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Twitter has potential benefits and pitfalls to brands, like any instantaneous tool. Whilst some companies are quick to react to the consumer and engage with them on a more personal level; others fear this source of consumer interaction, burying their head in the sand whilst turning their heads and indulging in tunnel vision. A dexterous feat I’m sure you’ll agree.

But positive and engaging stories continue to emerge. One consumer whilst tweeting about being rewarded with free drive time from Streetcar, happened to highlight in his next tweet the need for £12.11 to be donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation, in order to reach his £5,000 milestone for his charity motorcycle ride. Swift of reaction, and eagle of eye, the early rising Streetcar team donated the money and sent their best wishes.

What a tremendous use of a new channel to engage with their customers. It should stand as an example to all brands that wish to build stronger relationships and harness the power of Twitter.

Neo@Ogilvy UK, the digital media planning and buying arm of OgilvyOne London, is taking on the responsibility for comprehensive media attribution analysis of British Airways’ display, affiliate and search digital media in the online marketing process from March.

The media attribution programme tracks all media investments and determine the most efficient online customer paths of British Airways’ UK sales, using Neo’s in-house toolset.  Neo’s work will enable the airline to calculate the most efficient media mix for the first time, and to optimise results from each marketing touchpoint.

The Neo team will work with British Airways’ online media agency ZenithOptimedia to create the most cost effective online sales strategies.

Richard Wheaton, Neo’s managing director, said: “ “We are looking forward to extending our relationship with British Airways and adding value with our new tools and services. We’ve got some very exciting click path analysis tools which will allow the airline  to gain new insights into the effectiveness of its sizable digital investment.”

This win alongside Neo’s appointment to run BA UK’s affiliate programme in the same pitch process are the first pieces of UK business for the agency, which already manages similar assignments in Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. They also further strengthen the relationship between BA and OgilvyOne London, which manages the airline’s global loyalty and direct marketing programmes.

By Anna Gibbons

James Bond is one of the UK’s most iconic and enduring symbols of luxury, success, travel and adventure. When Bond takes his credit card from his wallet, anything less than the Platinum Card from American Express would seem out of place.

In April 2008, Neo UK facilitated a meeting between The Times, James Bond’s beloved newspaper, employer of Ian Fleming in the 1930s and sponsor of the “For Your Eyes Only” James Bond and Ian Fleming exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, and American Express’ Platinum Card, the card of choice for travellers and adventurers.

As a result, The Platinum Card from American Express is the sole sponsor of all Bond and Fleming content on TimesOnline. Over the months leading up to ‘Quantum of Solace’ launch, a rich pool of content was developed to include archived content from the Times, interactive maps, a virtual exhibition reflecting the Imperial War museum content and more recently, the movie trailer and reviews. Creative was developed by Ogilvy with a James Bond theme which added to the user experience. Times readers were able to interact with the Bond /Fleming content throughout the TimesOnline site with additional promotion through editorial links, co-branded banners on the site and in the paper.

In addition, the Platinum Card sponsorship has facilitated some exciting and innovative initiatives from the Times such as the ‘Be a Bond Baddie’ viral application (in the spirit of 2007′s Christmas Elf viral), the ‘Be Bond’ video series which follows Times journalist Hugo Rifkin on his quest to become Bond, an interactive map and an interactive, viral game which involved decrypting codes, solving clues and (virtually) jet setting to exotic locations.

Activity will be live until late November, so click here to access all the 007-related content and to create your own Bond Baddie to send to your friends (or enemies!)

by Sladjana Ljubojevic 

Mobile advertising has become a buzz word in the last few years, and is gaining increasing popularity amongst leading advertisers. A substantial rate of growth is forecasted as smartphone prices drop, networks become faster and data packages cheaper.  Neo and Cisco decided to tap into this new technology with a mobile paid search campaign.

Mobile advertising campaigns generally have lower traffic volumes, especially when it comes to searches related to technology as it receives the majority of traffic from ring tones, wallpaper, news and entertainment queries.  However after recent site updates, Cisco thought it an excellent opportunity to trial a new mobile search offering and raise awareness of their mobile site.  

Google’s mobile search is executed in a very similar way to their search network offering:  keywords compete in an auction and are bought on a CPC model with a choice of search or content networks. The character restrictions for text ads are considerably smaller with only 2 lines of 18 characters each, creating quite a challenge for brand messaging.  As smartphone keyboards are generally small, mobile search queries are mostly 1 or 2 word generic phrases.

