Tired of unauthorized marketers calling the Super Bowl “the big game”? So, it seems, is Samsung. In a preview to an ad scheduled to appear during the football game to be played Sunday between the NFC and AFC champions, Samsung Mobile has released an online preview video in which Hollywood A-list stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd work to create an ad for “the big game.” In the video, Rogen and Rudd sit at a conference table and are cautioned by a third party (played by Bob Odenkirk, best known as shifty lawyer Saul on “Breaking Bad”), who shuts them down every time the two stars try to utter the words “Super Bowl” or any other trademarked term. (“We might get sued [by] everyone. No one. Who knows?” he says.) They are allowed to say “Super,” but not “Bowl” in close proximity to each other. (At one point, Odenkirk encourages them to call the event “El Plato Supreme,” prompting the duo to incredulously wonder, “The Big Plate?”) Rudd and Rogen are also not allowed to identify the two teams playing for the championship, instead settling on the “San Francisco 50 minus Ones” and the “Baltimore black birds.” The video has been released to Samsung’s social communities as a preview for the brand’s two-minute ad airing during the Super Bowl. After the game, the brand will release more footage and an extended version of the spot, as well as a Twitter contest for fans to win prizes by using the hashtag #TheNextBigThing. Samsung made its first appearance on the Super Bowl last year, with an ad that parodied Apple acolytes waiting in line for a phone that paled in comparison to Samsung’s Galaxy series phones. That ad won the Twitter Ad Scrimmage last year, a contest among 30 brands and 42 commercials, and helped Samsung Mobile’s perception as a technology leader and challenger to Apple in the smartphone and tablet categories. "The anticipation of Super Bowl ads creates a unique consumer experience,” said Todd Pendleton, chief marketing officer of Samsung Mobile, in a release. "'The Next Big Thing' campaign has allowed us the flexibility to tap into significant cultural moments and relevant conversations while showcasing our innovation." Representatives from Samsung Mobile and its agency, 72andSunny, were unavailable to comment.
Lincoln Motor Co., which pulled up stakes and moved away -- both physically and symbolically -- from sibling Ford brand, has staked out a position in the Super Bowl. The program includes an ad created from Tweets, plus a separate ad for the new MKZ sedan. And there's a spokesperson relationship with three-time Super Bowl champion Emmitt Smith. Smith, with an assist from hip-hop superstar Rev Run, and actor Wil Wheaton, appears in a long-form version of the Tweet-driven ad at www.SteertheScript.com. Jimmy Fallon also played a role when, in December, he hosted the initial pitch for tweets, asking his social-media fan base to write (in 140 characters) whacked-out road trip stories. The best of the contributions were chosen to make up the 30-second spot that runs in the third quarter. There's also a long-form, 90-second version on SteertheScript.com. The winning tweets making up the ad creative include, "We drove passed an alpaca farm, a few of them were meandering on the highway and my sister screamed, 'It's the Alpacalypse!'"; and "Thousands of turtles crossing the road in FL. Dad stops, so did a huge scary Harley gang! Us and the gang played checkers!" Tom Kowaleski, Lincoln communications chief, tells Marketing Daily that during the initial three-day “steering the script” social push, Lincoln got over 6,000 tweets. "However, in the month of December we garnered over 100 million media impressions from conversations in internet communities, passing along tweets and facts via Facebook and Twitter and other information channels," he says. "Therefore, the conversation grew as intended throughout the month. Now, in January, the conversation continued aided by some good strategically developed traditional media coverage." He says by this week Lincoln reached over 318 million impressions. Kowaleski says it wasn't an easy decision for Lincoln to play in the big game. "What led the decision to do so and commit not inconsiderable resources was the opportunity to use the before-during-and after game period to create and develop a conversation about the new Lincoln." The automaker announced the campaign as a part of an all-points bulletin about the brand's reinvention as Lincoln Motor, its new New York-based agency HudsonRouge, and new ad platform. "It was also the day the conversation started because Jimmy Fallon announced his participation that day to his massive social media audience and thus the conversation about Lincoln was off and running," he says. In New Orleans, Thursday and Friday, Smith will do two days interviews with national and international media. "This is all important in this period of getting word out about the new brand because in such a transformation process it’s important to create a much larger conversation about the brand than just those that are your target customers," says Kowaleski. "Conversations move opinion and opinion shifts perceptions and beliefs and that’s exactly what we need to do with Lincoln. We’ve been fortunate that the Super Bowl window was right in the launch window."
