In the fashion industry image is everything. And Kate Moss, one of the world’s most famous fashion models, benefits from newspaper and magazine column inches touting her as a style icon, to promote her Topshop clothing range.

Her celebrity status and public persona all help to create the sellable brand that is Kate Moss. But what could Kate be doing to market her brand on the internet? Here are five online marketing tips for Kate Moss…

1. An official website
Kate needs her own website which is themed the ‘career of a supermodel’. It should be a portal of Kate’s life and include a career timeline, a profile of the campaigns she appears in and her Topshop collection.

She should also create a dialogue with wannabe models and designers offering tips on how to get into the fashion industry,

2. Social networks
Fancy making friends with Kate? An official profile from which Kate has a dialogue with her fans would help her to connect with an online community.

She would then be able to leverage this community help her in various different ways. For instance, she could ask her online friends to put a Kate Moss for Topshop application on their personal profile.

3. Bury negative web pages

Search for Kate Moss in Google and you get the ‘Cocaine Kate’ story from the Daily Mirror on the first page.

One way Kate could try to bury negative web pages like this is by creating an official website which links to other positive fan websites (read my Tom Cruise example)

4. Viral competition
Kate should celebrate her successful foray into fashion design by offering someone the chance to design part of her collection.

Entrants can be asked to submit a design for a dress in the Topshop collection. Every entrant could then have to rate other entries.

5. Guest blogs
Fashion blogs are becoming increasingly influential. Bloggers are noticing and reporting on trends much quicker than newspapers and magazines.

Kate should guest blog on fashion blogs every few months adding her views and thoughts on what trends she thinks are coming in.

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Usher Raymond, mostly known as just Usher, is an American R&B singer who shot to fame in the UK with his song ‘You Make Me Wanna’.

The US star recently told Sky News that after selling 37 million albums he is concentrating on extending his personal brand as well as his new album Here I Stand.

Usher now has his own branded clothing and aftershave, but are people talking about his clothing line? Does his fragrance have good reviews?

Let’s take a look at how Usher’s extended brand is being perceived online and whether his website adequately promotes these brand extensions.

Usherworld.com
The first graphic on the website contains the motto ‘It is not how famous ur, it’s what ur famous for’. Obviously UR has a double meaning (you are and Usher Raymond). But this strong message on arrival of the website indicates that when you buy into Brand Usher you buy into fame, but fame for a purpose.

When you click to enter the website there’s a promo for Usher’s His & Hers fragrances.

Using his main website to promote the fragrances shows his commitment to his brand extension.

Separate website to promote the Here I Stand album

There is a New Music link on usherworld.com which you would assume would contain promo for his new album Here I Stand. Instead the page says coming soon, which is unusual as he has a standalone website for his music – why is this not linked to?

Usher fragrance perception online
The men’s fragrance gets a 5 star rating on Amazon.com and the women’s fragrance gets two 5 star ratings on the passion for perfume website.

Usher’s Wikipedia entry credits him as a singer and actor. His music and film credits throughout the years are all included, but there is no mention of his clothing or perfume line.

Although the brand extensions have been well received, Brand Usher has a way to go to cohesively tell a story which promotes the music and his foray into fashion and beauty online.

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This year’s Eurovision song contest has caused much controversy after Western European nations were again left out in the cold. X-Factor star Andy Abraham represented the UK and came last, whilst Russia triumphed with their star Dima Bilan.

Dima may have won the contest, but is he more talked about on the internet than our Andy Abraham? I’ve analysed both Eurovision stars to see which of them is most talked about online.

Search results in Yahoo!
Andy Abraham – 687,000
Dima Bilan – 4,000,000
WINNER: Dima Bilan

Stories on Google News
Andy Abraham – 340
Dima Bilan – 446
WINNER: Dima Bilan

YouTube videos
Andy Abraham - 188
Dima Bilan – 2,990
WINNER: Dima Bilan

MySpace friends
Andy Abraham – 2,724
Dima Bilan - 710
WINNER: Andy Abraham

Mentions on blogs
Andy Abraham – 3,964
Dima Bilan – 144,363
WINNER: Dima Bilan

So Dima Bilan is more famous online than Andy Abraham. Of course there is political voting going on but it looks as if Dima has built up a Europe wide online fan base.

