Is Digital Overrated?

Is Digital Overrated?

We all know the buzzwords: "Content is Key", "Optimizing", "Low-Hanging Fruit", Brand Awareness", "Data Driven", the list goes on. The problem with digital marketing is that everyone "should" be doing it... and everyone is, for the most part. However, if you ARE doing it and you can't prove your marketing efforts in a dollar value -- then is your digital marketing strategy even working, and in that case, is going digital overrated?

A survey conducted by Orbit Media said: "Blog posts taking 6+ hours to create were 55% more likely to achieve “strong results” than those taking 2,3,4 or 5 hours to craft. No more just banging out a quick post and having it do the job." 

Time is money. How many meetings, pitches, research can be done in 6+ hours? A lot. The survey also revealed that organizations that post several times weekly are nearly 3x as likely to have “strong results” than those posting only once a month. Companies that post daily or more do better still. In fact, 47% more organizations that reached the daily threshold reported “strong results” than those publishing several times per week. 

Obviously, frequency, quality and digital marketing matters, but at what cost?

DM for B2B Companies (6)

The final channel that I will discuss for B2B companies is the emerging channel. Marketing areas like Amazon and virtual reality (VR) will become increasingly important for B2B companies. As B2B companies find the need to further differentiate themselves in the marketplace, they will need to use emerging channels as a means to reach potential consumers. The decision makers at their target clients quite likely use Amazon to purchase products, making Amazon another way to get their messages across. Additionally, marketing through channels like VR will become useful as VR gains adoption, especially for B2B companies that offer experiences that can be previewed through VR. The content that flows to the emerging channels must also be consistent with the brand messaging. I would have initially thought that B2B companies did not need to be quite as “omni-channel” as B2C companies do, but in reality B2B companies also need a true cross channel solution. 

New way to reach customers - ads as a way to reward for Apps bonus points

Snap announced the creation of a new gaming platform as a way to maximize its revenue dollars. The platform allows users to watch ads as a way to earn rewards and bonus to be used for enhanced in-game experience. While those can compete with the main revenue driver of in-game app purchases, ads for bonus points is a way to capture price-conscious consumers without alienating its most loyal followers. Snap also announced an introduction of Snap Audience Network that lets publishers to find users via third-party apps.
Those innovative ways are a great way to continue to earn extra ad dollars any way possible yet in a creative way. It's a positive development for the company yet the focus on the core product and its offerings should be a driver of the company's long-term success and profitability.

RIP Creativity

Over the last several years the global consulting giant, Accenture, has acquired many leading ad agencies in an effort to both grow and remove competition from the marketplace.  This week they announced the acquisition of Droga5 - one of the leading independent creative forces in marketing and advertising today.  Their portfolio of moving, lasting and impactful campaigns is where the viral video was born - and now with the acquisition, it will die.

So why does Accenture buy up all these firms and what happens next? 

So, Accenture is led by some smart people who have a crystal ball and about seven years ago saw the future of digital and planned out a shopping spree. OK - they don't have a crystal ball, but they are smart.  As a company that has to always shift and change its business model to stay ahead of the curve for its clients' Accenture accurately predicted the rapid pace in which digital would become a frontrunner.   The business and technology consulting firm started to laser focus on digital and also started forgetting about it's business consulting arm then tried to combine the two together.

So this is where it all goes wrong.  They buy a globally leading firm for its book of business and existing clients as it guarantees revenue growth, they hold onto a few of the top people from the original firm, then they plant the empty seats with consultants who are from a different skill set, functionality, working culture and mindset.....then change-o-presto....   Implosion. 

What most fail to realize is that even though agencies and consultancies offer professional services, their cultures, ways of working, and end goals vastly differ.  Most of the agencies that have been acquired by Accenture end up disassembled for parts and their once talented employees orphaned and emotionally beaten by the culture of the Accenture Machine.  So what's left?..... Media pass-through.  All Accenture ever wanted was the revenue and service fees fo the media buy pass through.

Where does this leave the creative landscape?  Will there be anyone left that can stand up to the Accentureopoly? Will there be anyone who won't sell or is creativity dying or dead?

Snapchat's New Features Change Advertiser Offerings

Today, the first ever Snap Partner Summit showed how Snapchat is moving into the new-AR-experience side, how the company's Lens Studio is upgrading with a new scanning feature for moving objects. 

Many of the new features enhance the core Snapchatter experience, but with it comes key openings for marketers and advertisers.

