Sports shoe and apparel company ASICS America is doing a "sound" activation against its status as official sponsor of the Nov. 4 ING New York City Marathon. The company, which has backed the marathon for 14 years, is partnering with electro-funk duo Chromeo on a marathon music track with a theme around “Stop at Never.” The music will include ambient noises of New York as they might be experienced by marathon runners during their run, including elements of pulmonary and cardiological sufferance (i.e., heart pounding and breathing.) People can download the music track at ASICSAmerica.com next week. Per a release, for each download the company will donate the equivalent dollar amount in product, up to $2,620 to a New York City children's support organization. And the company is also doing a big takeover at the Columbus Circle Station both with out-of-home elements plus interactive activities. the installation includes a “Sound Room,” which the company says is an immersive audio experience where visitors can trigger “sounds of the marathon.” There are 40 motion-activated controls that activate city sounds: footsteps, car horns, the Grand Central Terminal clock and a celebratory kiss. The station takeover will also include a display that calculates the watts of energy produced by people passing through the station, as well as an interactive shadow runner, and marathon-inspired artwork. ASICS will continue its “Support Your Marathoner” program, as well. That interactive and social media effort, which the company is doing for the fourth year, lets people send personalized video and text messages to runners. The latter activates this by linking their Facebook and Twitter accounts to SupportYourMarathoner.com, and submitting message requests within their social networks, according to the company, which says that competitors can thereby submit their own updates when they get a message. During the race runners can also post pre-written messages that will be posted to their Facebook page in real-time at certain mile markers along the course. Finally, ASICS is also launching a pair of limited-edition shoes commemorating the marathon and based on two of its distance running shoes. The shoes which have custom color schemes tied to ASICS' marathon apparel collection, sport images of New York on the inner shoe linings, and "2012"on the back of the shoe. The shoes will be sold at the ASICS / ING New York City Marathon Expo and at New York City running specialty retailers.
Ads for condoms are fairly predictable. An alien new to Earth who saw them might think condoms are something manufactured solely to increase sensitivity and pleasure. Why? There's not much traction in focusing on what they are really for. One company, however, has created a humorous campaign that directly deals with condoms' raison d'être. Sir Richard’s Condoms has launched what it dubs a non-procreators’ holiday with a new online and social media campaign via advertising agency TDA_Boulder that might be thought of as a kind of anti-Mother's Day pitch. Wading into this territory isn't new for the brand. Earlier this year, Sir Richard's responded to radio spewmeister Rush Limbaugh's attack on student Sandra Fluke by getting people to declare themselves sluts and proud of it. The aim is to build awareness of birth control in general and Sir Richard’s position as an all-natural brand. The effort, housed at birthcontrolday.com, urges visitors to make Nov. 13 a celebration of the first annual Birth Control Day, "a holiday commemorating the responsible decision of choosing not to be a parent." The agency chose Nov. 13 because feminist Margaret Sanger was arrested on that date in 1921 for trying to keep the New York City Police from closing down the nation’s first American Birth Control Conference, at the city’s Plaza Hotel. A riot followed. The site, which pitches the prophylactic as all-natural without spermicide, parabens and glycerin, goes on to say that while the brand "has nothing against parents, or even children for that matter, we encourage you and your significant other to celebrate the ability to fornicate to your heart’s content without procreating." Housed on the Web site is a social media program centered on 12 digital “Happy Birth Control Day” cards with ironic messages that visitors can disseminate (no pun intended) via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or email. Sample messages include “Let’s not make the same mistake our parents did,” “I’d rather not remember we slept together in 9 months,” “You had me at ‘condoms’,” and “Let’s change positions, not diapers.” Each card links back to the microsite, and the microsite links to Sir Richard’s home page. For each condom the company sells, one is donated in a developing country. Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director at TDA_Boulder, which founded Sir Richard's -- also based in Boulder -- with equity partners, tells Marketing Daily that the agency considered ways of getting out the concept that birth control is not taboo. It tested the finished creative and found it also resonated with women, 50% of whom buy condoms. "I showed the campaign to a focus group of 100 people two days ago and women loved it; other brands tend to be very masculine." Schoenberg says the campaign is also timed with a big increase in national distribution that takes Sir Richard's from being a very niche brand to a potential force in the segment. "In December we came to market in terms of real distribution. We have taken a major foothold in the natural channel via stores like Whole Foods over the last nine months, and now we're mainstream: we are now on Target.com and are having conversations with major pharmacies." He adds that the condoms are now at some 1,500 natural-products stores, some 900 universities, and convenience stores. Schoenberg says that with the expanded retail footprint will come bigger marketing. "In 2013 we will have big initiatives. Until now it's been pixels and getting people’s attention."
