Archive for September, 2010
Mashable recently surveyed 2600+ people, asking them how they’re watching TV’s new fall lineup (TV sets or Computers). Although the top answer was still good old fashioned TV sets (at 28%) the combined answers of the other 72% were some form of the internet. It’s no surprise that, for now, Hulu owns a bug chunk of this 72%.
But, just like you can’t cut and paste radio ads into TV commercials, you can’t expect a typical :30 second TV spot to have much effect online. People expect more these days. Choices, interactivity, and amazing creative. In fact, interactivity and behavioral targeting are already becoming the norm, like Hulu’s “Which ad experience would you prefer?” commercial option. New technology like this allows consumers to pick the commercial they prefer to view. They’re willing to watch a commercial they can’t fast-forward through, but it better be worth it. That means relevant, useful or just darn good fun to watch.
Most Hulu viewers say they don’t mind watching good commercials online. A recent study showed they’re even willing to view more than the average four-minutes-per-hour of commercials currently being aired. BUT, they’d better be good. Which is where targeted consumer behavior comes in. The Hulu commercial choice in the photo above allows viewers to choose which type of hair product they want to view, so they can watch an ad that is relevant to their specific needs. Soon most video ads online will be behaviorally geared, derived from online viewing preferences like this. It’s just like what’s happening now with most online banner ads. Video commercials that are always specific to the viewer are the obvious next step in online technology.
While all this can seem a bit creepy, consumers seem to get past their privacy concerns quickly, seeing that the benefits of more targeted and relevant ads are worth allowing some cookies on their site. For advertisers, this means a much higher ability to fine tune target audiences than just gender, age and income brackets. Nielsen has already made great headway into this new genre of ratings with the intent of cutting out wasted airtime to the wrong audience.
The million dollar question remains. Will viewers gain a new level of appreciation for advertising online as the messages become more targeted, relevant and (hopefully) memorable in a good way? So far it seems that answer may be yes. But if and when tasteless, poorly produced ads start popping up one after another to the point that viewers forgot what they tuned in to watch, this new opportunity will die a quick death. It’s up to the ad industry, and our clients, to make sure this doesn’t happen. (Wish us luck)
Can’t keep up with the changing times in technology? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. But be prepared because things are only going to get crazier. Maybe we should all just buy stock in headache relievers?
Better yet, maybe we should just give ourselves a break. After all, our brains weren’t meant to complete multiple algorithms of complex problems in fractions of a second. Sure, today thousands of pieces of information are being put in front of us every moment via online technology, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to understand it all. We’re not stupid. We’re just human.
If you don’t quite get what we’re talking about here, it’s the intimidation factor. Have you said this lately: “I don’t understand Twitter. I don’t know what Google Analytics really is. I can’t figure out my email campaign report analysis. I don’t know what HTML5, java, css and Google Instant are.”
YOU’RE NOT ALONE. We hear it from our clients all the time. They often feel like everyone else knows all this stuff, but they don’t. Wrong. Most still don’t (Case in point, per a Forrester Research study this past July, only 2% of the US population can accurately explain what Twitter is). Feel better?
But face the facts, you’re going to have to find others you trust to help you integrate your business into this new world. You don’t have to know it, but you have to know and trust people who do.
What a surprise…once again it all boils down to that five letter word: T-R-U-S-T.
Over the years Brandtailers has bought multi-millions of dollars in newspaper space on behalf of our clients. We’ve seen it’s responsiveness in advertising decline; we’ve seen it go back up; we’ve seen some papers charge more when circulation has dropped; we’ve seen others go out of business. But, most of all, we’ve seen the cost of advertising space reduce to stay in line with reduced circulations.
So what does that mean when it comes to being a good media source? First of all, don’t bother spending a dime if your target audience is under the age of 35. That’s definitely where it’s dead. And obviously, as this generation ages, newspaper will become obsolete. BUT, if you’re trying to reach an audience of 35+ year olds, look at the cost of the ad space you’re interested in and do some math. Most of our clients look for a 4-to-1 return on investment. For every dollar spent, they want to earn four. Therefore, if your newspaper ad will cost you $1,000 then it’s worth it if you can measure a $4,000 return. This ratio isn’t the same for every advertiser, but you get the idea.
Most important to check out – has the newspaper aggressively adjusted their rates down to match any reduction in circulation? (By the way, only ABC Audited newspapers are worth trusting when it comes to circulation). The $1,000 ad space mentioned above may very well have cost twice as much 4 or 5 years ago. Make sure the rates have been adjusted.
The most important change in newspaper for most advertisers is that it is no longer a mass media. It’s more like a complementary media, reaching the 35+ market only. The older your target audience, the more effective it can be.
That’s the way to look at this age-old media today. Tomorrow? Well, it’s really only a matter of time.
A simple idea: take QVC’s Home Shopping Channel business strategy to the web. That’s what Groupon is. A deal-of-the-day concept that started in Chicago two years ago.
The company offers one “Groupon” per day in each of the markets it serves. The Groupon works as an assurance contract using ThePoint’s platform: if a certain number of people sign up for the offer, then the deal becomes available to all; if the predetermined minimum is not met, no one gets the deal that day. This reduces risk for retailers, who can treat the coupons as quantity discounts as well as sales promotion tools.
But many companies have tried similar programs and failed. What has made Groupon a success in comparison? First of all, unlike others, it is geographically and behaviorally targeted. The coupon offers are specific to cities and/or metropolitan areas and the offers are specific to what customers say they are interested in. But most of all, Groupon is not afraid to be picky. They will only accept very legitimate savings offers from well-established companies. In other words, they have an air of trust. Who wants to use a coupon that doesn’t really save you anything? Most consumers fear looking foolish, so the trust factor in a coupon had better be high. And the higher the trust factor, the more successful the coupon.
Once again, successful marketing is all about trust. And Groupon seems to understand that.
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No, that’s not a typo in the headline. Oh, by the way, you can add AM or PM after the hours – it doesn’t matter. Today you’ll find a vast number of people considering 5am to 9am and/or 5pm to 9pm a part of their regular working day. And guess what? Polls say they really don’t mind!
Today the U.S. has 20% of the American business world working out of their homes, 38% working flex hours, and 42% working an average of 9 hours a day at work and 3+ extra hours at home or off-site. That’s a lot of hours, yet reports say everyone seems pretty happy.
Why is that? We’ll give you one word – CONTROL. People want control, and technology offers it to them. They want control of what they see on TV, how they use the internet, the way they buy products, and the way in which they work. Why miss Johnny’s soccer game if you’ve got your Blackberry with you and you can check emails during the timeouts? You can control your work efforts from almost anywhere so why not be able to work from almost anywhere?
Why are we writing yet another blog post on this well-known subject? Because, as much as this style of working is fairly common today, very few companies offer it as a benefit when looking to hire. Businesses are afraid this type of work schedule would promote flakiness. Yet statistics show the opposite. A Gallop Poll survey shows 86% of people who are able to work flexible schedules actually put in 11 extra hours work each week. Best of all, they are happy with their jobs, and their employers are happy with them.
So next time you complain that you can’t get any good applicants for your job, try adding “flex schedule” into the job description and see what happens.
