Samsung, a global Olympic sponsor for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, is launching a multiplatform social media campaign designed to personalize the Olympic experience for viewers. The program is being implemented through Facebook Connect and will be promoted on online and traditional media. Dubbed the U.S. Olympic Genome Project, the campaign, which will kick off in about a month, will enable Facebook users to create a “family tree” that shows how users are connected to athletes on the U.S. Olympic team. Connections might be coming from the same hometown or attending the same school at one point, said Ralph Santana, senior vice president, chief marketing officer, Samsung Olympics. Santana said the idea is allow Olympic fans to “create a story about how you’re personally connected to the Olympic movement” -- a story that can then be shared with the Social Graph. Speaking at the 2012 Association of National Advertisers TV & Everything Video Forum in New York Thursday, Santana disclosed the project as a way to illustrate his view that marketers have to “recalibrate” the traditional 360 degree marketing model, which puts the brands at the center of the communications strategy, surrounded by numerous “touchpoints” that consumers come into contact with a on a regular basis. The problem with the model, said Santana, is that the number of touchpoints is growing so rapidly that marketers tend to “sprinkle money all over the place and not necessarily in the most effective ways." The “new 360” strategy, he said, should surround a brand by consumer behaviors, such as shopping, research, participating, purchasing, sharing. Each behavior, in turn, would link to smaller sets of touchpoints. “Consumers are more involved” than ever before, he noted. Thus, marketers need more dynamic communications plans. Media platforms have to be created in a way that enable consumers and brands to both create and tell their stories. The world of multiple screens and devices are “changing the viewing experience,” said Santana. That experience is evolving into one that is shared, communal and “participative.”
The challenge of social media for major league sports is how to engage fans without disengaging them from the game by interrupting those all-important moments of play. After all, sports are probably the last redoubt against time-shifting. The moment is everything in sports. Participants at Friday's "Sports Meets Social" panel at Bloomberg, part of Social Media Week, talked about integration without interruption, its challenges and opportunities. Don Sperling, VP of entertainment for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants, concedes that keeping fans focused on the game while engaging them in social media requires a back-and-forth approach. "We frankly compete against ourselves," Sperling said. "When you promote a game in a stadium like MetLife, the real goal is to keep fans loud when the other team has the ball. But at the same time we are trying to create platforms and take care of our business partners with replays and tweeting, etc. But it's a distraction. At one point we want fans loud; on the other hand, we are giving them reasons to look down at their iPads and smartphones. It comes down to weighing priorities and goals." Major League Soccer has the same issue, according to Chris Schlosser, the league's director of digital strategy. He said that if anything, soccer requires even more of fans' undivided attention, as the action tends to be nonstop. "We have supporter groups cheering for the whole 90 minutes of a game,” Schlosser said. “We don't want to take away from that passion. But social media and technology can amplify it, whether it's sharing with photos or unique experiences." He said engaging fans via social media is worth the trouble because it doesn't so much create a culture that didn't exist before as much as support one that has already been central to the experience. "Fan groups are by nature social," he said. "They come together on Saturday night to watch games, and they are already using digital tools to talk to each other." He said his job is to give them tools to do what they are already doing, and find ways of rewarding them for doing it -- such as a fee-ticket program around the MLS team Sporting Kansas City. Both Schlosser and Sperling said that stadium infrastructure is table-stakes, which would seem obvious -- except that a lot of stadiums aren't even wired. "It's about giving fans the ability to control their experience and access information where and when they want it. So if they miss seeing a goal while they're at the stadium, they can see it [on a mobile device.] We are working with clubs to make sure they are wiring their stadiums." The NFL is engaged in a similar league-wide initiative to put more technology into stadiums, which Sperling said will actually help fill stadiums -- a problem the Giants don't have, but many teams do. But he said that although the Giants have a brand-new stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, at the end of the day, the best game presentation is a winning team. The sports leagues also use social to keep momentum going during the off-season, especially when events like the lockout threaten to disconnect fans. The Giants conducted a social media program last year during the off-season and lockout in which fans could vie to have their faces appear on game tickets. And the team also ran a social media night around the Super Bowl game, via a partnership with Google+. The program involved four Giants engaging fans on social media. And Schlosser said that for MLS, Twitter is the world's best customer service tool. "We use it constantly on game night to answer fans' questions," he said. "We spend lots of time with our social media people on what to say and how, and on who to go to for approved responses. We have done lots of work to inform executives that it's important. It may be Saturday night, but we can't wait until Sunday or Monday to get them an answer."
