When reports emerged last Friday that Facebook had begun running ads on Zynga’s Web site, it instantly touched off speculation that the social network was planning to launch its own ad network to compete with Google’s AdSense. Now people playing games at Zynga.com who log in with their Facebook accounts are being shown banners and Sponsored Story ads targeted to them, based on information they share on Facebook. For the record, Facebook issued a statement Friday acknowledging the ads running on Zynga’s site, but saying “it will not be showing ads on other sites at this time.” Given the pressure the company is now facing from Wall Street to deliver high revenue growth on a quarterly basis, the expansion of Facebook-powered advertising to other sites integrated with it isn’t hard to imagine. In a research note today, Pivotal Research senior analyst Brian Wieser said the extension of Facebook ads to Zynga signals the company’s continuing effort to monetize its user base of nearly 1 billion worldwide. The news comes on the heels of Facebook announcing plans to launch a real-time-bid ad exchange allowing marketers to retarget ads to people on Facebook, based on their Web browsing history. “This initiative will capitalize on the Facebook Connect platform by which Facebook is already integrating with publishers across the Internet, and may further accelerate Facebook’s ability to extend e-commerce/payment initiatives further," wrote Wieser. The latest step would put Facebook in competition with networks in general -- especially AdSense -- rather than trying to take ad revenue from just premium Web publishers like Yahoo and AOL, he added. Pivotal has already forecast that Facebook will increase its share of the online display and lead-generation market from 14.4% to 16.5% this year. Wieser is also sticking with his revenue estimates of $4.1 billion and $5.3 billion for Facebook in 2012 and 2013, respectively. For their part, agency executives are already warming to the idea of a Facebook ad network. “The promise of using FB data to target off the site is intriguing,” said Adam Kasper, EVP, digital investments at Havas Digital. “I’m certain many advertisers would love to try this." Likewise, Blake Cahill, president of social media agency Banyan Branch, said Facebook’s wealth of social data for targeting ads could give it an advantage over other ad networks. “Advertisers would have improved targeting gleaned from Facebook user data than what existing advertising networks provide when selling online inventory,” he said. Still, the use of member data beyond Facebook is likely to raise further privacy questions for a company with a history of overstepping its boundaries in that regard (see latest example here), as many things data and Facebook-related tend to do,” said Kasper. “What level of data will FB allow to be used here? That will likely define how it works and ultimately how successful the effort is.” While Facebook has been tight-lipped about its plans, a company spokesperson told the L.A. Times on Friday it hasn’t shared any information about people or advertisers with Zynga, and that advertisers don’t have access to targeting criteria. That Facebook would begin testing such a venture with Zynga isn’t surprising, given the long symbiotic relationship of the two companies. Facebook’s share of virtual sales through Zynga games like "FarmVille" and "CityVille" accounted for 12% of the social network’s $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue.
Big data, big clients -- and someday soon, big mobile. Those are just a few of the items high on the priority list of Antony Young, who joined Mindshare as North American CEO nearly nine months ago. Young also says the agency needs to do more work in the area of “discovery-based” communications, such as search and social. With a new platform emerging almost daily, he said, clients are hungry for advice on how to use them to best advantage. “It’s really about choices,” said Young. Because most clients don’t have a need for -- nor can they afford to use -- all the media channels that are available, media selection is key, and meshing it all together in the most efficient way for individual clients is critical, he adds. One of the “big bets” that Mindshare is making is that data management technology will help clients find answers quickly about consumer needs, behavior and the kinds of relationships they want to have with marketers. Ultimately, having that knowledge should boost client profits, which is what agencies are being increasingly called upon to do, Young said. Just last week, Mindshare launched a new tech platform that it believes will advance clients’ ability to aggregate and massage massive amounts of data in ways that will sharply improve strategic planning and integrated communication capabilities. Called Core, the platform was created with the help of a number of outside data and market research firms, including Acxiom and Nielsen. It’s an open-source, “always on” system that crunches media, pricing, consumer and client data including sales, supply chain and CRM stats. According to Young, that platform and other data-related capability enhancements the shop is undertaking are “probably the most important piece of the puzzle for clients." It contains all of the information required to finding links to improved results. “That’s huge,” he said. “That syncing up and marrying of media, consumer and business data can unlock a lot of business value for clients.” Agency-client relationships are another key focus at the agency, said Young, who notes that in the time he has been at Mindshare, the CMOs or top-ranking marketing executives at 16 clients have changed. Keeping up with the new strategies and agendas of the shifting players is crucial. Young made several reorganizational moves recently to ensure that the agency is keenly focused on clients and potential new business. In May, Lee Doyle, a GroupM veteran and former CEO at sibling agency MEC, was appointed president of client development at Mindshare, a new position at the agency. Doyle will focus on multinational clients and seeing that the agency has the right resources and strategies in place at client teams. Doyle’s appointment, said Young, is a signal that “we really want to be engaged with clients at a more senior level and earlier in the planning stages.” Staying “constantly fluid is a really important part of that,” added Young. “Especially when you look at the [management] changes at clients and shifting priorities as their own businesses change.” In a related bid to stengthen client ties, the shop promoted Michael Epstein to president, strategic resources and client services. He is responsible for the management of new business, corporate communications, digital, multicultural and promotions. Epstein previously served as the lead on a number of key client accounts, including Unilever. The potential of mobile is no longer a subject of debate, says Young. He believes society is headed toward a “mobile-dominated media world,” where tablets will almost supplant PCs. While he says agencies and clients alike probably aren’t moving fast enough to prepare for that eventuality, the agency made a move last week, forming a joint venture with Google, called “Mobile Garage.” It’s designed to educate companies about mobile technology and expedite their use of the medium in their marketing plans. “Everyone is trying to catch up,” in the mobile sector, said Young, noting that 15% of Amazon.com transactions are now done via mobile, as are 20% of Google searches. “To me, that’s a pretty sharp signal that marketers and agencies are behind the eight ball and we need to get ahead of it.”
