• by Margaret A. Starvish , August 31, 2007

The Web is a natural playing field for engaging gadget-crazy consumers

From high-def TVs to iPhones to game consoles, new devices are proving irresistible to U.S. consumers. Consider, the average household now boasts 25 gadgets and spends $1,200 a year on consumer electronics, according to a recent eMarketer report.

What's more, the vast majority of people -77 percent - conduct Internet research before making a purchase. While the actual buys tend to occur at brick-and-mortar stores, the Web's big role in the selection process means that consumer electronics brands have every incentive to maintain an online presence.

Given the numbers, it's no surprise that even companies that haven't previously launched aggressive online marketing campaigns are getting into the act. Nokia, for one, recently sponsored a branding effort aimed at driving people to associate the company with live music. The campaign, launched in conjunction with Live Nation, marks a break from more traditional efforts, which were usually based around new products.

Launched in North America in May, the Nokia Ticket Rush gives members access to tickets for concerts and tours. After people sign up for free for the program, they receive tickets via e-mail and/or text message alerts sent to their cell-phones (they need not have Nokia phones to participate).

The campaign is meant to target music lovers and enthusiasts from 16- to 24-year-olds, and Nokia hopes to drive the association of their brand with music, says interactive marketing manager Naaz Nichols, and stimulate visitors to the site to share it with their friends. Nokia offers several music devices, including the Swiss Army knife of the future - the 5300 Xpress Music phone, which doubles as a Bluetooth device and triples as an MP3 player with a dedicated music key.

Doing Things Different

Samsung sold more digital television sets than any other manufacturer in the United States last year, a feat the company hopes to repeat in 2007. The Web plays a big role in meeting that goal, says Louis Giagrande, online marketing manager at Samsung Electronics America. "Online advertising is very important to Samsung and always at the forefront of our marketing plan," he says. "It's a significant part of our marketing budget."

Earlier this year, Samsung partnered with the technology site CNET to build an online store that pulls together editorial content from CNET (including reviews, price comparisons, photos and videos) and offers one-stop shopping for Samsung products.

The campaign is different from what Samsung's done online in the past - running banner ads across multiple sites to get the brand noticed - and it marks a shift toward more focused, targeted advertising, says Giagrande.

But, he adds, the campaign isn't without risk. "We understand that our strategy of keeping people in the CNET environment means they are one click away from leaving the brand, but we also felt we were aiding the consumer's research because we're keeping them in an environment they're comfortable with."

So far, Samsung has had some success. Currently, the company is the most researched high-definition TV brand on CNET, up from the No. 3 slot in June of 2006. The click-through rate on banner ads related to the Samsung store are two to three times the norm for CNET and a live chat feature was recently launched at the online store, where users can ask product and service questions of a Samsung representative and get real-time answers. Samsung is looking to roll this type of advertising out in other environments, says Giagrande. "It's a new step for Samsung."

Internet time

Electronics retailer Radio Shack launched an interactive initiative that aims to reach people in the market for wireless accessories. As with other electronics purchasers, they tend to conduct research online and then buy in stores. Given that reality, Radio Shack's goal is to both affect people's decision-making and then convince them to make the buy at a Radio Shack store.

The campaign, created with advertising agency Carat, includes advertising on online mobile registration pages (where people go to sign up for mobile alerts on their phones) and on the mobile Internet as well. Starting this quarter, Radio Shack intends to also test a mobile search campaign, says Carat's Sean Corcoran, who manages the Radio Shack account.

Then again, some companies have made surprising decisions to eschew sites with relevant editorial content. Most notably, Apple decided to forego iPhone ads on the popular gadget blog Gizmodo. Apple didn't need to advertise on the site, proposes Christopher Batty, vice president of sales for Gawker Media (which owns Gizmodo), because it had already receive much free coverage there.

Batty acknowledges it can be a tough medium to master, seeing the challenge not so much about visibility but about keeping up with the sheer speed at which the Internet moves. Gizmodo posts up to 50 times a day; its audience hungers for ever-refreshing content about the latest-and-greatest - but an ad campaign, even in the online space, can take weeks, if not months, to mount. By the time a campaign goes live on Gizmodo it's already been outpaced by the editorial content.