Dynamic scanning and enhanced AR has dramatically improved the Snapchat experience with improved movement tracking and interactive templates via Lens Studio, landmark manipulation, and object scanning. From snapping math problems and movie posters to visualizing new perspectives on landmark locations, brands can now deliver targeted content for deeper engagement with audiences.

New third-party app integrations via Snap Kit allow users on apps like Tinder, Netflix, VSCO, and GoFundme to create custom partner stories directly from Snapchat and monetize their content.

Snap Originals is expanding its serialized mobile shows with a range of scripted dramas, comedies, and docuseries targeting a variety of audience interests, so this allows for new real estate for brand integrations.

Finally, the new Snap Games platform allows for multiplayer gaming in real-time with original and partner-developed games made for Snapchat. Snap Games will offer advertisers six-second ad spots in the platform, which is accessed directly from Chat for fast and intuitive gameplay.

Inbound Marketing – Pros and Cons

Inbound marketing is a marketing methodology that is designed to draw visitors and potential customers in, rather than outwardly pushing a brand, product or service onto prospects in the hope of generating leads or customers. It’s about creating valuable experiences that have a positive impact on people and your business. The focus is on attracting prospects and customers to your website and blog through relevant and helpful content. Once they arrive, you engage with them using conversational tools like email and chat and by promising continued value.

Compared with outbound marketing, inbound reverses the relationship between company and customer. In fact, while outbound marketing is going to push the product through various channels, inbound marketing creates awareness, attracts and helps new customers with channels like blogs, social media, etc.

Inbound marketing has some clear advantages -

• Reach the right audience in the right place to generate quality traffic - By focusing your inbound marketing work on reaching the right audiences in the right places, you can attract your target customers to meet your digital marketing objectives. This is instead of spending money attracting traffic from people who are unlikely to ever convert.
• Increase trust - Inbound marketing is all about giving potential customers the information they are looking for – even if they don’t know it – in a creative and engaging way. It’s not about pushing unwanted sales at every opportunity. By using inbound marketing to present your brand as a useful and reliable resource, the hope is they’ll come to you when the time to purchase does arise.
•  Protect from over-reliance on one channel - By pursuing quality traffic from a variety of sources – organic search, social media referrals, referrals from other websites talking about your amazing work – you reduce the reliance on one channel alone, and therefore the associated risk.

But with these advantages there are also certain pitfalls that marketers need to be aware of

• Successful inbound marketing requires a LOT of content, in a variety of forms. A lot more than one realizes when you start a content marketing initiative. This obviously creates a lot of pressure on content creators and technology that hosts and serves content.
• Effective utilization of inbound marketing requires integration and utilization of automated marketing tools and reports. These are essential to find out who the visitors are, what content they accessed and their key interests. This information is required to guide these leads through the marketing funnel.
• Leads identified may not be as qualified as marketers assume. A person accessing certain content may not be ready to buy an expensive product. The lead nurturing process needs to be carefully executed to convert high value leads into true customer. This cannot be circumvented by inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing is getting increasingly popular especially as marketing technologies continue to evolve and develop. The question if the return on additional effort is worth it or not is highly dependent on the company applying this methodology and their solution for executing this technique.

Publicis Prepares to Take Massive Epsilon Gamble

This week’s news that Alliance Data Systems Corp.’s Epsilon is in play underlines the critical importance that old school marketing businesses and financial buyers are attaching to assets that they believe will give them the edge in digital.

It also underlines the exponential growth in the financial valuation of the most attractive assets in certain areas, especially in the extraction and management of data.

French advertising and marketing giant Publicis Groupe released a statement to the market saying that it is contemplating the potential acquisition of Epsilon in order to further drive its move into digital marketing.

What is more, should a deal eventually be consummated, it would represent the biggest ever acquisition by Publicis of any other company. That is pretty remarkable given that Publicis, just like old school counterparts such as WPP, essentially built its business over decades through an unending spree of  bolt-on acquisitions.

Epsilon, which has also attracted a joint offer from private equity shop Advent International and Goldman Sachs, could reportedly fetch as much as $5 billion.

Why is Epsilon so attractive to the likes of Publicis and Advent/Goldman? Well, for an established advertising group like the French company, a property such as Epsilon can bring in valuable online data-mining expertise. This kind of know-how would enable Publicis to help clients target shoppers more effectively: at the same time, this will reduce Publicis’s reliance on conventional advertising, which is in decline.

