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« October 2009 | Main | December 2009 »
If you doubt the power of Facebook and social networking sites, consider the Oxford Dictionary's choice for word of the year:
As we have discussed in this space with data and anecdotes, Facebook has been the story of the year, connecting adults of all ages, as this social networking site goes mainstream.
Of course along the way, users sometimes have occasion to "unfriend" someone - and a new word enters the lexicon.
By the way, you have to love some of the runners-up.
"Hashtag" made popular by Twitter didn't quite make the cut. Nor did "tramp stamp." Or "sexting," which was the practice that got our former mayor here in Detroit in trouble.
Hey, there's always next year.
Last week, I boarded a plane only to find out that the FAA's computer system had gone down due to a computer glitch.
So there we were, already boarded, just waiting for the plane to take off, and the captain comes on the PA to give us an "update."
"Ladies and gentleman, as you've no doubt heard, the FAA's system has run into some sort of system failure. Maybe they installed Windows 7. But we now have received manual routing, and we'll be taking off in eight minutes."
Many people on the plane snickered and nodded.
Don't tell me that marketing and branding don't work.
One of the lessons of the new media world is how category leaders don't own the franchise, and dominance is far from guaranteed.
But in the Internet world, the pace is considerably quicker. Today's leaders are tomorrow's losers or also-rans. And reversals of fortune can happen fast.
Consider MySpace, which Rupert Murdoch bought for $580 million. Today, it has been totally eclipsed by Facebook, and while social networking is white hot, MySpace is yesterday's news. Murdoch could not get anywhere near what he paid for MySpace, a one-time leader that has seen its dominance rapidly deteriorate in the past year.
Then there's Yahoo. Remember that before Google, that's the service that most of used for various portals and search (along with Lycos and others). Now that Google owns the world, Yahoo is left to try to market its way out of this mess. And they're not doing a great job of it because all the TV advertising in the world isn't going to change the minds of consumers. They know what they know, and all the glitz and glamour of Yahoo's newest effort is just a bunch of marketing noise.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH YAHOO TV SPOT>
So, what does this mean for your company or your brand? Consumers are all driving much faster than 55 these days, making their way through products, gadgets, restaurants, and brands. To help the filtering process, they have more and better evaluative tools, from online reviews to social networks to good old word of mouth. If a new product or service does not make a good impression, consumers move on. If they've been an existing customer of a brand, but recent experiences have been underwhelming, they don't hang around for long.
If your company has been mailing it in, not researching the target, and just hoping that your customer base will simply continue buying your products because they always have, think again. Even in a tough economy where resources are tight, service, quality, and innovation have to do more than hit the minimum standards.
More than ever, brands have to earn their stripes every day. They have to invent, morph, and change with the times. Wal-Mart's book pricing attack on Amazon's dominance is another reminder that leaders don't get a free pass.
An old Ziebart campaign reminded us that "Rust never sleeps." And it is true that when erosion sets in, it's tough to stop the bleeding. "Trust never sleeps" either, and stations cannot take their relationships with listeners for granted.
Brands that don't keep pace, that don't strive to innovate and improve, and that don't recognize that there are no laurels to rest on may find it even rougher sledding ahead.
A research update for comScore's "Natural Born Clickers" study from a study first conducted two years ago reveals some alarming stats for Internet-focused advertisers. While banner and display ads are ubiquitous on websites all over the Internet, the percentage of "clickers" is precipitously falling.
In the 2007 study, about one-third (32%) of Internet users clicked on ads; in their updated March '09 study, it's down to an alarming 16%.
That translates to 8% of Internet users accounting for 85% of all clicks. So what does that tell us about the efficacy of Internet advertising in 2009?
First, Internet advertising is missing a whole lot of web users. Campaigns that are focused on clicks are off-target in reaching a mass appeal Internet audience.
Second, the click-through as an evaluative measure is insufficient in measuring campaign effectiveness. comScore talks about the value of web advertising in overall brand "lift" - whether consumers visit a brand's site, buy products offline, etc.
Finally, Internet-only advertising is myopic in its approach. A web campaign is not sufficient to move the sales needle.
The drop in clicks is real, and that underscores the importance of multi-platform, integrated advertising programs for retailers and businesses - and not just committing the lion's share of ad dollars online.
There's a lot more to advertising, marketing, and branding than click-throughs.
Volkswagen has always been a car company that has marched to a totally different drummer. From its "Think Small" campaign for the Beetle, to "Fahrvergnügen" (OK, maybe not the best slogan of all time), the German automaker has taken a left-handed approach to marketing.
You have to give them credit for being consistently inconsistent. For the launch of its new GTI, VW will do no traditional advertising. Instead, the entire marketing effort for this vehicle is a new iPhone app they've put together in a partnership with Apple.
