The Risk of Banner Ads

As we know, paid search and banner ads make up the majority of digital marketing spend. When you’re paying for your brand to be placed in front of online consumers, there’s a certain amount of risk you have to take into account based on where that ad is placed and what content it appears beside. While you can block your ad from appearing on webpages featuring certain words by using keyword block lists along with your ad, what do you do when something like an insurrection on the capitol happens and everywhere is flooded with bad news? Many brands simply pulled their ads from appearing anywhere. Which makes sense, but is costly to both the brands advertising (because of the manpower to cancel the ads) and the brands for which depend on the advertising money. In addition to being costly, the reactionary culture that is being created is detrimental to strategy and planning. While I agree you shouldn’t promote your ad for saving money with Honey when the Times is reporting on a national emergency, there must be a better way to create stopgaps to prevent this from happening. 

In her article “Brand Safety Shouldn’t Be Reactionary – Advertisers Need To Do Better,” Allison Schiff discusses this phenomenon and refers to a report from IAB in saying that “consumers are 45% more likely to visit a brand’s website if that brand advertises on their favorite news outlets and that advertising in the news can actually increase consumer trust by 6%.” This shows that banner ads, specifically, do what they’re supposed to. How then, can we alleviate the risk involved? In her article, she goes on to discuss the idea of viewing your brand safety as “shades of gray rather than through the lens of a blocklist” and utilizing “brand suitability” when considering the placement of ads. Considering brand suitability in ad placements is a good first step, but what can come next? Are we just forced to continue watching and updating keyword lists in a reactionary fashion? What do you think?

Flipping from advertising to commerce revenue is difficult

Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer: Flipping from advertising to commerce revenue is difficult

 As a watch enthusiast, I have always been amazed at how a small site like Hodinkee became the leading voice of the luxury watch segment. Hodinkee started from humble beginnings as a watch review site. Still, between building a strategic digital marketing strategy and focusing on brand-building, they are now firmly positioned to push into the e-comm space. This is an article from 2018 but still very relevant to building a brand and understanding your audience before pivoting to newer opportunities.

https://digiday.com/media/hodinkees-ben-clymer-flipping-from-advertising-to-commerce-revenue-is-difficult/

How to market a jewelry brand online

Given that our recent guest speaker was from Squarespace and mentioned how important it is to have a website, I wanted to share the basic layout of a jewelry website. Having scoured multiple jewelry websites I came to the conclusion that these headings are must haves to build your visual identity online

Headings & subheadings

              History/Our Story

•       Brand - what does it stand for, USP, values, design aesthetics.

•       The designer - their vision, inspiration and other relevant information

•       Timeline: how the brand has evolved

•       Craftsmanship  -   Consumers want to know how diamonds/gems are sourced and where the product is being made

•       Philanthropy - always helps to show the brand in a positive light

            Bespoke/high jewelry (if the brand offers custom made jewelry)

•       A video showing the designer sitting with a client and the steps involved in making custom orders from start to finish

•       Button on page leads directly to book an appointment

           Boutique/jewelry (affordable collections)

•       Collections: e.g. the Tiffany enagament collection, valentines collection etc

•       Categories: Rings, Bracelets, Earrings, Cufflinks

          Masterpieces

•  Exclusive one of a kind pieces. Also ones that you don’t want to share a price for.

          Press/Featured/In the News

•       Editorial – When featured in magazines 

•       Celebrity – what celebrities are wearing the brand

•       Events – that the brand does/sponsors

        Enquiries

•       Leads directly to form where the options are

•       Request appointment or Request information

      Recommendations also know as Bestsellers – items that the brand wants to push

    

      New arrivals – update as necessary

    

      Retailers/Buy/Shop – update as and when we new partnerships are formed. Good 

      to have a feature that one can search with postcode.

