Three Major Changes in Digital Marketing
(* Source: Helge Tenno *)
Another interesting set of slides from Oslo...
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January 29, 2009
January 22, 2009
GENERATION G
(* Source: trendwatching *)
"Captures the growing importance of 'generosity' as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.
In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced 'taking' as the new status symbol. Businesses should follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much it may oppose their decades-old devotion to me, myself and I.”
Read more on the 3 trend-drivers for GENERATION G here:
January 19, 2009
2009 - A New Year in Digital
(* Source: History repeats Digitally *)
David says...
This year will bring some rather exciting changes to the digital media landscape. In truth, all years have something new as the boundaries of technologies are being pushed, and as the result of the changing-behavior among users who are continue to embrace new services and what they have to offer. 2009 however, will be different in that consumption and the Internet usage is shifting as the result of the economic situation (at least here in North America).
This presentation hopes to shed light on some of what has happened in 2008, and what we can expect more of over the next 11 1/2 months.
Marketing in 2009
(* Source: Valeria Maltoni *)
Valeria says...
I have long believed that dialogue is the art of thinking together - talk changes our lives, it allows us to learn by listening. Customers and communities are changing the nature of marketing and communications through talk, but also through actions. If you're like me, you think that social media = tools and marketing = business.
Since we are in our own right working on changing not just the tactics for the channels but the nature itself of marketing (as currently done), I asked twelve great marketers from my network to share their thoughts on what we'll be working on in 2009.
More than predictions, which is hard to do, we focused on direction. This eBook is the result of our collective energy and execution experience. For a bite-size preview, here's what they say:
- "Basic metrics you can initially use to match up before, during and after sales deltas are frequency, reach, and yield" - Olivier Blanchard, The Brand Builder, @thebrandbuilder
- "There are three imperatives for execution programs in 2009 - start with measurement, create content for the open Web and for mobility" - Matt Dickman, Techno||Marketer, @MattDickman
- "The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C's. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution" - Mike Fruchter, My Thoughts on Social Media, @Fruchter
- "With social media as a platform for participation, people can behave the way they were hardwired to behave in the first place - humanly, tribally" - Francois Gossieaux, Emergence Marketing, @fgossieaux
- "Social media enhances marketing efforts as an additional indirect communication channel" - Beth Harte, The Harte of Marketing, @BethHarte
- "Companies with greater social intelligence have stronger bonds with employees and customers, and that translates into revenue" - Lois Kelly, Beeline Labs, @LoisKelly
- "Change ensures our own livelihoods - new opportunities and trends to capitalize upon, unique products and profit centers that merit development, robust innovation to leverage"- Christina Kerley, CK Epiphany, @ckepiphany
- "Social media interaction allows us to have… well, interaction with our customers. It lets us see them as people instead of statistics and it lets us hear their voices" - Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine Guide, @JenniferLaycock
- "Goals absolutely must be built on business objectives" - Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding, @AmberCadabra
- "A proper social media education is more than just learning new tools. The most important lesson we can impart is the necessity to think 'humans'"- Connie Reece, Every Dot Connects, @ConnieReece
- "Social media isn't causing problems, but it is revealing them. And the problems aren't new; they've been around for a while" - Mike Wagner, Own Your Brand!, @bigwags
- "The secret of success in social media is a product or a service that people actually like and use" - Alan Wolk, The Toad Stool, @awolk
I pulled together their ideas in this PDF - Marketing in 2009. We'd love to hear your reactions and examples.
January 14, 2009
China Internet users soar to 298 million
(* Source: Michael Wei *)
Reuters reports...
The number of Internet users in China jumped nearly 42 percent to 298 million by the end of 2008 from the previous year, cementing the country's position as the world's largest Internet population, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said.
The number of mobile Web surfers surged 113 percent to 117.6 million in 2008 and mobile Internet is expected to grow explosively in the next few years after the recent issuance of third-generation (3G) licenses, the state-run agency said.
The Internet penetration rate in China has risen to 22.6 percent, slightly higher than the world's average of 21.9 percent, CNNIC said in a report on Tuesday.
In addition, the number of Internet news readers has risen to 2.34 million and websites have become a crucial area for publicity, the report said.
News portals in China, such as Sina Corp and Sohu.com Inc, are the major sources of information for a large number of Internet users across the country.
Good Ideas In 2009
(* Source: Paul Isakson *)
For those of you in or around London, wanted to give you a heads-up that Piers and team over at PSFK are putting on a Good Ideas Salon on January 30.
