Kevin Murphy Media Views

Media Week: January 8th 2010 Murphy joins Universal McCann Central

2010-01-08T12:35:00.003Z

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The Drum: Universal McCann Birmingham hires new Managing Director

2009-12-31T15:29:00.004Z

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It's always a tough decision to leave a new job early. I thought Mindshare was and is a fantastic agency and I learned a lot in a short time. However the structure of the role was not right for me. So, when the opportunity to join Universal McCann arose - a role I had enquired about before contacting Mindshare - I had to make that tough decision.

I'm really excited to be at UM and I look forward to an exciting 2010.

Happy New Year / Decade!

Revolution: Future 50. July / August Issue 2009

2009-07-22T11:46:00.003+01:00

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The brief for Revolution's "Future 50" was to members of Reolution's Power 50 to find upcoming digital stars. I was really impressed with the success of AudioBoo, particularly how it has already become a useful tool for journalists at the Guardian, most notably at the recent G8 summit. So this lead to my choice of Daniel Heaf, who is part of 4iP.

Campaign: Does adland need Phorm? 16th Juky 2009

2009-07-22T11:39:00.002+01:00

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NMA: Zed's Murphy moves to Mindshare. July 9th 2009

2009-07-09T16:39:00.001+01:00

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Media Week:Zed joint MD Kevin Murphy quits for Mindshare. July 9th 2009

2009-07-09T12:37:00.002+01:00

Campaign:Zed Media's Murphy to join Mindshare. July 9th 2009

2009-07-09T12:17:00.001+01:00

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Media Week: Coverage of Thinkbox Awards June 2009

2009-07-09T09:58:00.001+01:00

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Thinkbox TV Planning Awards 2009

2009-06-11T11:27:00.004+01:00

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I recently had the pleasure of being invited to be a judge at the recent Thinkbox TV Planning Awards 2009. It was really interesting day and it was inspiring to be judging with such a distinguished group of people, marshalled as ever by the fantastic Tess Alps.

I think generally the best entry in each category in won although I am clearly biased as I think that Zed's entry for Best Response Campaign with World Vision should have won!

Looking at the entries I think there is still room for better integration and consideration of online channels when it comes to TV planning, especially search. Whether a campaign has brand or response media objectives TV and search are now inextricably linked. Beyond that display, whether video or otherwise, should always be included as a matter of course. It will be interesting to see if this is more prominent and considered in next year's entries. I'm sure it will be.

Morrison's entry rightly won the grand prix award in my opinion. It was simply an extrememly well thought through and robust piece of planning and, crucially, measurement, with a full range of econometric modelling employed.

A special mention to British Gas' entry which truly was an all-media, integrated campaign as well as an exciting use of TV with its use of advertiser funded content in partnership with CITV.

Finally the TV ad for the Royal Mail's Smiler campaign is still making me laugh. It's nearly as good as Alexsandr the Meerket in Zed client Comparethemarket.com's advertising. Nearly!

Here's Royal Mail Smiler Ad http://tinyurl.com/6rdf77

and as if you haven't seen it, the latest comparethemarket ad http://tinyurl.com/ddny3e

Kevin

Campaign: Forum - Is Twitter right to reject ads? 28th May 2009

2009-05-28T16:06:00.004+01:00

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Media Week Off the fence: Will Project Canvas deliver on its commercial potential? May 27th 2009

2009-05-27T15:32:00.003+01:00

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Revolution: Will You Tube ever become profitable? May 2009 Issue

2009-05-27T15:27:00.003+01:00

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Media Week: Off the fence "Can newspaper charging for online content work?" 21st April 2009

2009-04-22T11:24:00.004+01:00

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Mediatel: Coverage of Future Of Research panel appearance. April 2nd 2009

2009-04-08T17:38:00.006+01:00

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NMA: Ad-funded music. March 19th 2005

2009-04-08T17:35:00.002+01:00

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NMA: Spotify expands ad targeting as user numbers top 1m. March 5th 2009

2009-04-08T17:33:00.001+01:00

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Spotify: The latest demonstration of all that is great about the internet

2009-03-04T12:01:00.003Z

So far I’ve I think Spotify have done a really good job of building an enticing and original proposition and building a reputation in influential social circle such as the digital media world.

