News & Trends

This post is devoted to the latest trends and news in the marketing and media industries.  Most entries are authored by experts from all over the world.

News & Trends 3.02.2010

Video In Email: The Race is On!

by Len Shneyder, MediaPost.com

Are the lines blurring, or am I just going cross-eyed? Google announced a number of Labs features that have been graduated out of the nursery test bed of gadgets and technologies into full-blown live features available to users of the mail interface. Chief among these new odds and ends is the ability to embed YouTube videos that will play directly within the Gmail Web mail client.If you’re a marketer, you’re probably jumping out of your seat right now. But hold on, it’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds. What Google is offering is a kind of tease — an appetizer that doesn’t quite satisfy but does bring us closer to the interactivity of video in email. The new feature is brilliantly simple to use; there’s no complicated scripting required. As a matter of fact, YouTube’s own embed code won’t serve up the still image preview overlayed with the play button. In order to add the video into the email and have the preview available, one only needs to put in a simple URL to the video’s location on Youtube. I know, it’s genius, right? Sort of, but I have to ask a simple question: Why not go with what has become the standard way of embedding videos into Web pages, using the auto-generated embed code? I wish I knew the answer. One could speculate that something about the code might cause delivery issues, or that as usual Google wants to somehow reinvent the wheel to be a more perfect and harmonious circle. Whatever the case may be, it’s definitely a start, allowing marketers to promote their YouTube content and deliver a more dynamic experience to their customer’s inboxes. Now, it’s not all roses. Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports recently detailed the nuances of Gmail’s new video in email feature, and there are definite limitations. I’m sure over time this may change and some of the quirkiness will be fixed (let’s hope), but ponder for a moment what this means: Apple’s iPad has announced video in email support, and Google just launched YouTube in the Gmail client. Are we in the pre-dawn days of the video email wars? Google seems willing and quite able to pick a fight with any technology on the Internet (if they haven’t invented it already, they buy it or just reinvent it). The recent addition of Buzz or Wave “lite” effectively takes on Twitter. Orkut was an attempt to take on the social networks, but ran short of spectacular in the U.S., while making quite the splash in Brazil. The full release of the video feature in Gmail seems like a volley over the Silicon Valley fence at Apple and the iPad — except that you have to remember that there’s a kind of non-aggression treaty in place between the two titans. Whatever the strategy, moving forward, video is making solid inroads into the previous text and picture world of email. Marketers should start thinking about how to convey their messages, present their brands, and deliver content to an increasingly attention-span-deprived audience that will rely on show-not-tell technologies at their doorstep to inform them of what they should be doing, buying and consuming. Go ahead: set up a Youtube channel, test it in your emails, and determine how many Gmail recipients you have, identify their email client if you’re using a platform identification-capable technology like MailboxIQ, segment, and send away. If nothing else, going through the segmenting exercise brings you closer to your data and your own customer base, which is never a waste of time.

News & Trends 2.26.2010 10 of the most brilliant marketing ideas by Thom Forbes, MSNBC.com 10. Dancing in the Tube Back story: In January 2009, Saatchi & Saatchi launched T-Mobile’s “Life’s for Sharing” campaign, which included flash mobs (that is, groups who assemble briefly in public to perform some kind of action). In this case, it was a smartly choreographed dance routine in the middle of a London Tube station. The video became a YouTube phenomenon. Breakthrough: Too early to tell. But after tens of millions of page views on YouTube, there’s no doubt that commercializing flash mobs works. Legacy: YouTube required. But talk about knockoffs: Trident gum’s flash mob did Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” dance in the middle of Piccadilly Square.

Tim Kimzey / AP 9. ‘Change we can believe in’ Back story: Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency was also a lesson in groundbreaking grassroots marketing. In addition to the instantly iconic poster and slogan, there was skillful use of the web and social media, from early discussions with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to responding to negative reviews online and uploading flattering clips to YouTube. Breakthrough: Social marketing. AdAge readers voted Obama the “2008 Marketer of the Year”–before he won the White House. “It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the campaign underlined the advent of a new era of social marketing,” Bloom says. Legacy: Twitter, Facebook and who knows what next. Whole Foods has 1.6 million followers on Twitter. Victoria’s Secret used Facebook to promote its Pink line to college students.

Special from Entrepreneur.com 8. The Coke geyser Back story: Drop Mentos mints into a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke, step back and watch the thing blow — physics teacher Steve Spangler’s hokey demo became an Internet phenomenon in 2005, spawning an unbelievable number of page views and copycat videos. A couple of guys even re-created the Bellagio fountain with Coke/Mentos eruptions. Thing was, sales of Mentos and Coke hit the roof, too. Breakthrough: Viral marketing. “It was unexpected and unsponsored, but it opened up everyone’s eyes to the potential effect of viral videos,” says San Diego State University’s Belch. Indeed: Saturation media coverage at almost no cost? We’ll take it. Legacy: Is it content or advertising? Come up with something cool (or crazy) enough, and customers will look for you. See Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign, or Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken.”

Apple 7. ‘1984′ Back story: Apple’s “1984″ was a single commercial, broadcast during that year’s Super Bowl. But Chiat/Day’s interpretation of George Orwell’s post-apocalyptic novel was more effective than most large-scale campaigns. The concept: A roomful of drones stares at a large screen where an authority figure bleats propaganda. Suddenly, a strange woman bursts into the room, hurls a hammer at the screen and smashes it to bits. The scrolling text: “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.” Breakthrough: The noncommercial commercial. It introduced Apple to the world as a rebel and game-changer, an identity that lingers despite its huge presence today. “The commercial didn’t explain the product or any of its benefits,” Bloom says, “but instead promised a lifestyle change, freeing you from the tyranny of your operating system.” It also helped make Super Bowl ad time the most expensive on television. Legacy: A new annual short-film festival (aka commercial breaks during the Super Bowl).