The full-day event will feature a collection of forward-focused innovators and thought leaders sharing ideas in the fields of arts & culture, collaboration, design, digital, marketing, mobile and youth.
Word has it that it's going to be PSFK's best event to date.
Confirmed speakers include:
Coralie Bickford-Smith \ Designer \\ Penguin
Lindsey Clarke \ Editor \\ Londonist
Pat Connor \ Vision Development Executive \\ BBC
Mark Earls \ Author \\ Herd
Jeremy Ettinghausen \ Director of Digital \\ Penguin
Piers Fawkes \ Trends Analyst & Founder \\ PSFK
Amanda Gore \ Trends Consultant \\ PSFK
Matt Hardisty \ Founder \\ Analog Folk
Dan Hon \ Founder \\ Six To Start
Sophie Howarth \ Founder \\ School Of Life
Matt Jones \ Founder \\ Dopplr
Cameron Leslie \ Founder \\ fabric
Kate Moross \\ Designer
Colin Nagy \ Partner \ Attention
Colin Nightingale \ Creative Director \\ Punchdrunk \ Founder \\ Gideon Reeling
Jenny Owen \ Founder \\ Ruby Pseudo
Christian Nold \\ Artist
Justin Quirk \ Associate Editor \\ FHM
Nicolas Roope \ Founder \\ Hulger\Poke\BuyThisShirt.org
Taryn Ross \ Founder \\ Urban Junkies
Paul Andrew Williams \ Film Director \\ Steel Mill Pictures
For more info and to purchase tickets, go here.
January 12, 2009
Britney Spears Is Hiring An Online Media Manager
(* Source: Mike Arrington *)
Great article from Mike... with so many social networks out there today. Keep up with all of them requires more people. Digital P.As anyone?
Want to manage Britney Spears’ online persona? She’s on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other sites, and somebody (not her of course) has to do all the hard work of posting and responding to content.
That’s where you come in. If you went to Harvard, that is. Brandcasting Unlimited, Britney’s online manager, posted the job listing below for “Britney Spears 2.0 Media Manager” yesterday on a Harvard-only private job board. Among the not-so-tough job requirements: you must be “addicted to social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.”
The full job listing is below:
Delta Needs a Lesson on Online Reputation Management
(* Source: Matt O'Hern *)
You won't love the way they fly.
That's the point of an angry customer's rant about Delta.
A video by Phil Defranco, AKA, sxephil and phillyd, was one of the most popular on Youtube this week. Defranco is a blogger and self-proclaimed former fan of Delta. He shared his nightmare story about the airline,and 313,000 people have viewed the video since Monday.
Among Phil's top complaints::
- The flight was delayed four hours, because they had the WRONG plane, with too much fuel.
- Delta ran out of food after they served just 10 people.
- When his luggage arrived at baggage claim it was soaked, and the water ruined his MacBook.
- Customer service's reply to his luggage complaint was: "Well sir, how do we know you didn't have a water bottle in your suitcase?"
My favorite quote::
I apparently paid them a $15 fee to destroy my luggage.
Phil ends his rant by asking viewers to share their worst airplane story.
If you search" Delta on Youtube, you'll find sxephil's video is in the top ten, followed by a video titled: Delta Flight 6499, SEVEN HOURS on the tarmac.After 313,000 people watch bad press about your company in a matter of days, you have a lot of PR work ahead.
British Airways' took a PR hit when a few disgrunitled employees vented their frustrations on Facebook. Delta has learned the hard way that web-savvy customers have the power to become a corporations worst nightmare.
8 golden rules for advertising in the digital age
(* Source: Alan H Gerson *)
Good summary from Alan on the elements that an advertising campaign needs in digital today.
Alan says...
The importance of sound creative executions and integrated strategies cannot be overemphasized in today's online ad market. Follow these steps to get on the right track.
The emergence of digital media has created some very fundamental and important changes in the goals for advertising today. Digital technologies have empowered advertising in unique ways and provided a wide range of new possibilities for two-way communication and measurement. These changes should fundamentally redefine expectations for advertising in the digital age.
1. Capture interest and attention
Advertising is, of course, a specific communication strategy designed to shape consumer action towards, or opinions about, particular products or services. Advertising, like every other communication strategy, will not and cannot work unless it finds an audience and actually delivers its message. We live in an increasingly crowded media environment. The average consumer is exposed to thousands of different advertising messages every week. Many of those messages are repeated with a frequency that deadens the senses. Even finding the right potential customer and placing the advertising message in front of him or her does not guarantee interest or focus on what the ad message is trying to communicate.
