Coca-Cola launched its largest digital effort ever this year with its “Move to the Beat” campaign for the Summer Olympics across 100 countries. Mobile played a key part in the award-winning effort, with SMS activations, integrated apps and promotional QR codes. MediaPost talked to Kim Siler, mobile brand strategist, global connections at Coca-Cola, about the Olympics campaign and the company’s broader mobile strategy. MP: Can you give a brief description of your job? Siler: I sit in the global connections group, within corporate, of the Coca-Cola Company. We set the strategy and the direction of mobile. So it’s about making sure we’re looking at how things can scale and getting the best partnerships from that perspective with vendors and agencies. I’m currently working a little bit more closely with our brands, helping them with their mobile strategies, and we have a few mobile platforms that we focus on -- SMS, mobile Web and apps -- and right now, I’m going to be focusing on our location platform. That doesn’t mean we’re going to have a platform that manages location, but building out what the strategy is for location -- what vendors and partners make the most sense for Coca-Cola and our consumers. MP: The "Move to the Beat" campaign tied to the Summer Olympics was a major focus of the company’s marketing efforts in 2012. Did the mobile results meet expectations? Siler: The “Move to the Beat” campaign was sort of a benchmark for Coca-Cola. It was the first time mobile was an integral part of an integrated marketing campaign. It far exceeded expectations in that we were able to successfully show mobile could part of the overarching story. We rolled out the campaign to over 100 markets, with mobile portions in all of them. We launched the SMS portion of the campaign in nine markets. That may sound small, but these were really key markets -- we’re talking about China, Russia, South Africa, U.S., Canada, Mexico. That was our biggest success. MP: What about response rates across markets? Siler: I will say there were some markets that did it very well. One in particular was Canada, which took the SMS program and ran with it. The engagement rates averaged about 45%. We set the global, overarching story line of “Move to the Beat,” and say [to local Coca-Cola teams] here’s the focus, here’s the recommendations, now take it and localize it. They insert local calls to action or a local story line to it. MP: Is SMS, because of its universality, still the core of Coca-Cola’s approach to mobile marketing? Siler: It is one that our team pushes throughout Coca-Cola. It’s a ubiquitous format you can use to reach 98% of consumers and…it’s much more personal and much more integrated into what a consumer is already doing in their daily lives. So it is a very big part of the mobile marketing mix. We look at a wide range of platforms and outlets in mobile, so it’s not just SMS. MP: A lot of brands are in the process of optimizing their sites for mobile devices. Where is Coca-Cola on that front? Siler: We’re getting there. I wouldn’t say they’re all mobile-optimized yet. It takes time when you have over 208 countries, the number of brands we have, the number of languages. MP: What does Coca-Cola’s location platform entail? Siler: Right now, we’re just looking at what really is Coca-Cola’s role in location. Ultimately, we believe that when coupled with mobile payments, the location capabilities of a mobile device/network can enable our vision of a world where people can walk in holding their phone and walk out with their phone and a Coca-Cola. MP: Without Olympics or World Cup in 2013 is it going to be a quieter year for Coca-Cola in terms of mobile projects? Siler: I wish it was quieter, but for the 2012 Olympics I was working on that mobile strategy in 2011. So it will be a busy year, especially considering we have the Sochi [Winter Olympics] in 2014 and the World Cup in Rio (in 2014).
