Changing the Game of Advertising

This blog post is written from the bottom of my heart out of frustration, satisfaction and out of the ultimate affection I feel for one of our clients. I simply love them as people and as a brand.

Launching Bopmodels

Yesterday we launched an application for Halebop – one of our clients. The application is called Bopmodels and is a data driven user interface for creating advertising. The users are able to use existing data they have published on the web to take charge over how they perceive the Halebop brand.

BopmodelsThis is the first real attempt I have heard of in the world where a company is daring enough to hand over, without limitations (other than porn, violence and bullying), the rights to users to use brand assets in any way they want. What others have been talking so much about for the past few years, Halebop is now doing.

What is being innovative?

Our agency have received some criticism because we are not innovative enough in digital media. I have taken offense by that as we only work with innovation digitally. My take is that anyone can create a campaign that can last a 2 month period backed by a 1 million dollar media investment. However, there are only a handful of people in Sweden who can create a digital concept so strong that it makes its client money. And I don’t mean in the long run. I mean in the direct, measurable, short ROI run.

Halebop is currently strengthening brand equity whilst making more money. That is what advertising should be about and that is what the digital space gives us the possibility to do. Halebop is one of few clients through my 13 years digital career, that I have worked with who fully understands this.

When others just talk about social media, we look two steps ahead and produce something user friendly and exciting from the web of data. You might think that I am punching my chest a bit to much, but seriously, I am sick of people only caring about surface. The future web is not at all about what is seen on the surface, but how you understand, how to use whats beneath the surface. That’s how you’ll be able to make money from digital advertising.

I am talking about conversion rates, sentiment as a measure of engagement, influence measurements, periodic targeting and a million other words I just made up to express all the different applications of user data there is. The beauty of it all is that it is OPT IN all the way. No more spam. All measurable in dollars.

I am tired… I am soo very tired of stupid advertising. And I am happy, I am soooo very happy, that Halebop wanted to take a different route, that they dared to be different. Every single employee of that company is living the Halebop brand. It is for real, and thus this only makes sense.

Bopmodels builds on Q-Engine by Qubator

Another upside of this project has been my collaboration with Qubator. I have worked closely with some of the smartest people I have met in my life. The engineers behind Bopmodels are not only smart, they are also extremely humble. There are so many small things in this project that could have gone extremely wrong, but finally the app was launched and users seem to love it.

I am not at liberty to give you numbers, but I am satisfied. Conversion rates are through the roof. Anyone who knows me, also knows that I am never satisfied.

The next chapter of Honesty/Qubator collaboration is yet to be written, but we have at least two smaller projects that will be launched over the summer and then we are working closely to even further develop the Bopmodels concept with a richer user experience, more content browsing capabilities and a more simplistic user interface. But we’ll have to wait for some more user data in order to decide where people get stuck before making those changes.

Is Advertising dead

Hell no, advertising is flourishing. Social media will never (well… perhaps) be able to replace TV or any other means of communication. We just need to use every media format the way it was intended to be used. You cannot put print online (except if it is in the form of a coupon), you cannot put a flash application in a wallet (oh yeah, they still don’t work in iPhones), you should not put a radio commercial on Spotify (cause it needs to be a commercial made for the spotify format).

We need to start thinking. A creative interface and idea is nothing in the digital space without the mechanics and the tactics. Anyone who have worked long enough in the industry knows this.

Some final thoughts

This blog post, as you can see, is written as much out of frustration as it is written out of love towards one of our clients. Yes, I am frustrated at the industry. I am frustrated that I have been talking about the same things for 6 years and that many companies still choose not to listen because they do not understand, or they do not dare. But I am at the same time SO very happy that some companies embrace innovation, enrich it with their perspectives and ideas, and can work out a solution that is as fitting for them as it is for their users.

Bopmodels is one giant step in the right direction. Are you willing to follow?

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