Their digital marketing guru, Charlie Taylor, insists that their target audience is very wired, favoring digital over broadcast. And the demographics of the iPhone skew heavily toward thirtysomething males. Ergo, a game app that is supposed to carry the campaign, also part of a contest that will give away a new GTI a week for six weeks starting November 2.
As Taylor pointed out to BrandWeek, "This is the entire investment, it is a fraction of the cost for the standard automotive vehicle launch, but we did not do this for financial reasons, we do truly believe that this is one of the new forms of marketing and hyper targeting and digital allows us to do this."
That's an important statement in the annals of advertising, and we will have to wait until the end of this marketing effort to determine its effectiveness. But as a company that has learned a thing or two about branded iPhone apps in the past year, this is very risky business.
The biggest challenge is driving awareness of the app - something that radio has no problem doing when a station or personality launches their application. We see this in our analytics every week. When stations or DJs consistently promote their app, it absolutely drives awareness and downloads.
For some of our non-radio clients, the app business has proved to more precarious because there are so many apps in the store, with hundreds of new ones coming in every week. Without a media partner, it's not an easy putt.
So perhaps this campaign for the GTI is a test case for advertisers and broadcasters alike. If it works, we will most likely see more efforts that bypass broadcast in favor of digital. If it doesn't, it may serve as a reminder that multi-platform campaigns that combine the best that both broadcast and digital have to offer are the preferred ways to go.
If Apple features the GTI app on iTunes and in the App Store, it will help VW's campaign succeed. But keep in mind that even some of the best, most advanced, coolest, techie, and well-known brands regularly use broadcast media to reinforce awareness and sampling.
Just ask Steve Jobs.
No, this isn't a post about college or pro football. Instead, it's about how you kick off a new campaign, startup, or a brand extension in 2009.
The poster child is Starbuck's new VIA, an instant coffee product that comes in convenient little packets that hope to mimic the taste of the real thing by just adding hot water.
For Starbucks, it's been a tough couple of years. While they were busy selling and marketing food, music, books, and movies, McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, and Tim Horton's have been launching heat-seeking caffeinated missiles at Starbuck's coffee franchise.
And it has apparently worked. As the economy worsened, Starbucks got tagged with the "$4 coffee" label, while its competitors have successfully marketed the notion that great tasting coffee doesn't have to become a line item on your personal budgetary spreadsheet.
So, in response, here comes VIA, and it's different for Starbucks in several ways. First, it actually works out to be less than a buck for a cup of their coffee, a significant savings if you can get past the instant part. And it's actually coffee, unlike so many unrelated products they've been marketing.
But how do you launch a product like VIA in a way that consumers will notice, and ultimately sample the new product?
Starbucks pulled out many stops on VIA and came up with a multi-tiered approach that may prove to be effective. First, VIA started with a countdown in all the stores in the hope of creating some level of expectation among their customers (cumers).
Then they made sure that they had signage ready to go that reflected the VIA on-the-go lifestyle vibe. And their in-store displays were top-notch and consistent.
Finally, sampling. The VIA taste test ran throughout a 3-day period in early October, in order to get customers to try it, and compare it to brewed coffee. Starbucks produced their own spot, but lots of regular folks took their shot at it, too, and posted their videos on YouTube.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH STARBUCKS TASTE TEST VIDEO>
So contrast all of this with the way that we often launch our products. Yes, there's usually a countdown, just like for VIA. But too often, all the details are not nailed down or considered. In fact, there's often a philosophy to just get the new product started, and then we can course-correct in the days and weeks afterwards.
What type of impact and branding potential gets missed by the lack of a coordinated, strategic campaign? Too often, sales falls way behind, tethered to the first couple of sales reports where there is hopefully some signs of growth.
In the marketing-centric, fast-paced consumer world in which we live, there is always an emphasis on "new,' but there is also a need to be great. More and more, we have been trained to be skeptical about new products and trials, whether it's a restaurant opening, a TV pilot, or even an instant coffee product. If it isn't great, together, and compelling out of the box, it is often doomed to failure.
The emphasis on creating a great consumer experience is intensifying. If you don't believe me, walk into an Apple store and think about the many ways in which they have created a unique, exciting, and satisfying retail atmosphere. Now contrast that with what it's like at a Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or The Gap.
This is why one of the greatest marketers in the world - Disney - has now turned to Apple for consulting help in re-launching their retail stores. Steve Jobs is reported to be the go-to person on this Disney makeover. Apple has elevated expectations for the in-store experience, and in the process, has sent a message to other brands, as well as consumers about how to do it right.
This VIA launch is a similar reminder for us in business to rethink the ways in which we not only kick off a new format, but also a new website design, an iPhone app, or anything that we want to have noticed and sampled. We don't know if VIA will turn out to be a success, but it is hard to fault Starbucks' coordinated marketing and retail effort.
