There's never been more fuzz in Belgian media about Twitter and its users than last week. One hashtag ignited such explosive debates that it started to trend worldwide soon after its launch. In terms of exposure and impact, #30J was definitely a hit. However, for its creator, it probably felt like the explosion of a hand grenade, just after you realised you threw the pin at the enemy.

January 24. Socialist trade union ABVV wants to rally supporters for their national strike amongst students. And because they're fed up with their corny image, they decide to use social media to get their message out. They boldly go where no union in Belgium has gone before. They set out to start a conversation on Twitter and launch the now infamous #30J.

The hashtag doesn't immediately catch on. It isn't untill the morning after, when @ErwinDeDeyn from the ABVV complains why the debate in the media is narrowed down to a poll: are you pro or con the strike? He uses the #30J hashtag in this status. It doesn't strike me as a particularly controversial status, yet it seems to have triggered an avalanche of messages. It is immediately followed by a rater agressive reply from a certain @oliware who warns the trade union that he will run over whoever hinders him on his way to work, "even if they only try to hand out a pamphlet." He too ads #30J to it.

The topic starts trending soon afterwards and the trade union gets way more than what they bargained for. Strong opponents hijack the hashtag to air their dismay with the unions in general and the strike in particular. The hashtag becomes a bashtag for the union. The vast majority of opinion makers, both on traditional media and blogs, designate the trade unions as losers of the fight.

The fight will continue untill the day of the strike 5 days later. On Twitter, the trade union is outgunned and outnumbered. Employers organizations VOKA and UNIZO openly question the legitimacy of the strike "when clearly, the majority of the people is strongly opposed to it." Polls are held in national newspapers: do you think trade unions are still relevant today? Surely, this is not what ABVV president Rudy De Leeuw had hoped for when they launched #30J.

Errare humanum est.
First off, even the die-hard non-believers begin to realise it's hard to overestimate the power of social media. And everybody will agree that that power is capricious and it may backfire when you try to put it to your use. As the saying goes: if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. But if you want to start cooking, you better learn how to deal with the heat.

Errare humanum est (pardon my Latin, but I'm told it's a thing to do if you're discussing politics these days). Errors were made. By the union, sure, but also by the newsmakers. Journalists have jumped to conclusions and forced the trade union in the defence at a time when there was no need for that. On Terzake, the twitter initiative was called a failure before it was. At that time, most of the tweets mentioning the hashtag were neutral, so the journalists were in fact plain wrong. My guess is they made a common mistake. Bear with me, because here, it becomes ugly, yet interesting.

The mistake? My guess: the journalists trusted their peer groups to be representative at that time. Because that's what happens on Twitter: you surround yourself with peers. People you relate to. And you follow people who inspire you, people you look up to. Journalists add to that: policymakers of all sorts. Instead of analyzing all tweets with #30J, they see what their peers and some so-called influential tweeps are saying about it. Most of them are pretty negative. They think that is representative and it's a headline on prime time TV news. In hindsight, we know the journalists were wrong, because now we have had time to analyze them.

Analyzing sentiments can't be done in a couple of hours on a trending topic. It's simply too much unstructured data. The facts presented at Terzake were nothing but a gut feeling that proved false.

The Trade Union didn't know that: they probably thought the journalists had properly investigated it and they got into the defensive. Their defence went something like "We have nearly a million and a half members, and you are saying a couple of thousand overeducated managers on Twitter are representative?"

Auch. That hurt. Not so much the people on Twitter, as it hurt the trade unions. What had started as a noble initiative towards new media, what was meant to be an attempt to reach out to students, was swept away with this one answer. Because, if you were educated, you were suspicious. If you didn't agree with the union, you were clearly a manager or some kind of boss, whose very goal in life is the suppression of the proletariat.

Guess what that answer did for the #30J.

It did however, have a very interesting side-effect. Both pro and contra strike ventilated their opinions under the same umbrella. Because of all the media attention, people were very consistent in the use of #30J. But what could have been the start of a great conversation, was nothing short of an ordinary mudfight, with one party reamining deaf to the other ones' arguments.

And that is a pity. Because you'd hope for more on so-called social media. Consider the hash itself: it's actually a crossroad. Why so rarely for thoughts?

Because something pretty rare happens: very different people start talking to eachother on Twitter. Yes, that is rare. Because people tend to surround themselves with peers on Twitter. And they follow people they look up to.

Loads of artists singing some corny song together. Or deejays locking themselves up for a week with nothing to eat but a smoothie a day. Showbiz does the craziest things for charity. But this campaign is different. It manages to get the same kind of attention with nothing more than eight seconds of silence.

How does it work? Simple: the Moment Of Silence inc. launched an audio track on iTunes with eight seconds of silence, symbolizing the eight years Steve Jobs fought cancer. By purchasing this track, you donate 99 cents to organizations that support pancreatic cancer organizations. A ridiculously simple way to get people thinking about the subject.

