Just 9% of 200 global marketers surveyed by the CMO Council report that their companies have a highly evolved, integrated marketing model with a clear, proven evolution path. Instead, more than a third (36%) report that tactical or “point” solutions are “randomly embraced” and not well integrated, and 44% see their digital strategies as still being at an exploration level. "Clearly, there are lots of pins without the right pincushion to ensure digital marketing initiatives have the right underlying strategy, architecture and technology infrastructure to meet management expectations," sums up the Council’s executive director, Donovan Neale-May. Corporate management is by and large supportive of digital marketing. Forty-two percent of marketers reported that they have strong interest and active support at the line-of-business (LOB) level, 20% said they have a mandate and a budget to execute, and 18% said that this is an agenda item they have to address with their CEOs, CIOs and CFOs. However, 23% said that management is still trying to understand where digital marketing fits within their overall businesses. Nearly two-thirds (63%) said that management’s interest in migrating to digital marketing is driven by its potential for increasing marketing performance and ROI through more efficient digital-media channels and better customer engagement. Half (49%) said management is also responding to customers’ growing preference for digital consumption and live, on-demand interaction with brands and companies. Respondents reported that the digital marketing processes/functions that have the most appeal to management and LOB executives include: *Customer data integration, analytics and personalization of market interactions (62%) *Lead acquisition, conversion and customer upselling/cross-selling (60%) *Web site performance improvement and richer engagement (61%) *Behavior-based insight gathering for more effective segmentation and messaging (41%) *Search marketing and online advertising (39%) Little Collaboration with IT One hindrance to integration: Just 26% of marketers are developing interdisciplinary task forces to lead the integration assessment process. Furthermore, just 32% have teamed with internal IT to lead initiatives and specify needs and requirements. Instead, 59% report relying primarily on their own marketing teams to assess which digital marketing platforms, solutions and channels will provide the most value and business gain, and 51% source best-practices studies and analyst reports. Fully 77% said they rely primarily on their marketing teams to evaluate and specify marketing technologies, followed by vendors/solution providers (46%), and their own IT departments (42%). And just 24% turn to IT to assist in making a business case for digital marketing investment. Among those that identify themselves as being “high-performance, data-driven digital marketers,” however, 26% are developing a combined internal task force to create roadmaps and evaluate solutions, and many are including the customer in the process (customers’ engagement-channel preferences). “Because there is no real barrier between the marketing and IT teams, we’ve modeled an architecture that fits our organizational size and makes it easier to deal with the complexities we face,” Markus Kramer, global marketing director for Aston Martin, comments in the report. At SiriusXM Radio, Inc., director of database marketing and analytics Isaac Turk reports that business, finance, strategic analytics and IT teams collaborate on a business case based on estimates and benchmarks across cost-per-acquisition through ROI for a given campaign or program. Then, “if an area proves to be effective, management is willing to increase spending in that area until the marginal economics dictate otherwise.” Most Effective Point Solutions When it comes to tactical or point solutions, 67% of marketers report finding email marketing most effective, followed by Web site performance and interface solutions (52%) and paid and organic search (45%). Top digital marketing challenges and difficulties include lack of budget and internal resources (50%), integrating internal and external customer data (43%), and deciding which marketing applications have the most value (29%). The survey (one-third of respondents were from companies with revenues over $1 billion, and 22 were at the CMO or SVP-marketing level) was part of a six-month research program sponsored by digital marketing solutions consultancy Acceleration. The research results are summarized in a report, “Integrate to Accelerate Digital Marketing Value.” A summary can be downloaded free with registration; the full report is $199.
Way to kick a big-boxer when it’s down, Walmart. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer has unleashed print and radio advertising making sure consumers know their local Best Buy is closing, and inciting them to head on over to Walmart for good deals in electronics. Some spots especially trumpet mobile phone offerings, an area that the struggling Best Buy has laid out as its likely salvation. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that print ads read: “Did your local Best Buy just close? We have the top brands and low prices.” And radio spots ask the same question, and include a conversation with a Walmart shopper about specials on brands phones, including Samsung. “Wow,” she says. I didn’t know Walmart had those.” The move comes at a rough time for Best Buy. Sales are still sliding, with comparable-store results down 5.3% in its recently announced fiscal first-quarter results, and it is in the midst of shutting down 50 of its big-box stores and laying off hundreds of employees. It plans to reduce costs by $800 million over the next three years -- investing those savings in smaller-format stores, including Best Buy Mobile stores and Connected Stores. And just last week, it announced it was retaining Spencer Stuart to help it find its next CEO, as the Minneapolis chain is still reeling from embarrassing management upheaval. First, chief executive Brian Dunn resigned in April, amid allegations that he had an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer. Then in mid-May, founder Richard Schulze, chairman, stepped down as well, when an internal investigation revealed that he knew of that relationship but did not report it. But Best Buy’s troubles started before all that. In fact, pundits and analysts have been piling on the chain for months now, including an influential Forbes piece called “Why Best Buy is going out of business …gradually,” which draws many comparisons between its business model and the now-kaput Circuit City. By comparison, Walmart is on the upswing again, reporting higher profits for the first quarter and same-store sales gain of 2.6%, better than many had expected. Neither Walmart nor Best Buy responded to our emails asking for comment.
