Archive for the 'marketing' Category

What is going on with Twitter?

Published on July 9, 2008 in consumer insight, digital, marketing and social media. 0 Comments

This week has been really interesting for me. I started a new job and left an old one behind. I made some great friends and really enjoyed my time at Nielsen. It was a lifetime of learning in a year. Thanks to all my Nielsen friends.

I guess the last few lines has you wondering where my career has taken me. The answer is to Atlas Solutions as a TAM. I am super excited and have been there three days but learned so much its amazing. I am looking forward to this path and all the challenges it has to offer it.

But, I digress. This post is about Twitter and the recent influx of followers I have recently received. As Twitter gains in popularity, I expect to see more notifications from people with backwards followers ratios but this week has seen a influx of dotcoms following me.

Is there something in the water that is making these folks think intruding into my lifestream will make me follow them back?

If Digital Music is Growing, Why Design Digital Album Covers like its 1969?

Published on June 24, 2008 in branding, creative, digital, ideas and marketing. 0 Comments

Last week, emarketer.com sent this email to me. It had some interesting facts about digital music and its growth over the last couple years. As consumers (me included) increasingly switch to digital devices and legal purchases of music, I began to wonder why digital packaging has not caught up to this trend.

The chart above shows that almost half of all US teens did not purchase a CD in 2007 ( a number which is sure to continue to rise). If teens are switching to digital music at such a dizzying pace, why has the packaging not caught up? Most digital albums still include mirror images of their in-store counterparts. Why not progress to something more dynamic to reflect the new error?

Dynamic digital album artwork is the next progression in terms of packaging design for a digital universe. I could see a whole industry built around buying cool iPod/iPhone screensavers with animated capabilities. Does anyone else agree?

Run for the Roses or Buzz?

Published on June 4, 2008 in analytics, blogpulse, buzz, digital, marketing, social networks and websites. 0 Comments

Horse-racing fans are eagerly anticipating the Belmont Stakes as Big Brown will compete for the Triple Crown on June 7th at Belmont. After breezing through the Kentucky Derby in May and the Preakness later that month, Big Brown caused an uptick in online conversations around the Triple Crown. The first spike in consumer discussion took place on May 3rd, as Big Brown captured the Kentucky Derby crown. Conversation drivers included the remembrance of second runner-up Eight Belles, who collapsed after the race and was immediately euthanized, Big Brown’s big win, and references to Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who shattered his leg in the 2006 Preakness, and then put to rest. Online discussions for the Triple Crown peaked again on May 17th as Big Brown won the Preakness, up 18.5% since May 3rd, while conversations increased 64% for Big Brown.

The horse racing world is eagerly anticipating the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, will compete for the Triple Crown on June 7th at The Belmont Stakes in Elmont New York. With two-thirds of the Crown complete, Big Brown has been causing an uptick in online conversations leading up to and the day of the events.

The first spike in consumer discussion took place on May 3rd as Big Brown captured the Kentucky Derby crown. Conversation drivers for the first spike were not solely focused on Big Brown’s win. Other topics driving discussion included Eight Belles (the tragic runner-up who was euthanized on the spot after the race) and Barbaro, the 2006 Preakness Winner who was put to rest after shattering his leg during the race.

Online discussions for the Triple Crown peaked again on May 17th as Big Brown won the Preakness Stakes; it was up 18.5% since May 3rd, while conversations increased 64% for Big Brown. Discussions were primarily based around whether Big Brown would be able to capture the Triple Crown or if he would fall short like Smarty Jones.

Special thanks to Sandra Parrelli for helping with the data/idea to this post. And have fun at the race this weekend.

Cross Post: Crystal Skulls vs. Crystal Balls: Predicting Movie Buzz And Box Office Bang

Published on May 22, 2008 in analytics, blogpulse, buzz, digital, marketing and websites. 0 Comments

Below is my post for both the BlogPulse Blog and the Hey! Nielsen Blog:

Is it possible to predict how much buzz a movie opening will get based on the buzz three days before it opens? Using BlogPulse, Nielsen Online’s free tool that mines data from over 78 million blogs, I queried two recent movie premieres (Iron Man and Speed Racer) and one about to open today (Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull).

The results are interesting, showing that buzz levels for each movie seem to be equal as they spike and decline in the days before and after the opening. Does this pattern hold true for all premieres? Three days before the premieres of Iron Man and Speed Racer their buzz levels began to spike and eventually tripled on opening day. Iron Man went from 0.182 to 0.486 percent of all blog posts and Speed Racer went from 0.055 to 0.195 percent of all messages measured by BlogPulse.