Can’t wait to see the track rocketing to the top of the pop charts. Or the charts of the Cannes Lions, for that matter.

But it’s at these times, when things might seem hopeless at first sight and our hands and feet seem bound, that new opportunities arise. These are times that –more than ever before- call upon our experience and creativity. These are times that ask for new ways of thinking and new ways of acting. For a smarter form of marketing that is both inspiring and accountable.

We believe that technology can be a solid driver for this change. Over the last years new platforms and tools have matured of which we can now reap the fruits. Mobile, social media, cloud computing, … they each have a role to play in this new form of marketing. But we even so believe these to be only the instrument to serve the greater good: supporting sales, building stronger brands and growing more happy customers.

We believe the true way to reach these higher goals is through a close partnership with our clients and a deep understanding of their businesses and the markets they operate in. This -if any- is not the time to carelessly shove out marketing campaigns. This is not the time to adapt the latest one-size-fits-all practice. This is the time marketers must take their responsibility and provide the best solutions for both businesses and consumers.

Furthermore, we believe that marketing should not only be responsible, but should even more so be accountable. We believe that efficient and effective marketing drives upon data and the continuous insights it delivers. Only by starting from the facts will we be able to optimize our marketing efforts effectively. Only by measuring will we know the impact of our marketing actions. Only by prove will we convince businesses of our use.

We also believe the true prove of marketing effectiveness goes beyond short-term financial gains. We believe that true business value lies in creating long-term, profitable relationships. We believe in the joint power of businesses and consumers, in the obligation of brands to focus on consumer relevance and the potential of consumers to grow a business. We believe in continuous, engaging dialogues as the foundation of this new alliance.

But this can only work if outlined, planned and executed flawlessly. We will only succeed in creating this new form of marketing through assembling multidisciplinary teams of skilled specialists. Then, and only then, we will get smart new marketing ideas to deliver real results for everyone involved.

We believe these beliefs to hold the key to successful marketing now and in the future.

It’s that time of the year again when you wish friends, family and loved ones a good health and godspeed. But what should we wish for in business? If I am to believe – and how can I not – the economic press, we are facing a recession. Seems to me it makes sense to wish for an abundance of new leads. New business that can hopefully compensate for the decrease in expenditure with existing clients, that will most likely happen during a recession.

The year 1220

In the old days things were simple. Marketing and selling products was the result of craftsmanship and genuine word-of-mouth. Craftsmen with ambition with the intention to sell a lot went to the market to find a bigger audience.

In doing so, they experienced that being there was one thing. Making a living out of it was something else. It depended on the market you chose (type of products, location, people attending), the competition (fierce or not, nearby or not, and the quality of their products) and your talent for storytelling (drawing attention, demonstrating, tasting, convincing). It is where the term ‘marketers’ was born and where business was done.

The year 2012

“The world has changed” … it’s probably the most frequently written sentence in today’s sales and marketing literature. Unrightfully so, because in terms of sales and marketing, it really hasn’t. In essence, if you want to sell a lot you still have to go to the market. Today the marketplace is called Google – and its peers. It’s where you’ll find the biggest audience looking to buy things. And much like in 1220 success still depends on your type of product, the people attending – or targeted, the competition and your ability to draw attention, drive consideration, convince and make a sale. Moreover, when done right  ‘going to the market’ is the most effective and efficient way for lead generation in 2012. That’s just what the doctor prescribes for your business during a recession.

I wish you the biggest and most effective lead generation channel

In Belgium, people looking for commercial information or people looking to buy stuff search for it online. More than 50% use search engines on a daily basis and 9 out of 10 use them on a weekly basis.

So, the biggest market you could ever imagine can be found online. Meaning 97% of consumers out there is finding what they are lookingfor. An effectiveness score that will further increase the use of search engines in 2012 and beyond, as rewarded behavior tends to grow into a habit.



I wish you SEA results for effective lead generation

When you invest in search engine marketing you have two complementary options. The first is called Search Engine Advertising or SEA. Those are the small text ads you find above or at the right-hand side of your search results. Granted, they do not look very appealing and we don’t always pay attention to them. But when you bother, as a marketer, to look into it a whole new world opens up, filled with endless possibilities for smart targeting.

Then again, why should you bother when - on average - less than 10% click on it? I’ll give you two good reasons. Firstly: if they don’t click on it, you don’t have to pay anything. So you have nothing to lose. Secondly, you decide for whom you want to pay, and even how much they are worth to you. Come again?

With SEA you have the possibility to target a precise target group and analyze the effect on traffic and conversion of specific keywords or search strings during each phase of the consumers purchase decision phase. (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action) – You can even analyze what your competitors are doing and determine what you are willing to pay to attract new customers. By now, advertising has stopped being a black box and has evolved into a form of science. It deserves your attention, especially if you are looking for immediate effect.

