integrated marketing

Groupon Gets Personalized – But Not Enough

I’ve been getting deals for nail salon, spa treatments, and furniture cleaning. But none are relevant.  So when Groupon announced “personalization” I clicked through to try to tell it what kinds of deals were even in the right ballpark category (e.g. restaurants). Turns out it was only gender, age, and zip code.  Not gonna do much to increase relevance…

groupon personalized deals Groupon Gets Personalized   But Not Enough

Ruh-Roh – others are just copying the proven concept and not using Groupon.  Go fast-followers!

opentable groupon copy 612x1024 Groupon Gets Personalized   But Not Enough

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 integrated marketing No Comments

What do I see? Utter, Unfathomable Inefficiency – that is retail as we know it

Have a look at the 2 pictures below taken at a mall-attached large chain retailer.  Not a SINGLE customer in the store.  Practically every rack had a red and white sale sign on it.  Look at the multiple sizes of each item that have to be made available.

Now consider this.

What is the probability of someone walking through the store to this location, finding an article of clothing that is subjectively pleasing and desirable enough for the person to pick it up and consider the price. Consider if this is a nice to have or need to have item. Further consider the price and whether it is higher or lower than the clearing price — the price at which the user (in that particular user’s mind) thinks it is a good deal and decides to buy it. What is known is the quantity of work needed to inventory, merchandise, display all the products. What is not known very well is the probability of a sale for any or all of the items in the store.

Further consider the redundant inventory of similar (or the same) generic products — redundant because multiple stores attached to the same mall carry pretty much the same generic stuff. Even brand names provide little differentiation or value add. And celebrity designers and endorsers such as Kimora, Cindy, Kathy, or even Jaclyn Smith don’t help. The entire Kimora section was just as deserted as the second photo in this bunch.

IMG00051 20100628 1721 What do I see? Utter, Unfathomable Inefficiency   that is retail as we know it

IMG00052 20100628 1722 What do I see? Utter, Unfathomable Inefficiency   that is retail as we know it

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 integrated marketing 1 Comment

Made-Up Word Advertising — “Retina Display” — is how Apple Launches New Products

A made-up word “retina display” had every major blog and news outlet scrambling to help explain what it was. Nearly 1.1 Million search results in 19 hours. It was covered on every evening news; look closely at the thousands of related news articles, etc.  And all the major, powerful sites like Gizmodo, MacRumors, Engadget, etc. covered the event.  Similarly 1.2 million search results on the “one more thing” feature — video calling on the iPhone called FaceTime. All entirely free primetime coverage — talk about the tens of millions of impressions achieved with NO media cost — they can definitely used the money saved to ensure Steve Job’s next keynote will have sufficient WiFi bandwidth for all those live blogging the event.

Look at the following graph of relative search volume. The spike in search volume for All-You-Can-Jet (in red) is about 4X higher than the orange line (Footlongs). And the blue line for “retina display”  is 8X. Consider the cost of the paid TV media campaign supporting Subway’s Footlongs compared to the cost savings of the social media launch of JetBlue’s All-You-Can-Jet Pass and the no cost media for Apple.

retina display launch search volume Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

Of course, not all companies will achieve the same mass coverage, but the techniques for product launches can be the same. Footlongs is an expensive paid media campaign by Subway and note how low the orange line is compared to the TWO no-cost launches.

And one more graph that shows Drobo plus 2 social media success stories — Groupon and FourSquare that even blow away Apple’s retina display — all for FREE.

drobo groupon foursquare search volume Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

apple retina display iphone 4 Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

Other notable examples of using made-up word advertising include JetBlue’s All-you-Can-Jet Pass and Subway’s Footlongs. Further details about JetBlue’s launch of the All-You-Can-Jet Pass is here – http://go-digital.net/blog/2009/08/jetblue-all-you-can-jet-pass/

all you can jet footlongs search Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

Earlier unfiltered results on Google within 10 hours of launch — there are 3.9 Million results which will be de-duped overnight.

retina display search results Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

Day 1 Stats – page 1 position 3 in 44.6 million results

made up word advertising Made Up Word Advertising    Retina Display    is how Apple Launches New Products

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 Branding, integrated marketing 1 Comment

Digital Orchestration

digital orchestration means helping clients orchestrate and coordinate the activities of agencies that have particular specialties — search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), website design and build, analytics, social marketing, etc. Too often, clients are not comfortable asking about digital or don’t know enough to tell if the agency specialists are recommending the correct strategy or tactic.

search consultants typically help individual clients find individual agencies that are good at a particular area — e.g. TV agency, digital agency, SEO agency, etc.  Today, this is no longer as effective because the different disciplines and specialities need to work closely together and feed off of each other to work properly.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 SEM, SEO, digital, integrated marketing No Comments

