Luxury automaker Infiniti is telling consumers to "Own the Sky" with a new campaign for the convertible version of its G37 sports coupe. While the effort includes a full complement of TV and print ads, it also comprises a number of digital innovations like exclusive sponsorship of the forthcoming launch of the Twitter/Technorati partnership -- Twitterati -- rich-media mobile advertising, advertising integration on Yahoo, MSN, CNET, Edmunds.com, KBB.com and other bleeding-edge elements. For example, while Infiniti's campaign for the G convertible cars includes TV advertising, a chunk of that media buy is on Hulu, and network Web sites. The creative elements center on a vision of the car as a vehicle that offers driver and passenger the wind, earth and sky, and a great sound system. On Yahoo, for example, Infiniti's media buy uses the virtual sun image from the home page's weather icon: the sun "moves" across the page as the G convertible's hardtop roof retracts. Another app promotes the car's sound system via a program that lets consumers use "stars" in a virtual sky to create a music mix. The ads will run this summer across multiple digital and mobile platforms. "We have done a lot online, but what this really does is expand our efforts much more into mobile than we have in the past," says Ben Poore, vice president of Infiniti, who notes that the proliferation of devices like Apple's iPhone has opened up mobile and that the company has recently finished updating its Web capabilities for mobile devices. Infiniti is linking ads with mobile content via companies like 1Cast Mobile. MoVoxx, which links marketing to SMS content, is carrying Infiniti advertising through daily updates. The company is also advertising via free video desktop and widget apps like Clearspring and Cooliris. Poore says the G convertible buyers tend to skew slightly older. "They tend to be empty-nesters, though you have younger people as well in their early forties and late thirties." Poore says that while traditional campaign elements will run through the summer, digital will run much longer. And, while he concedes that expectations have been ratcheted back to reflect the market, the car has gotten a lot of hand-raisers, partly because of a long pre-launch window that included exclusive sale of the car in the Bloomingdale's catalog. "[The economy] is lowering the entire water level, but we are encouraged," he says. "We have had over 18,000 hand-raisers for the car, which is more than we had for the original G coupe, which launched when the industry was healthy. And part of that is because we built it up over time. We revealed it a year ago in August, offering the premiere edition through Bloomingdale's."
Walgreens says sales in its fiscal third quarter hit a record $16.2 billion -- an 8% jump from the prior year, with comparable-store sales climbing 2.8%. "These are solid results in a difficult economy," president and CEO Gregory D. Wasson told investors in a conference call. "We continue to see customers save more, use less credit and spend closer to payday," he says, "and while it's challenging, we're well positioned for growth." Prescription sales, which accounted for 65.6% of the Deerfield, Ill.-based chain's sales, increased 8.2%, or 3.8% on a comparable store basis, exceeding the industry-wide growth rate by 5.7 percentage points. And sales of its private-label products are advanced 12%, also well ahead of its competitors. Net earnings, however, declined 8.8% to $522 million, from $572 million, due to restructuring costs. Wasson says that early indications on those restructuring efforts are promising. Its new "customer-centric retailing," recently introduced in 35 pilot stores, is performing ahead of expectations. The new format stores are more open and less cluttered, with better sight lines, and are designed to optimize assortments based on individual store needs, improve customer experience, drive higher sales, and lower costs. So far, he says, the conversions, which take about one week, have been only minimally disruptive. "We plan to roll out another 400 this fall, break for the holidays, and then plan for a national rollout for 2010." The company is also working to control inventory chainwide by paring back its assortment, and says it has reduced the number of SKUs by 18%. "We're not reducing SKUs just for reductions' sake, though. These are the assortments our customers want," he says. Wasson is also guardedly optimistic about looming healthcare reform in Washington D.C., saying that "there are threats and opportunities. While there will be more focus on costs, which may pressure margins, one of the key principals seems to be prevention and wellness, and prescription drugs are a big part of that. Better prescription compliance is key to lowering healthcare costs." In addition, he says the company, which runs more than 700 in-store clinics as well as 7,300 stores, has now trained 16,000 of its pharmacists to administer flu shots, that the nurse practitioners in its clinics can treat many routine family visits, and that it is targeting Type 2 diabetes as an area where it can be especially useful in lowering costs and improving care. "We are accessible and affordable providers of quality care, and we are pioneering new approaches to achieve better healthcare outcomes."
