But in a country which, despite all the challenges of the recession, now has smartphone penetration approaching 50%, and where the vast majority of the population uses the web at least once a week, one has to wonder whether such a strategy is really keeping up with the voters it’s trying to reach.

According to Google’s AdWords tools, there are, depending how you measure them, somewhere in the region of 15,000 searches every month for phrases relating to the referendum. However those numbers are averages, so it is likely that, as the referendum approaches (May 31st), there will be many more, at least based on recent growth in those searches.

So, what would someone searching for information find? Not a lot, at least not much from the interested parties.

A search for ‘referendum‘ returns, in the organic results, the official websites for the Referendum Returning Officer and Referendum Commission, as well as the normal mix of wikipedia pages and newspaper articles. But what if people want to find out how the Treaty is likely to affect them? Across a number of searches for this term, over two days, we saw ads for the aforementioned Referendum Commission; ads for the Institute of International and European Affairs, a major think tank, with a click taking people to a comprehensive section detailing what might happen depending on which way the vote goes; one encouraging a No vote (Leave The Euro, Vote No, which appears to have been set up by a concerned citizen); and one driving visitors to the site SpunOut, which is a youth charity.

The only one of the major players involved in the referendum to have an ad showing was stabilitytreaty.ie, which is run by the Department of the Taoiseach. Interestingly, whilst the Taoiseach is obviously campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote, the site itself is very neutral in tone, meaning that there are no serious efforts to promote either a yes or no vote showing in the ads.

A search for fiscal treaty again has the IIE ad, alongside the Referendum Commission and stabilitytreaty.ie with the organic listings once again made up almost entirely of news stories.  When searching for fiscal treaty referendum, stabilitytreaty.ie appears again, as well as the same ‘No’ site we saw in the search for referendum appears at the bottom of the page. However, there are far few searches for that term than for just ‘fiscal treaty’.

Finally, a search for ‘austerity‘, a word which has, for many, come to define the issues that the treaty aims to deal with (and receives far more searches than something like ‘fiscal treaty referendum’), has no ads showing against it with organic listings almost entirely made up of news articles.

So, what can we, or the major political parties, learn from this?

• Firstly, that people are using Google to find the answers to incredibly complex political and economic issues in exactly the same way that they use it to find out the weather or a cheap flight.
• Secondly, that if you wish people to find your views on such matters, it’s important that you think about the words that they will use to phrase such searches (fiscal treaty not fiscal treaty referendum), and accept the fact that they might not be words you want to be associated with (austerity).
• Thirdly, that, in this day and age, expecting people to make a decision based on a piece of card tied to a lamp-post, when it’s really not that difficult to optimise a basic site, or set up a PPC campaign, is perhaps an indication that politicians are as out of touch as many people fear. Although the Department of the Taoiseach and one ‘No’ website showed a couple of times, they would often disappear depending on what time I checked the searches, suggesting budgets are not being managed well, and suggesting that even those who understand that search matters are still lacking when it comes to these (pretty basic) tactics.

NB: This is not meant as an opinion on the rights or wrongs of the treaty, or any of the parties. 

All searches were carried out on Google.ie using the plugin designed to remove personalised results. As most results are now personalised, whether due to location, social signals or any one of a number of other factors, this is the best way of trying to gauge an average view. Searches were carried out across two days (14-15 May, 2012) to allow for campaign settings such as budget or time of day.

Google’s Jim Lecinski is the man responsible for the new buzz term in B2B and customer marketing – The Zero Moment of Truth. This term represents an upgrade of the traditional model of marketing, The First Moment Of Truth coined back in 2005 by Procter & Gamble. No longer are the majority of consumers experiencing a product for the first time on the shop floor. They now search for products and services online; checking brands websites, reading product reviews and sounding out friends on social media sites for pre purchase advice. Some traditional brick and mortar stores may flinch at this development, but the shift in the buyers purchase process represents an excellent opportunity to engage with consumers in a variety of ways and in a cost effective manner.

The shift to online marketing strategies is not a chess game confined to entrepreneurial whiz kids, it is a market open to all businesses with a desire to maintain relevancy with their current customers and open up relationships with new customers.

The core principles remain the same. Aligning a comprehensive digital marketing plan along with good value and a high level of customer service will see your business progress in the digital sphere. Your potential customers are out there looking for you, just make sure that you can be found.

