When we all grew up we were taught that we should share.

Share our toys, share our feelings, share responsibility, share our thoughts, share our wealth. Sharing is healthy.  Sharing is what nice, well balanced, good people do.

Then along came the interweb and social media.

We instantaneously shared information, thoughts and material via email. We began sharing our views on blogs like this!

We started sharing things we had for sale through Ebay.

We then shared with other people our travel experiences through sites like TripAdvisor.

Business contacts were shared via LinkedIn.

Our videos then were shared through YouTube, and available to everyone on the planet with a web connection.  Over a billion video views a day to be precise.

These days it seems that we share almost everything about ourselves on the web.  We’ve become share-a-holics.

Through social media platforms such as Facebook (7 million Australian users and growing!) we started sharing even more personal information.

We started sharing our eating habits, daily routines, TV shows we watched, stores we shopped in and even what we fed the dog that morning.

Then along came Twitter. We started sharing real time thoughts, feelings and news, as well as what we’re doing and where we are at any given moment.

How could we possibly share any more? Well, today my own question was answered when I read about Blippy.

In short, Blippy is Twitter for retail. Users share every transaction they make with others, with Blippy describing it on their site; ‘as a fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying’.

How does it work?

Blippy asks people to share their transaction information by being linked to their credit card to automatically reveal the things people buy. If users register a credit card on the site, every transaction bought on the card would be displayed to their Blippy friends.

It can also track transactions through a range of retailers.  Already retail brands like Amazon, iTunes, Blockbuster, Wine Library, Zappos and Ebay have signed up.

Can you imagine telling the world, or your followers at least, what you spent your money on today, which shops you went to and how much you spent?

‘Paul spent $16.95 today at iTunes on a Passion Pit album’.  Scary, but not true ( I can’t claim to be that ‘in’ when it comes to music).

Will it work?

Well, Blippy is backed by one of the co-founders of Twitter and they’re deadly serious about its potential. Since launching last month it already has 13,000 users.

Will people be willing to share even more information, particularly detailed financial information, about themselves?

I’m not so sure.

What do you think?

Paul Cornwell is a Partner at BCM

Thanks to the generosity of my work colleagues I was the recipient of a Nando’s chicken burger today. In fact I had just received the “bonus burger” attached to a 2 for 1 offer – an offer which Nando’s had decided to honour following the decision of their rival Grill’d to pull their latest 2 for 1 promotion to students.

The original 2 for 1 burger offer targeted readers of the print edition of Victorian student publication The Uni Times Magazine, although an opportunistic individual (or individuals) decided to scan and share this offer online.

Updated (7.14pm): It has since been revealed that an electronic version of this voucher was actually available online through the Uni Times Magazine website, although this version had been removed from the site at the time of writing.

In part a victim of their own popularity, Grill’d were quickly on the back foot as people flocked to their outlets (primarily in Victoria) all trying to redeem the offer. Whilst they quickly pointed out that the offer was never intended for anyone other than the Uni Times Magazine readers, the damage was already done. Within no time they were taking a hammering on their website from scores of hitherto loyal fans – many defamatory posts have since been moderated. Twitter also has resonated to the cries of “PR failure” over the last few hours.

The offline to online transfer really does demonstrate just how quickly these things can get out of hand, almost to a viral level – in the context of the intended market. Moreover, it’s a timely reminder for companies to make sure their disclaimers are up to scratch. This exercise in damage control will surely cost Grill’d more than a few burgers and it will be interesting to see their longer term response.

Nando’s response however was swift, and I believe demonstrates their willingness and ability to listen, analyse and leverage this opportunity, as evidenced by their rapid press release and a statement posted on their website. Anyone presenting a copy of the Grill’d voucher to a Nando’s restaurant in Victoria or Queensland would be able to buy a burger or wrap and receive one of equal or lesser value, free of charge.

Kim Russell, Nando’s Australia National Marketing Manager, went on record and empathised.

“This time of year, students are back at Uni, paying for all their books and struggling to make ends meet… Many of our own staff are uni students and so we understand their plight.

