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One of the world’s biggest international social media events, Social Media Week, kicks off Monday (13th February) and Total Media will be right in the thick of it - hosting eight events across the period.

One of the world’s biggest international social media events, Social Media Week, kicks off on Monday (13th February) and Total Media will be right in the thick of it - hosting eight events across the period.

Total Media’s Head of Social, Kwai Chi, will be heading up a who’s-who of the blogging and You Tube world in a special session dedicated to engaging with your social media audiences. From best practise guides to the speakers drawing on their personal and professional experiences, this is an essential seminar for anybody building a social media network.

Total Media’s Head of PPC, Paulo Ribeiro and Senior Digital Strategist, Kevin Tomkins, will be leading sessions on the rapidly expanding Google eco-system and the effect the London Olympics will have on digital communications, respectively.

Has that brief summary whetted your appetites? Do you want more info on the sessions slated and how you can register to attend? We have the full schedule and registration details below. Unfortunately some events have already sold out, but if you would like to know more or receive a copy of the presentations, please contact emma.jeffers@totalmedia.co.uk.


Total Media’s Events Schedule at Social Media Week:

Social Media in Politics and Finance
Session one: Monday 13th February 2012 – 9am – 10:30am. Register here.
Session two: Wednesday 15th February 2012 – 9am – 10:30am. Register here.

The SOPA and PIPA bills have absolutely bombed in Washington due to the sheer volume of protests from online communities and major online sites. Total Media explores the long term effect of this in politics.

Although Facebook is well known for the growing population of its users, Facebook itself grew to such a size it will soon be selling shares to the masses. Total Media explores the question on every investor's lips: Will they be worth buying?


Examining the Social Media-sphere for 2012
Session one: Event sold out. For more info, contact emma.jeffers@totalmedia.co.uk
Session two: Wednesday 15th February - 11am – 12:30pm. Register here.

The London Olympics are coming soon, but what will the effect be online?

Google+ continues to balloon it's presence through the Google ecosystem, even though few people appear to be actively using it. Total Media digs deeper and investigates the lasting effects of Google's bold move into the social media arena.


Integrating Social Media into the Marketing Mix
Event sold out. For more info, contact emma.jeffers@totalmedia.co.uk

With the explosion of all things Web 2.0, traditional business models have struggled to successfully integrate social media into their wider marketing strategy.

Exploring the good, the bad and the downright ugly, Total Media’s seminar will look at how social media can be successfully integrated into the marketing mix to drive campaigns to maximum effect – without haemorrhaging your budget.


How to Talk to Bloggers and Your Social Media Community
Event sold out. For more info, contact emma.jeffers@totalmedia.co.uk

Total Media has invited some of the most influential people in online communities to talk about their experiences in blogging, networking and event coordination:

Ben Moore will take you through Stickaid, a UNICEF charity which won awards and broke records with its 'live webathon' - involving many of the world’s top YouTubers.

Sophia Littledale works as Brand Experience Manager in the Social Media team at Total Media by day, and on her fashion blog, T Shirt and Tails, by night. Sophia will share her experiences on both sides of the fence.

Mawaan Rizwan is one of the most popular YouTubers in the world having accumulated 12 million video views to date. Channel 4 quickly took notice, positioning Mawaan as the anchor presenter for Battlefront.


Social Media Week is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries.

Check out the Social Media Week website for more information about and the events being held in your city/country. 

Those of you who watch BBC1 may have seen our very own MD, Thomas Laranjo, appear on air yesterday to talk about the travel industry, a subject that’s very close to our hearts.

Why? Well, TripAdvisor has been under attack this week for posting some extreme reviews (some positive, some very negative) about the hotels and resorts featured on its site. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that these reviews aren’t as trustworthy as they make out, as there’s no way to prove that reviewers have actually visited the places themselves. Since reviews like these can potentially make or break a business, TripAdvisor has been ordered to rewrite some of its marketing claims to avoid what the ASA says amounts to ‘misleading’ members of the public.

