When J.D. Power and Associates (JDP) acquired Web intelligence firm Umbria in 2008, the Westlake Village, Calif. market research firm was staking a claim in social media. Now, the company is launching its first social-media research product, the Auto Intelligence Monitor (AIM). Finbarr O'Neill, who became the firm's president last year, says the new social-media barometer is evidence of JDP's efforts to become a holistic market research firm: If surveys "ask" and clickstream data "watches," then AIM -- which includes a desktop-based dashboard -- "listens," combining data and insight from social media conversations about automaker brands and models with marketplace retail sales and segment data from the Power Information Network. The Monitor, per the company, covers consumer buzz on things like "green" issues, safety, performance, styling and design, value, features and technology, manufacturer business issues and marketing and communications efforts. O'Neill, one-time head of Hyundai Motor America, draws a big picture for Marketing Daily. Q: How big a change is this for J.D. Power, in terms of what the firm has been doing for years?A: The data is certainly different. It's a very qualitative medium, so it has been a challenge for J.D. Power researchers, who are traditionally quantitative, to understand exactly how you "productize" this. [The Auto Intelligence Monitor] is a good example of how you can do that -- how you can deliver flexibility and understanding about consumer sentiment to the client. Q: How is J.D. Power's product different from competitive social-media research?A: The initial social media products were dashboard products around volume, but without a lot of analytics. The science does take you a certain distance -- the algorithms will pull out data -- but you need people who are good annotators, who are good at writing queries, to capture all of the conversations across the Internet. And at the end of the day, someone has to analyze it. If you're Toyota, for instance, you want to understand what people are saying -- not just that they are talking about you. Actually, we found that there's a lot of positive stuff out there being said about Toyota, by consumers. Q: Is it going to be hard to sell this to auto marketers?A: Our clients are embracing this as another source of understanding the voice of the consumer. We are seeing changes in market research where clients are looking much more broadly for a more holistic view of the consumer. So we have to be able to circle around [a client's consumers], listen to what they are saying, ask them questions, watch what they do, and triangulate around those various sources of information to get a better insight on what they intend. The good news is the auto industry in particular is used to using qualitative data in terms of product design. Companies have done clinics for a long time; they've done ethnographic studies observing peoples' behavior in their day-to-day lives. So this is a little different, but it has tremendous value because it does capture the unprompted voice of the consumer. It's kind of like the ethnographer who goes to live with the family and is listening to everything they do. Here we are listening to what people are saying over their virtual back fence to one another.
Marketers, if you're looking for tips on how to make the most of Twitter's new ad platform, skip this and harass your favorite Twitter guru. Heck, my cohort Cathy Taylor already gave a good taste of what's new about the ad model. There's enough sound advice out there. Instead, here are six simple steps you can take to fail miserably with Promoted Tweets: 1) Treat it like any other media buy. If Twitter's calling it an ad platform, then just hand it over to your media buyers and they'll take care of everything. So what if Twitter's own executives glossed over all of the basic elements of what goes into a media buy? They barely discussed what Promoted Tweets costs, how you'll determine the reach of the keywords, and what targeting options will be available beyond the keyword itself. It's still an ad platform, so how hard can it be? Your media buyer will find a way to spend your money. 2) Write ad copy to run as promoted tweets. If you want to make sure to alienate as many Twitter users as possible in a short amount of time, make sure every tweet is talking at consumers, even yelling at them, ordering them to do your bidding. You have only 140 characters, so why beat around the bush with this fluffy relationship building and conversation stuff? Why respond to your customers when you know more than they do, anyway? This is your chance to promote, so don't blow it. 3) Invest as little time and energy as possible in the actual tweeting. One of the problems with Twitter is that it's a lot of work coming up with something interesting every single day, or even multiple times a day. Real marketers come up with one tagline and say it over and over again -- it's so easy, even a caveman can do it. Stop worrying about manning your Twitter account and turn all of your attention to promoting tweets. That's how you'll get rich off of Twitter. 