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Monitoring Buzz: 12 Tools for Keeping Your Company’s Online Image Under Control

Jun 24th

Posted by Matt in The Art of Search

4 comments

Ten years ago, word-of-mouth marketing was simple. Businesses would treat their customers well, enjoy the referral business and ongoing attention they offered, and create an organic network of loyal, friendly customers. The typical customer base – particularly for offline businesses – was relatively small, and the rewards of success significantly less lucrative than they are today.

Then social media became a reality. Companies that were once ‘too small’ for long-term branding efforts became thrust into the limelight, empowered by online user reviews and granted thousands of loyal customers through passionate discussions and online exposure. More than anything else, the exponential growth made possible by social media built some of today’s most profitable and well-known online companies.

But it also left thousands of businesses unable to control their reputation. The offline world gave small providers security; without the multi-million-dollar revenue and star talent required to feature in a business magazine, there was little chance of their business ever seeing real public attention.

Now, with the cost of publishing hovering just above zero, the potential for businesses to be subject to online conjecture is greater than ever before. Major companies and small local businesses alike are equally able to be publicly praised, blamed, or shamed for their actions – occasionally forced to deal with inaccurate stories and utterly nonsensical anonymous claims.

These twelve tools have a single focus: helping you control, measure, and moderate your company’s brand or online image. Some are statistical, others visual, and others built around old fashioned survey data and market research efforts. All are effective, especially when paired with a customer-focused company and a marketer willing to foster discussion.

1. Google Alerts

Source: http://tinyurl.com/35ytcfj

Google Alerts is one of our favourite discussion monitoring tools. A simple application with a light business focus, Google Alerts allows its users to set up content monitoring alerts for certain phrases, search terms, or multimedia content. It’s user-friendly, remarkably simple, and has the potential to dramatically change how a business operates, especially when paired with a savvy operator.

We recommend that businesses start slow on their Google Alerts efforts, tracking major phrases and popular search keywords and only responding when absolutely necessary. With a month of statistics and search information under your belt, it’s easy to gain a realistic and balanced perspective of your business’s online reputation and support base.

Think of Google Alerts as a maintenance tool; a non-specific and general option for monitoring buzz and measuring how popular your company is online. It’s easy to live and die by the data Alerts generates, though it’s not a particularly sound PR strategy. Set up once-per-week alerts and you’ll gain useful information on your image, without affecting productivity or business output.

2. Social Mention

Source: http://tinyurl.com/3xxorty

What makes Social Mention deserving of our number two spot? Their own website puts it best, advertising the service as “like Google Alerts but for social media.” Social Mention is a simple search tool with a specific focus: giving individuals and corporate entities the ability to view any and all discussions about them through blogs and social media platforms.

What separates Social Mention from Google’s similar service is its deeper analytical monitoring options. Alerts offers users the ability to check when and where their brand was mentioned; Social Mention gives users tools to measure the depth at which their brand was discussed, the passion of users involved, and the likelihood that the discussion will continue.

The service is available through its website or as a convenient Mozilla Firefox search plugin. While the search plugin will save time for power users, we don’t recommend installing it if productivity is of great importance. Set up a once-weekly alert using Social Mention and you’ll gain a clean weekly discussion summary, without the potentially addictive always-on power of the browser plugin.

3. Omgili

Source: http://tinyurl.com/3an4nj2

There’s more to online conversation that just social media. Discussion groups and online forums have been mainstays of internet conversation for the better part of two decades, and remain some of the most active and potentially lucrative places for online marketers to be.

Unfortunately, they’re also some of the most difficult platforms to monitor. Forum software often ends up buried in Google’s search results, locked down due to a lack of page authority and limited keyword density. Similarly, discussion groups are often barred from public display, giving users few choices for interacting with company reps and spokespeople on their own platform.

Omgili aims to cut down on the ambiguity surrounding discussion forums. It’s a do-all discussion board search engine, and it’s a vital tool for ensuring that your business is up-to-date with how it’s publicly perceived. Social media platforms and aggregator may make up the bulk of light discourse about your company, but it’s forum threads that have the power to make or break your image.