Checkout image by Roland Tanglao on flickr

From the first audition up until Sunday’s final, the programme averaged an ‘All Adults’ rating of 15.62, which is a huge achievement considering last year’s XFactor averaged at 15.29 tvrs. When compared to Dancing on Ice (4.4 tvrs) and Britain’s Got Talent (8.14 tvrs), it is clearly evident that home-grown programming still holds a strong sway with Irish people. Developing Irish programmes, which appeal to an Irish audience, is one of RTE’s strongest selling points, and The Voice is another testament to that.  

From the table below we can see that the final of The Voice attracted a much broader audience than the largely youth dominated XFactor. While maintaining a strong young audience, The Voice also performed convincingly for families and older viewers. Halfway through Sunday night’s results show over 802,000 people (nearly 18% of the population) were tuned in to RTE1. The Voice’s appeal to both young and old audiences largely stems from the mentors, music and indeed contestants that made it to the final. Although eventual winner Pat Byrne and his mentor Bressie appealed to younger viewers, the powerful performance of Richie Hayes and his mentor Brian Kennedy would have held significant sway with the older ones. This ensured that the Voice held an attraction for all ages.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Such a strong showing from this year’s Voice will surely see a return of the programme to RTE next year. Early signs seem to suggest that this year’s UK version has also performed strongly. With the XFactor entering its ninth series, it remains to be seen what changes (if any) are going to be made to the format this year, though there will definitely be new judges. Has The Voice had enough of an impact to induce X Factor bosses to make changes? Will we see a radical overhaul of the current format to freshen up and revitalise the programme?

Over to you Mr Cowell……

We saw in the early part of 2012, advertisers traditionally associated with the New Year continued to spend, in particular the Finance sector where we can now report that there is an increase in expenditure of 120% on Jan-Feb 2012. This is being driven by the insurance providers and also banking institutions. We’ve seen continued high spends from retail which is due from continued spend from McDonalds and also Tesco. This said, Entertainment & the Media, Telecoms, Travel & Tourism and Food all reported decreases in spend of more than €500k for the first two months of 2012.

Innovation continues…

We’ve talked about outdoor innovation and we’ve certainly seen more advertisers avail of this opportunity. Recently with Luas Wraps from Unilever for Magnum Infinity and for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board – they are certainly bringing colour to the streets of Dublin!

Digital formats are also seeing growth with Bravo now selling day part options on their transvision formats with morning (6am – 3pm) or evening (3pm-12am) now a possibility. We’ve also seen CBS Outdoor’s dPods launch their first interactive digital campaign in Dundrum Town Centre where participants could download the advertiser’s free app and use their smart device as a game controller to play the game. It will be interesting to see some results on this considering it was a media first and learning’s will be useful for future advertisers.

Make me Famous

In more recent news Paddy’s O’Granola was the winner of the Bravo Outdoor ‘Fame’ campaign winning €150,000 worth of OOH advertising space including free print. The competition was open to Irish SMEs with the judges looking to find the company or brand that would produce the most growth through the prize. The competition was promoted on OOH across January and February.

Overall, the first quarter of 2012 has had a slow start – not a surprise. However there is an expectation for Q2 to show signs of recovery and it will be interesting to see how the overall first half of the year will perform. As always, we’ll be keeping you updated!

Billboard image by audreyjm529 on flickr

But in the digital age we now live in, I don’t have to wait until the next day to discuss my favourite show, its characters and its plot. I can participate in a live online conversation with friends, share my views and become fully immersed in my TV world through the use of multiple screens such as iPads, laptops and smartphones and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Multiple screening has therefore succeeded in making TV viewing a more interactive and enjoyable experience.

The necessity to watch some TV live due to the advancement of second screens and social networks has also become increasingly important for fear of missing out on the immediate conversation or running the risk of reading spoilers on Facebook or Twitter. This becomes even more apparent when it comes to watching things like live sport, elimination programming such as “XFactor” and “The Apprentice” and award ceremonies such as the Oscars or Emmys.

Even though the option to record shows, or and catch up on players is now commonplace, still many are choosing to watch TV live (despite regular pronouncements that TV is dead) so they can be part of the online conversation and the statistics are there to back this up. According to Nielsen Figures – Irish people are now watching more TV than they did 5 years ago but more importantly then this over 93% of this TV viewing is live.