Facebook Gifts, launched in September, allows people to buy and send each other smallish items through the social network from well-known brands and retailers. On Thursday the company introduced a reusable gift card that people can give to friends through the Gifts program for use at four partner companies: Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Sephora. After receiving a Facebook Card in the mail, subsequent card gifts will be automatically added to the balance for one or more of the participating stores. “Your card can hold multiple gift balances, and each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift. For example, you might have gift balances of $100 at Sephora, $75 at Target, $50 at Olive Garden, and $8.25 at Jamba Juice,” stated Facebook’s announcement today. People can see gift balances in their account settings on Facebook in mobile or on the desktop. A user will also get a notification when their balance changes through a real-time notification sent to their phone. The ability to send a Facebook Card will roll out gradually in the U.S. The social network first got into the gift card business in 2010, when it sold virtual credits through cards sold at big box stores like Target and Best Buy. Last year, the company did away with its own virtual currency in favor of a user’s local currency, whether dollars, pesos or yen. The aim was to give developers more flexibility and to benefit its own e-commerce efforts like Gifts. During the company’s fourth-quarter conference call Wednesday, CFO David Ebersman said Gifts, user-promoted posts, and paid messages amounted to only about $5 million in the quarter out of total payments revenue of $256 million. He added that non-games payments would remain very small through 2013, as the company focuses mainly on building out its advertising business.
Brands with positive scores across multiple social media dimensions have the greatest potential for market leadership and influence over customer experiences, according to Blueocean Market Intelligence. The research and analytics company’s “Social Media Effectiveness Index” measures business impact and identifies top performers. The global study assesses the social media effectiveness of Fortune 100 companies. Companies in the top ten are: Honeywell International, American International Group, Metlife, Aetna, Chevron, Express Scripts Holding, Ingram Micro, General Electric, Oracle and Nationwide. The study measured social media effectiveness by tracking each brand’s share of voice, customer engagement rate, customer touch rate, number of brand influencers and advocates, and net sentiment. It captured conversations on social networks and online communities worldwide, and demonstrated how companies can provide a higher level of customer engagement on digital channels by focusing on metrics that typically have the greatest business impact, such as revenue and brand value. In addition, it measured the interactions between businesses and customers in social media, including how Facebook and Twitter drive customer engagement and purchase behavior. “The top performers have higher scores across a combination of relevant social media attributes and are best positioned to gain and retain customers and brand advocates in the social universe,” said Blueocean Senior Vice President Prashant Parida. “Businesses of all sizes can benefit from their experience and learn how to better harness social media technologies.” To download the full report, including a detailed explanation of the ranking methodology, the complete SEI 100 and a compilation of top social media performers by industry, visit www.blueoceansei100.com.
The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) is launching a multi-year, multi-platform campaign to increase usage of canned foods. Dubbed “Cans Get You Cooking,” the campaign kicks off Feb. 1, to coincide with National Canned Food Month. CMI is the trade association of the metal and composite can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the U.S. Investment in the campaign, which is funded by member companies Ball Corp., Crown Holdings, Inc. and Silgan Containers, will exceed $5 million in its first year, CMI VP of marketing and communications Sherrie Rosenblatt tells Marketing Daily. The campaign is based on extensive research that confirmed strong, positive perceptions among existing canned food consumers, including confidence in these foods’ freshness and nutrients, according to Rosenblatt. It aims to increase these consumers’ usage over time – not just get cans into the pantry, but out of the pantry and onto the table – by reinforcing the benefits of canned foods (including how the canning process seals in nutrition, freshness and taste) and encouraging and helping consumers to use them in creative, easy-to-prepare recipes and meals. The campaign’s kickoff includes a partnership with “The Chew,” ABC’s daytime food talk show. During February, the show will feature weekly segments in which chefs “engage and educate” consumers about using canned foods in making recipes, according to Rosenblatt. The effort will also have online, digital and social media presence through ABC’s media assets during February – plus a co-branded contest in which consumers who share their favorite canned food recipes can earn chances to attend a taping of “The Chew” in New York City. In a recently launched campaign Facebook page (which already has about 5,300 “likes”), CMI and consumers are sharing recipes and tips and facts about canned food, cans and the canning process. The page will also cross-promote retailer-specific offerings and specific canned-food brands. (For instance, an image of Progresso artichoke hearts was used to prompt community members to discuss recipes or ways that they use the product.) The campaign also has a new Pinterest presence, and plans to hold a Twitter party, offer videos on YouTube, and do outreach to influential mommy/food bloggers and dietitians, with focus on national and local canned-food promotions. Other components include national and regional media materials, and a satellite media tour to support local retailer promotions. Retailers will be supplied with customizable “Cans Get You Cooking” content, programming, and a toolkit for supermarket registered dietitians. They also have various options for tying into “The Chew” promotional partnership. Packaged foods overall, including canned foods, began experiencing volume declines a decade ago, while fresh food volumes (e.g., raw fruits, raw vegetables, grains) have seen steady growth, according to The Hartman Group. In July 2012, Nielsen reported that, between late September 2011 and mid-April 2012, 50 of 64 major food and non-alcoholic beverage categories had declining retail unit sales. Categories “bearing the brunt” of this trend included canned vegetables (units down 213 million), soup (units down 125 million) and frozen prepared foods (units down 86 million). Conversely, produce was among the 14 edible categories that saw unit gains. Nielsen noted that higher prices, less promotional support and high temperatures (which affected cold-weather categories such as soup) contributed to the packaged-goods volume declines during the period. According to a report on the U.S. canned/preserved food packaging market published in July 2012 by CompaniesandMarkets.com, unit sales in this market declined slightly in 2011, to 15.8 billion units. Metal packaging’s share of total canned/preserved good packaging declined to 73%, in part reflecting product manufacturers’ expansion to other formats (unit sales of rigid plastic packaging increased by 3% in 2011). The report notes that unit volume sales of U.S. canned/preserved food packaging are “likely” to continue to decline “as consumers turn to products perceived as fresher and healthier.” Research from Key Note released in 2011 documented similar trends in canned food packaging in the U.K.
