adCenter, Microsoft's paid-search marketing platform for Bing, has made some improvements to the system: automated bid recommendation analysis, targeting features. location-based options and click-to-call for mobile. While some features have already rolled out, brands will begin seeing others this week across both Bing and Yahoo. Yahoo and Microsoft product development teams spearheading the search alliance, along with an advisory board and joint customer forums, continue to drive the future of paid-search advertising for the duo. In Q4, Bing experienced 15% year-on-year click-through growth, according to Craig MacDonald, senior director of product marketing for Microsoft adCenter. MacDonald, who joined the Microsoft team earlier this year from digital marketing and platform company Covario, said the collaboration among companies is better than he had expected. Search engine marketers will get a better glimpse into improvements when companies like IgnitionOne, Marin Software, Kenshoo and others begin releasing paid-search market share this quarter. Microsoft will roll out new adCenter functions this week that give advertisers more control over URL match types. Other than assigning unique destination URLs for each keyword match type in the same ad group, advertisers can assign unique parameters, such as creative, keyword set, and match type. Advertisers also gain access to a targeting feature that lets advertisers create keywords with greater reach than phrase match. It offers control through modified broad-match keywords to help advertisers up clicks and conversions. The tools now provide advanced location options to target consumers by physical location and/or intent. A function built into adCenter called Share of Voice Analysis enables advertisers to view the clicks and analyze missed opportunities, comparing performance to the competition. It automates recommendations for bid-strategy changes in paid-search ads. In February, adCenter integrated the ability to add click-to-call telephone numbers in ads for mobile. This year, Microsoft will advance the Yahoo alliance into France, Germany, and Asia, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA). The company also continues its mobile partnership with Nokia.
That dip in overall Web usage and worldwide productivity you just felt is likely to be merely the effect of Angry Birds Space finally dropping into app stores today. The long-awaited major follow-up to the highest-profile mobile entertainment hit of them all appears on the major platforms from Rovio. While the first time Angry Birds launched on mobile it was the humble wannabe among many other gaming apps, now it is arguably the only mobile-endemic media brand ever to become iconic. Now the Angry Birds franchise is visible in everything from pistachio commercials to the skull caps we just saw being sold in San Francisco’s Union Square near this year’s OMMA Global. News Corp’s TheDaily even created a custom publishing project around the development of the sequel. The “Special Edition” of TheDaily “Birds in space” on iPad reports on how Rovio came to find another level of game play by reimagining their irked feathered friends in low-gravity worlds. Rovio is the Finnish game company that released Angry Birds in 2009, but the company dates back to 2003. It claims that Angry Birds has been downloaded over 700 million times, and paid versions account for a quarter of those installs. It was among the first games to demonstrate how touch interfaces and physics invited new conceptions of game play and interactivity with the new kinds of digital screens. The Rovio plan has been to develop the birds into franchise icons along the lines of Nintendo’s Mario or Disney animated film characters. Last year the game aligned with the animated film release Rio, where it integrated a game clue in the studio’s Super Bowl ad. A new line of merchandise includes t-shirts, branded toys and books. It has marketing partnerships with Barnes & Noble, will open branded retail stores in China soon, and plans a theme park in the UK, according to a report from Reuters. For those who are not opening their app markets and stores this second to experience the game for themselves, Rovio released one last trailer this week teasing the game play.
The large, lush, feature-rich iPad as we have known it will continue to enjoy a leading position in the market in the short term. But emerging markets and a demand for lower-cost and smaller units worldwide will ultimately tip the momentum away from the high-end iPad, says ABI Research in a new report. The company says that despite Apple ruling the U.S. and other Western markets right now, there are already 220 tablet models in the market. Tablets priced under $400 will drive the greatest growth, and will take 60% of the market by 2016. “The majority of new entrant media tablet models have been in the sub-$400 segment that focuses on growth markets like India and China,” says Jeff Orr, group director, consumer research. For now, however, what are being called “wide aspect display media tablets" (i.e., the current iPad) accounted for 75% of the worldwide market in 2011. ABI says the most growth will come from screens between 7 and 9 inches. IDC made a similar prediction last week when its analysts found Apple share already down to 54.7% and momentum behind Android-powered, cheaper and smaller competition. IDC cited tablets in some international markets starting at $120. According to some estimates, Amazon Kindle Fire sold between 4 million and 5 million units in late 2011, demonstrating a hunger for inexpensive -- if smaller -- devices.