Sven Nackstrand / AFP-Getty Images 6. Absolut Vodka Back story: The product was clear, flavorless and more or less indistinguishable from any of its competitors. But the agency TBWA’s clever use of the bottle’s shape and name made Absolut the first breakout premium vodka — and inspired barloads of imitators. After nearly 30 years, Absolut Vodka is one of the longest-running campaigns in history, and still going strong. Breakthrough: The absolute power of advertising. It’s stunning, actually, that these ads moved millions of Americans to pay more for a product they couldn’t identify in a taste test. “It’s also proof,” Bloom notes, “of advertising’s ability to create value in a commodity marketplace.” Legacy: Sometimes it’s all about the sizzle. With a campaign that’s infinitely riffable, Absolut continues to innovate with the times (there’s an iPhone app).

5. Beauty Mist pantyhose Back story: To sell Hanes pantyhose, the Mullen agency famously recruited Hall of Fame quarterback (and playboy) Joe Namath. The 1974 TV commercial panned up a pair of smooth, nylon-clad legs that turned out to belong to Broadway Joe: “Now, I don’t wear pantyhose, but if Beauty Mist can make my legs look good, imagine what they’ll do for yours.” It was just a matter of time before sales of pantyhose outran sales of stockings for the first time in the U.S. Breakthrough: Celebrity endorsement. Namath wasn’t the first celeb to hawk products, but the success (and controversy) the ad created showed the power of the right celeb. Legacy: Cue the athlete endorsement. George Foreman and Salton. O.J. Simpson and Hertz. Michael Jordan and just about everything.

Special from Entrepreneur.com 4. ‘Think Small’ Back story: The diminutive Volkswagen Beetle wasn’t an easy sell in 1960, the era of major chrome and fins. So the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency did something unheard of at the time: It paired a copywriter with an art director to create the campaign. Volkswagen’s revolutionary “Think Small” ads featured a tiny image of the car surrounded by acres of white space and a few words about “our little car.” Breakthrough: Synergy — and risk taking. “It showed how breaking with the norm could also change culture,” says Michael Belch, a marketing professor at San Diego State University. “Small became sexy.” Adds former Advertising Age editor Jonah Bloom: “It’s about the guts to be different and take huge risks with your message.” Legacy: Embrace the product. Honesty and risk-taking can pay off big — just ask Avis. Its “We try harder” campaign flipped a No. 2 ranking in its favor.

3. ‘Does she … or doesn’t she?’ Back story: In 1957, Foote, Cone & Belding invented the Clairol girl, a wholesome girl next door with a shocking secret: Her hair color might be fake. A series of ads for tints and dyes posed the titillating Q&A: “Does she � or doesn’t she?” (“Only her hairdresser knows for sure.”) Breakthrough: The shock ad. Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield calls it the birth of “shockvertising,” campaigns that generated buzz by tapping into the sexual revolution. Of course it worked: Ten years later, annual sales of hair coloring rose by more than $160 million. Legacy: Sex sells (no kidding–but someone had to figure it out). “Does she” paved the way for Brooke (“Nothing comes between me and my Calvins”) Shields and Pam (naked for PETA) Anderson.

John Chapple / Getty Images file 2. Marlboro Man Back story: Incredible as it seems, Marlboro cigarettes were marketed for decades as a premium filtered cigarette for women. That all changed in 1955, when Leo Burnett’s advertising firm reinvented the smokes with the most masculine of icons: an American cowboy. Breakthrough: Image advertising. The Marlboro Man wasn’t just a hugely successful trade character, Cody says, the campaign was also the first example of “image” advertising. “No attributes of the product were mentioned, but the campaign appealed to white, male individuals who perceived a connection with ruggedness and masculinity.” Whatever controversy came later, the ads made Marlboro the bestselling cigarette in the world. Legacy: If you’re ever boggled by the behavior of brand-conscious youth, know that it started here. Those Abercrombie dudes could be the Marlboro man’s grandsons.

Scott Barbour / Getty Images 1. ‘A diamond is forever’ Back story: Diamond prices were sinking fast in 1938, so De Beers mining company enlisted ad agency N.W. Ayer & Son to help reverse the trend. A year later, it launched the “diamond is forever” campaign and brazenly promoted the idea that every marriage required the gift of bling. And plenty of it: It also invented the “two months’ salary” spending rule. Breakthrough: A slogan that transcends the campaign. “It created sentimental meaning for the product that resonated with people,” says Michael Cody, communications professor at the University of Southern California, adding that the phrase is so entrenched that some people don’t know its commercial origins.

News & Trends 2.24.2010

Why Measurement Alone Will Not Lead to Better Marketing

A Look at the Top Performance Success Factors

By Karl Gustafson and Rich Schreuer, AdvertisingAge.com

Companies that have strong performance-driven cultures support the classic adage that “You can’t manage (or improve) what you can’t measure.” We recently interviewed 400 companies and found the important corollary: Measurement alone will not lead to results.