The Twitter-owned video clip editing and sharing network Vine is off to a fast start in the world of mobile video on that micro-blog network. According to social media metrics company Keyhole, over 400,000 Twitter users have accessed Vine, creating more than half a million Tweets. Vine allows users to knit together very short video grabs into 6-second loops that can be posted on social networks and also discovered within the app. As first reported by TechCrunch, in just a week of release, Vine has won more than 50% of voice among video services that are integrated with Twitter, leading Socialcam (25%), Cinemagram (12.1%) and Telly (11.9%) handily. TechCrunch reports that about half of the videos posted to Twitter in the last week came from Vine. A Happy Birthday video from musical artist Acid Black Cherry is the most retweeted video from Vine and on Twitter in the last week. Vine came under fire days after its release as some early adopters used the app to post adult-oriented clips. Initially, Vine is only available on IOS, but Apple is notoriously restrictive about the content it allows featured in apps on the platform. According to reports, Vine adjusted its hashtage search feature to make it more difficult for users to find clips of nude and pornographic subjects. The video clip service is Twitter's attempt to widen its content offerings and compete with app startups like Instagram and Socialcam.
People stick with one media platform about as faithfully as bees to one flower; social sites are churning out ad platforms like donuts; screen sizes are as confusing as craft beers in a cooler; and trying to find the right data is like looking for a string of pearls in a grain silo. Against all of that, a traditional marketing organization starts to look about as effective as the Maginot Line. To solve these and other implacabilities, the Association of National Advertisers is launching a joint study aimed at identifying how marketers can organize their operations and develop impregnable, yet fluid, brand strategies. The study, “Marketing2020 - Organizing for Growth,” will be done with EffectiveBrands, with subject matter expertise and resources from partners that include Spencer Stuart and Forbes. The ANA says Marketing2020 will derive strategic frameworks and guidelines from surveys of CMOs in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. It offers ideas on how to structure marketing departments, and build capability, among other things. Staffing the program's advisory board are chair Keith Weed, CMO at Unilever; Antonio Lucio, CMO and Head of Human Resources at Visa; Beth Comstock, CMO at GE and Jon Iwata, SVP, marketing and communications at IBM. Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA, tells Marketing Daily that while the organization has a lot of disparate survey data on brand marketing structure issues (its own Big Data problem), the Marketing2020 juggernaut is its first coordinated, holistic effort to derive a "Whole Earth Catalog" of marketing strategies that work. "We have a good inventory of insights and perspectives, but there has never been a 'universality' of opinions, no commonality in thought," he says. "It was all very ad hoc. Since our committee and conference structure did not address this area head on, we decided to take a more direct and active stance." He adds that while issues around social media and mobile were important catalysts for the study, they are only facets of the big picture. "Data, mobile and social are components of the total marketing enterprise. We’re not just interested in the high growth areas of interest -- but of the whole enterprise. There are challenges in agency management, positioning, brand building, marketing integration, budget management, accountability, and more that need to be addressed as well." The ANA has good reason to undertake the program, as it executed a joint study with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and 4As in 2006 with Booz that found only 9% of CMO’s considered themselves to be “growth champions.” "This was a dismally low number as many viewed themselves to be advertising managers, brand stewards and a scattering of other miscellaneous descriptors. A lot has happened since then." Global marketing consultancy EffectiveBrands was able to secure participation of around 40 CMOs and senior marketers across industries in business-to-business and business-to-consumer arenas, per Liodice. "There will likely be a few second-in-command marketers," he says. "But the vast majority are the 'top guns.'" He says responses will be garnered from one-hour interviews versus more passive queries (e.g., mail-ins). "[Interviews] are far superior to 'checking the box’ surveys," he says. "I like the fact that we can not only get the fundamentals of the core information we need, but we have the flexibility to learn far more than we ever could have learned from a simple survey response."
