To get a sense of which of the current crop of mobile devices were appealing to iPhone researchers, I took a look at Compete’s data to see what percentage of the online iPhone researchers on AT&T’s site were looking at other mobile devices in July and August - the first two months that the new iPhone 3G was available.

• Sprint’s Samsung Instinct seems to have been the iPhone’s best competition so far; in both July and August, it was the alternative most viewed by iPhone 3G researchers.
• Consideration of these iPhone alternatives is pretty steady, and in some cases, increasing. The AT&T Tilt and the LG Dare were viewed by more iPhone 3G researchers in August than they were in July, while consideration of the other three fell by a fraction of a percentage point.

Clearly, it’s possible to capture the attention of iPhone researchers with other devices. Now that the people who had to have an iPhone right away are out of the market, the consumers who are still shopping may be more receptive to the alternatives.

But the big question is, what makes a good iPhone alternative? So far, the touchscreen seems to be a key factor – the Instinct, Dare, and VU all have one – but there’s clearly more to the appeal to the iPhone than that.

Nokia is answering the integration of music with the iPhone (via iTunes) with the “Comes with Music” feature. The openness of Google’s Android operating system for new applications and the marketplace may draw consumers to the new T-Mobile G1; there’s even talk that the new batch of BlackBerrys may include an applications center. It may not be possible to replicate the iPhone’s popularity, but we’ll see over the next few months if anyone else can even come close.

For both, the Electronics category ranks atop the rest, but Wal-Mart electronics attracts a full two-thirds more people than Target. Scanning down the top-visited channels for Wal-Mart, it appears their emphasis is placed in technological gadgets, with TVs and video game departments two of the most popular. On the other hand, Target maintains an Apparel focus as Women, Baby and Children sections see the most visitors. At the same time, a battle for user engagement is championed by Wal-Mart, with nearly twice as many minutes spent per visitor than Target in every Top 10 category. Its TV section alone clocked in just under 4 minutes per user – apparently, people want to watch news of the latest economic downturn on a brand-new screen.

Seeking more than just ordinary visitors, though, retailers aim to attract those consumers with actual intent to purchase. To that end, site efficiency can be measured by the volume of purchasers funneled through the various shopping channels, and by the number of channels they eventually visit. Target does have an edge on channel exposure, with the average purchaser visiting about four categories, whereas Wal-Mart buyers visit only slightly more than two. If we break down each category again, this time by share of purchasers, we see a distinct change in the rankings.

Where Women and Baby remain at the top for Target, the Electronics category falls to the 10th spot, highlighting the fact that apparel-type channels are most successful for its online purchases. In fact, the top 3 channels attracting buyers are geared toward women, an important demographic for clothing merchandise. And though Wal-Mart purchasers are also likely to visit apparel sections, hi-tech channels such as electronics, video games and computers capture their interest as well – a stark contrast to those high-ranked channels on Target.

So where is the place for bargains? If you’re looking for the newest gadget, it’s likely you’ll visit Wal-Mart; need new shoes, Target may be what you’re after. With consumers less and less inclined to part with their money, expect both companies to capitalize on their most popular category of products.

Fidelity myPlan Snapshot: Fidelity’s myPlan Snapshot combines simplicity and speed. It can be completed in less than a minute with information that most individuals know off hand (e.g. age, annual income, monthly savings). Once an individual reaches the summary page (below) they are able to see where their current savings and investment track will likely put them financially once they reach retirement age, even taking into account possible future market conditions. Using the interactive slider bars, an individual can easily run through hypothetical scenarios to see how increased monthly savings or a change in investment strategy will impact future returns.

TD Ameritrade’s Wealth Ruler:TD Ameritrade’s Wealth Ruler is a similar retirement tool to MyPlan Snapshot but with a more in-depth and detailed setup. With a similar output as MyPlan (see below), it also allows for measured adjustments based on savings, retirement age, and investing style. However, while myPlan asks five basic questions, users of Wealth Ruler are asked to input each investment product they own as well as input expenses that will likely be incurred over the long haul. While these features likely make it a more precise representation of future savings, it is definitely not as simple as Fidelity’s myPlan Snapshot.