These are some of the best jewelry websites:

http://www.davidyurman.comhttp://us.chopard.comhttp://www.buccellati.comhttp://www.graffdiamonds.com/#/expertise/designhttp://www.theglamculture.com/web/us/#/site/sitemap/hp-stories/hp-gala-on-costa-smeraldahttp://www.vancleefarpels.com/us/en/?from_unlocalized=1
http://www.harrywinston.com/store/jewels/rings-jewels/products/crossover-ring

Major Newspaper Publishers Band Together On Social Shopping Portal

What I liked about this article was the underlying importance of the tablet and electronic readers. Publishers really caught the right momentum to be part of the game changer rather than lose out like the music industry. At the end of the day, the content is what the customers willl pay for and the fact that they are being amenable to distribution shows the forward looking outlook of the industry.

-----------

This new venture is being created with assets from the new entity’s acquisition of Travidia, the developer of Find n Save. The new company will adopt the Find n Save brand. Financial terms of the Travidia acquisition were not disclosed. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. was the banker on the deal, representing Travidia

Over the past year, most newspapers have begun using some form of e-commerce to offset their declining print ad and circulation revenues, while buttressing their growing, yet relatively small, digital dollars. The platform all of the newspapers will now be using is called Find n Save. Last March, McClatchy started running its own in-house daily deal program on Find n Save, which was intended to operate alongside an existing affiliate deal with social shopping network Groupon (NSDQ: GRPN). Around that same time, Hearst signed on with white label daily deals service Analog Analytics to rollout daily deals sites across its local newspapers as well.
More recently, the Associated Press brought 40 newspapers into its mobile coupon network, iCircular. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) have also been working on bringing the Sunday circulars into the digital age.
“Newspaper publishers are interested in strengthening their online circular and classifieds capabilities,” said Tolman Geffs, JEGI’s co-president. “They want to make sure they kept up with the pace of development of the daily deals space. What Trividia’s system does is create a consistent entry point for advertisers at the local level, while extending the sales of the newspapers who use it nationally. For example, advertisers will be able to choose from a number of options, such as buying across a newspaper chain or simply doing individual newspaper deals. Ultimately, Trividia can handle online and offline conversion—which is what newspapers have been trying to do on their own when it comes to transferring their print circular ads to the web. This gives them a simple system to execute those conversions.”
This new agreement with Find n Save is not meant to replace the newspapers’ current daily deals efforts, Christopher Tippie, the CEO of the newspaper daily deal consortium told paidContent in an e-mail.
“I think it isn’t accurate to say it is a daily deals platform,” said Tippie, who was one of the founding executives of the 800-member Yahoo Newspaper Consortium, a local sales alliance between the portal and individual newspapers. “In fact, Find n Save actually integrates existing daily deals initiative currently underway with our affiliates. In essence, it is a shopping portal that provides, in a single location, a myriad of shopping tools and advertising products being used by our local affiliates: circulars, converted print offers, daily deals and other local shopping products. Each offer is extracted from the product, fielded, indexed, optimized (SEO) and is searchable from a common branded user interface.”

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-major-newspaper-publisher-band-together-on-social-shopping-portal

PaidContent:The Atlantic Now Gets ‘More Than Half’ Of Its Ad Revenues From Digital

I thought this article was fascinating for two reasons. As we have discussed in class, generating revenue from online platforms has been tough for traditional print media (read NYT many failed attempts which perhaps will improve with the new online "group" plans)

I also found it interesting because the Atlantic Brand seems to have successful updated itself from an oldschool wonkish one to a much more newmedia news source similar to gothamist, and others with this new online strategy...which seems to be paying out in many ways.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-the-atlantic-now-gets-more-than-half-of-its-ad-revenues-from-digital-/

TechCrunch: The Death of the Impulse Shopper

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/20/the-death-of-the-impulse-shopper/

I thought this article was really interesting given our class discussion this week. As discussed, open access to information about product offerings is of use to the consumer beyond online shopping. As in the case of Best Buy, information from online is supplementing purchasing decisions for consumers and it is vital that brands think about online campaigns and promotions for their product, beyond information and well into online PR.

Content is King in Brand Awareness

Despite all of the focus on keywords and catchphrases, the single best way to optimize your copy for search is to have great content with motivation and substance.