Chief marketing officers will no doubt be gratified by -- or at least derive encouragement from -- the conclusions of the fourth annual “CMO’s Agenda” report from strategic marketing consulting firm CMG Partners. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 “game-changing” lead marketers at companies spanning a broad cross-section of U.S. businesses, CMOs are stepping up to the plate in the face of the unprecedented changes and challenges facing their companies to evolve well beyond their traditional roles, reports CMG. Those changes/challenges have resulted from a confluence of the lasting effects of the “Great Recession,” volatility in markets, technological innovations, consumer/customer empowerment, and the inherently global nature of today’s business environment, sums up CMG founding partner Russ Lange. “In the face of what could be a daunting mission, the CMOs we’ve spoken with have adapted into a super-species we like to call ‘Marketing’s CEO,’” says Lange. “No longer just the master of corporate advertising campaigns and promotions, Marketing’s CEO is a true driver of corporate growth and strategy.” Some CMOs are taking responsibility for functions including operations, finance and public policy. For example, one CMO reported that all initiatives/projects that affect revenue are now run through marketing. However, the report acknowledges that this evolution toward greater influence is “on the threshold” rather than in full flower in many companies. The CMO “must earn not only his or her place at the table, but also his or her voice,” it concludes. “While the door to the C suite has cracked open, CMOs must now rise to the opportunity to not only enter but also remain in the room.” In addition to the broader-authority role evolution, CMG identifies four other core trends affecting CMOs:
Viggle, a company supporting mobile loyalty rewards programs, acquired tech company Loyalize, which enables brands to engage with live TV audiences on mobile devices. The two began putting the deal in place after creating a platform that attracted a high number of viewers during the Super Bowl to answer sports trivia questions and vote for their favorite commercials. Participation during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards also confirmed the decision, according to Chris Stephenson, Viggle president, who admits being in conversations with some big-name networks. About 78% of active Viggle users checked into the Grammy Awards Sunday night, and 64% of this group played along with the mobile game Viggle Live, answering real-time questions, voting and responding to polls related to the awards ceremony. TV brands and broadcasters wanting more attention from consumers must get them to interact with the content as it airs. Viewers used Viggle to check into the awards show, and then relied on Bing to find information about the artists and the event. Stephenson boasts about 150,000 downloads since its Jan. 25 launch. The company defines users as those who actively check in on an average five TV shows daily and remain on the platform for about 70 minutes per session each time. The top key performance indicator for marketers -- tune in -– drives "share of voice," according to Stephenson. "Mix that with bonus opportunities and loyalty rewards, and it becomes quite contagious," he said. "'Gossip Girls' gained "a six-x share of voice uptick factor relative to Nielsen ratings, and 'Fear Factor' gained a four-x uptick share factor." For Stephenson, the acquisition represents a "development strategy" that goes beyond directly supporting networks. The plan to broaden the business model through the Loyalize acquisition puts the company in the white label business, where brands, along with networks, will have an option to license the technology. The strategy also will support loyalty for games, music, movies, social and other Internet-type entertainment, such as connected television shows on Hulu and YouTube. Aside from Viggle, Loyalize has recorded success through Fango, a partnership with Yahoo!7 in Australia. The platform allows TV fans to have real-time interactive experiences with other viewers before, during and after a show. It gives them access to a guide that illustrates viewing trends; the ability to earn awards in the app for participating in activities; and access to videos, blogs and videos related to the show.
Arby’s Bob Kraut, senior vice president of marketing and advertising, presented a strong case at Thursday’s Ana TV & Everything Video Forum for paying attention to how consumers react to advertising campaigns. Last year, after enduring a slump that was caused by a poor economy and confusing marketing and off-message menu choices, the company launched a new campaign devised by BBDO, proclaiming Arby’s as the “Good Mood Food” fast-food restaurant chain. Kraut described the initial effort as “We are the World meets Glee.” The campaign was designed to let consumers know that it was okay to enjoy the chain’s lineup of good-tasting comfort food because it was also relatively wholesome and fresh. But regardless of the nutritional value, the ads were a viral hit, said Kraut. “We noticed that people started re-mixing ‘Good Food Mood’ spots on YouTube,” said Kraut. “A lot of young people latched onto this,” he said, noting that many of the re-mixes featured kids and families adapting their own humorous lyrics into redone spots. The remixes prompted the company to develop a user-generated “casting call” contest for new 30-second spots. Entrants had to explain why Arby’s food put them in a good mood. The winner would receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to appear in a new Arby’s commercial. The promotion for the contest was relatively low-key, said Kraut, and limited to online exposure. But the response was overwhelming -- the company received 1,400 submissions, almost five times as many as the company expected. The submissions were posted on a new Web site and generated 1 million views a month. A new mobile Web site drew 16% of all online views. To draw attention to the effort, the company even filmed a “flash mob” spot in New York’s Times Square. A social media component featured a Facebook “Philly Zone Page” and a “Tweet Aquarium” for consumers to comment on a new fish sandwich. Bottom line: the entire cross-platform effort resulted in the highest sales gain the company had seen in a decade. Facebook fans grew over threefold to nearly 800,000, while Twitter followers climbed to over 30,000. And tagline awareness grew 60% in 10 months. And while 80% of the company’s budget is still reserved for TV Kraut said “we wanted to extend the message,” given the online response. While user-generated content is always a risk, Kraut said the company believed the YouTube re-mixes and the response to the contest revealed an untapped reservoir of consumers “who wanted to connect with us.” During the depths of the recession, said Kraut, the company was hit by a “perfect storm” of bad economy, muddled marketing and confusing shift in menu items that led to a double-digit sales plunge. But with a new integrated marketing campaign that engaged consumers, an improving economy and tweaks to the menu, the company appears to be back on track.
