Regardless of the ad’s success, marketing tracking agency WARC reports that sales of the specific product the Old Spice Man is holding are down by 7%. Some agree and explain, others refute.

One thing worth looking at, apart from the sales data, is how many people have been searching for “old spice” and how the campaign impacted the search volume. Below is the timeline of how often people have been searching for “old spice” in Google (from Google trends).

Notice how the campaign only hit the viral sweet-spot in July. According to BrandWeek, the 7% figure is for 52 weeks ending in June the 13th 2010. The viral effect only takes off in July, which isn’t included in the data.

The campaign’s impact on search volume from February to June might not be reflected in sales, but the jury is still out on the impact of the viral aspect, which only just took off.

Although most locals agree that in the long run the eruption will be good for the tourist industry, there is concern about the short term effect. The fear is that people might be afraid that their visit to the country could be disrupted by the ash.

On the campaign’s site right now there’s a video with Viggo Mortensen singing the country’s praises. The site will  launch officially in a few days and then other celebrity videos will be added. Whether the campaign has enough creative sparkle to get the message across is still up for debate. While the volcano is in full swing people might simply not want to risk being stuck for days on an island against their will (kind of like the plot in Lost). What is your opinion? Is this money well spent?

But how does a celebrity regain his former status as a valuable brand, you might ask? Well I am glad you did. I have sent an idea to his people and I am waiting for a call from them as we speak. Here is my plan:

Nike, Tigers biggest sponsor, should start a contest called “Christmas with Tiger” where you can win all sorts of Nike golf products, but the grand prize would be to spend Christmas with the golf legend himself! Thousands of families will enter the competition for the once in a lifetime chance! Tiger will go along with it to keep Nike happy and besides his wife left him so he has nothing better to do. The media will tear this campaign apart and calling it a pathetic attempt to buy him some goodwill.

But wait, there is a twist! On Christmas Eve they announce the winner of the competition and guess what? It is his wife Elin that comes forward and says she entered the competition and claiming she can’t spend Christmas without him. This will be the beginning of Nikes new campaign “Nike, family first” or “Nike, bringing families closer together”. The campaign will feature families playing golf together and enjoying each other’s company.

Families will buy golf clubs in bulk to be like the happy family in the commercial. Nike will make millions and the public will forgive and forget all about Tigers’ infidelity.

On second thought, maybe he should just wait this one out.

• 93% of Icelanders are connected to the internet.
• Around 80% of those connected to the internet are on Facebook.
• Around 72% of Icelanders less than 54 years old turn to search engines before making a purchase.
• 90% of internet users trust the advice from people connected to the internet that they know.
• 70% trust the advice from strangers and companies on the internet.

Since Transmit has been developing software that monitors and helps its clients increase the efficiency of their online banners, the authors contacted us about our software, Smelltu (e. Click Capital), and the collaboration resulted in a section in the book on how to use Smelltu to maximize return on investment with online advertisements.

I flipped through the book and I must say it is very accessible to the reader and practical as well. It’s an essential addition to the library of marketing enthusiasts.

From a branding point of view, the book will definitely help you increase the visibility of your brand and that alone justifies the purchase. Check out the books website on www.online.is , It is in Icelandic, so I suggest you learn the language … or not.

It‘s official, the Bank formerly known as Kaupthing is reading my blog. A few months ago I wrote that Kaupthing was in need of a new brand. I also wrote about their internal branding. You might say I am obsessed with the bank but in my defence, it is the bank where I conduct all my banking. The bank took “my” advice and changed its name and is now called Arion Bank. The name is controversial; some people like it while others hate it. The new name comes from Greek mythology and it symbolizes persistency, cooperation and comeback.

Finnur Sveinbjörnsson the CEO of Arion Bank, says that it was about time to make these changes:

“New name, policy and value marks the new beginning with the bank, we are in a certain way saying goodbye to the old and are determined to face the challenges that our community is facing with force. Our goal is to create a solid and trustworthy bank that works with and for the people.”

The cost of the rebranding is said to be very little, they will even use the remainder of the old stationary and use the old debit and credit cards labeled Kaupthing.

This is a huge step towards the future of the bank. Whether you like the name or not, it isn’t connected to Iceland and its’ failed banking system. In a few years we might have a functional banking system once again!

And it’s almost hypnotic when Morgan Freeman narrates;”more people go with Visa”. Yes Mr. Freeman I will get my Visa Immediately!  You can check out the campaign on http://goworld.visa.com/

This particular campaign, created by San Francisco’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is about saving honey bees (apparently, bee colonies in the US are declining rapidly).

The company’s target for the first phase of the campaign, which ran in August and September, was 1 million impressions. It generated more than 13 million impressions.

The second phase of the campaign will rely heavily on social media. Haagen-Dazs teamed up with ExperienceProject.com and used their TwitCause site to promote the campaign, offering to pay $1 per tweet generated (up to a maximum of $1000 per day).

Whether the social media phase is as successful as generating impressions as the first phase remains to be seen but if a Twitter storm gathers around the honey bee cause, which seems likely judging by the campaign’s initial success, Haagen-Dazs will have created quite a buzz for the bees – and their brand.

The transition actually went smoothly. The week before they closed, they made the announcement that they were closing down McDonald’s and that they would instead rebrand the 3 locations under the name of Metro. A PR firm must have handled this, because it was covered by every media outlet in Iceland! So it’s fair to say that everybody knew about the new brand.

It has been open for 5 days and it looks like the rebranding was a success. I actually tried it today and me and my companions agreed that it looked, smelled and tasted just like McDonald’s! I didn’t think it was possible to take something like bacon burger at McDonald’s and imitate it almost to perfection with domestic ingredients, but obviously I was wrong.

Interbrand is of course a U.S. based company, but comparing the geographical distribution of the top 100 brands is interesting nonetheless. The chart below shows how many brands each country has on the top 100 list.

A few interesting points from the list:

• Coca-Cola has held the top seat for 10 years.
• In the top 10 seats, the U.S. has eight brands, Finland one (Nokia) and Japan one (Toyota).
• Four out of the top 10 are Software companies (IBM, Microsoft, Google and Intel).
• There are seven new entries, four from the U.S. and three from Europe.
• The fastest growing brand of 2009 is Citi (a bank? really?).

Measuring the dollar value of a brand is difficult and some say the Interbrand top 100 list is little more than a parlour game. Whether or not this is true, we recommend checking out Business Week’s interactive table with the results. See if you can find your favourite brand.