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.
Archive for the 'marketing' Category
This interesting chart from Blogpulse, shows key people being buzzed about in the blogosphere. It culls the data from over 70 million blogs and outputs the chart daily with most citations at the top. You can also dive further into the actual citations or the amount of spots they climb or descend daily.
An interesting takeaway for me, is that Obama is in 20th place. Does that put some merit into Hillary (who ranks 1st) supposedly saying Obama cannot win? Anything seem alarming to you? Perhaps Dolly Parton’s high ranking? Or, Britney Spears still hanging around?
Yesterday eMarketer reported that online advertising spend is approaching 10% of all media spending and will be there by 2009. Considering the accountability, that digital commands and traffic quality it should come as no surprise that money is shifting to online at a quicker pace than other media. But what are some of the social media trends that this move will precipitate? Here are three that I think will be important part of my work here at Nielsen Online.
1 - Social Media become increasingly salient as connection hotspots - As trust continues to erode in traditional media, consumers will look increasingly to social media as a trusted opinion for all sorts of decisions, from which restaurant to eat at or what jeans to buy. Malcolm Gladwell describes, in his book The Tipping Point, “weak links” as influential to humans for making connections that make ideas tip. These individuals will become even more important as online migration triggers even more diverse and larger groups of connections who will exert overwhelming force over trends and ideas. (As I write this, I have over 100 twitter friends most I do not know but they shape many of my opinions on any number of things)
2- Brands continue to fortify their digital positions - With dollars shifting to the internet so quickly, brands will rush to keep up with the digital consumer migration. Brands will increasingly face the tough questions about social media and what they should do in this new platform based web. Corporate blogs are not for everyone but opening up the lines of communication can benefit brands. The question is, what is the best way to leverage social media, to empower your consumers and gain valuable insights.
3- Web trust factor becomes site currency - Inevitably, web sites will come that try to game the system and erode consumer trust in social media. From this, will arise a digital trust factor that will eventually become a web currency. It could come in an organized fashion or maybe it will just be semantic based - meaning you don’t travel far from home on the web. You have a few sites you visit and trust based on history, promotion and recommendations and only visit them frequently. This trend will hasten the move to platforms that portalize you to the web at large - Facebook applications are a good example of this in action.
As we see all media continue its move to digital, these three trends are one to watch. Any I missed?
Everyone has a different tipping point, when they reach critical mass over information. Old ideas have to make room for new thoughts. Neural passages are running at full capacity. Yes, life in 2008 is a virtual playground for information. If you want to find something it is usually only a few clicks of the mouse away.
With all this information exchange happening in the mind, it is essential to keep your brain at peak performance. It is for this reason, I am proposing a CMS (content management system) that seamlessly blends the old-world Stephen with new-world.
I am thinking a vertically-integrated enterprise solution that is a bio-engineered framework that resides within my core. With this in mind, I thought of 5 great reasons I need a Personal CMS for a more productive life.
Here they are.
1- Intake Quantity - Amount of information is becoming exponential getting it to my neural passages which are overworked like the a Tokyo highway in rush hour is becoming increasingly difficult.
2- Versatile Cataloging - Adding new thoughts and removing old ones has become a game of chance in adulthood. Who knows what is left in there clogging up good nodes. A CMS would allow me to catalog these and remove unnecessary files before they collect dust and go rogue.
3- Image Recalculation – Fashion is fickle. If I can quickly evaluate and recalculate my image then I can continuiously be in style. On a semantic level, perhaps my CMS will suggest stuff for me.
4- Accountability- Tracking what I said and when could help in a million ways. Adding some accountability to my brain for what it decides, says and becomes could really change the outcome of my life.5- Standardization – Easy-to-thought process. No more lost keys, enough said.
Anyone else have any ideas about how a personal CMS might help them?
As Adverblog pointed out , this is an interestingly grotesque advergame for an Italian website promoting the show Dexter. (you can find the link here) I navigated to the site and enjoyed trying to play the game but my italian is lacking so I ended up without any fingers pretty quickly. The interesting thing here, is that Showtime, has taken an jovial approach to a rather taboo subject - serial killing.
(Full disclosure: I am hooked on the show and find it to be really unique and funny)
Advergame’s to me normally are somewhat boring and full of the usual monotony like the hero figure trouncing a dragon or generic versions of a classic. This advergame, however, is particularly fun because it makes light of losing your digits in a somewhat engaging way that makes you want to talk about it. As the advertising paradigm continues to shift its this type of attention to engagement that will thrive while the interrupt method will “sleep with the fishes.”
Direct Marketing is a method of addressing the consumer specifically with mail or an email to obtain a beneficial relationship with said consumer. The most common usage is direct mail pieces. I am sure everyone has received a Publisher’s Clearinghouse letter informing them of their new riches. But did this over saturation and lost promises kill direct mail?
Most people have received “junk” mail and simply thrown it away. Other people have found these pieces useful and in fact look forward to receiving them but has the birth of the Internet put the nail in the coffin for direct mail? No. Because if the piece is strategically presented to the right target audience you and client can reap big benefits from this old media. Many of them, however just do not target the right person at the right time and become amoeba floating in a sea of mail.
The obvious benefits to marketers are the quantifiable results. But a fresh new approach to direct mail could be the answer to a new life. For instance, using a viral approach to your direct mail campaign giving benefits to those who can spread the word. This could be particularly useful when discouraging calling in to customer service. At my company a big premium is paid to the call center when it goes from IVR to live person. By getting the word out and cutting down on calls to the center savings could be posted on both ends of the spectrum.
How does mail achieve this any more cost efficiently than email?
Strategy involving targeting the right people and great creative that encourages sharing the mailer is the answer. A postcard would be nice but an interactive postcard with important dates and great call to action would persuade consumers to share the piece and get great savings and so on.
In the end direct mail lives on but must find ways to survive in an electronic age where the computer is faster, cheaper and gives a better ROI.
Advergirl has cited a few interesting facts on her blog about consumers online shopping behaviors from Comscore. According to Comscore, 89% of consumers shop online for product information before making a purchasing decision at a brick and mortar. This seems a bit high to me but still the fundamental idea behind it is very interesting.
These numbers seem to show a seismic shift in consumers behaviors and it only reinforces the notion that brand equity on the web is more important now than ever.
The new consumer model seems to reflect that purchase decisions start on the web and end as offline purchases in-store. What does this mean? Campaigns that are not integrated risk disconnecting the consumer from the brand’s equity and possibly losing the purchase. Integration and reinforcement of your core equities online and offline should become the basic building blocks of a great online marketing strategy.
How does a brand successfully keep its story consistent through all the various channels today? First, it should decide early on the narrative it wants to tell and make it compelling and integrated into your product. A compelling story/product will inspire buzz and reverberate into further social circles and that means increased market penetration. Second, it should assign the task of brand police to someone who has been on the team since the beginning and allow them to enforce equity. Its important that your policeman knows the narrative and can help to inform the rest of your company. There are many other steps and custom processes to branding yourself but these are a good start.
It may seem daunting but with proper planning and a little legwork and research your brand can translate its message into a great story and not risk losing the battle.
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