YouTube is quietly gearing up for a major site revamp that will dramatically increase its ability to compete with broadcast and network television, including a number of channels with professional content. Oh come on, did you really think television ads as we know it would be around forever? It barely makes sense anymore. Especially paying for commercial space that now gets ignored more than most other media, yet still leads in media expense. (OK, we know, there’s still the Superbowl. But then there’s the rest of the year)
Think about it. Why would you pay to advertise in a medium that allows the viewer (aka potential customer) to skip past your television ad with one simple click? Or to have your product shown to a semi-targeted demographic audience that’s been defined by way of archaic technology (can you say Diaries?) Why would you, the advertiser, invest in this form of media when you could pay for only your exact target audience’s guaranteed viewership? That’s the difference that will become increasingly obvious over the next 12 months as online video really takes over the internet.
Why hasn’t it happened yet?
Until recently, online streaming was limited by bandwidth challenges, interrupting viewers enjoyment of what they were watching online to buffer the next chunk of media. Those days are almost gone, which is the last big challenge the online world had to conquer in order to become the source of choice for viewership.
So, imagine this…
You’re an advertiser. You can now pick and choose where your television ads run based on finite behavioral consumer characteristics, one viewer at a time. You can pay a premium to have your ad run in a venue that does not allow viewers to fast forward past it, or you can pay a lower fee and take your chances they’ll still watch your ad. Either way, you know the viewer is a perfect target for your message. Or maybe you’re willing to pay a higher fee, but only when they click on the ad that lands them on your web page. The common denominator – no waste. Compare that to today’s average television advertising options. There’s no comparison.
The powerhouses currently in charge of accepting media and advertisements in the online world are aware of the flaws broadcast television has when it comes to offering advertisers the best choices. You can bet they will not be cutting and pasting a strategy that no longer works into a new media ripe for gleaning billions of ad dollars. And YouTube (aka Google TV) will lead the way.
What will consumers expect from the increasing number of ads that will find their place in front of their eyes? A lot. First, it had better be relevant. Next it had better be refreshing (and trustworthy). Then, if it’s persuasive enough, it had better allow them to click through to something equally relevant and useful. Otherwise they will click on the button that reports back to YouTube (or whoever) that they found the ad a waste of their time.
The days of media placement costs sucking up 80% of an advertising budget while creative costs about 20% are quickly coming to an end. Certainly the immediate future of online advertising video placement costs will be nowhere near the cost of traditional television ad space. (Don’t hold your breath that this will stick) But the requirement for the very best, smartest and most trustworthy message will increase greatly. It would come as no surprise to us if, in the next few years, the “idea”, along with its creative execution, switches places in the 80/20 scenario. Time will tell. What do you think?
The way technology allows us to communicate with each other is amazing. Even a decade ago, few people would have predicted the host of platforms that are now available for us to share information – from personal one-on-one conversations to global corporate communications and, perhaps more importantly, the blending of these approaches that allows companies to deliver their brand in ways that are increasingly personal to their consumers. I certainly could not have imagined Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn the first time I logged onto the Internet in 1995 (using AOL, naturally). And yet I now use – and rely on – such tools on a daily basis today.
As more and more of us try to embrace these new methods of communication it quickly becomes clear that just when you think you have one thing down, a new technology is thrown into the mix that you feel you must learn and do your best to master.
Here’s the thing you need to know as a business trying to inform consumers about your brand: just because a technology exists, there’s no rule that says you have to use it. Something that is a perfect fit for one business might be of little value to another. For instance, if your business relies on attracting retail customers then it might make sense to incentivize people to duke it out for the title of Foursquare “Mayor” of your location. However, if your business does not require customers to travel to your location, then this is of little value. So, instead of trying to do it all and spreading your efforts too thin, take a step back and properly consider your goals and your message and figure out which tool or tools are the ones to achieve those goals. And remember, there’s nothing to stop you experimenting with new ideas in the future or adding to your marketing mix at any time.
Written By: Adria Higginson
The problem with being cheap is that once you start, your competitor will likely play the same game. 90-days later you’ll find yourself as a profitless commodity.
Cheap is a lazy way out of the battle for consumer awareness.
Why do some customers focus so much on price? Because you’re not giving them anything else to think about.
With 84% of U.S. consumers using the internet to determine what they’re going to buy and who they’re going to buy from, having a brand is more important than ever.
