile population used the service in March 2011. On the other hand, mobile banking reached 8.6 percent of the total UK mobile market, making it the third largest market for mobile banking in Europe.

Mobile Financial Services 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2011 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Penetration (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	EU5	France	Germany	Italy	Spain	UK
Accessed Bank Accounts	8.5 %	10.3 %	6.8 %	7.5 %	10.1 %	8.6 %
Accessed Credit Cards	5.1 %	4.7 %	3.4 %	7.6 %	6.5 %	3.9 %
Accessed Electronic Payments	5.2 %	3.7 %	4.5 %	6.9 %	5.7 %	5.4 %

Males Twice as Likely as Females to Use Mobile Banking
In the EU5 countries, nearly two males accessed mobile banking for every one female. Among age segments, 25-34 year olds accounted for the highest percentage of mobile banking users (27.9 percent), and were also the highest indexing segment (index of 161). Mobile users aged 55 and older showed the lowest relative usage of mobile banking with an index of 56.

Perhaps not surprisingly, smartphone users accounted for nearly 70 percent of mobile banking users, despite accounting for just 35 percent of the total mobile population. Apple users exhibited the highest relative usage of mobile banking (index of 393), followed by users of Google Android (index of 245).

Profile of EU5 Mobile Users Accessing Bank Accounts 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2011 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Mobile Subscribers (000)	% of Mobile Subscribers	Index to Total Mobile Pop*
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old	19,885	100.0%	100
Gender
Male	12,705	63.9%	129
Female	7,180	36.1%	71
Age
13-17	800	4.0%	59
18-24	3,249	16.3%	152
25-34	5,539	27.9%	161
35-44	4,463	22.4%	119
45-54	2,679	13.5%	76
55+	3,156	15.9%	56
Platform
Smartphone	13,788	69.3%	201
Not Smartphone	6,098	30.7%	47
Apple	5,475	27.5%	393
Google	2,737	13.8%	245
Microsoft	1,018	5.1%	195
RIM	940	4.7%	151
Symbian	3,279	16.5%	110

*Index of 100 indicates average representation

March 2011 European Mobile Benchmark Data
The table below shows comScore’s March 2011 benchmark data, including a review of mobile consumption behaviors and device penetration for the five EU countries under measurement. These benchmark data are published by comScore to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of the mobile industry. Further information on these benchmark data, and other data included above, can be provided upon request.

Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2011 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Reach (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	EU5	France	Germany	Italy	Spain	UK
Sent Text Message	82.4%	82.8%	78.8%	79.7%	80.9%	90.0%
Used Application (excl. pre-installed)	30.3%	28.1%	26.5%	28.4%	29.6%	39.3%
Used Browser	31.0%	31.3%	24.6%	27.8%	28.7%	42.7%
Listened to Music	25.6%	22.7%	26.6%	23.4%	32.3%	24.4%
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog	19.8%	19.5%	13.3%	18.3%	18.1%	30.2%
Accessed News	14.9%	14.1%	12.3%	13.9%	11.5%	22.0%
Played Games	25.6%	15.4%	24.2%	29.0%	27.7%	32.2%
Used Smartphone	34.5%	30.4%	27.6%	37.9%	39.8%	39.2%

Europe sees 40% growth in mobile banking through smartphones
The french are the most avid mobile bankers
Males are nearly twice as likely as females to use mobile banking

“Eat the Road,” reads the copy. “Seriously, eat it.” The ingredients are listed on the side as “glutinous rice flour, water, salt, propylene glycol, FD&C colour, glycerine.”

Clever.

At clothing displays, mobile tags will be available for customers to scan and see similar items in the collections, as well as a Facebook like button that lets the shopper to share the item on their wall.