Influential Interactive Marketing

The Consumer as Advertiser

With all of the attention devoted to the many new ways that consumers are finding to avoid advertising, from Tivos to popup blockers, one interesting result of the explosive growth of personal media is the phenomenon of the consumer as advertiser.  One popular example is when Joe Jaffe created a Nike spot with the hanging golf ball within hours of the network broadcast of Tiger Woods' shot.  Another more recent example is Firefox's new open source marketing campaign where they ask their enthusiastic customers/followers to create video spots for them in something ClickZ called "community driven marketing."  Today, anyone can take Photoshop and create a print ad - or create short online videos and audio clips.  Coupled with the rise of the consumer evangelist, these technologies are now giving individuals the power to create their own advertising messages to evolve what was previously "just" word of mouth marketing into something even more powerful. 

Of course, the rise of the consumer advertiser also has many dangers.  When advertisers no longer control their messages, there is the potential for misunderstanding and dilution of a marketing strategy.  But the potential for real and honest advertising (an oxymoron in most people's view) has suddenly become possible, and should not be ignored.  Is letting people put their own message on a Nike shoe dangerous?  Sure.  But the possibility for a branded personal experience where the consumer controls the message is a remarkable new reality.  As the act of creating content becomes more and more common for the average online users, my view is that companies who have the dialogue with their evangalist customers (like Firefox) will be the ones who can successfully use these consumer creating advertising messages as part of an new media advertising campaign.  If word of mouth marketing lessons taught us that it is important to let your customers do your selling for you ... why not let them do the advertising too?

Passat Uses 120 Online Videos to Engage Users

About a month ago, I read about VW releasing a new microsite as part of their marketing for the new Passat where they would include 120 short videos produced by 5 different production companies to highlight the 120 "not-so-standard" new features on the car.  Over the last few months, there have been lots of other signs pointing to the arrival of online video as more than just a venue to send short clips of silly stuff like Al Roker falling over while reporting a hurricane.  As broadband penetration has inched higher and higher, the promise of online video was always there - but now with mainstream products like the new iPod Video, the Sony Playstation, and other devices making online video downloads less for geeks and more of a hip activity ... online video has hit mainstream.

Looking at the Passat site, it is an interesting combination of curiosity marketing (something I have posted about before) and great use of online video through extremely short montage style videos that illustrate the level of thought and innovation that have gone into the new Passat.  Though I doubt people may run out and buy the car from watching several short online videos about features such as the "impact deformable steering wheel" - the site does create an immersive experience and demonstrate the many benefits of the new car in a way that online users are likely to interact with.  I just bought a Passat two years ago, and they made me want to at least see the new one in person to find out about these 120 features.  For an online effort, I'd say they achieved their goal.   

Interactive Moves the Agency "Line"

In a lively discussion of all the judges as part of the Caples Awards that I was in New York last week to help judge - one of the topics of conversation turned to the composition of today's multidiscipline agency teams.  With the trends towards integrated marketing and agency consolidation in the industry, what many people noted had happened across the world in their agencies was the mashing together of individuals with very different skills and views into a single agency environment.  Of course, a forced marriage always has issues and many of these issues were being felt most deeply by agency clients.

This was proven by the results of the recently released Salz Survey of Advertiser-Agency Relations which was covered earlier this week in the New York Times and found that "significant differences still prevent advertisers and agencies from working together more productively."  As the article noted:

The results "are a real reflection that the industry is in a huge state of flux," as advertisers and agencies scramble to keep up with the seemingly continuous changes in consumer behavior, media choices and categories ranging from automobiles to packaged foods to telecommunications.

Clients used to have different agencies for their media planning, public relations, creative/advertising, direct marketing, and interactive.  Through time, agencies (and clients) consolidated many disciplines and union created inequality in many cases.  And where there is inequality, money wins.  TV gets the big bucks, so interactive and direct became add ons and the client relationship was managed centrally from a traditional advertising point of view.  This demotion of interactive and direct marketing activities as "below the line" separated these professionals from client interaction and ultimately limited the differing viewpoints, strategy and creative ideas that were presented to clients.  As the Salz Survey has shown, clients are telling agencies that they want to interact with the team members that have the best ideas for driving their brand and products forward, no matter what silo they fit into.  They want a transparent, flat structured and flexible team.  As we go into 2006 - this points to an increased role and importance for those below the line activities, especially interactive and other disciplines such as word of mouth marketing and viral marketing.  Seems like "the line" is moving. 

The Word of Blog

Imagine if online media outlets only ran advertising that they agreed with?  Of course, this level of censorship would never be tolerated (or legal), however blogs hold a special distinction when it comes to running advertising.  As a blog owner, you have complete control over what ads you display.  Unfortunately, the most prevalent form of advertising on blogs is Google's Adwords program, which is automatically served through keyword matches.  BlogAds offers more control, but there are still limitations and many ads served are for commercial products (t-shirts, etc.).  Like many bloggers, I consider my blog a valuable place for me to not only try and share some of my thoughts on the world of marketing - but also as a venue to help to promote services or ideas that I believe in.  What about bloggers who want to spread the word about something they believe in, but don't necessarily have the right fit to make a blog post about it?