The leap-year day launch of Facebook Timeline for brands may yet prove ironic. While the rest of the industry hailed the announcement as a great leap forward, I can’t help but wonder if Zuckerberg & Co. are asking brands to make a leap of faith -- does Facebook actually have marketers’ best interests at heart? One thing is for certain: it is time for all brands to rethink their Facebook strategy. Like it or not, every brand must become a visual storytellerPithy posts may have carried the day on the old Facebook, but Timeline puts a particular premium on images and videos. Not only is there an enlarged photo “cover” on the landing page, but photo albums are featured more prominently. Brands can also “star” images, allowing them to expand across an entire page. And while all of these changes should increase engagement, brands without an arsenal of images will need to assemble one mighty quick. Fan acquisition costs are likely to go upOne of the beauties of the old Facebook was that any brand could build up a following at little to no out-of-pocket expense. Add some compelling content, throw up a “fan gate,” and you could watch those Likes rise like the national debt. With Timeline, Facebook seems to favor paying advertisers at every turn. Sure -- “fan gates” are back as of late last week after Facebook fixed a technical problem, but you can only drive traffic directly to these pages if you pay to do so or link to them via a post. Otherwise, the default landing page is your Timeline home page and the fan gate will be on one of your secondary "tabs." Fan engagement costs will probably increasePrior to Timeline, brand communications were filtered through Facebook’s mysterious algorithm to an unknown subset of fans. Well, that mystery is no more. Facebook announced that marketers will be able to reach only 16% of their fan base for free. If you want to reach more fans, you’ll need to pay to do so via the “reach generator,” which enriches Facebook but not necessarily the brands that support it. A number of brands have already seen their engagement rates drop substantially after making the switch to Timeline. If you don’t have a history, you’ve got two weeks to make one upFor illustrious brands like the New York Times and Coca-Cola with long and well-chronicled histories, Timeline is a dream come true. These brands can now publish “milestones” as far back as they want, adding a rich texture to their Facebook presence. For new and younger brands, Timeline will take a lot more creativity. Perhaps these folks will hearken back not just to the inception of the business idea, but to the conception of the founders themselves! Forget the monthly editorial calendar - pin your best bet weeklyWith the cover photo now taking up so much prime-time real estate, much of a brand’s content will now fall below the typical screen viewing area. To help address this, brands will now be able to “pin” one particular post to the mid-left side for an entire week. Deciding what to pin will become a weekly ritual -- but one that perhaps belabors a minor issue, since so few people actually return to a fan page after their first visit. Engage - or else everyone will know you’re notFacebook is so serious about pushing brands to become engaging storytellers that they will now make it easier for everyone to see how you’re doing. A quick click on the Likes box just below the cover photo reveals not just the number of Likes and “people talking about this” but also the most popular week, most popular city and most popular age group. A nifty little graph tracks new Likes and “people talking about this,” accenting the probable correlation between engaging content and fan growth. The good news: managing complaints just got a lot easierMost brands will welcome the fact that Timeline includes an optional Message tab that allows consumers to contact them directly and privately rather than just post a complaint publicly. In theory, this will help weed out the whiners who broadcast their complaints from those genuinely seeking immediate assistance. Taking unpleasant conversations “offline” is a customer service department dream come true -- and should hasten the integration of social and service-related activities. Bottom line: it’s time to develop a Plan BTime will tell whether the new Timeline actually improves a brand’s ability to engage with its fans via Facebook. What we do know is that the cost of engagement with all your fans just went up, and that Facebook will not hesitate to impose its will upon your efforts. So while few brands can afford to be without a Facebook presence, given how much time consumers spend there, this is as good a time as any to start thinking about how you can engage YOUR fans in other less dictatorial arenas.