At one time the National Basketball Association backed the globetrotting ambitions of the Harlem Globetrotters. Now the Globetrotters have gotten their own sponsorship deals. And the one they have just inked for a huge market outside the U.S. is their biggest ever. The trick team, which invented the unlikely and uniquely American marriage of comedy and basketball, is this year being sponsored by the Inner Mongolia Mengniu Dairy Industry. The deal, in which Mengniu will back a series of Globetrotter tours in the country, is the largest in the franchise's history. And it may well culminate in the Harlem Globetrotter's first-ever Chinese player -- as the team is doing its draft this month, and will be looking at China for new talent. The organization says the partnership includes marketing activation on various year-round activities, including school clinics, promotional visits, and in-game activation. This is the fourth time in the past three years that the Globetrotters are lining up Mainland China tours. The team will do six visits in China this year, per the organization. The team also opened a satellite office there last year. The team’s collaboration with the NBA began in 2008, as part of the NBA’s efforts to make basketball popular. The league made the Globetrotters an unofficial basketball ambassador to the world. As part of that deal, the NBA -- which has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo and Toronto -- helped the Phoenix-based Globetrotters organize international events and games in different markets, especially China, where the Globetrotters had toured in 2004. In the U.S. the Globetrotters number Howard Johnson Hotels, Greyhound Lines, Spalding, and Russell Athletic among sponsors. The team is also doing "Summer Skills Clinics" at 24 Hour Fitness locations.
For all the hoopla about people streaming video content on their smartphones, tablets, PCs and gaming consoles, gaming is still the preferred activity for all these devices. According to new research from PwC U.S., people (regardless of whether they’re heavy, medium or light gamers) spend more time playing games on the various devices than they do watching TV or movies on them. The disparity was particularly wide when it came to gaming consoles, which were used an average of 3.7 hours a week for gaming vs. 2.3 for video watching, among all gamer categories. “Gaming has become increasingly integrated into our daily lifestyles in recent years,” Michael Yatsko, director in PwC’s Entertainment, Media and Communications Advisory practice, tells Marketing Daily. “Some respondents said gaming served as a way to break up free time and to decompress from the stress of their day while others look at it as a way to keep in touch and stay social.” At the same time, the research suggests that console makers ought to look at marketing the devices as more than just a gaming device. Particularly as consumers become more sensitive to games pricing (44% of consumers said they spent $5 or less a month on gaming, due in large part to the lower game prices on the mobile platform), positioning the console as a media hub for the home may offset concerns about the higher cost of investment. “By extending gaming experiences across multiple platforms, consumers can become engaged in ways that better integrate into their daily lifestyles and work-styles,” Yatsko says. “Doing so provides businesses with more opportunities to monetize their services and enhance brand intimacy.” People also expressed a strong desire to play and save games across a variety of different platforms, according to the research. When it comes to these different platforms, however, gamers have different mindsets and expectations. While a majority of those who play games on a mobile platform does so in 5-15-minute bursts, most console gamers will play for an average of 60-90 minutes, with PC gamers coming in at an average 30-60 minutes. The ability to play and save games across a variety of platforms may also make people more willing to adopt subscription-based models, though many of the more casual gamers may have to be convinced that they’re getting a decent value over purchasing games. People are also intrigued by the idea of streaming games, though they have questions about how the technology would work (such as lag-time) and how it might hurt a device’s resale value. “Most respondents were intrigued by this particular idea and were quick to identify inherent benefits such as no clutter of CD’s, great social gaming interaction and portability and flexibility,” Yatsko says.