I came across an intriguing eAdvocacy site several weeks ago called the Word of Blog.  The mission of the site is described as:

Word of Blog enables blog owners to spread ideas and influence throughout the blogosphere, promote causes or services that they believe in, recommend products and organizations they like, and create communities of like-minded blog owners, all through blog word of mouth.

The site offers a listing of small banners and HTML code to be pasted onto your blog site to tell users about a particular cause or website.  The Word of Blog team cleverly includes a link below each banner driving users back to their own website, effectively branding every banner as part of their network.  What I love about this idea is that it delivers on the promise of the Internet from the 90s to be the great leveler, allowing smaller companies to finally compete with larger ones.  Now small nonprofits can reach out to bloggers and receive help in driving traffic on topics they both care about.  It's a great example of how the power of word of mouth marketing and consumer generated media can be amplified by simply making eAdvocacy and marketing messages available for use on blogs hosted by those who believe in those messages.

IMvertising in an Interruption Culture

We have been living in an interruption culture.  Many authors, including Seth Godin, have rightly pointed out the pitfalls of interruption marketing in this environment.  Grabbing the consumers attention with interruption and hoping for engagement is a dying model.  Consumer respond to messages that are relevant, and are presented at a relevant time.  Timing is the key.  But even as interruption marketing is failing, interruption communication is hotter than ever.  Instant messaging is interruptive by nature, and usage of IM is increasing.  A few days ago CNET just published their report indicating that nearly 66% of 13-21 year-olds say they send more IMs than e-mails.  Even more interestingly, the article notes that 58% of people are using it to communicate with colleagues at work.   So the question is, if interruption marketing doesn't work, why is interruption communication thriving?

Some could argue that IM messages are more personal, non-commercial and more relevant.  But I don't believe any of these arguments can fully account for why IM use is rising so dramatically.  Rather, I believe that in many ways, we like living in an interruption culture.  People sometimes want interruption.  Anyone who has procrastinated doing something or struggled to find inspiration knows that sometimes it is the interruption that allows us the clarity to complete a task.  In addition, IM gives us a virtual billboard that we can hang in front of ourselves to declare our physical and mental state (Busy/Out to Lunch/Online)  All of a sudden, everyone can tell if you are able to talk or not.  As a result, IM allows far more civilized interruption communications ... but they are still interruptions.  So if interruptions are ok as long as users have some amount of control, why shouldn't they be able to tell advertisers when they are receptive to being interrupted with their messages?  What if there was Opt-in IMvertising, where consumers could ask for marketing messages, or refuse them based on setting their current status?  Suddenly, instant communications with consumers as they watch television shows or shop/search for products online could be possible.  IM has the potential to be far more than a growing customer service/support tool online, and Opt-in IMvertising could lead the way.

Sun Tries to Make Servers Sexy

A recent print ad from Sun about the Fire X4100 server is modeled on a Playboy centerfold spread and features images of the server and quotes on the data sheet such as "I'm petite and powerful with plenty of room for cables."  The ad drives users online to www.sun.com/sweetdreams as a landing page to learn more about the campaign.  Unfortunately, the landing page does nothing with the core concept of the campaign, and as a result provides a great case study for how often web landing pages are a forgotten element when a campaign takes a uni-dimensional view of the consumer. 

The landing page does not contain any reference to the playful nature of the centerfold ad, and in fact the given URL simply redirects to a product page for the X4100.  The result is a confusing user experience where the potential power of an integrated marketing campaign is severly diluted.  In this lost opportunity, there are two key lessons that emerge for marketers planning an integrated campaign across multiple mediums:

1. Have a dedicated landing page instead of just directing (or redirecting) to an existing product/corporate page
2. Make sure the message and imagery is consistent between creative driving users to the landing page and what is featured on the page

Both seems like obvious points, but at times it seems that the necessity of including a URL along with the fact that most companies now have a web presence has created a phenomenon of including a website URL without thinking through the content on the page you are sending people to.  The result is that weak landing pages that lose the very consumers most valuable to connect with - the ones that chose to interact further with a campaign.  Improving the landing page is the key to keeping or losing those high value customers.

Email Marketing Needs to Get Back to Basics

Yesterday I came across this box banner ad for the Room Store on the Washington Post homepage.  As a consumer, I went to the Room Store 2 weeks ago, and fell in love with a two piece brown leather sofa set.  Since the list price is more than $2000, I figured I would wait for a sale.  So along comes this banner ad, which I click on hoping to find the sale I was waiting for.  But the imagery on the landing page suggests that this particular sale is just for mattresses.  So I continue to the website hoping to find an email form where I might opt-in to receive marketing messages about future sales.  Here I am, a consumer - knowing what I want, that I want to buy it from Room Store, that it is (presumably) a high margin item for the store, and wanting to placed on their marketing list ... and I came away from the site anonymously.  They don't know who I am, or anything about my purchase intent.