Some 43% of retailers said they will raise online marketing budgets -- investing in either mobile, social or email marketing channels during the holiday season, according to a new study analyzing expectation of holiday advertising and sales. About 68% expect sales to increase this holiday, compared with last year, and nearly a quarter believe they will see it rise by more than 50%, according to the Retail Systems Research study sponsored by Bronto Software. When asked what percentage of their 2012 holiday online marketing budget will go toward email, mobile and social, 22% of retailers report their social marketing will increase slightly from 2011, with 18% reporting a slight uptick. And 21% note mobile strategies will rise significantly this year, as part of the 40% of retailers who report an overall increase in mobile marketing spend. When it comes to email marketing, retailers plan to increase the number as the holidays approach. About 22% cite a significant increase in the amount spent for email marketing, while 20% cite a slight increase. Some 53% report that they expect the overall volume of emails sent this year to rise, compared with the year-ago holiday season. About 34% don't expect a change, and 13% said they will spend less. Of those preparing to increase frequency, 36% of retailers invested in email personalization and 21% in segmentation technologies during the past year. Another 46% have invested in technology to acquire new email subscribers, and 43% have built up automated and triggered messaging features. The survey, "Loading the Sleigh: Marketers' Plans & Expectations for the Holiday Season," analyzes retailers' plans for the holiday season. The responses come from 179 online and multichannel retailers, with between $51 million and $999 million in annual revenue.
Denny’s has partnered with New Line Cinema and MGM for one of its largest-ever movie tie-ins, with “The Hobbit: An Expected Journey” to hit theaters on Dec. 14. Starting Nov. 6, the fast-casual chain will feature a limited-time menu with 11 items themed to the movie, including a Hobbit Hole Breakfast, Frodo’s Pot Roast Skillet and a Build Your Own Hobbit Slam, which includes new holiday items like Pumpkin Patch Pancakes, Shire Sausage and Seed Cake French Toast. In addition, with the purchase of select Hobbit-inspired entrées, guests will receive a trading card pack. Each pack includes collectible Hobbit cards (there are a total of 12 different cards to collect) and Denny’s coupons. Customers can also scan four QR codes on Denny’s placements in-restaurant to access additional movie content, videos, online games and a behind-the-scenes look at Denny’s’ national TV spot promoting its movie-themed menu. The humorous TV ad, already on YouTube, features real-life “Hobbit” fans dressed like the characters, enjoying a meal at Denny’s. It will begin airing on Nov. 12. Marketing for the promotion began with an unbranded teaser campaign on billboards in the Los Angeles market and online banners. (The ads just stated: “Middle Earth is coming to America’s favorite diner,” in the recognizable font style created by author J.R.R. Tolkien.) Denny’s’ past tie-ins with movies have included 2011’s “Arthur Christmas,” as well as “Madagascar” (2005) and “Cinderella” (2004).