Total Media’s Thomas Laranjo appeared as a guest on BBC Breakfast, and then BBC News, to talk about what this means for the future of travel review sites and their credibility. Tom began by pointing out that filtering out these extreme reviews may not be the answer. In fact, Total Media’s own research into the travel industry has shown that online reviews have become a vital source of information for consumers when it comes to choosing a holiday destination, almost on a par with recommendations from friends and family members. If sites such as TripAdvisor start to filter out overtly negative reviews, Tom told the BBC, the results could be disastrous: “all you are going to see are positive reviews, and [the result is] you start to lose trust in that platform to deliver genuine opinions.”

So what does this mean for the future of TripAdvisor, a site which sets out to serve its users with a range of genuine, user generated reviews based on first-hand experiences? The answer lies, as always, with the consumer. Whilst users might be less likely to trust the validity of some of the more extreme views, we must also recognise how media-savvy the public can be at times like these: “this is just one form of opinion,” Tom says, “and people are able to apply their own natural filters to all this information.” It seems for now at least, the fate of TripAdvisor lies firmly in the hands of its users.

In the world of media, one is invited to a number of glamorous events, from media owner parties, to award ceremonies. Most definitely a perk of the job.

It is comparatively rare, however, to be invited to an event which offers as much sparkle and magic is the Disney ‘Year of the Princess’ launch party. 

At Total Media, we’re lucky enough to work with Feld Entertainment and Balloon Dog on some fabulous brands, including Disney on Ice and Disney Live!, so an appreciation for all things Disney is very much in our DNA (…and on our desks in the shape of a giant Tinker Bell…enough said)

I was lucky enough to join Anna and Natalie for some champagne and celeb spotting at Oxford Street’s Disney Store, where we spotted celebs, designed our own crowns, and got rather carried away with the merchandise.  Drinking bubbly and shopping for plastic tiaras has got to be in my top ten most surreal experiences, but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

Shannon Saunders (YouTube sensation and recent winner of the Disney Channel UK’s singing competition) performed some songs, and I was lucky enough to meet Glen Keane, the man responsible for animating Aladdin, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, as well as 2010’s Tangled. 

Having run some fabulous drawing workshops for the little princes and princesses in attendance, he was kind enough to sketch my favourite Disney Princess for me, and even told me I should keep my (apparently Rapunzel-esque!) hair long…

We can’t wait to see our favourite Disney characters again in Disney on Ice: Princesses and Heroes, which is touring the UK from March 7^th to April 1^st.

It’s a well-known fact that the media landscape is an ever-shifting, ever-evolving terrain.

This truism has never been more the case than with the latest developments to the humble television box. Innovations such as Smart TVs and the introduction (or perhaps intrusion) of Google and Apple into the TV arena, along with the increasing trends of catch up TV, are causing considerable changes in the TV marketplace. There are, however, divisions over the direction and pace of these changes. The TV industry is split on where to stand: which opportunities are the right ones to grab hold of and which ones may leave an advertiser adrift?

If this wasn’t enough for the TV industry to mull over, Virgin Media has recently announced another potential game changer with its addressable advertising service (herein AAS). The cable provider has beaten rival Sky media to the punch, announcing that the service will be available on VOD in the 2^nd quarter of 2012 with linear TV following in Q3. AAS will allow advertisers to target individual households across the entire Virgin Media platform, using customer’s postcode, age and viewing packages to distinguish and target their desired audience. Furthermore, Virgin are believed to be in discussion with retail partners and marketing company Experian about combining data, allowing AAS to further segment a given audience.  As of yet, it is not known whether AAS will work on an opt-in or opt-out basis for customers.

In hot pursuit, Sky‘s rival AdSmart service is currently available on the Sky Player but is believed to be launching on linear TV come 2013. In March this year the broadcaster wrote to its 10 million customers informing them about the qualities and benefits of Adsmart in an attempt to reassure them following recent negative press about data capture and the privacy issues that engulf it. Indeed many consumers are asking, should advertisers be able to target me directly?