As far as squandered opportunities go, this would seem fairly huge ... but certainly not common, right?  Wrong, according to a new article from Marketing Sherpa (article has free access until 10/23).  In their coverage of a survey released by SilverPop today, they state that 29% of the top 360 companies (as listed by Dun & Bradsteet rankings) don't offer an email opt-in form anywhere on their Web sites!  With all the backlash against spam and making opt-outs easy, are marketers forgetting about the opt-ins?  Right now the prevailing "glass half empty" view of email marketing makes it a risky proposition where companies often have more legal reviews that content reviews of outbound marketing messages.  The lesson here is that successful email marketing campaigns need to focus on getting back to the basics ... a customer gives us their email address, and we send him/her relevant messages that they will care about.  It doesn't get much simpler than that.

The New Game of TV Marketing

A rising trend with the coming fall lineup for US TV networks is the desire and necessity to make shows more interactive.  Though the leap of making all show content available online seems a stretch for most shows (FOX's Reunion being a notable exception), legions of shows are using non-traditional ways to deepen their relationships with show viewers this season.  The Simpsons publishes podcasts with episode summaries through iTunes.  Entire season DVDs are out within 12 months of airing.  Lost is working with Entertainment Weekly on an integrated campaign to deliver cards informing about backstories for characters.  All the while, supplanting more traditional online banner advertising, on-air promos and episode trailers and show-related websites.  But unlike the past, TV show marketers is no longer focusing on a one way message.

For many years now, there have been message boards for show fans -- but now TV shows are starting to encourage and capitalize on them.  Last year several cast members of Lost were active contributers to fan message boards.   MediaPost reports today that a growing number of shows are choosing the BlogAds network to connect with potential show watchers and influencers.  And it helps that marketers are not *exclusively* promoting the same old shows either.  Content is getting better (due in no small part to the shrinking popularity of reality TV).  Movie stars are "defecting" to TV including Geena Davis, Chris O'Donnell, Kiefer Sutherland, Melanie Griffith, Dennis Hopper, Benjamin Bratt, Freddie Prinze, Jr. just to name a few. 

The bottom line is, even as experts predict it's Tivo-assisted demise, some TV marketers seems to be getting smarter about what it takes to engage an audience.  Fantasy Football helped the NFL to deepen it's connection to fans in a powerful way.  The use of new marketing ideas during the leadup to the new TV season echoes of achieving the same goal.   TV can be a popular driver of consumer generated media - and the more shows that recognize and tap into this - the more chance TV has of surviving greatly exaggerated reports of it's death.

Google Adsense vs. Yahoo/Overture Sponsored Search - An Advertiser's Review

As an advertiser from an agency who has worked with both systems for more than a year now, placing multiple client campaigns, here's my take on the good and bad of Google versus Overture (rebranded Yahoo):

Google - What's Good?

1. Campaign can be started immediately without having to wait through a review cycle (except for particular flagged keywords)
2. Easy to see all the expenses on a particular account and print invoices for each charge (even if there are lots of them)
3. Useful tool to help aggregate multiple client accounts into a single view "Client Center" (great for managing multiple campaigns)
4. Comprehensive online help system
5. Good online training resources to help new users better navigate the system and even get certified as Google Professionals

Google - What's not so Good?

1. Locked down post-pay model of invoicing based on scaled billing increments rather than letting you prepay your account (unless you live in some countries outside of the US). If the feature exists to prepay for others, why not allow me to give you all my money in one transaction?  With post-pay, I have to do expenses with 25 unique charges instead of just one per account ... wasting lots of my time.
2. $5 activation fee per account (I get why, but would love for this to go away or be credited to click charges)
3. Extremely limited area to write a text ad and have it make sense + deliver a compelling message
4. Suspicious new method for determining what the minimum bid for keywords should be (in one case, the minimum bid for a keyword I was interested in was $5 per click ... the next day it mysteriously went down to $2 per click) 

Yahoo/Overture - What's Good?

1. Ability to prepay a single amount for your campaign and have click charges deduct from this amount
2. Enough room to write a compelling sponsored text ad and have it make sense
3. $25 or $50 promotional bonus each time you start a new account (may not last, but it's great for now)
4. Great sales material and descriptions for how sponsored search works and why advertisers should consider it (selling not only their services, but the category as well)
5. Good login security through graphic security code requirement

Yahoo/Overture - What's not so Good?

1. Adding multiple client accounts under a single login must be done manually by calling and requesting it, then waiting from 1 hour to 2 days for it to be done
2. Automatic billing system charges when balance is low, rather than allowing advertisers to set a fixed campaign budget (very frustrating when you come in to find 15 charges for $30 each to your account overnight)
3. Review process for all keywords and descriptions means getting a campaign up quickly in cases of crisis or tight timelines is nearly impossible
4. No easy way to see all expenses/payments on an account (get a report, but no single invoices for each payment, which we need to account for charges)
5. Financial reports are done per month, but not updated quickly enough (ie - it's now Sept. 9th and I still don't have access to my August invoice)
6. Page by page help not very useful in finding answers to general problems not related to the page you're on
7. 95 day max for generating reports, which means to get overall campaign performance, I have to do two reports and manually add the numbers together.