Tired of unauthorized marketers calling the Super Bowl “the big game”? So, it seems, is Samsung. In a preview to an ad scheduled to appear during the football game to be played Sunday between the NFC and AFC champions, Samsung Mobile has released an online preview video in which Hollywood A-list stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd work to create an ad for “the big game.” In the video, Rogen and Rudd sit at a conference table and are cautioned by a third party (played by Bob Odenkirk, best known as shifty lawyer Saul on “Breaking Bad”), who shuts them down every time the two stars try to utter the words “Super Bowl” or any other trademarked term. (“We might get sued [by] everyone. No one. Who knows?” he says.) They are allowed to say “Super,” but not “Bowl” in close proximity to each other. (At one point, Odenkirk encourages them to call the event “El Plato Supreme,” prompting the duo to incredulously wonder, “The Big Plate?”) Rudd and Rogen are also not allowed to identify the two teams playing for the championship, instead settling on the “San Francisco 50 minus Ones” and the “Baltimore black birds.” The video has been released to Samsung’s social communities as a preview for the brand’s two-minute ad airing during the Super Bowl. After the game, the brand will release more footage and an extended version of the spot, as well as a Twitter contest for fans to win prizes by using the hashtag #TheNextBigThing. Samsung made its first appearance on the Super Bowl last year, with an ad that parodied Apple acolytes waiting in line for a phone that paled in comparison to Samsung’s Galaxy series phones. That ad won the Twitter Ad Scrimmage last year, a contest among 30 brands and 42 commercials, and helped Samsung Mobile’s perception as a technology leader and challenger to Apple in the smartphone and tablet categories. "The anticipation of Super Bowl ads creates a unique consumer experience,” said Todd Pendleton, chief marketing officer of Samsung Mobile, in a release. "'The Next Big Thing' campaign has allowed us the flexibility to tap into significant cultural moments and relevant conversations while showcasing our innovation." Representatives from Samsung Mobile and its agency, 72andSunny, were unavailable to comment.
Lincoln Motor Co., which pulled up stakes and moved away -- both physically and symbolically -- from sibling Ford brand, has staked out a position in the Super Bowl. The program includes an ad created from Tweets, plus a separate ad for the new MKZ sedan. And there's a spokesperson relationship with three-time Super Bowl champion Emmitt Smith. Smith, with an assist from hip-hop superstar Rev Run, and actor Wil Wheaton, appears in a long-form version of the Tweet-driven ad at www.SteertheScript.com. Jimmy Fallon also played a role when, in December, he hosted the initial pitch for tweets, asking his social-media fan base to write (in 140 characters) whacked-out road trip stories. The best of the contributions were chosen to make up the 30-second spot that runs in the third quarter. There's also a long-form, 90-second version on SteertheScript.com. The winning tweets making up the ad creative include, "We drove passed an alpaca farm, a few of them were meandering on the highway and my sister screamed, 'It's the Alpacalypse!'"; and "Thousands of turtles crossing the road in FL. Dad stops, so did a huge scary Harley gang! Us and the gang played checkers!" Tom Kowaleski, Lincoln communications chief, tells Marketing Daily that during the initial three-day “steering the script” social push, Lincoln got over 6,000 tweets. "However, in the month of December we garnered over 100 million media impressions from conversations in internet communities, passing along tweets and facts via Facebook and Twitter and other information channels," he says. "Therefore, the conversation grew as intended throughout the month. Now, in January, the conversation continued aided by some good strategically developed traditional media coverage." He says by this week Lincoln reached over 318 million impressions. Kowaleski says it wasn't an easy decision for Lincoln to play in the big game. "What led the decision to do so and commit not inconsiderable resources was the opportunity to use the before-during-and after game period to create and develop a conversation about the new Lincoln." The automaker announced the campaign as a part of an all-points bulletin about the brand's reinvention as Lincoln Motor, its new New York-based agency HudsonRouge, and new ad platform. "It was also the day the conversation started because Jimmy Fallon announced his participation that day to his massive social media audience and thus the conversation about Lincoln was off and running," he says. In New Orleans, Thursday and Friday, Smith will do two days interviews with national and international media. "This is all important in this period of getting word out about the new brand because in such a transformation process it’s important to create a much larger conversation about the brand than just those that are your target customers," says Kowaleski. "Conversations move opinion and opinion shifts perceptions and beliefs and that’s exactly what we need to do with Lincoln. We’ve been fortunate that the Super Bowl window was right in the launch window."