It can be hard to convince a company to put money behind content they are giving away for free. But the days of people coming to visit a website or a facebook page just because they're there are over (if they ever existed at all). Users have to see more than just marketing blather on a page to want to visit a site more than once. Meaningful content also acts as 'link bait', improving SEO for the company not just because keywords appear, but because people find it valuable enough to share.

Of course there are mechanics that can be learned to help with SEO, but the core values for creating a great brand awareness promotion are no different than they are for 'traditional' media. Create a branded promotional item that is useful, and people will remember your company's name. Think of the recipe for Rice Krispie treats that made the cereal both a breakfast and a desert food. The Maxwell House Haggadah continues to make the coffee brand a must-have at seders, and a product to remember throughout the year. The Betty Crocker cookbook has cemented the brand as a go-to cooking resource.

There are sites that are doing this very well. One of my favorites is King Arthur Flour, which offers a wealth of recipes that serve a variety of needs -- including a whole section on gluten-free baking -- plus a baking blog that updates regularly. Stride Rite offers a section on keeping your child's feet healthy, as well as a downloadable sizing chart. On the non-profit front, the NRDC has a treasure trove of link bait, including sections on 'Smarter Living' and 'Smarter Business' that offer practical tips and suggestions for improving health and environmental well-being in the lives of people.

The idea of offering free value to build brand awareness isn't new. But it is more powerful than ever. Online distribution is cheap and allows for previously unheard of viral spread of useful material. Keywords are important, but even more important: create a promotion that people want and need.

Scott Galloway is an idiot

At least, that will be the consensus opinion from anyone reading Deadspin's description of the way that NYU Professor Scott Galloway totally disproportionate flaming of a student who tried to take his class at NYU Stern. Story on Deadspin (also picked up on New York Magazine) is here. The full exchange is copied below.

There are two lessons here for would-be marketers. First, be self-aware. In sending the email to his students, Galloway possibly thought the typical student response would be something like, "hmm, kind of harsh, but I appreciate that this professor cares about my professional reputation enough to really tell it like it is." The reality is, his students opened the email, thought "what a self-important d**k," then tried to make the email as viral as possible to maximize Galloway's embarrassment.

The second lesson is tough for Galloway: negativity in a small brand (e.g. a university professor), is more hurtful than it is in a large brand and much more difficult to repair. No one would be surprised to find a web site or yelp comment bashing a huge consumer brand (say, Ford) or individual (ex. VP Biden). The criticism comes with the fame. But if you were to come across a web site, news article or yelp comment trashing some unknown brand, you'd probably be more influenced by the negativity, since you're less likely to have had a personal experience with whatever is being reviewed (ex. "stay away from Foster's Frosted Flakes, they taste like soot!). Galloway is a small brand.

To close with a healthy dose of irony.... Professor Scott Galloway teaches brand strategy.

Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 7:15:11 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Brand Strategy Feedback

Prof. Galloway,

I would like to discuss a matter with you that bothered me. Yesterday evening I entered your 6pm Brand Strategy class approximately 1 hour late. As I entered the room, you quickly dismissed me, saying that I would need to leave and come back to the next class. After speaking with several students who are taking your class, they explained that you have a policy stating that students who arrive more than 15 minutes late will not be admitted to class.

As of yesterday evening, I was interested in three different Monday night classes that all occurred simultaneously. In order to decide which class to select, my plan for the evening was to sample all three and see which one I like most. Since I had never taken your class, I was unaware of your class policy. I was disappointed that you dismissed me from class considering (1) there is no way I could have been aware of your policy and (2) considering that it was the first day of evening classes and I arrived 1 hour late (not a few minutes), it was more probable that my tardiness was due to my desire to sample different classes rather than sheer complacency.

I have already registered for another class but I just wanted to be open and provide my opinion on the matter.

Regards,
xxxx

—
xxxx
MBA 2010 Candidate
NYU Stern School of Business
xxxx.nyu.edu
xxx-xxx-xxxx

The Reply:

—— Forwarded Message ——-
From: scott@stern.nyu.edu
To: "xxxx"
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 9:34:02 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: Brand Strategy Feedback

xxxx:

Thanks for the feedback. I, too, would like to offer some feedback.