Vanguard: Instead of constructing a stand alone tool such as Fidelity’s or TD Ameritrade’s, companies like Vanguard have created tools that are integrated within information-focused pages. There is very little information required to use this tool, but the tradeoff is receiving little information in return. Tools like this also do not allow for contingencies such as a change in retirement age or projections based on certain market conditions. It seems clear that companies that provide calculators of this variety are not using them as tools to drive conversion. They are more likely viewed as additional research provided to current and potential customers.

With the varied tool offerings, the question remains – Are the tools an effective way to drive business? And the answer is a resounding Yes; IRA shoppers that used an online retirement tool between January and June 2008 were 50% more likely to start an application than those who did not use a tool.

Stand alone tools such as Fidelity’s tend to be more successful at engaging shoppers than those tools used simply as another information source. In the future, it would be even more impactful if companies were to provide more comparative measures to help benchmark their products against the competition. Implementing the use of similar tools could make a powerful statement and gain a competitive advantage for the financial services company in a time when they likely need any edge they can get.

One of these segments is high-income women travelers between the ages of 35 and 44, which Hotwire has been increasingly successful in attracting search-driven hotel bookings from. While Expedia and Priceline have remained steady in this segment, Hotels.com has lost some ground. A year ago Hotwire had captured only an average of 10% of the search-driven hotel bookings of this demographic, but the past few months have seen the brand rise to up to a 30% share in May 2008.

Women’s OTA hotel conversions deriving from a search engine as a whole are the result of organic clicks 68% of the time and sponsored clicks for the remaining 32%. The only competitor to rely more heavily upon paid than natural was Hotels.com at 54%.

This specific demographic is just one example of how quickly market share shifts can take place. As online marketers pursue specific consumer segments – either demographic, affinity/lifestyle, or other groups – understanding the search behavior of each can give them a distinct edge. And in such a competitive landscape that relies so heavily on search, a lot can be gained from such an advantage.

The most popular MMA websites now far outrank their boxing counterparts, with UFC.com attracting nearly a million monthly U.S. visitors. UFC.com, the official website of the largest mixed martial arts promoter, and Sherdog.com, the largest MMA news & community website, are 3X to 8X larger than the closest boxing websites.

Since boxing does not have a single dominant promoter in the way that the UFC dominates MMA, it may not be a surprise that UFC.com is the largest website. To create a fairer comparison, the boxing and MMA sections of Yahoo! Sports were carved out to see how they stacked up.

Beginning in January of 2008, the MMA section of Yahoo! surpassed the boxing section in visitors. With the exception of this last July when boxing champion Floyd Mayweather had his most recent bout, the gap between MMA and boxing has continued to grow.

The last comparison looks at individual athletes and how many consumers were using search engines to look for them. The average big name athlete in MMA has been able to draw more searcher interest than big name boxers. And, while some boxers generate heavy buzz among searchers when they are heading into a big fight, MMA fighters appear to generate sustained searcher interest even in the down-time periods between fights.

Final score:

While boxing has a more storied history and firmer standing in American culture, mixed martial arts has no doubt captured the attention of today’s consumer and fight fan. All signs point towards continued success for this young sport.

I totally get that Chase probably didn’t have a ton of time to work on the homepage redesign so this is not meant to be a criticism. After all, the message is loud and clear although some WaMu customers may feel a little like their financial future is a bit blurry like the little boy in the graphic.
Then a second even more surprising blow hit this Friday with the acquisition of Wachovia by Wells Fargo. This made me think that with all the acquisitions happening, maybe Bank of America would have to give up its #1 spot online to either Chase or Wells Fargo? And, from an online perspective, is this acquisition a good move for Chase and Wells Fargo?
Below was the online landscape among these competitors just 10 days ago. Prior to the acquisition, in terms of the number of active online account managers*, the rankings among top competitors in August were:

1. Bank of America with approximately 18.5M active online account managers
2. Chase with approximately 15.9M active online account managers
3. Citi with approximately 11M active online account managers
4. Wells Fargo with approximately 9.7 active online account managers

In August, Bank of America had the largest share at 25%, followed by Chase with 21%, Citi with 14%, and Wells Fargo with 13% among the top 10 competitors. Both WaMu and Wachovia had a much smaller share of 7% each.

