URL 1

URL 2

Then use CTRL+Tab to scroll between the tabs.

Slowly, at first. Then faster, preferably until the two websites blur into a swirling mass of oneness, like a fairground carousel under the influence of eyesight depleting substances.

As ASOS_James put it, “How do these people sleep at night?”

I’m not saying they copied, just that it’s the sort of inspiration that begs the question of authenticity. Enjoy the free PR James

Item #1 : ASOS? As Seen On Screen subject to the old adage ‘imitation is the best form of flattery’ .With so many high street retailers following the path ASOS carve, B2W have perhaps been a little less subtle in their copying of ASOS design template.

Item #2: B2W? Born2Wear seem to have adopted even ASOS copy.”Hello, is this AS-OS, you’re lo-ok-ing fo-or?”

For larger versions click the thumbnails below…

Sofa King have been running this cheeky catchphrase for nine years (not entirely without controversy). And now it’s been banned.

But that’s not because their catchphrase is rude, abusive or threatening, it’s because some people have no fucking sense of humour.

Sofa King Silly: the ad that broke the sofa's back

The thing about swearing is, that it isn’t cool when it isn’t necessary. But, as a linguistic or oral device, it has a distinct place in our vocabularies.

It’s a sound at the end of the day, nothing more and nothing less. We give it meaning, and compared to the meaning of calling someone something nasty or hurtful with personal impact, swearing is merely an impersonal superlative that adds or detracts from another words meaning.

In fact a casual swear word can modify what might otherwise be a derogatory phrase into something jovial rather than something with added venom. Not all swear words are said in a negative context. And whilst no-one wants to see children casually f’ing and b’ing and c’ing their way in kidulthood with cursing infiltrating their every waking sentence, adverts like Sofa Kings do nothing to glamourise swear words (the rap music does that, you see).

For me, Sofa King’s ad is as offensive as a cleverly named Fantasy Football team, and I don’t see the Daily Mail brigade ringing Northamptonshire Poice Service (who could be out fighting real crime rather than investigating this nonsense) about The Times’ annual virtual soccer prediction tournament, do you?

This example of five star customer service speaks for itself (click images to enlarge!)

And Lily Robinson aged 3½ is right. Why is tiger bread called tiger bread?!

Giraffe bread makes much more sense.

Lily's letter to Sainsburys re tiger bread

Silly baker indeed!

Waitrose is a supermarket with such a good reputation that house prices soar when one opens in a new area (or so the urban myth goes). So, why do Waitrose feel that they need to compete on price?

But on a closer look perhaps my confusion is easily allayed by the detail of the offer: brand price match.

Heinz beans? Same price as Tesco.
Branston Pickle? Same price as Tesco.
PG tips?… you get the idea…

Waitrose’s unique selling point has always been the gourmet element of their product range, things that you would usually only find in Sainsbury’s at Christmas. But of course they also sell everyday items, they are a supermarket after all, and, despite their market positioning, it makes a certain sense that they stock these items at competitive prices, particularly in an aggressive marketplace.

This is an interesting strategy for Waitrose, and I wonder if Ocado has a role to play in this. As customers become more familiar with online grocery shopping perhaps they will start to make regular or even automated purchases of everyday items using online supermarkets (Tesco already store customers favourites and now have a grocery iphone app). But, beyond these bread and butter transactions, there is much more diversity to shopping baskets, and amid a clamour for quality home cooking and healthy eating, Waitrose are actually complementing their USP with a price strategy that doesn’t penalise their customers for shopping there. Perhaps Waitrose are pre-empting a move by customers to seek out the cheapest online supermarket for goods that are available ubiquitously, but will seek out bricks and mortars stores or specialist retailers for luxury purchases and treats?

So maybe Waitrose aren’t compromising their values by offering brand price match. It’s an economic crisis after all, and everybody has to fight for their market share. Like Pizza Express, maybe quality and low price can sit together harmoniously as part of brand positioning.

Waitrose brand price match press ad from the Independent (from NMA)

And there’s early evidence that Waitrose’s brand price match is working, despite some suggestion that the price match doesn’t always mean a price reduction http://www.waitrose.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1467. An interview with Waitrose MD Mark Price gives a clue to this strategy back in July, when discussing the new Essential Waitrose range with the Telegraph, who say “The entry-level segment was built on the idea that Waitrose’s prices could be brought down sufficiently to allow customers to shop there for daily food needs, while retaining the brand’s reputation for quality.”

Cupcakes anyone?

This highlights one aspect of PPC that is oft overlooked – make sure when you create an ad group that you have a landing page that’s suitable. If you don’t have cupcakes, why have an ad group for them? Why spend money on clicks?

Are you:

a) not bothered

b) hoping they’ll be distracted by your other shiny products

c) simply happy to have another site visit – it’s 50p spent getting someone to think of us

d) just too lazy to do stock checks in relation to PPC activity

When you empty your basket, they want to keep you on the site. They want to counter the reason you emptied your basket. They want you to find what you’re looking for. They want you to be happy avoid your day being unfulfilled.

They, like all retailers, don’t want you to go home empty handed.

Which, in a nutshell, is what marketing is all about.