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According to the Law of Attraction, you get what you think about (Watch the Michael Losier video below).

So if you say to someone “don’t slam the door”, they will slam the door. But if you ask them to “close the door quietly” they will close the door quietly.

The premise is, think more about what you DO want and less about what you DON’T.

I thought it would be interesting to look at how this law of attraction rule would affect advertising campaigns, which tell us what NOT to do.

Would they work if they told us what TO do instead?

Let’s take a look at this anti binge drinking advert as an example…

The strapline in the advert includes the term “Don’t Be A Drinkhead”. Going by the previous example this would be a akin to the “don’t slam the door” approach rather than “close the door quietly”.

If the main text

“Every night, binge drinkers put themselves at risk getting into illegal taxis”

was rewritten concentrating on the positive, i.e. how the government DOES want us to act, it could read somthing like this…

“Drink safely. Call for a licensed taxi to get home”

But surely by the law of attraction, Drink safely would encourage people to drink.

“Enjoy yourself. Call for a licensed taxi to get home.” would be another option which encourages enjoyment, and safety, without mentioning alcohol.

Basically there would be more focus on what IS wanted (to keep safe) and less on the behaviour that ISN’T (to put yourself at risk).

Government organisations seem to resort to advertising from the negative. Do “Don’t Drink and Drive” and “Stop Smoking” ads really work, or do they actually glamourise and create more drink drivers and smokers?

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In my last study Cheryl Cole beat her Girls Aloud bandmates hands down and was rated the most talked about Girls Aloud star on the internet.

Now I have analysed who is the most talked about royal couple online, Prince William and Kate Middleton or Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy.

Google Search Results
Kate Middleton - 1,220,000
Chelsy Davy - 269,000
Prince William - 6,890,000
Prince Harry - 1,090,000
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton by 84%

Yahoo Images
Kate Middleton - 3,802
Chelsy Davy - 269
Prince William - 112,869
Prince Harry - 12,384
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton by 90%

Wikipedia Activity
Kate Middleton - 6 edits so far this month
Chelsy Davy - 9 edits so far this month
Prince William - 45 edits so far this month
Prince Harry - 15 edits so far this month
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton

Hellomagazine.com profiles
Kate Middleton - 567 words
Chelsy Davy - 464 words
Prince William - 759 words
Prince Harry - 757 words
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton by 8%

Blog mentions in May 2008
Kate Middleton - 1,168
Chelsy Davy - 1,002
Prince William - 11,544
Prince Harry - 3,022
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton by 69%

News mentions in the past week
Prince William & Kate Middleton - 743
Prince Harry & Chelsy Davy - 601
Winner: Prince William & Kate Middleton by 19%

OVERALL WINNER: William & Kate

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I thought it was a really clever marketing tactic for Boots to offer a free £5 facial skincare voucher to everyone who spent over £10.

I looked at almost every item that was on offer when deciding how to use my voucher. And they were items that I would normally walk past!

It was obviously a very successful offer, as most things were out of stock.

Boots is one of the best stores when it comes to offers.

Almost every time I shop there I get a voucher to redeem, and the points add up really quickly.

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Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody.

One of Britain’s biggest reality TV success stories.

The Jade Goody brand was massive. Three highly rated reality TV shows, a salon, a best selling autobiography, a best selling perfume and numerous magazine covers. Jade had it all.

But after the Big Brother racism row, she lost it all.

But it’s 2008 and she wants it back and it looks like she’s going to get it.

She’s been signed up by John Blake for a new, updated autobiography called Jade: Living and Learning - out in October - with the publishers expecting it to sell close to the 90,000 copies that her first book sold.

And with a new perfume titled Controversial out soon, the Jade brand has every opportunity to get back what it had and more.

Who said Jade was damaged goods?

Thing is, the success of the new perfume and book aren’t really that important. What’s key for the longevity of the Jade Goody brand is that she is seen to be doing new things which get talked about more than the racism row, which is getting boring.

