Foxtel ad we just hate! but works

Yeah we are nearing the EOFYS but nothing annoys me as much as the Foxtel ad. Unfortunately in advertising, its not about whether you love it or hate it, its whether you remember it or not that really matters. Running in probably the third year straight, the end of financial year sale advertisement obviously seems to have achieved previous expectations as it haunts us once again. Although the ad annoys me to no end, I feel it's necessary to include it below for the sake of completeness. Can't wait till the end of the financial year.

World Cup Advertising Pass and Fails

This is more of an idea than a post. I would like to see what you have noticed about the world cup advertising this year. As the biggest show on earth unwraps itself in the coming weeks, which companies have you noticed have made the most of their sponsorship dollars? and which ones shouldn't have bothered?

Just to get things started, here is a three minute ad from Nike.

Ubank - Check your bank balance on Facebook

Ubank has been a favourite bank of ours for a while because of its innovative approach towards traditional banking. Almost exactly one year ago, we wrote about Ubank for its informal and casual approach in marketing, and it seems to have worked.

The subsidiary of the National Australia Bank has been leading the online savings accounts market with market beating rates. Recently, they have even offer 6.21% for their customers if they automatically deposit $200 a month into their Usaver account.

We like Ubank because they

• Offer 24 hour support for customers
• Allow customers to contact them via skype
• Tweet regularly not just to broadcast updates but also personally replying to queries 
• Sends SMS and email to customers immediately when a transaction takes place on their account. 
• Signs off on all their correspondences with "Speak soon", implying customer loyalty

Now, in a very bold move, they are about to offer the feature to allow customers to use FACEBOOK and other social media to check their online balance! According to ZDNet, UBank says that over 80% of their customers who log onto the Ubank site only do so to check their balance. The feature will be through a Ubank application which requires authentication through the customer's mobile phone via SMS. That is great strategy and my feeling is that most of Generation Y agrees. 

Kambo's VIP sales cost plus $1

I came across an invite to a Kambo's VIP sale where all electricals were priced at Cost + $1 for invite only vips who were allowed to bring a friend. It was one of their first such sales and apparently companies such as Lycopodium got invited. I can't remember where I saw the invite but it was online, not via email.Anyway, I went to have a look to see what it is like.

The parking situation was crazy when I arrived 20 minutes after the sale began (6pm). Cars were everywhere streaming in and out of the car park, searching in vain for a car park before resigning to parking on the grass or any other makeshift parking spot.

There was a free sausage sizzle which didn't last any longer than half an hour. Drinks were still available an hour later, with people helping themselves to can drinks in the fridges. It was PACKED. If you wanted to buy something, you needed to see a sales person who would enter your name and phone number into the system and then specify the price of your product.  It seemed quite possible you could specify whatever price you wanted (maybe they need to check that).

Then it was on to the massive queue as people lined up to pay. Some interesting observations:

• Massive success pulling in people to see the store. Many would have been there for the first time that night.
• At the door, each person had to give in their invite, as well as tell them their postcode.. useful information to find out how far the promotion spread.
• Cost plus $1 is a great way to move your stock in one night 
• Not everything was on sale so they could have made quite a lot of money on ancilliary purchases or complementary goods
• People didn't think twice, buying things that they need and much of what they want as well
• As people had to line up a long time, one effect was that people would buy more stuff to make the lining up more worth it 
• For others, the long line was enough to drop your iron and leave the store, opting to pay full price than spend half an hour lining up to save $6.
• Staff took too long sorting through invoices that had been printed out, trying to find people's names from four different printers. 
• More staff processing payments would have improved their total revenue for the night.
• Perhaps giving customers a number on their invoice would have sped up the sorting through paperwork. 
• Many people would have signed up to be a member of  Kambo's that night or when their friends told them about the sale the next day