Social analytics company General Sentiment is out with its third-quarter report that ranks brands on how much buzz they have received and how positive and negative that attention has been. The firm, which says it analyzes some 50 million sources of content for data, offered up its lists of companies that got the most buzz. General Sentiment says it has two major channels for its Brand Exposure Analysis: Impact Media Value, which gives a positive value to volume of mentions negative or positive. The firm borrows the old chestnut "any news is good news" to explain the virtues of that. Value is determined from overall level of discussion. The good news list, Perception Value, does the opposite: assigning positive value to positive mentions and negative to negative mentions. Not surprisingly, Facebook is number one in Impact Media Value, partly because of news around its stock being way overvalued. Apple passed Google to be number two with the iPhone 5 debut, and negative press on iOS 6 Maps. Google is number three, and MTV jumped eleven spots to number four, winning big buzz around its tentpole events. At five was Amazon, which fell from fourth. Samsung, at sixth place, got buzz for its imbroglio with Apple. Microsoft fell from third to seventh place this quarter, partly because of viruses in computers using its platforms. HP dropped to eighth place. Disney moved from eighth place to ninth, having cancelled a project and taking a $50 million loss in Q3. At 10th was Yahoo with buzz around Marissa Mayer replacing Tim Morse at the helm. There are three automakers in the top 20 brands: Chrysler at 16, Honda at 13, and Toyota at 19. When it comes to rankings based on positive Perception Media Value, JP Morgan, Louis Vuitton, AutoZone, MasterCard and Goodyear Tire were top five. AutoZone saw a 94.6% increase when fiscal Q4 net income, released in September, beat estimates. Goodyear saw a big increase as well when Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy." Also helping perception were self-inflating tires that rolled out this quarter, and the company offering Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes free driving lessons. The biggest losers: Chevron, FedEx, AES Corp., Allegheny Energy, Mattel, Zurich Financial, Aimco, Apollo Group, Agilent Tech and Amgen. Chevron got negative news for a big fire at one of its refineries in California and paid $17.3 million in fines for last year's spill in Brazil, and saw its value drop a whopping 7070.3%. FedEx reported a profit decline in September, lowering its 2013 guidance.
While Burt’s Bees has been busily expanding its skincare products over the last several years, it knew it had a winner with its new Intense Hydration line. Formulated with Clary sage, an herb that thrives on windswept Mediterranean hills, the product’s early tests had women in their 30s and 40s enthusiastic about its effectiveness. “We felt really excited about the product experience, and wanted that to be the root of all the marketing,” Brian Berklich, the company’s senior marketing manager, tells Marketing Daily. “So we created an event that would flip the typical before-and-after images on their head.” Before dawn on a Saturday, the company set up a billboard at a busy Minneapolis farmers market, showing a woman with dry, flaky skin. Each flake was actually a $3 off coupon -- 1,300 in all -- to encourage trial of the product. By the end of the day, passersby had yanked off enough coupons to reveal the smooth skin of the billboard model, and the company had a compelling time-lapse video. While the line began rolling into supermarkets and discount chains in August, the 1:35 video, called “A Natural Before and After,” began running last week, supported by paid, pre-roll video and standard and pop-up banner placements on YouTube, as well as paid-search advertising and blogger outreach. The video was done by Baldwin&, Burt’s Bees new agency. Print, which is running in such titles as Real Simple and Allure, and which will intensify as the weather cools off and demand for skin protection increases, is from Colangelo. While $3 is a hefty enticement, Berklich says it made sense -- not just because of the relatively high price point of the line (the five products range from $10 to $18), “but also because we had a high level of confidence about the product experience.” And in keeping with its brand personality, he says the billboard is now in a community garden near the company’s Durham, N.C. headquarters, where it is being repurposed as rain catcher.