An extreme example.

Pretend you are a 60-year old dentist living in Overijse. Come 2012, you decide to open up your practice exclusively on Tuesday and Thursday. His ideal patient would be someone with a toothache who lives or works in the neighbourhood, but only on a Tuesdays or a Thursdays.

SEA lets you target him/her specifically. Your ad is not shown to people who live too far away to make the trip to Overijse. It isn’t shown to people looking for toothpaste, … Only to people who use the word(s) ‘toothache’ and/or ‘dentist’, that are than a 15 minute drive away, on a Tuesday or a Thursday. And if you want to finish up early, you can even decide not to display your ad after 2 PM that specific day. How’s that for media planning? And remember: if they don’t click, you don’t pay.

I wish you SEO results for efficient lead generation

When you invest in search engine marketing you have a second option, it’s called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. When people look for commercial information using search engines the first natural search results on the first page get the most clicks. The lower you find yourself in these results, the less attention or clicks you’ll get. Not on the first page? Get your act together!

So how do you make sure you get up where you belong?

Findability. First of all, make sure search engines can find your online content easily. It’s not difficult, it doesn’t cost you more, and it’s an absolute conditio sine qua non in getting you a top ranking. To do this, carefully map out your site structure, apply clear rules in your coding and make sure that you use technology that can easily communicate with the different search engines out there.

Relevancy. When people can find all of your content, and when you’ve structured it in a SEO-friendly way, search engines will be able to locate and index it. Then the game really starts, much like it does with SEA. You’ve mapped out the consumers purchase decision phase, matched it with the most relevant keywords people are using and factored in what your competitors are doing. Now’s the time to decide on which search strings you want your content to appear. Those keywords need to be incorporated into your website and other digital content. As a meta tag on a certain webpage for instance, but make sure that the most important keywords are also found in your navigation structure, sitemap, images, … as these are considered more important by Google.  Good keyword analysis is the second biggest leverage for success. Some keywords could drive a lot of traffic to your website, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will all convert into the next step of the sales cycle, let alone buy your product. Some keywords might draw less traffic, but convert to higher sales more easily.

Remember our dentist?

‘Toothpaste’ is a relevant keyword with a higher search potential than ‘toothache’ and will draw more traffic to the dentist’s website. But only the latter will have the man sat in his chair before the end of the day.

Authority & trust. Once your digital content is found easily, and you’ve decided upon which keywords you want it to be found, you can use a number of strategies to make it more important than other similar content and thus influence the ranking in the overall results. The last leverage for success is called link building. In short, the more web pages that link to your content, the higher you’ll turn up in search results. Digging a little deeper would reveal that it is not only the amount of links, but also the quality (page rank), whether or not keywords are used in the url (anchor text) and the overall relevancy of the referral pages.

SEO complements the previously discussed SEA. With the latter you’ll notice an immediate effect on site traffic and conversion, but you’ll have to pay for it. With SEO you’re building for the future. It doesn’t cost anything (but time) but takes a while before it kicks in and is thus very suited to develop a base traffic on your core keywords.

I wish you a SEM strategy for lead generation in 2012. You’ll need it.

It seems we might be facing a recession. But even during a recession some companies perform better than others. Some companies might even beat the recession on their own P&L. I’m convinced that those companies will have focused on lead generation in a cost-efficient way, among other things. Hope you do to.

-------------------------------

I wish you LUON (*)

LUON provides a free of charge SEO site analysis along with complementary recommendations to get you started or keep you going with Search Engine Marketing. It may be your first step towards successful lead generation throughout 2012.

(*) Pardon my bluntness, but if you’re facing a recession chances are we are too.

When scrolling through the Trend report 2012 or reading a recent article on the raising of the Belgian Retail Sales Index, it’s impossible to deny that e-commerce is growing mature in Belgium. So why not go beyond the basic facts and learnings of the well-known Amazon e-commerce case for once? Here are a few extra tips to keep in mind when optimizing your e-commerce strategies.

A recent study reveals that online upselling is 20 times more effective than cross-selling. So the tactic of displaying “people who bought this item also bought…” is less effective on e-commerce than showing similar but more expensive products than the one chosen by the customer shopping on your website. Nevertheless cross-selling can drive sales by 3% when shown on the check-out page!

Another technique for increasing your online sales is keeping the customer on the product page after adding a product to the shopping bag. An important factor in that context is to be clear about the total cost of the shopping bag at all times. It will prevent dropped sales during the checkout process.

Overall the best advice on developing your e-commerce strategy is by keeping track of everything that happens on your website. E-commerce has the advantage that everything is measurable. So find out what your customer’s behaviour is, test new features and learn from international cases. Based on this knowledge, you should optimise your e-commerce continuously.

