Twitter and TV link

Just came across this interesting article describing how advertisers will now be Tweeting customers right after they see specific add on TV. This combines two media channels: Display and Social that we just discussed. Per Nielsen's research such method will deliver a 95% stronger message and will increase a purchase intent by 58% - pretty powerful combo!

How will they achieve this? Twitter will keep track of when certain commercials will be aired and during what shows. Based on that information they will be tracking when people start talking (i.e. tweeting) about these specific shows. Such people were most likely exposed to the specific commercial. Twitter will then distribute a related tweet to really drive the message home. Very creative way to advertise. See more details at:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/twitter-tv-ad-targeting/

Re-Re-Retargeting in Display Media

Technology has created major disruptions in the communication pathways between company and consumer in the online space. Most of these technological advances are for the better. Companies can use extremely sophisticated tools to tailor the right message to the right audience at exactly the right time. We, as marketers, have the ability to target not just off standard demographic and geographic segmentation, but also off patterns of user behavior on the Internet  (behavioral targeting) and the subject matter or content that the end user is immersed in at that time (contextual targeting).

Another very popular targeting mechanism is retargeting – which allows marketers to send messages to end users after they have already interacted or engaged with the company website, landing page, app or any other owned platform.  But, as much as this technology has enhanced online advertising, if unrestrained it can start to backfire as well.

I have noticed this increasingly with retargeting campaigns. Three examples come to mind. I visited the following websites over two weeks ago: ZocDoc.com, Handybook.com, and ZipCar.com. Ever since, I have been bombarded with an unabashed number of display ads from all three. In the case of ZocDoc and ZipCar, I even followed through and completed my transaction, so there was absolutely no reason for them to continue to blitz me with retargeted advertising.

The moral is simple: marketers have access to consumers like never before. This is a privilege as well as a power that needs to be harnessed. Two important measures need to be taken in this regard. Firstly, retargeting campaigns absolutely must have frequency caps in place because it is very easy to ‘over-target’ and turn the consumer against your brand. If a consumer has seen your ad five times and has not clicked-thru, chances are that he is never going to. Secondly, marketers need to be aware of how far down the marketing funnel a consumer is, and retarget as appropriate. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to retargeting. I had already filled out my application at ZipCar.com, and was waiting for their approval. The ball was squarely in their court. Why then was I subject to a barrage of messages asking me to sign up?

I would ask online marketers to tread carefully. Remember the old adage: “With great power comes great responsibility”.

The Scrolling Horizontal Advertisement

The Scrolling Horizontal Advertisement

 

As I sat waiting for my 2pm meeting, I scanned my iPhone for new twitter feeds, junk emails, Instagram posts, and anything else new on the Internet.  I found myself on an article about this summer's best new workout songs – to really get you pumped up for your run, bike, whatever.  I was actually excited about this one- I wondered if they came up with any new songs I had yet to hear or song I had forgotten about.

As I scrolled down, past the intro paragraph aiming towards the list of songs, an ad popped up on the lower part of my iPhone screen. At first, I actually thought it was part of the website or the article, but upon further inspection, I realized it was an ad for the best summer bod secrets. I tried to ignore and pass it but the ad followed me. I tried to close it out but every time I did, my finger hit the open button, and a new window popped up with the advertiser's website – a somewhat JV site, littered with discount weight loss products. It was annoying at best. I finally- albeit rather quickly - gave up on my new summer workout songs, only 2 into the list and shut the internet window frustrated.

Why would a website allow such advertising on its site? Does the Company know such advertising is happening? Does the advertising have the same – negative – impact on all readers? Whatever the answers, I, for one, will not be so quick to jump to an article posted on that website in the future…

Uberflip / HubSpot

HubSpot Turns to Uberflip’s Content Marketing Platform to Digitize eBooks

I came across an article talking about how HubSpot, the leader in inbound marketing and online marketing automation, is going to use Uberflip’s content marketing platform to digitize their eBooks and improve them significantly.