Two of New Orleans’ favorite brands, Zatarain’s and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, have teamed on a limited-time, co-branded promotion. From June 25 to July 29, the more than 1,600 Popeyes locations in the U.S. are offering a Popeyes Zatarain’s Butterfly Shrimp meal featuring eight shrimp, Cajun fries, a biscuit and the chain’s Lemon Garlic Dipping sauce ($4.99). Zatarain’s, the nearly 125-year-old brand best known for its New Orleans-style rice mixes, has a foodservice business supplying ingredients and spices to restaurants, but this is the first time that it has done a co-branded product with a national restaurant chain, according to Zatarain’s General Manager Michael Morse. (Zatarain’s is supplying Popeyes with the breading and seasonings for the butterfly shrimp.) Popeyes, founded in New Orleans in 1972, is a leader in the New Orleans foodservice industry segment and the world’s second-largest QSR chicken concept by number of units (2,044 total restaurants as of mid-April, including units in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, the Cayman Islands and 26 other countries). Popeyes is a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc. Zatarain’s’ National Push For Zatarain’s, which has been pushing to evolve and expand its products, as well as the way it connects with consumers, the co-branded promotion – which will generate some 550 million impressions nationally through Popeyes’ TV ads, in-store promotions, billboards and other efforts – is a major opportunity, says Morse. The co-branded offering is also being promoted on both brands’ sites and Facebook pages. The most recent major new lines from Zatarain’s -- which now offers 200-plus products, including pasta dinner mixes, fry mixes, seafood boils, stuffing mixes, seafood cakes, condiments, sauces, spices and extracts -– are frozen entrées. Those now include 10 microwaveable single-serve dishes, and four dishes-for-two that can be prepared in a skillet in about 10 minutes. As Zatarain’s seeks to expand its national share and profile – capitalizing on Americans’ increased interest in Cajun and Creole foods -- its marketing has also expanded and taken new directions in recent times. TV ads featuring its “Jazz It Up With Zatarain’s” tagline, both for its new products and its rice mixes, have been running in key markets around the country. (TV ads ran through April and will start up again in September, according to Morse.) Given its deep New Orleans roots, the brand has always made the most of the Mardi Gras holiday, and this year, it used a variety of new channels to engage consumers around the country in the fun. In addition to featuring favorite Mardi Gras dishes on its site and Facebook page and tweeting up excitement, Zatarain’s offered (through a tab on its Facebook page) a free branded online Pandora radio station featuring classic Carnival favorites, jazz and swing music. It also brought fans into the Mardi Gras experience via “Zat’s Cams” showing live video footage straight from the streets of New Orleans, and offered an interactive “Create Your Krewe” app allowing fans to select four friends to be in their personal Mardi Gras krewes, celebrate together and receive coupons. In addition, Zatarain’s created its own “Krewe of Influencers”: Five bloggers with a variety of backgrounds (from a foodie to a stay-at-home dad) who took part in the Mardi Gras festivities and shared their experiences with people around the country. Those bloggers are continuing their brand-advocate roles, showcasing the “ease, convenience and flavor” of Zatarain’s products and recipes -- and now the co-branded shrimp promotion with Popeyes—according to Morse. Zatarain’s worked the events angle by hosting 2,000 house parties around the country (through HouseParty.com) in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday. Furthermore, in a new twist on its ongoing partnership with New Orleans chef John Besh (Besh Restaurant Group), this year, in addition to Besh’s developing recipes, attending blogger conferences, socializing content and conducting PR interviews, his voice was heard on the audio systems in 1,000 retail stores around the U.S., offering tips on celebrating Mardi Gras with “bold flavors.”
Connecting the Internet with television viewing through mobile devices, the discovery media company Shazam will provide NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, with a social TV experience during the 2012 London Olympics. On NBCUniversal properties -- NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, Bravo and CNBC -- U.S. viewers can use the Shazam app on their mobile device to view polls and share on Twitter and Facebook, unlock unique content about athletes, and gain up-to-the-minute information on results and medal counts. Millions are expected to watch coverage this summer. The deal comes at a time when broadcasters and social media are more comfortable collaborating. In the United States, 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners use their device while watching TV in a 30-day period, according to Nielsen. Shazam's goal to expand 30- and 60-second spots into a three-minute video or experience on Twitter and Facebook will likely tie brand sponsorships into the agreement. It's not clear whether the network will use the partnership to run 15-second tune-in spots. It is clear, however, that viewers can tap the Shazam app in front of the TV and in two seconds be transported to another experience across the Internet. "We see the strategy as taking a 30-second TV spot and turning it into three minutes or more of engagement on the Web," said Evan Krauss, EVP of advertising at Shazam. Nabisco launched a social media campaign on TV for Wheat Thins late last week using Shazam to spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. Through Shazam's technology, the audio in the television ad identifies the sound and links to a pre-written Twitter post. Those who tweet the post get a free sample of the product. Krauss said between 60% and 90% of consumers who initially engage with a Shazam ad take further action, such as tweeting a post or watching a video. Many consumers come back to the platform to explore the brand's advertisement up to three days later. Consumer packaged-goods companies tend to do well with coupons. Movie studios do well with trailers, times and ticket purchases. The "Men In Black 3" TV trailer built on Fandango gave consumers movie times in relation to their location, and allowed them to purchase the tickets. More than 80% of the time, consumers will spend more time with the trailer on the second screen. Backend analytics give advertisers aggregate numbers of people who "Touch to Shazam" on a smartphone or iPad. Advertisers also have access to reports that monitor each second. Krauss said "overlaying these numbers on top of TV schedules gives brands insight into markets, programs and commercial pods that drive engagement in spots."