Post-acquisition, Chase now takes the top spot with 28% share of active online account managers outpacing Bank of America by 3% points.

However, looking closer at both Chase and WaMu’s online account manager base, there may be less opportunity due to overlapping customers. For example, a customer who may hold two accounts, one at WaMu and one at Chase may consolidate their finances with Chase. In August, about 4% of WaMu’s online account managers were already a Chase customer, which means that although Chase is still #1 it is by a slimmer margin if you take into account these overlapping customers. There is a 1%overlap for Wachovia customers who bank with Wells Fargo.

It should be interesting to see if WaMu and Wachovia customers, especially those who have never been a Chase or Wells Fargo customers previously, flee to a competitor. One thing is for sure that both Chase and Wells Fargo need to engage with its newly acquired customer base early on and often if they want to retain their business.

The Yahoo! Homepage and other mega-site’s top-level domains reach the greatest audiences on the net and yield the highest advertising revenue. With millions invested in these single pages every day, they represent marquee virtual real estate, the online equivalent of Times Square billboards and primetime Network TV spots.

The graph above shows average daily unique visitors to homepages of the Top 5 ad-supported publishers. Some key takeaways:

• Unique visitors range from 8.6M – 54M
• Yahoo!’s Homepage gets more than 2.5X the average daily UVs of MySpace, the closest competitor

Like most premium inventory, homepage banner ads are priced on a CPM-basis. This practice obscures post-click performance, which can vary widely across campaigns and homepages, and leaves advertisers guessing about the true value of an ad, not just counting eyeballs.

As economic troubles worsen and marketing belts tighten, advertisers need to be more cautious with media spending and peel back CPM to see what a homepage is really worth. Compete compared a variety of campaigns at the Top 5 publishers over the course of a recent week in September to gauge homepage performance in terms of converting click-through.

The graph above shows the conversion rate of unique visitors who clicked on a banner ad at a Top 5 publisher’s homepage, and were then referred to the advertiser’s landing page. The conversion activity could take place on the advertiser’s landing page or site. Conversion activities varied by campaign, with some aimed squarely at a direct response, such as opening a new credit card, and others emphasizing a branded interaction, such as sending a branded text message via the web.

Some key takeaways from the graph above:

• The Top 5 publisher’s deliver conversion rates that range from 2 – 20%
• The traditional portals (Yahoo, MSN and AOL) deliver a conversion rate of 2 – 6%, with Yahoo taking the lead
• Social media giants YouTube and MySpace lead the Top 5 with conversion rates in the 18 – 20% range

Clearly, the Top 5 publisher’s split into two distinct categories: traditional portals with low homepage conversion rates and social media sites with high rates. What drives this 10X delta? Apparently whether or not the offer is free. Those banner ads which ran on portal homepages typically presented an offer to buy something, while offers on social media sites typically required just the visitor’s attention.

Portal banner ads included incentives to buy airline tickets or sign up for new brokerage accounts, like the Scottrade ad above (requiring a credit-check and trading contract). Social media sites, on the other hand, featured offers to compete in contests by uploading videos or download free toolbars/software, like the Spore Creature Creator.

If we control for the cost of offers, or lack thereof, there’s a wide discrepancy in post-click performance between peers. Yahoo, for instance, delivers a 6.0% homepage conversion rate, which is nearly 3x higher than MSN’s rate of 2.3%. As an advertiser, the best choice for a campaign will depend on a variety of factors, but with economic stakes rising, including the cost of ultra-premium homepage CPMs, so are the need for performance benchmarks that go beyond the first click.

Smartphones, with their higher contract prices and upfront costs, tend to attract more affluent consumers. In this economic climate, where consumers may have less disposable income or just be unwilling to spend it, extending that appeal to a larger and already crowded market will be a challenge.

Still, the fact that millions of iPhones have been sold since July suggests that a high-end device’s appeal could extend beyond those in the highest income brackets. The $200 price drop and decision to sell the iPhone 3G at Best Buy may have been bids to broaden the device’s appeal, but do they seem to be working?

And they have, can other smartphones broaden their appeal too?

