Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Archives for 2011

Chicken suits, chameleons and the one true way

Were you at Ethical Corporation’s Corporate Responsibility Reporting and Communications conference last week? If you weren’t, you missed a treat.

1 word

The word of the conference, had we been asked to choose one, would have been:

Humility

The number of times people urged that companies should display some humility in their corporate social responsibility reporting was striking…

1 central theme

Whether talking about reports, communications, stakeholder groups or engagement approaches, the clear message from many of the discussions was that there is not One True Way of ‘doing’ CSR, of reporting on it or of talking about it.

One size does not fit all

There were, though, lots of examples of different ways that companies had found that worked for them, and so might work as part of someone else’s toolset. It helps to be a chameleon, using different language and information for different groups.

4 quotes

There were many tweet-worthy snippets that came out of the discussion. Here are 4 that I noted down:

Corporate responsibility is not a man in a chicken suit holding a large cheque

Corporate responsibility reporting is not PR jazz hands

The corporate responsibility report is not for communication: no-one reads it for fun

Stop communicating and start talking

A CR report, then, is both more and less than people might think. It isn’t – or shouldn’t be! – spin; it isn’t – or shouldn’t be – about sitting in a bathtub of baked beans; it does matter to the business and it is necessary but not sufficient to explain your approach to responsibility to your various audiences.

6 topics

It wasn’t physically possible to attend all the sessions without a time-turner, so this is my pick of the themes I identified; it would be interesting to see someone else’s selection.

My six:

  • Driving performance: integrated reporting and Board conviction
  • Different stakeholders; different stories
  • Global-local, sector storytelling and authenticity
  • Collaborating with activists
  • Stakeholder outreach
  • The investor view of your CSR work

I hope to look at some of these topics in more detail over the next couple of weeks; I’ll add links in this post as I get to them. Or, of course you could subscribe to our RSS feed.

If you’re intrigued, make sure you get to the next conference; this is my pick, and I’m quite sure others will have gone home with a different set of ideas.

Brands Increase Mobile Marketing Spending with a Local Focus

Each quarter, Millennial Media releases a report that tracks mobile marketing campaigns. The 3rd quarter 2011 report states that mobile advertising spending has grown across all verticals with 6 verticals growing over 140% in the past 12 months.

Fueling that growth during the past quarter was a 50% increase in local market targeting and a 78% increase in “post-click” options like the ability to watch a video.

The 6 verticals seeing the most growth in mobile marketing spending during the past year were:

  • Technology = 687%
  • Consumer products = 378%
  • Finance = 356%
  • Retail and restaurants = 184%
  • Pharmaceuticals = 163%
  • Entertainment = 145%

Looking at actual mobile advertising spending during the third quarter of 2011, the finance vertical topped the list in the United States followed by entertainment and retail/restaurants. Internationally, the entertainment vertical came out on top.

Location-based marketing and targeting really is the hot thing for mobile marketers, and the Millennial Media report found that campaigns which allowed consumers to view a map (for example, to find the location of a store to purchase a product) grew by 27% during the third quarter of 2011.

Furthermore, consumers are interacting with mobile marketing campaigns while they’re shopping. During the third quarter of 2011, the top activity among consumers in this study was searching for specific items in order to find a better price. Also, while shopping consumers use their mobile devices to search for product reviews.

The take-away from this study is simple. Brands are not only investing more money into mobile advertising and marketing campaigns but they’re also actively testing a variety of tactics to drive brand awareness and sales. Consumers are actively using their mobile devices to find information about brands both before and during their shopping excursions.

Brands want to find ways to tap into the “always on” consumer population who always have their mobile devices with them and use those devices all the time. It’s time to get on board and start conducting your own experimentation with mobile marketing before it’s too late and you’re left desperately trying to catch up.

Image: Flickr

Brands Create Unique Print Ads with QR Codes

Quick response codes (QR codes) are hot these days and brands are doing some really creative things with them in an effort to discover how best to use the technology to drive buzz and sales. Open a magazine, and you’re likely to find many ads with QR codes in them. However, simply displaying a QR code isn’t always enough to motivate people to use it. There needs to be a hook to move people to action.

Metrokane manufactures household products, including wine accessories. In an effort to creatively demonstrate how some of those wine products work, the company created a campaign that used strategically placed print ads, QR codes, and mobile apps.

Check it out in the three ad samples below. Each ad includes a message that says, “Scan the code and place your phone within the dotted area.” Instantly, there is sense of curiosity. When people do scan the code and place their phones in the dotted area in each ad, they’re rewarded with a demonstration of the product in action.

Clever copy taps into an emotional trigger that wine drinkers are likely to relate to. For example, the Upright Rabbit cork remover ad says, “Simple stopper. Aggravation dislodger.” The Electric Rabbit cork remover ad says, “Automatic cork/frustration remover.” Anyone who has ever struggled to remove a cork from a bottle of wine will relate to these messages!

Click each image to view a larger version with legible copy via Ads of the World.