4. TweetMeme

Source: http://tinyurl.com/2wymmen

TweetMeme is a news aggregation website with a twist – instead of taking user submissions from all over the internet, it archives and displays content only from Twitter. This gives it some unique value for marketers; not only does it bring together stories that have the potential to be about your brand, it gives your business a list of hot topics to work into social discussion.

We like to think of TweetMeme as Twitter’s very own Digg. Paying attention to the front page is a great way to stay up to date with the internet’s most important news, but it’s far from a substitute for true interaction. Browse through different sections of the website and you’ll gain an understanding of different industries and possibly inspiration for a few blog posts.

What you’re unlikely to gain, however, is a deep understanding of what your users are talking about regularly. We recommend using TweetMeme to search for power users to monitor independently in the future. Type your brand, business name, or product into the search occasionally, then use the results to shape your Google Alerts and Omgili email alert preferences.

5. Google Blog Search

Source: http://tinyurl.com/34t3j4m

When it comes to passive reputation monitoring, there’s little Google Blog Search can provide that Alerts and Social Mention haven’t already covered. However, Blog Search can be a powerful tool for actively checking up on blogger coverage and monitoring how effective your own promotional efforts have been.

Need to check how viral a company blog post has become? Use Google Blog Search to monitor coverage using your company’s trading name and the post’s title. A quick one-off search can reveal hundreds of results, each built around keywords that your Google Alerts account configuration may otherwise leave unrecorded.

6. Nielsen NetRatings

Source: http://tinyurl.com/32aho6m

Few online businesses need more than the most basic in reputation management – a quick scan using Google Blog Search and a weekly keyword alert is enough to keep their public face under control and their discussion relatively useful. However, large businesses can often have difficulty dealing with the sheer amount of discussion they generate, finding basic tools almost completely useless for monitoring meta discussions and overall coverage.

Nielsen are most well known for their TV ratings, but it’s their NetRatings monitoring software that’s attracted the attention of hundreds of major online companies. If your business prefers to deal with public attention in a ‘big picture’ sense, the NetRatings software suite could provide the most useful and actionable data of any online service.

7. HowSociable

Source: http://tinyurl.com/32sd7cj

HowSociable is one of our favourite social media reporting tools. It’s simple, effective, and perfect for gaining the initial information required for a complete social media monitoring campaign. Type in your company’s (or product’s) name and you’ll be hit with a series of numbers, each outlining your visibility level across different social media outlets.

This allows you to gain a quick, simple, and non-intrusive summary of your brand’s online power and marketing worth. It also allows you to separate the social good from the bad; if your products aren’t aimed at consumers but at other businesses, HowSociable allows you to view how much of your online coverage is coming specifically from business-focused social networks.

8. WordPress

Source: http://tinyurl.com/32v77zg

WordPress is more than a mere online publishing platform. The popular content management system has gained a huge following amongst webmasters and marketers, and its immense power as a social media monitoring tool is certainly a reason for its success. WordPress includes a number of features of immense value for marketers by default, including a basic analytics tool and trackback summary function.

Before you launch any conversation-focused marketing campaign, ensure that your website is fitted with basic tracking and analytics tools. A blank WordPress installation is the ideal place to start; add Google’s Analytics package to your website and you’ll have a comprehensive platform for checking which parts of your campaign are and aren’t effective.

9. Twitter Search

Source: http://tinyurl.com/3ajlpbr

If you want to avoid the intricacies of specialised software, Twitter’s own advanced search page is a great place to start monitoring discussion about your brand or products. The Advanced Search page includes operators to help customize and refine searches by location, date, and even the approval (or disapproval) of the person tweeting the information.

Users can further refine their searches to include tweets with outbound links, messages which have since been retweeted, or tweets which included a topic-specific hashtag or @ command. Thanks to Twitter’s open API and developer-friendly attitude, the Twitter search engine is available in several other applications, giving you a simple and ultra-specific discussion search whenever you need it.