The new media consumers have been taught that they are in charge of what, where, when, and why they will pay attention to an ad message. Nevertheless, capturing interest and focusing attention remains the prerequisite for a successful advertisement. More
2. Extend engagement
Engagement is a new hot metric. In the battle for the attention of the consumer, "time spent" is a valuable indication of whether the advertising communication has been successful, and delivering an ad impression does not necessarily equate to consumer attention and interest. There are all levels of impressions, but do they communicate in a world where consumers have the ability to scan, fast forward, jump, and abandon content with the touch of a button on myriad of different devices?
Therefore, truly engaging and focusing a consumer on the advertising message is increasingly valuable and effective. Engagement for a significant period of time, especially if that engagement is interactive, clearly indicates that the message has been delivered to a consumer who has -- by the investment of their time and actions -- demonstrated interest and attentiveness. More
3. Activate toward client goals
Today, even if branding is the main objective, some sort of measurable action by the consumer that can be translated into a concrete return on the advertising investment is almost always a parallel goal.
Every marketer of every brand, product, or service has a hierarchy of real-world results they would like to see from their advertising. This goes beyond metrics and measurement. Ultimately, they want to see sales increase, or product sampling, or store visits, or a consumer database developed from information requests, or promotional registrations.
Advertising, even brand advertising, needs to be able to multi-task and create real-world results in terms of sales or the establishment of a relationship with/or communication path to a potential consumer. Digital media, messages, and promotions are increasingly being bundled into an integrated marketing, advertising, and promotional strategy that activates a consumer toward specific goals or creates a communication path to a potential consumer for just that reason.
4. Branding and brand building
All advertising can and should reinforce brand values or brand positioning, even if its primary goal is more directly sales oriented.
In the digital age, the ability to use websites, microsites, and online promotions -- not only to create sales but to convey information about the company behind the product or service -- makes this a required part of any advertising strategy.
Never before in history have marketers had the tools that can so readily facilitate the ability to provide information in various levels of detail to consumers about their products and services, what they stand for and what they mean for their customers. More
5. Reinforce recall and retention
The multiplicity of channels, messages, and media can make it harder to make advertising messages stand out enough to be remembered or acted upon. Nevertheless, fostering message recall and retention remains a central goal of any advertising campaign.
Digital media and certain technologies provide new and powerful ways to accomplish this goal through their ability to reach consumers where they are, on a variety of platforms, and with messages of different lengths and complexities. Flexibility of approach, use of integrated strategies -- which include traditional media as well as digital platforms -- and creation of different messages that may communicate different pieces of information can all enhance recall and retention. Whether the message is price, value, brand or feature-based, nothing is more important today than the power of communities and the impact of promotions. Today's consumer wants validation and reinforcement from other consumers, and the opinions and testimonials of their peers are more important and impactful than the same words from a company spokesperson or message. More
6. Promote intention to purchase
The marketing chain for most products and services today is complex and multi-channel. Products are offered for sale through retail stores, through networks of distributors, through online stores, and in a variety of both online and offline direct messaging to former or potential customers. Advertising messages, wherever and however they are made or delivered, need to support the communication of product benefits, features, advantages, and uses. Especially in today's economy, they need to support the communication of specific price and value messages and incentive offers. More
7. Build an opt-in and viral database
One key difference between traditional media and digital media is the ability of digital media to readily identify its audience members and establish a two-way communication with willing individuals in that audience. Building a customer database that has fully opted in creates a valuable resource for all companies that can and should be used to inform, reward, thank and re-sell customers, increasing the lifetime value of that customer. Permission-based marketing was one of the first breakthrough concepts in digital marketing, and it remains a very valuable goal of advertising today.
Not only can advertising be used to drive potential customers to registration pages connected to sweepstakes or contest entries or purchase opportunities, but it can also be used to incentivize those customers to "refer a friend," thus building and extending the potential list to persons who might not otherwise have seen or responded to the advertisement. More
8. Create differentiation in the marketplace
Ultimately, the last goal of advertising I want to discuss is differentiation in the marketplace, which is an umbrella principle closely related to No. 1: Capturing interest and attention.