Sports shoe and apparel company ASICS America is doing a "sound" activation against its status as official sponsor of the Nov. 4 ING New York City Marathon. The company, which has backed the marathon for 14 years, is partnering with electro-funk duo Chromeo on a marathon music track with a theme around “Stop at Never.” The music will include ambient noises of New York as they might be experienced by marathon runners during their run, including elements of pulmonary and cardiological sufferance (i.e., heart pounding and breathing.) People can download the music track at ASICSAmerica.com next week. Per a release, for each download the company will donate the equivalent dollar amount in product, up to $2,620 to a New York City children's support organization. And the company is also doing a big takeover at the Columbus Circle Station both with out-of-home elements plus interactive activities. the installation includes a “Sound Room,” which the company says is an immersive audio experience where visitors can trigger “sounds of the marathon.” There are 40 motion-activated controls that activate city sounds: footsteps, car horns, the Grand Central Terminal clock and a celebratory kiss. The station takeover will also include a display that calculates the watts of energy produced by people passing through the station, as well as an interactive shadow runner, and marathon-inspired artwork. ASICS will continue its “Support Your Marathoner” program, as well. That interactive and social media effort, which the company is doing for the fourth year, lets people send personalized video and text messages to runners. The latter activates this by linking their Facebook and Twitter accounts to SupportYourMarathoner.com, and submitting message requests within their social networks, according to the company, which says that competitors can thereby submit their own updates when they get a message. During the race runners can also post pre-written messages that will be posted to their Facebook page in real-time at certain mile markers along the course. Finally, ASICS is also launching a pair of limited-edition shoes commemorating the marathon and based on two of its distance running shoes. The shoes which have custom color schemes tied to ASICS' marathon apparel collection, sport images of New York on the inner shoe linings, and "2012"on the back of the shoe. The shoes will be sold at the ASICS / ING New York City Marathon Expo and at New York City running specialty retailers.
Ads for condoms are fairly predictable. An alien new to Earth who saw them might think condoms are something manufactured solely to increase sensitivity and pleasure. Why? There's not much traction in focusing on what they are really for. One company, however, has created a humorous campaign that directly deals with condoms' raison d'être. Sir Richard’s Condoms has launched what it dubs a non-procreators’ holiday with a new online and social media campaign via advertising agency TDA_Boulder that might be thought of as a kind of anti-Mother's Day pitch. Wading into this territory isn't new for the brand. Earlier this year, Sir Richard's responded to radio spewmeister Rush Limbaugh's attack on student Sandra Fluke by getting people to declare themselves sluts and proud of it. The aim is to build awareness of birth control in general and Sir Richard’s position as an all-natural brand. The effort, housed at birthcontrolday.com, urges visitors to make Nov. 13 a celebration of the first annual Birth Control Day, "a holiday commemorating the responsible decision of choosing not to be a parent." The agency chose Nov. 13 because feminist Margaret Sanger was arrested on that date in 1921 for trying to keep the New York City Police from closing down the nation’s first American Birth Control Conference, at the city’s Plaza Hotel. A riot followed. The site, which pitches the prophylactic as all-natural without spermicide, parabens and glycerin, goes on to say that while the brand "has nothing against parents, or even children for that matter, we encourage you and your significant other to celebrate the ability to fornicate to your heart’s content without procreating." Housed on the Web site is a social media program centered on 12 digital “Happy Birth Control Day” cards with ironic messages that visitors can disseminate (no pun intended) via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or email. Sample messages include “Let’s not make the same mistake our parents did,” “I’d rather not remember we slept together in 9 months,” “You had me at ‘condoms’,” and “Let’s change positions, not diapers.” Each card links back to the microsite, and the microsite links to Sir Richard’s home page. For each condom the company sells, one is donated in a developing country. Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director at TDA_Boulder, which founded Sir Richard's -- also based in Boulder -- with equity partners, tells Marketing Daily that the agency considered ways of getting out the concept that birth control is not taboo. It tested the finished creative and found it also resonated with women, 50% of whom buy condoms. "I showed the campaign to a focus group of 100 people two days ago and women loved it; other brands tend to be very masculine." Schoenberg says the campaign is also timed with a big increase in national distribution that takes Sir Richard's from being a very niche brand to a potential force in the segment. "In December we came to market in terms of real distribution. We have taken a major foothold in the natural channel via stores like Whole Foods over the last nine months, and now we're mainstream: we are now on Target.com and are having conversations with major pharmacies." He adds that the condoms are now at some 1,500 natural-products stores, some 900 universities, and convenience stores. Schoenberg says that with the expanded retail footprint will come bigger marketing. "In 2013 we will have big initiatives. Until now it's been pixels and getting people’s attention."