Dunkin' Donuts has launched DunkinRun.com, an iPhone application designed to make it easier to coordinate those group-order "Dunkin runs" at the office and parties. The designated "runner" can now initiate a group order through the site via computer, mobile device or a free iPhone app downloaded from the iTunes Store. The runner sends an interactive alert to a list of co-workers or friends, telling them when a trip to Dunkin' is planned and inviting them to place an order online. Invitees can view the Dunkin' menu online to order (registered site users may also select from their personal lists of favorites or previous orders). Core menu items are presented using interactive product images designed to make ordering easy and fun. The orders are integrated onto a single page/screen. The runner may then either print out the list and give it to the Dunkin' store staff to help them fill the order quickly and accurately, or let them view the list on a mobile device. "Our brand filters everything through the lens of helping to keep busy people going. The Dunkin' run is an existing activity; we just wanted to use technology to make it easier, more efficient and more viral," Cynthia Ashworth, vice president of consumer engagement, told Marketing Daily. The site was a joint collaboration of Hill Holliday and Studiocom, Dunkin's agencies of record for advertising and digital, respectively. Hill came up with the concept two years ago, and with the "explosion" of social media and the iPhone, Dunkin' felt the time was right to begin developing it early this year, according to Ashworth. To get the word out about the site, Dunkin' is engaged in heavy PR outreach to influential press and bloggers, and customers who are heavy users of its loyalty cards are being mailed special preloaded cards. The marketing plan also includes radio promotions and advertising, online advertising, messages integrated into Dunkin's sponsorship of the Boston Red Sox, and advertising in elevators in key office buildings in Boston (where Dunkin' has its highest concentration of locations), Ashworth reports. While the site currently doesn't allow for sending orders in advance to be filled and ready for pick-up, Dunkin' will consider taking it that step further in a future iteration, she says.
Sears agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month after the latter charged Sears Holdings Management Co. with not disclosing fully the extent to which Sears was able to garner consumers' personal information via a downloadable software application. Under the proposed settlement, whose approval is pending a 30-day public comment period ending July 6, Sears must destroy information previously collected. Also, if Sears advertises or disseminates any tracking software in the future, it must clearly and prominently disclose the types of data the software will monitor, record, or transmit. This disclosure must be made prior to installation and separate from any user license agreement. Sears must also disclose whether any of the data will be used by a third party. Experts say the settlement is a harbinger of tightening regulations. The FTC's "administrative complaint" said Sears had represented to consumers that its "My SHC Community" site would track only their "online browsing." The FTC, however, said that the software on the site would also monitor consumers' online secure sessions, even on third-party sites, and collect info on shopping carts' contents, online bank statements, drug prescription records, video rental records, library borrowing histories, and the sender, recipient, subject and size for Web-based emails. Charles Kennedy, a cyberlaw attorney with Morrison & Foerster LLP and professor of law at Catholic University, says the settlement presages stricter control by the agency. Sears used the information to track consumer purchases and preferences, and target advertising directly to individuals. While this marketing strategy is quite common in online retailing, the FTC argued that Sears went too far and monitored too much, while not providing enough warning of the practice to its customers. Kennedy argues that "although the commission has confined itself primarily to the adoption of voluntary guidelines to govern [behavioral advertising], FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz stated as recently as April of this year that online advertisers are approaching their 'last clear chance' to avoid legislation or mandatory regulation." He says the FTC is sending "a strong signal that [it] will subject online tracking of consumer behavior to a stringent standard of disclosure. Firms that offer or rely upon behavioral advertising or other online data collection activities should be aware of the proposed settlement, and should assess the prominence and completeness of the disclosures they make to consumers in light of the proceeding." < He calls "most striking" the fact that the FTC went after Sears even though the company "fully disclosed, and obtained consumers' agreement to, the tracking practices at issue. The essence of the complaint is not that those disclosures were absent, but that they should have been made sooner and given greater prominence," he says. Kennedy says Sears Holdings' consumer registration procedure for its Web community included stopgaps from the point at which Sears invited consumers to the program via pop-up ads on Sears.com and Kmart.com. While the initial invitation didn't mention tracking, a follow-up email invitation mentioned that enrollees would be asked to "download software" that "will confidentially track your online browsing" and garner information about Web usage. And "SHMC's registration procedure also ensured that consumers did not download and install the online tracking application until they had had an opportunity to read the Privacy Statement and End User License Agreement," he writes. He says the Sears enforcement is a step toward FTC regulation of behavioral advertising, which relies on online tracking technologies. And he says those steps don't have to be taken through formal rulemaking. "Although the [Sears Holding] proceeding may be the first round in a regulatory initiative aimed at behavioral advertising and related practices ... the FTC sometimes defines the kinds of practices it finds unacceptable not by writing rules, but by bringing individual enforcement proceedings and entering into settlement agreements that create a compliance framework for businesses that want to avoid becoming the target of similar proceedings in the future."