Hubspot’s technologies are cool enough as it is in terms of providing marketers with great insight into the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts and how to optimize them. Part of the reason they have succeeded in doing this is their generation of original content for marketers explaining strategies for increasing the effectiveness of their marketing efforts and how they can use HubSpot’s tools to do so.

Uberflip is exciting because they have a solution that allows you to digitize the content you generate for optimized viewing / reading on tablets and smart phones. Not only do they allow one to create eBook experiences that can leverage links, video and social media integration, they provide exceptional analytics on what specific content the readers care about, how they interact with it, and better evaluate individual writer’s and how they can improve.

To me, this is exciting for the future of the print media industry as a solution like this should hopefully allow content creators, who have been suffering in recent years, to both better monetize their content and generate content readers value. Imagine reading Sports Illustrated in a magazine like experience on your device while being able to easily engage with the content by watching interactive video or being able to share aspects of the content on social media channels while still in the structure of a traditional print document and not a web page. I’m excited by the idea and interested to see where it goes.

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/6/prweb10858572.htm

Facebook Freemium Model

One of Twitter's co-founders recently suggested Facebook begin to charge for an ad free version of the social networking site. After taking a hiatus from the site for an extended time period, he returned and pointed out that he doesn't find the ads particularly useful or engaging. He suggests a freemium model, like Pandora or Spotify, where users can pay to get rid of ads and potentially receive special features. Assuming a small conversion rate, 5-10%, for users interested in this sort of a model it could be very lucrative for facebook due to their large user base, which would definitely help in their efforts to monetize.

While I think this is an interesting concept, I don't see this really taking off. While Facebook may have a lot of ads, they are typically very cheap for a marketer because they 1.) have a ton of inventory and 2.) aren't as effective as other digital marketing tactics, search for example. As a user of the site, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've even noticed an ad. Assuming my one person sample is similar to many users, I doubt many people would be willing to pay to get rid of something they hardly notice.

http://mashable.com/2013/07/21/biz-stone-facebook-premium/

In general, the ads on Facebook don’t seem particularly useful or engaging. However, ads on the service are universally tolerated because that’s what makes Facebook free and free is nice.

Anywhoo, now that I’m using it and thinking about it, I’ve got an idea for Facebook. They could offer Facebook Premium. For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too. If 10% percent of Facebook signed up, that’s $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby.

new magazine launch from a website?

I'm in the publishing industry and it's rare that you hear a new launch based on an online website. TV show yes, you've seen it plenty of times with Oprah, Rachel Ray, HGTV and Food Network but never from a pre-existing website. The market is saturated with cooking and health magazines, it's going to get interesting...

http://paidcontent.org/2013/07/15/popular-cooking-site-allrecipes-com-is-getting-a-print-magazine-this-fall/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=0187e571e0-c%3Amed+d%3A07-18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-0187e571e0-99185201

Google TV online service??

Talk around town is that Google is trying to open it's own TV service. Google already has Google TV. But Google TV is largely meant to be complementary to an existing pay TV subscription, whereas this new offering would compete directly with subscriptions offered by cable and satellite TV companies. They are already in talks with media companies about licensing TV programming. Learn more below.

http://paidcontent.org/2013/07/16/google-wants-to-launch-a-streaming-tv-product-report/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=0187e571e0-c%3Amed+d%3A07-18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-0187e571e0-99185201

There's no hiding

It seems there is nowhere digital marketing can't find you.  Locket now allows advertisers to reach you via the lock screen on your mobile phone.  It seems like a natural fit and is a step toward the scenario I suggested in my 7/9/13 post “The future of targeted advertising” describing a day when consumers get paid to be marketed to.