Source: econsultancy

Did you go this year? To the Brussels motor show, the 'Auto salon' 2012? You're planning to? You too want to go and drool over some exotic GT and end up buying the reasonable low-emission family car your wife tells you too? Well, this year, this petrolhead won't. This year, this car guy will give it a raincheck. This year, I'll be moaning one of the most distinctive car brands in the automotive history.

I'm talking Saab of course. As of 19 december 2011, Saab automobile is officially bankrupt. That is truly sad if you care about brands that do things a bit differently.

Saab is one of the rare car brands that became a lovemark for people who are not even remotely interested in cars. Part of it was because of the way they looked. Because there was a time when, more than a vehicle, a Saab was a design icon. Radical, pure, eccentric and unmistakably Saab. No other car looked like it. That was the case for the very first Saab - the UR Saab - and remained so for the 99, and crystallized in one of the most iconic car designs in the history of cars: the 900 convertible.

It fits right in a class of its own that is about way more than car design: they are silhouettes of an era. Only very few cars have pulled that off. The Beetle did. Porsche still does. The Citroën DS had it.

That's why the car became popular with architects, art directors, comedians and movie directors and the likes. And if you were the kind of business executive that occasionally dared to not wear a tie, Saab was probably your ride. The ride of  the sensible eccentric.

As is often the case with truly great design, the looks were initially not meant as a design statement, they were the consequences of engineers' preocuppations with aerodynamics. And it was not only about the exterior either, it had a lot to go for under the hood as well. Saab would swear by front-wheel drive in a segment and time where people traditionally bought rear-wheel drives. When critics said you couldn't transmit real power to the front wheels, a rally driver proved them wrong. On slippery roads, only few were faster than Erik Carlssons' 93 and 96, as you can see below.

Moreover, Saab was mastered the Turbo and the 4 valves per cylinder better than most. It allowed them to keep the engine sizes pretty small, while its performance was breathtaking. In the eighties, a Saab 9000 Turbo accelerated faster from 60 to 90 or from 90 to 120 km/h then a Porsche 911 Turbo or even a Ferrari Testarossa.

So what went wrong?

During those years, Saab did well. People loved it. Sales went pretty well, but it remained a brand for a select audience. They didn't come cheap ànd they didn't convey the I-got-it-made-to-middle-management-executive message quite as good as a BMW or Audi.

Furthermore, R&D became pretty expensive if you wanted to make everything yourself. So rather than developing its own chassis for its luxury sedan, Saab bought the same platform you'd find in an Opel or an Alfa Romeo. Then they started using the engines from the General Motors Group but still tweaked it with Saab Turbos. Eventually, GM would buy half of the Saab shares. Eventually, Saabs would become Opels with swedish design finnish. Saab would become 100% GM and set out to sell more by becoming more mainstream.

Eventually, this is what killed Saab.

This is what drastically changed the product. In some respects, Saabs became better. They became more reliable, they became cheaper to maintain and a bit more predictable.

The shapes would be less eccentric, so nobody was offended by it. The result was nobody was thrilled by it either.  The Turbo lag became more civil and easier to manage. But you wouldn't want to race a Porsche with it anymore.

Saab fans of the past would still buy them. Because of what Saab used to be. Middle management would still buy dark BMWs and grey Audis.

GM lost money and put Saab on sale. Victor Muller  - a Dutchman who sold 50 supercars per year - bought it. 3 years later, he's out of money too. When he wants to sell it to a Chinese car manufacturer, GM says no. Because they fear the Chinese might just copy their technology.

Mr. Muller is still optimistic about the future of Saab. Because of GM, I am not. I will now drive a car that has a huge brand value. And I will fail to see why nobody can turn that into tangible business value.

Kamp Kwadraat, that’s the name of the brand new leisure centre in our home town Overijse. To tell you the truth, the name is not all that new. The building has been known as “the camp” for nearly a century now. Today, municipal workers are working overtime to turn it into a 2.000 m² multifunctional leisure centre for the young and the young at heart. So, when they asked us to come up with a new name, we combined the building’s historical context with its current purpose.

As a finishing touch, we designed a fun logo for Kamp Kwadraat with a matching baseline. And if you’re interested in seeing what we’re so excited about, mark your agendas:  the grand opening is on March 17.

> Check the Kamp Kwadraat facebook page for more info

You asked for it, so we printed it. LUON & PUB present 'Mad Men Today, the book.' And since we're in a generous mood, you can download the e-book for free. What's more: the first 25 who tweet about it, get the printed hard copy.

Download your copy at www.madmentoday.be.

LUON Mad Men Today from LUON on Vimeo.

In 2011, we all became financial experts. The financial updates on the TV news became the new weather reports - and Professor De Grauwe more popular than Sabine Hagedoren. We learned what inflation means and we learned that saving money is a sure way of losing it nowadays. We tell you what the experts don't. LUON tells you what to invest in for  2012.