The premise demonstrates one of the things I love most about the internet – how an entrepreneurial spirit can combine with creative thinking and marketing to provide a useful and original offering for consumers in an engaging community environment. In all of these ways, Spotify fits the bill.

Marketers know that sampling can still be a tremendously powerful touchpoint. It still remains a powerful statement of brand confidence. This essentially is what Spotify offers along with an immediate revenue stream for the record labels who allow their artist’s music to be played.

It is a controlled environment where a significant volume of music is available to listen to for free, with a restricted number of radio style ads played in between tracks alongside other display opportunities which can be linked directly to itunes or label websites. This is a very powerful direct response add on-as it allows the AIDA model to be followed in its entirety in the space of minutes.

Even without the display link it is still easy to capitalise on interest and buy legally. I listened to Elbow on Spotify after hearing lots of hype and within minutes I had bought the album. Other bands such as Glasvegas are now on my radar. Like many I also took advantage of the Guardian offer to exclusively hear the new U2 album which was marketing masterstroke to take Spotify closer to the mainstream.

Another clever promotional move was the invite only access during beta testing. This was particularly successful in getting the digerati talking and taunting about in on their blogs or on Twitter, thus creating desire and getting the offering into the minds of the right advertising influencers.

Currently I find the current balance of audio ads to be about right. They are unobtrusive and in these early days I have particularly noticed the ads that have aired, most noticeably ads from the COI. So in these early days there is an opportunity for brands to cut through and be associated with a new and exciting offering.

Do I think it will cut back on music piracy? Probably not. Commenting on an article on Times Online about U2’s piracy problems, a postgrad said students “Download enormous amounts of music illegally. But we buy what we like.”

However making it so easy to trial and purchase music legally is certainly a positive move from the record companies. I think the model will generate more sales from existing legitimate music buyers and encourage new music to be given sustained exposure. As the same postgrad says “I am considered a pirate because I like to hear the album before I buy it.”

By being able to build and share playlists and recommendations Spotify is enabling a music community of advocacy, sampling and if the music is good enough, purchase. It is also developing more sophisticated targeting opportunities, including by region so that the advertising element can also be successful in its own right. It has all the ingredients to be a success and I hope it is.

NMA: Joining in the social revolution. February 26th 2009

2009-03-04T11:57:00.004Z

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Media Week: Meet the bosses: the UK's top 20 media agencies. February 2009

2009-03-01T22:24:00.002Z

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2009-03-01T22:22:00.000Z

Media Week: Will mobile measurement prompt a significant rise in ad spend? February 25th 2009

2009-03-01T17:31:00.003Z

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Brand Republic: Opinion: Surprisingly integration is still a hot topic. December 22nd 2008

2009-03-01T17:18:00.003Z

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Campaign: The A List 2009

2009-01-21T14:10:00.006Z

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NMA: Advertisers far from convinced by You Tube ad deal. November 20th 2007

2009-01-21T14:00:00.003Z

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Media Week Off The Fence: Is sales satisfactory at digital media owners. November 11th 2007

2009-01-21T13:56:00.003Z

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Marketing Direct: The Direct Route to the Polling Booth. November 3rd 2007

2009-01-21T13:50:00.008Z

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Campaign: Forum - Is Platform A a milestone

2008-10-24T11:45:00.003+01:00

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Marketing Week: Letter "Agencies and clients must work together"

2008-10-24T11:41:00.003+01:00

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Media Week: Direct's digital halo effect

2008-10-21T11:29:00.004+01:00

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Various Sources: Zed wins Butlins Media Account

2008-10-21T11:15:00.003+01:00

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Mediatel - A time for confidence and consideration

2008-10-20T10:54:00.002+01:00

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NMA: Top Media Agencies

2008-10-07T09:37:00.002+01:00

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NMA: Life after BPF

2008-10-01T11:07:00.001+01:00

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Brand Republic: Be a data-driven Indiana Jones

2008-10-01T11:04:00.002+01:00

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Revolution Power 50

2008-07-22T09:14:00.005+01:00

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It was a nice surprise to be ranked with Paul at nuber 36 in Revolution's Power 50, a table of the most influential people in digital marketing in the UK. A nice surprise as I don't believe we actually entered it. Whilst I will allow myself a little smile as my predecessor Greg only managed 49th place last year (much to his annoyance), what it is in reality is an endorsement of the tremendous work that everyone in Zed continues to put in and the sustained growth that has been achieved as a result. That is what has generated the reputation that Zed enjoys and that is the reason we were included.