Over the last decade, the science of marketing has grown in importance as marketing departments have come under increasing pressure to defend budgets and more clearly articulate the value they are creating for the organization. In the last few years alone, advances in the science of marketing measurement as well as significant changes in communications mediums have transformed the function of marketing and the measurement of its impact on the business. Yet it was our sense, from working on the front lines of marketing, that few companies were reaping the benefits of these advances. We wondered, what’s the disconnect?

To delve deeper, we launched a comprehensive study of 400 CEOs, CFOs, CMOs and lead marketers that was designed to better understand how companies are practicing marketing measurement and managing their marketing initiatives today. Confirming our intuition, only a quarter of companies reported that they are managing their marketing effectively today.

Those who are succeeding, however, are embracing what we call marketing-performance management, the practice of systematically measuring, learning from and improving on marketing strategies and tactics over time.

According to our study, those organizations that measured and managed have seen a positive impact on their top (and bottom) lines and are more likely to be market leaders. By studying these top-performing companies, we were able to uncover common success factors in improving marketing’s impact on the business. These practices offer a road map around which marketers can construct successful marketing-performance improvement initiatives.

1. Foster senior-level buy-in.
Senior level buy-in is at the core of any successful marketing-performance program. Senior executives must believe in the importance of marketing, and corresponding marketing leadership must be able to drive their agenda and deliver tangible results throughout all areas of the company.

We found that 71% of those companies reporting that they excel in the area of managing and measuring their marketing effectively also reported having strong senior level buy-in. While among all of the companies we surveyed, just 42% reported strong senior level buy-in for measuring marketing effectively.

2. Seek strategic alignment.
Aligning measures with corporate, not just marketing, objectives and strategic goals can be viewed almost like a compass as it relates to marketing-performance management, ensuring that resources are being marshaled in the right direction. With strategic alignment, marketing organizations are able to develop measurement architectures or strategies that not only answer the question of “Was this tactic successful?” but also “How impactful was it to our overall business objectives?”

In fact, 80% of companies that excel at marketing-performance management also align their marketing activities and measures with corporate strategy.

3. Make targeted investments in people, technology and data systems.
Technology today offers an abundance of ways to track, measure and evaluate the success of ongoing marketing programs. It’s no surprise then that making targeted investments in people, technology and data systems are prerequisites to excelling with marketing-performance management. The key is understanding which elements are required versus which are just “nice to have,” and then building skill sets that can optimize their use.

We found that companies with strong systems and technology, the data they need for analysis and the skill sets to support their analysis requirements are twice as likely to be excelling with marketing performance compared to the norm.

Just as important, these companies are hiring and developing talent with the necessary skill sets to execute on marketing-performance initiatives, acquiring any missing experience and expertise, and investing in continuous training and education to build on their existing talent base.

4. Develop strong processes.
Processes serve as the mechanism to close the cycle of measuring, learning and improving — ultimately ensuring that learning is translated into actions. In many cases, these companies have strong marketing leadership that has placed an emphasis on process; strong collaboration and teamwork across functions; prevalent discipline and accountability; and they strive for continuous improvement. Toward this end, we found that 60% of participants who have strong marketing-performance processes in place are seeing a positive business impact from their practices versus just 24% of the entire survey population.

Marketing performance is not an initiative or a one-time event; rather, it is a new way to manage marketing. This approach to marketing requires commitment and diligence to the core values and benefits of marketing-performance management to ultimately be successful. This commitment must be embodied by marketing leadership, bought into and reinforced by the senior-level business managers and the executive team and fully embraced by the marketing organization.

Ultimately this commitment manifests itself in successful marketing organizations’ cultures and the philosophies of entire companies — an insatiable thirst to continuously improve. As the research results show, those who embrace the marketing-performance-management approach to continuous improvement reap the benefits in terms of superior business results over time.

News & Trends 2.17.2010

Lose The Marketing Love Handles Without Lifting A Finger

by Pat LaPointe, Metrics Insider

I got an email the other day from a marketing technology company trumpeting its software’s ability to help me “improve marketing ROI without lifting a finger.” Wow. Incredible. Can’t be true, can it? I asked for a demonstration copy to see if I could realize the incredible benefit, but no luck. They wouldn’t send me one. So to test the validity of the claim, I went to the center of all things factual  — the Internet — to see what else I could do without lifting a finger. The options are amazing.  I can: Lose 20 pounds Find a high-paying new job Earn a college degree Write a book (someone else will do it for me) Drive more traffic to my Web site Be healthier Look better Attract more members of the opposite sex And, my personal favorite, grow more hair.I feel stupid.  I’ve been spending so much time at the gym, writing my own books, taking my own college exams, choosing my own food carefully, and fretting over my hair. I could have spent all that time goofing off and gotten better results.And I’m really pissed off about the effort I’ve wasted on measuring and improving marketing ROI. For seven years now, I’ve been working on improving marketing ROI all day every day; working with hundreds of marketing, finance, and sales managers in dozens of companies; overcoming obstacles of technical, structural, cultural, and political dimensions; making slow and steady progress.NOW I discover that, had I just purchased the right software, I could have achieved much more with virtually NO effort. If my clients ever find out, I’m screwed.On the whole, I think this magic ROI elixir software is really a good thing. It will: Reinforce CMOs’ desire to believe that they can and should delegate ROI efforts even further down the org chart. After all, they have many more important things to worry about. Give marketing managers something more tangible to point to when asked, “What are you doing to improve the return on our marketing investment?”  Their answer: “Of course, we’ve bought some software to fix that.” Postpone the question another year while the software winds its way through the procurement process and then gets passed around the IT department — all the while allowing the marketers to keep doing things the way they have been doing them. Befuddle the finance department and get them off marketing’s back. You know how those finance guys love data. They’ll gladly wait awhile if they think there’s some data coming.So forget all that phooey about aligning on metrics, implementing smart experiments, and methodically improving analytics. Don’t waste time on smarter marketing research. Just cut the shrink wrap on the software box, hit “install,” and off you go.Then wait for the Easter Bunny to deliver your bonus check.Hyperbole is a dangerous tool in the hands of marketers — particularly when it comes to measuring marketing ROI. It undermines our credibility with the more serious financial types who often are key influencers on how much we get in the way of resources and what we can do with it. It reinforces their perceptions of marketers as wild-eyed optimists willing to try anything new to deflect the gravity of the questions being asked. Besides, if there WERE a magic marketing ROI software, do you really think your progressively minded organization would be among the very first to find it?Bad news. There is still no substitute for diligent, disciplined work when it comes to measuring the payback on marketing. Technology enables, but vision and persistence win every time. Show me a company with the will to work at it, and I’ll show you the company that will get clear insights into their ROI long before the software buyers ever realize they’ve been misled.Measuring and improving ROI is much more like going to the gym every day; watching what you eat; taking classes to earn a degree; and (take it from one who’s done it) writing a book yourself. Persistent, methodical effort is rewarded with great benefits.So let’s get after those spending love handles and the marketing muffin top.