People are no longer just watching television programs. They are talking about them online, often on branded social-media campaigns from program sponsors. Still, defining "social TV" could almost seem a Hobson's choice between a redundancy and an oxymoron. Each one of the three participants in a panel on social TV at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) TV & Everything Video forum in New York gave their two sentences worth. The guy who wrote the book (no pun intended, but "literally," as it turns out) said "social TV" ought to be thought of more as a contraction -- the convergence of social media and TV. And Mike Proulx, SVP, and director of digital strategy at Boston-based Hill Holliday and author of the just-released Social TV, said that's how most people see it, as a broad descriptive of connected devices that link TV to the Internet. Fernando Arriola, VP, media and integration at ConAgra Foods, opined that there's nothing inherently new about social TV, or at least TV as social phenomenon. "It's been around forever. It's any of the ways consumers can share or participate at a deeper level with content." Nadine McHugh, VP, global integrated media communications at Colgate-Palmolive, was even more concise, arguing that social TV is simply TV that people want to talk about and engage with. Certainly, the Super Bowl reflected brand interest in turning TV into a mosaic of simultaneous marketing events on different screens designed to engage consumers with brands and with each other. Coca-Cola's polar bears were in the beverage giant's TV spots, but they were simultaneously online during the game, commenting on the game and, in a meta-commentary, on their own ad. Tom Cunniff, VP and director of interactive communications at Combe Incorporated, asked if such multi-screen programs risk splitting people’s attention across devices. McHugh agreed that the risk exists, but said that, if the central idea is engaging, it only deepens engagement and attention. "We have seen it; consumers are already fragmenting their attention. What social TV does is to bring the experience to life so we can capture consumer attention more." She argued that if the story is good and engaging, it will involve consumers, no matter how many screens are telling it. And Arriola cited data from NBCU that show, in fact, the more that people engage with a brand on multiple devices and levels, the more they engage with TV content. "They are the people who tend to be most loyal to a show, and watch it more." But the key is integration of campaigns well before anyone sits down to pen creative, argued McHugh. She said mapping before creating is where marketers can avoid overspending on strategies to make television a social experience. "And we won’t have a choice because consumers will take the conversation on whether we choose to [consider a social strategy] or not. It would be wise to un-silo and do marketing in an integrated way, and create assets before we create the ad.” But think about how to partner with content providers -- because there are ways to do it for free. Arriola asked, probably rhetorically, if marketers really need to pay for it. "We should think about how can we partner with content providers so we don't incur cost," he said, pointing to free promotional mileage that Web content firm Shazam got from being integral to a Pillsbury augmented reality campaign last year. Summing up, Proulx suggested it is probably best -- in terms of changing strategy and entrenched silo-focused culture at companies and agencies -- to think of TV as new media. "If you believe in that premise, then you need a new planning model for TV. Gone must be the days of TV people and digital people. We have to work together, in unison, at same time, from the get-go."
Twitter will roll out its self-service ad platform to small and mid-size businesses in March through a partnership with American Express. Cardmembers and merchants can register to use the platform and receive $100 in advertising credit to put toward bidding on promoted tweets and promoted accounts. The service follows a business model that made Google one of the most successful Internet companies through AdSense and AdWords. Twitter said it will allow more merchants to buy ads with American Express in groups of 10,000, at least for the immediate future. Twitter's advertising revenue grew 213% to nearly $140 million in 2011, up from $45 million in 2010, according to eMarketer. The research firm estimates the company will earn $259.9 million in advertising revenue this year. By 2014, global ad revenues at Twitter are expected to reach $540 million. The company has been testing and rolling out the platform since last year.
Samsung, a global Olympic sponsor for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, is launching a multiplatform social media campaign designed to personalize the Olympic experience for viewers. The program is being implemented through Facebook Connect and will be promoted on online and traditional media. Dubbed the U.S. Olympic Genome Project, the campaign, which will kick off in about a month, will enable Facebook users to create a “family tree” that shows how users are connected to athletes on the U.S. Olympic team. Connections might be coming from the same hometown or attending the same school at one point, said Ralph Santana, senior vice president, chief marketing officer, Samsung Olympics. Santana said the idea is allow Olympic fans to “create a story about how you’re personally connected to the Olympic movement” -- a story that can then be shared with the Social Graph. Speaking at the 2012 Association of National Advertisers TV & Everything Video Forum in New York Thursday, Santana disclosed the project as a way to illustrate his view that marketers have to “recalibrate” the traditional 360 degree marketing model, which puts the brands at the center of the communications strategy, surrounded by numerous “touchpoints” that consumers come into contact with a on a regular basis. The problem with the model, said Santana, is that the number of touchpoints is growing so rapidly that marketers tend to “sprinkle money all over the place and not necessarily in the most effective ways." The “new 360” strategy, he said, should surround a brand by consumer behaviors, such as shopping, research, participating, purchasing, sharing. Each behavior, in turn, would link to smaller sets of touchpoints. “Consumers are more involved” than ever before, he noted. Thus, marketers need more dynamic communications plans. Media platforms have to be created in a way that enable consumers and brands to both create and tell their stories. The world of multiple screens and devices are “changing the viewing experience,” said Santana. That experience is evolving into one that is shared, communal and “participative.”