Social networking has become a must-have in the cellular space, and Sprint is looking to cater to the most active networkers with two new phones and its own social marketing efforts. "I don't know if it has to do with the fact that we're a company dealing with technology or how easy it is to tweet from a mobile device, our customers are talking about Sprint a lot on Twitter," Rich Pesce, a manager of communications for Sprint, tells Marketing Daily. "We definitely want to engage them there, to help them with problems or hear about the good experiences they have." As a way to attract and retain the heavy social networking customers, Sprint is offering two phones -- the Samsung Exclaim and the HTC Snap -- designed with social networking in mind. The Exclaim comes pre-loaded with Facebook and MySpace tiles on its home pages, offering "one click" connectability. The HTC Snap includes email prioritization and one-touch messaging. Pesce noted both of the phones offer this access to social networking despite not being smartphones like the iPhone, BlackBerry or Palm Pre. "So many people are using these services, to make it easy for them to access it from their handheld device is just a nice feature -- especially for two devices that wouldn't be considered smartphones," he says. "It makes those phones that much more attractive when people see they have easy access to those sites for Facebook and Twitter." Sprint has also expanded its social networking presence with corporate-focused Twitter feeds, including one dedicated to its companywide environmental initiatives. The company has its own Facebook fan pages and Flickr and BuzzAboutWireless sites. "[A social networking presence] has become tremendously important, especially as we see customers there and discussing Sprint at those sites," Pesce says. "We want to be a part of those conversations and engage customers where they are." Acknowledging social networking's growing popularity, Sprint also gives a shout-out to the most popular sites in new advertising for the Palm Pre and its NOW Network TV spots. The spot for the Pre uses a Facebook fan site to show how updates can happen in real time with the device. Similarly, one of the factoids presented in the Sprint Now Network spot declares: "3,700 people just found all their friends on Loopt, 92 of them realized they were in the exact same place." "I think there's a lot of growth still in all the social networking sites," Pesce says. "We were even seeing -- when we launched the Palm Pre a few months ago -- it was a trending topic on Twitter."
Almost 4 in 10 smartphone users who don't have an iPhone would switch to the popular Apple device for their next purchase, while 4 out of 5 of current iPhone users would buy the phone again, according to a new study. The report by market research firm Crowd Science also found that only 14% of non-BlackBerry users would switch to a BlackBerry device for their next mobile phone. The iPhone further outpaced other smartphones in customer satisfaction in areas such as screen size, navigation, ability to add new features and video playback quality. The findings highlight the challenges the BlackBerry faces in "stemming the iPhone stampede," according to Crowd Science CEO John Martin, formerly a software developer at comScore and Cisco Systems. Indeed, Apple doubled its share of the worldwide smartphone market in the first quarter to 10.8% from 5.3% a year ago, according to Gartner. But BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) also gained, increasing its share to almost 20% from 13.3% during the quarter. The manufacturer last week also reported a 33% increase in quarterly profit, adding 3.8 million new BlackBerry subscribers. The company noted that 80% of new customers came from consumers and small businesses rather than corporate users. Apple raised the stakes on Friday with the launch of its upgraded iPhone 3G S, which the company Monday said sold more than 1 million units over the weekend. As RIM pushes more aggressively into the consumer market, Apple is conversely trying to grab more corporate subscribers from RIM, which has long dominated the enterprise market. Apple also made switching more enticing by lowering the price on the existing iPhone 3G to $99. In a similar vein, a survey of first-time iPhone buyers in New York City and Minneapolis over the weekend taken by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found that 12% said they were switching from a BlackBerry compared to only 6% last year. More crossover between the devices' user bases seems likely. The Crowd Science study found that 71% of smartphone subscribers use them for both personal and business purposes, with only 3% using them just for business. The firm surveyed a randomly selected group of Internet users over 14 between May 19 and June 8 through its open research network, a set of sites spanning a range of categories and reaching more than 20 million unique visitors.
Top 10 DMAs in which live adults who drank rum in the last six months: 1 Chicago 2 Boston (Manchester, N.H.) 3 Philadelphia 4 Hartford & New Haven, Conn. 5 Rochester, N.Y. 6 Providence/ New Bedford, Mass. 7 Portland, Ore. 8 Syracuse, N.Y. 9 New York 10 Seattle/ Tacoma Source: MRI's Market-by-Market study, www.mediamark.com
You work hard every day, creating, developing and sharing marketing collateral: datasheets, price lists, quotes, RFP responses, presentations, competitive analysis, sensitive reports, product designs, business plans and more. In this day and age, it is becoming increasingly important to make sure that these documents are not lost; and that you can share them while making sure they do not end up in the wrong hands. Advances in content sharing, collaboration and communication are helping companies to achieve greater results and increased client satisfaction. However, industry analyst firm Gartner states that 84% of data loss is a result of authorized parties distributing content externally. Additionally, outside factors such as viruses and spyware are also infiltrating this otherwise beneficial exchange of information. The necessary evolution is for companies to master how to effectively collaborate and share, while simultaneously reducing risks and gaining efficiencies by taking control of their documents. When considering company data security, one must take into account every step and potential outside factor that can affect the information -- from creation to collaboration to delivery among employees, partners and clients. In these hard economic times, purchasing extra software and security solutions can be a daunting addition to IT budgets. But securing your company's data does not require expensive add-ons. Below are five free tools you should consider getting if you don't have them already: