Posted on by — Leave a comment

Interesting Concept – Think Customers – Not Campaigns

If they truly live what they say, it sounds like I’d like these people.

“Too many marketing organizations are still underperforming due to a “think campaigns” mentality rather than “think customers” mentality. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. To make the transition from campaigns to customers-and reap the rewards-organizations must begin by gaining a strategic focus. Using the four best practices of relationship marketing, help identify your marketing organization’s weakest link when it comes to building more profitable customer relationships and then choose the best Enterprise Marketing Management solution for filling the technology gaps. From increasing their customer IQ to bringing measurement up to customer speed, companies like BMO Bank of Montreal are becoming relationship marketing leaders, and they have the results to prove it. Think customers.”

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Yes.com Tells You the Song on the Radio

It would have been so cool if they had things like this when I was a kid. I know what some of you are saying, “Dave, they do have stuff like this and you still are a big kid!” Well my youthful appearance aside, the concept of yes.com is certainly neat. Hear a song and know the time it was played and don’t know what it is? No problem. Just go to yes.com within 24 hours and you can look it up, rate it and even buy it from Itunes if it’s available. You’ve got to like that. The rating is potentially a great example of customer listening if the feedback were to reach a critical mass. 

I would have done one thing differently in launching the site however. While it was a smart more to put the radio station access panel on a different site(many sites with two audiences fail to do this and blur their value proposition), yes.net (now redirected), to segment the customer base, they only got it partially right. The yes.com site is nowhere in the top ten for the phrase “find song on radio” and the yes.net site shows up with out a description tag. They should have launched a “coming soon” e-mail collection page for yes.com and developed a linking campaign to it as it should be the #1 Google result for the term.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Developing an Integrated Local Media Strategy

Warren Kay – Yahoo!

Fred Lebolt – Chicago Sun-Times

Shawn Reigsecker, Founder and President, Centro

Marc Barach, CMO, Ingenio, Inc.

Local based online advertising will likely mirror offline advertising; becoming 1/3 of all spending over time.

Fred Lebolt – Integration must occur before local and then integrated local. Most have not begun the integration process. Audience targeted delivery.  F+B+M = A Frequency + Branding + Messaging = Audience – the integration piece. Marketing analysis to figure out integrated strategy. The second strategy is local strategy. To me it means geography. Advertisers say they want mass media at the local level. Changing these messages is work. Hard work. Having the offline piece is our greatest advantage. Client example – US Cellular, bundled offline and online campaign covering.

Warren Kay – Two sides of the equation – location and advertisers. National advertisers increasingly want to tailor – zip code, etc. Subscription based model for small businesses.
Pay for performance that is variable. National advertisers can adjust the message.  Online portal. We struggle with what is local internally. Local small businesses spend money nationally.

Marc Baruch – We are so early in this game. 98% of businesses have never purchased online advertising. There is a huge disconnect. When I think of integration, I think that is step two. Getting more people online is step one. Driving customers to a web site is a tactic, not a strategy. Pay for performance is the model for now. Before we get to integrated platforms, we need an expanded group of products. Any media is not susceptible to pay for performance adverting. I think integration is a long way off as the number of ways to do things is expanding.

Shawn Riegsecker – We are the leading provider of local media. We have access have access to over 3,000 publishers. This is a really timely topic. This is the first local panel at an ad:tech. When you think about clients, very few are truly national. How search drove advertising for the last few years, local will be doing now for the next several years. Brands want content. When I talk, I talk about national versus local, I’m not talking local versus local. I come at it form a different view. We are missing out on the largest content play available. You can’t buy the search engine front pages at the local level. To move forward, there needs to be a common platform.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Mobile Marketing Ecosystem: Framing the Market and the Value Chain

The one that is clear to me is that the mobile marketing space has more questions than answers.

Panel:
Peter Fuller – Founder and Managing Partner, i-Jump
Courtney Jane Acuff, Associate Director, Denuo

Numerous doors of entry:
Reaching consumers:
SMS (text messaging)
WAP (wireless web)
MMS (multimedia)
WAP banners
Video
Starstar dialing (new data dialing service)

Wireless web – about 5% using it currently.

Rich brand experience coming via MMS

The carriers don’t always play nice in the sandbox. Aggregators play a role. Agencies need to understand

Zoove.com – domains

Putting it all together:
Think of the mobile phone as a newspaper, television, Internet, game player, note passer (text), wallet and telephone – in one.

Create a complete user and brand experience, as you would create typical offline cross-media campaign.

Services that you can make money on like service communications are interesting.

Metrics piece needs to be figured out.

In the end it’s all about money, revenue streams are in question.

It’s frustrating and exciting, that things become obsolete constantly.

A discussion about best practices and the challenges of making them work is adopted.

McDonald’s – 15 million Big Mac boxes – game pieces – lead to opt-in.

Axe – free ring tone promotion

Kellogg’s – healthy eating tips.

Cost – $50,000 minimum to play – technical integration, properly, short code, hosting – the media to support it.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Making Search Even More Efficient! Increasing Your Search Ranking Via PR and Search as a Branding Mechanism

Frederick Marckini, iProspect

You tube is a search engine you can search using keywords.