10. Reputation Defender

Source: http://tinyurl.com/34xpew6

Created in 2006 and refined over the past four years to keep up with current social media trends, Reputation Defender is a simple reputation management tool with a focus on individuals and family users. Prices start from $14 monthly and give users basic coverage of their online identity, emailing weekly reports based on blog posts, public coverage, and their personal Google search results.

While we suspect that Reputation Defender’s abilities could easily be replicated with free tools, the software’s low price and simple usability make it a worthwhile option for freelancers aiming to keep their reputation shiny and free of worry. If the small monthly cost isn’t a problem, this software suite could spell the difference between a major contract and a missed opportunity.

11. Visible Technologies

Source: http://tinyurl.com/32zpklr

Visible Technologies isn’t an analytics service per se, but the developer behind a series of useful and business-friendly online monitoring applications. Our favourite is truPULSE – a social media analytics application which gives users instant access to online discussions, demographic data, and mainstream media outlet coverage.

It also allows users to monitor and control their social media profiles from one control centre – a particularly useful feature given the amount of profiles often required for complete social media interaction. Items can be monitored, posted, and stored in a easy-to-read RSS feed or offline report.

Pair truPULSE with a dedicated social media assistant and you’ll gain a powerful understanding of just how your company is covered and discussed online. Thanks to its simple reporting and display options, this application suite is one of our favourites for monitoring data independently and sharing with an organisation.

12. Tweetvolume

Source: http://tinyurl.com/366dzqc

Tweetvolume is online analytics made simple. Built by a team of marketing consultants and powered by Twitter’s own application programming interface, this ultra-simple web application searches Twitter for three popular phrases at a time, returning conversation data and giving business owners an idea of how frequently their products or services are discussed.

While not particularly useful for dedicated online marketers and reputation management specialists, Tweetvolume is a simple tool for gaining a very basic understanding of how often your products are talked about. We recommend searching once weekly, giving you an infrequent and productive way to check how popular and favourable your business has become online.

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Understanding Google’s Advanced Search and Sorting Options

Jun 17th

Posted by Matt in Learning the SEO Lingo

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Over the past decade, Google has grown from a minor player in the web’s search and advertising industry into one of the world’s biggest internet-based companies. It’s certainly progress that’s been pushed on by development; the search engine has been through thousands of tweaks, minor edits, and development changes over the years.

Most recently, the search giant’s advanced search options were overhauled, giving users a greater degree of control over their search queries. Unused options were hidden or removed completely, while the search engine’s most popular advanced options were given more prominent placements.

We’ve prepared this guide to help you understand and implement Google’s advanced search features more effectively. Getting the most from Google search isn’t impossible or even particularly difficult, though it does require an understanding of the theory behind a search engine. With these advanced commands and specific search options, you’ll be able to do just that.

1 – How does Google sort data?
2 – Phrases, wildcards, and exclusive search terms
3 – Searching by website
4 – Searching by title
5 – Searching by country, region, or city
6 – Google Blog Search
7 – Google Image Search
8 – Search resources

    How does Google sort data?

    Before Google, search was performed entirely through on-page data. The leading search engines of the 1990s – Ask, AOL Search, and MSN Search – indexed and arranged their search results by the amount of keywords present on a page alone. This lead to an endless competition between website owners to squeeze more search terms into less space, giving users a poor experience and searchers cluttered, irrelevant, and frustrating results.

    Google’s algorithm offered an alternative for webmasters – a search system based on site authority and popularity, rather than a results page loaded with keywords. Pages were arranged and ordered by the amount of links pointing towards them, their standing within the online community, and the level and detail of information they offered to users.

    Google patented their PageRank technology in the late 1990s, and it’s since become the de-facto sorting algorithm for managing and organizing search results. Generally speaking, whenever users search for a competitive and popular term using Google – “office furniture” for instance – the most visible and prominently displayed results will be those with a high PageRank score.

    However, PageRank isn’t the only factor which determines Google’s search results. Advertising and keyword-based articles often feature prominently for search terms despite belonging to smaller, less popular websites. It’s safe to say that there’s no one determining factor behind your search results, but a mix of website popularity, the level of detail and value provided, and the level of advertising displayed for specific search terms.