Social media has become a large part of people’s lives in Ireland in recent years. 77% of all Irish internet users use Facebook in Ireland, the average Irish person spends 4 hours and 10 minutes on the site, 90% of those aged 15 – 24 years use Facebook, two thirds of those use it every day and 20% of those aged 55 – 64 years use Facebook with 35% of those check their account daily.

While Facebook is the out and out leading social network in Ireland, both Twitter are continuing to grow; Twitter is allowing instant online communities to spring up around TV shows. The power of Twitter and its interactivity with TV can be seen clearly seen through the recent circumstance of the Presidential debate where a tweet, broadcast as fact, led to the downfall of a prospective candidate.

TV producers have also become aware of the power that multiple screening is having on TV viewing habits and are therefore using Facebook and Twitter to build up an online community and a buzz around programs before they even air. The Xfactor is one such programme which is now incorporating live Tweets and Facebook comments into its show. This is making TV viewing more current and relevant for its viewers and is putting the power back into viewer’s hands, in terms of directing the shows.

Another interesting example of how social media and multiple screening was used in conjunction with TV programming was that of Fade Street, a series commissioned by RTE last year. O’ Leary Analytics found that conversation on Facebook and Twitter continued to build in the days leading up to the show, but peaked on the day of broadcast, with over 670 comments/tweets/posts published.

The show itself had a Twitter account as did the aftershow presenter, Conor Behan. Hundreds of people joined the conversation, discussing all aspects of the show and sharing their opinions as they watched this live. With more and more young people emigrating, it is perhaps not surprising that the conversations about Fade Street then succeeded in spreading far beyond Ireland, again proving the extended reach that second screening has given to TV.

Research has shown that people who are online while watching TV are also actively searching for information on brands, adverts or songs they have just heard or seen. YouTube is the first place they go to try to find commercials, making YouTube an increasingly important channel as a support for TV. It also highlights the necessity for advertisers to integrate apps such as Shazam into their creative which has worked well for Brands such as Heineken in their recent TV campaign.

Zeebox is an app that launched last year in the UK. Zeebox is a free app which runs across tablets, mobile and web. By logging in with Facebook and Twitter, it knows what you’re watching but not only that, it shows you what your friends are watching and allows you to share and chat with your friends. It can also give you more information about what you’re watching, send you to suitable links instantly and it lets you buy and download relevant apps, books, films, products. On top of that, Zeebox tells you what shows are most popular, in real-time. It’s like a quiet, cool, well-connected and unbelievably clever companion, right there on the sofa next to you ,which enhances your viewing experience.

As we await its full launch into the Irish market (you can use it here, but only for the British channels on Sky), at Mindshare we will be watching to see if Zeebox gets the users to make it a viable competitor to Twitter and Facebook, or, more probably, whether it becomes something that builds on both of these, and creates a new space, though its also up against the likes of GetGlue. Zeebox was founded by Anthony Rose, who many feel was responsible for the success of BBC’s iPlayer, and has just taken major investment from BSkyB, so we reckon it could go far.

Multi screening and social media aren’t likely to replace TV any time soon –but they could prove to be its saviour.

As Phillipe Brodeur of Magnet’s Aertv recently said:

TV is enjoying a renaissance thanks to multi screening and the value it adds to the viewer.

Customizing ads and marketing programs to make the most of multiple screening should therefore become an essential part of every TV advertiser’s strategy in 2012.

Image by Les Chatfield on flickr

Back in January, Carole looked at the effect that reality TV was having on the marketplace and discussed whether ‘reality soaps’ marked the end for traditional soaps.

Ireland has since followed the trend with TV3 releasing its own reality soap, Tallafornia, on a disbelieving Irish audience back in January.  The show followed seven individuals in a house in Tallaght with the premise that these stars are all normal, Tallaght residents (a bit of a misnomer given only two three* of the seven were actually from Tallaght).

With an average television rating of 3.6 for all adults, and 5.1 for young women there was definitely an appetite for this type of car crash television (and yes I will admit to being fascinated by it).

The show lived up to, and beyond the hype it received with mentions internationally on both the TIME Magazine and MTV websites – fame indeed.

More locally, David Norris has waded into the debate by declaring the show ‘repulsive and compulsive’ and called for “a debate on the general standards in Irish life and what our values are…”

Well, whatever our values Senator Norris, it seems that the Irish love a bit of compulsive viewing – as TV3 recently announced they have commissioned a second series of the show.