If she’s clever there will be something in the book that’s more salacious than the BB row, that the media can pick up on.

Look at Danielle Lloyd. Rarely does anyone mention her behaviour on Big Brother. She managed to eclipse what could’ve killed her career before it started by becoming a pin-up and dating numerous footballers - she gave the media and the public something sexier to concentrate on.

Jade helped sales of newspapers and magazines rocket and there’s nothing to say she can’t work that magic for them, and herself, again. The media is probably waiting for her to do or be involved in something that they can use to bring her back.

Nightclub rows and splits with her boyfriend won’t cut it. She’s going to have to pull something else out of the bag. Once she does, she’ll be back.

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Two parties. One night. Second stop: The BT PodShow launch party at Shoreditch House.

Shoreditch House is erm… very Shoreditch. Too cool for school, rough around the edges but glam enough for the most fabulous glamonistas.

The perfect place then for BT to launch it’s PodShow website BTPodshow.com.

Who would have thought that one of the UK’s most boring corporate brands would align itself to such a trendy London hang out?

Party goers were “treated” to a collection of video podcasts from the website. The sound of the videos was muted and we listened to the tones of the resident DJ.

Zoe and I missed Alexa Chung’s set as we were too busy people watching at The Hoxton Pony launch, but we did spot a very crazy Alice Dellal and her very EC1 crowd out-trendying (is that a word?) everyone and being the epitome of Hoxton cool.

Visit the BT Podshow website.

Click here to read about The Hoxton Pony launch party

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Bad publicity offline has positive effects online.

By reporting ITV’s record fine from Ofcom, the BBC News website has helped ITV.com’s online rating by linking to it.

Every link to ITV.com that Google finds across the web makes ITV.com more important.

And there’s no stronger link than one from one of the UK’s most respected and high profile websites - BBC News.

with every cloud there’s a silver lining, and ITV’s silver lining in this phone scandal debacle, is a web link from the BBC.

(No link is worth a £5.68m fine, but you get my drift)

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This week Tom Cruise launched his new website and appeard on Oprah to celebrate twenty five years of movies.

Apparently all part of a PR campaign to focus Brand Cruise on his acting and away from Scientology.

Tom has to deal with the fact that when you type ‘Tom Cruise’ into Google the third result, after his IMDB and Wikipedia profiles, is the Tom Cruise is Nuts website.

The hate site hasn’t been updated since September 2006, but it’s still up and terribly damaging for Tom’s online reputation.

The internet’s a free world so to speak, and although he could sue or have his lawyers send stern letters, it would be better for Tom’s PR machine to hire the expertise of an SEO (search engine optimisation) expert or Online PR specialist to bury anti-Tom websites.

An SEO/online PR specialist - like moi - has the know how to bury the Tom Cruise is Nuts website by elevating pro-Tom websites to the top of Google’s search results.

Tom’s people need to start linking to Pro-Tom websites from his official website. It kind of works like this…

Blogs and websites, like this one, make tomcruise.com popular by linking to it
Which means...
tomcruise.com becomes popular
So then...
Google will think websites that are featured on tomcruise.com should be popular too
This means that...
It will start to rank websites that are linked to from tomcruise.com higher in the search results than those that aren’t
Which ultimately leads to...
The Tom Cruise is Nuts website, which obviously won’t be linked to from tomcruise.com, disappearing from the top of the search results

That’s the simple version of how to stop Tom Cruise from appearing “nuts” but if you want to know more detail about the dark world of SEO I suggest you read up on it at Wikipedia!

Don’t say I never teach you anything.

Tom on Oprah

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Cheryl Cole IS the most famous Girls Aloud member on the internet.

I analysed everything from how many search results each girl attracted on Google and YouTube, the amount of mentions they have on blogs and how many threads they have dedicated to them on their official message board and the popular Digital Spy.

Measuring online popularity adds a different dimension to the commonly tracked newspaper and magazine column inches.

Online popularity measures what individuals are publishing (on blogs and forums) as well as what the major newspapers and magazines are printing.