Bottom line, I get that neither company wants to talk to me on the phone ... and I'm over it.  Search marketing is a self-service online advertising option and for the near future, advertisers will need to live with that (unless, of course, you're spending big bucks and have a dedicated account person).  The good news is that as a result, both services are making efforts to connect with customers in other ways, including the Inside Adwords blog from Google and the Yahoo Search Blog (more generally about search rather than search marketing, but it's the closest they have).  Hopefully, the blogs can also work to enable a two way communication where feedback like this post can make it to the right people, without being filtered by the gatekeepers.

Word of Mouth Marketing is not just Buzz

Whenever I describe the power of word of mouth marketing for clients, I'm careful to avoid putting the term "buzz" in the same sentence.  While creating a buzz is important and is certainly a component of word of mouth marketing, it also hints of transcience.  What constitutes buzz today can often be gone tomorrow.  Movie marketers focus on buzz ... in fact, many rely on it.  But this buzz is usually gone within a week or two and completely dies as a movie leaves theaters.  For Hollywood marketers, maybe that's ok - but not for the bulk of our clients. 

Word of mouth marketing strikes me as a far broader term which applies to many more of our client situations.  Sam Decker's recent post on a conceptual model for word of mouth marketing highlights the permanence of WOM as its main advantage over advertising.  As time progresses, capital investment dramatically decreases, as long as word of mouth marketing continues.  Yet, creating this sustained postive flow of WOM is challenging.  There is no denying that WOM is easier when a product or idea is new.  But as Decker notes, the most successful examples of growth through WOM (such as craigslist) continue to be ongoing beneficiaries of word of mouth marketing - not one time recipients of buzz.  I love BuzzAgent and the direction pushes the entire mainstream world of marketing towards ... but for word of mouth marketing to make a lasting difference, building a buzz is only the first step.

(Via: Strategic Public Relations Blog)

Scariest Viral Marketing Campaign Ever

Movie marketing is always fun to watch, because in the midst of all the formulaic voice-overs in the same baritone predicting a hero or heroine finding "the one thing they never expected" ... there is also a furious desire/necessity to do something different to connect with audiences and increase intrigue enough to get "bums in seats" at the theaters - or in this case, to purchase a DVD.  The newest viral campaign launched out of the UK for the recent DVD release of The Ring 2 is one of the best branded viral campaigns I've seen out there.  The campaign is described below by Dave Smith, director of the campaign from New Media Maze:

We have created the viral [campaign] upon key themes in the movie – if you watch the tape, your phone rings and you are told that you only have 7 days left to live. We’ve essentially recreated that experience online and the effect.

The site (www.7daysleft.com) allows individuals to enter a friend's email address and mobile phone number, and once the friend initiates a viewing of the online teaser, at the appropriate time an automated phone call is placed to their mobile phone where a voice whispers "seven days."  Creepy.  As with most great mobile phone based campaigns, it's not targeted or available to audiences in the US (probably due to the adolescent mobile phone service available in this country compared to Europe or Asia Pacific).  Still, the campaign is a great connection to the end product.  After all, if the marketing can be this scary ... just imagine how scary the movie must be. 

(Via NetImperative)

360 Degree Digital Influence

Though I consider myself a marketing-guy at heart ... the past few years of my career have been spent working first in advertising agencies, and most recently in a large public relations agency.  Ok, I know they're all connected - but today I'm glad that I'm in public relations.  With the rise of blogs, and the entire world of consumer generated media - this idea of personal influence in the digital world intrigues me.  But more importantly, I love the opportunity to join and become a part of it through the discussion of my PR peers through blogs.  Somehow, I feel the online PR community has embraced this medium more than other marketing disciplines, perhaps due to our affinity for the written word.  In any case, I think our place as [interactive] PR professionals uniquely qualifies us to advise clients on the topic of digital influence online.

Based on our initial successes in working with several of our clients on this subject, today Ogilvy PR formally launched our expanded 360 Degree Digital Influence capability.  As John Bell notes in the press release (and blog post):

The growth of personal media—blogs, wikis, podcasting—combined with the exploding importance of search have kept us busy throughout the year. We actually see these trends as part of an overall shift in digital influence.  With our new expanded offering we have a more sophisticated approach to help our clients really connect with a whole new breed of influencer.

