It’s 2012 planning time! We recently sat down with one of our clients for their yearly budget review.  This usually involves wading through a 3-ring binder of the previous year’s activities to discuss what worked, what didn’t, etc. – not exactly riveting material but always a good exercise. So as we began the meeting, I was startled to hear our client say, “DON’T OPEN THE BINDER.” He wanted to take a different approach and start off discussing the state of his business today and hear everyone’s off-the-cuff thoughts on the future of it without being distracted by all the detail of last year’s plan. The thing that I found so enjoyable about the conversation that followed was that it immediately put me in a different mindset. It kept me from whining about why we didn’t do this or that, wondering if we actually reached our prospect audience with the media we chose for “x, y or z” campaign, or immediately stressing over ever-decreasing budgets. It also made it much easier to propose “what ifs” without being saddled with the intricacies of how we could reallocate this or that part of the existing budget to make room for it. An article I read this summer in Fast Company (I haven’t plugged it in months!) about Conan O’Brien explained it a different way. In the article, Conan explains the process of creating his nightly comedy show and the incredible pressure that goes along with it. “The formula is to prepare like crazy,” O’Brien says. “But then, just as you’re heading out, forget all of it.” A little schizophrenic, one might think, but in today’s ever-changing advertising landscape, it’s incredibly important to be flexible, willing to try new things, always ready to adapt to what is happening today. The industry just isn’t the same anymore. If you aren’t capable of evolving with it, you’re going to get left behind.

If you’re interested in reading more about the Conan O’Brien article or the other “100 Most Creative People in Business,” go to http://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2011.

Blogging has evolved from the relatively innocent online diary to a multi-million dollar pimping business.

In the beginning, people were blogging about things they actually cared about.  Blogs were personal, allowing people to step over the proverbial too much information line with great regularity. We discovered that most people lead an existence not too dissimilar from our own, but for some reason, they enjoyed sharing details and we enjoyed reading about them. Of course, not all blogs were purely personal. There were journalists, wannabe journalists and category experts that found a home to share their thoughts. Some people gathered quite a following by sharing information online, writing about politics, travel, fashion, music, parenting, etc.

The number of followers for blogs grew organically at first, but as always, people found ways to make money off of them, and advertisers like us began to take notice. Bloggers began endorsing products, companies began soliciting content from subject matters experts to add some third party credibility to their own blogs. In my humble opinion, this intersection of followers and advertising is where we lost the essence of blogging – that authenticity and transparency that made blogs so compelling in the first place.

The average web surfer knows that bloggers and corporations are often in bed together, and if they didn’t, Congress made sure they were protected through recent legislation requiring bloggers to disclose any compensation received for their words. This isn’t the death of the advertising-influenced blog, but it does mean we have to work harder and smarter when bringing our content into the blogosphere.

Authenticity and transparency must be present in what we do. We need to be sure we are communicating with followers, not talking at them, and sharing content that is both useful and interesting. We need to be sure that our focus is on meeting the needs of our followers, not just in meeting our immediate business objectives. And like we preach with every single tactic we present to our clients, it must be strategic.

There is nothing wrong with blogging for dollars, as long as you’ve got something interesting to say.

Concerned citizens are protesting, governments on both sides of the Atlantic are investigating, comedians are mining the hoopla for laughs. Wendi Deng’s slap heard ‘round the world has already become a meme all its own, hitting the online trifecta of animated gif, someecard design and Urban Dictionary entry nearly overnight. Yes, being Wendi-slapped is officially a thing now.

Beyond the handwringing and backpedaling, the controversy has launched an important conversation about journalistic ethics, individual privacy rights and the occasionally too-cozy relationship between reporters and their official sources. It’s also spawned a movement for responsible web surfing in the process.

For those looking to disassociate themselves from Murdoch’s massive media empire in the wake of the scandal, there are now several tools to make Internet browsing News Corp-free.

From Business Insider:
Murdoch Alert, a Firefox add-on, warns an Internet surfer when he or she stumbles upon a Murdoch-owned site. (A previous program called Murdoch Block simply wouldn’t allow browsers to go to any page owned by News Corp or its subsidiaries without permission from the user of the computer.)

Even if you think that the criminal acts of a few don’t necessarily reflect the corporate ethos of a whole, the Murdoch Alert add-on is still fascinating in the way it illustrates the expansive reach of News Corporation online. It’s a good reminder of the importance of the Internet as a repository for unfiltered, multifaceted news content in the face of the growing monopoly-based approach of traditional news sources.

Recently I have noticed a stream of chatter about the number of subscribers (likes) on a Facebook page not being used as a metric of success. When I hear or read it, it is usually accompanied with statements about having a small community of dedicated followers genuinely interesting in conversing about the company or brand. I may loose some peer points by saying this, but for most businesses, this is a misguided approach to Facebook.