For the financial buyers, any investment would be a big bet that properties with the data skills that Epsilon possesses, have a lot more road to run in terms of revenue and profit growth – and ultimately, therefore, market valuation.

The stakes for Publicis though could not be higher. The group owns some of the most august “old” brands in the ad business such as Saatchi & Saatchi; and Leo Burnett Worldwide. But its top management know, as storied as the past of those agencies may be, their growth trajectory will not sustain a large global group long into the future.

Publicis paid $3.7 billion in 2015 for ad tech company Sapient. The jury is still somewhat out on that purchase. Then in 2016, it took an accounting loss after having to write down the value another digital business.

It can’t afford to get Epislon wrong. But then it also can’t afford to stand by and do nothing either.

Facebook's latest move

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg called for greater regulatory oversight of Facebook and other tech giants in the U.S.  Although many critics viewed this move as ironic, particularly given Facebook’s digital privacy troubles, this struck me as an opportunity for Facebook to refresh their brand and help lead the charge to an enhanced user privacy model going forward. The move also reflects a growing expectation for consistency and standards in how different customer-facing, digital platforms approach data usage and sharing.  If regulatory scrutiny over Big Tech firms is ultimately implemented, there will be profound implications for digital advertising. We could potentially see a trend where startup firms don't have the ability or resources to compete with the Facebook's of the world, which will quickly give them an opportunity to rewrite the rules again.

Want to shop for shoes AND try them on at home before ordering?

Purchasing sneakers is one of those items that you need to purchase in person, right? At the very least, you would want to see how your potential new pair of kicks look on your feet and as a part of your outfit. Wanna Kicks, the first shoe augmented reality and artificial intelligence camera app, lets you virtually "try on" new shoes right through the app. Simply select the pair of shoes you would like to try on and point the camera at your feet (example illustrations below).

The app is built by Wannaby, a startup focused on washing away the difference between online and offline shopping experiences. "We see two major problems in the shoe market. Online conversions are quite low, and returns are quite high, in comparison to traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ shopping. The ability to try sneakers with your phone before buying online should shift conversions, engagement and returns.” Wannaby CEO Sergey Arkhangelskiy said in an online interview.

The emergence of this technology presents an interesting paradigm shift for traditional brick-and-mortar shopping. I an envision, for example, some consumers who are limited on time (e.g., traveling) may be willing to virtually try on a pair of sneakers and purchase then. After they return home they can try on the sneakers and, if not to their satisfaction, return or exchange them until they find a pair they like. Others who may already be loyal to a particular sneaker brand or model could simply replace their existing pairs or accessorize with different style & color variations of that model. It will be interesting to see this technology expanded to virtually any other consumer good product and its impact on conversion performance.

Robocalling... is it considered Digital Marketing?

I am not sure what type of marketing Robocalling is, but whatever it is, it's the worst!  I am in Sales so anytime my phone is ringing especially from a 212 or 917 number I am answering that call.  Unfortunately more often than not, it turns out to be a robocaller.  I can't imagine anyone falling for their line, but it must happen...  I've had everything from the IRS, Social Security Administration,  Medical Bills, etc... I saw on Mashable that Verizon is introducing an App that will block Robocallers for $2.99 per month.  While I usually try to not to pay for apps, I may end up buying this one.  

Geotagging gone wrong

I was in Savannah, GA earlier this week and I popped my hotel address into Waze.  As I was driving to my hotel I hit a fairly long red light and looked down at my Waze.  I had a pop up for some medical center which was advertising the shortest wait times for ER care.  I thought it was a very weird thing to advertise as you generally only go to the ER in an Emergency so would probably either call 911 or just put hospital into Waze or Google Maps.  I am not sure what the cost to advertise on Waze is but I'm fairly certain this was not money well spent.  Especially as when I got back to my hotel I wanted to write the name down so I could include it in my blog but had already forgotten it.   

Clickbait, Adsense and Virality explained

How do micro-influencers make money? Insight from a jelly college student. 