If timing is everything, brands using digital media are in trouble. While Facebook users are most likely to interact with brands between 10 p.m. and midnight, companies typically launch social campaigns between 11 a.m. and noon. And while YouTube aficionados are most likely to be exploring brand messages on a Monday, that is retailers’ least favorite day. Those insights are from Yesmail Interactive, which recently released an in-depth analysis of 20 major retail brands to assess how successfully they are aligning their digital marketing efforts. The answer? Not very well, Michael Fisher, president of Yesmail, tells Marketing Daily. And there’s a significant disconnect between the way potential customers engage with digital media messages and the way campaigns are currently planned. “When you don’t pay attention to timing and the way campaigns reinforce one another, you get lower levels of engagement,” he says. “And less is more. If brands would focus smaller and more refined messages to smaller audiences, they’d often get better results.” Among the brands included in the analysis are Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, The Gap, H&M, J Crew, Ralph Lauren and Urban Outfitters. The research tracks each retailer's Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email campaigns over a three-month period to evaluate how effective they are in driving consumer engagement. The day of the week emerges as a big consideration, he says. Facebook campaigns achieve the highest level of engagement on Tuesdays, even though it ranks fourth in terms of when campaigns are deployed. Most brands launch Twitter efforts on Friday, despite its being the least engaging day. Timing is also essential: More than 84% of Twitter campaigns occur within regular work hours, even though 5-8 a.m. EST is the time frame with the highest level of customer engagement. It also finds that integrating campaign efforts boosts engagement levels. For example, when an email campaign is deployed the same day as a Facebook effort, it boosts Facebook engagement by 50%. And when two campaigns are used the same day, engagement rises 100%. One email campaign timed with a Twitter effort raises engagement 35%, and two increases it by 50%. Another finding, he says, is that companies are not sharing best practices across all brands, with Old Navy, the Gap and Banana Republic all following different playbooks. It’s also clear that video is underused, despite its growing popularity among consumers, “and it’s a major opportunity for engagement, especially on Facebook. Time of day, day of week, targeted audience, and content format all matter, and play a big role in every one of those channels. Many brands just aren’t doing their homework.”
Simplifying online advertising for small e-commerce business is the aim of three-year-old startup Lexity. To that end, the company provides a set of tools to automatically handle chores like search engine marketing, posting products to shopping search engines like TheFind and Google Product Search, and analytics and transaction reporting for small Web retailers. To these services, Lexity, formerly Vurve, has added a self-serve retargeting tool for creating and showing ads to customers that have previously visited a retailer’s site. After signing up online, Lexity merchants are asked set a minimum monthly budget of $100, with the retargeting “app” automating the ad-bidding process based on the size of an online store and the ad budget. It then generates a custom banner with store logo and other branding and served on sites around the Web visited by customers. Lexity said its system will also take advantage of Facebook’s recently announced ad exchange, allowing marketers to reach Facebook users based on their online activities outside the social network. It will place retargeted ads on Facebook after users browse retailers’ sites. The service will generally run retargeted ads across all major ad networks including Google, Yahoo, OpenX, and AdMeld. Conversion tracking and reporting on sales derived from retargeting traffic is provided through an analytics dashboard. Lexity stresses value as a key selling point for the retargeting solution, for which it charges a 15% fee, or a minimum of $15 a month. “For a price affordable to small businesses, we help online retailers recover lost revenue from customers that previously walked away from their site,” said Lexity CEO Amit Kumar, in announcing the new service today. Kumar told AdExchanger last fall the company is focusing on long-tail businesses with $5,000 to $15,000 in media spend a month. To date, Lexity has raised $5.7 million in funding, including a $4.5 million round in March 2011, from venture capital firms including Spark Capital and True Ventures as well as individual investors such as Esther Dyson.
The National Basketball Association says eight brands have signed up to activate as sponsors of this year's NBA Draft. At the top of the heap is State Farm, which has title sponsorship as well. Also on board are Sprint, HP, Taco Bell, BBVA, Gatorade, American Express, and Adidas, per the association. BBVA, Gatorade, HP, Sprint and Taco Bell are associate partners. The NBA says State Farm gets its name on the event logo, and throughout the arena and stage set up, during the live telecast on ESPN. State Farm will also be on Draft coverage on NBA TV, on NBA.com, and on the NBA’s Facebook and Twitter social media channels. The company will run four 30-second ads during the draft on NBA TV. At NBA.com, State Farm will have an online roadblock on draft day. Also, the NBA says State Farm will be setting up basketball shooting stations for fans on the concourses of the Prudential Center and distributing branded Thundersticks to fans. Adidas will have co-branded NBA draft hats worn by top picks, who will pose in the hats beside the NBA commish. The 2012 NBA Draft Hat features the team name on the front with the official NBA Logo, and team logos are on the back. They are being sold at the NBA store in Manhattan and online, per the the NBA. American Express will use its sponsorship to host a pair of cardmember experiences. The first is the 2012 NBA Draft Experience -- where in addition to access to the draft, cardmembers get a behind-the-scenes tour, a pre-Draft reception and a meet and greet with 2012 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, Kyrie Irving. Cardmembers will also have reserved seats to watch the event. BBVA will have on-site branding, digital and social media and broadcast units, and will give financial advice to the families of drafted players during the NBA Draft Family Seminar on Wednesday. Gatorade bottles and Gatorade branded cups will be everywhere at the event and back of house areas, and the brand gets on-site signage, broadcast and digital media assets. HP Touchsmarts will be used during the draft at the reception space and back of house and the Commissioner will use HP-branded index cars to read each draft pick. HP also gets on-site signage, broadcast and digital media assets. Sprint will host a live broadcast of the draft through its Sprint NBA Mobile app on Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones, and through the NBA Game Time app on iPhones. The NBA says that companies that have committed to advertising during the draft are State Farm, Taco Bell, Sanofi-Aventis, Spalding, Right Guard, HP, Anheuser-Busch and Sprint.