The buzz level for Indiana Jones three days before was 0.273 percent of all messages. If the theory holds true on opening day, we will see the spike for Indy triple to somewhere in the 0.8 percent range… well beyond Iron Man which has been the biggest blockbuster this year. We’ll check back next week to compare the buzz and the box office for Dr. Jones.

Nielsen Online Top 10 Social Networks for April 2008

Published on May 20, 2008 in analytics, consumer insight, digital, marketing and social networks. 0 Comments

Some data from my company, the latest information on social networks. Enjoy.

NIELSEN ONLINE PROVIDES TOP U.S. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AND BLOGS FOR APRIL 2008

Nielsen Online provides April’s top U.S. social networking sites and blogs for your reference. They are ranked by unique audience and rounded to the nearest thousand, so LinkedIn had 8.7 million unique visitors in April 2008, growing 361 percent over April 2007.

Please note that these are custom lists compiled by the Nielsen Online PR team with the help of our media analysts. While these lists are not meant to be exhaustive, they provide a good idea of the significant players in each space.

We periodically review the lists and add new sites, so the results may change accordingly. Please source data to Nielsen Online.

Online Ads could be impacted by Economic Downturn

Published on May 19, 2008 in ads, consumer insight, digital, marketing and websites. 0 Comments

Online Ad Sales

I just read this interesting story from the NY Times about online ad spending and the economy. It basically says that display advertisement is down across the board and search remains strong. Its not super surprising to think that in a time of economic slowdown that search with its increased ability to track is weathering this storm well. But I am slightly caught off guard that display has had such significant declines in recent months.

The NY Times reported 16% growth this April compared to 20% last year making the slow down about 4% year-over-year. Not a major slowdown but still enough to be alarmed especially in a weakening market. Although its too early to declare an end to online advertisement’s growth, the companies that can better attribute steps in the online sales funnel to display, stand to gain a great competitive edge.

Finding Great Keywords in the Blogosphere

Published on May 9, 2008 in CRM, SEO, consumer insight, digital, keywords, marketing, social media, tools and websites. 1 Comment

Keyword research can be a daunting task. Relationships between consumers and brands can be like the difference between Japanese and English. Finding an appropriate starting point for setting up your first search campaign can be the biggest roadblock. After determining what product or products to build your campaign around putting together a great set of keywords is the next step.

Keywords form the spine of the your search campaign; getting these relationships right is important to your success. Where do you begin? Corporate websites, brochures and other marketing materials can be a good starting point for relevant terms being used to discuss your brand but they sometimes lack closeness to the consumer. Don’t be alarmed though because consumers have left a virtual digital treasure chest of keywords waiting be discovered in blogs, message boards and forums.

Here is my 5 step process to begin to gain insight in the blogosphere to what is being said and using it for keyword research:

  1. Compile a list of blogs that talk about your brand - Perhaps the most important step is to explore the blogosphere and see who is talking about you. Del.icio.us, Google Blog Search and Technorati are a great place to search your brand and see who is talking about you. Then put together a list of the ones you find to be have the most scope and activity. Look for plenty of comments and large readership. Check for hints including RSS subscribers and comments counts.
  2. Read and look for patterns of conversation - Pay particularly close attention to the comments and specific language being used to talk about your features, models and brands in them. Do they use model numbers or branded terms* to discuss products? Comments are insights straight from consumers about the language that is being developed around you. Tag clouds also hold interesting patterns.
  3. Make a list of terms - Compile a list of terms that you see in multiple places. Segment the list and make sure you don’t forget the long tail.
  4. Rank terms on list - Once you have a master list of all your consumer-driven keywords# put them in order of importance. Focus on consumer talk and how they might search for you not how you would search for your product.
  5. Decide how much to bid on terms - Should you bid more on terms that are from consumers or same? Should they be contextually driven or keyword? For instance, Chevy is used more in conversation than Chevrolet according to BlogPulse. Does this chart mean you should invest much more into contextual advertising for the term “chevy”? One thing is certain you would get more placement due to its increased term use.

These 5-steps are starting points for introducing consumer-driven keywords into your paid search campaign. You can not only increase your paid clicks but gain valuable CRM insights into your brand by adding them into your web strategy. The only question left is. When do we start?

