Life's for Sharing

I received an email tonight from a favourite aunt with a link to a video of the royal wedding. The music and action and dancing were so much fun I watched it to the end. I then noticed it was put together by T-Mobile in the UK with their positioning statement "Life's for Sharing". The video has reached 11 million views.

It got me thinking about iSmart clients, mostly small to medium sized businesses who often ask me about innovative ways to get their message out onto the internet. A small business might sell its soul for 11 million You Tube views, so how can we smaller organisations, on limited budgets get this type of response?

My first thought is by being creative, daring and brave combined with the will to execute an idea. I love brainstorming and have had lots of fun with clients whilst we come up with some crazy ideas. The will to execute a crazy idea makes the difference in hugging your product or service to yourself or sharing it with the world.

T-Mobile UK have clearly thrown a lot of money into their You Tube videos, but honestly, a smaller organisation CAN come up with a zany idea and as long as they have the will to execute they can achieve major results whilst having a rad time along the way.

Life’s For Sharing - Spread The Word

T MOBILE UK

In January of 2009, the travellers at Liverpool Street Station in London got surprised when instead of hopping on the trains, most commuters started dancing. We know now that this sudden revival of joined dancing was an advertising stunt by T-Mobile for their ‘Life’s for sharing’ campaign.

And it got shared: the video spread online through e-mail, blogs and social networks and generated over 21 million views on YouTube alone. Within only a few weeks time the stunt got imitated several times, including one that shut down that same Liverpool Street Station.

The success of the ‘Life’s for sharing’ stunt at Liverpool station is another example of the changing advertising landscape.

Television commercials and print ads were the marketer’s anchor for decades, but traditional mass marketing has been in decline for some time now. Consumers are no longer impressed by the hundreds or even thousands of advertising expression they deal with every day. And just screaming louder has proved not to be the answer either. People listen to and trust their peers, rather than the marketer trying to sell them stuff.

With the credit crunch, advertising budgets have been cut and marketers and advertisers are looking for new ways to reach their audience and spread their message. The internet provides marketers with these new approaches and growing portions of media budgets have shifted online over the past year. Now, the continuous popularity of social media can help in spreading the word. Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift said: “The overriding message of the Internet is that you can do more with less”.

Social Networks allow consumers to find peers online and share their experiences, findings and opinions with others. In doing so, consumers can help marketers spread their message: a blogger writing a review on the latest mobile phone, placing a commercial video on YouTube or starting a Facebook group dedicated to a brand or product. What marketers must do is facilitate the message, like T-mobile did with the ‘Life is for sharing’ stunt and people will help spread the message. (NY Times)

With the recent video of the royal wedding receiving more than 11 million YouTube impressions T-Mobile, like "Blend It" have found a formula that works for them time after time. It has nearly been 2.5 years since the Liverpool Station stunt and still the theme of 'fun' and 'on topic' is working for the Mobile phone company.

How can a smaller organisation achieve these results?

The formula is pretty simple and coming up with a crazy idea isn't too far from a good bottle of red wine, what differentiates small and large business is the will to execute the idea. Sure the big business pays the big dollars to the big agency to get the results, but really, the trick here is that someone is being paid to execute an idea so they need to start and finish before they get paid.

In small business it is usually the founder or the sole marketing executive whose job it is to come up with the idea and then to produce it. Often a big task when there is so much else to be done. The payoff can be huge and well worth the time and bravery of following through with an idea.

My advice is to brainstorm some crazy ideas, run it by two peers you respect for validation, price up the execution, budget and then go for it!! Don't hesitate in giving me a yell if you need help.

Sue Wickenden
CEO, iSmart Software

What we sell:
Web Design in Brisbane; Course Registration Software; Room Booking Software