Of course, I know you could look at our new offering as the latest announcement from yet another PR agency on how to "harness the potential of blogs."  Let me say for the record that there is currently no "Ogilvy Blog" (though we are planning one and have jokingly called it the "Blogivly" internally).  But if you look at our team, you will find that we are bloggers, and we do understand what makes influential communications messages online.  We routinely read, analyze and discuss blogs with clients, we are already helping clients become involved in the blogosphere - and most significantly we were recently able to use blogs (with the help of several generous individuals from the online PR community) to spread the word about our dying colleague Shari Kurzrok in order to help her get a new liver.  That experience continues to inspire our team to build our capability in helping clients use blogs and more consumer generated content for social marketing, awareness, eAdvocacy, as well as consumer marketing, or healthcare communications.  360 Degree Digital Influence is about all that.

What Comes First - Creative or Media Planning?

An article released today from Media Life focuses on the rise of media planning and buying jobs in the market - with online recruiting website Talent Zoo reporting that "the number of media jobs available is roughly three times greater than it was this time last year, with the heaviest demand for these hard-to-find mid-level planners and buyers."  I do media planning and buying everyday for our clients - but I still consider myself firmly planted in the "creative" world.  I plan media buys based on our creative strategy and choose the right online outlets considering audiences as well as message.

Two years ago, as the Executive Producer at Leo Burnett in Sydney, I remember the ongoing tension from the separation between us creatives and those know-it-all media buyers.  They came in at 10, got taken out to lunch by publishers all the time, and seemed to have all the power with no knowledge, creativity or strategic ability whatsoever.  We secretly wondered whether they offered the company any real value at all.  Of course, this was only one isolated instance and not to be taken as a reflection on media planners as a group ... but the rift between media planning and creative was very real, and not a wholly unique phenomenon amongst advertising agencies.

In this month's issue of Fast Company, David Lubars from BBDO was asked in an interview by Linda Tischler about the growth of media-buying agencies and whether that signaled a shift in power away from creative shops.  His response is telling:

If you're deciding media buys before creative, you would never have had BMW films or SubservientChicken.com.  Creative helps drive where media is going to go.  It can't be done in an assembly line like a Ford plant from 1908. Sometimes you have a great strategy on paper, but it doesn't execute. So the creative and the strategy work together like in a DNA molecule. Media has to work like that, too. Media is now a creative job. It's not just, "How many exposures can I get for this amount of money?" It's also, "What delightful interesting places can I put my client in that are relevant but fit the creative?" It has to be woven together.

Amen to that.  I just hope a few of those new "mid-level" media buyers out there have the same philosophy. 

Contextual Advertising - The Cure for Database Poisoning

Whoever has the misfortune of the email address bob@bob.com definitely hates me.  If he exists, I'd like to apologize to him for the hundreds of sites that I've avoided providing my real details to by usurping his good name.  Of course, I also have my own email address set up just to register on sites where I need to check the email (for passwords, etc.) too.  In this way, I am just like any other consumer on the Internet.  When presented with a registration form with no distinct payoff or reason for filling it out - I am likely to make up or fake as many details as I can get away with in order to avoid being contacted or make the registration process faster for myself.  An article from Pamela Parker in ClickZ yesterday discussed the concept of "database poisoning" (where users enter fake registration details) - and used the site www.bugmenot.com as an example of a consumer driven eAdvocacy campaign to influence publishers to get rid of these annoying registration forms.  The site offers user-contributed passwords to bypass registration forms for more than 84,000 sites.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Bugmenot site/movement is in their FAQ section where they note that the top five most requested sites by their users are all online versions of newspapers.  So for newpapers, and the thousands of other content-driven sites that rely on advertising (and segmenting their audience to sell to advertisers) to survive - how can a poisoned database be avoided?  And unless they ask for registration, how will they have any demographic information on their users to share with advertisers?  The answer is: they won't.  The biggest myth in online advertising is that you need to collect demographic data in order to succeed.

Search engines have realized huge success tauting their ability to connect with users irrespective of demographics and based on their online activities.  Google doesn't need to know who I am to present relevant advertising.  If a grandma from Kansas or a new mom from New York are both searching for a new stroller - an advertiser selling strollers must reach both.  On search engines, you can do that.  So, how would this model possibly work on sites that need to serve banners, interstitials, or any other ad unit based on browsing versus search behaviour?  iVillage is one of the few sites leading the way in this regard through their ability to target users based on individual articles or piece of content on their site.  So, if there is an article about strollers, on iVillage you can segment your ad to appear on that page.  Imagine the performance of an ad placed here versus the run of site, geotargeting, or even demographic targeting we do now on most publisher sites.  If we could present ads in context, where they had the most relevance, imagine the performance these ads might realize. 

This is a model that other online publishers need to seriously consider implementing.  As their ongoing attempts to get readers to register details causes more and more consumer backlash in the form of faking details on registration forms and signing petitions on sites like www.bugmenot.com - the details held in any of their databases will be meaningless in a matter of months.  Even the good/accurate data will be impossible to filter from the "bob.com" registrations.  Ultimately, unless publishers improve their methods, advertisers will continue to shift their money to more consistently effective online spending such as search marketing.