As the competition in the online streaming space (Amazon, Hulu, etc.) gains steam, Netflix is looking to differentiate itself through exclusive content, according to a Wall Street report. A signal: a new deal with Disney giving it sole rights to a slew of films in a pay-TV window. As Netflix tries to build a moat around its content, a potential long-term implication is the service becoming “somewhat more likely to eventually gain carriage from a traditional cable or satellite distributor,” according to Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente. The emerging Netflix strategy would have it relying more on a less-extensive portfolio, but one with “scarcity value,” DiClemente writes in a report. A notable example has been a deal with AMC, giving it exclusive rights to prior seasons of “Walking Dead” and “Mad Men.” The approach could pose somewhat of a challenge to large content providers (Disney, News Corp., etc.), which have relished the opportunity to sign nonexclusive deals with Netflix, allowing them to also collect subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) dollars from Amazon and others. SVOD options have brought cash windfalls and a chance to monetize library content. Programmers could now charge Netflix more for exclusivity, making up for any lost revenues from double- or triple-dipping. DiClemente suggests in negotiations between Netflix and digital SVOD providers, programmers will continue to “maintain leverage” as they offer up more recent content Netflix could want. Plus, Amazon has money to spend; it has not shown the same emphasis on exclusivity, while new entrants, such as the Verizon/Redbox venture, could play a role in raising bidding prices. (The Barclays analyst notes that while the largest programming distributors have warmed to Netflix and Amazon, one holdout has been Scripps Networks, which has sought to gain TV Everywhere revenues from distributors. (It has been suggested that digital distribution might offer “cannibalistic threats” to its linear programming in the ratings area.) The overarching conclusion from DiClemente is that content providers have enough to satisfy the multiple digital distributors by artfully dividing content, which as consumer demand increases, “will ultimately translate into more digital dollars, not less.”
Customers want more merchandise appeal and variety from most retailers, according to the annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index released today by customer experience analytics firm ForeSee. Internet-retail giant Amazon remains at the head of the class, according to the 8th annual report, which is based on more than 24,000 customer surveys collected during the prime holiday shopping season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, the study expands from measuring satisfaction with 40 top retailers to 100. Aggregate customer satisfaction has stagnated, scoring 78 on a 100-point scale. Although satisfaction with top retailers remains the same, a few big-name retailers suffered declines. Apple’s online retail store slides 4% to 80, slipping from a tie for second place and out of the top five entirely, registering its lowest score in four years. PC competitor Dell.com also falls 4% to 77 and below the Index average. But the biggest year-over-year decline goes to jcpenney.com, with a 6% decline to 78. “This year, we’re seeing that even some of the largest companies in the country are at risk if they lose sight of customer satisfaction,” said Larry Freed, ForeSee president and CEO, in a release. “Satisfaction with the customer experience, when measured correctly, is the most important predictor of future success, and while Amazon clearly gets it, Apple stumbles from their usual focus on the customer experience. Dell and J.C. Penney seem to be struggling to find their way, which could make them extremely vulnerable to competitors.” Meanwhile, Amazon.com continues to set the standard for customer satisfaction, matching the record high of 88 it set last year in the holiday edition of the Index. Amazon has had the highest scores in the Index for eight years in a row, consistently setting a pace that other retailers don’t seem to be able to touch. Their high score is partially the result of the appeal and variety of merchandise they offer, a priority area for some other retailers. “At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, it’s hard to imagine anyone else coming close,” added Freed. “Companies should emulate Amazon’s focus on the customer, which is clearly linked to superior revenues over the years.” The range of scores among the top 100 retailers spans from Amazon’s high of 88 to a score of 72 shared by Gilt.com and Fingerhut.com. Merchandise is a top priority for two-thirds of retailers. Customer experience analytics can provide retailers with a clear direction on prioritizing improvements that will have the greatest return on investment. While many retailers are focused on price, only seven of the top 100 companies registered price as a high priority for improvement. However, 65 of the measured sites should improve merchandise (the appeal, variety, and availability of products) in order to increase overall satisfaction, and by extension, sales, loyalty and customer recommendations. Customer satisfaction matters. Compared to shoppers who report being dissatisfied with a Web site, highly satisfied shoppers say they are 67% more likely to consider the company the next time they purchase a similar product. Satisfied shoppers also report being far more likely to return to the site, recommend it and remain loyal to the brand. Furthermore, analysis of top e-retailers in the United States has shown that, on average, a one-point change in Web site satisfaction was found to predict a 14% change in the log of revenues generated on the Web.