Some 43% of retailers said they will raise online marketing budgets -- investing in either mobile, social or email marketing channels during the holiday season, according to a new study analyzing expectation of holiday advertising and sales. About 68% expect sales to increase this holiday, compared with last year, and nearly a quarter believe they will see it rise by more than 50%, according to the Retail Systems Research study sponsored by Bronto Software. When asked what percentage of their 2012 holiday online marketing budget will go toward email, mobile and social, 22% of retailers report their social marketing will increase slightly from 2011, with 18% reporting a slight uptick. And 21% note mobile strategies will rise significantly this year, as part of the 40% of retailers who report an overall increase in mobile marketing spend. When it comes to email marketing, retailers plan to increase the number as the holidays approach. About 22% cite a significant increase in the amount spent for email marketing, while 20% cite a slight increase. Some 53% report that they expect the overall volume of emails sent this year to rise, compared with the year-ago holiday season. About 34% don't expect a change, and 13% said they will spend less. Of those preparing to increase frequency, 36% of retailers invested in email personalization and 21% in segmentation technologies during the past year. Another 46% have invested in technology to acquire new email subscribers, and 43% have built up automated and triggered messaging features. The survey, "Loading the Sleigh: Marketers' Plans & Expectations for the Holiday Season," analyzes retailers' plans for the holiday season. The responses come from 179 online and multichannel retailers, with between $51 million and $999 million in annual revenue.
Denny’s has partnered with New Line Cinema and MGM for one of its largest-ever movie tie-ins, with “The Hobbit: An Expected Journey” to hit theaters on Dec. 14. Starting Nov. 6, the fast-casual chain will feature a limited-time menu with 11 items themed to the movie, including a Hobbit Hole Breakfast, Frodo’s Pot Roast Skillet and a Build Your Own Hobbit Slam, which includes new holiday items like Pumpkin Patch Pancakes, Shire Sausage and Seed Cake French Toast. In addition, with the purchase of select Hobbit-inspired entrées, guests will receive a trading card pack. Each pack includes collectible Hobbit cards (there are a total of 12 different cards to collect) and Denny’s coupons. Customers can also scan four QR codes on Denny’s placements in-restaurant to access additional movie content, videos, online games and a behind-the-scenes look at Denny’s’ national TV spot promoting its movie-themed menu. The humorous TV ad, already on YouTube, features real-life “Hobbit” fans dressed like the characters, enjoying a meal at Denny’s. It will begin airing on Nov. 12. Marketing for the promotion began with an unbranded teaser campaign on billboards in the Los Angeles market and online banners. (The ads just stated: “Middle Earth is coming to America’s favorite diner,” in the recognizable font style created by author J.R.R. Tolkien.) Denny’s’ past tie-ins with movies have included 2011’s “Arthur Christmas,” as well as “Madagascar” (2005) and “Cinderella” (2004).
Social analytics company General Sentiment is out with its third-quarter report that ranks brands on how much buzz they have received and how positive and negative that attention has been. The firm, which says it analyzes some 50 million sources of content for data, offered up its lists of companies that got the most buzz. General Sentiment says it has two major channels for its Brand Exposure Analysis: Impact Media Value, which gives a positive value to volume of mentions negative or positive. The firm borrows the old chestnut "any news is good news" to explain the virtues of that. Value is determined from overall level of discussion. The good news list, Perception Value, does the opposite: assigning positive value to positive mentions and negative to negative mentions. Not surprisingly, Facebook is number one in Impact Media Value, partly because of news around its stock being way overvalued. Apple passed Google to be number two with the iPhone 5 debut, and negative press on iOS 6 Maps. Google is number three, and MTV jumped eleven spots to number four, winning big buzz around its tentpole events. At five was Amazon, which fell from fourth. Samsung, at sixth place, got buzz for its imbroglio with Apple. Microsoft fell from third to seventh place this quarter, partly because of viruses in computers using its platforms. HP dropped to eighth place. Disney moved from eighth place to ninth, having cancelled a project and taking a $50 million loss in Q3. At 10th was Yahoo with buzz around Marissa Mayer replacing Tim Morse at the helm. There are three automakers in the top 20 brands: Chrysler at 16, Honda at 13, and Toyota at 19. When it comes to rankings based on positive Perception Media Value, JP Morgan, Louis Vuitton, AutoZone, MasterCard and Goodyear Tire were top five. AutoZone saw a 94.6% increase when fiscal Q4 net income, released in September, beat estimates. Goodyear saw a big increase as well when Goldman Sachs upgraded it from "neutral" to "buy." Also helping perception were self-inflating tires that rolled out this quarter, and the company offering Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes free driving lessons. The biggest losers: Chevron, FedEx, AES Corp., Allegheny Energy, Mattel, Zurich Financial, Aimco, Apollo Group, Agilent Tech and Amgen. Chevron got negative news for a big fire at one of its refineries in California and paid $17.3 million in fines for last year's spill in Brazil, and saw its value drop a whopping 7070.3%. FedEx reported a profit decline in September, lowering its 2013 guidance.