Local Radio Station Websites and The Death of Y100

This is old news, but being that I live in DC and haven't been to Philly recently - I only just found out about the death of Y100, one of the greatest radio stations ever.  It was one of the few alternative rock radio stations that played it's part in defining popular music instead of regurgitating it.  With the replacement several months ago of the unique station with yet another Hiphop station in the Philly market, it got me thinking about the missed opportunity of the Internet.  The radio station is now entirely online at www.y100rocks.com with an employee blog and everything, but it's too late to save the station. 

If the Y100 site had ever sold their Sonic Sessions acoustic performance compilation CDs directly, I would have gladly paid a premium to buy them.  I wonder how many other niche stations are in this situation of untapped revenue potential for their websites either through cd sales or other forms of revenue like online advertising?  And will it ultimately lead to their demise as well?  The argument against investing more resources or money into a radio's website is easy to grasp - why would a radio station assume that it's audience would visit their website anyway?  For advertisers on radio, this assumption is backed up by the fact that ad units on station websites are usually throw away "added value" components of a traditional radio media plan.  I don't believe I have ever worked on a media campaign where we paid for online ad units at a radio station site.

Yet the irony is that consistently for some of our grassroots local eAdvocacy campaigns, radio online banners have far outperformed paid placements.  For example, in our recent NKDEP campaign, the banners we placed on a local Cincinnati radio station were the most successful across the entire campaign with click rates as high as 40%!  Other campaigns, both public awareness, as well as consumer marketing have yielded similarly high performance.  Given the apparent effectiveness of this medium, and the rise of podcasting programs which may drive radio listeners online to download these podcasts ... what does this mean for traditional radio station websites?  They may be behind the curve, but I believe they will rise quickly and start to invest more in their websites - and advertisers who see unexpected results will start to take notice.  After all, it's hard to ignore 40% click throughs ...

RSSvertising, Newspaper's Last Hope

About 2 years ago, I probably installed my first popup blocking software.  And I always remember The Washington Post as the last straw which drove me to find and install it.  At the time, the popups on the site were so distracting to the user experience, I could barely get through a paragraph before the another one came up.  The site is still desperately serving popups, but as a communications professional, I understand why.  Newspaper's old model is dying.  The two cash cows of the newspaper business, classified advertising and subscriptions are disappearing thanks to sites like Craigslist and the easy access to free content on the web.

To combat these trends, several newspapers are trying anything and everything.  Parts of the NY Times content online are only available through subscriptions.  The Washington Post, in an effort to gain new revenue, recently started including text-based RSS advertising in many of their existing 125 news feeds available for subscription.  Rssvertising has enormous potential because it's the first opportunity that breathes new life into a dying idea from the "glory days" of newspaper publishing ... the subscription-based model.  True, the subscriptions are no longer paid - but the bulk of profit was never coming from the subscriptions anyway.  RSS is giving newspapers a chance to publish compelling content with local/regional focus to a dedicated and loyal reader base once again. 

Some might argue that banners (and interactive ad units) are on a much faster growth curve as a percentage of overall ad sales for online newspaper properties, however I think users can smell the desperation and thereby filter out most banner ads on newspaper sites.  Oversupply and use of banners = diminished relevance.  For the Washington Post, and perhaps other newspapers, RSSvertising really may be their last hope.

Opportunities for Marketing through Podcasting

When I was working in Australia with Royal & Sun Alliance, a large insurance company, we were called in to fix a disaster with a insurance quoting tool that had been developed offshore and released to RSA's customers as a downloadable application.  Unfortunately, there was no way to update the software and due to many glitches, they lost customers and credibility.  The central issue: when you take a downloadable-centric approach, versus an online content approach - files are downloaded as a single version and no longer dynamically controlled, updated or measured.

Fast forward to today and the phenomenon of Podcasting and it's enormous potential.   It too is download focused, where users walk away with a file on their local machine or portable MP3 player.  This presents several challenges:

1. Files are fixed and not changeable after download
2. There are relatively few ways to measure impact, beyond just tallying downloads
3. Many podcasted files have a short shelf-life (users play and throw away)
4. Most podcasts appeal to smaller niche audiences, not mass market demos

To combat these challenges, a ClickZ article on Podcasting released yesterday notes that marketers are approaching podcasting with some strategies from the world of direct marketing, including custom toll free numbers and specialized URLs to measure results.   But aside from using creative forms of measurement, where are the real opportunities for marketing using podcasts?  Below are several ideas that could have potential:

1. "Owning" a Relevant Moment - Many podcasted programs have specific moments when they are listened to, such as the daily commute home or the morning ritual to get ready for work or a busy day at home.  Developing content or sponsoring existing content targeted to these moments could offer an interesting marketing angle.
2. Niche-targeting to Influential Enthusiasts - Achieving a relationship of brand ambassadors is the ultimate goal of many communications campaigns, and finding the right podcasts can offer a window into connected and influential individuals within a particular world.  An example is the popular Science@NASA podcast which connects with space enthusiasts, who are likely to spread the word about their interests to friends and family.
3. Amplify Celebrity or Expert Spokesperson Campaigns - The spoken voice can be a powerful amplification of campaign messages, particularly when using a recognizable celebrity or other spokesperson.  Aside from online video, if the message is relatively stagnant online, offering podcasted content can help to bring the message to life and generate a greater impact.