From a public relations point of view, the ascendance of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to its board of directors may say more about the company in the breach than in the appointment. To wit: How could a company in A.D. 2012, whose primary customer is female, heretofore be one of only 11% of Fortune 500 companies without a woman on the board? The California State Teachers’ Retirement System asked Facebook in February to add a woman to its board, reports the Los Angeles Times’Jessica Guynn, and the advocacy group Face It has had a petition urging Facebook to include women and minorities. Women’s rights group Ultraviolet also has had a petition going. Anupam Palit, head of research at GreenCrest Capital, applauds the appointment of Sandberg but tells Guynn there is a “bigger issue” with Facebook. “The company has been criticized for not having women and minorities in leadership positions. It seems that their answer to everything is always Sheryl Sandberg,” says Palit, who adds that the company seems to react to criticism rather than getting out in front of an issue before the media sets its sights on it. Sandberg joined Facebook in March 2008 after having served as vp of global online sales & operations at Google from November 2001 to March 2008, according to her bio at Bloomberg Businessweek. Before that she was chief of staff at the Treasury Department, a management consultant with McKinsey and an economist for The World Bank. She currently sits on the board of Walt Disney Co. “Sandberg has visibly earned the position during her tenure, building and running the social network’s business operations, which include ‘sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications’ as Facebook has grown to be worth billions,” postsTechCrunch’s Eric Eldon. “She’s also become a top advocate for female leadership in the workplace, writing and speaking on the topic for years -- particularly on how she has managed such a high-profile job while having a family.” As one commenter to Eldon’s story puts it: “I'd be impressed finding out that she can even manage to sleep sometimes.” “Sheryl has been my partner in running Facebook and has been central to our growth and success over the years,” says founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “Her understanding of our mission and long-term opportunity, and her experience both at Facebook and on public company boards make her a natural fit for our board.” The Wall Street Journal’s Shayndi Raice and Joann S. Lublin write that the appointment “is likely to have the effect of keeping Ms. Sandberg — who is worth $1.4 billion from her 44 million shares of Facebook restricted shares and options -- deeply vested in the social network.” Recruiters tell them that she has been “wooed for CEO” positions in the tech and media worlds, including that of the New York Times. Other Facebook board members are Washington Post CEO Donald Graham,; venture capitalist Marc Andreessen; Accel Partners general partner Jim Breyer; Clarium Capital founder Peter Thiel; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. “When the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta asked Zuckerberg why there were no women on his company’s board of directors, he replied, ‘I’m going to find people who are helpful, and I don’t particularly care what gender they are or what company they are,’” Bianca Bosker pointed out in a “Women In Tech” blog on Huffington Post earlier this year. “I’m not filling the board with check boxes. Others would say that it’s Mark’s sandbox, and he controls the bucket and shovel, too. Everyone else is there for companionship. While Zuckerberg outright owns about 28% of Facebook, he controls 57% of all shareholder votes due to its two-class stock structure. “To put it simply, he can do whatever he wants with Facebook, and you, the shareholder, don't have a say -- not even if you team up with every other outside shareholder in the company,” Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik pointed out in May. When all is said and done, though, no one seems to dispute Zuckerberg did something very right yesterday.
When reports emerged last Friday that Facebook had begun running ads on Zynga’s Web site, it instantly touched off speculation that the social network was planning to launch its own ad network to compete with Google’s AdSense. Now people playing games at Zynga.com who log in with their Facebook accounts are being shown banners and Sponsored Story ads targeted to them, based on information they share on Facebook. For the record, Facebook issued a statement Friday acknowledging the ads running on Zynga’s site, but saying “it will not be showing ads on other sites at this time.” Given the pressure the company is now facing from Wall Street to deliver high revenue growth on a quarterly basis, the expansion of Facebook-powered advertising to other sites integrated with it isn’t hard to imagine. In a research note today, Pivotal Research senior analyst Brian Wieser said the extension of Facebook ads to Zynga signals the company’s continuing effort to monetize its user base of nearly 1 billion worldwide. The news comes on the heels of Facebook announcing plans to launch a real-time-bid ad exchange allowing marketers to retarget ads to people on Facebook, based on their Web browsing history. “This initiative will capitalize on the Facebook Connect platform by which Facebook is already integrating with publishers across the Internet, and may further accelerate Facebook’s ability to extend e-commerce/payment initiatives further," wrote Wieser. The latest step would put Facebook in competition with networks in general -- especially AdSense -- rather than trying to take ad revenue from just premium Web publishers like Yahoo and AOL, he added. Pivotal has already forecast that Facebook will increase its share of the online display and lead-generation market from 14.4% to 16.5% this year. Wieser is also sticking with his revenue estimates of $4.1 billion and $5.3 billion for Facebook in 2012 and 2013, respectively. For their part, agency executives are already warming to the idea of a Facebook ad network. “The promise of using FB data to target off the site is intriguing,” said Adam Kasper, EVP, digital investments at Havas Digital. “I’m certain many advertisers would love to try this." Likewise, Blake Cahill, president of social media agency Banyan Branch, said Facebook’s wealth of social data for targeting ads could give it an advantage over other ad networks. “Advertisers would have improved targeting gleaned from Facebook user data than what existing advertising networks provide when selling online inventory,” he said. Still, the use of member data beyond Facebook is likely to raise further privacy questions for a company with a history of overstepping its boundaries in that regard (see latest example here), as many things data and Facebook-related tend to do,” said Kasper. “What level of data will FB allow to be used here? That will likely define how it works and ultimately how successful the effort is.” While Facebook has been tight-lipped about its plans, a company spokesperson told the L.A. Times on Friday it hasn’t shared any information about people or advertisers with Zynga, and that advertisers don’t have access to targeting criteria. That Facebook would begin testing such a venture with Zynga isn’t surprising, given the long symbiotic relationship of the two companies. Facebook’s share of virtual sales through Zynga games like "FarmVille" and "CityVille" accounted for 12% of the social network’s $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue.