But if Cheryl came top, who came bottom? Read on…

RESULTS:
1. Cheryl Cole
Cheryl won all but one of the tests hands down. Cheryl’s marriage to Ashley Cole and feature on Will.I.Am’s Heartbreaker has pushed Cheryl’s online fame above that of her Girls Aloud bandmates.

2. Sarah Harding
Photoshoots for OK! Magazine have paid off. Sarah scored particularly well on the Digital Spy Showbiz forum, proving her popularity with celebrity culture vultures is high.

3. Nadine Coyle
Nadine has a high blog mention score, indicating her relationship with Jesse Metcalfe has increased her awareness on American celebrity gossip blogs.

4. Nicola Roberts
Somehow Nicole scored highest on the QDOS test. QDOS uses a number of measures to analyse the digital status of individuals.

5. Kimberley Walsh
Kimberley scored badly when analysing conversations on the official Girls Aloud messageboard.

Winner of each test in italics

Google Search Results
Cheryl Cole - 734,000
Kimberley Walsh - 149,000
Nadine Coyle - 273,000
Nicola Roberts - 234,000
Sarah Harding - 618,000

YouTube Video Tags
Cheryl Cole - 942
Kimberley Walsh - 581
Nadine Coyle - 488
Nicola Roberts - 441
Sarah Harding - 545

Blog mentions
Cheryl Cole - 276,457
Kimberley Walsh - 3,154
Nadine Coyle - 8,584
Nicola Roberts - 3,430
Sarah Harding - 8,405

QDOS Rating
Cheryl Cole - 6331
Kimberley Walsh - 6575
Nadine Coyle - 6684
Nicola Roberts - 6733
Sarah Harding - 6371

Digital Spy Showbiz Forum
Cheryl Cole - 155
Kimberley Walsh - 27
Nadine Coyle - 53
Nicola Roberts - 26
Sarah Harding - 107

Girls Aloud Forum
Cheryl Cole - 6463
Kimberley Walsh - 2845
Nadine Coyle - 4787
Nicola Roberts - 3208
Sarah Harding - 5073

Comments (7)

There’s a famous saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. And isn’t OK! magazine sticking to the rule. Jordan (Katie Price) and Kerry Katona practically own the front cover of OK! magazine, with the pair appearing on the front almost most of the time.

The formula of using Katie Price and Kerry Katona to sell magazines works. It’s worked well for OK! magazine, which seems to have exclusive deals with the pair, since they appeared on ITV1’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here in 2004.

Everyone’s a winner. Katie and Kerry get the publicity and an avenue for their version of the “truth” sorrounding press rumours, OK! magazine gets the sales and advertisers grab the eyeballs of their target market.

But how vulnerable is this business model for all parties concerened?

OK! Magazine
There’s no such thing as loyalty in the business world, and certainly not in the land of celebdom. Katie and Kerry give their exclusives (weddings, new births, pregnancy announcements, post surgery pics) to OK! but they’re still free to talk to rival celeb weeklies.

If either of the pair decided to take their exclusives elsewhere it could mean a dip in sales for OK! magazine. They would then have to presumably spend four years building up another reality TV celebrity that it could exploit.

Why are they not doing this already with Michelle Heaton? Although covers with Michelle would sell less than Katie and Kerry now, the magazine could help generate interest in Michelle and build Brand Heaton up to become their next big seller.

This would leave them in a less vulnerable position, should either of the Ks decide to share their latest heartache, nightmare, hell and baby photos to another weekly mag.

Katie and Kerry
What happens when readers get bored of Katie and Kerry?

There will probably always be some sort of interest in Katie Price and Kerry Katona, but they could stop appealing to OK! magazine’s demographic. Their popularity, or noteriety, may shift from the type of popularity that sells magazines.

There is also a risk that these constant magazine “exclusives” could hurt sales of their many autobiographies. Some would say it helps promote them, but really, how much more can they possibly have to tell in a book that hasn’t been published in a weekly mag?

Advertisers
Many beauty brands will be aiming to target a demographic of women interested in celebrity culture.