4) Join Twitter just to use Promoted Tweets. You need to run your ads everywhere that'll accept them, and you can't possibly miss a social marketing opportunity. By running Promoted Tweets, you'll be able to cross another site off your checklist and show your boss how forward-thinking you are. It doesn't matter if you know anything about Twitter. If you've forgotten to do the Twitter thing already, now's the perfect time to jump on the bandwagon. 5) Stay laser-focused on the one account you manage. Sure, there may be other people tweeting across your organization, and even across your office. Ignore every single one of them. You've got a job to do, and it's not about following them when you have the chance to promote your tweets above everyone else's. That may mean you'll be bidding against others within your company. It may also mean you'll miss opportunities to cross-promote each other and gain visibility for multiple accounts at once. Your own blissful ignorance is worth it. 6) Plan the owned media and paid media elements separately. Hypothetically, say you acknowledge that multiple disciplines are at work with Promoted Tweets, where someone (or a whole team) manages the Twitter account or accounts, and then someone with media buying expertise manages the promotion. Don't let those groups talk to each other. They might start figuring out how to best include the kind of content that would work well as a promotion. Or they might learn from the resonance scores of the ads to make the day-to-day content more engaging. You'll be much better off keeping everyone totally separate to ensure no learning and optimization take place. Be sure to let me know if you follow all of my advice, as you could earn a feature in a future column so thousands of marketers can learn from you. You'll undoubtedly be an #epic sensation.
When J.D. Power and Associates (JDP) acquired Web intelligence firm Umbria in 2008, the Westlake Village, Calif. market research firm was staking a claim in social media. Now, the company is launching its first social-media research product, the Auto Intelligence Monitor (AIM). Finbarr O'Neill, who became the firm's president last year, says the new social-media barometer is evidence of JDP's efforts to become a holistic market research firm: If surveys "ask" and clickstream data "watches," then AIM -- which includes a desktop-based dashboard -- "listens," combining data and insight from social media conversations about automaker brands and models with marketplace retail sales and segment data from the Power Information Network. The Monitor, per the company, covers consumer buzz on things like "green" issues, safety, performance, styling and design, value, features and technology, manufacturer business issues and marketing and communications efforts. O'Neill, one-time head of Hyundai Motor America, draws a big picture for Marketing Daily. Q: How big a change is this for J.D. Power, in terms of what the firm has been doing for years?A: The data is certainly different. It's a very qualitative medium, so it has been a challenge for J.D. Power researchers, who are traditionally quantitative, to understand exactly how you "productize" this. [The Auto Intelligence Monitor] is a good example of how you can do that -- how you can deliver flexibility and understanding about consumer sentiment to the client. Q: How is J.D. Power's product different from competitive social-media research?A: The initial social media products were dashboard products around volume, but without a lot of analytics. The science does take you a certain distance -- the algorithms will pull out data -- but you need people who are good annotators, who are good at writing queries, to capture all of the conversations across the Internet. And at the end of the day, someone has to analyze it. If you're Toyota, for instance, you want to understand what people are saying -- not just that they are talking about you. Actually, we found that there's a lot of positive stuff out there being said about Toyota, by consumers. Q: Is it going to be hard to sell this to auto marketers?A: Our clients are embracing this as another source of understanding the voice of the consumer. We are seeing changes in market research where clients are looking much more broadly for a more holistic view of the consumer. So we have to be able to circle around [a client's consumers], listen to what they are saying, ask them questions, watch what they do, and triangulate around those various sources of information to get a better insight on what they intend. The good news is the auto industry in particular is used to using qualitative data in terms of product design. Companies have done clinics for a long time; they've done ethnographic studies observing peoples' behavior in their day-to-day lives. So this is a little different, but it has tremendous value because it does capture the unprompted voice of the consumer. It's kind of like the ethnographer who goes to live with the family and is listening to everything they do. Here we are listening to what people are saying over their virtual back fence to one another.