Our new weather reports brought new paradigms with them: if it snows in Athens, it pours in Berlin. We learned that France and Germany prefer different types of umbrellas. We learned that Italians prefer green leafs and if an Italian has an educated opinion on the Euro, they send him off to, well, Europe. In Belgium, we were splitting atoms into molecules and  occasionally we saved a bank - because, you know, that's the way we are. In the meantime, our spread with Germany was never so wide and painfull.

What we didn't learn, what nobody tolds us, was: "What now?"What to invest in? Savings accounts? You lose money. Stock options? You lose money faster. Real Estate? You're still downpaying your own house for the coming decades. No, what you need is something that will generate return. Without an initial investment. Think that's a white raven? Think again.

Your friends are the new currency

Remember Wopper Sacrifice from Burger King? If you defriended 10 of your Facebook Friends, you got a whopper for free. More than 233 000 friends were sacrificed, putting the value of a Facebook friend at exactly 37 dollar cents.

So they got a free burger, but would probably never get in Bal Harbour Shops VIP lounge for its Fashion’s Night Out party in Florida. You needed a Klout score of 40 to get in. And you don't get high Klout scores if you sell out your friends at 37 cents a piece.

American Express values friendship even more. Talk to your friends on Twitter, add the hashtag amex to it and get rewarded.  Thus, people tweet things like: "Just got 25 songs on iTunes with #membershiprewards points from Amex! It's why I love #amex."

Notice with me that in the above examples, the value of your friends really is increasing. I predict that to be thé trend of 2012 and beyond. Think bigger now. Imagine co-buying really taking off. Start thinking co-housing as a real life solution. Imagine a 1000 friends negociating prices with Electrabel. If they don't meet our demands, we'll be taking our business to NUON and ENECO. For real. Stick together, like real friends do, and you might get amazing results.

That is our advice for 2012. Invest in friendship. You might get rewarded beyond expectations.

Cheers!

The ink on the contract hasn't dried yet, but the owners of  luxurious shops on the Champs Elysées are popping their best champaigns already, for they expect massive increase of their sales: the Beckhams are moving to the city of light! David Beckham has signed an 18-month deal with Paris Saint Germain, for  €800 000 a month. The majority of his income however, comes from sponsor deals. Good for €17 million a year. 3 million from Adidas alone. Not bad for a 38 year old who 'cannot kick with his left foot, cannot head a ball, cannot tackle and he doesn't score many goals,' according to George Best.

Is Becks worth it? Sportively? No way. PR-wise for PSG? Peut-être.

But is he worth 3 million for Adidas? Let's check.

Bend it like Beckham

A simple equation would be: if people buy Adidas gear because of David Beckham, and they buy so much of it, that Adidas can get a 3 million profit out of it, Becks is worth his money. Think of it: a €3 million profit.

Problem. We simply don't know. When people buy a pair of football boots, the cashier doesn't ask him what influenced his decision. The soft metrics from traditional media don't help us out either. Adidas might be Top of Mind, likable and what have you, that still doesn't tell us if Beckham sells shoes.

In other words: we can't really know whether David Beckham is influencing the decision process in the buying of sporting gear.

Or can we?

Yes we can. Or at least, we can compare value for money when it comes to influence.

Meet Klout.

The crowd has klout

Klout measures influence on social networks. What's more: Klout has a hands-on definition of influence. They define influence as the 'ability to drive action.' They express that influence in a number between 1 and 100. They even try to define the areas in which you're influential. It's based on retweets on Twitter, likes on Facebook, number of followers etcetera. You can connect up to 12 Social Media platforms.

So let's check: what kind of Klout has Becks got?

The score is a disapointing 44. That's better than average (20 is the average score), but it's nowhere near the starfactor you'd expect. To put things in perspective: yours truly has a Klout score of 54. So George Best is right again: scoring isn't Becks fort. But how come? I mean, I'm flattered and all, but I don't think a lot of teenage girls have a poster of me in their bedroom. And there's no spice girl in my bedroom either. So Klout is flawed?

Simple answer? No.

The social media manager of Becks should be fired. The reason David has a rather low score, is that only Twitter is taken into account. And David doesn't even have an official twitter page.

On the other hand: he has nearly 15 million fans on Facebook. That's comparable to Britney Spears. And she does have a Klout score. La Britney had a mind-boggling Klout score of 88. But what does that mean? Where does the score come from?

3 factors determine your Klout score: True Reach (the number of people you influence), Amplification (how much you influence these people), Network (not your immediate influence, but that of your network).

Typically, celebrities have an enormous True Reach, and a low Amplification. Britney influences 769 000 people, but only influences them for 11%. Again, to put things in perspective: I influence 1000 people, but for 44%. (We leave Network out of the equation, because we don't know their Amplification.)

Let's suppose Beckham is not an exception to the celebrity rule. Meaning big True Reach, low Amplification. Say he influences 800 000 people for 10%. That equates to 80 000 people at a 100%. For €3 million. Meaning those 80 000 people would have to generate €37,5 in profit per year.