Recently, I've considered becoming an influencer and started doing some digging. Put in the simplest terms, anyone with an Adsense account can get money if they have a high click-through rate. Someone clicks on your video, that's a point toward the threshold that you have to meet to start earning cash. But does everything have to be high-quality content? No, not really. In fact, a lot of influencers are now earning big bucks by using clickbait material, that is, posting something that's read to be alarming, fantastic, cute, cool or interesting and in reality, it isn't. I admit I've fallen prey to this trick in the recent past--I clicked on a youtube video that read "7  stories that prove Michael Jordan was not human" and "I just won 2.5 million dollars worth of items." I had some time to kill and was intrigued by the short videos. My action of clicking and being showed an ad contributed to the person's monthly earnings. In fact, the Michael Jordan video went viral and received 8 Million views---just imagine how much money the person received by simply compiling videos and sharing his thoughts. 

In short, clickbait can help get people views, which in turns get them money through adsense. And, if they have any luck and gain a consistent base or visitors per month, either by checkin google trends and posting relevant videos or posting cute animal videos since we all love that, you can switch to a  plan where you're able to choose the ads that you show. This can help you get more income and will harness your ability to build a consistent audience. 

Reflecting on this post, I'm considering buying a fancy camera and posting 'fun' content on youtube now...

Email - Will it Continue?

It is interesting that despite all the forms of digital marketing and the popularity of social media, email marketing still ranks as the highest used form of digital marketing. When will email subside and the other forms take over the majority of the market? It seems that email being the preferred choice for digital marketing says something about how we work. We prioritize emails as the main source of communication, therefore the marketing emails we get usually are seen by the user. Personally, I click through most of my emails and even if I do not read a marketing email, I still recognize who it is from and they are top of mind. Sometimes not in a great way...

Facebook’s Ad Library Provides Visibility into Ads Run on Facebook and Instagram

This past week Facebook unveiled its new Ad Library as part of their seemingly never-ending attempt to regain the public’s trust. Facebook’s Ad Library seeks to provide transparency into what ads are being run on Facebook or Instagram by querying for a specific term or viewing all days being run by a specific Facebook page. For example, it is possible to see what ads contain the term “sunglasses” or which ads are currently being run by Ray-Ban.

The primary purpose of Ad Library was to provide visibility into how political campaigns may have been using Facebook Ads to influence elections, but this service is also immensely valuable to Digital Marketers. With access to this immense repository it is possible to keep track of your competitor’s ad campaign strategy as well as seeing what other ads are currently being run referencing your keywords. Furthermore, for political campaigns, Ad Library will provide information about who saw the ad and how many impressions it received.

Facebook’s Ad Library can be accessed here

Facebook's Fact checking mechanism

In my perspective, I believe that Facebook’s “fact checking mechanism” is a good move to somewhat prevent falsified information to be spread out to the general public; however, it has flaws and I disagree with adopting this mechanism.

First of all, the logic of the “fact checking mechanism” needs to be reconsidered. The “fact checking” system will be triggered when a story shared on its site is flagged by users as “fake”. The story would be then checked by third party “fact checkers” such as Associated Press or ABC News. Readers of the story consider truthfulness differently as their beliefs and attitudes towards information are shaped and varied by their values and world views. Even though the piece of story will later be submitted to third-party “checkers” who are reliable and can validate the facts from the fakes, the “trigger” of the mechanism is illogical and misleading to start with. In this way, people holding different values and beliefs will flag different pieces of story, and eventually there is possibility that every piece of story will be “flagged” at least once by Facebook users.

In addition, the mechanism damages the Facebook brand. Facebook started as a place where people can engage and connect with friends, make new friends, or even find lost friends. It is a platform to socialize and network. The added benefit of sharing stories and news is designed to be a tool to show other people your belief and what kind of person you are. However, this war for fighting against fake facts is turning Facebook to a battle field, and people sharing would slowly stop sharing posts or stories because they are afraid what they shared might later be marked as “fake”. As soon as people on Facebook stop sharing, connection between people will eventually be broken. Started as connecting tool that pulls people closers, the fact checker will push people further away from each other.

A better way that Facebook should adopt to prevent the appearance of fake facts, and at the same time keep its users connected is pay news organizations in exchange for featuring trusted and reliable content. Though it could be expensive, it is worthwhile if Facebook doesn’t want its brand to be damaged – it would be more expensive to “fix” a brand. In this way, not falsified information will be spread to the general public, and Facebook users could enjoy the benefit of reading accurate news faster and more convenient. The users will know it’s accurate because they are reading contents from trustworthy news press. And they will save the time determining whether they should “flag” a piece of information fake or continue reading but secretly suspect if the information were fake. To conclude, purchasing content from reliable news organization will make user’s information-gathering experience more effective and efficient.