Big data, big clients -- and someday soon, big mobile. Those are just a few of the items high on the priority list of Antony Young, who joined Mindshare as North American CEO nearly nine months ago. Young also says the agency needs to do more work in the area of “discovery-based” communications, such as search and social. With a new platform emerging almost daily, he said, clients are hungry for advice on how to use them to best advantage. “It’s really about choices,” said Young. Because most clients don’t have a need for -- nor can they afford to use -- all the media channels that are available, media selection is key, and meshing it all together in the most efficient way for individual clients is critical, he adds. One of the “big bets” that Mindshare is making is that data management technology will help clients find answers quickly about consumer needs, behavior and the kinds of relationships they want to have with marketers. Ultimately, having that knowledge should boost client profits, which is what agencies are being increasingly called upon to do, Young said. Just last week, Mindshare launched a new tech platform that it believes will advance clients’ ability to aggregate and massage massive amounts of data in ways that will sharply improve strategic planning and integrated communication capabilities. Called Core, the platform was created with the help of a number of outside data and market research firms, including Acxiom and Nielsen. It’s an open-source, “always on” system that crunches media, pricing, consumer and client data including sales, supply chain and CRM stats. According to Young, that platform and other data-related capability enhancements the shop is undertaking are “probably the most important piece of the puzzle for clients." It contains all of the information required to finding links to improved results. “That’s huge,” he said. “That syncing up and marrying of media, consumer and business data can unlock a lot of business value for clients.” Agency-client relationships are another key focus at the agency, said Young, who notes that in the time he has been at Mindshare, the CMOs or top-ranking marketing executives at 16 clients have changed. Keeping up with the new strategies and agendas of the shifting players is crucial. Young made several reorganizational moves recently to ensure that the agency is keenly focused on clients and potential new business. In May, Lee Doyle, a GroupM veteran and former CEO at sibling agency MEC, was appointed president of client development at Mindshare, a new position at the agency. Doyle will focus on multinational clients and seeing that the agency has the right resources and strategies in place at client teams. Doyle’s appointment, said Young, is a signal that “we really want to be engaged with clients at a more senior level and earlier in the planning stages.” Staying “constantly fluid is a really important part of that,” added Young. “Especially when you look at the [management] changes at clients and shifting priorities as their own businesses change.” In a related bid to stengthen client ties, the shop promoted Michael Epstein to president, strategic resources and client services. He is responsible for the management of new business, corporate communications, digital, multicultural and promotions. Epstein previously served as the lead on a number of key client accounts, including Unilever. The potential of mobile is no longer a subject of debate, says Young. He believes society is headed toward a “mobile-dominated media world,” where tablets will almost supplant PCs. While he says agencies and clients alike probably aren’t moving fast enough to prepare for that eventuality, the agency made a move last week, forming a joint venture with Google, called “Mobile Garage.” It’s designed to educate companies about mobile technology and expedite their use of the medium in their marketing plans. “Everyone is trying to catch up,” in the mobile sector, said Young, noting that 15% of Amazon.com transactions are now done via mobile, as are 20% of Google searches. “To me, that’s a pretty sharp signal that marketers and agencies are behind the eight ball and we need to get ahead of it.”
Two of New Orleans’ favorite brands, Zatarain’s and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, have teamed on a limited-time, co-branded promotion. From June 25 to July 29, the more than 1,600 Popeyes locations in the U.S. are offering a Popeyes Zatarain’s Butterfly Shrimp meal featuring eight shrimp, Cajun fries, a biscuit and the chain’s Lemon Garlic Dipping sauce ($4.99). Zatarain’s, the nearly 125-year-old brand best known for its New Orleans-style rice mixes, has a foodservice business supplying ingredients and spices to restaurants, but this is the first time that it has done a co-branded product with a national restaurant chain, according to Zatarain’s General Manager Michael Morse. (Zatarain’s is supplying Popeyes with the breading and seasonings for the butterfly shrimp.) Popeyes, founded in New Orleans in 1972, is a leader in the New Orleans foodservice industry segment and the world’s second-largest QSR chicken concept by number of units (2,044 total restaurants as of mid-April, including units in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, the Cayman Islands and 26 other countries). Popeyes is a division of AFC Enterprises, Inc. Zatarain’s’ National Push For Zatarain’s, which has been pushing to evolve and expand its products, as well as the way it connects with consumers, the co-branded promotion – which will generate some 550 million impressions nationally through Popeyes’ TV ads, in-store promotions, billboards and other efforts – is a major opportunity, says Morse. The co-branded offering is also being promoted on both brands’ sites and Facebook pages. The most recent major new lines from Zatarain’s -- which now offers 200-plus products, including pasta dinner mixes, fry mixes, seafood boils, stuffing mixes, seafood cakes, condiments, sauces, spices and extracts -– are frozen entrées. Those now include 10 microwaveable single-serve dishes, and four dishes-for-two that can be prepared in a skillet in about 10 minutes. As Zatarain’s seeks to expand its national share and profile – capitalizing on Americans’ increased interest in Cajun and Creole foods -- its marketing has also expanded and taken new directions in recent times. TV ads featuring its “Jazz It Up With Zatarain’s” tagline, both for its new products and its rice mixes, have been running in key markets around the country. (TV ads ran through April and will start up again in September, according to Morse.) Given its deep New Orleans roots, the brand has always made the most of the Mardi Gras holiday, and this year, it used a variety of new channels to engage consumers around the country in the fun. In addition to featuring favorite Mardi Gras dishes on its site and Facebook page and tweeting up excitement, Zatarain’s offered (through a tab on its Facebook page) a free branded online Pandora radio station featuring classic Carnival favorites, jazz and swing music. It also brought fans into the Mardi Gras experience via “Zat’s Cams” showing live video footage straight from the streets of New Orleans, and offered an interactive “Create Your Krewe” app allowing fans to select four friends to be in their personal Mardi Gras krewes, celebrate together and receive coupons. In addition, Zatarain’s created its own “Krewe of Influencers”: Five bloggers with a variety of backgrounds (from a foodie to a stay-at-home dad) who took part in the Mardi Gras festivities and shared their experiences with people around the country. Those bloggers are continuing their brand-advocate roles, showcasing the “ease, convenience and flavor” of Zatarain’s products and recipes -- and now the co-branded shrimp promotion with Popeyes—according to Morse. Zatarain’s worked the events angle by hosting 2,000 house parties around the country (through HouseParty.com) in the days leading up to Fat Tuesday. Furthermore, in a new twist on its ongoing partnership with New Orleans chef John Besh (Besh Restaurant Group), this year, in addition to Besh’s developing recipes, attending blogger conferences, socializing content and conducting PR interviews, his voice was heard on the audio systems in 1,000 retail stores around the U.S., offering tips on celebrating Mardi Gras with “bold flavors.”