“Downloaded, photocopied, scanned, emailed, original, we don’t care where you got them, just bring the Grill’d vouchers in to Nando’s and we’ll honour the Grill’d offer and terms and make sure you’re all well looked after,” she said.

Never shy of controversy, Nando’s delights in running topical ads, such as for the promotion of its Tropico Burger, and its homage paid to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno and the unforgettable “Chips” advert which did the rounds over a year ago. Have a look through YouTube and you will find many more.

So is this timely intervention a great piece of marketing, or is it blatant opportunism from Nando’s? Do you think Grill’d will lose customers over this unfortunate incident? Either way, the famous Nando’s cockerel has good reason to crow!

Steve Jennings is an Account Manager at BCM

A mate of mine from my radio days posted this on his Facebook wall the other day and it got me thinking.

Radio is having a very tough time competing for your time since new media has come along. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging.. What advice would you give radio stations in 2010?? I’m giving a speech to Radio heads in the Maritimes* in two weeks and I’d love your thoughts. Thanks Dave

Is radio doomed? Do Gen Y, let alone Gen Z ever listen to it?

Radio has proven itself to be extremely resilient over the years.

TV couldn’t kill it. MTV couldn’t kill it. The Sony Walkman couldn’t kill it. Even Kyle & Jackie O couldn’t kill it. Can the digital revolution make the hit?

Logically, iPods, podcasts, mobile video etc make radio irrelevant. Radio can’t deliver news, weather, cricket scores quicker or more reliably than your mobile phone.

But the commercial stations claim revenue is as healthy as ever. Radio still produces big stars such as Hamish and Andy. And radio is adapting with specialised digital stations. Pink 24/7 anyone?

We seem to still be listening to our favourite radio stations even though we can easily program our own commercial free playlists on our iPods/iPhones/iThings. Are the ‘personalities’ and content that good? Do we just like to have a friendly voice in our ear? Is it good company? Does it make us feel like part of community? Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes. There are lots of good reasons radio survives and why people are fiercely loyal to their favourite station. Ever seen anyone (outside of media) wearing a TV station branded t-shirt?

Personally, I think the Pink 24/7 option will be the way radio goes. Lots of boutique stations. But in the meantime, my two cents to Dave was for radio to play to its strengths. Be local, topical and human.

What would your advice be? I’ll pass it on to the Radio heads in the Maritimes.

P.S. Radio Nigel is MY new station. Have a listen.

Jeff Smith is a writer at BCM and has either worked in, written for, or listened to radio for over 40 years.

* Apparently the Maritimes are on the remote east coast of Canada.

More than five years ago we created a brand idea for Sunny Queen Farms’ egg brand that was expressed via a smiley face on their eggs.  It was a wonderfully simple visual idea that encompassed everything we wanted the brand to own ie. happy, healthy, positive and active. It was accompanied by the strapline ‘Crack a Sunny Queen Smile’.

A carefully planned program of clever product development, packaging innovation, trade marketing and a host of other marketing initiatives were executed by the crack team at Sunny Queen (Sorry about that. No more egg puns I promise).

Sales success was immediate, growing over 4 share points to 23.1% within 12 months of launch, and the brand went on to become the only national egg brand from this achievement.  Success has continued for Sunny Queen Farms, with the Australian Marketing Institute recently granting them the National New Product Award winner for their recent Cage Free campaign in 2009.

Then for this year we set ourselves the task of further developing what had become a very successful brand in a highly commoditised category.

Realising the massive potential of the brand, or ’smile’ idea, and of the rapidly growing social media landscape, we embarked on the next phase of the plan to develop this brand into one of Australia’s iconic food brands.

Our ’smiley egg’ became a personality called ‘Sunny the Egg’ who entered the social media arena with a Facebook page.  In short, Sunny has been a massive hit. Sunny the Egg’s public gags and regular musings on life, eggs, cookery and the state of the nation have attracted more than 38,000 fans in just 8 weeks.  That’s nearly 5,000 fans per week.  What’s incredible is how adoring these fans are.  Check out this selection of fan posts…

Recently, much has been made in the media about how people are once more craving optimism and positivity. Sunny the Egg is satisfying their appetite, with regular exhortations to ‘Wake up on the Sunny Side’.