Estimates Youtube is getting more reach than Myspace, estimated to be worth $600 Million

How we search where we click. There is no paid or natural.

Tabs are pre-empting search. You need to be in all of the tabs. 4x the reach with number one ranking. What is the number one ranking now though?

72% organic and 28% ads Google

Yahoo 40% organic 60%

All search is meta search. Invisible tabs – content pre-empts search results.

4x improvement from 2-9 to #1 in Google.

Tactics: pay-per-call, 92% of people conversion activity occurs offline -survey customers offline to find ideas.

Offline affects conversion rates and lowers CPA.

Yahoo! And Google News tabs are important. They can show up either in the news tab or in search results forever. 

Keyword research – different audiences use different vocabulary ”Swirl marks” – paint “Lending” –  GPS vs global conversation

“Prior learning” – educational learning – “get into the language of your customer” longer the query – the higher the conversion rate. – but 88% comes with 1 or 2 words.

Search Funnel is a myth. There is no funnel. Broad search, then destination retailer.

Header term, General Term, Specific (branded), Destination/Retailer Search

How to spot an SEO savvy web site. Web site must have text and links to be found. Keyword prominence, frequency, placement, link quantity, link quality, link context, title tag is now your meta tag, domain name, use text, don’t use pictures for text.

Allison Kane, Atlas Search –
Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution, to the complex symbol leading to changes in brand image.

Brand Location – Are you easy to find? 40% of brand keyword and URL search clicks are first time visitors. 60% are repeat purchasers. Make sure you are first in natural search results.  Measure your brand terms separately.

Brand Building – When they are between brands, building the brand. Lexus and performance. Search is not full of branders, there are more people with a direct marketing background. Where is search leading your clients to?

Brand Experience – Do you use search to deliver positive brand experience. What about existing customers, should I be thinking about them? Example – “Nordstrom returns” search. Very few brands are utilizing customer experience keywords.

“Branding online comes from experience not the exposure” – Jakob Nielsen

Greg Jarboe – SEO-PR
(crowd gets extremely attentive for Greg’s speech)
75% of journalists search the Internet for previous stories on their subject.

Yahoo News is number two in online news. New York Times is number nine.

A “Consumer” magazine “reports” Press releases can often outrank the news stories.

Knowledge workers are increasingly turning to press releases due to lack of others.

Superpages.com – Replaced sex for gender.  Save your client for being found for the wrong term.

Romantic dining got ranked number 2 in Yahoo News and number 5 in Google News.

Morningstar.com is running press releases.

Tivo for search. Tracking links.

3,229 visits generated 2,715 clickthroughs – a 84% conversion rate!!!

It’s not just the press release. Track the publicity.

Can a press release increase your branding? Yes! 

Where to submit – used to use PR Web – has become your own link farm. All Wire Services are not equal. Conduct tests.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Disruptive Technology for Fun and Profit, Sponsored by Avenue A | Razorfish

Moderated by Dave Friedman, president, Avenue A | Razorfish Central region

Denise Chudy, Google

Marc Stephens, Michael Miller, Bruce Woolsey – Avenue A | Razorfish

This session was awesome in that they just took questions from the get go and it was a confident and free flowing session with a lot of progressive thought and positive energy in the room!  

Mark – Apple, Ipod, Itunes

Denise Chudy – Automotive – now Consumer Package Goods – General Motors is taking risks.

Michael Miller – Online properties of ATT – ATT/SBC – through Word of Mouth

Bruce Woolsey – New Media – Buzzmetrics – algorithms of data analysis – leveraging data of combinations Gatorade – Buddy TV – interactive – 125,000 friend on myspace from simpler. People are still cautious with banners.

Denise – Use Google Video

Michael – how to you measure the value of the something on myspace. Using myspace is a delicate balance.

Mark – It will continue to evolve.

Michael – Dremel – don’t try to replace fragmented discussions.

Bruce – Get over the fear. It’s done. More ways to engage with consumers!

Denise – build the niche audience. Movie studios are getting word out quickly.

Audience – How do I make fragmentation my friend?

Bruce – Mobile media. You don’t need to be yet. 18 months from now, it is going to be different. Do some test marketing with Mobile.

Audience – Where do you see marketing going?
Bruce – Evolution. People are in control. Do you really want to copy TV? (as it is dying).

Mark – Higher level of accountability points to the digital side leading it.

Michael – Percentage wise – are less than 5%

Audience – How do you see mobile marketing transforming and developing in the US?

Denise – Click to call – relevancy – short messages – testing it in Japan – Google Maps. When they are looking – not push.

Mark – Largest platform. Can’t blast things out. The industry needs to self-police this issue. Mobile is going to be powerful. Ad supported content.

Dave Friedman – Could there be ad supported content model for mobile?

Bruce – Video is going to be interesting. Advertainment. Branded applications. I can download running routes.

What disruptive technologies are getting ready to launch and create adoption?

Denise – API adoption in consumer brands.

Mark – Google Video and Youtube are game changers.

Michael – The existing forms are getting better and better.

Bruce – Advertising approaches where the consumer is in demand. Interactive video is the most powerful medium we’ve ever had to use. How does one chose that?