They may not be looking for the kind of reader who may find someone like Kerry Katona a role model or an aspirational figure. If this is the case they may not want their brand associated with a magazine brand that is heavily associated with her.

However, it must be said that there are many brands that will want to attract Katona idolisers.

What do you think of Kerry and Jordan on OK! Magazine? Have your say below.

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The logo for the soon to launch satellite TV service freesat looks very similar to the new work-in-progress logo for Glasses Direct.

Which brand uses their logo best?

Company
Glasses Direct

What do they do?
Affordable prescription glasses, with lenses, in many styles, shapes and colours, at a fraction of the cost of those on the high street.

How does this logo represent the brand?
The colours represent the new branding concept; fun, funky and fashionable. With the shapes signifying a selection of the various glasses shapes available in its wide range.

Website
www.glassesdirect.co.uk

Company
freesat

What do they do?
Over 80 free satellite television and digital radio stations.

How does this logo represent the brand?
Fresh colours to demonstrate the fresh HD pictures maybe? I’m at a loss. This logo doesn’t scream TV service.

The Freeview logo is an example of a broadcast service whose brand logo tells the story of the product/service.

Website
www.freesat.co.uk

Glasses Direct gets my vote for representing its brand in its (soon to be) logo. Who do you think works it best? Add your comment below.

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Heidi Klum’s the latest in a long line of celebrities launching their own fashion line. With everyone from Kate Moss, to victoria Beckham to the girls from The Hills launching their own ranges, the market for celebrity fashion lines is saturated and few of them stand out.

Jade Goody’s fragrance Shh... was a best seller thanks to help from her reality TV show. Prior to this successful perfume launches were the domain of A listers such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Lopez.

With Jade’s perfume being a commercial success, almost every reality star and Brit celeb jumped on the bandwagon. Along came Coleen, Jordan and Kerry Katona with their own fragrances.

Even Big Brother’s Aisleyne is in on the merchandise act with her own fashion line Unique by Aisleyne.

Now everyone’s got a fashion line or perfume, what’s a celebrity to put their name to?

Kerry Katona Frozen Chips
Who says you have to be a TV chef to have your face plastered on jars of pesto and ready meals? Kerry Katona has worked wonders for Iceland. Imagine how much more they would sell if you could buy her own range of chicken nuggets. Think less about whether you would buy it, and more about whether Iceland’s target market would.

Jeremy Kyle Home DNA Kits
It would save a lot of people the bother of having to appear on his chat show to get a free test done. It sounds so wrong, but it would scarily do so well.

Pint of Al Murray (so to speak)
Err… Why doesn’t Al Murray have his own brand of beer?

Sir Alan Jobs.com
Surely it’s time for Surrallan Sir Alan to front his very own recruitment website?

Winehouse Wigs
Amy could make millions selling her own brand of wigs and hairspray.

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So Friends Reunited is free and hoping to take on Facebook. Many would say it’s taken ITV, owners of Friends Reunited, far too long to drop the subscription model.

With 19 million registered users the website doesn’t fall into the niche/specialist social network category. Instead it’s hoping to take on the broader networks like Facebook.

Here are five things Friends Reunited has to its advantage over Facebook…

1. The Privacy Debate
Trust in some social networks is decreasing because of debates sorrounding how private data is collected and used for advertising purposes. Friends Reunited as a brand has so far managed not to fall foul of such negative PR.

2. Audience Age
The older audience, who are more likely to worry about their privacy, will have more money to spend, and more free time to use the internet. This means extra revenue driving opportunities and more advertisers seeking [older] people with higher disposable incomes.

3. ITV Network
With ITV.com’s Catch Up service becoming more popular it’s the perfect time to showcase the new Friends Reunited with in-house promotion.

4. Genes Reunited
Genealogy is big business. If they can successfully use genealogy as a hook into the main website they’re onto a winner.

5. It’s British
Nowt wrong with a bit of national pride!

My take is that, although it’s unlikely to rule the social networking world, there is a definitely a market for Friends Reunited.

PS - If you’re impressed with the new Timeline feature on Friends Reunited, I suggest you check out miomi.com

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