News & Trends 2.09.2010

American Consumers Want A Dialog With Business
Jack Loechner, MediaPostPublications.com

According to the 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, an online survey by Opinion Research Corporation among a representative U.S. sample of 1,048 adults, comprising “new media users,” 44% of American new media users are searching for, sharing or discussing information about corporate responsibility (CR) efforts and programs and are highly confident they can have an effect on business.

New media is defined in this study as dialogue among individuals or groups by way of technology-facilitated channels, such as social networks (e.g., Facebook); blogs; microblogs (e.g., Twitter); online games; mobile devices; photo-, audioand video-sharing sites (e.g., Flickr, iTunes,YouTube); message boards; etc. In some instances we also include Web sites and email.

62% of users polled believe they can influence business decisions by voicing opinions via new media channels. About a quarter have contributed their point-of-view on an issue (24%) or contacted a company directly (23%). 74% expect companies to join conversations about their corporate responsibility practices happening on new media.

New media users are even more likely to bypass dialogue for action:  30% have made a purchase based on POSITIVE information learned about a product, company or brand; 23% have switched brands or boycotted a company based on NEGATIVE information learned about a product, company or brand.

Consumers are most interested in information that will inform their purchasing decisions. Respondents said they want companies to tell them what is in products and how they are made (85%) and provide additional details about information, labels and claims shared offline (e.g., in the store, on the package, in an advertisement) (83%).

Jonathan Yohannan, senior vice president of corporate responsibility at Cone, says “Consumers are using new media channels to inform purchase decisions, yet are not always stopping to engage in dialogue… There is an opportunity to engage them beyond information-seeking behavior… ”

Overall, consumers show strong signs of empowerment, comfort and trust with corporate responsibility communications in new media. 75% of new media users say it is an effective way to learn about CR efforts, 65% believe they know where to look for such information and 47% think companies are transparent and honest when talking about CR efforts through new media channels.

Consumers are relying largely on Web channels such as Web sites (27%) and email (22%) to explore CR, indicating channels that foster a dialogue and deeper engagement, such as social networks (15%) and blogs (11%), are being underutilized.

Yohannan continued “Companies need to leverage traditional channels to drive people to places where conversations can happen in real-time… to enhance reputation, build loyalty and even lead to business innovation.”

From  2009 cone consumer new media study  corporate responsibility fact sheet:

Business Issues Consumers Want Companies To Address Through New Media Channels:
Issue	% of Respondents
Environment (e.g., recycling, environmentally sound packaging)	26%
Health and wellness (e.g., obesity, nutrition)	24%
Safety (e.g., lead- or bpa-free products)	16%
Ethics (e.g., governance, executive compensation)	20%
Human rights (e.g., child labor, fair wages)	15%
Source: 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, January 2009

Actions Taken As A Result Of Information About Corporate Responsibility Efforts And Business Issues
Action	% of Respondents
Made a purchase based on positive information learned about a product, company or brand	30%
Contributed my point-of-view on an issue	24%
Switched brands or boycotted a company based on negative information learned about a product, company or brand	23%
Contacted a company directly to share feedback or grievances	23%
Distributed information about an issue to my friends and contacts	21%
Followed a an important conversation related to a business issue	15%
Source: 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, January 2009

Americans’ Beliefs And Expectations About Corporate Responsibility In New Media Channels
Belief	% of Respondents
An effective way for me to learn about corporate responsibility efforts	75%
Expect companies to join conversations about their corporate responsibility practices	74%
Know where to look if seeking additional information about corporate responsibility efforts	65%
Can influence a company’s corporate responsibility decisions and practices by voicing my opinions	62%
Feel companies are transparent and honest when it comes to talking about their corporate responsibility efforts using new media	47%
Source: 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, January 2009

American’s Use Of New Media Sites And Tools
Frequency	% of Respondents
Two or more times a week	34%
One-two times a month	8%
A few times a year	8%
Once a week	9%
Never	41%
Source: 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, January 2009

Channels Used To Search For, Share Or Discuss Information About Corporate Responsibility Efforts And Programs
Channel	% of Respondents
Any	44%
Email	27%
Websites	22%
Social networks	15%
Message boards	10%
Blogs	11%
Online games	6%
Mobile devices	6%
Photo, audio or video sharing sites	4%
Microblogs	2%
Source: 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, January 2009

News & Trends 2.02.2010

Consumer Goods Marketers Go Beyond Ads with Online Video

from eMarketer.com

Marketers across categories are racing to take advantage of the proliferation of online video content and consumers’ increasing engagement with that content. And the consumer products sector is no exception.