Reducing conversion drop off: When you clear your basket of items at the checkout stage Photobox serve this clever little screen to tempt you to stay on the site and purchase

Beautiful as the ad is it serves only to cast a melancholy shadow on my day. As it comes to its conclusion the dominating thoughts in my head are not that John Lewis is a quality retailer and a friend throughout my life who’ll always be there catering for my every materialistic whim and need, but of my inevitable slide into old age and eventual demise. That is, if I’m lucky to get through enough of life to get that far (and if I do God-knows what I’ll do with all the useless things I purchased over the years after watching persuasive heart-strong tugging adverts).

The advert is beautiful art for the masses; without requiring any thought it taps into emotions that we hold dearest. The combination of Mr Dangerfield’s soothing voice, the attractive young student celebrating the best years of her live and the loving mother doting on her families every need creates a perfect picture of middle England bliss that everyone should aspire too.

A fantastic collection of moving images and sound? An interesting piece of brand communication? A great and true reflection of live in Britain? Not if certain newspapers are to be believed, do you not read the Daily Mail folks?!

My favourite comment on this advert comes from a post on John Lewis’s YouTube channel from sanjuro4, who casts a fantastic social viewpoint on proceedings:
“Poundland should make their own version where the woman spends most her life alone living in a rathole of? [sic] a bedsit, eating potnoodles and watching daytime TV”
And there’s also much discussion in the national press, where it’s pointed out that the ad has more than a few similarities to other adverts and films.

Most of the UK will be making snowballs instead of working today, or just maybe hiting the world wide web for some shopping

What does this mean for the economy?

Buses can’t get anywhere, the post will be delayed, schools are shut, people won’t get to work and productivity will be as bad as on Tyneside when an ex-Real Madrid and England striker signs for Newcastle.

Not to mention the high streets who will have to endure wet umbrellas and slushy entrances all for a handful of bedraggled punters who braved the conditions or are stuck in the town centre.

All round, snow days are probably slow days, economically.

But I wonder whether the same applies to online retailers? Surely a day when many people are usually cooped up at work shouts opportunity to those flexible enough to move on their feet. There’s potentially a lot of people at home today with a little more time to turn the PC on whilst the kids are watching the box and have a browse for the replacements for those unwanted presents or a holiday to get away from all this weather?

If you’ve got some spare budget and are willing to take a punt, I’d be tempted to take a gamble and capitalise on this theory, ensuring PPC visibility, a burst of display and maybe even a well-worded, quick-thinking email, and maybe just turn a slow snow day into a blizzard of online enquiries or sales.

But according to the Telegraph, 4 million of us will be letting the Christmas washing-up pile high whilst they rush to their shiny new laptops and go crazy in the January…no New Year’s….no Boxing Day…sorry, Christmas Day sales.

Telegraphy report on Boxing Day (Christmas Eve!) sales

In fact the sale will start on Christmas Eve as, according to the paper, Halfords, Comet, B&Q and John Lewis amongst others will be opening up their sites to hoards of price savvy bargain hunters 36 hours before the bricks and mortar stores unlock their doors.

Last year I saw some interesting trends with retailers at this time of year, but didn’t see the huge Christmas Day rush. But methinks their may be something to this news as increasingly online connected population have the ability to look up ‘what they could have won’ within seconds of being disappointed by their pressies. That may be a cynical outlook but take some electrical items like sat navs, where its easy to select a slightly wrong model. And Halford’s third busiest traffic day last year was Christmas Day.

There’s also simply the people who know that there will be great savings to be had but know that if they wait until the 27th or 28th to hhit the shops (online or offline) that stock will be long gone. Once the turkey’s prepared on Christmas Eve these people may well be sitting down with a shopping comparison site rather than a rerun of Only Fools And Horses.

Implications for marketers and retailers? Do you ensure a perfect PPC presence or comprehensive shopping comparison listings? A two day takeover of a large portal? Or simply invest in servers to cope with the rush?

I’d say this shopping on Christmas Day malarkey is all very sad, but I know for a fact I have a Christmas Day blog post planned. I think I’ll set it to auto publish…!

The ad leads you to then sell your car, which is a nice way to get people interested in the banner ad but also ties in nicely with Auto Traders desired outcome. I quite like the way the robot man jumps up and turns just before the landing page appears – nice touch!

In fact since I took the video the landing page has changed to this, which improves the string of relevance a little with stronger calls to action on selling your car:

Landing page for Auto Trader's 'Draw Your Car' display ads

This is a nice little idea, but I’m going to have to be very biased in favour of my employers and point out that we’ve done something similar before. (I’ll let you be the judge of which you prefer!). These ads promoted Republic’s mix ‘n’ match promotional offers for men and women and showcased some clever use of the drawing API in ActionScript and external serving of product images into the banner.

With both ads I’d love to actually see the drawings that are input by online users. No doubt there’s been a few more salubrious designs and potentially some very nice artwork, but the cost of tracking this would probably undermine what arte both ultimately direct response campaigns.

Both these ads show just a little more of what we can do with the internet, and also highlight how much online advertising just doesn’t make use of a medium that offers not just an advertising platform, but the opportunity to revolutionise supply chains, business processes, customer interaction. These ads are only a tiny step that show break the mould of banner ads simply being ‘online wallpaper’ or outdoor ads on computer monitors. Whilst I’m sure there’s a role for that, it isn’t on my computer screen thanks, I’m ready for the next generation of ads that actually amke use of the technology we use every day.

By the way if you like the Republic ads you can see the whole portfolio on the AWA website. I think they’re bloomin’ brilliant, and the IDM thought so too!

AWA is the agency that I work for and they specialise in web development and digital marketing.