    Phrases, wildcards, and exclusive search terms:

    In order to receive relevant search results, you need to make sure that the terms you search for are specific and phrased properly. Despite over a decade of optimization, Google’s search algorithm is still far behind the human brain when it comes to interpreting data. Search terms phrased for human conversation are unlikely to be understood, leaving you with poor results and useless data.

    For example, search queries that would be obvious in human conversation are often completely nonsensical to a search engine. A search for [Where can I eat Chinese food in London?] is clear  and simple to a human, yet difficult for Google’s search algorithm to understand and sort into results.

    Phrase your search queries according to the way Google interprets data and you’ll end up with more relevant and valuable results. [Where can I eat Chinese food in London?] is unlikely to appear on a website, and equally unlikely to feature prominently in search results. On the other hand, [London Chinese Restaurants] is likely to bring up specific results about London’s Chinese dining scene.

    Phrase searches

    For the most part, Google is quite effective at arranging multi-word search queries into the most relevant and useful search terms. A search for [Malcolm] brings up millions of largely unrelated results, whereas a search for [Malcolm X] yields websites related to the American Muslim minister.

    However, multi-word search terms can sometimes become ambiguous and difficult for Google’s search algorithm to interpret. A search for [Plastic Tables] brings up mostly relevant results, though it includes a few mixed websites; some listed websites feature plastic products and tables, with the combination of words triggering their placement in the search results.

    By searching for [“Plastic Tables”] you’ll find that Google generates a more specific and tailored set of search results. Phrase searches can help you find more specialized and relevant data, though they can occasionally exclude worthwhile pages which don’t contain your specific search terms.

    Wildcard search and exclusive search terms

    Google’s wildcard search feature can help you find specific results without including specialized words or phrases in your search results. For example, a search for [David Bowie Album] brings up results pertaining to David Bowie’s first self-titled album.

    However, a search for [David Bowie Album *] gives Google a greater degree of flexibility and ambiguity in determining your results. Instead of results about David Bowie’s first album, you’ll find a list of album reviews, album artwork collections, and album lyrics websites.

    Exclusive search terms work similarly. By using the “+” and “–” characters in your searches, you can control Google’s ability to include or exclude specific words from your search results. For example, a search for [Japanese Food -Recipes] will bring up websites related to Japanese food without including recipes.

    A search for [Japanese Food] on its own will also yield pages with “Japanese cuisine” and “Japanese cooking” in their content. You can eliminate Google’s use of synonyms and related search terms by using the “+” character in your search. Search for [Japanese +Food] and pages containing synonyms for “food” will be excluded from your results.

    Searching by website:

    While most web surfers think of Google as a tool for searching the entire internet, it can also be a highly effective tool for searching through individual websites and large directories. The “site:” command allows users to give Google specific instructions for where to search for information, limiting the search engine to a single domain or subdomain.

    For example, a search for [Tom Clancy] will bring up general results about the American thriller author. A Wikipedia biography is included, alongside links to fan-made websites and the author’s official website and bibliography.

    While this is useful for research, it’s not particularly useful if your goal is to purchase one of Tom Clancy’s books. A search for [site:Amazon.com Tom Clancy] excludes results from all websites except for Amazon.com, giving searchers the ability to view Clancy’s novels and entertainment products on a website which also provides the ability to buy them directly.

    Searching by title:

    By using the “allintitle:” command, users can instruct Google to search only for pages which contain preferred keywords within their title or page header. This advanced search option is particularly useful for limiting search results to those dealing with a specific subject in great detail, while at the same time excluding general sources.

    For example, a search for [Dwight Eisenhower Military Career] brings up a mix of general and specific information on the late American President’s military career and general life. A Wikipedia biography is included within the first two results, along with a series of informational pages which contain a brief section on Eisenhower’s military career.