“Digital video content, whether delivered through a computer, mobile phone, handheld device or TV monitor, has the potential to ignite two-way conversations between consumers and brands,” said Tobi Elkin, author of the new eMarketer report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video.”

“It is especially important for marketers of notoriously low-involvement consumer packaged goods, such as food, household and personal care items,” Ms. Elkin said.

Consumers appear fairly receptive to marketers’ use of new media, including online video content, according to a September 2009 Cone study.

Consumer packaged goods marketers have incorporated online video content into their marketing strategies in a variety of ways—on YouTube channels, video blog posts, content sponsorships and product placement. Typically, marketers deploy online video content in the form of short video clips, the majority of which are no more than 2 minutes long. The clips are sometimes repurposed TV ads, but increasingly they are edited versions of TV spots or original video content created by the marketer or even consumers.

Putting a hard number on the dollars spent by consumer packaged goods marketers on online video content is difficult, as outlays are not included in measures of paid advertising spending. Assessing its effectiveness is likewise a problem for marketers. The same metrics issues that bedevil marketers trying to assess the effect of online advertising on their brands also plague the ability to evaluate the performance of video content.

“Consumer product marketers need to examine consumer interaction rates with online video to determine whether their business objectives are being met and to assess the effect on brand health and return on investment,” said Ms. Elkin.

News & Trends 1.21.2010

The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google

by Nate Elliott, Forrester Research

If you’re like most interactive marketers, you probably don’t think much about search optimizing your online video content. Less than 20% of marketers tell us they insert keywords into the filenames of the videos on their site, and even fewer use more advanced tactics like writing keyword-rich captions and annotations, or creating online video libraries.

But if you’re not optimizing your videos, you should start. “Blended search,” the practice in which search engines display videos, images, news stories, maps, and other types of results alongside their standard search results, has become increasingly common on major search engines. And optimizing video content to take advantage of blended search is by far the easiest way to get a first-page organic ranking on Google.

Recently, we conducted a little experiment to learn more about how search engines respond to common queries. We created a list of 40 of the most-searched keywords — pulled from the search engines’ own lists of popular and fast-growing search terms, like Google Trends — and ran those searches on Google in the US and the UK, as well as on MSN UK and Yahoo UK.

MSN and Yahoo (both of which we studied only in the UK) still present only standard results for most of their searches. But Google blended non-standard search results into a large majority of the keywords we studied: nearly three-quarters of the searches we ran on Google in the UK, and well over half the searches we ran on Google in the US, returned blended results. In both the US and the UK, Google was more likely to blend videos into its results than any other type of media. (Images, in case you’re wondering, are only rarely blended into any of the engines’ search results.)

Not only are video results increasingly common in Google’s search results, but your videos stand a much better chance than your text pages of being shown on the first results page. On the keywords for which Google offers video results, we found an average of 16,000 videos vying to appear on results pages containing an average of 1.5 video results — giving each video about an 11,000-to-1 chance of making it onto the first page of results. By comparison, there were an average of 4.7 million text pages competing for a place on results pages with an average of just 9.4 text results — giving each text page about a 500,000-to-1 chance of appearing on the first page of results. Now that’s a lot of math, but here’s what it means: on the keywords for which Google offers video results, any given video in the index stands about a 50 times better chance of appearing on the first page of results than any given text page in the index. Those are some attractive odds.

Best of all, so few interactive marketers focus on video optimization that most of the videos in Google’s index aren’t very well optimized — so if you optimize your videos well, your chances of success will increase even further.

So how can you optimize your online videos? The agencies and search engines I’ve talked to offer a number of different tips:

• Insert keywords into your video filenames.
• Host your videos on YouTube, and embed those YouTube videos into your own site. Google says its algorithms consider how many times a video is viewed, and any views embedded videos receive on your own site get added to the ‘views’ tally on YouTube. (And yes, nearly every video we saw Google blend into its results came from YouTube.)
• Optimize your YouTube videos by writing keywords into your videos’ titles, descriptions, and tags.
• Embed videos into relevant text pages on your site. The context provided by the text on those pages (which is hopefully already optimized for search as well) will help the search engines figure out what your videos are about.
• Also create a video library on your site, so Google knows where to find your video content. (Google Video Sitemaps can help with this too.) Write keyword-rich annotations for each video in the library.

Clients can read more about this topic, including some examples and further best practices, in our reports SEO for Blended Search (a Europe-focused report) and Video and Image Optimization (which is US-focused).

News & Trends 1.10.2010

2010: Predicting a new decade of marketing trends

by David Eldridge, The Engaging Times

With 2010 upon us, it is time to start thinking about what trends are in store for the next 12 months and beyond. Here at Alterian, we’ve worked with our customers and partners to put together a list of predictions that focus on more effective ways to engage with customers, as well as the importance of measurement and accountability.

If this past year has shown us anything, it’s that due to the recession we’ve seen online monitoring and analytics become a critical component to marketing programs.  Consumers now have the opportunity to become active participants in shaping brands online and smart businesses are listening, engaging while adding value to the active conversations happening around them.

