Marketing Rants

The Evolution of Technology and the Human Race

Jessica — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:57:16 +0000

This is one of my favorite videos on YouTube. It’s a brief overview of how quickly technology evolves and how far of a reach it continues to achieve.

Social Media Marketing Plans

Jessica — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:22:47 +0000

A great article came out today from Media Post about how many companies are incorporating social media into their marketing plans.

It appears that 90% of all corporations plan on incorporating social media in the coming years marketing plans, of which 86% are going to spend more than they have in the past. This is an amazing statistic when you think that millions of companies market online, but I think it would be a a safe bet to say that number is not 90%.

With that in mind I wonder how many of these corporations will actually get their social media marketing programs off the floor, and of those which portals are they going to prioritize? The report notes that 54% of respondents are concerned about a lack of resources. I found this percentage to be rather astonishing – how do these companies plan to incorporate a new technique, but not first develop the resources to manage those techniques? Reasoning like this is why so many new marketing endeavors fail. There is an old saying that no one plans to fail, but they fail to plan, which will happen to most of these new social media efforts if they try to jump in without being properly equipped.

Corporations like these are split between two mind sets. The first mindset is that Social Media is so new and complicated that they are afraid to get started and the second mindset is that Social Media is simply creating a Facebook and Twitter page and can be maintained by an intern. Obviously I don’t agree with either of these camps. Social Media campaigns, when done properly, are as dynamic as any other marketing initiatives. They require a set strategy, goals, and plan of attack. They also require upkeep. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of medium. The person or team managing this process should be brand ambassadors and know the company they are working with inside and out. If not they could make mistakes that could lead to PR disasters or just end up spamming their customer base (aka: Home Depot).

So if any one who reads this is deciding to launch a social media campaign, please do the world a favor and take the time to plan this endeavor properly before jumping in. It will make for a more successful campaign and a less messy social networking market place.

Multiple Screens increase television viewing

Jessica — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:00:16 +0000

Nielsen recently released their 3rd Qtr Three Screen Report. The immersion of the three screens are having an greater impact each quarter. The most important thing to note is the year over year changes. In-home television viewing declined only slightly, but how people are watching is changing drastically. There was a 21% increase in time spent viewing time-shifted television, which accounts for technology such as DVR’s & TiVo. Although the total time was only about 31 minutes this number is expected to continually increase. The other increase was in the online video category that saw a 35% increase in time spent viewing. This dramatic surge could be accredited to traditional media websites promoting their own online television platforms such as Hulu.

For all the concerns about the new Three Screens, it seems that the vast majority of television is still being watched at home in real time- a whopping 31 hours per week! That is 8 times the amount of time viewers are spending online and 60 times the amount they are spending watching time-shifted programs. I should note that year over year, online video watching has increased by a little under an hour a week.

Reviewing this information marketers should continue to evaluate new media opportunities, but keep their traditional media up to par. They will stand out more when advertising in online and mobile airings, but the audiences are still too small to make a large impact. To continue reaching the larger audiences good old fashioned TV is still the place to be.

Property Rights in a Virtual World

Jessica — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:56:42 +0000

The Washington Post ran an interesting story several years ago about the virtual world, Second Life, and intellectual property rights. A program was launched in Second Life that duplicates objects. This program was a huge threat to people like Veronica Brown, who makes a living designing and selling virtual clothes to Second Life users. Veronica’s boutique, Simone, brought in an estimated $60,000 annually. If programs like this exist and can steal her virtual merchandise, then who is to be prosecuted, or can they be? At the time the article was written there was no clear precedence over the ownership of virtual goods. A few cases have seen there day in court in various countries, but with different results-

1. In 2002 gamers started selling the virtual goods they had won playing the game “Dark Age of Camelot” on Ebay. The developers of the game blocked those goods from being used and the gamers sued claiming they had a right to sell the items they had legally aquired playing the game. Unfortunately for the gamers, the federal court was in favor of the makers of the game sighting the licensing agreement that all players agree to while setting up their games.

2. A Chinese court found that the creators of Mir 3, owed a player compensation for deleting his characters magic sword, which was valued at $120. The player unknowingly bought it from a virtual vendor who had illegally duplicated it from its original designer.

3. In 2008 a woman in Japan hacked into her husbands virtual account on Maple Story and killed his alter-ego avatar. The woman was arrested and is on trial for computer hacking – the punishment could be 5 years in prison and up to a $5000 fine.

The legal system hasnt been able to keep up with the problems that virtual worlds create and I suspect it will be several years before enough precidents are set. In addition, the globalization of the virtual world will make this even more difficult as laws are sure to be different from country to country.

As it stands now Veronica Brown owns the patterns for the clothes she sells, but Second Life owns the actual objects, and the users don’t own either. Which begs the question – If users dont own anything they are purchasing in a virtual world, how long will they continue to purchase items?

Google searches resulting in Tweets?!

Jessica — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 02:46:50 +0000

I noticed something new in my search results a few days ago : Twitter Updates. So after a little digging I found that back in October Google struck a deal with Twitter and the new feature went live in early December. I am torn about this decision from Google. The Google page-rank algorithm is tried and true providing some of the most relevant searches available. Twitter, on the other hand, can go from professionals, to corporations, to anyone who has an email address and too much time on their hands. I don’t, as a user, want to see someones tweets about what HotMamma72 is drinking at Starbucks when I am looking for actual information. For instance, if I search “Who is Lady Gaga?” the results are photos, the singers official webpage, latest news, the Wikipedia entry and then this:

Although this may not be a typical example, I cant determine what benefit this is giving the consumer. Twitter results don’t come up in every search, so it may be still in Beta testing, but I have serious doubts on this new partnership. Until Twitter feeds can be ranked by users for quality, such as Google’s current page ranking systems does, I think they should rethink the usefulness of this new feed.