We used a selection of mostly 1 and 2 word mobile searches relating to Cisco’s brand and small business solutions:  Mobility, Small Business, Network Technology, Routers and Technology.

The mobile search activity has been live for 8 weeks with traffic volumes steady but low as expected, however the CPC’s were at 29% of the search campaign making it a cost effective way to deliver traffic to Cisco’s site. The highest traffic areas were from Brand, Mobility and Network Technology keywords, which is a similar trend to the search campaign.  1 word searches delivered 70% or clicks with 2 words at 30% and 3 words less than 1% with overall CTR at the high end of the industry average at 0.5%

Cisco and Neo will continue to run mobile search activity while improving performance with regular keyword optimisations and the possibility of expanding into new networks and territories to move the account forward. Overall, it has been a cost efficient method of driving traffic and raising awareness of the Cisco mobile site.  By embracing mobile search outside of its popular entertainment sector, Cisco is advancing their position as a technological leader.

By Ilana Goren

As part of Cisco’s Human Network campaign, Neo@Ogilvy recently launched the ‘Communications Clinic’ programme as part of Cisco’s 2008 brand positioning initiative.

In 2007 the 360 campaign, including digital campaign and ‘Welcome Mat’ events in London and Edinburgh, successfully introduced the Human Network message, enticing people to engage with Cisco technology.

The next step is to communicate Cisco as a relevant business partner for smaller companies and drive interaction among business leaders with both the Cisco brand and their small business networking solutions.

To introduce the Human Network to the small business, the team set out to create a unique environment enabling business owners to engage with Cisco solutions and understand how technology can help them do business better.

The activity is centred on a partnership with Telegraph Media Group. A dedicated ‘virtual clinic’ on Telegraph.co.uk offers interactive online seminars, a small business blog, and virtual product demos. Online banners, email, search keywords, and print all work together.

To bring the technology to life, events in London, Manchester and Glasgow seek to motivate local businesses. Telegraph branding, newspaper giveaways, streamed video content and business news make for a truly integrated partnership. Cisco also hosted a seminar with the Institute of Directors to launch the first Clinic in London. Bespoke email and digital out of home also work to boost awareness and drive event attendance.

The final Clinic is at London’s Victoria station between 14th – 25th of July. To go out with a ‘bang’, Cisco is executing an exciting and innovative out of home campaign. Advertising on London’s Underground and Overground rail networks will direct people to the Clinic at Victoria, where Cisco will be the very first advertiser to take over the entrance corridor. Inside, Cisco will dominate with posters and digital signage to reinforce the message. And bluetooth will let business owners learn even more right from their mobile device.

Stop by, or visit www.ciscoclinic.com to learn about the events, technology and more!

By Mark E. Jones

On 22nd May 2008, Neo headed down to the Beluga Bar in Canary Wharf for the inaugural Neo Quiz. In total, 8 teams took part; 4 from Display, 2 from Search, 1 from Analytics and 1 from Finance all competing to be the winners of the stupendous Neo Pub Quiz trophy and perhaps more importantly, office bragging rights.

There were the usual Geography, Sport and Film rounds, intermixed with some specially created rounds, such as ‘Get to know your bosses better’, where certain, interesting and embarrassing ‘facts’ and stories about the Neo Directors were revealed with great amusement to the entire company.

As the quiz progressed it became clear that Finance had some very able quiz players and they eventually ran out deserving winners, but pride and intra-company competitiveness ensured that all teams contested right to the end.

Team Cisdaq (Cisco and Kodak) came in a very honourable 2nd place, with Team BASAT (British Airways and South African Tourism) coming in 3rd place. Team BASAT also picked up the prize for winning the bonus picture round, and also most imaginative team name!!! However, congratulations must go to all the teams; some for their impressively rounded knowledge, and others for their inaccurate but highly amusing answers.

Planning has already begun for the next Neo pub quiz to be held later in the year, which will provide Finance the opportunity to defend their trophy.

But will they succeed?…

By Laura Sweeting

The cyclone that hit Burma last week has devastated the country, killing tens of thousands of people, leaving millions homeless, and destroying the land that is many people’s livelihood.

The Disasters Emergency Committee is a coalition of charities, including Oxfam and Save the Children who are providing humanitarian aid to Burma.