Facebook Gifts, launched in September, allows people to buy and send each other smallish items through the social network from well-known brands and retailers. On Thursday the company introduced a reusable gift card that people can give to friends through the Gifts program for use at four partner companies: Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden and Sephora. After receiving a Facebook Card in the mail, subsequent card gifts will be automatically added to the balance for one or more of the participating stores. “Your card can hold multiple gift balances, and each balance is dedicated to the retailer associated with the gift. For example, you might have gift balances of $100 at Sephora, $75 at Target, $50 at Olive Garden, and $8.25 at Jamba Juice,” stated Facebook’s announcement today. People can see gift balances in their account settings on Facebook in mobile or on the desktop. A user will also get a notification when their balance changes through a real-time notification sent to their phone. The ability to send a Facebook Card will roll out gradually in the U.S. The social network first got into the gift card business in 2010, when it sold virtual credits through cards sold at big box stores like Target and Best Buy. Last year, the company did away with its own virtual currency in favor of a user’s local currency, whether dollars, pesos or yen. The aim was to give developers more flexibility and to benefit its own e-commerce efforts like Gifts. During the company’s fourth-quarter conference call Wednesday, CFO David Ebersman said Gifts, user-promoted posts, and paid messages amounted to only about $5 million in the quarter out of total payments revenue of $256 million. He added that non-games payments would remain very small through 2013, as the company focuses mainly on building out its advertising business.
Brands with positive scores across multiple social media dimensions have the greatest potential for market leadership and influence over customer experiences, according to Blueocean Market Intelligence. The research and analytics company’s “Social Media Effectiveness Index” measures business impact and identifies top performers. The global study assesses the social media effectiveness of Fortune 100 companies. Companies in the top ten are: Honeywell International, American International Group, Metlife, Aetna, Chevron, Express Scripts Holding, Ingram Micro, General Electric, Oracle and Nationwide. The study measured social media effectiveness by tracking each brand’s share of voice, customer engagement rate, customer touch rate, number of brand influencers and advocates, and net sentiment. It captured conversations on social networks and online communities worldwide, and demonstrated how companies can provide a higher level of customer engagement on digital channels by focusing on metrics that typically have the greatest business impact, such as revenue and brand value. In addition, it measured the interactions between businesses and customers in social media, including how Facebook and Twitter drive customer engagement and purchase behavior. “The top performers have higher scores across a combination of relevant social media attributes and are best positioned to gain and retain customers and brand advocates in the social universe,” said Blueocean Senior Vice President Prashant Parida. “Businesses of all sizes can benefit from their experience and learn how to better harness social media technologies.” To download the full report, including a detailed explanation of the ranking methodology, the complete SEI 100 and a compilation of top social media performers by industry, visit www.blueoceansei100.com.
The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) is launching a multi-year, multi-platform campaign to increase usage of canned foods. Dubbed “Cans Get You Cooking,” the campaign kicks off Feb. 1, to coincide with National Canned Food Month. CMI is the trade association of the metal and composite can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the U.S. Investment in the campaign, which is funded by member companies Ball Corp., Crown Holdings, Inc. and Silgan Containers, will exceed $5 million in its first year, CMI VP of marketing and communications Sherrie Rosenblatt tells Marketing Daily. The campaign is based on extensive research that confirmed strong, positive perceptions among existing canned food consumers, including confidence in these foods’ freshness and nutrients, according to Rosenblatt. It aims to increase these consumers’ usage over time – not just get cans into the pantry, but out of the pantry and onto the table – by reinforcing the benefits of canned foods (including how the canning process seals in nutrition, freshness and taste) and encouraging and helping consumers to use them in creative, easy-to-prepare recipes and meals. The campaign’s kickoff includes a partnership with “The Chew,” ABC’s daytime food talk show. During February, the show will feature weekly segments in which chefs “engage and educate” consumers about using canned foods in making recipes, according to Rosenblatt. The effort will also have online, digital and social media presence through ABC’s media assets during February – plus a co-branded contest in which consumers who share their favorite canned food recipes can earn chances to attend a taping of “The Chew” in New York City. In a recently launched campaign Facebook page (which already has about 5,300 “likes”), CMI and consumers are sharing recipes and tips and facts about canned food, cans and the canning process. The page will also cross-promote retailer-specific offerings and specific canned-food brands. (For instance, an image of Progresso artichoke hearts was used to prompt community members to discuss recipes or ways that they use the product.) The campaign also has a new Pinterest presence, and plans to hold a Twitter party, offer videos on YouTube, and do outreach to influential mommy/food bloggers and dietitians, with focus on national and local canned-food promotions. Other components include national and regional media materials, and a satellite media tour to support local retailer promotions. Retailers will be supplied with customizable “Cans Get You Cooking” content, programming, and a toolkit for supermarket registered dietitians. They also have various options for tying into “The Chew” promotional partnership. Packaged foods overall, including canned foods, began experiencing volume declines a decade ago, while fresh food volumes (e.g., raw fruits, raw vegetables, grains) have seen steady growth, according to The Hartman Group. In July 2012, Nielsen reported that, between late September 2011 and mid-April 2012, 50 of 64 major food and non-alcoholic beverage categories had declining retail unit sales. Categories “bearing the brunt” of this trend included canned vegetables (units down 213 million), soup (units down 125 million) and frozen prepared foods (units down 86 million). Conversely, produce was among the 14 edible categories that saw unit gains. Nielsen noted that higher prices, less promotional support and high temperatures (which affected cold-weather categories such as soup) contributed to the packaged-goods volume declines during the period. According to a report on the U.S. canned/preserved food packaging market published in July 2012 by CompaniesandMarkets.com, unit sales in this market declined slightly in 2011, to 15.8 billion units. Metal packaging’s share of total canned/preserved good packaging declined to 73%, in part reflecting product manufacturers’ expansion to other formats (unit sales of rigid plastic packaging increased by 3% in 2011). The report notes that unit volume sales of U.S. canned/preserved food packaging are “likely” to continue to decline “as consumers turn to products perceived as fresher and healthier.” Research from Key Note released in 2011 documented similar trends in canned food packaging in the U.K.