Do they? That is something Adidas probably does know. I think they might. So maybe David Beckham is worth his money for the brand. But the brand might wonder if investing in its 11.453.672 Facebook fans wouldn't be a better investment. The combined Klout of that crowd will outscore Beckham anytime anywhere.

Even George Best would agree.

Stir together the summit of Belgian marketing with a two-day session of inspiring ideas, tricks and hands-on advice. Flavor it with some delicious sushi rolls. And what do you get? A successful first edition of the LUON Wassup lunches.

From now on “How can you maximize the return of your online presence?” won’t be a question left unanswered by the participants of the event.

Is your stomach growling for some knowledge as well?

> Subscribe to our newsletter and find out when the next free Wassup Lunches will occur

“Why haven’t I thought of this before?”

Does that ever cross your mind when you see a new creative idea conquering the web? Many creatives surely had this reflex when seeing this mailpiece. It’s clever. It’s fresh. It’s so simple. It looks as if it could have been done a million times before. But apparently no-one ever did, until now.

Message: this car will give you goose bumps.

Idea: this mailpiece will give you goose bumps. Literally.

Execution: They simply finished the mailpiece with an extra hair raising electrostatic layer.

Meet Mario. Mario does graphics. Makes pictures. Cuts movies. Mario does great impersonations. We call him Supermario. Today, we celebrated Supermario. For he has been working 10 years at LUON. That calls for LUON Breezers. Hold on: Breezer?!

Yeah. Breezer. LUON Breezer. Because management at LUON has always been inspired by Butsen IT and its manager Rob. Here's why.

Technology is fun. And beautiful. User interfaces get better and richer by the day. Yet they become less visible. Remember the days you first had to go through a thick manual every time you bought a new phone? These days, you simply unbox your iPad and you're off.

I gave my dad an iPad for his 70th birthday. Five minutes after unwrapping his present, he was already browsing and checking his emails. Because the Apple iOS interface is self-explaining. There's an expensive word for that: invisible design. Be it a magazine, furniture  or a logo: the best designs are the ones that go unnoticed. Period.

Dad now reads his favourite newspaper on his iPad. It took him some time to get used to it, but luckily, the people at De Tijd put a lot of effort in buidling a decent app. Clearly, they saw that a copy-paste version of their printed version wouldn’t stand the test.

However: first he has to pass through the app store for a new issue. The Apple app store. Smart move, since Apple makes a couple of cents on every downloaded issue. And it takes quite a while to download an issue too. When he's lucky, he's ready to start reading 5 minutes later. Not really textbook example of invisible design if you ask me.

But technology evolves fast. Now you can read magazines on your tablet without having to exit through the app store. With a so-called web app. We finished building our first one at LUON last week. By using smart new technologies such as html 5 and css, this web app feels the same as a native application. Swiping? Check. Video? Check. Offline browsing? All possible.

And there's more. Using responsive design, the layout always fits the screen, depending on the device you are using. One web app to rule them all. Android, iOS, it doesn't matter.

And my dad? He doesn't care. He goes on reading his newspaper. While we make ourselves invisible.

Now ain’t that sweet?

An internet study from last September revealed that 86% of Belgian websites had not been updated in the previous 12 months. In other words: only 14% of the 669.252 indexed Belgian websites was updated within the past year. Stunning figures.

Let’s look how this group of indexed Belgian websites is divided:  500.000 of this grand total of 669.252 websites are for professional purposes. The government is responsible for 9000 websites. The rest is divided in websites for private purposes (24.907), non-business related websites (73.784) and blogs or forums (64.466).

Most of the websites are static. Only 7% are dynamic websites, with - for example - a newsfeed that helps to inform their visitors. Furthermore, almost 17% of the indexed websites do not provide clear or accessible contact information.

Website as your online business card

Where a website helps to inform your customers or contacts, it often acts as an online business card and even helps to generate leads and business. It seems that the Belgian entrepreneurs are still not fully aware that their websites do not live up to their important role in communication and branding. The online customer behaviour changed significantly over the past years. People expect to find basic contact, product and business information whenever they need it. Customers do search online when they have a problem or when they are looking for products or services to buy. It’s up to Belgian companies to grab those important online opportunities.

Talking about opportunities

We notice an interesting evolution in e-commerce. In just one year time this segment has increased with 80%. Especially small businesses (45%) take the lead in incorporating internet business in their commercial strategy.  Nowadays, web users can choose from more than 27.000 Belgian e-commerce websites to order online.

This message from the future leads us to the following tip we would like to give to all entrepreneurs. When you are thinking about optimizing you current website, just imagine what features your website would need if you would have to start from scratch today.

Source: Le Soir

When the economy is under pressure, we go hunting for new customers. We target them with everything we’ve got: bundles, packs, promotions, everything it takes to have them buy from us and not from our competitors. In that new business spree, we seem to forget all about our existing customers. Luckily, our good old customers are loyal to us. Or are they?