The next part of our plan was to create some ‘noise’ for the brand in our key business development markets of Sydney and Melbourne.  We launched a hoax product called ‘Whinging Pom’ eggs which was brought to life with a bogus viral video and an Australia Day BBQ brekkie for all the whinging poms in Melbourne.

This generated huge ‘talkability’ and garnered coverage in the Today Show, Channel 7 news and many other national and international news platforms.  For relatively little cost we were able to generate massive publicity for the brand.  This stunt also fuelled much discussion in social media.

Last weekend we launched the next phase of our program with our new strapline ‘Wake up on the Sunny Side’.  Late night TVCs encouraging people to wake up on the sunny side were launched as well as a brand TVC featuring a frisky elderly couple who’ve obviously woken up on the sunny side.

We now have serious momentum built for the brand and much of this can be attributed to the skillful use, thanks to our social media team, of Facebook.  With 7 million users in Australia and growing, Facebook has enormous potential for brands that understand how to leverage it effectively.

Naturally, social media needs to be considered as part of a thorough strategic approach to brand development and in many cases will not be appropriate.  But, when harnessed, as we have done with Sunny Queen Farms, the possibilities are very exciting.

How many fans can Sunny ultimately have?  40,000? 50,000? 100,000?  Maybe Perez Hilton will be writing about him soon?

Paul Cornwell is a Partner at BCM

At lunchtime on Tuesday, Brisbane went from a sunny 29°C day to a stormy, flash flooding mess. It was some crazy weather which caused some major disruption throughout the city. So, how did you find out about the damage caused by this little storm?

Was it through a mainstream news outlet?

Or was it through a social network such as Facebook?

For me, it was through Facebook (yes, I was on Facebook during work hours… but that’s what I get paid for). In fact, one of my friends posted a video of the flash flooding outside her office in Milton to Facebook. This was then taken from Facebook and uploaded to the Yahoo!7 breaking news.

It highlights the different way in which we consume our news. We are less reliant on major news outlets to deliver news to us. The ease and speed of spreading information means we are likely to see breaking news through our online networks before a camera crew, reporters, editors and publishers can hit the ‘publish’ button.

But it’s not only content we are creating which is changing the way we consume our news. Content we are sharing on social networks is influencing what we are exposed to. Research released this week by Compete concludes that Facebook drives more traffic to news portals than search giant Google does. According to their research, Facebook drove 13 percent of traffic to portals such as Yahoo and MSN while Google accounted for 7 percent. Even though we may not be seeking this information out, we are more likely to view it because it has been recommended from a credible and reliable source.

It’s obvious that news is becoming more social in the way we create, consume and share it. And that’s no surprise is it? Current affairs have always been central discussion points around dinner tables, BBQ’s and water coolers. Social networking just means we want it faster, personalised to our interests and from people we trust. In that order.

And you thought Facebook was just for drunk party photos…

Nathan Bush is an Interactive Strategist at BCM

There is no doubt about it – Australian TV viewers love Australian content. Few would disagree that locally produced shows like Packed to the Rafters, Underbelly and Talkin’ About My Generation have provided all three Free to Air TV Networks with bumper audiences and revenue opportunities, and Australians with a lot of enjoyment.

So in what seemed like good news for viewers last week, the Federal Government, unexpectedly, surprisingly and quietly cut licence fees for the Seven, Nine and Ten Networks by 33% this year and by 50% next year – a rebate worth more than $250 million. This was done in order to “protect Australian content on commercial television” – except, the Government has not tied any conditions at all to the generous rebate.

There is no impost upon the networks to actually increase Australian content production above what is currently legislated.

The Government’s action to hand the TV Networks $250 million of taxpayer’s money is even more curious when you consider that Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) compliance figures from 1999 to 2008 show that the FTA networks have a history of always meeting  their annual Australian content licence requirement figures no matter what the economic conditions.