When you are putting chemicals on someone’s head to change their entire look, then you need some backup. That is the simple insight at work in Redken’s second iteration of the successful mobile app for professional hairstylists recently launched by the L’Oreal brand. Style Station 2.0 complements the style products’ consumer-facing strategy with a task-oriented service app for the people who are critical to the business model for Redken, whose products are available only through salons -- keeping the hairdresser happy, informed and a better buddy to the person in the chair. "Part of our strategy was providing an app that would be applicable even to salons that didn’t carry Redken,” says Sarah Liang, director of interactive marketing, Redken 5th Ave. And so a key component was just an alarm and timer. Understanding how things happen in a salon, Liang and her researchers knew that most hairdressers still use kitchen timers at a station to time the coloring or treatment applied. With this app they can carry the alarm with them. “We wanted to translate a habit into something digital they could keep in their pocket,” says Liang. And the kitchen timer is not inappropriate to the setting, since hairdressers want and need coloring “recipes” -- formulas to achieve just the right shade for each customer. This iteration of Style Station was timed to help introduce the new Chromatics line of color, and so it has over 1,000 such recipes. Using apps to sell the seller has recently emerged as an important category for agencies helping brands. At this week’s OMMA Global in San Francisco, for instance, we featured presentations by both Aflac and Plantronics about how they created mobile tools aimed at the salesperson and helping them do their job better. One of the interesting aspects of mobile initiatives into the sales channel is the way some of the apps are aimed not only at the salesperson, but at the consumer working in collaboration with the salesperson. In Style Station 2.0 we get a lookbook of hairstyles and colors that the stylist can share with their customers to get inspiration. And it can be customized to make the stylist’s own book of recommendations. An “Art of Consultation” tool helps the stylist hone the skills of helping the customer. If the stylist is already using the app as a timer, she can also use it with the client to walk through ideas. My own sense is that we will see more of this model where b2b apps are made to be used in collaboration with the consumer at the retail level. But Liang also found in that in the year since Style Station was first introduced and used by over 28,000 stylists, her users wanted to get beyond utility alone. There were few updates that drove continued usage other than the tools themselves. “What we did find is giving them a better balance of content and utility was crucial,” she says. This version has push notifications, hosted chats with style experts and greater encouragement to engage the community in the app’s social setting –- the “Break Room.” “The Break Room has been extraordinary for us,” she says of this social space. Stylists are using the in-app social environment to ask real-time questions and advice of their colleagues. “Many of them have conversations about clients they have in the shop right there,” she says. The community is giving answers to real-time queries about what to do with this customer who is 50% gray. According to Liang, education is an integral part of salon culture. Stylists are always looking for training in new techniques. The Break Room serves as a kind of customer service and school all in one, and is powered mainly by the audience. While the aim of the app is not to sell the goods so much as to become an everyday presence in the stylist’s life, the back-end metrics can tell Liang a lot about how much it is helping the bottom line and the ways in which users peruse and share formulas. “If they spend a lot of time in the formulas area, we know they are using our product,” she says. And they can tell the cycles of need as well. Most shops are closed on Mondays but they see a peak of usage on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, suggesting that this is the time when many stylists are taking more time to educate themselves. With this iteration of the app, Redken also ramped up the marketing. Style Station 1.0 was launched over a year ago at a trade show where thousands of professionals were directly exposed to the tool. Liang says that at the last minute, the company made the very good decision to move from iOS only to an Android app. This wider reach worked, as Android was responsible for 40% of downloads. This year, they introduced the app along with the new color line to 1,000 influencers so they had detailed hands-on experience. “Everyone already had it, but it was a matter of teaching them the talking points. It was a game of telephone,” she says. They passed it on. Also in a first for Redken, they put the promotion on the actual tubes of hair color using a Microsoft Tag that linked to the download. They also have exposure at the distributor stores where professionals are resupplied. As a result, the 2.0 version of the app saw accelerated pickup -- with 5,000 additional downloads in just two weeks.