Be a data driven Indiana Jones and find the Kingdom of the Marketing Gold

2008-06-17T11:23:00.000+01:00

Be a data driven Indiana Jones and find the Kingdom of the Marketing Gold

by Kevin Murphy

Data. Is there a duller word in the world? “Timesheets” maybe? Beyond that, for many there is no duller concept than data especially in an industry that is, if you believe in all these psychometric tests that everyone seems to do, full of “expressive” types who find the requirement of deep attention to detail their equivalent of garlic to a vampire. The concept of reams and reams of numbers that people have to sift through in the hope of finding a trend gets many of us snoozing before they even get to the end of this sentencezzzzzzzzzz. It’s not just agency types. For many clients the need to provide high quality data can be extremely time consuming and ultimately something they have neither the time nor the strength for, especially if they are dealing with collection of disparate legacy databases which would require involving other departments including, oh lord no, I.T.

Furthermore, in my fifteen years in this industry I have also seen clients who seemed almost afraid to get high quality data in as if it would just expose flaws in their marketing strategy rather than provide a genuine opportunity to learn and improve the next campaign. This leads to comments such as “econometrics is too ‘black box’” or a “commitment” to brand tracking that only happens once a year. From all groups there can be too much post rationalising of results that lead to repeat or middle of the road strategies which invariably generates the same or even diminishing returns even though targets inevitably get tougher year on year. Maybe the problem is that “accountability rivals “data” for the most boring word in the universe?

The truth is that clients and agencies need to think about the future. Not only is data here to stay, it is going to become even more critical. The digitisation and therefore “datarization” (TM K Murphy) of media continues plus there are emerging digital channels such as mobile and IPTV coming over the horizon.. In addition online technologies such as ad serving innovations like Doubleclick’s Exposure to Conversion reporting is generating additional and more sophisticated data that could radically change how campaigns are planned and evaluated. There is a tidal wave of data sweeping through marketing land and it is the companies who can harness that flood without being washed away who will win. Now that’s not a dull sentence is it? So maybe it’s time for the data process to be rebranded or at least reinvented in the mind of clients and agency planners. After all Indiana Jones made archaeology exciting didn’t he? That’s just about digging in dirt for fossils or inanimate objects. I’m not saying we should all don a fedora and sing rousing theme tunes as we work, though if that works for you then go for it. However I do think attitudes and priorities need to change because the agency of the future will need to have data, not digital, at its heart. Now where did I put my bullwhip?

Media Week: Off the fence - Should IPG merge its two media shops

2008-06-10T12:05:00.002+01:00

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Revolution: "Integrated agencies will prove a serious threat to specialists"

2008-04-10T21:35:00.004+01:00

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Media Week: Premier league beckons for agencies

2008-03-07T14:11:00.003Z

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Campaign: Is it best to integrate digital?

2008-02-14T10:58:00.002Z

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It's understandable that digital specialists are going to fight tooth and nail to try and use the media to argue the relevancy of their offering in an ever increasingly integrated media background. Unfortunately they are merely fiddling while Rome burns. The reality is that major clients such as O2, BT, AA to name but three know that it is plain common sense to have a centralised structure that can be planning and delivery neutral and co-ordinated together to esnure maximum cross media uplift efficiencies. It's easy for them to kid themselves and say it is entirely down to economies of scale regarding the buying, but that's like trotting out the "we came a close second" or "the other agency dropped their pants on remuneration" after every pitch loss. We are talking experienced clients who have been around long enough to know that it doesn't matter how long cheaply media can be bought if it is the wrong media for achieving strategic goals. Obviously some clients may well be purely interested in rates if agencies cannot demonstrate exceptional planning skills and strategies, but that is an agency's challenge and has been for years.

