For one thing

I’m always a bit late with the hottest stuff. Not until today that I discovered Radiohead’s Online Video Contest they hosted at aniboom.com. It’s a classic, very well executed example of online marketing and UGC: They pitched their fans to create video animations for their favourite songs. More than 900 storyboards were submitted and the final results are more than impressive.

Okay, I’ve been a Radiohead-Fan for a couple of years now but if you are even slightly familiar with their experimental, mystic, sad but always beautiful songs you’ll recognize the mood that goes with these tunes in those animations.

Have a look at one of those masterpieces:

Ever felt a slightly uneasy with marketing claiming for sustainability? Well, there might be an answer: John Grant explores marketing strategies that not merely pretend to be responsible for economic reasons but that are based on a sincere belief to do good. His recently launched book “The Green Marketing Manifesto” seems to be a true source for inspiration on how companies might find an approach on CSR that actually affects business strategies. John Grant offers extensive case studies on companies such as Marks&Spencer or Toyota showing a corporate behaviour that not only positively supports public image but also drives economic growth.

A nice lesson on authenticity as well as on consistency in your strategies and a slap in the face for companies that still don’t get it by considering CSR a purely image-related marketing tool. Click on the image below to find out more:

Jerry Zaltman argues that most moderated research “adresses at a surface level what consumers think about what managers think consumers are thinking about.”

In How Customers Think, Zaltman references HBS professor Rohit Deshpande, whose study found that “over eighty percent of all market research serves mainly to reinforce existing conclusions, not to test or develop new possibilities.”

(Wipperf?ɬºrth “Brand Hijack”, p. 175 & p.177)

Which is exactly the reason why focus groups digging for game changing consumer insights must fail most of the time.