The importance of sound creative executions, different media channels, and integrated strategies that allow an advertising message or campaign to reach its target audience and capture interest and attention cannot be overemphasized. These elements should be coupled with integrated advertising and marketing approaches that include strong promotional elements and that powerfully position the features, advantages, benefits, and uses of the product or service being advertised.
January 08, 2009
MOG Has Created The Ultimate Streaming Music App
(* Source: Michael Arrington *)
Sounds like another great music application only to be held back by those people that promote music called "The Labels".
MOG has a history of doing cool new things around music. The service today includes a media player plugin that records and analyzes your music habits, a website that has a dedicated page for every artist, album and song with user generated reviews and posts, and an advertising network that provides revenue for 300 top music blogs. Users can also stream music via an excellent front end to Rhapsody.
All of that brings about 5 million unique visitors a month to their network, and the company says they should bring in about $5 million in revenue in 2009.
Now they’ve created a new music streaming product that breaks away from Rhapsody and its limitations. Like competitor ilike, which also uses Rhapsody, users can only stream 25 songs per month for free. That doesn’t compete well with free streaming services like MySpace Music, iMeem, Last.fm and others.
The new service, dubbed Mog 3.0 internally, is a fully free music streaming service that lets users play whatever songs they like on demand. The user interface is as good or better than LaLa, a service that we love despite the fact that streaming isn’t completely free. Founder David Hyman
and VP Product T Jay Fowler gave me a demo of Mog 3.0 earlier today.
The service combines the ease of use of LaLa with free, which is enough to get our attention. But it also has a recommendation service that rivals Pandora when it comes to discovering new music.
The interface is genius. Users search or browse songs, artists or albums and then start listening to the music. More songs from that artist are suggested and added to the results as you play the songs. And if you move the slider to the right (see image to right), related music is added as well. That lets the user decide if they want a playlist-driven on demand music experience, or to change things up and add Pandora-style related music to the mix.
It doesn’t stop there. Users can also create playlists with the best tool on the market - it’s easier to create and share playlists than even Project Playlist offers, and users can associate a name, description and image with each playlist as well.
MOG plans to make other changes to the service as well, including adding streaming music to content pages, and creating user profiles that highlight the music you listen to and like. It brings in the best social aspects of Last.fm.
The product is compelling.
But it will quite possibly never launch.
MOG has label deals with Sony BMG and Universal locked up. They’ll provide streaming music rights for free in exchange for a revenue share. But Warner and EMI remain on the sidelines, and MOG says they won’t launch unless and untill they have all four major labels under agreement.
I, for one, really hope to see MOG 3.0 launch sometime soon. And if the last two labels don’t jump on board, MySpace should strongly consider buying MOG. MySpace has label deals locked up but their product continues to have unacceptable technical glitches. The music player is very slow to load and songs have an annoying tendency to skip during playback. Perhaps the MOG team can put that right for them.
More screen shots below - top image is the playlist tool, below that is a user profile page.
January 07, 2009
Seven Predictions for 2009
(* Source: eMarkerter *)
As we step tentatively into the new year, prospects look pretty grim. With unemployment predicted to top 9%, industry bailouts looming, a massive retrenchment in the stock market and a generally accepted view that things aren’t likely to get better any time soon, it will be all too easy to slide into a state of cynicism, or even despair.
Uncertainty and pessimism color attitudes toward predictions, too, particularly those that dare to suggest resumed growth ahead. Some will have a tendency to regard such forecasts as wishful thinking, or, worse, woefully out of touch.
Shall we throw all predictions out the window?
Certainly visibility is low right now, and it’s probably better to err on the side of stone-cold sobriety than blithe optimism, but I think we can count on several things in 2009. Not all of them are positive, mind you, but there can be some comfort in quantifying the pain we all know is coming.
1. No doubt about it, marketers will be cutting back on advertising spending this year. All the industry pundits, media firms, Wall Street analysts and bloggers are predicting slashed budgets across the board. A look at the latest projections for total US ad spending growth in 2009 reveals a consistently downward trend, and that’s after negative growth in both 2007 and 2008.
It’s worth noting in the chart below that the lowest number, the -10% growth rate from Barclays Capital, is also the most recent prediction. Previously, Barclays had forecast a decline of only 5.5%.