The other challenge for "traditional" agencies is to live the all media promise and ensure that the development of strategy and implementation is truly joined up. They must also ensure that they acquire or develop strong digital and integrated knowedge and craft skills because if they get clients interested in an integrated solution but then can't deliver equal quality across all channels, they will lose credibility very quickly and set their crediblity cause back significantly. Fortunately at Zed, we are perfectly positioned because we have embraced digital since it's rise to prominence and we immediately positioned it with other media channels. This cross pollinated understanding between on and off line and enabled neutral thinking and understanding. This is why I feel extremely confident for the future of our agency and this is why digital specialists should be concentrating on finding close strategic partnerships with agencies who can help them be part of an all media offering.

Media Week: Zed announces new management tier

2008-02-05T21:22:00.001Z

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Media Week: Is there a future for Digital Specialists?

2008-01-30T12:42:00.001Z

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Media Week profile of Zed's new Joint Managing Directors

2008-01-30T12:37:00.000Z

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Media Week coverage of promotion

2008-01-30T12:33:00.000Z

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Precision Marketing announces promotion

2008-01-30T12:31:00.000Z

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News of my promotion to Joint Managing Director

2008-01-30T12:27:00.000Z

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Clearly this has been the most satisfying event in my career. It will obviously be very hard work but it will be a challenge I will relish

Campaign's Top 10 Media Planners 2007 - December 13th 2007

2007-12-17T10:56:00.000Z

This week I was fortunate enough to be listed amongst Campaign's Top 10 Media Planners of 2007. It was a great surprise and from a personal perspective it was an excellent end to a very hard-working year.

From a company viewpoint, 2007 saw Zed once again achieve all it set out to do and more. That's three fantastic years of growth, winning new business and awards (including NMA's Grand Prix award for best campaign of the year for NSPCC in 2007) and most importantly hitting all our targets. I'm really proud to have been part of the Zed team during that time and it's been great to see so many talented people throughout the agency continuing to fulfil their potential and yet still strive to achieve more.

Looking forward to 2008 it's clear that having worked on several successful pitches over the last twelve months including The Open University's digital account, the multi-media National Trust pitch and most happily the BGL (including Comparethemarket.com) multi-media pitch, it is clear that the ability to deliver integrated media solutions is as important as it ever was. This will be no different in 2008. In fact if the long awaited emergence of mobile and IPTV actually happens then integration will be an even hotter topic, if that's possible. With that being the case then I'm confident the structure and people development programme that has been set up in Zed will enable us to be in a better position than ever to deliver best in class multi media solutions.

A very happy Christmas and best wishes for 2008.

Marketing Week thought piece: "When it comes to digital the keyword is still "integration"

2007-11-02T11:39:00.000Z

This was a thought piece for Marketing Week that discussed the importance of offline media in generating sales that are converted through brand keywords. The problem for the industry has been the "last click wins" model of search doesn't account for other on and offline activity that pushed the consumer to that final search for a specific brand name. In fact the issue isn't unique to search. The whole direct response analysis system as it was from the old day before online is also suffering from the now outdated concept that a key code or unique telephone number can sufficiently assign the correct acclaim to the media that caused the "direct response". To that end I have been a staunch advocate of econometric modelling. Sometimes the cost of the work isn't cheap but to me it's an essential part of any marketing budget.

As far as this article was concerned, I think it's a very welcome development that companies such as Atlas and Dart are looking at variations on exposures to conversion tracking. Hopefully this means that in six months times we can be talking about very different observations about the relationship between brand and generic keywords, display and search and good old online and offline

NMA Top 100 Agencies Report

2007-09-27T13:47:00.001+01:00

Due to a variety of circumstances including SOX compliance and the timing of the release of our official figures (12/06 are the published figures), the real up to date figure is nearly double the published figure.

