Yves Klein Blue are a band. They’re from Brisbane, they’re friends with the band I’m in and I happen to think they’re awesome. Their album came out on Friday and, as I suspected it would be, it’s bloody marvellous. You may know the song ‘Polka’ from that Mitsubishi Lancer commercial, and if you don’t know it, that’s OK, they’re probably not overly concerned because 75,000 other people have listened to it on YouTube, which is rather a lot of ‘reach’. I talk about music every so often on this blog because it’s one of my top four favourite things (the others being marketing, cooking and vintage motorcycles), but the reason I’m talking about Yves Klein Blue today is because they are a marvellous case study of how you can use social media to market things. At least, they could have been…

You see, Yves Klein Blue aren’t a particularly huge band. They’re signed to a major independent record label called Dew Process, they’ve been doing the rockstar dream thing and have just recorded their album in America with a big-name producer, they’re playing all the right festivals, but they’re certainly a long way behind some of their other label contemporaries (The Living End and Ben Lee, for example) in terms of popularity and chart success. As a marketing case study, they’re starting from a reasonably clean slate, which is a good place to start from if you want to do some quantitative analysis.

The trouble is, despite bringing The Population on board to kick-start their album launch with a wonderful, if not entirely original, idea for a Twitter application and a competition to win tickets to the Splendour in the Grass festival by mentioning the bands name and what you’d do to win the tickets, they don’t seem to have created much of a splash. I’m certainly not knocking The Population’s work mind you, I think the ideas were great. I’m just surprised that for a band with over 75,000 views on YouTube they haven’t created a bigger buzz so far. Check out this graph which shows the number of Twitter mentions (positive AND negative) each day since the campaign launched and you’ll see what I mean:

Before the Twitter campaign launched Yves Klein Blue were being mentioned a small handful of times a day. In the week since the campaign launched, they have been  mentioned 234 times (Twitter Search’s figures aren’t historically accurate as they don’t count people who tweeted and then deleted). That’s a lot more than a handful, but it’s not exactly overwhelming. Cabbage is more popular than that.

Perhaps it’s too early to judge, perhaps this is the calm before the storm, but right now, the graph of people Tweeting about Yves Klein Blue seems to be going nowhere. Seth Godin (if it’s still cool to quote him) would call that a ‘dip‘. I’m wondering just exactly what sort of success they were aiming for? I’ve giving a talk at this month’s Sydney Social Media club about measurement in social media marketing. One of the great things about having a social media monitoring tool so close at hand is that it becomes a lot easier to calculate the reach of social media marketing campaigns, which makes it much easier to justify ROI to marketing managers.

Whichever tool you use, you can calculate the reach of the first week of Yves Klein Blue’s album launch Twitter campaign in a number of ways:

1. Calculate the number of people who downloaded a song (presumably that was the primary goal)
2. Calculate the number of individual people who tweeted about Yves Klein Blue (that’s the number of people who actually engaged with the campaign, they’d be more likely to go on and make a purchase)
3. Calculate the number of tweets which mentioned Yves Klein Blue (a handy figure for charts)
4. Calculate the number of people who saw tweets about Yves Klein Blue (this will look way impressive when you do your powerpoint presentation at the end of the month, but in reality, if any of these people were interested enough they would have then tweeted about it themselves and we’d know who they were)

I don’t know how many people actually physically downloaded a song but the record company will; although I can’t imagine they’re suffering bandwidth problems at this stage (it’ll be around 100). Anyone can count the number of individual people who tweeted, and the total number of tweets that mentioned Yves Klein Blue was 234.  The overall exposure to those tweets (what traditional media planners would traditionally call ‘reach’) you’d calculate by multiplying the number of mentions by the number of followers each tweeter had at the time of tweeting. If you were being honest, you’d also subtract the negative mentions multiplied by the number of people who saw those. Danica Davis from Brisbane was actually the only naysayer of the bunch and remarked to her 94 followers “omg how bad are yves klein blue“. While Danica doesn’t bring the overall total down too much (hint: it’s at the low end of the five figure scale), at the end of the day, this is the digital world and traditional reach doesn’t count for much - not when you can get precise figures for the exact number of people who actually engaged with the campaign and took an action of some sort.

