The Bottom Rung » Research

Burger King in Global Taste Test

Angus Gastle — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:20:48 +0000

In search of a truly valid taste test, the King took their burgers around the globe looking for people who have not been subjected to American culture.

Once again, Crispin proves that commercials without scripts are especially evocative. No director or writer could conceive the types of reactions these people give to the Whopper. The simple fact that they didn’t know how to hold it left me in awe.

Source: Whopper Virgins

NoahBrier.com

Angus Gastle — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:00:42 +0000

Great presentation on SEO optimization. Also a great exercise in personal branding and getting your name out into the blogosphere.

Bright kid, nice work!

Source: NoahBrier.com

What is Web 2.0?

Angus Gastle — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:58:53 +0000

From one of our favourite blogs:

“We’re a little late on this one, but it’s worth mentioning anyway because finally there’s a way to express the impact and meaning of Web 2.0 without verbally fumbling with “blogs,” “collaboration,” “synergy” and other bullshit buzz we’ve been hammered with and hammering others with so relentlessly.

After some trial and error, anthro professor Mike Wesch has perfected his text-based thesis on the evolution of the word, technology and ourselves in Web 2.0.

Definitely worth the watch. The progression from paper to text is a little painful if you’ve seen it 34598349058 times like we have, but it’s nonetheless an elegant process and the ending is still pretty moving. Thanks Lee Hopkins for tipping us off.

Now Wesch can roll up his sleeves and start on his next project: Web 3.0, a web far more tangly than the one we’ve just finished weaving. But it isn’t just around the corner, it’s pretty much already here.”

SPAM vs. Email advertising

Angus Gastle — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:41:17 +0000

Have you ever stopped to read a spam message? It may look something like this, (actual message from my gmail account).

Subject: Adobe Adobe Professional

Body: Cheap chaep Adobe products!!! Click here best price on all software. (link removed) Adobe Professsional $199.99 USD. Limited time offer!!!!

Like 99% of other computer users, I just delete the messages before I even read them. According to CudaMail.com, it costs companies like Leo Burnett Canada about $50,000 a year. Even if their employees are deleting the emails without opening them. However, it only costs serious spammers about $0.0125/message to flood our inboxes with emails hocking everything from Viagra to Vicodin.

The sad part is that some people still fall for these scams. Just how many? Let’s look at the math.

The serious spammer sends upwards of 100,000,000 emails* at a time using a variety of methods including zombie networks at an approx. cost of .00125/email:

100,000,000 x $0.0125 = $125,000 to send the email that tried to sell me Adobe Professional.

At that rate, they would need <1% to reply in order to break even. Not bad odds.

So what does this have to do with advertising? Well, our legit email marketing campaigns are getting caught up with all of this spam. Many spam filters are collecting our perfectly crafted sales pitches for real products with real benefits much like this one. Marketers are spending thousands on messages that might not ever see the eyes of their consumers!

If you have not started doing so, forward the suspicious messages you receive to http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ as they will use the messages to track down and prosecute the spammers. And hopefully, we can start to win the fight against spam!

* Does that number seem high? AOL blocks up to 10 Billion Spam messages per day!

Trends in Organic Cotton

Angus Gastle — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:56:10 +0000

Continuing on from Jason’s Post, the green movement truly is the wave of the future. But I’d like to talk more specifically about Organic Cotton. In 2006, sales in the organic cotton market nearly doubled to ~$1.1 Billion with international retailers like Walmart and Nike starting to really push their organic clothing lines and offers. As the market ~~grows~~ explodes, it will be interesting to see how retailers react.

Organic Cotton Market:

2001	2005
100+ SMB Retailers	30+ Major Retailers
Global Sales $245 Mil.	Global Sales $583 Mil.
Demand 5,720 Metric Tons	Demand 32, 326 Metric Tons
Supply 6,480	Supply 31,017 Metric Tons

Let me also mention that the market is growing 110% annually and is projected to be $2.6 Billion by 2008 which is an increase of 116%. In addition, by 2008 consumers are expected to be consuming 99,662 Metric Tons which is an annual growth of 75%. Therefore, it is sufficient to say that the players in the organic market are set to reap a large ROI.

Interestingly enough, the top consumer of organic cotton is Nike followed closely by Coop Switzerland (Grocery Store), Patagonia, Otto (Major German Retailer) and Walmart.

Other big players in the market include H&M with their new H&M organics line, Roots and their 100% environmentally friendly yoga studio, American Apparel and their Sustainable Edition line to name a few. These companies are starting to embrace the needs of their consumers and have the opportunity to corner the market on organic cotton. H&M specifically has a very cool organic baby line that will appeal to all mothers who want the best for the baby. (On that note, congratulations to Neil & Laurie and their new baby boy!!)

As Jason mentioned, pressure from the market is quickly mounting on all companies to employ more environmentally friendly standards and sell products that are better for the earth. The real selling points for me on this discussion are the numbers above. $2.6 Billion by 2008, 110% market growth year-over-year, almost 100,000 metric tons… the numbers are staggering. The opportunities in this arena are huge. Only a handful of companies have made a real commitment to the environment (Patagonia and Cotton Ginny are 100% Organic). With so much demand for organics already and an ever increasing profit margin for the companies that decide to play ball, how much longer can the Walmarts of the world really wait?

Sources: Organic Exchange, Google, Press Releases