Is this app worth it for the consumer?  Each time you unlock your phone you are looking at a [new?] ad and are paid $0.01 per swipe to unlock with a max of 3 paid swipes or $0.03 per hour.  First off, it seems as though I’m doing twice the work for half the pay.  I imagine ads may be cycling through even when my phone is just sitting in front of me, locked, but in an active or awoken state.  And what about the data these images (and soon video, no doubt) consume?  I guess my max $21.60 per month earned may cover that.  I just need to make sure I’m awake every hour to swipe a few times.
I like the idea of finally getting paid to be advertised to, but I’m not sure this app is for me.  I like seeing a picture of my son every time I pull out my phone.  Giving that up to see an ad for the latest game/body spray/trick to lose weight isn’t worth the more likely $14.40 I would cap out at each
month.
Check out the article here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/18/locket-puts-ads-on-smartphone-lock-screens-pays-you-to-use-your-phone/

Valuable?

When I feel the things valuable, I click the advertisement on the internet.

     First example is that some advertisement shows the product information only but some shows the product plus its price. I didn’t react to only price but react to the price information plus discount rate or discount amount. Even if this was false, I tend to feel reasonable and click. For example, if the ad shows a laptop picture and its price, $1,000, I wouldn’t click this advertisement because it dose not seem to be valuable. However, if the ad shows a laptop picture, its price and discount rate, $2,000→$1,000 (40% OFF), I would click the ad. People tend to be attracted to the valuable thing without intention.

    One more example is that I like promotion code because it makes me feel the product valuable and limited. I know sometimes it’s not limited but I cannot help feeling it valuable when I see coupon code. Coupon code is nice way to improve sales for the company if you use this in a effective way. I like the following tips linked.

https://madefreshly.com/blog/marketing/effective-ways-to-use-coupon-codes-to-increase-sales/

What Makes Coupon Code Marketing Effective?

There needs to be a reason and strategy in mind before creating a discount code.  After all, it is used for marketing.

Ensure Return Customers

When you finalize your order, simply email the customer a coupon code that they can use with their next purchase.  If you have the budget for it, print out some discount codes on a thank you card and ship it out with the order. Your customer will be happy to get this extra surprise.

Get New Customers From a Blog in Your Niche.

Get in touch with your blogs or other websites that are in your same niche as what you are offering and provide them with a exclusive coupon code for their readers.

This is a great way to use your code as leverage for some low cost  advertisement.  The blog keeps their readers happy by offering exclusive discounts and you gain them as potential customers.

Up Sell Buyers to Get That Bigger Sale.

Wouldn’t you get an extra item if it saved you a few bucks?

Of course…

So, offer up some incentives so that your customer puts an extra item or two in their cart.

Some examples of this would be…

“Free Shipping when you buy 2 or more items.”

“Save an additional 10% off your order when you buy 3 or more items.”

Create a Sense of Urgency in Potential Customers

So, your customer is sitting in front of the screen saying… “this product is great, but I think ill buy it later”.

Why not give them a little shove towards clicking that add to cart button.  Offer a discount that will expire quickly, so they will act quickly.

Example: Act Now!!! This coupon code expires today!!!!

Build your social fan base.

Its important to have a following.  You know this buy how do get them to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on twitter?

Make them take action by offering a code for it.

Example: Get a 10% off coupon code when you sign up for our newsletter.

…when you follow us on twitter.

…when you like our Facebook fan page

You now have a happy customer and an ensured follower or fan.  Yay you!

Turn Offline People into Online Buyers

Look out the window. Yes, there’s a world outside of your computer screen and you need to take advantage of it.  Go to an upcoming event or convention. Create a coupon code and print it on the back of your business card or other promotional material and pass those bad boys out.

Tips To Keep in Mind When Creating Your Coupon Code

Track Your Advertisements

If your advertising offline, it can be really hard to know if its working or not. Say you by an add in the local paper or put sponsor a local party (unce, unce unce).  You can add your discount code on there and see if those customers are biting.

