With a positive outlook on TV advertising spends, commercial programmes and brands will hopefully work hand in hand to feature product placements with integrity and without excess.
This is the first step towards very exciting opportunities for brands to create and develop new forms of loyalty towards their products.
The incredible shift in TV watching habits in the last few years means advertisers can tailor their advertising to very targeted audiences; mobile TV, digital recorders, TV On Demand online, You Tube brand sponsored channels and other video sharing websites to name but a few offer those facilities.
Whilst this is still in early days, the UK is offering potentially fantastic opportunities for brands - TV history in the making!
Guest speaker Stephanie Davies, Creative Director and Founder of Laughology, followed with a talk about "Laughing Matters - The psychology of humour".
With The talk was quite inspirational and tackled the serious topics like productivity, self-esteem, communication, and stress amongst others.
Stephanie, who has over 10 years of experience under her belt, with humour and easy-to-relate-to examples managed to put across a strong message on how Laughology and humour can help with or even overcome difficult situations being on a personal or professional level.
reduce stress, enhance general health and well-being,
improve performance, communication and presentation skills,
boost creativity and productivity,
encourage learning and increase retention,
manage pain and encourage positive thinking,
build self-esteem and confidence, and
strengthen and improve relationships.
Humour is important in the workplace. Humour helps creating stronger bonds with employees, people and friends, lowering stress levels, developing friendlier and a more pleasant working environment.
We know that already at Whale Marketing and we are always making sure we are having a whale of a time with our staff and our clients!
Great Ancoats Business Forum and fbe Networking Breakfast events brought to our attention the dynamicity of Manchester. Road works and cranes seem to be symbols of dynamic development and Manchester's cityscape is dotted with a profusion of them.
A few exciting hubs are re-emerging around Ancoats, Piccadilly and St Peter Square - to focus on the city centre. Here in Ancoats (top of the Northern Quarter) we are surrounded by potentially fantastic living and working places but they are all empty shells. The economic downturn is here very tangible as most developments have been on stand-by for the past 18 months at least. But not everything is doom and gloom as Sarah Tower, located between Blossom Street and Jersey Street, and 42nd street are the latest development to be reactivated with work starting this month.
Another interesting project that made the news (again) on Thursday in the MEN was the future of Manchester's London Rd Fire Station.
Amongst a busy week at Whale Marketing delivering client campaigns, networking events and developing an interesting new business pitch the team has again found some interesting things to share from our regular review of key press.
Here are some of them;
Something for the whales This week The Observer featured an interesting article available in print and online on "The cultural life of whales".
A humpback whale in Antarctica. Photograph: Steve Bloom /Alamy
Whales are at the heart of our brand and our passion for marketing is just as big as the heart of the blue whale (it is the size of a VW beetle believe it or not). Check our website for more interesting whale facts.
Social media has enabled an increased connectivity with people.
How many of you have got a friend doing a run, a walk, an abseil, all in the name of charity and they've just told you through Facebook or Twitter? Do you feel obliged to make a donation?
Charities are under pressure to sustain sponsorships and the increased numbers of events is just an indication of this.
Either way charity fundraising is not just about street fundraisers anymore. By promoting charities personally we are raising awareness of causes we support and unknowingly creating viral campaigns, when these campaigns grow traffic to charity websites increases and so do donations.
Charities don’t have control over this type of activity. This is ok when the resulting viral campaign is positive but requires active online involvement from charities to both capitalise on increased traffic and manage positive and negative messages that arise from viral campaigns. A recent viral campaign that drove traffic to the NSPCC was going well until a report caused panic by suggesting that it was the work of a paedophile ring hoping to determine the age of Facebook users by the cartoon they chose to represent them. In this example the NSPCC kept users up-to-date about what they knew actively communicated to their new audience via their own Facebook page. So whilst like many aspects of social media you can’t control everything, pro-active communication is key.
What other marketing tools can charities use to increase fundings and sponsorships?
Whale have worked with a few charities including Brook and Body Positive and enjoyed the challenge of thinking outside the box to create sustainable campaigns.
Companies are setting guidelines as to what their employees can claim as their own opinions or share as the company's own.
The phenomenon that social networks have become are setting new sets of rules in the way we think, act and express ourselves. It is something to keep an eye on as we increase social media activity for both business to consumer and business to business clients.
This Morning - Via Metro - www.metro.co.uk
Photo from American-Idol