The challenge of social media for major league sports is how to engage fans without disengaging them from the game by interrupting those all-important moments of play. After all, sports are probably the last redoubt against time-shifting. The moment is everything in sports. Participants at Friday's "Sports Meets Social" panel at Bloomberg, part of Social Media Week, talked about integration without interruption, its challenges and opportunities. Don Sperling, VP of entertainment for the Super Bowl-winning New York Giants, concedes that keeping fans focused on the game while engaging them in social media requires a back-and-forth approach. "We frankly compete against ourselves," Sperling said. "When you promote a game in a stadium like MetLife, the real goal is to keep fans loud when the other team has the ball. But at the same time we are trying to create platforms and take care of our business partners with replays and tweeting, etc. But it's a distraction. At one point we want fans loud; on the other hand, we are giving them reasons to look down at their iPads and smartphones. It comes down to weighing priorities and goals." Major League Soccer has the same issue, according to Chris Schlosser, the league's director of digital strategy. He said that if anything, soccer requires even more of fans' undivided attention, as the action tends to be nonstop. "We have supporter groups cheering for the whole 90 minutes of a game,” Schlosser said. “We don't want to take away from that passion. But social media and technology can amplify it, whether it's sharing with photos or unique experiences." He said engaging fans via social media is worth the trouble because it doesn't so much create a culture that didn't exist before as much as support one that has already been central to the experience. "Fan groups are by nature social," he said. "They come together on Saturday night to watch games, and they are already using digital tools to talk to each other." He said his job is to give them tools to do what they are already doing, and find ways of rewarding them for doing it -- such as a fee-ticket program around the MLS team Sporting Kansas City. Both Schlosser and Sperling said that stadium infrastructure is table-stakes, which would seem obvious -- except that a lot of stadiums aren't even wired. "It's about giving fans the ability to control their experience and access information where and when they want it. So if they miss seeing a goal while they're at the stadium, they can see it [on a mobile device.] We are working with clubs to make sure they are wiring their stadiums." The NFL is engaged in a similar league-wide initiative to put more technology into stadiums, which Sperling said will actually help fill stadiums -- a problem the Giants don't have, but many teams do. But he said that although the Giants have a brand-new stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, at the end of the day, the best game presentation is a winning team. The sports leagues also use social to keep momentum going during the off-season, especially when events like the lockout threaten to disconnect fans. The Giants conducted a social media program last year during the off-season and lockout in which fans could vie to have their faces appear on game tickets. And the team also ran a social media night around the Super Bowl game, via a partnership with Google+. The program involved four Giants engaging fans on social media. And Schlosser said that for MLS, Twitter is the world's best customer service tool. "We use it constantly on game night to answer fans' questions," he said. "We spend lots of time with our social media people on what to say and how, and on who to go to for approved responses. We have done lots of work to inform executives that it's important. It may be Saturday night, but we can't wait until Sunday or Monday to get them an answer."
The fledgling mobile transactions market, which some experts expect to reach $1 trillion globally by 2015, is about to get a hyper-boost from Facebook, Twitter, Square and other social media players that consider e-sales the new end game. Despite discrepancies among forecasters, mobile transactions are clearly morphing into a critical revenue stream for retailers and products and service providers. The 15% leap in online holiday spending to more than $35 billion, and the overall retail e-commerce grew 13% to $161.5 billion in 2011, according to comScore, were driven by consumers’ accelerated use of mobile price comparison and payment apps. This activity has been fueled by Square, which progressively facilitates mobile consumer transactions by acting as a medium between merchants and payment networks (credit-card companies and banks) across all smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. In addition to securing consumers’ personal information and providing effective user discount incentives, Square creatively uses hyper-local and social media app components--all of which are driving a flood of competing mobile payment solutions. The mobile transaction opportunity is huge, according to Wedbush Securities, which estimates the transaction volume across Square’s four payment networks (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover) was more than $6 trillion in 2010. Little wonder that Facebook and Twitter are positioned for a bigger piece of the action by way of an aggressive mobile ad grab, which the social networks consider a means to a transactional end. Facebook is leveraging off of its “like” and “own” buttons and new Timelines by inserting featured stories (or relevant marketing-inspired posts) into mobile feeds that are squarely aimed at its 425 million active mobile users. Facebook recently announced a partnership with UK mobile billing and analytics provider Bango, considered a step toward monetizing expanding browser-based mobile platform beyond its Facebook credits program. While the domestic mobile ad market is an estimated $2 billion, it is a sure stepping stone to the larger mobile transaction market, which can be incrementally shared by all players. Facebook is playing off its competitive share of online display ad revenues in the U.S. and the UK and reliance on small businesses. It must make a major play for mobile transactions to justify its proposed $100 billion public valuation. Competition for the mobile transaction market is coming from many corners, including Twitter, which announced an expansion of its self-serve advertising program with American Express as a partner. The goal is to attract the small-to-medium local businesses where mobile transactions and marketing can be a big win-win for all concerned. The program opens up to anyone with a credit card later this year. Location-based interactivity will transform advertising and marketing into precursors to secured, single-click sales. Social networks are serious contenders for mobile advertising and commerce dollars; they account for one in every five minutes online globally and reaching 82% of the world’s Internet users (or 1.2 billion users), according to comScore. With transactions being the ultimate objective for all marketers, it is likely that by decade’s end, Facebook and Twitter will be vying for more of the television’s $9 billion upfront ad pie alongside Google and Hulu, which are aggressively positioning themselves this spring with the Big Four TV networks. The direct line to consumers adeptly secured and mined by Facebook will give it an edge as marketers increasingly realize transactional revenues as a measured ROI. A recent Yankee Group survey revealed that consumers value banking and transaction apps second only to social networking apps as the most important on their smartphones, a simple but impressive indication of just how comfortable they have become with using mobile devices for secured personal transactions. It is a sure sign of the next phase of connected growth. What we’ve seen so far has been all about consumers learning to “navigate their lives,” according to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. What we’re about to see unfold is how consumers use connectivity to monetizetheir lives. The race is on for a piece of that new economy.