On the back of the news last week, the Ten Network (which traditionally broadcasts the bare minimum of Australian content to meet licensing requirements) saw its share price soar and many analysts predict that the rebate will go straight to the FTA Networks’ bottom line.

So how, at such a challenging economic time, has a group of private equity investors managed to gain such favour from the Government? Well it would appear that friends in high places may have been helpful. Head of the lobby group that brokered the deal was Mr Rudd’s old boss, Wayne Goss, who also more recently sat on the board of Igneus (the PM’s wife Therese Rein’s Company).

Don’t get me wrong – the licence fee structure has not been overhauled since 1964 and boy a lot has changed since then! It may well be time for a bit of a re-think. But let’s be fair dinkum with taxpayers’ dollars. If the rebate is to protect Australian content, make that a condition of the gift. If there is some other agenda in place – e.g. a subsidy for the enormous cost to roll out digital TV (inextricably entwined with the success of the Government’s National Broadband programme) let’s call it for what it is.

What do you think?

Jo Stone is Head of Channel Planning & Integration at BCM

I’ve been enjoying some banter on the home front lately about the merits or otherwise of ANZ Bank’s new campaign, insisting it doesn’t have a bunch of ‘Barbaras’ in its institution, but promises to serve you ‘differently’ to the others.

Thanks ANZ, you had my interest – great talent and an injection of humour which carried through right up until the point you delivered your promise – and what a let down that was.  As a new customer, maybe you might get one handshake at the door – I doubt it – but don’t think it’s going to continue after you’ve opened the account.

So here’s my vent -  it ticks me off when I regularly see discounts or incentives being offered to lure new customers (which of course is a marketing strategy which pays dividends), but as a consumer who’s already signed up, these are constant reminders that you are now a member of the ‘forgotten ones’.

And I don’t mean to pick on ANZ.  This happens across the board – insurance, banking, gym and video club memberships and the list goes on.

To a cynical consumer like me, a marketer is probably between a rock and a hard place.  Those personalised letters that appear in the mail box attempting to up-sell me ‘with benefits’, are seen as just that – and end up in the recycle bin.

With Valentine’s Day romance in the air, what’s a marketer to do to get a tough nut like me to feel the love?  Well I’m happy to report that one marketer has found the way to my heart.

Last week I received a letter from a bank thanking me for my loyalty and acknowledging my value to them.  The note informed me that they’d deposited 10,000 reward points into my customer loyalty account – that’s worth $50 in fuel or shopping vouchers.  I didn’t ask for it, didn’t have to tick any boxes, or send any SMS’s to get it.  I felt flattered and deserving.

So what’s the lesson?  Something we regularly talk about here at BCM – remember to surprise and delight.  Although you need to focus on growing your customer base, don’t forget your existing members.  Remember that they have feelings too, and that loyalty can be subtly bought with a surprise that delights.

Gillian Tucker is BCM’s Agency Manager

There’s a new wave of websites about to be launched which will finally give people what they’ve been desperately craving. Sure, Web 2.0 archetypes like Facebook, Digg, Twitter, YouTube and Cool Hunter have had some success, but this new crop of ground-breaking sites are set to take interactivity and user satisfaction to a previously unheard-of level. Here’s a taster:

UpMyselfer
A social networking site where users are encouraged to only mention the really awesome stuff that happens in their lives and ignore the banal and the dire. A handy inbuilt autocorrect function changes phrases like ‘life sucks and ‘I’m bored’ to ‘Went skydiving in the Seychelles’ and ‘Pashed a millionaire’.

SnobTube
At last, a video file sharing site for people of quality and refinement. Only posh people get to put stuff on it. No riff-raff, and nothing from the western suburbs.

Acquaintbook.
‘Friend’ is such a fuzzy term, isn’t it? Here’s a social networking site with no grey areas. Everyone on it knows exactly where they stand. It’s the social networking site for people who want to fish around to find out if people they used to know are now more interesting, thinner, worse off financially, drug addicted, nicer or more interested in them than they used to be. Then ‘Reacquaint’ them. Then never speak to them again.