The Twitter-owned video clip editing and sharing network Vine is off to a fast start in the world of mobile video on that micro-blog network. According to social media metrics company Keyhole, over 400,000 Twitter users have accessed Vine, creating more than half a million Tweets. Vine allows users to knit together very short video grabs into 6-second loops that can be posted on social networks and also discovered within the app. As first reported by TechCrunch, in just a week of release, Vine has won more than 50% of voice among video services that are integrated with Twitter, leading Socialcam (25%), Cinemagram (12.1%) and Telly (11.9%) handily. TechCrunch reports that about half of the videos posted to Twitter in the last week came from Vine. A Happy Birthday video from musical artist Acid Black Cherry is the most retweeted video from Vine and on Twitter in the last week. Vine came under fire days after its release as some early adopters used the app to post adult-oriented clips. Initially, Vine is only available on IOS, but Apple is notoriously restrictive about the content it allows featured in apps on the platform. According to reports, Vine adjusted its hashtage search feature to make it more difficult for users to find clips of nude and pornographic subjects. The video clip service is Twitter's attempt to widen its content offerings and compete with app startups like Instagram and Socialcam.
People stick with one media platform about as faithfully as bees to one flower; social sites are churning out ad platforms like donuts; screen sizes are as confusing as craft beers in a cooler; and trying to find the right data is like looking for a string of pearls in a grain silo. Against all of that, a traditional marketing organization starts to look about as effective as the Maginot Line. To solve these and other implacabilities, the Association of National Advertisers is launching a joint study aimed at identifying how marketers can organize their operations and develop impregnable, yet fluid, brand strategies. The study, “Marketing2020 - Organizing for Growth,” will be done with EffectiveBrands, with subject matter expertise and resources from partners that include Spencer Stuart and Forbes. The ANA says Marketing2020 will derive strategic frameworks and guidelines from surveys of CMOs in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. It offers ideas on how to structure marketing departments, and build capability, among other things. Staffing the program's advisory board are chair Keith Weed, CMO at Unilever; Antonio Lucio, CMO and Head of Human Resources at Visa; Beth Comstock, CMO at GE and Jon Iwata, SVP, marketing and communications at IBM. Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA, tells Marketing Daily that while the organization has a lot of disparate survey data on brand marketing structure issues (its own Big Data problem), the Marketing2020 juggernaut is its first coordinated, holistic effort to derive a "Whole Earth Catalog" of marketing strategies that work. "We have a good inventory of insights and perspectives, but there has never been a 'universality' of opinions, no commonality in thought," he says. "It was all very ad hoc. Since our committee and conference structure did not address this area head on, we decided to take a more direct and active stance." He adds that while issues around social media and mobile were important catalysts for the study, they are only facets of the big picture. "Data, mobile and social are components of the total marketing enterprise. We’re not just interested in the high growth areas of interest -- but of the whole enterprise. There are challenges in agency management, positioning, brand building, marketing integration, budget management, accountability, and more that need to be addressed as well." The ANA has good reason to undertake the program, as it executed a joint study with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and 4As in 2006 with Booz that found only 9% of CMO’s considered themselves to be “growth champions.” "This was a dismally low number as many viewed themselves to be advertising managers, brand stewards and a scattering of other miscellaneous descriptors. A lot has happened since then." Global marketing consultancy EffectiveBrands was able to secure participation of around 40 CMOs and senior marketers across industries in business-to-business and business-to-consumer arenas, per Liodice. "There will likely be a few second-in-command marketers," he says. "But the vast majority are the 'top guns.'" He says responses will be garnered from one-hour interviews versus more passive queries (e.g., mail-ins). "[Interviews] are far superior to 'checking the box’ surveys," he says. "I like the fact that we can not only get the fundamentals of the core information we need, but we have the flexibility to learn far more than we ever could have learned from a simple survey response."