Chief marketing officers will no doubt be gratified by -- or at least derive encouragement from -- the conclusions of the fourth annual “CMO’s Agenda” report from strategic marketing consulting firm CMG Partners. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 “game-changing” lead marketers at companies spanning a broad cross-section of U.S. businesses, CMOs are stepping up to the plate in the face of the unprecedented changes and challenges facing their companies to evolve well beyond their traditional roles, reports CMG. Those changes/challenges have resulted from a confluence of the lasting effects of the “Great Recession,” volatility in markets, technological innovations, consumer/customer empowerment, and the inherently global nature of today’s business environment, sums up CMG founding partner Russ Lange. “In the face of what could be a daunting mission, the CMOs we’ve spoken with have adapted into a super-species we like to call ‘Marketing’s CEO,’” says Lange. “No longer just the master of corporate advertising campaigns and promotions, Marketing’s CEO is a true driver of corporate growth and strategy.” Some CMOs are taking responsibility for functions including operations, finance and public policy. For example, one CMO reported that all initiatives/projects that affect revenue are now run through marketing. However, the report acknowledges that this evolution toward greater influence is “on the threshold” rather than in full flower in many companies. The CMO “must earn not only his or her place at the table, but also his or her voice,” it concludes. “While the door to the C suite has cracked open, CMOs must now rise to the opportunity to not only enter but also remain in the room.” In addition to the broader-authority role evolution, CMG identifies four other core trends affecting CMOs:
Viggle, a company supporting mobile loyalty rewards programs, acquired tech company Loyalize, which enables brands to engage with live TV audiences on mobile devices. The two began putting the deal in place after creating a platform that attracted a high number of viewers during the Super Bowl to answer sports trivia questions and vote for their favorite commercials. Participation during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards also confirmed the decision, according to Chris Stephenson, Viggle president, who admits being in conversations with some big-name networks. About 78% of active Viggle users checked into the Grammy Awards Sunday night, and 64% of this group played along with the mobile game Viggle Live, answering real-time questions, voting and responding to polls related to the awards ceremony. TV brands and broadcasters wanting more attention from consumers must get them to interact with the content as it airs. Viewers used Viggle to check into the awards show, and then relied on Bing to find information about the artists and the event. Stephenson boasts about 150,000 downloads since its Jan. 25 launch. The company defines users as those who actively check in on an average five TV shows daily and remain on the platform for about 70 minutes per session each time. The top key performance indicator for marketers -- tune in -– drives "share of voice," according to Stephenson. "Mix that with bonus opportunities and loyalty rewards, and it becomes quite contagious," he said. "'Gossip Girls' gained "a six-x share of voice uptick factor relative to Nielsen ratings, and 'Fear Factor' gained a four-x uptick share factor." For Stephenson, the acquisition represents a "development strategy" that goes beyond directly supporting networks. The plan to broaden the business model through the Loyalize acquisition puts the company in the white label business, where brands, along with networks, will have an option to license the technology. The strategy also will support loyalty for games, music, movies, social and other Internet-type entertainment, such as connected television shows on Hulu and YouTube. Aside from Viggle, Loyalize has recorded success through Fango, a partnership with Yahoo!7 in Australia. The platform allows TV fans to have real-time interactive experiences with other viewers before, during and after a show. It gives them access to a guide that illustrates viewing trends; the ability to earn awards in the app for participating in activities; and access to videos, blogs and videos related to the show.