Just so I've got this straight...you started in one class, left 15-20 minutes into it (stood up, walked out mid-lecture), went to another class (walked in 20 minutes late), left that class (again, presumably, in the middle of the lecture), and then came to my class. At that point (walking in an hour late) I asked you to come to the next class which "bothered" you.

Correct?

You state that, having not taken my class, it would be impossible to know our policy of not allowing people to walk in an hour late. Most risk analysis offers that in the face of substantial uncertainty, you opt for the more conservative path or hedge your bet (e.g., do not show up an hour late until you know the professor has an explicit policy for tolerating disrespectful behavior, check with the TA before class, etc.). I hope the lottery winner that is your recently crowned Monday evening Professor is teaching Judgement and Decision Making or Critical Thinking.

In addition, your logic effectively means you cannot be held accountable for any code of conduct before taking a class. For the record, we also have no stated policy against bursting into show tunes in the middle of class, urinating on desks or taking that revolutionary hair removal system for a spin. However, xxxx, there is a baseline level of decorum (i.e., manners) that we expect of grown men and women who the admissions department have deemed tomorrow's business leaders.

xxxx, let me be more serious for a moment. I do not know you, will not know you and have no real affinity or animosity for you. You are an anonymous student who is now regretting the send button on his laptop. It's with this context I hope you register pause...REAL pause xxxx and take to heart what I am about to tell you:

xxxx, get your shit together.

Getting a good job, working long hours, keeping your skills relevant, navigating the politics of an organization, finding a live/work balance...these are all really hard, xxxx. In contrast, respecting institutions, having manners, demonstrating a level of humility...these are all (relatively) easy. Get the easy stuff right xxxx. In and of themselves they will not make you successful. However, not possessing them will hold you back and you will not achieve your potential which, by virtue of you being admitted to Stern, you must have in spades. It's not too late xxxx...

Again, thanks for the feedback.

Professor Galloway

end of the ad?

Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine writes often about the intersection between media, news, advertising, and the internet. His latest book is "What Would Google Do?", and in recent interviews he's posited something I find pretty interesting: the idea that advertising, as we know is, is pretty much over:

"Advertising is failure. If you have a great product or service customers sell for you and a great relationship with those customers, you don't need to advertise."

Now this, he admits, might be going a bit far - obviously, if you have a new product and no market awareness, you're going to have to do some advertising. But Jarvis suggests that the marketing relationship between company and consumer is changing, and changing fast. He suggests that the openness of the internet means that your product and your pricing are open for all to see - and in effect, your product becomes all the advertisement you need.

Instead, then, companies ought to consider spending their ad dollars on a more extended campaign to cultivate relationships with their consumers, for example - spending those ad dollars on online customer service, and calling that marketing.

In an interview on C-Span, Jarvis talked of the shifting roles of advertising and PR in a company's marketing strategy. Previously, advertising would make up the bulk of a marketing plan, and the public relations strategy would fill in the holes - essentially performing a stopgap measure. Jarvis envisions a new world where the flipside is true: advertising will end up filling in the gaps of a marketing plan that a strong PR plan can't address.

The reason why PR will be pushed to the forefront is that companies marketing online are now involving their customers to participate in their product to such a degree that these efforts amount to a long-term public relations campaign that has much less use for an advertisement. Continuous input and interaction with customers - with customers even contributing self-made testimonials or messages reinforcing the company's product - is an ideal that bypasses the need to create ad hype, and to the consumer, may feel far more genuine.

The Vest advertising blog points to several examples of this move from advertising to a more sustained, long-term "PR campaign" in which companies have created sites intended to foster very high degrees of consumer participation. The most interesting is The Potty Project from Huggies, where several real families and their babies represent different potty training "styles." These families are blogging, submitting video diaries, and using the site as a platform to discuss the difficult and confusing process of toilet-training a young child.