* I remember when I worked at a satellite radio manufacturer we had one radio that was called: XTR1, Jimi and Stream | Jockey. Combing through forums, blogs and message boards would have yielded consumer preference for its name.

# Keywords that originate from consumers of a brand and are not necessarily brand driven.

Miami Dolphins Draft

Published on May 1, 2008 in blogpulse, buzz, digital, marketing, social media, social networks, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

Saturday was the NFL draft and my favorite team the Miami Dolphins had the top pick. I was naturally curious about the level of discussion in the blogosphere and then something interesting happen. The Dolphins announced early that they had signed Jake Long as the top pick ending months of speculation.

This buzz chart identically follows the way the story broke. His name is first mentioned very sparingly and then on April 10 we see a small spike due to speculation about negotiations beginning. And on April 22 you see the announcement that they had signed him four days ahead of the draft. Then Miami Dolphins buzz spikes again on the actual day of the draft.

Actionable Data for the Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins could use this chart for marketing in a variety of ways. Qualitative and quantitative analysis lies within this study. The Miami Dolphins could make operational decisions such as whether a Jake Long jersey would be a viable choice for the coming year and how many to order. Marketing decisions like promotions and which brands may be interested in using Jake Long are also a viable options.

Deeper qualitative drill downs are also available via clicking through to the points on the chart. For instance, scoring some of the listings from draft day yields valuable PR insights that could overt misinformation. Below is one of the quotes:

  • “Now that the Dolphins have signed their #1 pick, Jake Long, it’s now time for the organization (and the trifecta, to be specific) to move on to other things….And as CBS Sports’ Clark Judge writes, the Dolphins are already working hard on moving Jason Taylor” http://www.thephinsider.com/2008/4/22/2155/03979

Social Media Speeds Up Reaction Times

In the old world sports model a reporter would find out about negotiations and write about it to be published for the next day. Then the team’s official PR department would issue its statement regarding the draft pick. Relationships have changed and the world has become much more social. Media has cut down on its delivery times and PR departments are scrambling to keep up. Measuring social media and listening to your fans is crucial to keep up with changing relationships in an increasingly social world.

How will the Dolphins react to this buzz-touchdown and help further their PR strategy for next year?

My guess is they may have a small team devoted to “listening.” I have not seen many sports teams actively using social media as a viable means of listening and reacting. The Colts (mycolts.net) have a social network but I have not seen much feedback to its success for the team. I would suspect that they have an amazing amount of data and hope they are using it gather valuable insights. Insights that could be quickly gathered and analyzed to facilitate on the fly changes to the marketing and PR strategy.

The Future

Social media is predicted to evolve into a vertical driven space (ie. mycolts.net). Leaving little room for brand invasions to drive consumers to trust them less. Mining your base for crucial insights to help evolve your marketing plan can become social overnight. Will you take advantage?

Defensive Branding in 08 Political Season

Published on April 28, 2008 in SEO, digital, engagement, globalism, marketing and websites. 0 Comments

There are many tactics to influencing the SERPs (search engine ranking pages) but you can still end up with listings on your search shelf-space that can damage your brand. Using defensive branding and reputation management measures can be the cornerstone to fortifying any good online marketing plan against negative entries. My colleague says keyword-buys, social-media and press releases are all good weapons to have in your arsenal but one less obvious tactic flies under the radar. That is buying negative domain names and linking them to a positive result.

I was reminded of the importance of fortifying your brand’s domain today, when I read an article in the Guardian, that showed the influence cybersquatters were having on the London Mayorial election between Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. This site was particularly scathing in the way it portrayed Ken Livingstone as a freewheeling politician attempting to turn London into New York. And to make matters worse, they were using the domain kenlivingstone.org and showing up on the first page of Google results for the keywords “ken livingstone.” (Ken Livingstone’s real site is located at kenlivingstone.com.)

This is a prime example of the importance of making sure that you purchase the top results of your brand’s domain name and the negative results. Or risk someone else purchasing and deciding how you are portrayed online for you.

Pope Benedict & Recession

Published on April 21, 2008 in analytics, blogpulse, buzz, marketing, social media, tools, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

Yesterday I watched the Papal Mass on television and I started to wonder how much buzz the trip received. Here is a Blogpulse chart, comparing the Pope’s visit to the US, with American Recession.

Here is a link to the actual query.

Pope Benedict