    By contrast, a search for [allintitle:Dwight Eisenhower Military Career] will only bring up pages related to his military career. Eisenhower’s Wikipedia biography is excluded, along with websites which don’t feature “Military Career” within their page title. Apply this search prefix strategically and you can quickly find resources and research pages that would otherwise be buried deep in Google’s search index.

    Searching by country, region, or city:

    Google is surprisingly efficient at sorting results by location and country. A search for [Bathroom Tiles] using Google’s Google.co.uk homepage primarily yields results located within the United Kingdom, though a few American and worldwide retailers also appear in the mix, alongside some international articles about bathroom tiles and non-UK advertisements.

    International results can be eliminated by clicking the “Pages from the UK” option in Google’s new left-hand sidebar. This setting limits your search results to websites which are registered using the UK’s “.uk” top-level domain or websites which use domains registered within the United Kingdom.

    Searching by region is slightly less scientific. Insert your region before search queries and Google will limit results to pages which contain your region and the specific search terms entered. Region-based search examples could include [West Midlands Mechanic], which will bring up pages for mechanics located in the West Midlands.

    Search by city and Google’s results will become even more specific and targeted. A search for [West Midlands Mechanic] tends to bring up business directories and automotive websites within the region, while a search for [Birmingham Mechanic] brings up more specific businesses, complete with a local map and list of contact details.

    Country, region, and city-based search commands are particularly useful for business search queries and online shoppers. Country-based searches assist in finding online retailers and major businesses, while region and city-based searching can provide information on local businesses, regional offices, and driving directions.

    Google Blog Search:

    Google introduced Blog Search in 2005, giving users the ability to isolate their search results to include blogs and dynamic online publishers only. Blog Search isn’t the only way to search for blog content using Google – blog posts appear as part of Google’s standard search results – but it is the most effective method for finding specific blog posts.

    The Google Blog Search homepage includes a list of categories, a short and varied collection of current top stories, and a list of the day’s most popular search queries. Users can select a category and have it reflected in the content Google displays on the blog search homepage; selecting Politics will cause the homepage to display political opinion posts, while World displays global news.

    The search tool itself operates similarly to Google’s regular search, although content is limited to blogs and other social media publishing outlets. “Allintitle:” and other search-based commands influence the content which blog search displays, though basic search is often a more reliable option due to the smaller index.

    Google Image Search:

    Google Image Search operates using the same basic parameters as Google’s standard search feature, drawing its keywords from image titles, descriptions, and filenames and its relevancy from the rank of the hosted image’s website. Search results are generated in the same manner; a search for [Cars] will generate less specific results than [Sports Cars] or [BMW Cars] would.

    However, Image Search also includes a number of options which can help users further customize and target their searches. Using the left-hand sidebar, users can isolate images by their dimensions or photographic structure – these options use the “Size” and “Type” functions respectively. Images can be arranged by colour and aspect ratio, using the left-hand sidebar and advanced image search options.

    Google’s SafeSearch technology is particularly present during image searches, switched on by default and able to be customized using the advanced search options. By default, SafeSearch will block websites containing pornographic or violent images. It can also be applied to Google’s website search index, blocking explicit websites and hate speech from search results.

    Search resources:

    Google Web Search Help – http://www.google.com/support/websearch/

    Google’s help section contains thousands of articles explaining the search engine’s advanced options and standard features. Tutorials and basic guides are available in the Google Search Basics section, along with detailed resources for developers and advanced searchers.

    Google Help Forum – http://www.google.com/support/forum?hl=en

    Can’t find the answer to your question in Google’s official documentation? Search the help forums or post a discussion to speak directly with Google employees and top contributors.

    Official Google Blog – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

    The Official Google Blog provides coverage of Google’s ongoing philanthropic activities, new developments at the company, and changes to Google’s many applications and search tools.

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    My First Month at Custard Media Solutions Ltd.