2. Among traditional media, newspapers, radio and magazines will see the worst declines. There is a double whammy in effect here, too. The economic recession, while severe, is only exacerbating an existing trend. The ad buying, measurement and reporting systems of traditional media are being systematically rewired for the digital age. As I wrote in Digital Marketing Now (my recent white paper about the strength of digital in a downturn), even before the financial meltdown started, analog media was undergoing wrenching changes. Reasons included audience fragmentation, the fundamental shift in power from marketers to consumers and a slew of digital technologies enabled by the Internet.
Consider the plight of newspapers, whose collective revenues will plummet nearly 16% in 2009, after an even more brutal 16.4% decline in 2008, according to eMarketer.
While advertising on television has held up remarkably well so far, the cracks will begin to appear in 2009, with most researchers predicting a 5% or greater decline in spending.
Similarly, radio is expected to see an ad revenue dip of between 5% and 8%, depending which source you look at.
3. Advertisers’ pull-back in overall marketing spending, coupled with a serious re-examination of traditional media, will set in motion a series of permanent changes that will affect how media is planned and measured, as well as the media mix itself. In short, things will not revert back to “normal” in 2009, 2010 or whenever the economy pulls out of its current malaise.
Look at the recent layoffs taking place at large media firms such as Viacom, Gannett and NBC Universal. Under the smoke screen of an obviously troubled economy, many traditional media companies have pre-emptively slashed their head counts—even while profits are still coming in. While the press releases point to the economy and the need to downsize in preparation for worse times to come, I can’t help but wonder whether some selective pruning is going on to remove the digital laggards, thereby making room for new talent with digital chops.
There is also a relentless fixation on accountability and measurement. As an old colleague of mine, Steve Lanzano, chief operating officer at MPG, recently said in an interview with Jack Myers, “The best we can do is deal with reality...and not put our heads in the sand and just do what we have in the past. We need to see what is driving the most return-on-investment and identify where we think the communications business is going.”
4. Throughout all this economic shrinkage, the Internet will continue to grow, though at a far more constrained pace. eMarketer projects online ad spending will rise 8.9% in 2009, after an already ratcheted-down rate of 11.3% in 2008. That’s considerably lower than 25.6% growth in 2007.
eMarketer’s 2009 growth estimate of nearly 9% is relatively conservative; projections from many researchers, analysts and media shops are far more bullish.
With the online advertising growth rate dipping below 10%, many will declare 2009 the end of the Internet’s glory days. That would be a mistake. Compared with the double- or single-digit declines seen with newspapers, radio, magazines and broadcast television, the Internet will continue to outperform. As they say, “Flat is the new up.”
With online, some ad formats will fare better than others. Marketers will continue to use search and e-mail heavily this year, because of both their familiarity and ease of measurement. eMarketer estimates growth of nearly 15% for search and 3.5% for e-mail. Growth for online video, a nascent but hot area, will be even steeper, though it will slow from 81% in 2008 to 45% in 2009.
5. Despite the general consensus that online will ride out the storm, expect to see a growing contingent of bearish forecasters disparaging its prospects. Ironically, many of these doom-mongers will hail from the Internet space.
By November 2008, we had already begun to hear scary, almost apocalyptic predictions from the fringes of the blogosphere, which were soon echoed by more-mainstream analysts such as Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget and ThinkEquity’s William Morrison. They argue that not only is traditional media tanking (due to the aforementioned double-whammy effect), but the Internet is doomed to see a free fall as well. These naysayers almost seem to be trying to outdo each other with negative predictions—“I’ll see your number, and lower it by 5 percentage points.”
Of course, if enough of us in marketing departments and ad agencies listen to these downbeat forecasts, and take heed through our own actions (or rather lack of action), we will end up fulfilling their prophecy. We must try to resist the siren’s call.
“How bad will the online display ad market fare over the next couple of years? At this point, we would estimate at least a 10% drop next year and probably more.”
—Henry Blodget, CEO, Silicon Alley Insider, October 20, 2008 6. Growth in online display advertising will languish—but only in terms of absolute-dollar spending, and the effects will be temporary. While eMarketer predicts display ad dollars will grow by a relatively anemic 6.6% in 2009, behind the scenes there will be much innovation as the industry figures out how to creatively deploy, integrate and measure the value of display ads for branding purposes. New data is providing solid evidence for what we already intuitively knew, but couldn’t before measure: When display ads are combined with search, marketers can expect a significant increase in sales conversions, whether those take place online or offline. And beyond conversions, display advertising can boost brand awareness, purchase intent and the likelihood of a person to visit a Website or take other actions that indicate engagement with a brand.
comScore, for one, has released study results showing conclusively that the combination of search and display ads leads to a greater sales lift. Specifically, search and display ads together produced a 119% sales conversion increase, versus 82% for search alone and 16% for display alone.