In support of this work Neo have been working closely with the DEC to promote the appeal online and on digital outdoor screens throughout the country to raise the profile of the campaign. The adverts are being shown across a wide range of sites, publicising the plight of the Burmese people to as wide an audience as possible.

Many of our media partners have donated generous amounts of inventory to the cause, meaning that the money raised can go towards supplying clean drinking water, medicine and shelter rather than on advertising the appeal. We should say massive thanks in particular to Reuters, FT.com, CNN, AND, Incisive and IDG who have all supplied enormous amounts of free inventory and continue to do so.

To donate to the appeal please click here

by Mark E. Jones 

IBM recently launched their new desktop platform, Lotus 8,  with the “Clear Your Desktop” digital campaign, which leveraged 3 videos, ‘Bodybuilder’, ‘Jet’ and ‘Motorcycle’. In order to answer the campaign objectives (promote the Lotus 8 launch,  gain significant exposure for the videos and drive traffic to the Lotus microsite), Neo@Ogilvy employed various online tactics, including the use of Google’s vast Content Network, which not only supports traditional Text Ads and Banners, but also videos.

‘Click to Play’ is a tactic that allows users to watch videos across a broad selection of websites in Google’s Content Network and then click through to the microsite at the end if they wish. The advantage to clients of ‘Click to play’ is that they only pay for the click if the viewer clicks through to the website and not for the ‘Click to Play’, thus making it a very cost effective tactic to drive large numbers of video views. Google Network also allows advertisers to target their audience on relevant websites, based on a pre-selected list of keywords.

IBM were pleased with the results of ’Click to Play’ and its role in the overall Lotus 8 launch. Neo@Ogilvy UK will certainly look to use Google’s ’Click to Play’ platform again in the future.

by Sam Blake

Following successful IBM webcasts in Denmark & Sweden, Neo@Ogilvy UK leveraged this innovative tactic to promote IBM Blade Server Technology, on the IDG website Techworld.

The webcast’s topic was ‘Blade Server Technology’ and the content was mutually agreed between IDG and IBM. The webcast was promoted in a number of ways: a banner campaign ran across the IDG network for 6 weeks prior to the webcast, driving users to the registration page, and promotional newsletters were also emailed out to the IDG IT database. The sitelet hosting the webinar was IBM-IDG cobranded and the webinar itself contained pre- & post-roll IBM Blade TV ads.

The structure itself was that of a standard webcast, comprising a webcast moderator and 3 panellists. The moderator coordinated the presentations, introduced the Blade topic and delivered poll questions to the live viewers. The webcast itself lasted an hour, beginning with short presentations from the IBM spokesperson, IBM Blade customer and an independent Blade expert, followed by a debate about Blade server technology, live audience polling and finally a live Q&A.

A post-event satisfaction survey of viewers allowed Neo@Ogilvy UK to demonstrate to IBM the webcast’s success and all attendees’ registration details were also passed on to IBM.

The IBM Blade webcast was promoted on the Techworld ‘Webinars’ page and in the IBM Blade Centre on Techworld for 3 months after diffusion and will be available to view on-demand for 12 months.

Register here to view the webcast!

by Laura Sweeting

In a new, quickly expanding company like Neo@Ogilvy UK, creating a sense of community and friendship and integrating new team members is one of the most important and challenging aspects. After all, we know what happens to those who are all work and no play!!!…

With this in mind, one cold wintry night a group of Neo mavericks negotiated their way out of the safety of Canary Wharf and into deepest darkest Vauxhall to experience something so fluorescent, so glittery, so spandex-fuelled that only two words can describe it – Roller Disco.

For a fraction of the price of a “team building” course, we developed valuable team skills, got to know each other on a personal level and learnt that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Some people were strong skaters, some people were strongest while sat down guarding the handbags but everyone was excellent at providing encouragement whilst simultaneously trying to stay upright and not collapse with laughter!

The result of the evening was some misguided eighties throwback fashion (reminding everyone why legwarmers are never a good look), the discovery that at least one person had downplayed their roller skating skills and a realisation of why we fell out of love with it when we were young – it hurts when you fall!

Despite the bruises and the mild panic attacks the experience is definitely one that everyone will remember, and the photos do no justice to the sheer effort that went into the outfits! A lot of fun was had by all and as Neo@Ogilvy UK continues to grow and prosper, fun extra-curricular events like this will help build the company spirit and strengthen personal relationships to drive Neo@Ogilvy UK forward!