While Burt’s Bees has been busily expanding its skincare products over the last several years, it knew it had a winner with its new Intense Hydration line. Formulated with Clary sage, an herb that thrives on windswept Mediterranean hills, the product’s early tests had women in their 30s and 40s enthusiastic about its effectiveness. “We felt really excited about the product experience, and wanted that to be the root of all the marketing,” Brian Berklich, the company’s senior marketing manager, tells Marketing Daily. “So we created an event that would flip the typical before-and-after images on their head.” Before dawn on a Saturday, the company set up a billboard at a busy Minneapolis farmers market, showing a woman with dry, flaky skin. Each flake was actually a $3 off coupon -- 1,300 in all -- to encourage trial of the product. By the end of the day, passersby had yanked off enough coupons to reveal the smooth skin of the billboard model, and the company had a compelling time-lapse video. While the line began rolling into supermarkets and discount chains in August, the 1:35 video, called “A Natural Before and After,” began running last week, supported by paid, pre-roll video and standard and pop-up banner placements on YouTube, as well as paid-search advertising and blogger outreach. The video was done by Baldwin&, Burt’s Bees new agency. Print, which is running in such titles as Real Simple and Allure, and which will intensify as the weather cools off and demand for skin protection increases, is from Colangelo. While $3 is a hefty enticement, Berklich says it made sense -- not just because of the relatively high price point of the line (the five products range from $10 to $18), “but also because we had a high level of confidence about the product experience.” And in keeping with its brand personality, he says the billboard is now in a community garden near the company’s Durham, N.C. headquarters, where it is being repurposed as rain catcher.
Digital technology has created an enormous volume of new opportunities for marketers, and the rate of change that defines and shapes the channels we currently market through shows no signs of slowing down. The control, reach and automation that we already leverage as advertisers provides the flexibility to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time, and enables us to better accomplish -- and measure against -- a host of advertising objectives. It is now clear that the fundamental key to success in any of today’s digital marketing channels is data. Whether you’re working with paid or organic search advertising, display, social, mobile, video, email, affiliate, or even shopping channels, the raw material of your craft is data -- and without it, there is no direction, no accountability, and no strategy. Here are six things you should be doing with data to improve your marketing strategy: 1. Define it Too many organizations have taken a “get it all and we’ll worry about what to do with it later” approach to data. Well, now it’s time to start worrying. Before you begin collecting data, spend the time to define the metrics, key performance indicators and data segments that can map to tangible business objectives and provide a catalyst for change. Taking stock of what you will measure and how that data will be used to make decisions and evaluate success or failure will help drive the data collection solution you will need to implement. 2. Collect it Data collection has come a long way, but it is still in a very nascent and fragmented stage. A Web analytics implementation requires much more than slapping some code on your Web site, and today’s tools offer massive customization opportunities. And clickstream Web analytics tools and advertising platforms are now just pieces of the data collection puzzle: Customer data, audience and targeting data, transactional and financial data, social measurements, application tracking, form and visual analytics, and voice of customer data can all help you make crucial decisions. Architecting a data solution and infrastructure that connects these sources, standardizes across tools and platforms and provides a usable data set is the goal. 3. Analyze it The amount of data we have at our disposal can be overwhelming, and successful organizations don’t waste time on month-to-month and year-over-year comparisons of hit counts. Instead, they leverage data mining and visualization tools to explore the data for inconsistencies and anomalies. This is where insights and opportunities hide. In addition, to optimize how marketing dollars are spent, effective analysts are building and applying customized attribution models that credit various channels with appropriate value across the multiple touchpoints on multiple devices that define today’s consumers. 