"Tipping Point" In Plain And Simple

You all probably know the classic product adoption curve:



Malcolm Gladwell improved this graph in his book "Tipping Point" and made it more realistic by putting a gap between early adopters and pragmatists:



The thing is that early adopters' and pragmatists' consumer behaviour is so different that there is no smooth change-over. You have to somehow overcome this gap, usually by being consistent, introducing and explaining your product to the wider audience 24/7 and having a strong belief in what you are doing. Its not an easy journey, but a highly rewarding one.

Check out this YouTube video and note, how long it takes for those two guys (one being the starter and the other an early adopter) to get the first crew of pragmatists following and how easy things get from there on.

F1 Teams vs. Haute Couture Brands

As you know, F1 is all about big money and blinding glam. When watching the Silverstone GP, I tried to analyze the image of each of the teams and match them to haute couture brands respectively.

So, here it goes:

Brawn GP - DKNY, Alexander McQueen

Team, who hasn't built a clear image yet, due to their novelty. I emanated from keywords progressive, youthful, good bang for the buck.

Red Bull - Diesel, JC de Castelbajac

Keywords are crazy, innovative and distinctive obviously.

Toyota - Hugo Boss, Jill Sander

They have piles of dough but spend it extremely thoughtfully. So the keywords are refined, civilized and non-risk taking.

McLaren - Ermenegildo Zegna, Burberry

McLaren's extremely long traditions bring the keywords like gentelmenly fine taste, heritage-aware progressive mindset and hedonism to mind.

Renault - Lacoste, Marc Jacobs

Known geezer-gigiolo Briatore has a great effect in modelling Renault's image with his vital way of living. So, refined sportiness and trendy free-living.

BMW Sauber - Lanvin, Hermes

BMW's white Motorsport car design has been always respected. Brand-awareness, minimal but clearly distinguished style and modest, yet classy appearance.

Ferrari - Cavalli, Etro

Team, who's staff makes hair gel producers rich. Italians, you see. Short-tempered, agressive, with in your face attitude.

Williams - Valentino, Varvatos

Williams has never put any emphasis on their image. Still, I emenated from modesty, quality and hardheadness.

Toro Rosso - Dsquared, Hilfiger

Red Bull's second team. Image, of course, is pretty much the same, but brands should be a little more ordinary compared to their first team.

Force India - Yudashkin, Yamamoto

Bollywood! No matter how hard they try to match European style, continuous faux-pas's are inevitable.

Style example from French nobleman, the marquess of Morocco Jean-Charles de Castelbajac:

3D Illusion

Lets talk about street art for a while. A guy named Julian Beever does incredible 3D drawings on the pavement. They are so realistic that its very easy to fall for those illusions. You don't have to be a rocket-scientist to see how your BTL campaign could benefit from these.

Red Bull's Great Nascar Event

After motocross stunts and airplane races, Red Bull returns with another media success! This time they participate in the very popular NASCAR race, America’s favorite automobile sport.
On June 11th, the popular driver Brian Vicker and his car (the most famous one, bearing the Red Bull colors) took over 7th Avenue in New York. The crowd was treated to be able to see the crazy race along the avenue. The brand pushed the concept to the very end, as there even was a pit stop where a crew changed the tires of the car before it sped off again!

The street marketing concept seemed to have impressed the spectators a great deal, and broadcasting it on the Internet allowed it to reach a wider audience. The YouTube views so far aren’t very impressive (100,000), but perhaps the real buzz hasn’t begun yet...

All in all, a campaign that amusingly plays off the energetic and extreme Red Bull image. It lives up to its saying, "Red Bull gives you wiiiiiings!"

VIA Culture-Buzz.com

Mass Marketing vs. BTL

Mass marketing is like a sledgehammer, BTL is like a scalpel. The question is, wether you want to smash your customer's head or give her a nose lift.

What do you think she likes best?

I Shot the Sheriff

Campaign against illegal firearms in Toronto.

Sixt Is In The Air

Mass media channels are getting more and more cheaper so pretty much everyone can afford to promote themselves on some kind of pillar. Therefore even Sixt, one of the largest car rental service providers, has difficulties to stand out from this neon razzmatazz. Even if the offering is as appealing as 159 EUR for a new 3-series Beemer.

So, Sixt stopped producing dumb placards and installed 5 powerful WiFi devices in Hamburg airport, naming these free networks with the names of their offerings.