As we continue to see social media take hold and online monitoring become an important piece in the marketing puzzle, businesses will emerge from the recession looking to further strengthen engagement and interaction with their customers.

Our list below predicts what we believe the next 10 marketing trends will be and what we believe will be important in 2010, what do you think?

1. Social media will move towards ubiquity:

IDC survey data shows more than 50% of worldwide workers are leveraging the free, public social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook for business today. Rather than being hype it will simply become normal and part of the everyday mix that works alongside email as a principle form of communication online.

2. Companies will have a social media policy:

As social media continues to integrate into the marketing and business mix, formal rules of engagement will become more widespread. Many companies are likely to come up against conflict when they try to extend their social media efforts across the board. There will be a need for a significant culture shift in order to overcome these barriers. As social media continues to raise its profile amongst corporate divisions, more companies will invest in Social Media specialists to guide their efforts both internally and externally.

3. Doing more with less:

This has been the mantra for all businesses throughout 2009 but will continue through the adoption of analytics and marketing software. Marketing departments are under increasing pressure to improve effectiveness and efficiencies with marketing campaigns, and also to achieve more, all with decreased budgets. 2009 was about how to make your business machine run harder and faster in a bid to stay competitive in a downturn, where consumer spending is in decline or being replaced by reason to buy at all.  This will now convert into the need to not only prove the value of your products to consumers but also the value of your marketing strategies as a whole.

4. Data analysts will become hot property for marketing departments:

Introducing analytics, or better analytics means empowering marketing with intelligence about their customers and prospects, so they can more rapidly, and more accurately, identify the hidden value in their customer and prospect databases. Analyzing the operational efficiency of every marketing department and taking action as required also means a marketing dividend can be realised. This can either be used to increase marketing spend or to maintain marketing spend if budgets are reduced; in essence, do more with less.

5. Measurability of marketers/measuring ROI:

At a time of economic uncertainty, more companies look to uncover cost savings or serve customers more effectively through leveraging social technology. However, the increased pressure from the boardroom to justify marketing spend, or time investment, means that marketing departments have to show value by measuring ROI.

6. Getting access to customer data:

This has become more possible with the introduction of social media platforms, but gaining access to the right data, the right channels and the key sentiments about your brand requires effective online monitoring software.  Social Media offers the perfect opportunity to revolutionise CRM tools and build true customer engagement programmes that are bespoke for each individual consumer, thus helping to deliver ROI.

7. The necessary technology for effective marketing:

Companies without the right monitoring, reporting, analytics and execution software are companies without a future. With the increasing importance of the internet for businesses, online marketing and monitoring allow effective one on one engagement that shape successful and focused marketing campaigns.

8. Integration of platforms and processes will be critical:

There is a proliferation of things to monitor, measure and manage, making it very difficult and time consuming for marketers to pull together the overall picture for integrated campaigns. There will therefore be a move towards single integrated software platforms so that campaign planning and management are integrated with web and email.

9. Recalibrate marketing for engagement:

Brands focus on content but with publishers desperate to protect revenues by charging for content, brands will increasingly look to develop content strategies that bring value to their customers.  Social Media Monitoring will be the key weapon for brands building these strategies.

10. Consumer empowerment:

Brand value will be influenced more and more by the consumer, making it more important than ever for a brand to have measures of authenticity that will aid in brand differentiation and consumer engagement – you can no longer rely on your brand name as you once did. Organisations are being increasingly judged by their actions and willingness to involve customers, visibly.

News & Trends 11.20.2009

Web 2.0 Pundit Warns of ‘One Ring’ Rule
The Web, which began life as an open community where information and tools were freely shared across geographic, political, and social boundaries, is in danger of becoming segmented into a federation of closed camps led by a handful of increasingly powerful vendors, said Internet pundit Tim O’Reilly.  “We’re heading back into an ugly time,” said O’Reilly, during a keynote address Tuesday at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City.  O’Reilly pointed to Murdoch’s intention to create pay walls around Dow Jones newspaper sites, to Apple’s mandatory vetting of all third-party iPhone applications, and to a recent Google announcement in which the search giant said it would release a free turn-by-turn navigation system—but only for use on phones powered by its Android operating system.  “That’s not the way the Web works,” said O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media and the first to coin the term Web 2.0, a concept where the Web is, in effect, the operating system for the Internet.  And that OS, O’Reilly said, should be made up of “small pieces, loosely joined.”  Instead, vendors are attempting to create “one ring to rule them all,” said O’Reilly, referring to the one ring that would supposedly give the wearer ultimate power in Lord Of The Rings.  To counter the trend, O’Reilly said vendors like Google and others “must be rigorous in thinking through the benefit to the user” when it comes to developing new products, instead of focusing on how the product will enhance their competitive position.  “Do what you do best, link to the rest,” said O’Reilly, citing an oft-quoted Web 2.0 maxim.
from Information Week

News & Trends 11.18.2009

Deep Brand Engagement Creates Customers
from eMarketer.com

From awareness to consideration, purchase and recommendation

The power of online brand interaction is not to be denied: A solid majority of connected consumers have had their opinion of a brand swayed, either positively or negatively, by an online experience. And more than 97% said that experience influenced whether they purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish’s “2009 FEED” survey polled US broadband users who had visited a community site, consumed or created digital media, and spent at least $150 online in the past six months.