• Since the iPhone 3G was announced in June, the skew toward $100K+ income-bracket researchers has become less pronounced
• After mirroring the overall handset researcher population at the iPhone 3G’s announcement and launch, shoppers in the $60-100K income bracket were 8% more likely to be researching the iPhone 3G in August
• Even though people in the <$30K and $30-60K income brackets are significantly less likely than most to research iPhone 3G, they have been making up an increasing proportion of the research population since the device was announced

So, although the gaps are narrowing, the iPhone still appeals most to people with incomes over $60K. What does this mean for the new crop of smartphones?

People may become more price sensitive because of the economy, but iPhone is so popular with consumers any new smartphone hoping to appeal to a large audience would almost have to be priced at or below $199. T-Mobile’s G1 will follow this trend and sell for $179 with a contract.

A preferable strategy to reducing price, but probably a tougher one, will be providing consumers with a viable alternative that offers the same or better usability with a different twist. Devices with different form factors like flip phones and combining touchscreens with physical keyboards might help sway some people. The benefits of open-source based operating systems like Android may change minds. But we’ll need to wait until the end of Q4 to find out.

For more on the demographics of the iPhone 3G’s appeal, check out our September 5th newsletter.

This interest caused me to take a closer look at how several personal finance sites are performing online. Each site, which allows people to aggregate and track all their personal finances, has its own flavor. Three of the most popular sites are:

• Wesabe.com provides a community-like atmosphere where people share tips about personal finance
• Geezeo.com is an ad-driven site with a heavy emphasis on selling credit cards
• Mint.com uses the information you provide to serve up comparisons of your accounts with competing accounts that could save you money

From personal experience tracking my finances is becoming an obsession (of course, never during business hours). Apparently, I’m not the only one obsessing about my dwindling 401k. Mint.com was viewed by more than 480k visitors during August 2008. Since August of 2007, Mint.com has grown in traffic by more than 965%. As the chart below demonstrates, none of Mint.com’s competitors has come close to that kind of traffic or growth.

So why are people visiting Mint.com more than Wesabe.com or Geezeo.com? The reasons are both experiential and strategic:

• Mint.com does not serve up one ad on its website. Got that? Not one ad. Now, you might get a “money-saving” offer like the one in yellow shown below, but those offers are on a separate tab and you can choose to ignore them completely.
>
• There is a limited population of consumers who want to do their personal finances as a group activity. I think I’m pretty loose-lipped when talking about money, but I’m not going to “open my kimono” on a website.


• Mint.com has a smart marketing strategy. Mint.com is prominently placed in search listings for keywords like “Quicken” and “personal finance software.” As a result, there is less likelihood that consumers are going to find Geezeo.com or Wesabe.com.

Mint.com recently announced the capability to add your mortgage, student, and auto loans to your portfolio to give users a broader picture of their finances. In this economic climate, this seems to be what people need right now, and it should be interesting to see how Mint.com will continue to expand its capabilities and grow its customer base.

According to our data, blending touchscreens and keyboards may be a great way to hedge your bets. As popular as touchscreens may be, interest in QWERTY phones hasn’t fizzled since touchscreen phones have been available.

• Despite the hype around touchscreen devices like the iPhone and the Instinct, interest in a physical QWERTY keyboard has remained strong, somewhere between 35% and 45% of all handset shoppers. Touchscreen interest is increasing but has generally been in the range of 10-25% of shoppers over the same period of time.
• Even though consumer interest is strong, QWERTY phones have only made up about 25-30% of carriers’online portfolios.

When considering the recent strong interest in QWERTY phones, and the strong press attention that touchscreen devices have been getting, combining the best elements of the two may be a good play for OEMs and carriers.

We’ll wait and see how the G1 fares in October.

But my love for the site, has not necessarily translated into universal love for the stock on Wall Street - RATE is down about 27% year to date. But Compete data shows that the company has given investors something to smile about. Recently, Bankrate.com announced the acquisition of CreditCardGuide.com for $44 million in total consideration ($34M in cash, $10M in a two-year earn out). Part of the reason that Bankrate.com management cited for acquiring the company was “CreditCardGuide.com has succeeded in developing a strong organic traffic stream to its site.” Indeed they have.