Pitch win news: Open University Digital account. Campaign August 2nd 2007

2007-08-02T11:20:00.000+01:00

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Thought Piece: "Are we losing our anonymity as avertisers uncover our habits?" - NMA August 1st 2007

2007-08-01T10:59:00.001+01:00

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This was an edited version of a longer piece. The full version follows:

"Will online measurement kill self expression?"
Monkey is a digital-only men’s magazine based on print rivals Nuts and Zoo. It’s full of scantily clad girls. It can graphically mimic pages being turned by dragging a mouse from right to left across the screen. I was reading it yesterday and the pages stuck together. I thought, "How ironic." Despite all the talk of online innovation many consumer habits will stay the same.
Upon this realisation, I began having flashbacks. The first took me those early heady days as an online newbie. I eagerly embraced these new "chat rooms" geekily talking about Star Wars or Liverpool FC. I created my own online name so no one knew me which meant best of all, no one pre-judged me for being called Kevin. No jibes about having a ford Capri, fluffy dice and a rat named Roland as a friend. For the first time in my life I could talk freely without judgement. I was free. Released from the shackles and burdens of my real life baggage I knew this interweb thing was going to be the social meting pot of the future.
Back in the present I savoured my nostalgic glow before flashing back to a focus group I attended last week. It was analysing people’s opinions and behaviours when using search engines and aggregator sites. Safely hidden behind a one way mirror, my chilli chicken was surprisingly good and my bottle of Kronenberg was disappointingly warm.
The first wannabe alpha male soon piped up. He consults the internet but he still likes to pick up the phone and speak to humans before a purchase. When the rest of the sniggering group disagreed with him he visibly shrunk, back-pedalled with panache and boldly reinvented himself as an online die hard. We relocated him at a PC to observe how he really formulated his shopping list and it wasn’t long before he was nervously looking for a phone.
As I downed another beer and impressively commented on the fascinating convention of peer pressure, someone said "and he’s not even thinking about who’s watching him from behind the glass."
Back in present time, as I gave up trying to un-stick my Monkey, I pondered on the societal straightjackets of real life compared Online’s offer of liberation. I thought of the back-peddler, "How long will it be before he finds himself on Second Life, probably as "Tallulah" the six foot blonde who likes wearing short skirts?" (By the way, if you pick a Second Life avatar that is exactly like yourself in real life does that make you a narcissist or very dull? If your application is rejected does that answer my first question?)
There is a "however" brewing. However is the internet really this anonymous sanctuary? Online measurement is becoming ever more sophisticated with "last click wins" methodology being replaced by user clickstreams; media planners can choose behavioural, sequential and re-targeting methods to serve consumer ads based on their online movements. Search engines with varying degrees of secret methodology and up to eighteen months of data on your personal search activity are buying third party adserving companies on their quest to ensure that they can potentially know EVERYTHING about your online life. You see whilst online users revelled in being their true selves for once in their lives, all along there was someone behind the one-way mirror watching and noting their every move, and they’re getting better at it.
It could get worse. Phil from Norwich likes a few sneaky looks at adult websites. The next day his girlfriend borrows his laptop and everywhere she goes she is served adult ads. Horrified she rows with Phil. Phil ends up sleeping on the couch. The next day, tired and mortified, he deletes his cookies and browsing history. A week later his missus warily uses his laptop again to search for "shoes" on Google. Being pre-emptive and not confined by cookies or browser deletion, the second she presses "s", Google lists all the "s" words Phil has been using and "sexy blondes" shows up. His missus is a brunette. She is not his missus anymore.
Will our deepest, truest, most private aspects of our personalities, now unleashed online spill into our non-virtual lives? Sharon from Surrey gets served ads relating to her secret gambling habit, Norah from Nottingham sees multiple dating site ads on her husband’s PC. What if Cosmopolitan or Men’s Health write an article on "how to know what your partner is doing online"? Suddenly a legion of suspicious partners wants to know why the house PC has no browsing history. These "outed" people can no longer trust their computers anymore and change their behaviour. Can open, worms everywhere. They either stop going to certain places or visit lots of random sites to throw the ad targeting systems off the trail. Yahoo’s already offer behavioural targeting with the strapline "She’s moving house. But of course you already knew that".
What next? Will pop-up blockers be replaced by programs that randomly visit sites to smokescreen people’s true activity? What happens to these new targeting systems then? Cookies can be deleted but they’ll evolve beyond layman understanding. A USA company, United Virtualities have already developed the controversial "Persistent Identification Element" (PIE). A backup ID system for cookies, they are tagged to the user's browser, providing each with a unique ID just like traditional cookie coding. However, PIEs cannot be deleted by any commercially available anti-spyware, mal-ware, or adware removal program. They will even function at the default security setting for Internet Explorer
There are two types of PIES, and AccuCounter PIE, a cookie replacement that counts unique users accurately and a backup PIE: a PIE that not only counts unique users but also recognizes the visitor and restores any erased cookies. Spooked by the connotations of such inventions, one market analyst commented ""If you're going to get in a war with the consumer, you'll lose. PIE is a ludicrous concept."
Where does it end? It ends with men having a "secret laptop" hidden at the back of the wardrobe that they sneak out when their partners aren’t around. You see, despite all the talk of online innovation many consumer habits will stay the same.
This isn’t about identity fraud, it’s less obvious. It’s about society, embarrassment and affected behaviour. This will make advertiser’s jobs harder. Cookie deletion already skews unique user figures. A Comscore white paper stated that 30% of consumers regularly delete cookies and one person could be counted 4.5 times a month. This means real figures and frequency setting strategies are inaccurate. Also, check out Dave Chase’s article on the future of media, targeting and Google in 2010 http://www.imediaconnection.com/. This future is approaching fast. Will online measurement kill self expression or kill our ability to effectively market to the online community? The answer is yet to emerge.