Arby’s Bob Kraut, senior vice president of marketing and advertising, presented a strong case at Thursday’s Ana TV & Everything Video Forum for paying attention to how consumers react to advertising campaigns. Last year, after enduring a slump that was caused by a poor economy and confusing marketing and off-message menu choices, the company launched a new campaign devised by BBDO, proclaiming Arby’s as the “Good Mood Food” fast-food restaurant chain. Kraut described the initial effort as “We are the World meets Glee.” The campaign was designed to let consumers know that it was okay to enjoy the chain’s lineup of good-tasting comfort food because it was also relatively wholesome and fresh. But regardless of the nutritional value, the ads were a viral hit, said Kraut. “We noticed that people started re-mixing ‘Good Food Mood’ spots on YouTube,” said Kraut. “A lot of young people latched onto this,” he said, noting that many of the re-mixes featured kids and families adapting their own humorous lyrics into redone spots. The remixes prompted the company to develop a user-generated “casting call” contest for new 30-second spots. Entrants had to explain why Arby’s food put them in a good mood. The winner would receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to appear in a new Arby’s commercial. The promotion for the contest was relatively low-key, said Kraut, and limited to online exposure. But the response was overwhelming -- the company received 1,400 submissions, almost five times as many as the company expected. The submissions were posted on a new Web site and generated 1 million views a month. A new mobile Web site drew 16% of all online views. To draw attention to the effort, the company even filmed a “flash mob” spot in New York’s Times Square. A social media component featured a Facebook “Philly Zone Page” and a “Tweet Aquarium” for consumers to comment on a new fish sandwich. Bottom line: the entire cross-platform effort resulted in the highest sales gain the company had seen in a decade. Facebook fans grew over threefold to nearly 800,000, while Twitter followers climbed to over 30,000. And tagline awareness grew 60% in 10 months. And while 80% of the company’s budget is still reserved for TV Kraut said “we wanted to extend the message,” given the online response. While user-generated content is always a risk, Kraut said the company believed the YouTube re-mixes and the response to the contest revealed an untapped reservoir of consumers “who wanted to connect with us.” During the depths of the recession, said Kraut, the company was hit by a “perfect storm” of bad economy, muddled marketing and confusing shift in menu items that led to a double-digit sales plunge. But with a new integrated marketing campaign that engaged consumers, an improving economy and tweaks to the menu, the company appears to be back on track.
People are no longer just watching television programs. They are talking about them online, often on branded social-media campaigns from program sponsors. Still, defining "social TV" could almost seem a Hobson's choice between a redundancy and an oxymoron. Each one of the three participants in a panel on social TV at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) TV & Everything Video forum in New York gave their two sentences worth. The guy who wrote the book (no pun intended, but "literally," as it turns out) said "social TV" ought to be thought of more as a contraction -- the convergence of social media and TV. And Mike Proulx, SVP, and director of digital strategy at Boston-based Hill Holliday and author of the just-released Social TV, said that's how most people see it, as a broad descriptive of connected devices that link TV to the Internet. Fernando Arriola, VP, media and integration at ConAgra Foods, opined that there's nothing inherently new about social TV, or at least TV as social phenomenon. "It's been around forever. It's any of the ways consumers can share or participate at a deeper level with content." Nadine McHugh, VP, global integrated media communications at Colgate-Palmolive, was even more concise, arguing that social TV is simply TV that people want to talk about and engage with. Certainly, the Super Bowl reflected brand interest in turning TV into a mosaic of simultaneous marketing events on different screens designed to engage consumers with brands and with each other. Coca-Cola's polar bears were in the beverage giant's TV spots, but they were simultaneously online during the game, commenting on the game and, in a meta-commentary, on their own ad. Tom Cunniff, VP and director of interactive communications at Combe Incorporated, asked if such multi-screen programs risk splitting people’s attention across devices. McHugh agreed that the risk exists, but said that, if the central idea is engaging, it only deepens engagement and attention. "We have seen it; consumers are already fragmenting their attention. What social TV does is to bring the experience to life so we can capture consumer attention more." She argued that if the story is good and engaging, it will involve consumers, no matter how many screens are telling it. And Arriola cited data from NBCU that show, in fact, the more that people engage with a brand on multiple devices and levels, the more they engage with TV content. "They are the people who tend to be most loyal to a show, and watch it more." But the key is integration of campaigns well before anyone sits down to pen creative, argued McHugh. She said mapping before creating is where marketers can avoid overspending on strategies to make television a social experience. "And we won’t have a choice because consumers will take the conversation on whether we choose to [consider a social strategy] or not. It would be wise to un-silo and do marketing in an integrated way, and create assets before we create the ad.” But think about how to partner with content providers -- because there are ways to do it for free. Arriola asked, probably rhetorically, if marketers really need to pay for it. "We should think about how can we partner with content providers so we don't incur cost," he said, pointing to free promotional mileage that Web content firm Shazam got from being integral to a Pillsbury augmented reality campaign last year. Summing up, Proulx suggested it is probably best -- in terms of changing strategy and entrenched silo-focused culture at companies and agencies -- to think of TV as new media. "If you believe in that premise, then you need a new planning model for TV. Gone must be the days of TV people and digital people. We have to work together, in unison, at same time, from the get-go."
Twitter will roll out its self-service ad platform to small and mid-size businesses in March through a partnership with American Express. Cardmembers and merchants can register to use the platform and receive $100 in advertising credit to put toward bidding on promoted tweets and promoted accounts. The service follows a business model that made Google one of the most successful Internet companies through AdSense and AdWords. Twitter said it will allow more merchants to buy ads with American Express in groups of 10,000, at least for the immediate future. Twitter's advertising revenue grew 213% to nearly $140 million in 2011, up from $45 million in 2010, according to eMarketer. The research firm estimates the company will earn $259.9 million in advertising revenue this year. By 2014, global ad revenues at Twitter are expected to reach $540 million. The company has been testing and rolling out the platform since last year.