Jeep is rolling out grass-roots activation programs around its sponsorship of 2012 USA Basketball. The automaker, whose quintessential vehicle, Wrangler, is "Official Vehicle of USA Basketball," is adding exhibitions, and experiential elements to its Rubicon-sized "Power Within" ad push for the team. This Monday, the automaker will be in New York to launch a promotional campaign around the sponsorship. On hand will be New York Knicks All Star and USA Basketball team member Carmelo Anthony; USA Basketball Legend and former New York Knicks All Star Allan Houston. The grassroots “Power By Design” event centers on a challenge where participants try to sink 12 consecutive free throws in a regulation basket. With each basket, a design element of the Wrangler is revealed. Thus, the first person to assemble the virtual version of the Wrangler gets to play "J-E-E-P" with Carmelo Anthony, as well as a trip for two to Las Vegas to attend a USA Basketball Exhibition game. Jeep is also activating against USA Basketball exhibition games, including the upcoming game on July 16 in Washington, D.C. The brand has ride-and-drive elements and a brand-heritage themed exhibition where people can walk through a time-line of the brand's 70-year history. Jeep joins 10 other sponsors, including Gatorade, American Express, and Cisco Systems. Jeep is using the sponsorship to tout its limited-edition version of the Wrangler, the 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Altitude, with an integrated campaign featuring 2012 Team USA hopeful Chris Paul of the L.A. Clippers, who was a USA Basketball team member in 2008. He appears in advertising and video vignettes about the partnership and the Olympic team. Jeep's AOR, Southfield, Mich.-based Global Hue, oversees the campaign. The Wrangler version of the Altitude model follows Grand Cherokee, Compass and Patriot versions of Altitude models. Wrangler had a strong sales month in April, helping the Jeep division post a 19% lift in sales volume for the month, making it Jeep's best in five years and 24th-consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains. The company said Wrangler also set its own sales record for the month, with a 35% sales gain. The Grand Cherokee, which won an AutoPacific/Autobytel vehicle-satisfaction award, had its best April in seven years.
After several viewings of "The Pitch," I have finally hit the high-water mark on the pain of watching something so far from the truth. The AMC original series airing Sunday nights purports to provide viewers with “an intense, gripping, never-before-seen glimpse inside America’s top ad agencies.” My advertising career began 15 years ago, and I believed then, as I do now, that it’s all of our jobs to find solutions to business problems and to drive sales for clients’ products and services. Clearly, that isn’t how the briefs are being written for these competing agencies. "The Pitch" has managed to demonstrate that the value agencies bring to marketers is a commodity -- an expendable “product” -- and implies that agencies are nothing more than idea generators. We are and should be viewed as business partners that help drive revenue growth in the marketplace. During the Popchips episode, agencies were asked for a “social idea” in an off-the-cuff, flimsy brief looking for that “one big idea that could really help take our brand to the next level” in the words of PopChips CEO Keith Belling. The winning agency, Conversation, came up with a video and an app -- the big idea, according to the client. I’m sorry to break this to you, but a video and social aggregator are far from being the pillars of a big idea. These feel like tactics to experiencing a brand. What is the broader platform? I don't blame the warrior agencies that are putting themselves out there on national cable TV to go to battle for the glory of winning each pitch in question. My passion for this business is deeply rooted in the quest for new challenges. If "The Pitch" is to be believed, marketers can easily live without marketing programs and executions grounded in a sound strategy. Can someone explain to me why we neglect to speak about the art of “the pitch” and our industry? Conversation and other agencies dig deep to find the insights that make people tick. Agencies build models for smart consumer targeting to deliver the right idea, message and placement to the customer. Agencies sometimes create new products and revenue streams for clients. Modern marketing calls for the creation of products and services to be part of the answer. Many agencies even manage the back-end technology that powers ad campaigns online to gauge what is working in market and what is not and why it’s working and why not, and then determine how to change the media mix. Chase’s mobile application allows you to make a payment or deposit a check by taking a photo of it with your smartphone. The retail bank is using this app as a focal point of its advertising. What’s being marketed? Is it the app, is it the marketing or is it a message about the app? Agencies are helping to build that next branded app, product or service. Ideas today are not a cross-channel message blast. They must add value to customers. As with the Chase app, the messaging itself could be the marketer’s product. Let's break down the real world versus "The Pitch." Real world: A pitch takes an average of three months to complete. The Pitch: Agencies get one week. Real world: Agencies are asked to build a strategic value proposition grounded in a fundamental insight. The Pitch: The brief fails to mention the consumer targets and what potentially makes them tick. Real world: Agencies are asked to build a creative platform that delivers value to customers and revenue for the brand. The Pitch: Agencies must demonstrate an idea brought to life to meet a tactical challenge. Real world: Agencies must understand and deploy a cross-channel performance model. The Pitch: Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. Maybe this show is a testament to the challenges in our business and why our industry is facing commoditization. It is “reality”-based in so much as it’s about ad agencies competing for a piece of business. Any resemblance to the reality of the marketing world ends there.