4. Disseminate it The greatest analysts finding the most valuable insights are worthless unless those insights arrive in the hands of decision-making stakeholders in a language that can be understood. Resist the urge to send hundreds of pages of tables, numbers and graphs to an email list on a weekly basis. Instead, condense the key messages, recommendations and supporting data into consumable chunks by way of dashboards and bulletted points that can be presented as clear, actionable recommendations. 5. Act on it The concept of a data-driven organization is one that many are now proudly proclaiming and embracing, and hopefully yours is one of them. While instinct, gut and raw talent still have their place, if you have implemented a data strategy that provides confidence and accuracy, at the end of the day you can let your data guide you with conviction. Using the data to drive action is what truly makes it valuable, and going through the cycle of taking action, measuring that action, learning from it and starting over again provides a framework for continuous improvement. 6. Own it As marketers become more sophisticated with data, they will become more aware and protective of its value. We will see more accountability in data privacy and ownership as data is recognized and valued as a digital asset that is responsible and required for competitive advantage. Taking steps now to ensure that the data being generated by the tools, platforms and services you are using remains your own will pay dividends tomorrow. Data is truly the common currency that advertising will use in the years to come, and cultivating a strategy and infrastructure to leverage its power is what will define the success or failure of tomorrow’s organizations.
Consumers like their choices for cable and satellite alternatives, and they’re also expected to buy more connected TV sets this year. Those are among the findings of a pair of recently released studies tracking the growing over-the-top business. When coupled with upcoming new releases from gaming console makers — the dominant device consumers use when streaming video to the TV — things are looking good for the over-the-top business. Worldwide shipments for smart TVs should rise 15 percent this year, for a total of 43 million shipped this year, said research firm NPD in its latest forecast. What’s more, nearly 20% of online consumers say online video works for them as a replacement for TV, according to a new study from ABI Research . Multichannel subscriber numbers - which are still hearty - don’t bear that out yet, but the reported consumer sentiment is worth paying attention to as it could mark the start of more cord-shaving. ABI research said that U.S. pay TV penetration is on track to decline about 0.5% each year through 2017. The study also said that the TV is the preferred device for viewing Internet video. That bodes well for gaming console makers, since consumers usually connect their consoles to the TV. Xbox is slated to add more second screen features through its Smartglass app releasing this week. The app lets users turn their smartphone or tablet into a remote control, and to interact with Xbox entertainment and sports content from companies like HBO and ESPN. Next month, Nintendo is slated to launch its new game console that will include social TV integration and TV show searches across services such as Hulu, Netflix and Amazon in its remote control. Such social features could drive connected TV usage, given that social TV is becoming more common. The Diffusion Group just reported that 38% of US adult broadband users engage in social TV activities at least a few times a year by using smartphones or tablets to socialize while watching TV.