Vine, the new six-second video-sharing app from Twitter, is -- in a word -- exploding. Industry reactions are all over the place: from envisioning a new standard for online video advertising to questioning whether Vine's "porn problem" is merely a blip on the radar or a more persistent, damaging issue. But I'd like to point to a different implication: the future of real-time marketing. Why, you might ask, is Vine "more" real-time than other social apps and services -- say, for example, YouTube? After all, on YouTube, anyone can record a video and publish it instantly. So, in that sense, it is, technically, real-time. Here’s the difference: YouTube isn’t designed to be a real-time medium. Twitter, on the other hand, with its 140-character limit, is. Its constraints naturally, and near-automatically, lend themselves to real-time. Six seconds, like 140 characters, is real-time by design. And that’s why it’s so important to contemplate from a real-time marketing perspective. The Medium, the Message, and the Marketer A good way to think about all of this is through Marshall McLuhan’s now-ubiquitous, but no less profound, maxim: “The medium is the message.” Six seconds doesn’t convey a message of “depth,” or “insight,” or “conversation.” Rather, it conveys now, breaking, and ultimately, real-time. And because it’s being launched through Twitter, by Twitter, Vine naturally builds a cultural pattern, a habit, of associating “six seconds” with “real-time.” Six seconds allows you to test -- quickly. To experiment. To take risks at a fairly low cost, financially and with reputation. Six seconds is enough time for a customer service rep to, right after a phone call, record herself saying “thank you,” or holding a cute sign that reads “thank you” -- and not just smiling statically in an immovable picture, but dynamically adding that human je ne sais quoi that can mean the difference between a customer thinking “nice” and exclaiming, “Oh, that’s adorable!” Six seconds isn’t, in and of itself, a necessarily profound number -- unless Vine was looking to replicate Hemingway’s six-word story in digital form -- but it forces new constraints on old formats. Those constraints, in turn, create new cultural habits and norms: just think of how the 140-character limit has forever changed the course of culture. And marketing is nothing if it's not being culturally relevant. The Real-Time Marketing Opportunity for Brands Vine’s new cultural norm is this: real-time, micro-form creativity. When we see a “vine” now, we expect to be surprised, delighted, intrigued, moved -- but whatever it is, we expect to see something creative. For any brands involved in content marketing, this should be seen as a new -- and inviting -- playground. In fact, brands are already jumping on the swing sets. If you have a new product launch, for example, instead of, on one hand, simply taking an Instagram shot, or on the other, creating some kind of preview video of some length in some format, you now have permission to make a fun, intriguing six-second montage that leaves people wanting more. Or you can make it easier for fans to submit content and co-create a globally crowdsourced story in real-time. You can record and share your employees’ quirky personalities in a matter of minutes. You can give creative updates on campaigns, projects, and initiatives. You can build suspense for an event. You can share what’s happening at that event, while it’s happening. You can share your six favorite photos, or your two favorite moments, or the three funniest laughs, from the event after it’s over. See, this is the trend. Vine doesn’t kill traditional, long-form creativity. But, like all new constraints that become cultural norms, it will force marketers and content creators to innovate with less, to tell a bigger stories in smaller containers -- to become, well, more real-time.
Once again football time comes to America. Never mind getting together with friends and family to enjoy the game -- marketers just want to think about data. The great American pastime has turned into a race to discover what brands influence consumers most, and how much money they will scrape from their pockets. Max Kalehoff, VP of product marketing at Syncapse, believes that finding the value of a brand demonstrates to search marketing both existing and emerging interest and intent -- core intelligence for forecasting demand to optimize campaigns. He said many search marketers also run social ads, especially in Facebook. "Early buzz can predict some of the likely searches to happen with Facebook Graph Search," Kalehoff said. "There is not much marketers can do in the short term to act on Facebook Graph Search behaviors, but now is a critical time to start observing how big marketing events and early buzz prompt Facebook search-related behaviors. Inevitably, there will be tools and clearer tactics developed to specifically capitalize. But now is the time to start observing closely under this lens. " Syncapse, a social media enterprise marketing company, released analysis Friday looking at the most social Facebook brand pages leading into the Super Bowl, and then on Monday plans to issue analysis of the satiability of the social buzz following the game. Volkswagen with a core of 90 took the No. 1 spot, followed by The Walking Dead with 88; Audi, 88; Mercedes-Benz, 88; and Coca-Cola, 83. Eight of the top ten current SynQ scores come from brands that have released commercial previews or teasers ahead of the Super Bowl. Of the remaining 26 brands, 13 have released commercial previews or teasers. The top five-gaining brand pages between Jan. 21 and 27, 2013 were led by Bud Black Crown, which rose 35 points compared with the 14 days prior. Cars.com was up 34 points, followed by GoDaddy lagging at 15 points; Pizza Hut, up 14 points; and Lincoln Motor Company, up 11 points. Of the brands with the most SynQ score improvement since Jan. 21, seven of the top ten released commercial previews or teasers. Two of the three that did not managed to generate recent news of their own. SodaStream stirred up buzz when CBS rejected their ad on the basis that it overly bashed Pepsi and Coca-Cola, two other Super Bowl sponsors; and Pizza Hut announced the winners of a contest with a prize to be featured in their commercial on Jan. 25. Facebook brand page scores are based on Syncapse's SynQ rating, a social brand health index that combines page performance metrics like fan count, Fan growth and engagement compared with the previous fourteen days. The closer a brand scores to 100, the stronger its social momentum. This analysis also included YouTube commercial previews. Play ball! Oh, sorry -- that's baseball.
