Bavaria capitalize On Robbie Earle’s World Cup Own Goal

Rob Illidge (Marketing Executive)

Change is coming…for the next England game I will be sourcing Bavarian beer in place of the usual Budweiser or Corona, I may even treat myself to a nice Bavaria Premium Pils larger. All thanks to the somewhat heavy handed approach by FIFA in light of the recent ‘ambush marketing’ campaign during the Holland v Denmark World Cup match.

This series of events raises one question in particular, why was football pundit and former Wimbledon player Robbie Earle allocated a substantial number of tickets to a relatively low key World Cup match? Especially when there are hundreds of South African football fans queuing daily for tickets,  not to mention those from Holland and Denmark that were unable to obtain them. Read more »

Marketing Excellence Rewarded With Second Award

Ralli continued a successful start to 2010 with Marketing Executive, Robert Illidge, awarded a Commendation in the Emerging Marketer of the Year category.

Robert was awarded for embracing web 2.0 strategies allowing Ralli to share our expertise using digital outlets and establishing an excellent social media presence, including the use of Twitter and LinkedIn.

The results of the 2010 Drum Marketing Awards were revealed at the gala black tie awards ceremony held at the Ramada Manchester, rewarding those who had shown marketing excellence. Read more »

Respect My Authoritah! Viacom adds spice to YouTube lawsuit

Rob Illidge (Marketing Execuitve)

I read in the Times this morning that Viacom have now alleged that the use of copyrighted material was central to YouTube’s website business model.

This of course is in relation to the argument that the content-sharing website had hosted more than 60,000 copyrighted videos without authorisation, including versions of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and South Park.

The figure of the lawsuit? $1bn! Surely plucked out of American lawsuit heaven.

It could be sadi that perhaps back in 2005 YouTube had a visitor’s first/worry about copyright infringement later attitude. Something I’m sure many young  inspiring online entrepreneurs do.

I’m not in any way condoning the breach of copyright; although I do have my trusty Intellectual Property Solicitor here at the ready, should the Viacom heavies come knocking at my door. Not tonight though, I’ll be out!

There is no doubt that these videos are property of Viacom, but surely YouTube is simply giving shows like South Park the product extension that it needs? Read more »

Twitter, Advertising and UGG Boots

Rob Illidge (Marketing Executive)

Search-based ads will use DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology to scan a users tweets and relay ‘relevant’ and targeted ads back.

I suppose you could argue what is the problem with that? If I was desperately seeking an Employment Solicitor, not that I would , and vented my frustrations via Twitter, I would be more than happy to have a targeted ad from a Manchester based Solicitor delivered.

After all I’m using their platform so they are entitled to pursue revenue in this way.

Then there is the privacy issue. There’s always a privacy issue.

Why should Twitter ‘bombard’ users with ads that may not be relevant? And what if these ads take me to somewhere I thought I was buying ‘genuine UGG boots’ from, and ultimately ruin my online experience as a result. Read more »

Can Toyota be successful in brand damage limitation?

Rob Illidge (Marketing Execuitve)

In response to Jonathan Hemus’ article on TheDrum.co.uk

http://bit.ly/bCjGqJ

Despite the obvious death and lawsuit on Toyota’s hands, I believe they have been somewhat successful in their brand damage limitation.

I was always taught that there are two main ways to deal with a crisis PR situation: Read more »