The majority of Twitter and Facebook users -- 83% and 71%, respectively -- expect a response from a brand within the same day of posting. Some 71% of consumers who experience a quick and effective response are more likely to recommend that brand to others, compared with 19% who do not receive any response, according to a study released Thursday. The findings from the recent NM Incite study analyze customer service on social media. The biggest issue: 36% report having problems solved quickly and effectively, while only 14% report that the company responds quickly but does not resolve the issue, and 10% report never receiving a response at all. While the quick response supports a positive experience, what if that response accompanied a piece of content that consumers should share? Not only share across social sites, but the brand would optimize the content to index in search engine rankings on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Just a thought after hearing some of the speakers at the OMMA Social Data LA conference on Wednesday say that marketers on Facebook continue to raise the frequency cap on targeted ads, flooding Fan pages with what they call in-your-face ads. While sponsored or paid ads remain the main source of ad revenue for Facebook and Twitter, brands need to start thinking more about shareable earned content that indexes in search engines. When it comes to social, some advice emerging from the conference points to leveraging location and creating content to help consumers shop well and make better decisions, get food on the table more quickly, and organize their lives. Build a relationship with each individual person. Replace -- or augment -- ads with shareable content that consumers can post on blogs, Web sites or forums, and companies can optimize to serve up in search engine queries. Look at where the brand's target audience spends money. Angel Anderson, experience director at CP+B, said brands need to create content that lives on, rather than building on a comment in a Facebook news stream. Anderson said, "what if Facebook became an ad-free zone"? It means brands would need to create shareable content, rather than have an ad serve up in a feed.
There is a Tom Fishburne cartoon from 2008 called “Poser Marketing.” It depicts a can of soda, brand unrecognizable, anthropomorphized with arms, legs and a face. There are three hipster-looking youngsters sitting in the corner. “Fine,” declares Soda Can Guy, “You win! I give up trying to interrupt you with TV ads you stubbornly refuse to watch. You can be my Myspace friend or watch my YouTube videos instead.” The hipsters are unmoved; only one of them bothers to offer a reply: “Whatever, loser.” I have used this cartoon more times than I can count -- and yet, and yet, we continue to have the same conversation. “Why do you want to be on social media?” I ask my client or potential client. “Because we want people to know about our product,” they reply. “Because we have a lot to say.” “Because people don’t read our newsletters anymore.” Let’s assume, Dear Reader, that you, as an enthusiast of this column, are more savvy than this. Let’s assume that you know all about “Relationship Marketing,” that you would never create a Facebook Page and use it to immediately start pushing your product. Of course not. You would create a Facebook Page and use it to befriend your customers. You would ask them what they care about, invite them to share their pictures, maybe tell them a few jokes, and then start pushing your product. Here’s the problem: If everyone is using relationship marketing, none of it’s effective anymore. When the first company uses social media to connect with you, in a transparent and authentic way, it’s refreshing. When the 50th company tries to do so, it makes you want to take out your earring and use the pointy bit to stab yourself in the eye. Facebook, to its credit, has been remarkably vigilant in, shall we say, not being more awful than it could be. It did an excellent job, for example, in curtailing the Farmville threat to the user experience -- a factor that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Following a dismaying Zynga quarterly report back in July, JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth said, “The biggest factor impacting current performance appears to be the way Facebook is surfacing gaming content on its platform” -- basically, that Facebook no longer allows gaming content to “surface” on its platform, non-stop, unsolicited, uncontrollable and undesirable. And Zynga continues to pay the price, earlier this week firing 5% of its staff during the iPad Mini announcement. Win for Facebook users, loss for Zynga. And, ultimately, a loss for Facebook. We are only valuable to the extent we can be monetized, but the more you try to monetize us, the more we resist. The tension for Facebook -- and all other social networks -- is between the user as product and the advertiser as customer. Since advertisers hold the purse strings, they tend to win this game in the long run, giving rise to Hugh MacLeod’s First Law: “All online social networks eventually turn into a swampy mush of spam.” The irony, of course, is that once the advertisers win, the audience gets sick of the spam. If an ad runs on Facebook and there is no one there to see it, it does not get clicke, and the social network does not get paid. But this week was a happy week for Facebook, which, though posting another quarterly loss, did make gains in mobile ad revenue. Mark Zuckerberg said, “I think our opportunity on mobile is the most misunderstood aspect of Facebook today," and COO Sheryl Sandberg said, “We've been very focused on getting more ads into news feeds -- it's one of our primary priorities.” Great. All those companies itching to be on social media so they can tell me how great they are can now do so on my smartphone. Be careful what you wish for, Sheryl. Remember Hugh’s First Law. And remember this: In the game of advertiser vs. consumer, you need to keep both parties at the table if you want to win