Thats how it looked like:

Marketing for Dummies

For marketing dummies: here's a good video showing what marketing has become.

Top 5 Tips When Creating a BTL Campaign in Nordic Region

Nordic Region in Europe holds tons of potential in marketing whatever you have to sell. Why?

1) People are wealthy, especially in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
2) Incredibly high internet penetration, reaching 80%
3) People are used to purchasing over the internet
4) Open-minded
5) They speak English really well

So, here comes Pentagon's top tips when marketing in/to Nordic region

1) Keep your design simple, minimal and tidy. Nordic region is world-famous for its product design, so you really can't allow any faux-pas designwise. Take a look at Bang&Olufsen, Iittala and Marimekko for a clear hint.

2) Be self-ironic. People there are often sort of uncommunicative and don't appreciate simplistic rhetorics. So the best way to open them up is to show that you don't take yourself too seriously. Exaggerations are a big no-no.

3) Make your point fast, but with a twist. Nordic people want to get a clear picture of what you are offering at a glance, but at the same time they hate boredom. So add a little pixilated, yet tasteful touch to it.

4) Although they are open-minded, they tend to be hardfisted. So you must break their suspicion. Good way of doing this is to clearly communicate that you are a) an international company with a proven record b) a small start-up with an incredible product (btw, they love start-ups) c) an opinion leader who really cares what his followers have to say.

5) Don't act like you know everything and order them to follow you. Nordic people want to be engaged to your product, not just buy/use it. So they expect really personal approach with an excellent customer care. Seems like pain in the ass? It isn't really, because that kind of interaction allows you to gather tons of extremely useful feedback to improve your services. Don't be afraid in losing them. Once they're your customers, they show extreme brand loyalty.

Pope Wears Prada

Can you hold a candle to Pope Benedict XVI when it comes to marketing and trendsetting?


Apparently Jesus Christ has delegated the guidance of his lambs to a real innovator. In addition to the scarlet Prada shoes, which have become an inseparable part of his image, the Pope has recently launched a site called Pope2you, filled with holy applications for Facebook, iPohone etc.

So now you can livestream Vatican's Masses, keep track of Pope's life and send his postcards to your friends via Facebook. In addition to that, the Pope as a contemporary person has set up his very own Vatican YouTube channel:

So the moment of truth. Who is trendier - you or the Vatican. You may exclude the shoes from this equation if it makes you feel better.

Kodak Moment

Hilarious BTL solution from Frankfurt, Germany. This is a good example how you can turn pretty much everything around you into a marketing message. Just a bit of creativity and out of the box thinking required.

Basketball Goes Viral

Here are some viral underground videos, showing what Kobe does in his free time. Gentlemen Knight, Bowerman and Parker vigorously deny any Nike commitment to these clips, but hey, they really don't expect us to believe that, do they?





This links superbly to Japanese basketball team Ryuku Golden Kings alternative solution to get people into buying season tickets for their games.

Marketing in Hattori Hanzo Style

I bet you've all seen the magnificent series of BMW short promotional films (8 all together) starring Clive Owen, James Brown, Madonna, Gary Oldman etc. But how many of you know, that Pirelli, more known for their sexy calendars and less known for their tyres, have produced their own movie with Uma Thurman, the star of Kill Bill.



Unfortunately, they didn't get this viral campaign going as it was supposed to, but a nice try anyway.

BTL Circus on Picadilly

Ever felt like Ronald McDonald? Ever wanted to? Well, Mickey D seems to be looking for a fresh talent.



Good idea, but how the hell did the by-passers figure it out? Many BTL solutions are a bit too complicated to comprehend at a glance, so some paid actors could be necessary to "introduce" the idea to the wider audience.

MC Hammer Hammers a Flash Mob

The guy on the picture is MC Hammer who's "Can't Touch This" still hammers in the heads of 90's dance music lovers.

Mr. Hammer was notorious because of his extremely fly lifestyle. He had a 12M USD house, a Boeing 727, two helicopters and 300-person staff on the payroll. With the fadeout of his talent, this extreme spending stopped.

You can take the boy out of the hood but can't take the hood out of the boy. So, MC Hammer continues to be a bold guy and promotes his new talk-show Hammertime on A&E TV with a brilliant self-ironic Flash Mob:

Video was uploaded on 4th June and has gathered approximately 1,2M views since then.