Data Driven Marketing Economy

Recently I read an article about how technology advances help new entrances and smaller players in their digital marketing efforts(https://www.acxiom.com/blog/value-v-rsvp/). Technological advance has bolstered the Data-Driven Marketing Economy (DDME), and development of Individual-Level Customer Data (ILCD) has benefited both large-scale and small businesses. These great advancements in the data world has indeed eased the harsh business environment that small business and start-up companies are facing. However, in my perspective, the competitive landscape in the market is not in the favor of small-sized firms, or new entrants of the market.

Larger firms have larger consumer base and more resources than small firms. Just as the report mentioned: Some firms “used the ILCD of their own customers and did not rent, buy, sell, or exchange data with third parties; they tended to be large and self-sufficient”. They do not need to reach out and acquire third-party data because they already have an abundant amount of first-party data. On contrary, small firms rely more on third-party data than large firms. They utilize data in customer acquisition, which “matters more to them than to large firms with large installed bases of customers and products.” In this way, large firms are already one-step ahead in the game and at the same time have free large data base for further analysis, while small firms pay for data to acquire more customers. Large firms who already have a large consumer base will no longer focus on new customer acquisition, but utilize ILCD to retain existing customers and provide better service to increase customer satisfaction.

The Mouse's Latest Move

Earlier this week, media giant Disney bought 21st Century Fox entertainment through a significant acquisition, which represents a powerful media play. Through this acquisition, Disney adds new blockbusters to its already impressive repertoire, including The Simpsons, Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, etc. In addition, Disney owns nearly 60% of Hulu, another key streaming  function with over 25M users and counting.

Naturally, this has prompted questions about how Disney will use this newly owned intellectual property to challenge Netflix in the war on streaming. Later this year, Disney is expected to launch Disney+ which will enable Disney to share its beloved original content only on its streaming service. In anticipation of this, Disney ended its license deal with Netflix and pulled its content. However, using Hulu and growing its majority stake there may allow Disney to shift more adult-based content over to Hulu while keeping Disney+ family friendly.

YouTube Loses to Instagram as the Top Influencer Platform

A new study by Rakuten Marketing polled 3500 consumers and 700 marketers on various topics related to digital marketing. 65% cited Instagram as the platform where they follow the most influencers, beating YouTube and Facebook. Video also won out as the preferred media format, over images and the written word. Interestingly, more people said they learned about new products from influencers more than their friends and family. If that’s true, the power of the influencer and micro-influencer cannot be denied. 4 out of 5 consumers said they had purchased something recommended by an influencer by clicking on a link or image that was shared.

The analysis of the poll points to a critical factor of influencer marketing – authenticity. People will fall away from influencers faster if they feel they’re being sold or that something is off brand with influencer themselves. Therefore, the influencers are highly motivated to find the right partnerships so as to stay true to their own brand. This adds a level of complexity for brands looking to find the right partnerships.

It seems there’s no denying that the fastest way to reach targeted, small audiences is through an incredibly valuable influencer and micro-influencer network.

Knowing your Customer is Still King

Marketing Week reports that in their quest to be digital, brands are still managing to forget to understand their audience. In part this is because audiences are complicated. Fewer people have cable subscriptions but more hours of TV are being watched than ever before.

As brands begin to put together their “digital” strategy, there’s good reason to take a quick pause. First, it likely might not need to be separate from all advertising and marketing strategy. That separation could be causing problems by segmenting the brand into inconsistent strategies among different channels. 

In an effort to ensure they have a digital strategy, they may fail to think about their customer. What product are they selling and who is buying it. How are they buying it? Will the customer’s experience be enhanced by accessing the website on their mobile device? Can they only access it from mobile?

All too often these basic questions are overlooked in a race to be the first to have a digital plan. It seems that as the future becomes the present, it’s time to get back to basics.

Effectiveness of Video Marketing

Two of the most important metrics for digital ads effectiveness are (1)the completion rate and (2)the brand lift. Completion rate is the rate at which a consumer who starts the video, watches it in full. When this happens, it is more likely that the marketing message got across to the consumer. As can be expected, shorter ad videos tend to have higher completion rates. Brand lift is the overall increase in the brand's health makers. According to a Digiday and Adapt.tv survey, brand lift is the metric that delivers the higher success. This suggests that the main role of video ads is more to raise brand awareness and image than it is to drive an actual sale.

Other video ad metrics include the clickthrough rate, click per view, gross rating points, and targe rating points.