Loyalty is cheap

Unless you are the brand manager of Apple or Harley Davidson, real loyalty is very rare. In fact, what we consider “loyalty” is nothing more than “strong preference” or “habit”. Take Nokia for example. For years, their customers were considered amongst the most loyal. They had always used Nokia and wouldn’t dream of switching to another brand. Until Apple launched the iPhone and Nokia went from hero to zero in two years flat.

So if real loyalty is very rare, it’s probably not a good idea to neglect our existing customers and take them for granted. If they don’t feel respected they will eventually turn their backs on us. And to make up for the loss of one good customer, we have to acquire a couple of new ones and thus spend more than we bargained for. This should make you think twice when you launch yet another promo that “is available for new customers only”.

It’s not about their loyalty – it’s about yours

Most people get it wrong. They think “loyalty marketing” is about customers being loyal to brands. While in fact, it’s exactly the other way around. It’s about brands showing they care for their good customers. We have to show we care about their business; prove that we want to go the extra mile for them; convince them we are worth their trust. It’s much like what president Kennedy once said. Ask not what your customers can do for you; ask what you can do for your customers!

To make that work “Loyalty marketing” should be a vision. And it should be shared throughout the entire organization. When Tesco launched its successful Clubcard program back in 1995, their customer philosophy became “Our job is to earn the lifetime loyalty of our customers. It is not being a grocer”. They sent out a video to the entire staff (which was nearly 200.000 people at the time) to explain what the program was about, why it was so important, and how each individual could play a role in it.

Loyalty is a verb.

By analyzing consumers’ shopping baskets, extrapolating trends and predicting preferences, Tesco was able to pull in a greater share of consumers' spending by tight targeting and as a consequence increasing loyalty. This resulted in a 5.9% rise in sales in the UK and 5% profit increase for the first part of 2010. More than 24 million consumers now have Clubcards.

Besides the financial return putting more effort into our existing customers has another important benefit. If we show we really care about them, if we talk to them and listen to what they are saying, if we show them we care for our relationship, beyond coupons & vouchers, if we give them real emotional benefits like exclusive previews and services they have longed for, then our customers might start to really like us. Then they might recommend us to their “social network”. Then they might start sharing their experience.

Because we have shown our commitment towards them. We just might get some loyalty in return.

En wanneer is iets direct? Als we een mailing hebben uitgestuurd naar een gesegmenteerde database? Als er ergens een <perso naam> staat? Is iets interactief omdat het 'zevenentwintig gazillioen' keer op youtube bekeken is?

Vroeger waren de dingen eenvoudig. Cannes? Dat bekroonde voor het mooiste idee. Eventueel was dat idee ooit wel 's voor een klant uitgewerkt en had het in zekere zin effect gehad bij iemand in de buurt van de doelgroep. Maar uiteindelijk deed dat er niet echt toe. Het ging niet om het resultaat. Wel om het idee, en de uitvoering ervan.

Lijnrecht daartegenover stonden dan de Effies. Vergelijk ze met het Catenaccio van de Italiaanse Azzurri: alleen het resultaat telt. Of je dat dan hebt gehaald met 10 man voor het doel, of omdat je de sterspeler van de tegenstrever invalide hebt geschopt, maakt niet zoveel uit. Het moet niet mooi zijn, het moet scoren.

En dan had je ook nog zoiets als de Caples. Dat mocht mooi zijn, dat moest scoren, maar dit was vooral het podium voor de besten van de klas in Direct Marketing. Ook weer in de tijd dat Direct Marketing zowat synoniem stond met Direct Mailing. Hier durfde men al 's een coupon te bekronen.

Zo eenvoudig was het vroeger.

Vandaag vragen ze ook in Cannes naar resultaten. Vandaag wordt er ook al 's een Effie uitgereikt aan een case waar een creatief idee achter zit. Vandaag bekroont ook Caples niet enkel Direct meer. Vandaag kent Caples ook edelmetaal toe aan interactive cases - waarschijnlijk de reden waarom ik hier zit.

Vandaag zijn de dingen niet meer zo eenvoudig. Vandaag kleurt iedereen buiten de lijntjes. Vandaag is àlles direct, meneer.

It's in the response stupid!

Onze job voor de komende twee dagen als 'Caples Judge': het beste werk in Direct en Interactive Marketing bekronen. Wereldwijd.

Duncan Gray, 'creative partner' van Caples, licht toe. Dag 1 bepalen we wie finalist is. Dag 2 scoren we de finalisten en bekronen we de moedigste klant - een specifieke Caples Award die de klant beloont die het meest zijn nek heeft uitgestoken qua media-aanpak of qua inhoudelijke boodschap.

Hoe we dan een finalist selecteren?