Isn’t it true that in every market measured, the leading brand, the one with the highest positive name recognition, has a huge advantage over the others? Whether it’s Honda, Nike or Tide Laundry Detergent, a lot of benefits go to the brand that wins.
Branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, it is about getting consumers to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem. The great success stories are not the companies that did what others did, but a little cheaper. They are companies that decided to do things a whole lot differently. Don’t just think better. Think different and establish your brand.
Written By: Kristen Roberts
Whoever says email is dead doesn’t pay attention to statistics. (And thank you Chris Penn and DJ Waldow over at Blue Sky Factory for continuing to share those great statistics with us) Email is absolutely, positively not dead. Spam mail, however, is ten feet under. May those messages rest in the four-letter-place where they came from.
Today’s good email campaigns are proving to be one of the most cost-effective forms of modern day marketing. By good we mean a clean mailing list, the right message, the right timing, opt-in, desired by the recipient, etc., etc., etc. But there are already enough blog posts and articles about this. We want to focus on something that may be a little less obvious – how email can make or break brand perception.
Here are a few questions consumers have the opportunity to process through as they receive an email message from a brand…
1. Is the brand polite, or pushy? Did I ask for this communication? Is this just one too many emails more than I expected? Are they overstepping their “guest” position in my in-box?
2. Is the brand in touch with my needs and wants? Does the message make me feel like the sender knows who I am and what I want? Does every email I get from them try to sell me something, or are they trying to be more than that for me?
3. Does the look and feel of the message support the brand image? Does the design, the tone, the timeliness and the offer jive with what I like/know about the brand? Do I recognize it almost immediately as an extension of the brand promise?
4. Do I feel good enough about this email message that I may want to share it with my friends, co-workers and/or family? Am I proud or pleased to receive this email message because I like being associated with the brand?
5. Even if I don’t have time or the current desire to open this particular message, does the timeliness and relevance of the subject line reinforce why I like the brand?
I have a personal example that comes to mind. Talbots. I’m certainly their target audience. I tend to like classic clothing, and Talbots usually delivers. They target 40-60 year old women, most often business professionals. Their clothes are not expected to always be on sale, nor are they inexpensive. But they last, in style and quality. Not a brand for everyone, but certainly one that I like. Or liked.
One day I decided to buy a dress from Talbots online. It was the first time as I usually shopped in-store. While I was at their online store, I gladly signed up to receive emails about “occasional promotions and helpful bits of fashion advice” – that’s the way they described their emails. I assumed I would get quarterly emails regarding seasonal events, and occasional communications about how to update the classic style of Talbots. What I got instead was the beginning of a series of daily (yes – daily) emails offering me “20% discounts on a huge selection of items”. After clicking through a few times to see just how great their offers were, I found a very limited number of outdated styles that were usually only left in one color and one size. The 20% savings was a joke because the price was still ridiculous for something nobody apparently wanted. Oh, and the emails with fashion tips? Never got one.
It was disappointing to unsubscribe from a clothing line I felt connected to. But their email campaigning did not match up to the impression I had of who they were and how they take care of their customers, and their brand. My guess is someone without much brand expertise was put in charge of their email program. They ruined the brand for me. The Talbots brand I had in my mind no longer exists for me. What a shame.
On the other hand, there are numerous wonderful success stories about email campaigns enhancing brand images. Think Apple and Patagonia and even small companies like PS Audio. They’re doing it right. Primarily because they include email marketing as an important opportunity to market their brand, not just a retail message. (ah, there we go – brandtailing again!)
So, the next time you get an email from a company or brand you like, give it a deeper look. Dissect it for its brand message. Does it deliver? I hope so. If not, you may want to let them know.
Have you heard about the Mercedes-Benz USA Tweet Race? Four teams of two drivers were chosen from special Facebook and Twitter event pages, which added 75,000 new Mercedes-Benz fans and followers in a matter of weeks.
On Feb. 2, the four Tweet Race teams will leave New York, L.A., Chicago and Tampa in specially outfitted Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and head to Superbowl XLV in Dallas. They’ll be directed and fueled by people’s tweets along with help from team coaches who have large numbers of Twitter followers. Fellow tweeters are invited to join a team and help tweet to them with race clues and tips. V.I.P. trips for two to numerous MB sponsored events can be won by these tweet helpers, along with other prizes. Winning is more than just getting there first. It’s also the largest number of active Twitter helpers and a few other social media measurements. Oh, and the winning team? They each get a 2012 C-Class Coupe.