Connecting the Internet with television viewing through mobile devices, the discovery media company Shazam will provide NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, with a social TV experience during the 2012 London Olympics. On NBCUniversal properties -- NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, Bravo and CNBC -- U.S. viewers can use the Shazam app on their mobile device to view polls and share on Twitter and Facebook, unlock unique content about athletes, and gain up-to-the-minute information on results and medal counts. Millions are expected to watch coverage this summer. The deal comes at a time when broadcasters and social media are more comfortable collaborating. In the United States, 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smartphone owners use their device while watching TV in a 30-day period, according to Nielsen. Shazam's goal to expand 30- and 60-second spots into a three-minute video or experience on Twitter and Facebook will likely tie brand sponsorships into the agreement. It's not clear whether the network will use the partnership to run 15-second tune-in spots. It is clear, however, that viewers can tap the Shazam app in front of the TV and in two seconds be transported to another experience across the Internet. "We see the strategy as taking a 30-second TV spot and turning it into three minutes or more of engagement on the Web," said Evan Krauss, EVP of advertising at Shazam. Nabisco launched a social media campaign on TV for Wheat Thins late last week using Shazam to spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. Through Shazam's technology, the audio in the television ad identifies the sound and links to a pre-written Twitter post. Those who tweet the post get a free sample of the product. Krauss said between 60% and 90% of consumers who initially engage with a Shazam ad take further action, such as tweeting a post or watching a video. Many consumers come back to the platform to explore the brand's advertisement up to three days later. Consumer packaged-goods companies tend to do well with coupons. Movie studios do well with trailers, times and ticket purchases. The "Men In Black 3" TV trailer built on Fandango gave consumers movie times in relation to their location, and allowed them to purchase the tickets. More than 80% of the time, consumers will spend more time with the trailer on the second screen. Backend analytics give advertisers aggregate numbers of people who "Touch to Shazam" on a smartphone or iPad. Advertisers also have access to reports that monitor each second. Krauss said "overlaying these numbers on top of TV schedules gives brands insight into markets, programs and commercial pods that drive engagement in spots."
If timing is everything, brands using digital media are in trouble. While Facebook users are most likely to interact with brands between 10 p.m. and midnight, companies typically launch social campaigns between 11 a.m. and noon. And while YouTube aficionados are most likely to be exploring brand messages on a Monday, that is retailers’ least favorite day. Those insights are from Yesmail Interactive, which recently released an in-depth analysis of 20 major retail brands to assess how successfully they are aligning their digital marketing efforts. The answer? Not very well, Michael Fisher, president of Yesmail, tells Marketing Daily. And there’s a significant disconnect between the way potential customers engage with digital media messages and the way campaigns are currently planned. “When you don’t pay attention to timing and the way campaigns reinforce one another, you get lower levels of engagement,” he says. “And less is more. If brands would focus smaller and more refined messages to smaller audiences, they’d often get better results.” Among the brands included in the analysis are Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Ann Taylor, The Gap, H&M, J Crew, Ralph Lauren and Urban Outfitters. The research tracks each retailer's Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email campaigns over a three-month period to evaluate how effective they are in driving consumer engagement. The day of the week emerges as a big consideration, he says. Facebook campaigns achieve the highest level of engagement on Tuesdays, even though it ranks fourth in terms of when campaigns are deployed. Most brands launch Twitter efforts on Friday, despite its being the least engaging day. Timing is also essential: More than 84% of Twitter campaigns occur within regular work hours, even though 5-8 a.m. EST is the time frame with the highest level of customer engagement. It also finds that integrating campaign efforts boosts engagement levels. For example, when an email campaign is deployed the same day as a Facebook effort, it boosts Facebook engagement by 50%. And when two campaigns are used the same day, engagement rises 100%. One email campaign timed with a Twitter effort raises engagement 35%, and two increases it by 50%. Another finding, he says, is that companies are not sharing best practices across all brands, with Old Navy, the Gap and Banana Republic all following different playbooks. It’s also clear that video is underused, despite its growing popularity among consumers, “and it’s a major opportunity for engagement, especially on Facebook. Time of day, day of week, targeted audience, and content format all matter, and play a big role in every one of those channels. Many brands just aren’t doing their homework.”
Simplifying online advertising for small e-commerce business is the aim of three-year-old startup Lexity. To that end, the company provides a set of tools to automatically handle chores like search engine marketing, posting products to shopping search engines like TheFind and Google Product Search, and analytics and transaction reporting for small Web retailers. To these services, Lexity, formerly Vurve, has added a self-serve retargeting tool for creating and showing ads to customers that have previously visited a retailer’s site. After signing up online, Lexity merchants are asked set a minimum monthly budget of $100, with the retargeting “app” automating the ad-bidding process based on the size of an online store and the ad budget. It then generates a custom banner with store logo and other branding and served on sites around the Web visited by customers. Lexity said its system will also take advantage of Facebook’s recently announced ad exchange, allowing marketers to reach Facebook users based on their online activities outside the social network. It will place retargeted ads on Facebook after users browse retailers’ sites. The service will generally run retargeted ads across all major ad networks including Google, Yahoo, OpenX, and AdMeld. Conversion tracking and reporting on sales derived from retargeting traffic is provided through an analytics dashboard. Lexity stresses value as a key selling point for the retargeting solution, for which it charges a 15% fee, or a minimum of $15 a month. “For a price affordable to small businesses, we help online retailers recover lost revenue from customers that previously walked away from their site,” said Lexity CEO Amit Kumar, in announcing the new service today. Kumar told AdExchanger last fall the company is focusing on long-tail businesses with $5,000 to $15,000 in media spend a month. To date, Lexity has raised $5.7 million in funding, including a $4.5 million round in March 2011, from venture capital firms including Spark Capital and True Ventures as well as individual investors such as Esther Dyson.