The campaign is hardly a ‘fail’ (hell, as much as I like them, they’re not Radiohead), but it does go to show that you just can’t trust ‘reach’ as an indicator of campaign success, no matter what the medium.

What do you think?

I just got this email newsletter from my brother’s cafe. He has no formal training in integrated marketing communications, but bloody hell, he’s doing a good job at it. I’ve made some notes below on why it’s such a great newsletter. Have a read…

Hey everyone,

It’s been a week or two since our last update and it is definitely time for a new business of the week.

[Regular updates are great, especially if they add value to the readers]

In about 20 minutes, we are going to be changing our single origin roast to a Columbian Supremo. This Smooth and mellow bean has been roasted a bit darker this week and it is giving off this amazing caramelized citrus flavour. Usually a fairly acidic coffee, roasting this a bit further has given it that sweet caramel that it needed and the mouth feel is thick and delicious! One espresso wasn’t enough and I fear that I’ll have too many while trying to chase that flavour again.

[Bang, straight up you can tell this guy loves his coffee, so you trust his opinion, and there's something timely right at the top to keep regular readers interested. News in a newsletter, fancy that.]

For the coffee adventurists, I have got my hands on a blend called ‘The mother of all coffees’. This is packed full of a wickedly strong Robusta and it is going to knock your socks off! If you feel like a big perk to your morning, come in and ask for some. It won’t be available to the public but I will let you in on my private stash! I just spent a week in Melbourne and I’m proud to say that the coffee we are getting roasted for us is well up there with some of the countries finest. I dragged my girlfriend around the cities laneways in an espresso nirvana and found some great little eateries; if you are heading down that way soon, drop in and ask me where to get lost in the city, you won’t be disappointed.

[Helpful, personal; this is value. This guy actually cares about you and your love of coffee. You won't find this level of personalisation at a Starbucks]

This week’s Business card winner is Linda McKewin from Style Magazines. Linda needs to contact either by email, in person or by phone to claim her 5 FREE DRINKS. Remember, you need to read these emails to be in the running for the free drinks and if you have ever placed your card in the draw or if you receive these emails, you are still in the running to win them for yourself.

[What a great touch - promoting the business that wins your lucky business card draw to your whole mailing list. It's a win-win situation and a real incentive to enter.]

This months Trivia night is this Thursday night and it is booked out already. We had an amazing response after the last one and were booked out two weeks ago. If you want to be involved in July’s event, then get in touch with us soon and book your team of four.

[Trivia nights are lesson one in Cafe Marketing 101, clearly it's working too, turning a usually slow night into a packed event. This isn't a desperate plea for someone to come, it's a genuine word of advice that you'd better book early]

Ok, I’ll let you get back to work now, Remember though to sign up to our twitter page for daily specials on coffee and food.

[A Cafe on Twitter isn't anything new, but Dave is doing it particularly well, offering daily specials for those who stay tuned. He tells me it's working really well too - the Twitter followers feel like they're part of a special tribe]

Cheers,

Dave Granfield [owner]

Star Gardentown Cafe

Cnr. Margaret & Victoria St

p. 4637 8744

e. dave@stargardentowncafe.com.au

[Nice work bro!]

I love reading books on marketing and advertising because, quite clearly, I am a marketing and advertising nerd. Here’s what’s on my bookshelf at the moment, in no particular order:

• The Long Tail - Chris Anderson’s classic musings on the economics of endless choice and unlimited demand on the Internet
• Marketing Planning and Strategy - Standard-issue marketing management textbook
• Cutting Edge Advertising - It’s a print advertising book, but Jim Aitchinson’s third edition has tonnes of creative inspiration
• Hey Whipple, Squeeze This - A great guide to creating great advertising that no award-school graduate should be without
• Lovemarks - The future beyond brands by Kevin Roberts, Saatchi and Saatchi’s worldwide CEO, not as promising as it sounds unfortunately
• Principles of Marketing - Edition 12e of the book that has probably made Phillip Kotler a gazillionaire
• Meatball Sunday - I reckon Seth Godin lost his way, funnily enough, with Tribes, but this one is a good read

What are you reading at the moment? I have a long weekend coming up and would love some inspiration…

No complaints from me, but hands up if you think they’re trying so hard it ends up looking templated and insincere?