The U.S. State Department joined Google+ this week to hang out and converse about foreign policy and answer questions about diplomacy and their effort to sustain a peaceful world. The department already supports pages and a presence on Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube. Victoria Esser, who serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Digital Strategy in the Bureau of Public Affairs, writes in a blog post that in today's interconnected world, social media offers a powerful way for the State Department to better inform, understand, and engage with the American people and communities around the world on our foreign policy and development goals. Some marketers consider Google+ an "extra extension" or channel because of the entrance into the social market, and because the numbers of users dwarf other social sites. Well, perhaps not for long. The number of people who participate in Google+ with about 100 brands rose from 222,000 in December to 3.1 million in February, but most of the growth resides with the top 10 brands, which collectively have more than 3 million followers, according to BrightEdge. For the first time, data shows that Google is not the most-followed brand on its Google+ pages. Nine other brands hold that distinction. Coca-Cola rose from being in 1,800 circles to 336,000. H&M is No. 1 with 462,000, followed by Samsung with 372,000; Pepsi, 350,000; Starbucks, 335,000; Sony, 258,000; Intel, 258,000; eBay, 253,000; Google, 194,000; and Amazon, 184,000. Interestingly, Google racked up nearly 7 million Likes on Facebook, but just 194,000 on its Google+ page. The BrightEdge SocialShare report, titled "Tracking Social Adoption and Trends," also notes that companies sitting on the sidelines include Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, China Mobile, and Apple. Putting this all into context, Google co-founder Larry Page places the user count at more than 90 million during the company's last earnings call.
Everyone knows about the Butterfly Effect, which shows how small actions can make a big difference. But what about the Boot Effect? A pair of shoes, boots, or flip-flops sent to a child in an underdeveloped country can have a truly life-changing impact. Shoes keep kids’ feet warm and dry, of course. But by preventing infections and diseases like tetanus and hookworm, shoes can also keep kids in developing countries healthy. And that leads to emotional benefits as well. Go to just about any home in the United States and there will be a few pairs of shoes sitting in the closet that aren’t being worn, each with the potential to change the life of someone less fortunate. The question is, how do you get the shoes from the world’s closets to the kids who need them? Igniting causes through the convergence of real and social worlds The Coore Foundation’s GROW SOLE project mixes traditional, guerilla, and social media to drive shoe donations locally while addressing a global problem. Print advertisements, posters, postcards, snipes, floor decals, and shoe donation bins with messages like “Save your sole,” “Have an old sole?” and “Don’t sell your sole. Donate it” were placed in churches, corporations, and universities, asking people to donate their gently used shoes for children in developing countries. These action-oriented communications were combined with iconic photographs of everyday shoes, from flip-flops to wingtips to cowboy boots. The GROW SOLE campaign began on a grass-roots level. But an additional social media component is helping the movement grow exponentially. Facebook and Flickr pages will encourage visitors to take a photo of the shoes they are donating and to spread the word, and they can learn how to get a GROW SOLE drive going in their own community. A YouTube video featuring dancing footwear shows the satisfaction of giving shoes to people who need them. Twitter feeds broadcast convenient locations for shoe donations. In this way, the virtual world helps drive action in the “real” world and vice versa. A SOLE-cial experiment The GROW SOLE project uses guerilla efforts combined with social efforts to give a full multichannel project experience. Messages like “Don’t sell your sole. Donate it” went beyond mere wordplay to connect with their target and take the meaning of “soles” to a more soulful place. But the real success of the multichannel GROW SOLE campaign is the very real social impact it’s having on the lives of children in Central America, South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The Coore Foundation hopes to donate as many as 50,000 shoes in 2012 as a result of the GROW SOLE campaign. And while creating an engaging experience is satisfying on creative and strategic terms, putting shoes on deserving feet truly shows the power that can be unleashed when a cause is ignited. Steve Walsh, ACD/copy at The Cement Bloc, contributed to this article.
Who said we don’t like ads? In 2011, consumers chose to watch ads more than 2.75 billion times. We’re not talking pre-rolls or overlays here, either. These are user-initiated smackeroos on the play button to watch a branded video, according to a Visible Measures report on social video. What’s particularly eye-popping about social video is its growth. The 2.75 billion views in 2011 is up from 2 billion in 2010, and up from 830 million views in 2009. These figures don’t includes movie trailers. Separating out trailers gives a more authentic view of consumer interest in branded video. Visible Measures pointed out that about 1.5 billion views in the three-year period measured came from users spoofing, mashing, copying or reposting ads, underscoring consumer interest and engagement in a brand. Breaking down the figures, Visible Measures found that more than 500 branded video campaigns generated more than 1 million views last year, representing about 1 in every 12 campaigns passing the 1 million view figure. Automotive advertisers were the busiest in making social videos and snared 265 million views and an average of 910, 000 views per campaign, but cell phone makers were among the most popular and averaged 2.3 million views per campaign. Social Video Stats from 2009 to 2011: —In 2011, more than 40 campaigns generated 10 million views, up from 33 in 2010 and 16 in 2009. —More than 500 campaigns topped 1 million views in 2011, up from 360+ in 2010. In 2009, only 154 campaigns saw 1 million views. —The average social video campaign generated 765,000 views in 2011, up from 460,000 in 2009. —In 2011, the average brand generated more than 1.2 million views. In 2009, that figure was 720,000 views.