CreditCardGuide.com has consistently been increasing their SEO traffic (natural search referrals) over the past six months. In August, 90% of all search traffic to the site was from natural search. This is right on par with Bankrate.com standards, which is also around 90% SEO / 10% SEM.

Additionally, CreditCardGuide.com receives nearly 30% of all its traffic from Google, a percentage considerable higher than many sites, including Bankrate.com, which receives about 20% of its site traffic from Google.

Based on these metrics, it seems CreditCardGuide.com - which attracted about 180,000 unique visitors in August, growth of 80% year-over-year) was a strong acquisition for Bankrate.com and will continue to help it strengthen its search-based visitor acquisition strategy.

Note: come back next week for our take on RATE’s Bankaholic.com acquisition!

• Consumer automotive demand was down 25% in August from its 2007 level
• Demand was down 37% from its August 2006 level

These changes require a renewed focus on managing marketing resources effectively – in particular, your media dollars – in order to maximize ROI.

In conjunction with Automotive News analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik will lead a discussion on how to use Google Analytics to help address the fresh challenges facing automotive brand marketers. As someone who has heard Avinash speak you won’t want to miss it!

Want more Avinash insights? Check out my interview with Avinash.

Webinar Date and Time
October 15, 2008
9:00am PST / 12:00pm EST
RSVP

Well, fly blind no more! The Compete PRO Team has just launched Referral Analytics with referral and destination reports on Compete PRO. With data on over One Million Websites, these two reports give you swiss-army precise information about your online marketing and site design effectiveness. And the best part of it is that you can now get this information for yourself and your key competitors on a monthly basis. See the screenshot below for a visual example:

• Referral reports reveal that TinyURL.com receives 18.3% of it’s traffic from Twitter, a growth of nearly 20% from last month;
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The deal!

Compete PRO’s Referral Analytics Reports are available to Compete Pro Advanced or Enterprise customers. You can now save $2,000 (33%) off the Advanced Annual PRO subscription plan by upgrading today. On top of that for the remainder of September you can run unlimited Referral Reports!

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As the gap between YouTube and everybody else continued to widen, two players debuted in the top ranks in August, thanks to major news events. The Democratic National Convention gave a big boost to CNN.com, part of the Time Warner Network, which altogether took a 4.0% share of video viewing visits.

Meanwhile the Olympic Summer Games drove major traffic to NBCOlympics.com, part of the NBC-Universal Peacock, which shot up to 3rd place with 3.9% of visits. That marked the first time TWN and NBCU have been in the Top 5.

The newcomers, both complements to larger TV networks, displaced Fox Interactive Media (parent to MySpace) and Microsoft. FIM and Microsoft have consistently lost share over the past 12 months, but usually their loss has been YouTube’s gain.

Meanwhile, some familiar faces are climbing steadily up the mid-ranks. Facebook’s video application claimed 11th place in August with 1.5% share of visits in August, up from 17th place in January.

And Hulu took 14th place in August, with 1.2% of viewing visits. The NBCU-Fox joint venture debuted in the Top 20 in January, making it the fastest rising competitor to date.

Last week, at the CTIA trade show, RIM announced their newest BlackBerry model. The new BlackBerry Pearl 8220, a flip phone version of the popular original, will appear exclusively at T-Mobile later this year.

Color me excited to see this new wonder added to the ‘miracle’ that is the BlackBerry. A flip version of the Pearl?! (I wonder if John McCain had a hand in this…)

This announcement got me thinking about how others will perceive the new addition to the BlackBerry family.

In August, only about 7% of smartphone shoppers looked at flip phone models. Thinking that this could just be due to a lack of flip phone models in the smartphone space, I took a deeper look at the interest smartphone shoppers are showing for flip phones.

Read as: 3% of smartphone shoppers also viewed the LG Voyager at Verizon Wireless in the month of August 2008.

• The level of interest here is very low – even the popular Voyager only sees interest from about 3% of smartphone shoppers
• The flip phone most interesting to smartphone shoppers, the LG Voyager, is itself a smartphone

So, based on the interest (or lack thereof) that smartphone shoppers are showing in flip phone models, the immediate outlook for this new BlackBerry Pearl flip phone is a little bleak.