Word of mouth: Branding Talks - Media Week 17th July 2007

2007-07-23T11:17:00.001+01:00

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Analysis: Paying over the odds for digital skills

2007-07-10T11:32:00.000+01:00

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Slightly misquoted and wrong job title

Off the fence - Media Week 28th March 2007

2007-04-05T16:22:00.000+01:00

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Search letter - NMA 25th October 2006

2007-04-05T16:21:00.000+01:00

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"Come together" - Direct Response Magazine October 2006

2007-04-05T16:19:00.000+01:00

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"The right mix" - Direct Response Magazine October 06

2007-04-05T16:16:00.000+01:00

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Digital Talent - Media Week 1st October 2006

2007-04-05T16:14:00.000+01:00

Click image to read. I haven't uploaded the full article, just my comment.

L'oreal conference coverage - Creative Head magazine

2007-04-05T16:12:00.000+01:00

Click image to read. Best magazine title ever. This covered my speech on database marketing at a L'Oreal conference in Rapello, Italy. Good gig.

2007-04-05T16:09:00.000+01:00

Click images to read. I was really pleased with this piece. Sir Martin Sorrell, Maurice Levy and yours truly. Not bad company.

Strategy Verdict, Coca-Cola Website - Media Week August 2006

2007-04-05T16:08:00.000+01:00

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Double standards - Campaign 17th March 2006

2007-04-05T16:07:00.000+01:00

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"Can online ad spend ever be tallied?" NMA 16th March 2006

2007-04-05T16:05:00.000+01:00

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"Lack of reliable data on online a spend is crippling growth" - NMA 9th March 2006

2007-04-05T16:04:00.000+01:00

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Off the fence - Media Week 21st February 2006

2007-04-05T16:02:00.000+01:00

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"Take account of all market lines" - Precision Marketing 4th November 2005

2007-04-05T15:58:00.000+01:00

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Creative Masterclass - Direct Response Magazine October 2005 issue

2007-04-05T15:56:00.001+01:00

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"Dilemma" - Media Week 2nd October 2005

2007-04-05T15:50:00.000+01:00

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"The big noises in online adland" The Independent Media Weekly 31st October 2005

2007-04-05T15:48:00.000+01:00

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Announcing the Kaleidoscope pitch win - Media Week 6th September 2005

2007-04-05T15:41:00.000+01:00

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My Media Week - Published in Media Week 19th July 2005

2007-04-05T15:35:00.000+01:00

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Welcome to my media views blog

2007-04-05T15:14:00.000+01:00

Hello and many thanks for looking up my media views blog.

The ambitions are minimal, record any views of mine that are aired in the trade press. In the optimistic event of having time on my hands I'll try and adopt modern marketing ploys such as bespoke content.

Regards,

Kevin