Use Easy to Remember Names

“S345qwr425wfa” is a lot harder to remember that “Savenowsucka”  It’s important to keep the coupon code name simple and easy to remember.

Authentic Advertising

As marketers the online space affords us a medium to communicate with today’s more sophisticated consumers. Indeed, consumer’s today are much too savvy. It is simply not enough to have a clever tag line and a catchy jingle. From an awareness standpoint, your product might enter the consumer’s consideration set, but in order to truly move the needle, us marketer’s need to adopt a more authentic approach to advertising.

So what is ‘authentic advertising’? As ironic as it might appear to be ‘authentic advertising’ does not emphasize the product and driving sales is a secondary, more ancillary goal. It is all about engaging the consumer and pushing content that is actually useful to the consumer. This allows brands to build strong, close-knit communities of like-minded people, and consequently this can be a fairly successful mechanism in driving home the brand’s primary message.

The dynamics of the online channel allow advertisers to really take advantage of authentic advertising. The two way dialogue between company and consumer is much more effective in engaging end users and genuinely providing value. For instance, Dell has built an extremely effective customer service platform via Twitter. Other examples of this are online travel sites that maintain blogs on travel tips and destinations. The most shining example of authentic advertising, however, is the Nike + Running community. It is extremely effective in bringing the running community together. It includes ways to track, share and compare your runs with other members of the community, while also staying especially careful to not overtly push Nike products on people. This ‘backdoor’ approach to advertising has really helped bolster Nike’s reputation as the consummate running brand.  

Google Now

There is a new app on both Android and iOS, called Google Now.  If you utilize this app, Google tracks your location and goes through your email & calendar (Google provided of course), to help organize your life.  Although it may sound creepy on the face of it, this is a useful app that I have utilized for the past week or so. 

Google Now goes through your email, calendar, and location, to prompt you about your next appointment, give you traffic updates for your commute, keeps track of your flights, and even shows the nearby restaurants and bars, in addition to many other services.

If this app is success, it would provide a treasure chest of data to Google about consumers daily lives, routines, habits and preferences that when coupled with the information they already have through our "online" lives, would further strengthen them as the digital advertising platform of choice.

 

Social Media

Consumer facing brands have come to realize the power of social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. provide a window into the consumers' lives, and companies can utilize this to their benefit.  However, some companies are still struggling despite real dollars being invested on this front.  Are these struggles driven by a company's corporate culture, or just ignorance?

Below is a link to a series of gaffes by Bank of America on twitter. http://www.digiday.com/brands/bank-of-americas-epic-twitter-fail/

The company failed to utilize social media to create a personal link with the consumer, rather it further expanded the bridge created by the non-personal, "select five different options to speak with a real human" customer service.

Is the End of Facebook Coming?

Two weeks ago, Rupert Murdoch Tweeted:

"Look out Facebook! Hours spent participating per member dropping seriously. First really bad sign as seen by crappy MySpace years ago."

If anyone knows what the death of a social media network does its Rupert Murdoch, who purchased Myspace in 2005 for $580M, and sold it for much less in 2011.

Is the end of Facebook coming?   I don't think so. 

A writer previosuly argued that her facebook usage was way down, but her instagram usage was way up. This is understandable as users switch from a laptop/desktop based worked to a smart phone world.

 

This does not mean the power of Facebook's social network is disappearing. It is meerly shifting... since Facebook owns Instagram.

While I'd expect facebook "participation" time to keep dropping, that participation time seems less necessary now that our networks are built.  When people we first adding facebook friends, they were searching for new friends, and searching old pictures/posts as they found those friends.  Now that connections are slowing, so will the amount of time spent searching for those connections and about those new connections.  Additoinally, the amount of time spent on the site when using it from your handheld, will certainly be less than when you were accessing through your laptop/desktop.  That does not mean that the number of users is dropping or the value of those users are disappearing.  The social network is that, a network, and as long as people aren't turning off and disconnecting, a drop in usage isn't that big of a deal.