—

Dear Matthew,

Hi, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Sourabh and I’m going to look after your enquiry today.

Thank you so much for writing to me here at nab. First of all, I would like to apologise for the delayed response and would like to thank you for your patience in resolving your situation.

I have carefully read your e-mail and from my understanding, you would like to have a replacement card for your Visa Debit Card as your previous got damaged.

I am so glad your e-mail reached to me because I’m an expert here at nab and can definitely help you with this today.

As per your request, I have today ordered you a replacement card for yourVisa Debit Card number 4902 XXXX XXXX XXXX.

Your mailing address on file is recorded as:

PO BOX XXX
SOUTHPORT QLD 4215

I wish to advise that your current PIN will not change as a result.

Your replacement debit card is expected to arrive within 5 - 7 business days.

Matthew, I hope I have helped with your enquiry and that you are happy with my personalised service to you. Wishing you a fantastic day.

By the way, if you would ever like to talk with one of my colleagues directly, please feel free to call us on 13 22 65 or internationally on +61 3 8641 9083 between 8:00am and 8:00pm (AEST) Monday to Friday.

Your Sincerely

Sourabh Dua
Your E-Mail Specialist Team

1. Ryan Adams - To Be Young (is To Be Sad, Is To Be High)

2. Midlake - Roscoe (beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Remix)

3. Massive Attack - Teardrop

4. Beth Orton - Stolen Car

5. The Cure - Lullaby

6. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

7. Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone

8. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel

9. Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made Of Sand

10. Radiohead - Karma Police

I thought I’d put all the clips in one post and see what it sounded like if they were all playing at the same time - the Matt Granfield symphony if you will. It doesn’t sound very good, but the results would be better if record companies would permit embedding of the official clips. Most of them don’t seem to these days. They must think that by forbidding me to share my ten favourite songs with you it will make them more money. Aren’t they clever.

I had to leave some brilliant songs off, and I can’t believe The Rollings Stones or Rage Against the Machine didn’t make the list, but there you go.

Voting opened today in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of All Time poll. What makes it into your top ten?

The back door to the office is usually propped open with a wooden doorstop so the smokers can duck out for a puff without carrying their keypass thingos. Today I saw this:

…And it made me think that there are probably a lot more redundancies on the way. Here’s ten things that no-one will do offline in ten years time (list includes bonus interesting links):

1. Looking up a word in a dictionary
2. Reading the newspaper
3. Finding a local business
4. Getting directions
5. Making plans
6. Writing a diary/journal
7. Email
   
8. Going into a Government-run office for day to day stuff (even if you’re an old person).
9. Whatever the last thing you did offline was.
10. Going out on a Friday night. (All entertainment will either be online, or we’ll all have Swine Flu and be stuck indoors).

Why doesn’t McDonalds do its ads in-house? Surely it would be more cost-effective. They could hire a bunch of creative teams and do their own production. It would have to be cheaper. Obviously there’s the argument that they want variety, but VW used DDB for decades and the results were brilliant. The Economist hasn’t changed it’s marketing comms strategy since the 70s. McDonalds could save a mint, and they never do anything that risque anyway. They’re never done anything remotely like Subservient Chicken.

Although this is weird enough…

What are they worried about?

What am I missing here?

Toothpaste. I like mine with breath strips and green gel. You like yours with red stripes and bi-carb soda (for that whitening sensation). That’s cool, different toothpastes are pretty easy to tell apart, look at them on the supermarket shelves and they’re all vying for attention in different ways, trying to out-brighten and out-whiten each other. There’s no confusion. No company makes their toothpaste look like any other company’s. It’s all minty freshness, and a few crazy oddball flavours thrown in the mix from time to time (Zest Impact anyone?).

Mints, on the other hand, exist in an entirely different void. I saw these at the local cafe yesterday and was puzzled:

I made a purchase, wondering what brand manager in their right mind thought it would be a good idea to position a product with exactly the same packaging, shape, size and flavour as Tic-Tacs and then allow them to be sold for $2 (Two Dollars!) at Brisbane coffee shops. I was going to write a blog entry about it and ask if their daring design would prompt anyone else to buy them, just out of interests sake. I was going to offer whatever was left of the contents up as a prize to the reader with the best answer.