Measuring Mobile

Jessica — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:52:22 +0000

Mobile Marketing is ramped across the world, except in the United States. Until recently most mobile marketing has consisted on SPAM like text messages. With the introduction of smart phones and advanced platforms mobile marketing in the US is finally catching up. To be successful mobile marketing must embrace brand awareness campaigns rather than the response focus most online marketing models utilize. One of the best ways to reach this audience is through mobile applications. My Favorite example in this space is Nationwide Insurance. Their commercials are selling insurance, but they are also now promoting their IPhone application. The App is free and ranks at number 156 in the Utilities section of the Apple App Store. The application is not Nationwide specific, but can be used by anyone needing to record information about a car accident including:

* Calls emergency services
* Helps connect Nationwide customers with towing
* Helps you collect and exchange accident info
* Stores your insurance info for easy lookup
* Helps Nationwide customers start the claims process
* Locates Nationwide agents near you
* Takes accident photos and lets you record details
* Handy flashlight function for rainy nights – or anytime

Nationwide providing a free application to use on SmartPhones is a great way to build brand awareness and trust. Reach can easily be measured by application downloads and of course, users who don’t have Nationwide insurance company can also obtain a free quote utilizing the application.

2009 Marketing Campaign Top 10

Jessica — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:12:11 +0000

I found this great article on WSJ today about the Best & Worst Ads of 2009. On top was the Hyundai assurance campaign and on the bottom was Tropicana killing the ‘straw in the Orange’ campaign (the later was quickly resurrected). The most interesting thing about this story is that of all the campaigns listed nearly half are new media campaigns. It runs the gambit from iPhone apps, Facebook apps, website promotions, and viral videos. My favorite is the viral video produced for Evain. This campaign received more publicity than anything else I saw in 2009. I personally saw three stories on how the commercial was created on three separate news outlets and the WSJ article reports:

The video won a Guinness World Record for the most-viewed online ad of all time. As of mid-December, it had received over 46 million views world-wide on YouTube. More than 30,000 bloggers have posted it online, and it has been shown or discussed on over 250 TV shows around the world. The ad never ran on TV in the U.S.

Make that 30,0001 blogger!

YouTube: The second largest search portal in the world

Jessica — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:47:36 +0000

I guess we learn something new everyday. Today I learned that YouTube was the second largest search engine in the world. This was reported by ComScore last fall, but since I just found out its news to me. Not only does this have a large impact on marketers, it shows where consumers are spending their time. This makes me wonder how Google is monetizing this audience. Currently companies can host their own YouTube pages so that if you search for something like “Evian Babies” you’re directed to the search results on Evians Youtube page. In addition, marketers can target by behavior groups, but these groups are based on behavior, not necessarily content searches.

YouTube should be indexed like the Google Content Network. So that if a user searches “LOL Cats” in addition to their funny cat video results, they are also served relevant ads (Insert PetSmart Ad here). I know everyone is trying to find a way to get around the online display ad, but research has shown that relevant ads targeted to users are not only effective, but also garner a higher CTR. As a user, I always prefer relevant ads and as a marketer I’d love to reach people when they are searching for something relevant to my offerings. I’m sure its right around the corner, but for now I’ll suffer through the ‘Fat Belly’ and ‘Obama wants moms to go back to school’ ads.

Does Twitter have a future?

Jessica — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:46:57 +0000

Twitter is everywhere. Its billed as the next big thing. In a Time Magazine article, the Top 10 Ways Twittter will Change American Business:

1. Hyper-Local Marketing
2. Making Old-World Advertising Work
3. Turning Wall Street on Its Head
4. Making Blogs Count
5. New Ways to Get Consumer Data
6. Helping TV and Print
7. Expanding the Power of Micropayments
8. Changing Telecommunications
9. A New Way for the Government to Reach You
10. Charity Begins Online

I find most interesting about this list is that it only discusses the benefits for the corporations, with the exception of number 9 “A New Way for the Government to Reach You” which could be used in emergency situations (severe weather, Amber alerts, etc.). It is true that Twitter possesses an intriguing and potentially industry changing opportunity, but the best explanation I found was on YouTube. Here, the founder of Seesmic, Loic Le Meur, discusses his 30 Predictions for the Future of Twitter:

Ikeas World of Fans

Jessica — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:02:08 +0000

There are few brands in the world that garner the loyalty of consumer the way Ikea does. Fans can be compared to Mac Addicts for Apple or Parrot Heads for Jimmy Buffet. The offical Ikea Facebook page has 30,000 fans, but the over 80,000 people have joined the group “I would love to play hide and seek in Ikea!” . This is the first clue that Ikea fans have gotten away from their control.

The two best blogs devoted to Ikea are IkeaFans.com and IkeaHacker. IkeaHacker is a site completed dedicated to things that can be built out of Ikea Furniture. For instance here is a post where someone took a console table and created a stylish, easily disguised cat box. IkeaHacker has been going strong since 2006. IkeaFans is a fan page on crack. This has everything you can imagine. In fact, its so detailed, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually operated by Ikea. But the site insists that it is not in any way affiliated with Ikea, but the site is incorporated.

Ikea Fans are loyal and vocal. Ikea has made the right move by stepping back and letting their fans be brand ambassadors – for good or for bad. Because for each negative blog that someone posts about Ikea, there are thousands of fants who are posting something positive.