The National Basketball Association says eight brands have signed up to activate as sponsors of this year's NBA Draft. At the top of the heap is State Farm, which has title sponsorship as well. Also on board are Sprint, HP, Taco Bell, BBVA, Gatorade, American Express, and Adidas, per the association. BBVA, Gatorade, HP, Sprint and Taco Bell are associate partners. The NBA says State Farm gets its name on the event logo, and throughout the arena and stage set up, during the live telecast on ESPN. State Farm will also be on Draft coverage on NBA TV, on NBA.com, and on the NBA’s Facebook and Twitter social media channels. The company will run four 30-second ads during the draft on NBA TV. At NBA.com, State Farm will have an online roadblock on draft day. Also, the NBA says State Farm will be setting up basketball shooting stations for fans on the concourses of the Prudential Center and distributing branded Thundersticks to fans. Adidas will have co-branded NBA draft hats worn by top picks, who will pose in the hats beside the NBA commish. The 2012 NBA Draft Hat features the team name on the front with the official NBA Logo, and team logos are on the back. They are being sold at the NBA store in Manhattan and online, per the the NBA. American Express will use its sponsorship to host a pair of cardmember experiences. The first is the 2012 NBA Draft Experience -- where in addition to access to the draft, cardmembers get a behind-the-scenes tour, a pre-Draft reception and a meet and greet with 2012 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, Kyrie Irving. Cardmembers will also have reserved seats to watch the event. BBVA will have on-site branding, digital and social media and broadcast units, and will give financial advice to the families of drafted players during the NBA Draft Family Seminar on Wednesday. Gatorade bottles and Gatorade branded cups will be everywhere at the event and back of house areas, and the brand gets on-site signage, broadcast and digital media assets. HP Touchsmarts will be used during the draft at the reception space and back of house and the Commissioner will use HP-branded index cars to read each draft pick. HP also gets on-site signage, broadcast and digital media assets. Sprint will host a live broadcast of the draft through its Sprint NBA Mobile app on Android 2.2 and 2.3 phones, and through the NBA Game Time app on iPhones. The NBA says that companies that have committed to advertising during the draft are State Farm, Taco Bell, Sanofi-Aventis, Spalding, Right Guard, HP, Anheuser-Busch and Sprint.
By lunchtime, I had cried twice already. Admittedly, I’m an easy cry -- but for heaven’s sake, I was at social media conference, not a funeral. Later that afternoon, @hatcherdogg revealed that he too was moved, tweeting: “Why the hell am I crying again at #140conf12.” Although Jeff Pulver, the mensch behind the 140 Characters Conference, “wears things that nobody wears” (like Kermit the Frog sneakers), he does not "talk about things that nobody cares" about. In fact, in just one day at the event, I gleaned at least six observations worth sharing (and caring about). 1. Social media is a boundless force of social good Pulver set the tone up front, insisting: “You don't need a license to do good, you just have to do it, and if you are clueless like me, you don't have any boundaries.” To prove that point, one speaker recalled how a tweet from Jeff to the U.S. Air Force just after the Haiti earthquake smoothed the way for Ann Curry's rescue team to land. 2. Social media is best taught by doing Professor Rotolo, an inspired instructor of social media at Syracuse University, had many of us wondering “why weren't there teachers like him when we were in college?” Challenged to create a video that would go viral, one of his students, Hailey Temple, actually succeeded by tapping into the "Call Me Maybe" parody bonanza (click here to see it). 3. Twitter provides access to the otherwise inaccessible Another one of Rotolo's students, Isaac Budmen, created the first Twitter drinking game named -- drumroll, please -- #DrinkUp while at school. After the game became a global hit, Budmen sought the advice of his hero Dennis Crowley, but couldn't reach the Foursquare founder by phone or email. A few tweets later, he was having drinks with Crowley, who encouraged him to "build on." 4. Sorry, bachelors - the proposition bar just got a lot higher Halfway through "Isaac's Live Lip Dub Proposal" it's clear that this Isaac, whose marriage proposal on May 23, 2012 resembled a full-on Broadway production, has wrecked it for just about every bachelor to come. If you are not among the 14 million who have already witnessed this smorgasbord of sweetness then by all means do so now -- and if you're single, you'll want to recruit a choreographer friend like Gina Morris, the girl in the red dress in the video and Isaac's lip dub planning partner. 5. Bet on Twitter to survive and evolve While Twitter is likely to remain dwarfed by Facebook, the passion of its user base ensures a bright future, especially as techies like Jack Hidary look to expand its functionality. Hidary offered glimpses of things to come like TML (Twitter Markup Language), which could enable machines to learn from tweets, provide smarter crowdsourced information and introduce what I'd call “twe-commerce.” 6. From tragedy comes inspiration As I mentioned earlier, it was an emotional day. Heather Hamilton told the tragic story of her son, Zack, and how she fulfilled a promise in his memory with Zack’s Dream Room. Funded in large part through social media outreach, Hamilton also engaged via social channels with the Sesame Street team, who ultimately produced “Zacky’s Song,” a lovely tribute featuring Elmo, Zack’s hero. Final Note This conference was as rich with notable content as this article is brief, and as such, I hardly do it justice here. For more observations, including more of the stories that moved me to tears, visit http://thedrewblog.com. Finally, to Mr. Pulver and with apologies to Aerosmith: You’re tweetin’ my name, but I gotta make clear, I can say, Jeffrey, where I’ll be in a year.