“The only reason we have the focus on clicks is that they can be measured.”
—Gian Fulgoni, chairman, comScore, speaking at the University of South Australia, December 2008 7. E-commerce, already hammered in 2008, will see growth slip even further, from 7.2% in 2008 to a measly 4.1% in 2009. There likely won’t be a decline in the number of online buyers, but rather a pronounced decrease in their average annual spend as consumers cling ever tighter to their purse strings. Look for retailers, as a result, to whack prices, push deals and flood the Internet with digital coupons.
According to comScore, coupons were the fastest-growing Website category in November 2008. Unique visitors to coupon sites were up 32% over October 2008, way ahead of the next-fastest category, jewelry and luxury goods, which grew only 25%, and toys, which grew 24%.
A study by Packaged Facts found that 87% of consumers now prefer to shop at retailers that offer coupons, and 89% said they’re more likely to use coupons in a recession. Expect mobile to get in on the digital coupon craze, too, as consumers seek deals on their phone right at the point of purchase.
Beyond the seven predictions discussed above, the most important theme to keep in mind is that things will get better, eventually. Whether the curtain lifts in late 2009 or some time after, the economy will most assuredly come out of hibernation. And when it does, it will be the stronger for it.
Many companies will emerge stronger, too. As Penn State research professor Gary Lilien put it, those that have “the skill, the will and the till” will be able to market their way through these tough times and end up on the other side with a stronger market share and a more powerful brand position.
“‘The skill’ means they have the marketing expertise. ‘The will’ means they have a culture to go against what seems to be a tough trend. And ‘the till’ means that they have some resources to be able to invest.”
—Gary L. Lilien, research professor of management science, Pennsylvania State University, as cited in Knowledge@Wharton, October 29, 2008 eMarketer, for one, will be pushing hard up that hill—I hope you’ll join us on the climb.
January 06, 2009
6 Ways To Focus Marketing In An Economic Downturn
(* Source: Marita Scarfi *)
Martha says...
As you all know, the global economy is on its way to being one of the worst economic recessions in 25 years. Layoffs are happening all around us and consumer spending is extremely tight. Getting share of wallet will be more difficult than ever before. So, what should marketers focus on during these challenging times?
1. Measure Return of Investment Holistically.
2. Develop Integrated Campaigns.
3. Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns.
4. Balance Creative and Measurement Goals.
5. Don't Shy Away From Social Media Platforms.
6. Develop Disciplined Innovation.
Full descriptions of each after the break...
1. Measure Return of Investment Holistically.
Marketers should look at their entire marketing spend--from traditional to online--trying to realize efficiencies and synergies across media, something that's easier to do than ever before. To accomplish this, marketers must gather all data from their past campaigns, including direct, digital, broadcast and print, as well as their website properties, and develop custom media mix models. These models can be used to predict spend needed to accomplish sales goals, and to estimate sales based on certain spend levels and by media type. These models should constantly evolve as more data becomes available.
2. Develop Integrated Campaigns.
As with media spend, campaigns that are developed across multiple media will provide greater return to brands. Integrated campaigns provide a consistent brand experience to the consumer and result in higher brand awareness and sales. Additionally, if creative assets are developed at once for use across media types, the advertiser may be able to leverage campaign development costs.
3. Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns.
Measurement for measurement sake is a lot of time and money spent without a lot of return. It's important to optimize your marketing programs, whether by recalibrating marketing spend by medium based on the results of past and current campaigns or by adjusting the creative units to different spots within the various channels.
4. Balance Creative and Measurement Goals.
Creativity is extremely important in influencing consumers. However, creativity for creativity's sake will not drive optimal results. It's important to strike a balance--to deliver copy or images that elicit a high emotional reaction AND drive sales. Creative that fails to do both, or just fails to drive sales must be changed. It's really that simple.
5. Don't Shy Away From Social Media Platforms.
There is a lot of press around advertisers not realizing the value of social media. However, I would argue that advertisers are not engaging the social media networks in the right way and, in return, probably not measuring it in the right way. Social media is about people being influenced by their friends and family, people they know and trust. Social media users try and buy the products/services recommended by their trusted circles, not those pushed on them by advertisers in the form of apps, ads, videos and corporate-controlled blogs, no matter how well done. And, given the current state of the economy, consumers' reliance on information/recommendations from friends and family will likely grow as consumers must now decide how to spend their increasingly more limited disposable income and credit. Brands can use social networks to influence consumers, and even to drive sales, if they develop the marketing programs that work with, not against, the DNA of social media.