However, now that BlackBerry is offering a flip phone, it’s possible the numbers will tell a different story in the coming months. Clearly they’re going for a new look to shake up the classic look of a BlackBerry. Could this be the start of something big for smartphone shoppers across the country? Will we start seeing more flip versions of smartphones? I’ll be watching the new model releases with excitement!

All rivals ceded market share to Google, and Club Live deepened the dip at Windows Live.

Google received nearly 40% more queries from the US Adult population then it did in August 2007, continuing a trend of steady query growth over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, Yahoo! declined 5.5% and Windows Live (without Club Live) fell 6.1% compared to last month last year. The story is a bit different when we factor in Club Live – with it, Windows Live actually gained 2.3% share compared to a year ago.

The major takeaways for August 2008 (excluding Club Live from the market)….

• Google sets new record of 69.4% share on 1.5% m-o-m query volume gains
• Yahoo! dips to 20.1% market share on 2.2% m-o-m query volume decline
• Windows Live Search drops to 6.6% market share (with Club Live, this jumps up to 9.9%, though m-o-m query volume still declines)
• Ask share dips slightly to 2.7% on a nearly 12% m-o-m decline in volume
• AOL holds on with 1% search share on flat query growth
• Next up … the rush Back to School in September!

If you want to get your hands on the actual data in this post and a lot more don’t forget to check out Compete’s Data Hub.

*Search market share includes web search only for the Adult US Online Population and is calculated based on unique queries within each session during the given month.

Is Apple is trying to make the Touch appeal to people who want an iPhone but are bound to their carriers? Maybe. Consumer behavior seems to be saying that the Touch is a device more for iPhone fans than people who are only thinking about options in the iPod family.

The chart below looks at traffic to the Touch, iPod Nano, and iPhone portions of the Apple site.

• Interest in the iPod Touch was generally low, but probably got some momentum from the iPhone in July and August, surpassing traffic to the iPod Nano during both months.
• Interest in the iPhone has been higher than the iPod Nano or the Touch since February, with especially strong months when the 3G was announced and launched.
• Interest in the iPod Nano was strong throughout Q4 2007, and peaked in December, suggesting it may have been the most likely of the three devices to be considered as a gift.

Not only does the iPhone’s momentum seem to have increased interest in the iPod Touch, but those who have been interested in Touch are more likely to look into an iPhone.

• iPod Touch researchers have been researching the iPhone an average of ~10% more frequently than they research the iPod Nano, even during the holiday season.
• Cross-consideration seems to mirror the iPhone’s momentum in June and July 2008.

Will the momentum in iPhone interest and last week’s price cut lift the iPod Touch when it comes to sales from now until the end of the year?

Despite the iPhone’s popularity, consumers in the current economic climate may not be willing to shell out between $229 and $399 for an iPod Touch if they have the option of giving a Nano for $149-199. Then again, interest and momentum in the Touch could increase as the iPhone and other high-end mobile devices like it are sold at big box consumer electronics stores. In combination with the price drop on the iPod Touch, wide availability of the iPhone could open a new and bigger market for the Touch as a music and media player to grab market share from the Zune and the PSP.

Apple’s announcement last week might be bigger news than we think.

The announcements in August of Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as their party’s Vice Presidential candidates have defined the race over the last few weeks. After long trailing in national and battleground polls, fundraising and the all important buzz factor, McCain’s surprising choice served as both a shot in the arm for the GOP base and a punch to the gut for Democrats. An updated Tale of the Tape table now shows a narrowing race on all fronts.

As shown in the chart below, both campaigns got a bump in site traffic after their VP announcements; however, the McCain campaign’s smart tactic of announcing Palin’s name the day after Obama’s speech in Denver helped grab the national media attention away from the Democratic nominee. The ensuing Palin frenzy helped McCain do what was once unthinkable: rival Obama’s online reach for an entire week (albeit the week of the Republican National Convention).

