Building Confidence Subsidence

The latest construction industry confidence index shows severe subsidence. Irish builders in February gave 'the trend in building activity' an index score of -48: a fall from -15 in January.

Just to put that in perspective, you have to go back to the spring of 1986 to get a lower score. Guess we're going to see even further 'softening' in house prices over the next few months.

The good news, relatively speaking, is that consumer confidence has remained unchanged (albeit negative) since the end of last year.

Student Life: But Not As We Know It

We're currently undertaking a major youth research programme (ID) run jointly with Cawley Nea TBWA and OMD. So we are on the look out for good examples of youth research - hence our delight at this brilliant example of youth researching themselves. Enjoy!

(Thanks to those smart people at PSFK for the tip, by the way.)

The Future will be Free

We all love a bargain: the 'buy-one-get-one-free' sort of thing. But what about 'the first is free and so are the rest'? Chris Anderson charts the rise of 'freeconomics' in this month's Wired magazine. Marketers should listen up: Chris's last book (The Long Tail) explained the rise of Amazon, Google and much more besides.

Like the Long Tail, 'Free' is all about the economics of the internet - to quote Anderson:

One of the old jokes from the late-'90s bubble was that there are only two numbers on the Internet: infinity and zero. The first, at least as it applied to stock market valuations, proved false. But the second is alive and well. The Web has become the land of the free.

The folks over at TrendWatching have gone even further and listed numerous examples of what they call the Freelove phenomenon. The message for Irish Marketers: are you ready for the world of 'free for all'?

Taking the Consumer Seriously

Irish academics tend to steer clear of consumer issues in general and consumer research in particular. So it is refreshing to come across an academic team who take the consumer seriously, namely CRiAC: the Centre for Research in Advertising & Consumption at the University of Bath.

Their publications include some really interesting and innovative reports - many of which are relevant to Irish marketers. And you don't need to be knee deep in the middle of an MBA or MBS to read them. Go ahead: treat yourself.

Dawn of the eCMO

With more than two million Irish people using the internet this year (see our latest report), Irish marketers are taking the internet more seriously. Or are they?

According to a Google study in the USA:

Americans spend an average of 14 hours a week online and 14 hours watching TV. But marketers spend 22% of their advertising dollars on TV and only 6% online.

This from a critical report on the lack of 'e' in too many CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) nowadays. This is one gap Irish marketers can close quickly it seems.

What's The Buzz?

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is big and getting bigger. For an excellent primer on WOMM (or buzz marketing) check out this from the brilliant SlideShare website.

And yes, it is measurable - as we have found in our own research - AND increasingly important in reaching Irish consumers.

Naked Advertising

That got your attention ;-)

Actually, we're referring to the agency Naked, just one of the examples John Earls gives in his excellent Herd blog of ad agencies and others doing really innovative things with consumers in the age of Web 2.0.

No naughty pictures though: at least none that, er, we could find.

Pimp My Funeral

You heard it here first: instead of blowing it on a big wedding, why not blow it on a big funeral? Forget about wedding planners and 'brides of franc': think about a very expensive Irish wake.

It seems the French are ahead of us, and the Americans not far behind. It's the golden rule of marketing: demography is destiny (and so, unfortunately, is mortality).

The Myth of Intuition

A recent addition to the excellent ChangeThis website has a go at 'seat of the pants' marketing decisions. The report - The Power of Intuition: And Why It's The Biggest Myth in Business Today - argues that marketers don't do enough research, relying on hunches instead.

Of course, some of you might be thinking 'we would say that' (perish the cynical thought). But then read what the authors have to say about focus groups:

Too often, however, focus groups are used as the only form of research a company does. Focus groups are to serious research what bumper stickers are to Cartesian philosophy.

Maybe it's not just marketers who need to think a little more about the effective use of market research ...

RFID Continues to Evolve

There are some really interesting things happening in the field of Radio Frequency ID tags (RFID). No longer merely a tool for asset trackers and inventory managers it would appear that those boffins have much bigger plans for the RFID tag.

Before too long we could see the majority of our household items tagged and connected to the internet. Whilst this may seem like some sort of Orwellian nightmare to some it does offer marketers the opportunity to interact with consumers on a much deeper and intimate level than previously imaginable.

Big Brother and Amarach will be watching closely.....

Advertising's Other Half

It's a truism in marketing that 'half of all advertising is wasted'. The observation was made originally in the world of mass media advertising: tv, press etc. So does it apply to new media - search marketing, social networks, pop-ups etc?

It may be too early to tell, but there are some indications that 'wasted advertising' is not confined to old media. Indeed, it may be worse: one AOL study showed that 99% of site users suffer from banner blindness - they literally don't see the ads. It seems we shouldn't write off the old media just yet.

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

Super Bowl Sunday in the US sees the worlds biggest companies try to out do each other during the coveted half time slot. US advertisers have adopted a strategy to produce commercials that are amusing or intriguing enough to encourage viewers to watch it again after the game on web sites like AOL, MySpace, Yahoo and YouTube. They also hope viewers will forward video clips of the spot to friends, search for terms like “Super Bowl commercials” on sites like Google and visit special online microsites. Read how these commercials stacked up during Super Bowl XLII here (btw - Congrats to the NY Giants!).

Worried Retailers

Though consumer confidence gets most of the attention in the media, retailer confidence is often a better indicator of what's happening on the consumer 'front line'. So it is with some concern that we note that Ireland's Retailer Confidence Index plunged last month from a less than cheery score of -11 in December 2007 to a frankly gloomy score of -20 in January 2008.

The single biggest driver of the fall in January was the outlook for sales over the next three months. This particular score (a component of the overall retail confidence index) fell to -31, the gloomiest score of any EU country surveyed, and the lowest Irish score since July 2003 (itself the lowest score since Irish retailer surveys began in November 1997).

Expect to see a lot more 'Sale' signs over the next few months.

(Video) Share the Wealth

YouTube users in Ireland may soon be given the chance to make money from the videos they post on the site. Those signing up to the YouTube Partner Programme, as it is called, will be offered a share of the revenue generated from advertisements that run next to their video.


In the US, some contributors are already earning thousands of dollars each month from their films through this programme. The success of the project in the US has led to YouTube extending it to other countries, starting with the UK. It might not be too long before the programme is open to Irish YouTubers so better dust off the camcorder!