    Jun 14th

    Posted by Matt in Custard Media Solutions

    1 comment

    Hi I’m Lisa and I started working for Custard Media Solutions on Monday 10th May, I am the Social Media Manager, which in short means I tweet and facebook for a living!  I am also helping out with some online PR for our clients and I have some accounts of my own to look after.
    The last five weeks have been a whirl wind of information for me.  I spent my first two weeks mainly doing link building, this is very important when it comes to SEO and Custard Media have very successful unique style of building high quality links across all industry specifics.  Although a very monotonous job I have enjoyed watching as the websites I’ve been building links for have slowly – and sometimes quickly – risen up the search engine rankings.
    I have also been finding my feet among the social bookmarking sites, in one day I created profiles for about 10 different types of social networking and bookmarking sites! (I’ll be honest I wasn’t even aware half of them existed!!) In the past few weeks I have “dugg” and “voted” and “tweeted” a variety of stories and I’ve been quite happy to find that people have “re-tweeted” and made friends with and “followed” me :)  This is with the intention of promoting our clients on websites such as Facebook and Twitter as they are the latest and are becoming the most popular ways to do online marketing, with facebook having over 40% of the social media traffic.
    In my third week I was given the challenge of getting www.officespacepreston.co.uk to the top of google as quickly as possible, after a few teething problems I got down to it and at the end of last week it had already started registering at no.3 on google for the search “office space preston”.  Seeing how this works has been great for me to experience, although there isn’t a huge amount of competition for those keywords I am still very happy!  I now just need some more people to advertise on the website!
    I was given some accounts to look after at the start of last week, and taught how to use the rank-tracking system so I can see how my clients keywords are registering on the search engines.  As I’m a little bit of a geek as I saved the new reports for June I liked watching the numbers go down as the keywords have gone up in the search engine rankings!  I did some of the link building for the companies when I first started so I felt a little like I had done something towards helping them improve.
    I have really enjoyed my first month and everyone has been lovely to me and helped me settle in, as not only have I started my new job here I moved across the country from West Yorkshire to do so!  (I’m now on the right side of the pennies apparently!)  I’m looking forward to learning a lot more and growing myself here at Custard Media!

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    9 Inspiring, Interesting, and Effective TV Advertisements

    May 27th

    Posted by Matt in Alternative Marketing

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    Who says TV is dead? Despite the rise of digital advertising and online marketing, television is still the backbone of long-term branding for thousands of the world’s largest companies. From Fortune 500 giants to popular small companies, the world of television has long been the ultimate artistic gateway for advertisers.

    We’ve found nine advertisements that aren’t just effective, but inspiring. If you’ve grown tired of the same old interruption advertisements and annoying jingles, let these examples of creative, inspiring advertising serve as reason not to give up on TV. From critical praise to effective conversions, these nine advertisements helped companies rebuild, maintain, and craft their reputations and brands.

    1. Think Different, Apple Computer

    The 1990s were a rough decade for Apple Computer. Manned by semi-competent CEO Gil Amelio and focused on delivering corporate computers, the California technology company appeared to have lots its uniqueness. Stock prices were at an all-time low, computer sales were falling daily, and investors were quickly losing confidence.

    But in 1997, Steve Jobs re-entered the picture and a decade of creativity kicked off at Apple, beginning with the iconic ‘Think Different’ advertising campaign. This advertisement was the first in the series, and in the eyes of critics one of the most inspiring and effective in Apple’s marketing portfolio.

    2. I’ll See You In About… 20 Years, Porsche

    Porsche have always distinguished themselves from other German car manufacturers. There’s BMW, with an executive image and a wide range of models; Mercedes Benz, with a laundry list of high-end luxury cars, and Porsche, the performance specialists with a range of cars designed for just one thing: the ultimate driving experience.

    This advertisement covers the reason for every Porsche purchase: long-term desire. Complete with an American Beauty inspired soundtrack and slick cinematography, this inspiring commercial could be slipped into the average high concept film without looking out of place.

    3. Failure, Nike

    “I’ve missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I’ve lost almost three hundred games. Twenty six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

    Take the world’s most effectively marketed athlete, a company renowned for inspirational advertising campaigns, and a production budget bigger than that of your average indie film. Not only do you get an inspiring message and a frequently quoted advertisement – you get one of the most iconic commercials of all time.