Palin, a political unknown only a few short weeks ago, has had an undeniable impact on the race as she fast becomes a household name across the country. Web searches for Palin totaled 2.8 million on the day of McCain’s announcement, and remained above 1 million through the Republican convention the following week. With the national media unprepared for the pick, Americans turned to Wikipedia in droves to find information on Palin. Nearly 1.2 million people read Palin’s Wikipedia article within the first 36 hours following the announcement, making hers the most popular article on the site in August, and leaving Michael Phelps just a silver medal to go with his eight golds from Beijing.

Not only is Palin driving more people to McCain’s campaign, but importantly, Palin is bringing out more women. The gender split among JohnMcCain.com visitors has shifted from 48% female prior to Palin’s announcement, to 52% over the past two weeks. Regardless of whether these are GOP faithful just now warming to McCain’s candidacy, or disaffected Clinton supporters testing the Palin waters, even a modest female break toward McCain could spell trouble for Obama.

Coming at the end of August, Palin’s entry in the race had only a modest impact on McCain’s FaceTime share last month; however, McCain was still able to make up ground on Obama thanks in large part to his growing website traffic, as well as continued sharp attack advertisements found on YouTube (as well as other video sharing websites.) The FaceTime metric measures total time spent with candidates online and the chart below illustrates the degree to which McCain and Obama are attracting the attention of voters across leading social networks and video sharing websites as well as on each candidate’s official sites. In just four months, McCain’s FaceTime share has risen five-fold from 7% to 38%.

In addition to popular attack ads launched in July, which continued to get significant play last month, the McCain camp found viral success last month with a video staring Joe Biden himself. The ad, “Joe Biden on Barack Obama” which features a clip of Biden questioning Obama’s readiness to be president, has registered nearly a million views to date. Obama also found YouTube success in August with his “Seven” ad, which paints McCain as out of touch on the economy and criticizes his ownership of multiple homes. While Obama has long been the political king of YouTube, this latest video was his first in over six months to register close to a million views, whereas McCain has posted three videos in the past two months that have attracted a million or more views.

Historically, the selection of a VP candidate has had little impact on the results come Election Day. In this race of multiple “firsts,” however, and with less than 50 days remaining before American’s cast their votes, history could be trumped once again.

The newest player to enter this game is Chevrolet, with the Volt. The Volt is a lithium-ion battery powered vehicle set to launch by the end of 2010. Today, on their 100th anniversary, GM plans to debut the production version of the Volt. With this debut comes a key question, can the Volt change the consumer’s mind of GM from ‘gas guzzler’ to ‘fuel sipper’? To-date the ball is certainly rolling in that direction, with roughly 40,000 people signing up on the unofficial waiting list at www.gm-volt.com, a site developed by New Yorker Lyle Dennis. A sort of micro-site, it’s an enthusiast site without any official ties back to GM. But apparently, Dennis isn’t the only one who’s interested in the Volt, nearly 100,000 unique visitors went to the site in August.

At Compete, we also looked at what online buzz, if any, the Volt was generating. To do this we looked at the number of search terms containing “Chevrolet Volt” or “Chevy Volt” in July and August. We found the most significant impact following the commercial spot during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on 8/8/08, with a 171% increase week-over-week.

Early indicators show that GM appears to be headed in the right direction with the Volt, thanks to timely ad spots and online buzz. With Hummer’s future in constant question it would seem the Volt is ready to take over as the image of GM. Only time will tell what the true impact will be, but I bet I can guess what GM will be wishing for as they blow out the birthday candles today.

In your opinion, what are some of the key challenges for today’s online marketers within the Financial Services industry?

Establishing trust is the biggest challenge right now. Banks are failing, home values are plummeting, stocks are down, and the average consumer thinks the whole game is rigged against them. Consumers I talk to say they don’t know who to trust. Folks who never took out a sub-prime mortgage are impacted by tightening credit and may even have their home equity lines of credit reduced due to falling home values. It doesn’t make sense to folks who have always paid their bills on time and played by the rules.

Big brands can really win here by becoming the rock of stability, and reassuring their customers about the trust they have already placed in them. The big brands have the opportunity to leverage the brand equity they have established over the years by reaching out and guiding their customers thru this storm. Smaller or less established brands will really need to step up the quality of their advertising online (no more dancing presidents!), and to add broadcast advertising to the extent they can afford it in this environment. Online, this is the time to leverage good will and trust established with your customers thru testimonials, PR, social network commentary and good old-fashioned email communications.