Generating brand-consumer and consumer-consumer conversation on Facebook is an important goal. However, this is obtained through a high number of subscribers who use the inherent features of Facebook. Further, strategizing toward this single goal tends to produce some tactics and campaigns that I can only describe as “reaching”, which can lead to a failed initiative or negative ROI. To drive it home even more, this goal alone barely scratches the surface of the benefits provided by Facebook.

A company has to carefully consider how best to position itself on Facebook, including defining a strategy and being deliberate with its execution.  However, fundamental marketing tactics should not be ignored or replaced with something entirely new.

First and foremost a business must understand that, within Facebook, they are operating among consumers in a technical construct similar to a consumer, but they are still a business and are expected to behave as such. In my experience, most consumers expect something that falls within the realm of a basic business function – customer service, support, promotions, offers, public relations, brand loyalty programs, etc.  The first challenge is about developing engaging methods to perform any combination of these existing functions on Facebook. With proper concept and execution, the dedicated followers and conversations can naturally occur.

When performed in moderation, the notion that if a business markets to consumers on Facebook in a traditional manner they will be disliked, is simply false. Rather, if a business attempts to be something they are not in order to solicit conversation, they run the risk of being labeled artificial or “trying to hard”.

Experimenting with Facebook is great way to gain an understanding of how consumers will receive marketing tactics and standard business functions on Facebook. For example, if a business knows it obtains a .03% redemption rate of a particular coupon through a direct mailing, drop a coupon to the business’ Facebook subscribers or through a Facebook advertising campaign and compare the results. Another helpful tactic is to make wall posts rooted in different business functions and compare the interactions to the posts.

Through all the hype and struggle to “be social”, remember that, at the base level Facebook is a media just like any other media and fundamental philosophies should be applied.  More subscribers means more marketing opportunities – sometimes it’s just that simple.

I check out the Wall of these Facebook pages from time to time:

Chili’s: Primarily offers, coupons and giveaways – 923,763 subscribers.

Home Depot: Primarily an extension of their existing sell-by-how-to approach blended with public relations and general conversation – 411,130 subscribers.

Sears: A combination of customer service and product promotion blended with general conversation – 631,136 subscribers.

Facebook: Promotion through user success stories and announcements – 47,815,792 subscribers.

I think it is funny how much I have been reading lately about the persuasive power of recommendations from friends and family.  People are acting as if this is some new phenomenon that has just occurred in the millennial generation (ages 16-34). People have been asking their friends and family about the quality of goods, services or entertainment options probably since the beginning of time.

Q: Hey, should we go to the gladiator fight at the colosseum tonight?

A: I went last night and it was pretty boring.  These new prisoners are too weak for the Lions.

I am probably not going.

I read a great modern day example today that a movie production company could spend $100 million on producing a movie, $50 million on marketing it and if my friend says it sucked, I am not going.  If I am looking for anything from a washing machine to a car, I am asking people for their recommendations and experiences.

So, what does this mean to a marketer?  It means that if you provide forums for people to share insights and comments on your product or service, these comments could act like the recommendations from friends and family.  They are not quite as influential because there is no true relationship with the people making the comments but still effective.  This could come in the form of a facebook page or providing a way for people to leave comments on your e-commerce site.  Either way, it is the power of this persuasion that every marketer should be thinking about how to tap into.

For example, I recently was looking for a pair of trail shoes.  I don’t spend a lot of time on trails, but I like the way they look and feel. As I scoured the Zappos website, I read every comment about each pair of shoes I considered.  Some were talking about the shoes giving out after a 100 miles or so, some were talking about how great they tackled uneven surfaces, some were talking about how great they felt just walking around town.  All good information which was presumably from actual users (personally, I believe I can spot planted comments pretty easily).

Ultimately, I decided on a shoe based on my preferences supported by the comments by those who owned the shoes.  For the record, I did my research on the internet, but bought the shoes locally in an effort to support local retailers.  Those comments helped me make a decision.  Some were positive and some were negative giving me all the real world information I needed to make an informed decision.

Do you pay attention to comments online?  Do you make comments online?  If so, do you have to feel really strongly one way or another to take the time to make a comment?

There is an old saying attributed to a senior marketing executive that says…I know 50% of my advertising doesn’t work, I am just not sure which 50%.  Since then, the industry has found many new metrics to help judge the effectiveness of marketing efforts, and  the world of online advertising has taken tracking to a whole new level. Even with all these new metrics, we haven’t gotten to that utopian place where we know that 100% of our budget is working.

I read the attached blurb recently in ADWEEKMEDIA and thought it did a good job of explaining the value of ad impressions online.  Impressions aren’t new and they aren’t the end themselves.  As I have stated many times before, and is echoed in this blurb, whether you are talking about social media, online advertising or television the thing we are all after is consumers.  This new research helps us get a step closer.

According to research done by MediaMind, an online advertising solutions provider, you can take the number of unique visitors you are after and multiply it by 10 to get the equivalent impressions.  This holds true up to a target of about 18 million unique visitors.  Above that, the ratio changes to around 15 impressions per desired unique user.

It’s time to start impressing.