KidsHomeworkPedia
A web-based collaboratively compiled encyclopaedia with none of the complicated technical details that make it so much more time consuming for parents to do their children’s school projects.

LoseFaceBook.
A warm, welcoming alternative ‘digiverse’ for people whose Facebook friend requests have been ignored, to congregate and commiserate with each other.

bury.com
An aggregator of all the sites you’ve already been to that are complete shit. It automatically hides them so they don’t appear in your Google results.

YouSpelGoodTube
A video sharing site where dictionaries from Oxford and Merriam-Webster automatically run a spelling and grammar filter over all submitted comments so stuff from really stupid people won’t appear.

MumBlock
Just like Facebook, only it automatically blocks all the stuff you don’t want your mum to see. With the beta test version, however,  older users have expressed concerns that nothing from their children actually appears on their wall.

SoCuteIfeelSick.com
Think sites like Cheezburger  - featuring all those cute pictures of kittens and puppies, replete with saccharine captions – are cheesy? This site will really make you retch. There’s a whole section devoted entirely to pictures of kittens playing happily with baby bunnies in meadows, while puppies look on fondly.

Andrew Bartlett is a Senior Writer at BCM

As each natural disaster happens in the world I watch with interest the ever increasing role that digital and mobile technologies play in driving disaster relief efforts.

Take the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January. The response for aid was astounding and more rapid than other recent natural disasters.

Social networking certainly played a key role with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all involved. A survey conducted by Facebook and The Nielsen Company in the week following the earthquake revealed 39% of Facebook users in the US, UK and Australia had already donated money or goods to the relief efforts (24% from Australia).

In addition, 21% of Facebook users who had not yet given to the cause planned to do so. Meaning an incredible 60% of Facebook users in the US, UK and Australia had donated or planned to donate money or goods, which clearly shows the growing importance and effectiveness of Facebook as a marketing tool and its power to activate people.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy in the days immediately following the Haiti earthquake more than $150 million in relief had been contributed. This is said to be five times the amount donated in the days immediately following the 2004 Asian tsunamis and more than the $108 million received in the first four days after Hurricane Katrina.

Another significant issue in this latest relief effort is that the relatively new method of text message donations really took off. The Red Cross campaign was promoted on Twitter and Facebook. On the Thursday (48 hours after the earthquake) text message donations hit $3 million and by Friday morning this figure had more than doubled to $8 million, with Red Cross among the 10 most popular topics on Twitter. To put this in context, in all of 2009, the Red Cross received $4 million in mobile text donations.

And even more interestingly, the Big Four mobile operators in the States (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) reportedly not only waived fees on text message donations, but they advanced the transfer of verified donations (rather than just passing along the funds once the monthly bill was paid).

Is this a significant business opportunity for telecom companies that could lead to a big shift in financial services? Futurist and Chairman of the trends forecasting company Global Change Ltd, Dr Patrick Dixon, certainly thinks so:

What do you think?

Tracy Straughan is an Account Director at BCM Brisbane

I can hear the conversations now:

“We can use puppies. Everyone loves puppies…”

“Nope, too difficult. Never work with children or animals.”

“Well, what about using that guy from the ShamWow ad. He can sell anything!”

“Hmmm… that guy is expensive.”

“I’ve got it! Flash mobs! The kids love them. They’ve the flavour of the month! It’s cheap. It’s easy. It will be a viral masterstroke!”

“You’ve got a point, let’s do it.”

Unfortunately for Dr.Pepper and Microsoft it did go viral. It went viral as people laughed at the executions and the brands behind them. It was forced, cheesy and a little bit like a spoilt child crying out for attention.

However, if you want to see some great flash mobs I suggest T-Mobile and ImprovEverwhere’s channels, the Sound of Music mob or Oprah’s ‘I Gotta Feeling’ crowd.

What makes these so good? Surprise, spontaneity, participation and some genuine joy. That doesn’t seem so much to ask does it?

Nathan Bush is an Interactive Strategist at BCM