This to me illustrates very clearly that indeed, advertising - in the form of 30 second spots, inserted into my Hulu or my NYT - isn't dying, necessarily (Jarvis can get a little hyperbolic) - but I do believe that the kind of thing that Huggies is doing with the Potty Project is the direction marketing should be moving in - instead of producing diapers and a series of ads to sell them, Huggies is creating a platform for people to gather. It's a radical re-thinking of what marketing a product even means.

The consumer goods producers aren't the only ones starting to think this way - Rupert Murdoch and management at the NYTimes have both indicated that they are working on developing software to host blogs - to also essentially become platforms for other writers and bloggers.

It seems like the best marketing message you can send to your customer isn't so much about your product but your relationships with them - and now instead of talking about how you're "there" for your customer in a fifteen second advertisement, you can actually make these relationships manifest.

Uniqlo Parka Style 1000

Uniqlo is a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer, and retailer. It is one the the few profitable retailer in 2008. It success resulted from delivering high quality apparels with affordable prices, artistic design, innovative communication and friendly retail environment. Colorful yet simple style makes Uniqlo the top choice of not only designers and celebrities but the ordinary people, like me. Uniqlo is also well known for its marketing and communication. Always very playful and experimental in a pleasing way. Recently, it launches Uniqlo Parka Style 1000. Click it and you will feel boosted with happiness and optimism through the opening commercial. You can't wait to look at the Parka selection and see how everybody showcase his or her own style by browsing the website. You are wondering those mix-and match styles look nice and maybe I could be one of the 1000 styles. Again, take a look by yourself.   

Play with Muji

Muji (無印良品) is a Japanese retail company which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji is distinguished by its design minimalism, emphasizes on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging and no-logo or ''no-brand'' policy. In 2009, Muji introduced all its products line on-line through The PlayMuji Calendar. The calendar displays a different product everyday with a short video that shows how to use it and provides a close look at its details. You could use this site to discover new product ideas( Muji has tons of original ideas and they are practical) or simply learn how does Muji makes your life easier. A screensaver is offered to downloaded to retrieve the site.

I like Muji very much. I have a lot of their products and I used to collect their catalogues every season. They simply offer inspiration of lives, makes trivia less daunting, and smartly solve the problem. The PlayMuji site plays the function of catalogues. It is well-designed and in line with Muji Brand. Moreover, the idea of making Muji products part of your lives seems very convincing through online demonstration because people easily grasp their product solutions. You can even envision you're using any of the product and feel inspired. This also break the barrier of language. Through visualization, everybody can understand it without further explanation. 

The last but not the least thing is that you can find a link to the online store that allows you to purchase. This site works smoothly to combine brand communication with e-commerce and leaves a pleasant experience whether you make the transaction or not. But I am sure you will put Muji on your top list in next shopping. 

Brand Management via Twitter Search Tools

In class we briefly touched upon Twitter. To refresh your memory, Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that utilizes instant messaging, SMS, or a web interface to send updates to the Twitter website. We mainly focused on its popularity amongst the younger generation, however the usage of Twitter extends beyond inane updates such as, "Marsha just saw her crush at the mall." In fact U.S. presidential candidates John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Ron Paul are known to be Twitter users.

With the growing influence of word of mouth facilitated by emerging media, marketing and brand managers must be aware of what is being said on the internet about their organizations. Twitter search tools such as Tweetscan and Summize offer ways to monitor what people on Twitter are saying about your specific brand, product, or service. Tweetscan offers basic search functionality with a plain presentation. Summize, an opinion search engine, offers special features such as: language filtering, keyword search filters, and a "reply" link with every message in the search results. Most importantly, Tweetscan also has the capability to look at tweets (aka updates) to a specific user, referencing a specific user, containing a specific tag, or even with a positive or negative attitude (based on the analysis of smiley faces!).


While we may not be able to relate to the "Twitter Generation" and find some of their tweets silly, word of mouth is becoming increasingly important. In addition, the "Twitter Generation" is growing up quickly into full-fledged money welding consumers. Currently, using Twitter search tools may not make or break your organization's current brand, but usage of the tools is free and
the traditional methods of brand management are outdated and in dire need of supplementation if we are to keep up with the fast paced world of Web 2.0.

Sources: Mashable, Wikipedia