As more new marketing campaigns come up using podcasting, it will be interesting to see how this list expands.  I'm currently on the lookout for marketing campaigns using Podcasts effectively - so if you've seen or done any strong campaigns ... let me know.

One Launches the Biggest eAdvocacy Campaign Ever

For all of us who have struggled to pitch and get a client free PSA placements for their banners (good cause in hand) - here are some numbers reported by ClickZ that offer hope:

The One campaign, which aims to raise Americans' awareness of global issues like AIDS and poverty, is making inroads online. Rich media firm Viewpoint has coordinated the donation and placement of $5 million worth of online advertising across the Web on behalf of the advocacy group.

The One campaign has had some great media hits recently, including the special with Brad Pitt visiting Africa, and all the fanfare around the Live 8 concert.  Even the ebay story about hawkers selling Live 8 tickets for profit had added to the hype.  Comparing this campaign to a recent experience I had working with Oxfam America to drive membership in their own eCommunity, one big difference stands out ... the power of celebrity.

In this case, the recipe is simple: 

1. A single celebrity chooses the cause (ie - Bono). 
2. Single celebrity puts pressure on other celebrities to join (ie - Brad Pitt, etc.). 
3. Celebrities make it a high visibility thing that media wants to get attention from. 
4. Media donates advertising space and ad dollars.
5. Internet offers a lower cost alternative for media to donate these dollars
6. $5 million donated eAvocacy campaign is done online.

Not to be cynical about it, though.  Here's the best part of the entire story ... the range of media partners that are signed on:

Ad space was donated by AOL, 24/7 Real Media, MSN, Google, MSNBC, About.com, Burst! Media, Gamespot, Accuweather.com, Right Media, ValueClick, CBS.com, CBS News and UPN. (Currently delivering 30 million online ads per day and hoping to serve a billion units before the G8 summit begins July 6).

I wonder when Yahoo's going to get on the bus?

Online ad spending users are begging for

Apparently online real estate spending is set to more than double in 2005 to more than $1.8 billion dollars or approximately one in every six online ad dollars.  Thank god.  As anyone who has recently searched for real estate in any of the booming markets across the US will tell you, it's not fun.  The problem is that there are houses with virtual tours, agent websites, newspaper websites, photos, no photos, and multiple listings for the same place.  Yet, my behaviour in searching for a new home on the Internet has been different to anything else I've ever done online.  I haven't used Google once.

I've gone straight to sites like the Washington Post real estate section or other local publications that I know have the most listings every week.  I've even gone to a store and purchased the actual paper ... probably the only search I've done for anything through a printed version of any publication in the last year.  But it's not that different to what I see others doing.  Most people seem to be searching every source they can find -- for the most house listings and for that hidden gem that no one else will find.  Does advertising, online or otherwise, matter in this environment?  Well, I do see the advertised places first.  But I search harder for the non-advertised places, hoping my diligence will pay off in finding a gem that everyone else has overlooked. 

So what about local search, and the promise that offers to helping users find exactly what they are seeking online in a particular area?  It seems I'm well positioned in the right market to observe the local search phenomenon, as a ClickZ article from earlier in the year notes:

Spending on local online advertising will total approximately $3.9 billion in 2005, a 46 percent increase over the $2.7 billion 2004 total.  The fastest growing market in the country is Washington, D.C., which will increase its total local online ad spend by almost 70 percent, to reach $92 million in 2005.

Where are those new advertising dollars going to go - to new listings on the Washington Post, to search marketing on engines that offer local search, or to more of those really cool sounding (but rarely useful) virtual home tours online?  I love to hear about more advertising dollars going online.  Maybe it will make the house hunt easier in the future.  Now if only I could find a way of distilling my search to a single site or two -- that would really be helpful.  If only Amazon sold homes too.

Does time of day really matter?

A new report from eMarketer offers some new data in answering one of the most often asked questions in our industry: does time of day really matter for email marketing?  The report notes:

• 41% of Americans check email first thing in the morning
• 18% check email right after dinner
• 14% check email right when they get back from work
• 14% check email right before they go to bed
• 40% of email users have checked their email in the middle of the night

Oddly, the most popular place to check email is in bed (23%) -- followed by in class (12%).  At least I can understand not having better things to do in class ...

But anyway, the point is that email is unique as an online marketing medium in that you can effectively time stamp when your message gets delivered, though not necessarily when your recipient is interested in reading it.  Television and radio both offer those advantages, but less so these days with the timeshifting of TV (and now radio as well with a growing number of programs actively podcasting).  What of online advertising, though?  What if we could time stamp the delivery of online banners?