What is Web 3.0? Characteristics of Web 3.0

2009 06 16 What Is Web 3.0

2009 06 16 What Is Web 3.0 – Presentation Transcript

  1. What is Web 3.0? Dr. Augustine Fou June 16, 2009. June 16, 2009.
  2. Evolution of the Internet microprocessor 40 yrs 10 yrs 20 yrs 5 yrs present web internet 2.5 yrs social networks e-commerce 1.5 yrs Web 1.0 Web 2.0 Web 3.0? June 16, 2009.
  3. Evolution of the “Web” content commerce search social networks social content social search social commerce As each stage reaches critical mass, the next stage is tipped into present June 16, 2009.
  4. Key Characteristics present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • Speedy
    • more timely information and more efficient tools to find information
    • Collaborative
    • actions of users amass, police, and prioritize content
    • Trust-worthy
    • users establish trust networks and hone trust radars
    • Content
    • content destination sites and personal portals
    • Search
    • critical mass of content drives need for search engines
    • Commerce
    • commerce goes mainstream; digital goods rise
    • Ubiquitous
    • available at any time, anywhere, through any channel or device
    • Individualized
    • filtered and shared by friends or trust networks
    • Efficient
    • relevant and contextual information findable instantly

June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – retail/shopping present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • what friends bought or want to buy
    • drag-to-share items which friends know friends are looking for
    • item collections
    • value in the aggregation

overstock.com amazon.com FB app: MyFaveThings

    • contextual reviews
    • reviews of reviews
    • what others bought
    • individualized recommendations

June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – social networks present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • aggregates all your online identities
    • syndicates all your updates to all social networks
    • social actions visible to friends
    • trust networks across geography, time, and interests
    • collection of personal homepages

geocities.com facebook.com peoplebrowsr.com June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – restaurant reviews present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • Yelp content vetted through a user’s trust network and individual recommendations made based on situation and need, in real-time
    • user submitted reviews
    • related items based on similarity of user preferences
    • infrequent publication
    • centralized editorial control

zagat‘s yelp need reco for great Italian + GPS + Yelp 5-star Babbo, been there, love it June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – photos present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • real-time, contextual “do you like this knit shirt?”
    • friends give immediate feedback
    • share photos with friends and strangers
    • enable visitors to tag and comment
    • individual albums

kodakgallery.com flickr.com ? June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – real estate present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • information vetted by fellow users, recommended directly an in context
    • listings plus relevant information like school zones, comparable sales, alerts
    • listings based on parameters

corcoran.com streeteasy.com trulia iphone app June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – encyclopedia present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • content is ubiquitous and available through any channel or device
    • trust network proactively forwards relevant info to user who needs it
    • created, updated, and edited (policed) by user actions
    • digitized version of printed encyclopedia

britannica.com wikipedia.com chacha.com June 16, 2009.

  1. Illustrative Examples – online coupons present web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0
    • coupons delivered contextually and proactively when user needs it (without the user even asking for it)
    • instant feedback
    • community action makes it more accurate and useful for others
    • collection of online coupons – value in the aggregation

dealcatcher.com retailmenot.com June 16, 2009.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Reaching Half a Million Customers Daily, with NO Media Cost

Updated: April 3, 2010 – JetBlue has 1,603,926 followers as of today.

Updated: Aug 30, 2009 – JetBlue has 1,139,682 followers as of today.

In days of old, advertisers had to buy TV airtime, magazine placements, or radio spots to send their ads out to reach customers. Usually one of the largest chunks of cost is the media placement, followed by “creative” development and content creation.

What if there was a way to cut out most or all of the media cost?  And what if we could also substantially reduce the cost of “creative development” and “content creation?”  Look at the JetBlue example below.  On Twitter, JetBlue has nearly 600,000 followers.  Each of these followers has basically “opted in” to receive their updates, often multiple times a day (“costless media”). There is no “media cost” for getting these messages out. Compare this to what it would cost to air a TV ad that reaches 600,000 viewers (assuming all the viewers wanted to receive the ad, and were sitting there in front of the TV watching the ad when it was aired).

Also, the cost of content is nearly zero too. JetBlue has their customer service people (and fans) help create content by tweeting. These tweets range from customer service (“twitter customer service”) , to service notices (e.g. dense fog in NYC area airports causing delays, etc.), to tips from frequent travelers. This type of content is more “real,” valuable, and trusted than an advertisement. And there is no cost of “creative development” because the content does not need to be dressed up into a glossy ad for TV or print — it’s just 140 characters of text at a time. It’s more effective AND lower cost?!  Imagine that!