Ending the year on a sour note, Netflix left millions of U.S. users without service on Christmas Eve. By Christmas Day, the streaming service was back to normal, according to a company tweet. “Special thanks to our awesome members for being patient. We're back to normal streaming levels. We hope everyone has a great holiday.” Yet, the outage couldn’t have come at a worse time for Netflix, as subscribers were no doubt relying on the service to entertain visiting in-laws and children restlessly waiting for Santa’s arrival. “Terrible timing!” Netflix admitted in a separate tweet. The company has about 30 million streaming subscribers worldwide, 27 million are in the Americas region, which was subject to the outage. Netflix is also currently engaged in a fierce battle with Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and a host of other streaming media services. Service failures don’t help companies gain market share. The company is still repairing its image among many consumers following a botched service change in 2011. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings notoriously introduced a new subscription plan that would have made it more expensive for users to receive movies via the mail and online, which was reportedly enough to scare away some 800,000 subscribers. Working in Netflix’s favor, consumers continue to embrace over-the-top -- or OTT -- video services. In fact, half of U.S. consumers now view OTT video through broadband connections on their TVs, in addition to the content they traditionally watch via cable or satellite, according to recent findings from Accenture. The Netflix outage was attributed to the Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud, which has a history of taking down Internet service when its servers give out.
Having been in and around mobile since 1997 — there was mobile messaging and early WAP or mobile Web back then — 2012 really struck me as a monumental year. Smartphones are no longer in their infancy—they are powerful computers in our pockets and purses. The consumer adoption has been dramatic across many demographic segments, not just the early adopters. With that in mind, 2013 promises to be even bigger, and there are many trends we’re anticipating as continued adoption, both by consumers and at the enterprise level, progresses. Continued and increasing fragmentation: The fragmentation of operating systems, devices and browsers continues. Apple and iOS used to be consistent, but now versions come more frequently, new sizes like the iPad mini add complexity to creating optimal experiences across devices and new feature integration means constant running by developers to stay ahead of the game. Android manufacturers each have their own flavor of the operating system and create device nuances to differentiate from competitors, which is great for consumers, but makes the backend challenging. T there’s HTML5, thought to be a panacea as a browser-based solution, but still no standards are in place, so, as Facebook realized, it’s not the be all end all. Bottom line: Apps are still ahead in 2013 and developers have their work cut out. More adoption on the enterprise front: Clearly, Blackberry is no longer the winner for business. Android and iOS have become entrenched in many organizations. IT groups are supporting BYOD (bring your own device), which provides great opportunities for businesses to increase productivity and save costs. Mobile and tablets are now seen as tools for efficiency, digitalization of documents (think sales materials, training, etc.) and more. This goes for both F1000 and SMBs. Bottom Line: The accessibility and proliferation of mobile by consumers has driven the message home for the enterprise as well. Mobile shopping and mobile payments will continue to increase dramatically: Signs were clear throughout the year and the holiday season has cemented mobile’s impact on retail and shopping. Consumers are using mobile as tools for discovery, price comparison and LBS to drive to local businesses. Smart retailers are staying ahead of the game by offering shoppers tools for better experiences, deals and to create loyalty. They are also deploying mobile devices to sales associates as a means to seal the deal, through highlighting products, upselling and easily accessing inventory. Bottom line: Mobile is now integral to both the buying and selling process. Mobile payments are also starting. and we’ll see more of this in 2013. Increasing adoption of augmented reality: Augmented reality is still an interesting story to tell from the marketing end. Brands can get more creative as the technology improves. Consumers now have the awareness they can use their phones to unlock information and entertainment via AR. That said, it’s still not very widespread, so we’ll see what happens. Bottom line: Augmented reality will have another year of experimentation. We’ll see more creativity and more adoption as consumer knowledge and easier access spreads. As we saw this year, mobile is becoming more a part of the fabric of our daily lives and this will continue in 2013 for consumers and business. It’s an exciting and ever-changing time for the industry. Mobile will continue to gain momentum and prove its efficacy for marketers.