Before I hit ‘publish’ I decided to quickly search the web and see just which company was behind ‘Flirt’, and what information I could gather on the ‘Jigz’ product line (which, to be honest, looked alarmingly like the sort of generic brand name you’d come up with if all the other ones were taken, despite their official-looking trademark symbols). But no information was to be found. Nil. Nothing. Google didn’t know they existed. Google image search revealed only some wannabe rappers. How could this be? Was I on the receiving end of a product so daring, so cool and so cheeky it existed only in the real world, with no actual online marketing campaign and no multi-million dollar website? Was this 100% pure guerilla marketing with distrubution at only the hippest, underground Valley cafes?

No, sadly it was not.

Just before I hit publish and went about my day I turned the pack over to see if I could find the address of the manufacturer. Hidden in the fine print, the second last word after the coluring information, was the word ‘Aldi’. “FLIRT is a registered trademark and JIGZ is a trademark of ALDI Stores”. I hadn’t discovered a daring new mint, I’d been ripped off by a cafe too tight to buy proper mints and a discount food chain with so little publicity and so many lawyers it could get away with it. They weren’t cheekily ripping off Tic-Tacs as part of a marketing campaign for cool people, they were cheekily ripping off Tic-Tacs as part of a marketing campaign for poor people. Cheeky fuckers.

I could see the rain pouring down outside the window yesterday but I was so preoccupied with work I didn’t leave the office until 9.30pm after the Gruen Transfer (which featured my sister agency Gallery De Pasquale doing ‘The Pitch’) had finished. (Jeez I like long sentences). It had stopped raining by then and I live on a nice high hill, so I was kind of oblivious to the damage, at least until an email did the rounds of the office today with a whole bunch of images of the damage. There were so many it was alarming, but this one of Breakfast Creek overflowing near the hospital about 1km up the road from where I work in Fortitude Valley really hit home.

Scary stuff. Glad my house isn’t on the other side!

Anyway, I just had another email from someone else in the office mentioning that CityCat services will be stopping at sunset tonight because there’s so much debris floating on the river it’s too dangerous for ferries to be out.

This proves a few things:

• If you’re going to live near a river, live on a hill
• At $20 a pop, gumboots aren’t a bad investment, but buy them when it’s dry
• Email is still good for spreading stuff, especially lots of random pics

Last night my friend, let’s call her @trudy_adams, was headed to a comedy gig in Brisbane. Being a young early-adopting Twitter user she did of course tweet her intentions and happened to mention the name of the performer. Within a few minutes a bar next door to the comedy venue had started following her and given her a special offer if she popped in for a drink before the show. She was chuffed because they’d taken the time to give her something of value. They won themselves an extra customer for the evening.

Cost to both parties: nil.

This was not a major corporate chain with a team of social media strategists working behind the scenes to squeeze dollars out of sentiment, this was just a small business owner overhearing a conversation by a potential customer and engaging.

It had never occured to me that starting a social media marketing agency was a dumb idea. I’m reasonably cluey, not too bad at making business decisions, and have done OK for myself over the last decade since I stopped working for The Man, but it didn’t occur to me a firm which focussed solely on helping companies create meaningful, profitable relationships with their customers via social media was doomed.

You can be a gatekeeper to a new technology for a while, but you’ll quickly end up being a troll trying to eek out a living guarding a bridge to nowhere, oblivious to the fact that a new bypass has opened up just down the river.

Social media is just another bunch of communication channels which work the same way as talkback radio and letters to the editor do. The only difference is that everyone gets to be Rupert Murdoch and the old people aren’t invited. It’s not rocket science, it’s just the way people communicate now. If you’re interested in it and you’re adept at expressing other people’s opinions in 140 characters or less, you’re looking through a small window of opportunity here to pimp yourself out as a social media consultant. You’ve got about 8 months left to hold seminars and help newbies guide the way, but by 2010 all the road maps will have been re-written and marketing managers, PR firms and advertising agencies will be bypassing your little bridge in the woods as they travel down the newsest section of the information superhighway, on which Twitter will have been relegated to the slow lane and Facebook will be a distant speck in the rearview mirror.

Make hay while the sun shines of course, just don’t try and build your house from the crop. Remember what happened to the little piggy.