These connected consumers were also connected to brands. About one-quarter had produced content to participate in a contest held by a brand, and close to the same amount had followed a brand on Twitter. Two-fifths had friended a brand on Facebook or MySpace.

US Internet Users Who Have Ever “Friended” a Brand on Facebook or MySpace, August 2009 (% of respondents)

The main reason to follow or friend a brand was to get exclusive deals or offers, followed by general fandom—because the user was a current customer, or because of interesting or entertaining content.

An impressive 64% of connected consumers told Razorfish they had made their first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience—be it a Website, microsite, mobile coupon or e-mail. And friending, following and content creation spurred upticks across the marketing funnel—from raising awareness to consideration, purchase and recommendations to friends.

Effect of “Friending” a Brand on Facebook or MySpace According to US Internet Users, August 2009 (% of respondents)

“Digital experiences not only build a brand, they can also make or break it. For those brand marketers still neglecting (or underestimating) digital, it’s as if they’ve shown up to a cocktail party in sweatpants,” according to the report. “Invariably, consumers will choose to converse with a savvier—and hopefully more stylish—partner.”

News & Trends 11.17.2009

How Web-Savvy Are Online Seniors?
FROM eMarketer.com

Users over 65 most likely to shop

Seniors are no slouches when it comes to participating in a wide range of Web activity, according to data from the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM).

A majority of Internet users over the age of 65 used e-mail, shopped online, researched health information and news, and banked on the Web. In fact, seniors were more likely than any other age group to conduct e-commerce activities.

Online Activities of US Senior Internet Users, June 2009 (% of respondents)

Boomer Internet users were likewise very active online, with 71% shopping on the Web, 39% visiting networking and community sites, and 30% regularly watching online video.

Online Activities of US Boomer Internet Users, June 2009 (% of respondents)

“The technology adoption behaviors of the younger generations is studied frequently and their impact on advertising and marketing is widely known.” said CTAM president and CEO Char Beales in a statement. But, he noted, “Boomers and Matures, who have significant purchasing power, are active online and more comfortable with technology than often reported.”

Still, even wide adoption of e-commerce by senior Internet users does not necessarily translate into many seniors shopping online. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that in December 2008 only 11% of US Internet users were ages 64 and older. And according to the Pew Research Center, just 28% of US seniors reported going online every day in February and March 2009.

Boomers are a much bigger force on the Web. eMarketer estimates that in 2009 Internet users ages 45 to 63 make up 28.8% of the total, or 57.4 million users.

News & Trends 11.16.2009

This post is devoted to the latest trends and news in the marketing and media industries.  Most entries are authored by experts from all over the world.

Major Advertisers to TV Ad Agencies: You are a Fossil
by Graeme Newell

In last week’s article, I laid out 11 trends motivating the future of the cable TV ad business.  In this week’s article, seven more.  If you would like to read all three parts of this article, click here.

Dynamic ad targeting is the great hope for the future of cable TV.  Just as Google delivers custom ads designed to the user’s personal tastes and desires, the cable industry is building a new generation of hardware and software solutions to deliver the perfect ad to the perfect prospect at the perfect time.  The ultimate goal is elimination of ad waste. For example, a smart cable box will know that a viewer does not exercise regularly.  It will eliminate ads for health clubs, sporting goods stores, and high performance running shoes.

The Ad Agency Skill Set is Sorely Lacking
No question, ad agencies are the huge whipping boys these days.  Many feel that their business model is firmly mired in the past, dedicated to maintaining the 30-second ad tradition.  Advertisers, Cable Programmers and MSOs are all looking for creative and media placement leadership that makes full use of new tools being offered by ad targeting.  The ad agency business has been caught flatfooted, awash in data, and unable to deliver the sophisticated new products required to mesh with this new hyper-measured ad world.

The Agency Model Still Places a Priority on Flashy Creative, Not Metrics or Customer Relationships.
The most experienced and highly-paid people in an ad agency are usually found in the creative and account management departments.  Ad placement and PR are usually left for the fresh-out-of-college rookie who is paying his dues until a creative or account executive position opens up.   The priority at most ad agencies is to produce award-winning creative campaigns, not to eliminate waste and get those campaigns in front of the right customers at the right time.  The internet’s new generation of placement metrics has overwhelmed traditional agencies.  They are firmly mired in the gross rating point, reach & frequency tradition.  Today’s sophisticated ad metrics require SEO masters who graduated with statistics degrees, not an aspiring copywriter killing time in the media buying department.

Major Clients and Cable Companies Don’t Trust Ad Agencies to Effectively Sell the New Ad Targeted Inventory
In the past, most companies signed on with a single agency for all their advertising needs.  But a lot of traditional agencies have failed so badly at new media that these advertisers are now forced to seek out boutique ad shops that specialize in the important skills required for this new medium.

Nike’s television advertising is recognized as some of the most successful in history.  Their agency, Weiden & Kennedy, is hailed as one of the most skilled agencies going.  Despite this, in 2007 Nike dropped Wieden’s contract for online advertising because it lost confidence in its new media skill set.  The press quoted that Weiden “didn’t know how Google worked.”  If the best and the brightest agency in the business can’t pull it off, what chance do the average agencies have?  As the line between TV and Internet is irreparably blurred, the cable industry is plenty worried that ad agency messaging and metrics won’t keep up with the sophistication of the new tools.