"Wanneer je een creatieve oplossing ziet voor een marketingprobleem, dan heb je een Caples-finalist," zegt Duncan. "En dan wil ik vooral dat jullie je focussen op het idee, eerder dan op de executie."

Tafel 4 kijkt mekaar vertwijfeld aan.

Wij zijn een bont gezelschap: Wenen, Londen, San Francisco, Turkije, New York en België. Al bij de eerste case barst de discussie écht los. Is een QR-code genoeg om interactief te zijn? (Er zullen massa's QR-cases volgen. Eentje ervan verrast ons aangenaam. Het lijkt alsof de traditionale bureaus collectief op seminarie zijn geweest. Iemand heeft hen daar gerustgesteld: je hoeft helemààl geen boeiende dialoog op te bouwen! En vergeet die duidelijke call-to-action maar. Je maakt gewoon je klassieke advertentie. En daar plak je dan een QR-code op. En voilà: daar is de interactiviteit. Zo moeilijk is dat toch niet? Op de hele reeks zien we welgeteld twee cases die iets relevant doen met de QR-codes.)

Maakt een URL een billboard interactief? Een touchscreen?

En wanneer is iets direct? Als we een mailing hebben uitgestuurd naar een gesegmenteerde database? Als er ergens een <perso naam> staat? Als we een verschillende button hebben voor mannen en vrouwen? Als onze Facebook-profielfoto verschijnt op het inlogscherm?

De resultaten dan? Is iets interactief omdat het 'zevenentwintig gazillioen' keer op youtube bekeken is? Omdat het een verdiende editoriale media-aandacht heeft gekregen 'ter waarde van de begroting van een willekeurig Centraal-Afrikaans land'?

Tijdens de pauzes hoor ik dat ze aan andere tafels exact dezelfde discussies hebben. En niemand heeft een objectieve richtlijn.

Regelmatig hoor je: "This is not bad. But this is not Caples." De volgende dag zal ik leren dat dat meestal de juryleden zijn die hier min of meer een vaste stoel hebben. Van een paar vermoed ik dat ze John Caples nog zelf gekend hebben.

Ik probeer te raden wat ze bedoelen met 'this is not Caples.'

Soms bedoelen ze ermee dat het te gezocht grappig is, leer ik. John Caples was als copywriter hevig gekant tegen humor. Omdat die vaak te 'slimmig' was. En daardoorniet efficiënt, want je moest voor de gemiddelde Amerikaan schrijven, die - nog altijd volgens Caples - mentaal gemiddeld 13 jaar oud was.

Nochtans getuigt de headline waarmee hij als copywriter zijn claim to fame zou maken, van humor en slimmigheid;

'They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano but When I Started to Play!'

Soms bedoelen ze ook: het heeft geen goed responsmechanisme.

En heel soms lijken ze te bedoelen: ik vind dit gewoon een slechte case. En dan doe ik wat aan namedropping om indruk op jullie te maken zodat jullie de case ook naar de failbox verwijzen.

Na de middagpauze maak ik het mezelf eenvoudig: als ik geloof dat het mijzelf of de doelgroep zou aanzetten tot actie, is het direct of interactief genoeg.  Als ik de case zelf zou willen ingestuurd hebben, is de case voor mij een finalist. Al de rest mag wat mij betreft de failbox in.

Oostenrijk en SF volgen mijn voorbeeld en plots gaat het jureren stukken vlotter. Al wil dat nog niet zeggen dat we het nu overal over eens zijn.

Maar het betekent wel dat we nu een werkbaar criterium hebben: respons. Echte respons. Als in: het beweegt mij tot een actie die bijdraagt aan een marketingdoelstelling.

Ik zou die bril passen. Ik zou dat formulier tekenen. Ik zou die app geïnstalleerd hebben.

Meer dan 800 inzendingen en een paar sloten koffie later, kan ik u vertellen: de winnaars van Caples 2011 hebben mij bewogen. Stuk voor stuk.

Want mensen bewegen: dat is nog steeds de job van direct. Alle nieuwe metrics ten spijt. Zo eenvoudig is het. Zo moeilijk blijft het.

Did our "How To Maximize The Return On Your Digital Presence" series bring you some fresh insights? Then by all means check out our upcoming WASSUP Lunches.

During these lunches we go deeper into the subjects. Register today and discover how to maximize the ROI on your digital investments in 6 steps during 2 interactive live sessions.

>  Book your seat(s) today!

We engage ourselves to plant a tree every time 100,000 emails are sent through EmailGarage. That’s a whopping 1000 trees in total by now. Not a bad start for a forest, don’t you think?

We set up this action in collaboration with 1miljoenbomen.be. This is the Flemish branch of the “One billion trees” campaign set up by the United Nations. Our trees will contribute in a bigger tree planting project in Ecuador. Not only will this conserve the soil and the groundwater in the region, it will create employment as well. And hopefully help counter global warming in general.