The bigger the blogger, the better, right? And it’s all about the blog’s page views, unique visitors and stickiness. If you’re a brand working with an agency and doing outreach with bloggers, this is where you typically start. But this brand new study from the Social Studies Group and V3 Integrated Marketing shows you might just be missing out on reaching a bigger mom audience. Shelly Kramer and Wendy Scherer have been collaborating on strategic research and marketing since 2009 and have partnered on independent studies such as this and on high level engagements in a wide variety of categories including technology, nonprofit, pharma and food. For this study, the pair spoke to some 300 moms in the U.S. in 2012. 90% were women with children. 98% are based in the U.S. But let’s first set some context. Right now there are a reported 84 million moms in America with 32 million moms online. 5 million are SAHMs (Stay At Home Moms). It’s a pretty big pond for a brand to fish in. According to Nielsen 2012 an astounding 1 in 3 moms today are bloggers. These moms are the Chief Purchasing Officers for their families, either making or influencing the decisions with $2.4 trillion dollars worth of spending power. One-third of the moms in this study reported they spent over 40 hours a week online. Over three-quarters of the women spent over 20 hours per week online. And was this time spent singularly focusing on their blog? Nope. These Chief Purchasing Officers have influence not just over their friends and family, but influence beyond their blogs as this study from the Social Studies Group and V3 Integrated Marketing points out. We are more than our blogs. In fact, many of today’s bloggers are masters of engagement and using multiple platforms to drive engagement. Just today I spoke with a mom who shared her strategies for growing 1 million fans on Pinterest in nine months time. How many brands can say they’ve accomplished that? Today’s moms aren’t just on Pinterest; we use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google+, Flickr and other blogs to drive engagement across channels and to our blogs. The moms I meet are knowledgeable about SEO, linking, tagging, Google analytics, networking and building their own press outlets and relationships. And they know that blogs are just one piece of the puzzle for building a brand and business. Thirty-two percent of their time was spent on Facebook, 22% on Twitter and 17% was spent on fellow blogger sites. Why are the moms spending so much time on so many channels? They understand the power of social media. And because they spend so many hours online each day, they understand their audience doesn’t just live in one channel. They understand moms engage with different kinds of content on different platforms at different times or days. They want to make sure their content gets seen so they know they need to be cross platform. But clearly they are using these channels to drive blog readership as the chart below shows. Scherer had this to say: “There’s valuable engagement that stays on the various social channels that has true value for brands. And it’s engagement you won’t find on their blogs. Each channel is different, lending different kinds of engagement. It’s different courses, for different horses. Moms do not live by their blogs alone.” So where should brands focus? Bloggers with 2,500-9,999 visits per month are the most varied with their social media usage with the 10,000 or more visits next may be the most effective. Kramer said, “Obviously marketing campaigns need to play across platforms, but most importantly you need to provide strategic guidance, direction and content, tools and visuals that will help the influencers be successful across all channels.” The Social Studies Group is a market research firm that specializes in using social media conversations to help companies better understand their customers, competitors, markets and industries. Custom service offerings include netnography (virtual ethnography), identifying and analyzing niche communities and influencers; comparative linguistic analyses of social media used for organizational and brand messaging; creating “universes” that can be monitored and analyzed over time; and in-depth social media monitoring for knowledge accumulation and analyses.V3 Integrated marketing is a full-service, integrated marketing, digital communications and social media agency. They specialize in strategic planning and thinking, brand development and management, development, implementation and execution of strategic integrated marketing plans and helping clients build brand awareness, grow new markets, convert leads to sales, develop and manage communities and master ROI across all mediums.