These ethical conundrums are just part of a whole band of queries over what this new entrant to TV’s future will mean for both advertisers and customers. For instance, how will AAS, with its capacity to target consumers at a granular geographic level, affect the current system of geo-targeting? Will the power to pin point esoteric audiences lead an advertiser to switch from ITV’s current micro-region system or will the new innovation free up the market for even smaller companies or indeed niche brands to gain exposure on TV?

Another consideration to address will be the impact that this will have on the big brands - the brands that initially saw the TV box set as their advertising mecca believing that it would grant them a mass reach and enviable brand prestige. Matthew Kershaw, content director at BBH, points out that the big brands will see this new concept of TV advertising as another form of direct marketing and he questioned to what degree this would actually be useful to a big FMCG brand.

Have your own say on the questions posed within this piece. Do you think that this will be a defining game changer for TV and eventually lead to individual households having tailor made ad breaks, subsequently leading to a cooling off of the much clichéd ‘water cooler moment’. Perhaps however you feel that this is just another turning cog to be added to the changing TV machine? 

Written By Joe Kinchin

Tuesday the 1st November... and time for Elliott and I to brave the black-tie dress code, head to the Park Lane Hotel and join VCCP for the prestigious IPA Effectiveness Awards 2011.

Here, some of the brightest minds in advertising congregate to find out who’s injecting the wow-factor into channel planning, who’s spawning the most inspirational creative ideas, and ultimately who’s making an annual budget of £2.5m or less work the hardest.

Having helped compile VCCPs paper ‘From repellent to compelling: How Jungle Formula took the sting out of summer’ we were keen to see how we stacked up against the competition.  We have the privilege of being part of a fantastic agency (and client!) team, and had already basked in the warm glow of an extremely successful campaign.  Success is its own reward, no? Well yes, but if you are interested in awards too then read on...

To give you a little background: Jungle Formula is the number one insect repellent brand in the UK and has been around for 20 years.   The brand has experienced steady growth, but largely due to increased overseas travel. 

It was clear following sales results for the first part of 2010 that the brand would suffer unless something was done.  However, the category has never had any significant ATL spend and we faced a plethora of challenges, from the fall in holidays abroad (particularly the ‘right’ holidays to sufficiently tropical destinations) to the challenge of justifying a significant price premium (around 26% higher than market average)

The campaign had a modest budget of £470k, but TV was identified as the most appropriate channel for creating impact, and VCCP created the fabulous creative: ‘Jungle Boogie’, impactful, memorable and fun. 

Having experienced decline in 2009, Jungle Formula volume sales grew by over 5% in 2010.  What’s more, this uplift was entirely driven by the second half of the year (after the campaign broke) representing a dramatic recovery from a poor H1.  Value sales growth was even more striking, with a year on year leap of 15%.

So...all in all a compelling case study, but how would it stack up against the likes of Aquafresh Kids, McCain Wedges and Fiat?

Following the three course meal (most of which remained on my plate due to a severe case of butterflies) Jeremy Vine stepped onto the stage to kick start the proceedings.

We were over the moon when our entry was read out as the winner of a Silver award, and as I joined Sophie from VCCP and Louise from Omega Pharma on the stage there was something fabulously ‘Charlie’s Angels’ about the moment.  Girl Power!

As the case study rolled on-screen, a quote from one of the judges passed entirely over my head in the excitement of the moment.  Having dug it out online I thought it warranted inclusion.  After all, Jungle Formula is a pharmacy brand, and who knows pharma better than the goliath that is Boots (Elizabeth Fagan, Executive Marketing Director at Boots to be precise) who commented ‘This case study is proof that an FMCG brand with a low budget can reposition itself in a difficult market, taking its competitors on in a very effective way’.

Well that’s worth a glass of bubbly or two.  Here’s to our fantastic partnership with VCCP and Omega Pharma, who are a pleasure to work with, and an even greater pleasure to win with!