    4. We’re Running Out of Time, Thai Life Insurance

    There’s no denying it – insurance is dull. Thankfully, this Thai life insurance company found a way to make their advertisements inspiring and touching. Covering the fragility of life and the immense possibility for future generations, this commercial has the look and feel of a feature film and the emotional resonance of a well crafted story.

    At over ninety seconds it’s not quite short enough to run in the average advertising timeslot, but as a piece of inspiring advertising it’s certainly found its audience; the Youtube version has been viewed by over 600,000 people in two years.

    5. Maybe, Nike

    Success is enviable, frustrating, and a cause of immense isolation. It’s also something that thousands of people do their best to avoid every year through excuses, doubt, and destructive behavior. This is another collaboration between Nike and Michael Jordan, and while less famous than ‘Failure’, it remains one of the apparel brand’s most popular and inspiring advertisements.

    6. Fate, Nike

    What happens when the world’s most recognizable sporting brand commissions a slick, experienced, and ultra-cult director to create their advertisements? You get inspiring pieces of commercial filmmaking like ‘Fate.’

    Inspired, designed, and shot by acclaimed director David Fincher – the man behind Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – ‘Fate’ follows two young athletes as they grow up and gain experience. Drenched in Fincher’s dark and contrasting shooting style, this ad gained as much attention from budding filmmakers as it did from apparel shoppers.

    7. You Can Shine, Pantene

    Four minutes, three seconds. That’s how long Pantene’s acclaimed shampoo commercial was; a length so indulgent and ridiculous that it was rarely displayed on television. The advertisement follows a young deaf girl with a talent for music, a talent that’s unfortunately ignored by her peers and ridiculed by those with no understanding of her disability.

    Despite the advertisement’s immense length and limited practicality for television audiences, it gained a massive cult following on release and became a word-of-mouth marketing success. The advertisement has since gained over three million views on Youtube alone – a staggering success for an advertisement available only in non-English markets.

    8. Blade Roller, Coca-Cola

    Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner missed out on critical acclaim and commercial success, but the sci-fi film eventually found its place as a cult favorite and an endlessly copied creative resource. From Star Wars to Battlestar Galactica, just about every piece of science fiction released since Blade Runner has drawn inspiration from it in some form, be it set design or simple narrative features.

    Amazingly, this Coca-Cola advertisement manages to replicate the Blade Runner style without looking tacky, cheap, or uninspired. Directed by Fight Club mastermind and frequent advertisement expert David Fincher, ‘Blade Roller’ is a cool replacement for the template Coca-Cola commercials we’ve grown used to. Unfortunately, it was never released outside of Japan.

    9. 1984, Apple Computer

    It was the early 1980s, and Apple Computer was in trouble. The Cupertino technology company had seen success with the Apple II, but a series of technological failures and rebuffed innovations left them struggling to find customers. 1984 was fast approaching, and without a slick marketing strategy for their new product – Macintosh – the company could be toast.

    So they did what any sensible company should do: hire one of the world’s most acclaimed directors, assign a near-unlimited budget, and ask them to make the most creative television advertisement possible. The Ridley Scott directed ’1984′ commercial ran only once, but it was all Apple needed to gain a place in the market.

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    Custard Media granted safety in numbers by 08Direct

    May 7th

    Posted by Matt in Custard Media Clients

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    Not A Tough Call

    Thanks to our pals at Yorkshire-based 08Direct, we’re saving ourselves a bit of cash when it comes to non-geographical business telephone numbers. We’ve got a few 0845 numbers here at Custard, and 08Direct have provided them free of charge and so we doff our caps to them.

    Our non-geo numbers come in handy when it comes to handling inbound calls whilst also helping us to further improve our high standards of customer service. For our clients and potential customers, they’re winners too as 0845 telephone numbers are cheap to call, classed as a local rate number, and have all the benefits of a non-geographical number.

    Talking of numbers – you can still catch the Custard team on the same old number despite our office move from lovely Leyland to leafy Longridge…

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