KDNINE

Sick as a drunken advertising parrot…

admin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:08:09 +0000

It takes a lot to annoy us here particularly as we don’t currently work for a drinks advertiser but the National Substance Misuse Strategy Steering Committee call for a ban on sponsorship and advertising of alcohol products is annoying to say the least. And here is why:

To single out advertising and sponsorship is idiotic when you leave other influencers untouched.

Consider our favourite soaps Fair City, Corrie, Eastenders etc. hasn’t anyone noticed that everything revolves around the feckin pub…every social occasion… Christmas…Easter… etc. The mechanics in Corrie often go to the pub at lunchtime even though they are working with machinery!!!

And what about those endless gourmet food shows The Restaurant etc where wine is essential to every meal. The hard drinking portrayed in movies like Bridesmaids the Hangover etc.

BAN THEM ALL we say because that is the Irish government approach to everything the drinking equivalent of putting up Dangerous bend signs instead of straightening out the road. An Irish solution to a problem no one really wants to deal with.

Just a bunch of do-gooders tinkering piously around the edges and causing huge job losses and damage to the already beleaguered Irish marketing community.

Pharmony Facebook site goes live…

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:09:14 +0000

Our new Facebook site for Pharmony Throat syrup is live please log on and like. You might just win a cool pampering weekend away.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pharmony/305659976116472?sk=app_172383002872524

The big pack shot

“We are not selling…we are improving the lives of ordinary people!”

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:56:17 +0000

…said the brand manager in her Mini Cooper… driving over a homeless person… on her mobile phone… on the way to cut her advertising agency’s fees by 80%!

Cynical Moi?

Unilever reframes marketing

LONDON: Unilever, the FMCG giant, is attempting to reframe its approach to marketing, and to alter widespread perceptions of this activity as simply being “selling for the sake of selling”.

The company has developed a model called “crafting brands for life”, a strategy it hopes will offer clear benefits for consumers and help motivate staff.

“We want to make people believe that marketing is a wonderful profession again and make it noble as a way of serving the progress of people’s lives in a good way”, Marc Mathieu, Unilever’s senior vice president, marketing, told Marketing Week.

“I really believe that marketing is a wonderful profession and necessary tool of the way the world needs to work in the future … If we really believe that corporations have a key role to play in driving social, economic and environmental progress, marketing has a big role to play.”

More specifically, Mathieu suggested a return to the values that embodied many major companies when they were first founded would constitute an extremely positive move in this direction.

He said: “In the last few decades of the 20th century marketing has become selling for the sake of selling, but at its inception, marketing was inspired by the Henry Fords, the William Levers of the world – people with a vision to bring products to people that could create progress and improve lives.”

Unilever has been a pioneer in areas such as sustainability, as the owner of Marmite and Hellmann’s pursues the dual goals of halving its ecological output while doubling revenues.

Its advertising and marketing teams are seeking to find the right mix of “logic and magic”, and giving each brand a purpose, which can be social, but may encompass providing pleasure or enjoyment.

“I believe that marketing done well is an amazing profession. Some people do it more as a job, and some people do it more as a craft,” said Mathieu.

“It’s not just a process or succession of steps … marketing is at its best and much more interesting when you are thinking about real people you can improve the lives of.”
Data sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by Warc staff, 8 February 2012

Could the accountants have been wrong?

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:34:22 +0000

Coca-Cola Cuts Costs,

Reinvests in Marketing

Up to $650 Million Savings Will Be Used for Brand-

Building, Commodity Costs

By: Natalie Zmuda Published: February 07, 2012

Just 48 hours before PepsiCo is expected to announce millions in additional marketing investment,Coca-Cola beat it to the punch.

In announcing its fourth-quarter results, Coca-Cola said it plans to cut $550 million to $650 million in annual costs by the end of 2015. That money will be reinvested in marketing and brand building, as well as used to address rising commodity costs. The company also said it exceeded its goal of cutting $500 million in costs during the past four years.

On Thursday, PepsiCo is widely expected to announce it will pour an additional $400 million to $500 million into marketing its brands this year. Analysts, pointing out that ad spending on beverages has trailed Coca-Cola, have called for increased investment, particularly in the company’s North American beverage brands.

“This program will further enable our efforts to strengthen our brands and reinvest our resources to drive long term profitable growth,” said Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent during a conference call with analysts. “We remain relentless in our efforts to become more efficient, leaner and adaptive to changing market conditions, while at the same time building a continuous improvement in cost management culture in keeping with our 2020 vision.”

Mr. Kent repeatedly emphasized that Coca-Cola places brands first, calling brand Coca-Cola “the very oxygen of our business.” In contrast, PepsiCo has been under fire for neglecting its brands, specifically its flagship cola.

”

Why no one will answer Vincent’s question…

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:29:44 +0000

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/video-vincent-browne-takes-no-crap-from-the-european-central-bank-0019791-1

In the old communist days Russians could become Heroes of the Soviet Union we suggest the time is right to award Vincent Browne a similar Irish accolade because in our opinion this question has still, years on, never been answered to the satisfaction of the Irish people. Is it because the answer is fundamentally a deceit and mass fraud perpetrated by a corrupt political ruling elite? And no we are not Jim Corr!

Ireland and Scotland are the same country…at least for tourists!

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:38:59 +0000

If you look at the two new campaigns for Ireland and Scotland you would swear the countries were the same. And those Scottish gits have stolen our KDNINE Brand Ireland strategy. Bloody Cheek!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i63UReFH4M

http://www.tourismireland.com/Home/Our_Marketing_Overseas/TV-Advertising/TV-Advertising-2012.aspx

The KDNINE girls share their beauty secrets

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:17:00 +0000

http://player.vimeo.com/video/34813864?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

Change the radio record…

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:14:10 +0000

This punter wants to listen to something different this year on the radio airwaves. What is that old saying that if you keep doing the same things you get the same results.Enough of Politicians talking about creating 1000′s of jobs in cloud computing (or at least appointing a committay (sic) to report on it in 3 years).

Enough reporting crisis meetings between the midget French bloke and the mother superior German wagon. Equivalent to would another mass help? in the Father Ted milk float episode. Enough austerity packages and enough economists talking crap. Enough of Tubridy patronising young mothers stuck at home. Enough Chris and Ivan banter and the increasingly dreadful and insane Joe Duffy show.

We say more Moncrief (for the fun) more Michael Graham (for the unacceptable euroweenie truth we don’t like to hear) and more Nova for memories of a time when Ireland and the world really rocked.

Happy New Year

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:47:00 +0000

It’s hard to think 2012 could be worse than 2011 so a very Happy New Year to all our clients and suppliers from all the team at KDNINE. And remember the Mayans said we will never get to see 2013 anyway so no need need to worry about your new 2013 car having an unlucky reg…PHEW!

Thursday Bloody Thursday…

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:40:49 +0000

Today is a day that will probably be talked about in years to come by historians and social commentators alike.

Will the euro rescue plan work? All we can do is wait and see but we were slightly depressed by radio commentary from Brussels yesterday that implied that the Germans had no idea how bad things really are for ordinary folk in Ireland.

This on top of Sinead O’Connor’s rather thought provoking criticism of Irish creative artists being absent from all debate on the current Irish crisis.

Where are you Bono when we need you?