In my column last week, I discussed the importance of professional “stretching” as a tool to continually challenge ourselves to reach new goals. Since my stretching exercise happens this week when I speak on the topic of “Killer Social Intelligence Mining” at Digital Pharma West in San Francisco, I thought it would be prudent to give a preview of that session here, today. Social intelligence is an intriguing topic. I’ve long regarded search query data as a clear manifestation of customer needs and wants. Search engine users go to great lengths to precisely articulate what they’re in search of. There’s power in harnessing that intelligence. It allows search marketers to speak the language of prospective customers, and meet the needs of site visitors after the click. Yet, despite all the power that search query data alone holds, augmenting that intelligence with social data can prove to be infinitely more powerful. All modern-day social marketers are leveraging some type of social “listening” technology. The data those platforms return is undeniably beneficial, but there’s opportunity beyond mere listening. Everyone has access to listening tools; what they deliver is table stakes. Plus, there’s more, richer social data for us to tap into if we know where to look, and are committed to understanding more about our customers through iterative experimentation. Here’s how to tap into social data that’s hovering at the periphery of most marketer’s line of sight, and creating a competitive advantage for your company. Outcomes Analysis Google’s Web Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik introduces the simple, but powerful, measurement technique outcomes analysis in his book, “Web Analytics 2.0.” He offers this up in response to the hyper-focus most digital marketers place on conversion and clickstream analyses. Conversion and clickstream don’t tell us the whole story when conversion events primarily occur offline or in situations when our visitors are in a fact-finding mindset. Outcomes analysis defines success when users complete their intended tasks efficiently. Judging social interactions, or clickthroughs from social properties is no different. Social should be considered a venue for peer-to-peer dialogue. The successful community manager will build and foster an environment conducive to that type of exchange. There are few instances where brand-to-consumer conversion-focused communications are appropriate here. Assess social conversations, and subsequent clickthrough behaviors, with an eye towards outcomes analysis to judge the efficacy of your social media efforts. Defining those KPIs properly will expose you to a wealth of consumer insight, and help your organization better define the role of social in the buying cycle (likely an assist, not a close). Killer KPIs In fact, properly defining KPIs is the real key to all of this. Marty Weintraub of Aimclear wrote a brilliant piece on proper social KPIs when he slammed GM’s move to shut off its Facebook advertising. Weintraub contends that GM hadn’t properly identified its Facebook strategy and therefore its social advertising efforts yielded underwhelming results. The moral of the story is: Define your objectives before ever kicking off a marketing campaign. And do your research to better understand the opportunities available through social media. Facebook’s Ads tool is an exceptional way to perform ad hoc demographic/psychographic research. Just as users self-express much of their needs and wants via search queries, what they divulge about themselves as Facebook users is equally telling. We can put that knowledge to use as we craft persona-specific communication and site experiences. Advanced Facebook Insights Michael King (@ipullrank) wrote an exceptional how-to for implementing keyword-level demographics in Google Analytics by piping in Facebook Open Graph data through use of Custom Variables. Frankly, my mind is still spinning over it and the possibilities it presents. While it requires a bit of elbow grease, patience, and visitor opt-in, the type of demographic information it provides is invaluable. Not only will you be better informed of visitor demographics, but this information will also enable you to craft site experiences that specifically address the needs of your most critical audiences. That’s power. Another interesting application for this data is to serve voice of customer analytics (on-site survey analytics) when certain demographic criteria are met. Real-Time Rock Stardom My friend Rob Garner is the authority on harnessing the real-time nature of search and social channels to maximize content engagement and (eventual) conversion. His article on “content velocity” is requisite reading for anyone serious about real-time customer centricity. This is where it all comes full circle. Though social listening technologies are limited in utility for a number of reasons, the biggest handicap they face is in how they’re often applied. Many social programs begin with an ad hoc investigation into the online chatter surrounding a brand and/or industry vertical. The real benefit is in trending this analysis over an extended period of time. Only then will you be armed with the intelligence to compete across the real-time Web. At my firm we call this proactively reacting, or acting faster than our competition to an opportunity we’re observing as it takes shape. Killer social intelligence mining means pushing back on the ad hoc mindset, and committing to understanding the marketplace through a smart application of available data and existing technologies.
From a public relations point of view, the ascendance of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to its board of directors may say more about the company in the breach than in the appointment. To wit: How could a company in A.D. 2012, whose primary customer is female, heretofore be one of only 11% of Fortune 500 companies without a woman on the board? The California State Teachers’ Retirement System asked Facebook in February to add a woman to its board, reports the Los Angeles Times’Jessica Guynn, and the advocacy group Face It has had a petition urging Facebook to include women and minorities. Women’s rights group Ultraviolet also has had a petition going. Anupam Palit, head of research at GreenCrest Capital, applauds the appointment of Sandberg but tells Guynn there is a “bigger issue” with Facebook. “The company has been criticized for not having women and minorities in leadership positions. It seems that their answer to everything is always Sheryl Sandberg,” says Palit, who adds that the company seems to react to criticism rather than getting out in front of an issue before the media sets its sights on it. Sandberg joined Facebook in March 2008 after having served as vp of global online sales & operations at Google from November 2001 to March 2008, according to her bio at Bloomberg Businessweek. Before that she was chief of staff at the Treasury Department, a management consultant with McKinsey and an economist for The World Bank. She currently sits on the board of Walt Disney Co. “Sandberg has visibly earned the position during her tenure, building and running the social network’s business operations, which include ‘sales, marketing, business development, human resources, public policy and communications’ as Facebook has grown to be worth billions,” postsTechCrunch’s Eric Eldon. “She’s also become a top advocate for female leadership in the workplace, writing and speaking on the topic for years -- particularly on how she has managed such a high-profile job while having a family.” As one commenter to Eldon’s story puts it: “I'd be impressed finding out that she can even manage to sleep sometimes.” “Sheryl has been my partner in running Facebook and has been central to our growth and success over the years,” says founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “Her understanding of our mission and long-term opportunity, and her experience both at Facebook and on public company boards make her a natural fit for our board.” The Wall Street Journal’s Shayndi Raice and Joann S. Lublin write that the appointment “is likely to have the effect of keeping Ms. Sandberg — who is worth $1.4 billion from her 44 million shares of Facebook restricted shares and options -- deeply vested in the social network.” Recruiters tell them that she has been “wooed for CEO” positions in the tech and media worlds, including that of the New York Times. Other Facebook board members are Washington Post CEO Donald Graham,; venture capitalist Marc Andreessen; Accel Partners general partner Jim Breyer; Clarium Capital founder Peter Thiel; Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. “When the New Yorker’s Ken Auletta asked Zuckerberg why there were no women on his company’s board of directors, he replied, ‘I’m going to find people who are helpful, and I don’t particularly care what gender they are or what company they are,’” Bianca Bosker pointed out in a “Women In Tech” blog on Huffington Post earlier this year. “I’m not filling the board with check boxes. Others would say that it’s Mark’s sandbox, and he controls the bucket and shovel, too. Everyone else is there for companionship. While Zuckerberg outright owns about 28% of Facebook, he controls 57% of all shareholder votes due to its two-class stock structure. “To put it simply, he can do whatever he wants with Facebook, and you, the shareholder, don't have a say -- not even if you team up with every other outside shareholder in the company,” Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik pointed out in May. When all is said and done, though, no one seems to dispute Zuckerberg did something very right yesterday.