in November for suppliers to move to selling telecare directly to the public (calls made, one suspects, mostly by people who have never tried to direct market anything), it will surely be welcomed by all who want to see modern technology receive as wide recognition as traditional pendant alarms do now. There is also the hope, espoused by the buddi team, that it will open the door to the direct selling of other telecare equipment.
So will buddi clear all the hurdles? There are a lot of them: Can they get people to recognise that buddi meets a need that they have? Will people take the step of pulling out their credit cards? Will purchasers use it and tell other people, as in the advert? But if anyone can make it work, buddi should be able to with the financial backing it raised earlier in the year and the considerable sales, marketing and business expertise it has on board.
For more insight into where buddi has come from and where it might go, it is worth spending eight minutes watching a March 2009 interview with Sara Murray, buddi’s founder.
To be more specific, will this advert do the trick and bring people to buddi’s website to learn more? The buddi team are interested in readers’ opinions, so take a look and leave a comment.
[For the record, this isn’t the UK’s first TV telecare advertising campaign, the credit for which goes to Alertacall in September 2007…unless any readers know of an earlier one.]
Disclaimer: Both buddi and Alertacall have, at some time, advertised on Telecare Aware.
Telecare marketing–some observations
‘Tis the season for PERS direct marketing here in the US, especially after New Year, taking advantage of both family seasonality (and concern) and the less expensive 1stQ rates.
buddi marketing review: Believable situation with our two older, smartly dressed, hale ‘n’ hearty ladies (another nice change) in an upscale cafe, not the usual kitchen or crisis/fall. The two children in the kitchen brings home the benefit with believable interplay. ‘You always were the clever sister’. (Is brother a retired footballer?) Nice integration on YouTube but where is Facebook? Only fault I see is on tracking advert results–no special landing page or phone number. Overall, a well done and the restaged website is a big plus too.
buddi could teach Philips a lesson or two. Philips is already airing a traditional short-form DRTV :60 for their enhanced PERS–Lifeline with AutoAlert (fall sensor will call automatically if sensed) on cable. I’ve only seen it once so this may be off in an element or two: The usual setup: two older people on the ground, futilely reaching for a phone and (briefly) a traditional pendant (undoubtedly Philips has to be careful about selling against their standard Lifeline product). Cut away to the authoritative spokesman with the product summarizing the situation and the fear point with the lower screen strip with the website (didn’t catch) and undoubtedly dedicated phone. No integration though–the Philips/Lifeline website is unchanged from the AutoAlert intro, a Google search doesn’t reveal a dedicated one, and the website does not have the spot up nor is it on YouTube. Their sales will tell, but I’d expect a better try and more integration from Philips.
Buddy ad
Didn’t catch the TV ad, c’mon it was Boxing day and Hercule Poirot was on the telly, get serious folks, mince pie, sweet sherry and Agatha Christie on the moving picture box, what more could a man want, ooh a slice of stollen don’t mind if I do… Anyway watched the ad on YouTube… Nicely done, impressed, hope they get some encouraging numbers and others also look to what they can do and look closer at marketing to end consumers. 2011 could be an interesting year for the industry. I can feel it in me waters, really I can. I even had a call from Tunstall the week before Christmas, doing some customer research, wanted to know what their customers thought about them. They wanted to know if I had to select three words to describe the company, which three words would I choose? Sacre Bleu mon ami, Sacre Bleu!