Overall, this is a great example of how to use QR codes within offline media — no website required! The lesson to learn from the Metrokane ad campaign example is simple. Instead of just using QR codes to send consumers to your website or Facebook Page, think about how you can use them to enable your brand to interact with consumers within the media experience they’re already having — instantly.

What do you think of the Metrokane print ad campaign? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Social Media: Extending and Connecting the Recruitment Conversation

This is the third in a series of three interviews focused on careers, employer brand and social media: Paul (Corporate Eye CEO) interviews Matthew Berry, Resourcing Director at Centrica.

Often there’s a gap – particularly for graduates – between the time of recruitment, and the first day of work. How do you keep that relationship fresh?

And then again, at the end of employment: how can you keep communication channels open?

In this interview, Matt Berry explains how social media can be used to extend the conversation at both ends—and, indeed, to connect/reconnect employees with the company:

“alumni and onboarding… there’s a lot of potential, and the reason is that these networks are about relationships and communicating, and that’s what these tools are for. They’re designed to build a network and to communicate with people.

“the key in all of this: it’s about initiating a conversation. It’s still got to be a quality conversation

“with social media—and this is something that a lot of people underestimate—you must constantly turn the handle to engage”

Paul and Matthew talk about Centrica’s experience of extending relationships with candidates, employees and alumni through social recruiting techniques… do listen, this interview is crammed full of insight and information about how one of the largest companies in the UK manage social media recruitment.

I’ve broken the interview down into smaller pieces, so that you can quickly find particular points you’d like to hear about. I’ve also included the whole interview and a transcript.

Part 1: Social media and recruitment

Key topics:

  • Facebook, interns and graduates
  • LinkedIn, professional hires and the advantages of being a direct recruiter
  • targeting on LinkedIn
  • importance of investing in skilled social media people

Soundbites:

“We have up to 500,000 applicants per annum… so trying to find a simple way of getting messages out to that fairly large audience is not easy, but social media lends itself very nicely to that”

“‘RateMyPlacement’, for example, is very important around the summer placement in the intern programmes because via that feedback and word of mouth via our participants we are building a reputation in delivering a great work experience. We encourage all our summer placement to leave their views on those ratings sites…”

“one of the big benefits we see in LinkedIn is that certainly half to three quarters of anyone [professional hires] that we would hire is already on it”

“when we do our executive recruitment [LinkedIn] would be the place we start no matter what”

“social media doesn’t just happen. It is an interactive thing by its nature and it needs some skilled people to really get full advantage from it”

“We have our applicant tracking system … linked in to Facebook, so you can physically tap into any job in our organisation in the UK from our Facebook page”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-pt-1.mp3] Length: 19:18
Download: Matthew Berry interview: part 1

Part 2: Social media and onboarding

Key topics:

  • social media and decision-making
  • using social media for support
  • control, pragmatism and the front line

Soundbites:

“it’s about trying to put information where people are already… our graduates, four or five years ago, were creating a Centrica 2007 intake Facebook page. We didn’t. And we couldn’t stop it if we wanted”

“so we just started tapping into that, giving them a framework… we’ll have induction days which we completely schedule via these groups, and they communicate, talk and support each other”

“one of the things we’ve recently built is an onboarding site, specifically for anyone that joins our business the moment they say ‘Yes, I’d love the job’. And one of the key things there is linking people into our social network”

“we can’t stop people saying what they say anyway but at least we know what’s being said, which is of huge benefit”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-pt-2.mp3] Length: 5:49
Download: Matthew Berry interview: part 2

Part 3: Social media and alumni

Key topics

  • risks and niche knowledge
  • maintaining relationships with talent
  • sharing internal information with alumni

Soundbites:

“We’ve got some demographic challenges where we have to think a bit more flexibly about how do we capture some of that talent”

“not to have some mechanism to keep in touch is a bit of a risk, particularly where some of these individuals have such niche knowledge that’s very hard to replace”

“we’ll always be doing projects or elements of work that will still be of interest to that professional community”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-pt-3.mp3] Length: 6:39
Download: Matthew Berry interview: part 3

Part 4: Social media and referral recruiting

Key topics:

  • social-media-enabling the referral process
  • tracking and transparency
  • engaging internally to get people to embrace it

Soundbites:

“social media is an underestimated tool for referral programmes”

“It’s not how do we engage the external marketplace, it’s how do we engage the internal marketplace”

“we make sure that any role we have running an internal person can look at it and within […] two clicks they can share that job with their friends. So you could send me a link […] and I could apply straight away, and that would also help the business track the fact that you were the person that had introduced me”

“the external team now handles all internal recruitment as well… that team is now directly talking to all of these candidates. We would have 5-10,000 applications internally per annum, so we’re making sure that we’re the hub of all that communication”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-pt-4.mp3] Length: 5:28
Download: Matthew Berry interview: part 4

Part 5: Social recruitment governance

Key topics:

  • social media policies, freedom and message control
  • presenting a coherent front to the external candidate world
  • avoiding the cold-call scenario
  • merging of the social media and recruitment platforms

Soundbites:

“we have a social media policy of course which is a fairly straightforward thing […] social media is part of everyone’s lives. Use it but use your common sense”.