Finally, notice in the “bio” area on the upper right of the screen shot that it reports who is currently on duty — “Morgan and Lindsey” — this gives the normally faceless customer service system a name and a face and perhaps even a personality.  JetBlue’s twitter is a great example of social marketing done awesome!

jetblue twitter Reaching Half a Million Customers Daily, with NO Media Cost

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, May 28th, 2009 integrated marketing, marketing No Comments

Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha – FIGHT!

Microsoft should take a page from the launch of Wolfram’s Alpha using social channels.

Wolfram Alpha – 1.6 million google search results

Microsoft Kumo – 624k google search results

wolfram alpha search results Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!kumo search results Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!

www.WolframAlpha.com is launched, but Microsoft Kumo.com is not even launched. So there is NO benefit from all the news coverage.

wolfram compete Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!

wolfram referrals Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!

wolfram links Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!

Search intensity and volume indicates interest of users — Wolfram Alpha is kicking Microsoft butt.

search intensity Microsoft Kumo vs Wolfram Alpha   FIGHT!

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/wolfram-alpha-veil-lifted/

http://gizmodo.com/5240514/wolfram-alpha-and-google-tested-head+to+head

http://gizmodo.com/5236115/wolfram-alpha-search-engine-on-video

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

trends – coupon sites, network TV sites

coupon sites: definitely headed upward with a spike in Dec 08.

coupon sites trends   coupon sites, network TV sites

network TV sites are seeing healthy increases, likely due to “view full episodes” on their websites – but even this increase in traffic will not replace the advertising revenues lost on network television

tv network sites trends   coupon sites, network TV sites

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, April 27th, 2009 integrated marketing, marketing, metrics No Comments

The ROI of Social Media is ZERO

What is the ROI (define) for social media? It’s zero. That’s because there’s no such thing as “social media.”

People’s conversations are not media; they can’t be purchased as such by advertisers. In other words, people don’t talk whenever advertisers want them to and they won’t say whatever advertisers tell them to — so it isn’t “media” like TV, print, and radio.

If you treat people’s conversations as media, you’d be doing it wrong. Social marketing done right means asking for and respecting people’s conversations and giving them a public place to talk so others can hear. If the advertiser’s product is already great, much of the conversation will be positive. But even if it isn’t the advertiser will have the benefit of free “product research” because people will give them ideas for improvement.

twitturly1 The ROI of Social Media is ZERO

Untargetables are hard to reach. Unreachables are not reachable by traditional advertising media or channels.

read more about the ROI of social media on ClickZ … http://www.clickz.com/3633341

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, April 10th, 2009 integrated marketing No Comments

Padma Lakshmi makes sweet-and-savory love (pics) to …

My colleagues know I have argued against advertising’s ability to do “demand generation” — create need where there was none before. Instead I have always argued that advertising solves an awareness “missing link” for demand that was already there. In other words, a user has a need. Advertising puts a new product or a product that a particular user was simply not aware of before on his radar screen. And after further research, if the product fulfills that need he buys. Advertising rarely creates NEW demand. For example, we buy 4 quarts of milk per week because we have 2 kids. No amount of milk advertising will make us buy 5 quarts, because we simply don’t need it. Or, we’ve just bought a minivan. No amount of advertising, no matter how cool the family or the kids in the ad, will make us buy another mini van. If we just locked in health insurance this year, we are likely not to buy more or to switch, just because it is such a hassle. Make up more of your own examples.

But, I have to say, Carl Jr’s ad with Padma is really really making me want their bacon, barbecue sauce burger.  Or is it just ANY bacon, barbecue sauce burger? Or wait, is there even a Carl Jr around here? hmm ….. I guess I’ll just look at the picture some more…   :-)

Source: AdFreak

Padma devours fast food, Lindsay Lohan goes retro for Fornarina and vampire ads raise the stakes

March 30, 2009

-By Tim Nudd

padma carls jr Padma Lakshmi makes sweet and savory love (pics) to ... fast food xxxx padma carls jr Padma Lakshmi makes sweet and savory love (pics) to ...

Carl’s Jr. serves it piping hot.

When we learned in February that Padma Lakshmi was filming a commercial for Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr., it didn’t seem likely that the Top Chef host would make as big a splash as Paris Hilton did with her infamous car-wash spot for the fast-fo.od company in 2005. But Lakshmi has actually put her own impressively suggestive mark on burger advertising with the new ad, in which she makes sweet-and-savory love to a Western-bacon deluxe on the front steps of a city apartment building. Paris Hilton, please pack your knives and go.

read more….

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3ie96e4a3e8c042db21628ca3995645a52

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,