*It seems the cast like our blog, as we were corrected on this by Kelly Donegan.

Acres of newsprint, and its digital equivalent, will be used trying to deicpher why Facebook would pay $1 billion for something that was built by a couple of guys for a fraction of that price, notwithstanding the investment it had raised.  But leaving that aside, other than the fact that building an app that allows users to easily take & share photos with vintage style filters shouldn’t have been beyond Facebook’s capabilities, what is Facebook likely to bring to the Instagram product?

The answer, it seems to me, is pretty simple and ironic considering Instagram’s core function: filtering.  At present, your Instagram feed is made up of the latest photos from the people you follow, posted in reverse-chronological order.  When you only follow a couple of people, and assuming that they’re not budding David Baileys, capturing everything they do on ‘film’, this isn’t a problem. But, as your network grows, this can start to become troublesome.

It’s a problem that Facebook has faced, and Twitter still has.  For these platforms to succeed they need to grow, and for their users’ networks to grow with them, but as they do, what was once useful or enjoyable, can get lost in a vortex of noise. Facebook has overcome this problem, to a certain extent, by algorithmically curating users’ newsfeeds with what it calls EdgeRank.  This essentially decides what you are most likely to find interesting, based on past interactions, and puts it front and centre, and relegates everything else to your Ticker.

If Facebook only does one thing to Instagram, and that’s to build EdgeRank into its feed, it will have massively improved the service and made it much more usable as the service continues to grow, particularly if it does so in conjunction with the addition of tagging.  Undoubtedly it will do more than this, and many will (reflexively) complain, just because it’s Facebook doing it, but doing so will make Instagram better, and also make it more likely that the app will one day live up to that incredible price-tag.

I feel very lucky to now have almost two years experience here with Mindshare under my belt.  It’s extremely hard to get employers to give you that initial first chance these days.  I don’t envy those taking their first steps on this search.  However as someone only out of university for a couple of years, I can’t help but compare my experience to those of younger friends and family going through the same stage of life, and seeing both positives and negatives on both sides.

For instance, when I was in college I only remember participating in one protest (Shell to Sea).  It wasn’t that it was even distinctly uncool and ‘hippyish’ to do – it just wasn’t even part of our dialogue.

Ugg boots and hoodies from our J1 were the standard uniform.

At the gates at freshers week, banks were signing us up to credit cards on several thousand euro overdrafts, without even asking if you had a job… and Paris Hilton was considered an ‘it’ girl.

I wouldn’t argue that the younger Celtic Tiger cubs were any more materialistic than the rest of the country at the time, but the culture of materialism was certainly rampant. I’m not saying that was everyone’s experience at all, but it was mine.

This seems to be changing.

There seems to be more of a passion for… passion.

When I was in college we were promised the whole world was ours for the taking and Ireland was going to be the beating metropolis heart of that world.  Now it seems that today’s young people are being told the opposite – to ‘keep the head down’, to take what’s given or to just get themselves out altogether.

But true to the typical rebellion of youth, many are adopting an opposing attitude.  Some of them are actually persuing their passions with greater enthuasiasm, becoming more creatively inspired, more social conscious, politically concerned and communally involved.

“It’s of two ways at the minute. People either want a safe job with a salary or they want to create their own business and work for themselves. New opportunities are available for everyone now.”

“In a way its forcing people to be more creative with their time and money as they have less cash to splash around. [Example] A lot of people are doing things like ‘come dine with me’ experiences to spend time with friends and enjoy themselves on a budget. Definitely would have been overlooked had people all had the cash to wine and dine out instead.”

“ Ireland always has it’s cultural & artistic wealth & creativity going for it, plus it’s people.”

“Yet the lesser availability of wealth is also having the nice impact of fostering and triggering people’s creativity. People are also becoming more aware of what is really important”

Perhaps it is because the weight of failing has been lifted – perhaps it’s a lot less embarrassing to experience a career setback or financial difficulty when everyone else is also in the same boat. Perhaps it’s freedom found in the rise of the global community.

Perhaps it’s because they are on the rise with the same digital and social media that has brought them up and developed alongside them. If this is the case however, this generation have a special relationship with technology – a balance of comprehension, an understanding of the unlimited potential it offers and a pinch of scepticism…

“You definitely notice a change over the past two years, expenditure is limited, prices are increasing but modern technology is improving which I feel is a direct influence on our nation’s future.”