For the First Time, Mass Reach and Mass Customization can be Simultaneous
Broadcasting necessitated the creation of broad brands.  One primary brand message for most everyone.  If the MSOs can successfully roll out ad targeting on a national scale, it will fundamentally change the nature of branding.  For the first time, advertisers will be able to combine the power of targeting with the punch of TV.  The internet alone doesn’t have the reach.  TV alone doesn’t have the targetability, but the new cable ad targeting system can combine the two.

Brands will be Defined by Mindset and Behavior, not Product Categories
A single unified brand image will no longer be effective.  As a matter of fact, it will be perceived as naively simplistic and wasteful.  Numerous customizable brands will be the norm.  My experience of Tide will be completely different from my neighbor’s experience of Tide because we will see completely different ads.

Ad Campaigns will be Primarily Managed by Automated Servers, Not Human Beings
If you are a Netflix, Amazon or Pandora customer, you know the eerie accuracy of their recommendation systems.  By watching the personal preferences of millions of movie watchers, Netflix can predict the next movie you’ll love.  Often times, that movie is completely unrelated to genres you normally enjoy.  But it still works because the choices are founded on a dispassionate statistical analysis, not a human judgment with its innate prejudices.  Netflix sets the rules and lets the computer hone the specific movie list for each person.  These companies work their advertising magic with algebra and calculus, not catchy artwork and clever prose.

Just like the automated systems behind the iTunes Music Genius, these same lurking hardware analyzers will watch every nuance of their customer’s interaction with their cable boxes.  They will automatically adjust the ad mix without the need for human intervention.   Ad agencies will create 5, 10, 20 different brand campaigns for a single product – each targeted to the lifestyle, mood or crisis that happens to befall an individual buyer as his life situation changes.

We are no longer Broadcasters, we are all Direct Marketers.
If you want to find an industry to provide a little guidance during these times of transition, look to the junk mailers that clutter up your mailbox each week.  Through years of trial and error, they have learned the finer points of targeting customized messages to each household.  There is nothing broad about their thinking.  This attention to individual needs must replace the general, compromising, overarching mindset of the current ad industry.  In truth, it is a system that hasn’t changed a whole lot since it was invented 100 years ago.  Goodbye mob, hello neighbor.

Google Tests Skippable Ads
Google will begin testing “skippable” pre-roll ads in videos on YouTube Wednesday that could lead the Mountain View, Calif. search engine toward a new advertising model.  The small sampling, which runs indefinitely, will allow people who find the videos to click on the link and skip the ad, which takes them directly to the content.  The ads will run on videos from content partners, which have already opted into the test.  The goal to move the industry toward more engaging high-quality ads requires a lesson in human behavior.  The test that determines if and when people watch the video clips will provide Google with insight into the type of person who may skip an ad, what type of ad they might skip, and what piece of content does better than another.  Google also will look at whether some ads are skipped in a specific portion of the session.  Does the person skip the ad in the first video versus the third during a 30-minute time slot while on YouTube?  The research also examines the correlation between television and video ads.  The results could lead Google toward a different type of advertising model other than pre-rolls, overlays, and traditional display ads.  The model is cost per engagement, where advertisers would only pay for opt-in engaged views of the ads.  “We’re already down that road with promoted videos,” says Phil Farhi, product manager at Google’s YouTube.  “We see the ability to skip ads as another form of engagement.”  Farhi says Google eventually sees a model where the advertiser only pays for a completed view of the ad.  Quality and user signals would determine the correct place in the video to serve up the ad.  When Google first tested in-stream ads in 2007, it learned that abandonment rates — especially for pre-rolls — were as high as 70%, and users were far more likely to watch and engage with overlays.  It turns out that pre-roll ads in short-form video content work.  Pre-rolls in short-form videos, defined as less than between 15 and 20 minutes, can keep the attention of people watching the clip. The test will also run on long-form videos. But when a pre-roll ad runs 15 seconds, YouTube registers completion rates as high as 85%.  Creativity and quality also matter.  Google’s research suggests that a high-quality advertisement can influence someone into sticking around to finish viewing the ad three times more than if that same person watched the ad on television.  “On television you might need 30 seconds to make sure people know the Web site and phone number, and tell them the offer three times,” Farhi says. “Online, you can run a much shorter industry ad, and use the companion ad space for the call to action.”
MediaPost

News & Trends 11.30.2009

Small Businesses Raise Search Spend

From eMarketer.com

Shifting away from Google

Small businesses using search advertising have sharply increased their efforts in Q3 2009, according to data from WebVisible.

Average spending by small-business search advertisers was up 91% year over year and 93% quarter over quarter in Q3. The average number of keywords purchased was also up.

Spending shifted among the major search engines, with Google losing some 5 percentage points of spending share from Q3 2008 to Q3 2009. Bing gained 2.9 percentage points in the same time period (compared with then-existing Microsoft search engines).

Bing also brought small businesses the highest click-through rates of any search engine, followed by Google. Click-through rates from Yahoo! improved 123% year over year but were still the lowest of the top three engines. Costs per click were highest on Google, followed by Bing.

Overall, 32% of search clicks studied by WebVisible in Q3 2009 resulted in conversion on an advertiser’s Website, as defined by the advertiser. The fastest-growing conversion action was video viewing, with 16.9% watching a video in Q3 2009, up from less than 1% a year earlier.

While businesses that spent more on search advertising tended to purchase more keywords, there was not a significant difference in click-through or Web conversion rates across spending categories of more than $100.

VerticalResponse reported that one-quarter of small businesses increased their spending on some form of search marketing in 2009. More than 45% planned to up spending on the tactic next year.