According to a recent conducted in-depth study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the Inc. 500 (the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine) was outpacing the revenue based Fortune 500 in their use of social media. In 2007, research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500. This trend continued in 2008, 2009 and 2010 with half of the Inc. 500 blogging and only 23% of the Fortune 500 in 2010. The new data shows adoption of blogging is declining for the first time since 2007 among the Inc. 500 companies, and may have peaked as a primary social media tool in the US business world. The study finds the incorporation of new platforms and tools including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, texting, downloadable mobile apps and Foursquare while noting the reduction in use of blogging, message boards, video blogging, podcasting and MySpace. Social Media Tools Used By The Inc. 500 (% of Respondents) Social Media 200920102011 Facebook 61% 71% 74% LinkedIn - - 73 Twitter 52 59 64 YouTube - - 45 Blog 45 50 37 Online video 36 33 24 Text - - 15 Mobile apps - - 14 Podcast 12 16 6 Myspace - 6 1 Source: UofMass, Dartmouth Center for Mktg.Research, January 2012 Some of the tools marketers are abandoning, however, are still reported to be highly effective. Message and bulletin boards, along with blogging, got the highest success ratings of any tools, among companies that use them for marketing. While a strong majority of respondents indicated they were having success with Twitter (86%) and Facebook (82%), this was lower than several other, less-popular services. The original 2007 questions probed the familiarity of respondents with six prominent social media tools. As familiarity became almost ubiquitous, studies began to focus more on adoption. Changes over the years include dropping wikis (used more as a collaboration tool than a communications/engagement tool) and changing the social networking category into more specific platforms including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare. In the 2011 survey, the use of LinkedIn, YouTube, corporate texting along with the use of discount sites like Groupon and downloadable mobile apps were all investigated. Successful Social Media Tools Used By The Inc. 500 (% of Respondents) Percent of RespondentsMedia Tool200920102011 Message/bulletin boards 91% 93% 96% Blogging 88 86 92 Mobile apps - - 91 Online video 87 93 90 LinkedIn - - 90 Discount sites - - 88 YouTube - - 87 Twitter 82 81 86 Texting - - 84 Facebook 54 85 82 Podcasting 89 71 80 Foursquare - 75 68 Myspace - 36 0 Source: UofMass, Dartmouth Center for Mktg.Research, January 2012 Findings highlighted in the study include:
This is an open letter to my 72 followers on Pinterest, including my friend, Sue, who stood next to me in line on the high school cheerleading squad; my sorority Big Sister; Mobile Marketing Association CEO Greg Stuart, fellow Social Media Insider David Berkowitz, and that guy I worked with way, way long ago at Ogilvy & Mather. Here’s what I want to tell you: I’m sorry that my pinning is so sporadic, and so, well, lame. Three weeks in, I have no earthly idea what I should do with this thing, so I’m throwing it out to all of you. What should a personage like me pin? I know! I’ll start a board consisting completely of pictures of question marks, because that’s what comes to mind every time I think about what I might do on Pinterest. And this whole, weird, cart-before-the-horse relationship on Pinterest between followers and my (in)ability to produce meaningful content is only making my case of pinner’s block worse. If you’re wondering exactly what I mean, in all the years I’ve been playing on social platforms, I’ve never seen a platform in which the early adapters that I hang out with professionally, and the aforementioned people from high school, all discover a platform at roughly the same time. (Well, except for Berkowitz, who is prescient enough that I think he joined some platforms before they even existed.) When I joined Facebook, back in February 5, 2007 (thank you, Timeline), I felt like a soccer mom turned stalker, the kind of 40something evildoer who ends up being the centerpiece of a bad movie on Lifetime. The whole experience was unsettling. I was writing a story about social networks for Adweek, and slowly came to the realization that the only way I was going to make sense of Facebook was to join Facebook. Joining Facebook to write about Facebook? What a concept! But back then, joining Facebook felt like going undercover. I spent a few minutes scrolling through other Facebook members from Westchester County, New York, only to find that virtually everyone else was a high school or college student, several decades my junior. Facebook was not a place for women with two kids, dust bunnies for pets, a (then) four-year-old mini-van and a coupon habit. It was several years before people like me were there in any number. As for Twitter, the advancement of the so-called “normal” people in my life onto Twitter has never happened. It’s as though high school and college friends who do follow me only do so because they had a sudden spasm in their index finger one night and started following me by accident. But not so with Pinterest. Sure, its integration with Facebook has helped boost its traffic, but similar integration between Facebook and Twitter never resulted in the same random accumulation of followers that I’ve racked up on Pinterest in only a few short weeks, and all without posting anything. While one can only be impressed with Pinterest’s growth -- the site has reached the 10 million unique monthly visitor mark faster than any site in history -- as I said above, that doesn’t mean I have any clue as to what to do with it. So far I’ve posted a picture of that woman we used to call Madge on my board “Aging Pop Stars.” My second one is of “Social Media Cheat Sheets.” Its only visual is a poster that synopsizes the whats and wherefores of different social platforms (though not Pinterest). Lame. Where do I go from here? Should I post pictures of my cat? Nah, too obsessive. Jeremy Lin? Too trendy. My myriad attempts at making better weekday meals? No, that would only expose my unnatural fixation with making soup. My favorite baseball mascot, Mr. Met? Pitiful, on several levels. Help me out here. This case of pinner’s block is about to drive me crazy. Leave your ideas below.