“Living in the city, the media’s battle to grab our attention is particularly intense. To be master of ourselves we have to know what we are about and what we are interested in first, and then approach the world with a very discerning eye. This is one aspect of life in Ireland today that I worry about for the generation behind me. I had a solid 14yrs before I was on the internet everyday. Before Facebook. Before YouTube. Now kids are navigating this ungovernable sea of information, [...] from earliest childhood. I wonder (worry) what effect that might have. ”

If there was one striking and surprising key insight to take out of our State of the Nation research here in Mindshare last year, it was the attitude of our nation’s youth towards the present. They showed a deep understanding of what’s going on and how it’s effecting people, but did not look on the past with the ‘rose tinted glasses’ . This is something that we found was distinctively unique to the age group.  Both periods, they believe, are characterised by pros and cons.

“I think these days all I think about is money – will I have enough for this and that. People are very angry with the government but I think now people are looking out for each other more because we had lost out sense of Irishness and we are heading back to the way we used to be.”

“It is depressing, a country so beautiful as ours, with so many amazing people are lost and looking for direction. We will try to live for better days, but these days will never come if all we do is blames everybody else and look for pity.”

“For a student, Ireland in 2011 is quite a scary place. For us the future is uncertain with respect to jobs and the pressure put on our parents has reached an almost unbearable level. However my view is that if we stop equating money with happiness and status in society the recession will not seem that bad. Maybe I am just one of the fortunate ones but I think a lot of it is to do with outlook.”

“Everyone needs to stop complaining and get on with life!”

Aside from many young people having a tough ‘let’s just get on with it’ attitude, there is also a strong sense of social concious and social responsibility:

“People here have become unbelievably pessimistic and rude. It is impossible to walk down a street and not see someone begging or slumped in a corner drunk in the middle of the day. Ireland has taken a dark turn…”

“The country is falling apart thanks to the inept handling of the government and the greed of the banks. I am ashamed to say that I live in a country where the rich get richer and the people who suffer most are those who cannot afford to.”

“I love it [living in Ireland]! The pace of life the element of freedom to be oneself exists. In my rural area, the community spirit is alive and kicking. The frustrations are due to the inept, nepotistic, selfish government. Along with some very strange beliefs that we have to copy Britain and America!”

Now there’s some ‘original thinkers’ for you!

We can learn a lot both in business and for ourselves from the attitudes many of Ireland’s youth.

However, interestingly, this trend is not unique to the island of Ireland. Our friends in Mindshare Culture Vulture conducted global research on young entrepreneurs and original thinkers around the world. They collected some fantastic examples of how the younger generations confidently approaching business (and life in general) with a can-do, creative, social concious and – above all – enthuasiastic attitude. You can check out all the fantastic videos from the research here and follow them on Twitter at @Mindshare_CV.

Image by UggBoy on Flickr Creative Commons

The media campaign consisted of two specific phases, the role of both was to bridge the gap between offline and online.

Firstly we created a radical launch for the new campaign. In week one, we launched the TV ad through radio and press. Press used QR codes on teaser ads, but with radio, it started to get really interesting.

We bought commercial airtime for the audio track from the ad, getting DJs to encourage people to “Shazam” the song. Smartphone owners use a smartphone app – Shazam – to recognise the song and provide people with a link to the TV advert.

Phase 2, was to make everything click through to the owned media. Press, radio and digital included call to actions as described above, however with TV being the bulk of the budget it had to deliver the same. We employed Shazam. The ad format on the landing page was employed, but this time it linked to a competition page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The real win here was that we needed consumers to interact, but that the TV ad carried a logo prompting consumers to “Shazam this ad” – something they had never done before, and something which generated talkability in itself.

Aside from employing an Irish-first, the insights behind this campaign are what really make it exceptional – they came from some of our own proprietary research.

We knew smartphones were the bridge between our audiences’ offline and online consumption:
 20% of the audience watched TV while searching or using social networks on their smartphones.
 There is a low usage of branded mobile apps and very short life spans.

We delivered a fully interactive campaign, with mobile as the central media channel, but we managed to avoid the expense, wastage, or barriers of producing an app.

Instead, we simply employed the functionality of one which was already ubiquitous amongst our audience, but had never been used this way before. The campaign’s novelty and its requirement to push boundaries were delivered through its simplicity of insight and execution.

A deserving winner in our eyes.

Congratulations to everyone involved.
Another great night was had by all!