Apple had an interesting online execution I saw the other day on Yahoo! promoting the new Dashboard Widgets available for OS X.  The ad, which I happened to see in the morning while checking my email (I guess I'm part of that 41%), makes the link between their product and the relatively common morning routine of checking the weather online.  A revelant message at a relevant time - and it connected with me, a home mac user running OS X.  Time of day was a core component of the ad's relevance and presumably its effectiveness.  I would have been far less likely to click if I saw this ad in the afternoon or evening.  Was this a random timing, the subject of chance - or were these banners time stamped for morning delivery?  And if they were, perhaps it should indicate to publishers that this could be a premium worth charging for.  Forgetting the potential billing nightmare that would be, I know more than a few advertisers that would gladly pay for the privelege of delivering their message at a more opportune moment - if it was possible.

Quark skips integrating direct mail campaign with website

I got my second great direct mail piece today from Quark selling the features of their latest release, QuarkXPress 6.5.  They are a series of postcards, and each highlights a different feature of the software and explains it through targeted copy and testimonials aimed at print graphic designers with language like "No doubt about it.  You don't know anything about Microsoft Excel, and gosh darn it, you shouldn't have to!" Aside from outlining some new features, the postcards include a discount offer to upgrade and a contest to win an iPod mini by entering online.  In short, a very effective direct marketing campaign.

Unfortunately, if you venture beyond the campaign landing page, it seems the Quark.com website is from a different company.  The website ignores the compelling style of writing from the direct mail piece and instead uses the incomprehensible marketing-speak we are all used to seeing (and ignoring) everyday. For example, a concept simply termed "Image Optimization" in one of the postcards, is described online as "Picture manipulation and color management."  The page dedicated to describing the features of the new product is confusing and unbranded. 

Ordinarily, at this point, I would thank god for campaign microsites - which usually give the best creative campaigns a small chance to exist outside of the canopy of a client's stagnant website.  I've worked on more than one campaign where updating the client's site to reflect or cross promote the new campaign was out of the question.  We needed our microsite.  Unfortunately for us, it happens all the time.  But Quark's microsite does little more to sell the product and only focuses on contest entry.

My point of view is that for Quark to simultaneously promote the ability of their product to help their target audience manage campaigns across print, web and TV -- while not using this advantage to deliver an integrated marketing campaign themselves undermines the power of the print campaign.  But at least I can take solace in the fact that whoever managed the print campaign knew about this.  They did what most of us have done when faced with a similar situation--they deliberately left the site URL off the postcards.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you have.

John Cleese Connects with IT Managers in Viral Online Film

I just got my LiveVault poster today from the Institute for Backup Trauma.  It's a site I visited about 4 weeks ago promoting the data storage solution offered by LiveVault.  The campaign is a brilliant spokesperson marketing execution featuring John Cleese as Dr. Twain Weck in an online film about an "original story told for over 30 years by distressed IT people everywhere."  It's an online film about the dangers of not backing up data properly ... but the interesting angle is the combination of spokesperson and humor to connect with a common business problem for LiveVault's target audience.

The poster is a movie-style promotion for LiveVault that is designed to go on the walls of IT managers -- a constant reminder of the brand and product line.  It's a great example of understanding your customer, knowing how to engage them, and using an entirely viral online campaign to build awareness and preference for their solution.  They even connected with the whole Star Trek connection by casting Michael Dorn, formerly Worf on The Next Generation ...  but Cleese carries the show, by coming off as humorous and authoritative in the same breath.  It lasts for about ten minutes (an eternity for an online video clip), but at the end you're left wanting to see more.   Definitely a successful online marketing effort.

Read a great behind-the-scenes story of the shoot - TheManager.org

Bugaboo markets strollers online to parents

While in New York this weekend, I passed an interesting bus stop poster with a picture of a unique looking baby stroller, and the URL http://www.bugaboodaytrips.com - nothing else.  As a new parent, I buy the same crap all parents do.  Graco stroller, Baby Bjorn, those new plastic baby food containers (because glass jars are soooo 2004).  Yep, unlike any other time in my life that I can remember, I'm a total sucker.  Most new parents are.  Because we're amateurs.  Ask any parent of older kids or multiple kids ... they laugh at us.  And we all know single people laugh harder - watching us struggle with all this stuff.  Parents don't travel light.   Except in Sex in the City, apparently.

The site promises to offer ideas for parents "who want to spend an inspiring day with their child that does not include eating sweets or watching Shrek for the 322nd time." The site has printable PDF downloads for the urban parent - venues like Chinatown in NYC and the historic canals of Amsterdam.  Having gone through Chinatown earlier today with our normal amateur stroller - it was rough in places.  And their site made me want one, for when I happen to be walking around Dublin, or Edinburgh, or LA.  It's an aspirational luxury item.  Perfect for marketing on the web.  Even though I know I'd only use it for a few months before my kid outgrows it ... $700 bucks doesn't seem so bad.  Ok, I guess I'm still a sucker.