The team coaches aren’t just people with a large number of Twitter followers either, they’re celebrities from various industries. Musicians, athletes and TV stars. If their team wins, $25k goes to their favorite charity.
So, while the main media platforms (Twitter and Facebook) are free, let’s add up what this whole campaign will probably cost MB USA. Celebrity involvement, an easy $400k. Putting four MB’s into the race, at least $200k. Two winning C-Class coupes, $80k. Winning coaches charity of choice donation, $25k. Cost of coming up with the idea, developing and managing the entire campaign, probably $1 million. Paid online advertising banners to help promote the campaign, around $500k. Total cost of this FREE Media campaign that will probably involve 8 million active participants for 7 days, about $2.25 Million. Will it ultimately do better for Mercedes-Benz than their $6 million dollar Super Bowl ad planned for 4th quarter of this year’s game that has an anticipated 150 million viewers? Time will tell, but that’s not the point of this post.
The point is that marketers should start thinking differently about how they will be paying for online campaigns in this new world of free media. Historically, an ad campaign followed its own 80/20 rule. 80% of the campaign costs would go toward buying the media (TV, radio, print, outdoor, etc) and 20% would go toward developing and producing the creative. Although that 20% could be more or less, depending on the agency and the production value, the idea is that the majority of the expense would pay for the media.
In the new world of social media, that 80% is either substantially lower or gone completely. It’s obvious how advantageous this can be for smart marketers, but the challenge of creating a campaign using social media that draws interest and interaction takes a whole new level of brain power and creativity, a skill that a lot of agencies today don’t have, be they digital or traditional. Brain power and creativity that can succeed in taking a non-intrusive form of communication and make the right people want to view it, hear it and get involved with it is the greatest challenge in this new day. And that has a few Clio award-winning creatives asking for early retirement.
Although this post is not meant to be a self-promotion for Brandtailers, it is interesting to understand why we have more easily adapted and succeeded in this new world. Over our twenty plus years in business we’ve had more clients with small budgets than not. We’ve rarely had the luxury of letting the media weight do the job. For us, it’s always been the need to flex our creative idea muscles to help make something come alive and work without a lot of media support. It’s kind of like we’ve been training for the Olympics for a long time and it’s finally here.
But back to the purpose of this post: Let’s all help each other understand the new opportunities as well as the realities of what is truly needed in today’s marketing. Big media budgets may still be around for the recovering 10% of advertisers, but the other 90% is demanding success without major media dollars. Is it possible? We think so. We’ve been doing it for a long time. Our mantra has always been, “It’s the idea, stupid.” Feel free to use it.
Poor WordPress. 
It’s spent the last few years trying so hard to be understood. It started out as a blogger’s website format, but then people like Matt Cutts from Google embraced it and told the world how it could be so much more than just a blogging platform. It quickly became the Google-Darling, offering high search results. And yet, when you mention it to classic web developers they would laugh it off as a baby’s tool.
Who’s laughing now? Certainly not WordPress. But lets back up for a second.
Like it or not, your website will be judged by end-users on how it looks and works. The best content in the world cannot make up for an amateurish, cluttered, or garish site design. You’ve almost certainly visited poorly designed websites. Maybe they have lots of flashing text in colors that are hard to read, or maybe they are so cluttered you can’t find anything. Good website themes need a harmonious combination of graphics, text, and “free space” so that the eye is naturally drawn to your content. A good website theme is visually attractive, yet not distracting. It should reflect your tastes without overpowering the content. That’s what WordPress can offer.
But why does Google like WordPress so much when it comes to search?
Because of its origin. It was built for bloggers who wanted to freely share their thoughts and ideas in the online world. It was built for people who wanted to regularly offer up relevant, fresh information. Google search engines want to find the freshest most relevant information online today, so the format of WordPress is a natural for Google.
And the open-source format of WordPress has allowed thousands of developers to improve the product even more via plug-ins and enhancements that have taken the initial blogger’s site concept to new heights. Best of all, through these enhancements, the timely and relevant information that search engines love are even more findable on WordPress sites. (Check out our site to see what we mean)
We believe this will be the year when WordPress makes sense as a strong format for most small, many medium, and even a few mega-businesses. As long as the developers continue to embrace it and contribute to its usability, it will continue to become the modern-day website format of the decade.