It’s interesting to note that over the past year, web visits to the largest online mortgage lenders have dropped as much as 71%. Ditech has increased their visits, something I would attribute to their sustained TV campaign. Curiously, the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter has more visits than the big lenders, and their traffic is up 161% from last year – what does that tell you about trust?

Are FS marketers doing enough to leverage online and offline efforts together?

This is a real challenge for so many industries – especially companies which grew up in the offline media world. So few CEO’s, and even CMO’s, have a real appreciation for how the two work together and complement each other.

In the example above, Ditech continues to drive traffic to their site because they continue to advertise on TV while their competitors have pulled back. I work with experts in radio advertising and the correlation between radio spending and online traffic is clear as day. Yet the messages the clients put out in each medium are very different, so the common thread becomes the brand name. With consistency and forethought, the two can be combined to really create a powerful response mechanism. People want to go online before calling – they want to check you out and don’t want to commit to a phone call right off the bat. Create a consistent, united front and you will have a powerful combination.

As an online marketer, what are some of your favorite tools that you use to hone your craft?

Google has so many great tools that I use every day – analytics, insight for search, trends. I also love the Compete Toolbar – especially with Firefox because it gives me a visit trend snapshot in the bottom of the browser window.

In terms of ad serving and optimization, Adchemy in Redwood City has developed some amazing technology and methodology for serving ads with literally hundreds of dynamic variables instantaneously. It is a direct response marketers dream. These are some smart guys.

Which Financial companies do you think are doing a great job of marketing online to their customers? Why?

Do any financial services companies REALLY do a great job in marketing to their customers? I have had accounts with some of the same firms for more than 20 years and have never received any communication that said they really cared about my business. How about a simple birthday card? Given the enormous amounts of information that financial services possess about their customers, it is shameful how little of it is used in a way to strengthen the relationship and expand the share-of-customer the firms have.

Having said that, Chase and Citi are doing a nice job with email marketing. The emails I see from them always add value, they make their offers relevant and succinct. But they are generic, and not necessarily tailored to me as an individual. Chase in particular seems to have created great integration between their local branches and their online communications with customers.

Connecting with Gen Y is a goal of most FS marketers right now – is it possible to get their attention, if so, how?

Connecting with Gen Y is not about having a presence on Facebook and YouTube. These are really savvy consumers, and they will look for evidence of your claims at every turn. They respect authenticity, which comes back to our earlier discussion around trust. I think connecting with Gen Y happens when you create great products and services. This generation is less accepting of the status quo and is more willing to ask “Why can’t it be the way I want it to be?” Look at the huge success of Apple with this market. Why on earth would I try to cobble together a Vista-based PC with a Blackberry and an iPod when I can buy everything from Apple and it works together seamlessly and elegantly? Financial Services marketers need to take that same approach to their products and find ways to make them “insanely great.”

What has playing in your band taught you about marketing?

Playing in a rock and roll band teaches teamwork, cooperation, compromise, and fun. It’s funny how certain simple songs will connect with an audience and get them to move closer to the stage and get into the music, while other songs that require greater musical skills send folks back to their tables. Advertising and Marketing are kind of the same way – the beautiful rich-media ad that wins awards but generates few sales gets trumped by a straightforward text link ad. So just like being in the band, you need to give the people what they want and be honest about who you are. Audiences and consumers know when you are faking it.

Who should we interview next?

Asheesh Advani, CEO of Virgin Money. He created Friend-and-family lending way before peer-to-peer became cool, and then got the attention of Richard Branson. He is a brilliant guy, and really knows his stuff.

About Bryan Stapp

Bryan Stapp is the Chief Marketer for his firm Loud Amplifier Marketing, providing marketing consulting to CEO’s and CMO’s in multiple industries. He is a frequent presenter at industry conferences on the subject of internet marketing, consumer relationships, and brand building. Prior to starting Loud Amplifier Marketing, Bryan spent six and one half years as the Chief Marketing Officer for Quicken Loans – the number one online mortgage lender in the United States. Read Bryan’s blog posts at www.loudamplifiermarketing.com.