Acknowledging that some consumers hate your product is nothing new. You don’t have to go too far back into the recent past to find examples of other companies airing their dirty laundry to regain public credibility (see Domino’s admission of subpar pizza for proof).

But this is different. This isn’t a mea culpa for a product gone awry. Miracle Whip is drawing a definitive, creamy line in the sand, saying that though it might not be for everyone, the spread has a place in the hearts of plenty of sandwich lovers out there. The brand has carved out a special niche for those who truly get their product and provided those brand loyalists a forum to share their preference with the world. They have stoked the competitive fires, and their loyalists have responded to the challenge – it must be noted that those in favor of the spread currently outnumber those opposed by a margin more than 17 to 1 on the official YouTube page.

And their choice of celebrity spokespeople, although bizarrely varied, serves a purpose too. The always classy Pauly D appears on camera declaring, “I hate Miracle Whip so much. I tell you. If I had a girlfriend who liked Miracle Whip, it’s a deal-breaker.”

Congratulations, Miracle Whip, you might have just given me a reason to purchase your product.

I caught the tail end of a Willie Nelson interview a few weeks ago. I am not sure if it was a planned plug or genuine, but during the interview Willie made reference to not smoking marijuana anymore. He claims he now uses a vaporizer to lessen the lung damage as he gets older.

Curious, I went Googling to find out what a vaporizer is.  As usual, Google came through and, within minutes, I was well versed in modern weed vernacular and technique. I closed my tabs and moved on.

For the next few days, almost every website I visited presented me with a banner advertisement promoting marijuana paraphernalia. For a guy like me, who often demos website functionality on my computer, this was somewhat embarrassing. However, it is a great example of Behavioral Targeting on Display Networks.

While Behavioral Targeting is not really a new technology, it is still one of the biggest weapons Display Networks use to compete with the more precise demographic targeting available on social networks. BT, which displays ads to users based on their web browsing activity, generally competes for the same space on a website as ads that are displayed based on the context of the site. Over the last few years, we have seen BT maturing, but it’s still not without problems. There are technical challenges for accuracy, and it’s relatively expensive, as many publishers request a premium over contextual advertising. On the flip side, we have seen higher conversion rates coming from BT ads over contextual ads in some applications. Although the benefit is wide, most people believe BT primarily benefits in the product purchasing cycle, making it more relevant for certain brands than others.

With Facebook now serving nearly one third of all display advertisements in the U.S., expect traditional online ad networks like Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to continue ramping up and tweaking technologies such as BT.

Keep in mind that social networks have barely scraped the surface of the behavioral concept, but assume it’s coming. When it does, it could be a game changer as advertisers may be able to display messages based on a user’s real-world activities and conversations with friends.

For advertisers, targeting is only going to get more precise. Personally, I’m just glad Rogaine isn’t running a BT campaign – vaporizers was embarrassing enough.

With growing dismay I read articles about bookstores closing in Memphis. Most recently, Davis-Kidd Booksellers. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/apr/22/davis-kidd-landlord-urged-make-concessions-save-bo/.  I am just now getting over the Barnes & Noble chain “Bookstar” closing in Poplar Plaza and now this? To some extent I don’t believe it. Just walk in Davis-Kidd at any time of the day and you’ll find an almost rabid following. From moms slurping Starbucks while their toddlers drool over everything in the kids’ play area (the children’s section is not for the faint of heart) to a three-hour wait for special events (I mistakenly tried to breeze in for a purchase during the Michael Oher I Beat the Odds book signing).  I know, I know – e-books – amazon.com – blah blah blah… Save it.

First, in the Davis-Kidd case, I firmly believe that it’s all smoke and mirrors obscurring the even more depressing, greedy power struggle over the bookstore. Second, believe me, I recognize everything’s going digital. I buy books online, but the message that seems to be screaming here is: “Bookstores of the world, it’s time to reinvent yourseIf.” Anyone with a brain and some start-up money is about to have a unique opportunity in Memphis. Davis-Kidd proves there are still emotional, cultish bibliophiles out there. Spend five minutes in that particular store and you’ll realize it’s as much about the atmosphere and community as it is about the books themselves. Start building your business around that. Throw the mega-bookstore plan out the window. Develop a new, smaller community – include e-book/reader sales – start a storewide book club – focus on customer service and build that brand loyalty. All the depressed Davis-Kidd lovers are looking for a place to shelve theirs.

I learned a new term today, m-commerce.  Yep, commerce done on the mobile web.  Each year the behavior on mobile sites and online more closely mimic each other.

It seems people are quick to adopt new methods or sources to research purchases but opt to make purchases in the manner in which they always have.  They will eventually change their purchase behavior but much slower than their research behavior.

As you can see in the attached graph, people are researching and booking more and more travel on mobile devices.  EMarketer projects about 20 million mobile phone users will research their trips on their phones this year, but only 9 million (44%) will actually book via their phone.  Additionally, they suggest the percentage that book will increase to 51% next year which still lags the 84% of researchers who buy online.

The gap is closing making mobile an even more important consideration for marketers.