6. Develop Disciplined Innovation.
In a down market, one of the first items cut from marketers' budgets is innovation initiatives, mostly due to a perceived lack of measureable value. Many marketers see innovation initiatives as a sort of indulgence, something in which they can only afford to invest in good times. In these marketers' organizations innovation initiatives are often unstructured such that they invest in a several technologies or programs without any predetermined goals. Success is determined based on what sticks with the consumers. Marketers should take a disciplined approach to innovation--defining measurable goals and metrics from the start. Each initiative should be kept small, prototyped and the results measured against the predetermined goals and metrics.
January 05, 2009
How To Try Spotify Immediately, No Matter Where You Live
(* Source: Michael Arrington *)
New European streaming music service Spotify
, which TechCrunch UK has been tracking since October, is getting increasingly good reviews. Spotify is a downloadable client for Windows and Mac users that lets you search, browse and stream a deep collection of music. Sadly, it is only available in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France and you need an invitation to join (InviteShare is actively trading them).
The user experience is beyond even the best web based streaming services like LaLa, MySpace Music and Imeem. It acts like a fully stocked iTunes, with everything hyperlinked to easily find related music. Creating playlists is a snap. There is no way to move music outside of the application, or onto music devices. But it is the best way to legally find and stream music for free that I’ve seen
I have no invitation and I live in the U.S., but I’ve been using Spotify all afternoon. There have previously been posts on getting into the service from a banned location once you have an invitation using a proxy server. Today on Digg, though, a commenter left instructions on how to use Spotify without an invitation. I tried it, and it works (for now).
Invite yourself from anywhere:
1) go to http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
2) enter the following URL: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
3) Create your account, for UK postcode - check http://www.postcodesearch.org.uk/
It’s likely that the proxy server will be banned shortly, but there are countless others in the non-banned countries. The important thing is to visit this URL from that proxy server. And I recommend you do it now, before the hole is plugged.
Best Conversations of 2008
(* Source: Valeria Maltoni*)
Even the most difficult endeavors begin by taking the first step. In business, as in life, "we may convince others by our own arguments, but we can only persuade them by their own." [Joseph Joubert] Marketing is business, communications is a technology that provides the lifeblood of thriving relationships, conversation is the opportunity to get out of our own way and see things from a different perspective.
If you have been watching the social media space from where you sit and are still unconvinced that it is here to stay - take the plunge.
2009 is the year of execution
Maybe you'll discover your "why" in one of these conversations (by month).
After spending countless hours in front of this screen, I am now more than ever convinced that social media is the modern version of the telephone. It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer. And customers are ready for those companies who want to talk with them about them. The marketing conversation was always that way; so forget influentials, in viral marketing context matters.
For companies used to setting the tone by controlling the message, these may seem uncertain times. When a press statement misses Target, the online community piles on. The era of talking past each other is over - and that is valid for you, too. How do you go about revealing yourself to others - how much is appropriate, is that really you online? Your work speaks louder than words, but can you be authentic?
There is no need to build new castles or ivory towers, leading brands lead - and, if you're willing to start over with one line of your business and build a new conversation with customers, 14 year olds may think you're cool. Think of online as a blank slate, do your homework and help your company execute marketing as context building - here are 5 ideas.
With the emergence and rise of mass social media, how a blog is born may inspire you to start one of your own.The top ten reasons why your customer service fails may provide you with an incentive to explore new ways to provide support and connect with your customers. What happens when you have joined the space though? Here are ten ideas for conversation.
You should know that there is power in collaboration as well as plenty of inspiration you can orchestrate for your customers and employees. But has Web 2.0 made you happier? It's a valid question, especially as we spend more and more time online. Part of that happiness lies in the reciprocation of kindness that others extend to us. Learn how to write a business recommendation and make more friends.
With all this talk of personalization and injecting a human voice in your communications, is it fair to ask - is your business lifestreaming? After all, interests feed relationships. You could also have "fragmentation innovation." Create new options through market reputation and authority, but there needs to be an evolution of business as markets and customers don't stand still. How do you go about taking the measure of marketing conversations?
