CS2 Live

BY: Brian Sullivan

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.

BY: Keith Essary

I recently read an article that spoke to the enormity of information being generated each day throughout the Internet.  In addition to the thousands of articles being generated from traditional web powerhouses such as ESPN and the New York Times, the article insinuates that user generated content has pushed the information on the internet to new levels.  In fact Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying “Every two days, we create as much information as we did up to 2003.”

This statistic is certainly not hard to believe with all of the blog platforms, social streams, and video content uploaded every minute. It is also not surprising that many of the new apps we read about are geared towards organizing this information in order to keep the “signal-to-noise” ratio in balance for consumers (does it seem there is a new RSS reader or social portal app launched everyday?). And older technologies such as search engines are battling to keep up as is illustrated by Google integrating Twitter mentions into hot topic search results.

Like consumers, advertisers are facing a similar “signal-to-noise” problem. In other words, there are so many options and segments that advertisers have to be careful to recognize the noise – or at least prioritize it. For example, when a Facebook user declares in their profile that they like BMW, does this make them the right audience for a BMW (or Lexus) advertisement? Is that as powerful as a consumer who Googles “BMW for sale”? Today, it is not uncommon for a digital advertising campaign to include display, search, video, blogging, PR, mobile, email, and social components using numerous platforms. An obvious risk is spreading the budget too thin and not being effective on any channel. In turn, this is also one contributor to digital marketing being allocated a higher percentage of the overall budget.

There is hope for advertisers. Amidst all the clutter, new technologies are emerging and a fundamental shift is occurring. This technological shift could push advertising to the next level in terms of targeting. Consider that the line between the Internet and real life has diminished. A growing amount of collected data comes from real world actions such as social check-ins and purchases. Also consider that conversations that previously happened over closed channels like email are now happening over open platforms like Twitter and Facebook, where the information can be indexed and recorded by the platforms themselves. Therefore new options arise, such as Lexus marketing to people who have visited a BMW dealer recently or to people who have mentioned buying a BMW while conversing with their friends.

Will advertising based on real-world behavioral information (not to be confused with the internet term “behavioral advertising”) be more fruitful than advertising based on user-input data such as profiles and search phrases?

BY: Brian Sullivan

Thought leadership should be the goal for all communications.

You have probably heard the term, thought leadership. It is usually used in the context of brainstorming or strategic planning and refers to experts in various fields offering thoughts or advice on a particular subject. These thoughts are not intended to necessarily get to “the answer”, but to direct or lead the deeper thinking on the subject that takes place with a smaller group at a later date. However, our team believes thought leadership has another definition within advertising and marketing. One of the things we do as communicators is find ways to invoke or promote thoughts (or feelings) about a particular subject. The subjects vary from brand image to product promotions and almost everything in between.

Our ideas, stimulants or disruptants (a new word I just made up) are intended to invoke thought. These thoughts are meant to cause some kind of action whether it is a direct purchase, a visit to a website, or to start a dialogue.

Once our targets have seen or read our communications and we have invoked a thought or consideration, we now want to lead to the next step. As I mentioned earlier, this first step could be a number of things but the second step is where you can build some real value. The second step is for the consumer to feel a connection with your product or service. A connection so strong that they will tell others about it. This could be word of mouth or better yet through one of your social media channels.

If you can lead your targets to the second step, you will find out all kinds of things you may not have ordinarily known. Take the case of the new Pampers diaper with “Dry Max” that was supposed to be lighter and more absorbent than previous options. After the product rollout and a strong call to use the new product, parents around the world were complaining that the diapers caused a strange rash. P&G reacted defensively by blaming the parents and claiming they monitored 300,000 diaper changes over 6 years to make sure the diapers were safe. Well, P&G, your real world research is telling you differently. One parent started a facebook page protesting and had over 3,000 people sign on as friends. Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/05/pampers_problems.html

The rash of complaints prompted Ad Age magazine to call the new diaper roll-out a marketing blunder akin to New Coke (that is a whole other blog post).

How is this rash of negativity good? Well, their consumers took the second step because P&G has committed to social media as a tool and their consumers were led there by this commitment. Despite the fact that all the press and comments were negative, P&G has stepped up their social media commitment so they can maintain a dialogue with their consumers.

It is important to consider not only what thought you want to invoke from your targets, but how you can lead them through a full communications cycle.

BY: Brian Sullivan

Chick-fil-a advertising represents how a great creative idea still requires great courage on behalf of the client and agency.

We have an art director at the agency whose family is from Mississippi. Like many of us, his parents don’t exactly know what he does. His mother came to visit the agency one day and relayed a conversation she had with one of her friends about the Chick-fil-a outdoor boards. Apparently, she told her friend that her son had done those billboards (which he did not, hence the idea that our parents don’t know exactly what we do). Her friend responded by saying somebody needs to tell him those are dairy cows.

Funny thing is, she’s right. They are dairy cows. Which, of course are raised for milk and not beef. Now, unless you are from an area that has a lot of cows or your family is in the cow business, you may not know which cows are dairy cows and which ones are beef cows. However, you probably know that beef comes from cows and that the animal on the Chick-fil-a billboards is indeed a cow.

So, what is more important? That the right type of cow is represented or that you make sure people can recognize it as a cow.

For reference, most, not all, beef cattle are either black or brown and are generally a single color. On an outdoor board, there is no telling what that would look like. More times than not, when you see a cow represented in anything from the Far Side cartoons to movies to advertising, it is the Holstein (black and white) dairy cows. So, because of that type of exposure and their distinctive markings, they are the most recognizable. Not to mention that for some reason (maybe all those Far Side cartoons), they seem to have a little more personality. Don’t you think so?

Imagine the conversation…we want to use cows to tell people to eat more chicken. Get it. The cows are trying to save themselves from the slaughter house by getting more people to eat chicken. Specifically, Chick-fil-a chicken sandwiches. That’s hilarious. And, since we don’t think people will easily recognize actual beef cattle, we want to use dairy cows. Wait a second…

Again, ask yourself what is more important? That the right type of cow is represented or that you make sure people can recognize it as a cow.

The idea in this case transcends the need to be 100% accurate in your portrayal of the cow. The more recognizable cow helps sell the message. But, this kind of decision takes courage. You know there could be some backlash, but you also know that if the idea is strong and consistent with your brand personality, consumers are willing to give you some latitude.

The art to the science of advertising is knowing when you have a great idea and when you just have a funny idea. Those two things are not always the same. The basis to the art must be rooted in solid strategy and preferably research.

Know your audience. Know your competition. Know yourself. Further, a clearly defined brand platform with positioning, promise, personality, beliefs and behaviors will help you determine whether you have a great idea that is appropriate for your brand.

This type of knowledge and understanding will give you the courage necessary to make decisions about your message or maybe even what type of cow you should use to deliver your message.

BY: Brian Sullivan

One of the many things I love about the communications (a more sophisticated word than advertising) business, is the possibilities for delivering your message to your audience are only limited by your imagination.  Continue Reading »

BY: Brian Sullivan

I always take advantage of the opportunity to speak with people who are trying to figure out what they want to do in life.   Whether it is speaking at career day at a local high school, meeting with my friends’ children, or interviewing people applying for an internship, I take the time, because people did the same for me.
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BY: Amy Sharp

If you have any interest in advertising, and don’t mind the occasional dropping of a few hundred f-bombs, if you ever get the chance, see the movie Art & Copy.
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