The branded app has fallen out of favor in the last year or so, and likely for good reason. Aside from task-driven m-commerce and shopping apps, even the clever branded tchotchke concept got overdone in a hurry after the app platform emerged several years ago. Some marketers have come back at the concept recently with a revival of the advergame model. M&Ms has a genuinely challenging gadget construction title in the market. And the Coca-Cola Fanta brand recently issued a social game called Fruit Slam that reaches across Facebook and iOS platforms. But we are no longer besieged with the torrent of disposable do-nothing apps from major brands -- what in 2009 was fast becoming the mobile equivalent of the trade show squeeze ball and mouse pad. One of the things brands discovered about branded apps was that to do them well and get continued engagement, the marketer or its agency had to behave more like a publisher than an advertiser. It turns out that digital platforms do give marketers more direct access to consumers that can circumvent traditional media, but the more direct distribution channel doesn’t necessarily give the brand anything of interest to say. Damn, this media stuff was harder than it looked. And so it bears noting when a media company makes a genuine effort and aligns their brand identity, other marketing campaigns, and valuable content with a compelling event. Toshiba has launched its third iteration of the annual Times Square Ball app for Google Play and IOS. This well-made, eminently useful app is in tune with the brand’s major presence in Times Square. It sponsors and runs one of the largest screens in the zone, the Toshiba Zone monitor at One Times Square. Toshiba worked with the producers of the Times Square event, The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment. The app is a mobile broadcast of the event. It has its own Webcast, which does what every TV-alternative video program should do -- exceed the network effort. This live video feed and hosted ad-free program goes on for six hours with hostess Allison Hagendorf of The CW’s “The Next” and it includes otherwise unnoticed aspects of the Time Square event like the ball raising. The agenda for the app-cast genuinely complements and extends the kinds of music and mirth programming we already know will come from the Dick Clark legacy show with Ryan Seacrest, MTV’s concerts and CNN's Anderson Cooper giggle-fest. This programming will have interviews with the Time Square event creators as well as those who traveled from afar to be part of the craziness. They are covering New Year’s Eve like an Olympics. And of course there will be the relentless musical acts. By the way. is anyone here old enough to recall media coverage of New Year's Eve before Dick Clark “Rocked” it out of the purview of Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians doing the music and countdown from the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria? Here is a clip of the 1957 New Year’s event sponsored by Clairol. Stick with it for a few minutes to see Guy’s early product integration involving Clairol. His first number marks the year of the company’s founding. In some ways Toshiba mobilizes, modernizes and socializes the very early TV model by launching its own video channel on smartphones and tablets. This app lets the user submit images of themselves for possible posting on the Toshiba Times Square screen during the evening. App users can vote on the images that will appear on the live monitor every hour between 7 and 11 p.m. According to the company, almost 60,000 photos were uploaded last year from the nearly 300,000 downloads of the app across 200 countries. The end results of the effort remain to be seen. But it strikes me that this is the kind of branded mobile media that marketers should pursue. The brand (electronic gadgets of all sorts) aligns well with all of the media that is being made and consumed on New Year’s Eve. The content is ambitious and generous, and of real value to an end user. It uses the mobile channel as a second screen, an alternative video venue that is effective for revelers away from a first screen or those trapped by the predictable programming someone in their living room insists upon watching. And it is the kind of branding effort that can over time attach a brand to an event. Ultimately, that is the emerging goal of marketing models that are no longer attached only to specific media. If the cross-platform, multi-screen next stage of media is one in which brands have to align with consumer “journeys” throughout a day, then they need to look for ways to sponsor moments -- not just media.
With the rapid proliferation of new mobile devices, each with its own screen size and resolution, the current propensity to design mobile emails for each device has become untenable. Instead, email marketers should adopt a device-agnostic approach that trades per-device-optimization for an adaptive layout that renders well in any platform. Read the full article on VentureBeat.