“The big challenge with social media – or one of them – is that if you don’t keep your content relevant and fresh and up-to-date then there’s no reason for anyone to look at anything that you’re doing”

“it’s about the engagement activity that would get you interested to come in rather than pushing hard to push opportunities at people”

“Businesses will have to get more mature in the social media space, which is going to take a little bit of time. I think it’s an opportunity to make the process a bit more engaging. But I don’t think it’s going to make life easier.”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-pt-5.mp3] Length: 8:24
Download: Matthew Berry interview: part 5

Here’s the whole interview, in case you’d rather listen to it end-to-end; and the transcript, for those who prefer to read.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/matt-berry-interview-full.mp3] Length: 45:39
Download: Matthew Berry interview (whole interview)
Download: Transcript

Many thanks to Matthew for taking the time to talk to Paul.

Who were we speaking to?

Matthew Berry started his career as a chemical engineer in the steel industry covering a number of operational, technical and management positions.

With a desire for travel, Matthew moved from Australia to the UK and worked as a Search and Selection consultant for European energy and process industries.

For the past 8 years, Matthew has worked with Centrica in a number of HR roles and is currently Resourcing Director for the Centrica Group.

Coca-Cola Launches National QR Code Program in the United States

Together, Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Federation are are finding creative ways to raise awareness about the conservation efforts taking place to help polar bears in the Arctic. Using a QR Code, an iPad and iPhone app, and Facebook, Coca-Cola has created a social game complete with prizes (including iPads) and a cause marketing connection.

Consumers can join the game by visiting a local 7-Eleven store where they can scan the QR code on cups in the store to download the Snowball Effect by Coca-Cola app to their iPhones or iPads. The app is also available in the iTunes store. Once the app is installed and connected to Facebook, players can start playing the entertaining snowball-throwing game.

The game is actually very simple. The more you play, the bigger your snowball gets and the better you can protect the polar bear’s home in the game. that means more points and better chances for prizes. Alternately, players can become members of 7-Eleven’s Slurpee Rewards program to get additional points by scanning QR codes on select Coca-cola product packaging.

7-Eleven will award the eight iPad prizes each week to players with the highest cumulative scores. After the final week of the campaign, eight randomly selected players will each get an iPad and the single player with the highest cumulative score will win a trip for 2 to the Arctic to see polar bears in their natural habitat.

Players can play alone in a practice mode, challenge their Facebook friends, or accept challenges from others, which adds a social element to the game. There is also a link in the app that leads directly to the World Wildlife Federation page where players can donate money to help with polar bear conservation. Coca-Cola will match all donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million.

The reviews for the app and game from players are positive so far, and the campaign is generating a lot of buzz. That’s great for Coca-Cola, 7-Eleven, the World Wildlife Federation, and polar bears!

Dubbed the Arctic Home campaign, this is a great example of how multiple brands can work together to create a meaningful social media campaign that integrates online and offline marketing as well as cause marketing strategies. Kudos to Coca-Cola, 7-Eleven, and the World Wildlife Federation for getting it right.

What do you think of the Arctic Home campaign? Love it or hate it? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Slurpee.com

Brand Messages Must Connect with College Students Faster Than Ever

A study conducted by CourseSmart of U.S. college students who own mobile devices reveals some important insights to brands who are trying to market to this fast-moving audience.

According to the study, 93% of the survey respondents own a laptop and 47% own a smartphone. Just 7% own and ereader and another 7% own an iPad. Of course, iPad sales are expected to double in 2012, so these numbers are likely to look completely different a year from now. However, the data in the study will be no less valuable to brands.

The study included 18-25 year olds, and 84% of the audience claimed that they use two or more mobile devices at the same time while simultaneously watching television. For example, a student might be doing homework on a laptop, texting with a friend on her mobile phone, and watching television — all at the same time. Specifically, the breakdown of responses follows (via eMarketer):

  • 36% use a mobile phone and laptop while watching television.
  • 25% use a mobile phone, laptop, and iPad while watching television.
  • 19% use a mobile phone, laptop, iPad, and more while watching television.
  • 17% use a mobile phone while watching television.
  • 3% use no devices while watching television.

Clearly, these students will make excellent multi-taskers when they enter the workforce! All joking aside, there is an important takeaway for brand marketers that can be gleaned from this data. It is extremely difficult to cut through the existing noise and clutter surrounding U.S. college students who own mobile devices. They choose the majority of this noise and clutter, so brands have a challenge in front of them. Stealing a snippet of time from this audience away from the many messages they are bombarded with continually by choice is a monumental task. And it’s very likely that these study results are the same for college students in other countries as well.

Therefore, brands have to create marketing campaigns that capture the attention and cut through the noise instantly. Furthermore, this is an audience that knows brands are trying to sell something to them, and they have no patience for the slow-build up or veiled messages. Get to the point and deliver your best message first! The audience will decide if they like what your best message is, but they won’t stick around to listen to you talk about how great your brand is with the hope that your ultimate message will be worth the wait. By the time you get your message out, they’ve already moved on to a third, fourth, or fifth device, activity, and conversation.

Image: Flickr