You may ask yourself, what if I fail? How do you go about connecting the dots on social media and the future? How does a company dip its toes in the conversation? Is it true that we could be designing business through interactions? The answers to these questions are ours to give. Creating a totally immersive experience seems to be where it's at. If interactions are designed to be transformative experiences, then the business where the interactions occur, will be transformed.
Are you too accessible? Many ask that question and worry. Accessibility comes down to making choices that align with our purpose - in work and in life. We also learn to look at conversation as negotiation. After all, we buy, we join, we connect on the basis of emotion. The award for most emotionally-charged tool goes to Twitter. It's immediate, short, and can be fast. Learn business uses of Twitter and keep your nose clean.
Asking the right question makes a big difference - are you using your influence? Mentoring, sharing, highlighting good causes, helping power connections that extend beyond your self are all worthy ways to use influence. There are also times when plan B is better than plan A. Regardless of what plan you choose, behaving well will reflect on your credibility, especially when in a tough economy branding matters.
With all this talk of conversation and sharing, I do wonder if you have thought of the idea and practices as organic marketing. These people have and they are beginning to show us the way, a very different kind of behavior for business. Benefit from thinking that your logo is a symbol, your product can be a social object. This outreach by Pepsi via Edelman to 25 influential bloggers was the object of fascination by many. Why pick Conversation Agent? Some asked. Maybe this year-end recap will help you see why. ROI requires focus - on execution.
There are so many choices for November that I encourage you to dig deeper, if you're so inclined. Why start a blog and 25 ways to make it work was the most saved post on Delicious and the most linked ever - with 301 saves to date. Glad I could be of service. A topic that you may overlooked, but that will take center stage in the next couple of years is the light before the storm. Crisis communications is taking on a whole new dimension with community. One thing is for sure - companies need to learn how to talk with customers differently.
Lots of choices for December as well, so I will highlight a couple of important reminders. Change the conversation, change the game is an invitation to take a look at the opportunity that awaits you. But you need trust in order to do that and remember that the future is now.
I hope you will find this content useful and adaptable to your circumstances and ideas. There are many more ways to participate and engage, as many as there are professionals interested in doing so - I've done it my way. One last word of advice. This is not the whole universe of your customers. It's becoming more important and influential, yes. But it's not all there is - you need to get out more.
Happy New Year!
Influencers on Online Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Social Media for 2009
(* Source: Trendspotting *)
I'm not big fan of predictions but have a look at what trendspotting is saying about 2009.
Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
(* Source: MarketingCharts *)
Eight in ten online shoppers (81%) have read consumer-written product or retailer reviews when doing their holiday shopping this year, according to (pdf) a Nielsen Online holiday survey conducted in mid-December, reports Retailer Daily.
Customer reviews are an important research tool for online consumers, with 71% agreeing that consumer reviews make them more comfortable that they are buying the right product, Nielsen found.
When evaluating this customer feedback, 63% of online shoppers indicated that it was important to have multiple reviews for each product; 14% looked for reviews from an established source; and just 3% sought out reviews by people they knew personally.
“Consumer reviews are a must-have for online retailers, especially during the holiday season when shoppers are buying for others in categories they’re less familiar with,” said Ken Cassar, vice-president, industry insights, Nielsen Online. “Perhaps more than any other time of year, consumers are looking for outside feedback for guidance.”
Online Spending
Nearly one-fourth of online shoppers (24%) have spent more than $500 so far this holiday season, with 22% spending between $100-199 online.
The 24/7 shopping convenience of the Web was the reason cited most frequently by respondents (78%) for shopping online.
Multi-Channel Advantage
More than half of respondents (55%) indicated that they visited the website of a local brick- and-mortar retailer before visiting the physical store. The primary reason for going online first was comparing prices between retailers, followed by checking if an item was in stock and looking for sales in stores.
“With strong sales growth online in recent years, online sales have become the sole focus in assessing web retailers’ holiday season success,” said Cassar. “This year, however, retailers should consider the online contribution to store sales, in addition to online sales, when evaluating how well the season went.”
Driving Traffic to Retail Websites
The most popular factor for shopping at a particular online retailer was a consumer having made a purchase there in the past, with 62% of respondents saying so.
Search engines were the second most-popular way to find an online retailer, followed by offline catalogs, with 38 and 31% of respondents, respectively.
These results underscore the importance to consumers of solid, longstanding relationships with retailers they trust, Nielsen said.