Interactive Marketing

Bet On Always Addressability Now, Not Later

Emily Riley — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:31:29 +0000

I read some deceptively warm and fuzzy advertising riding on the subway this morning courtesy of our nation's top soft drink manufacturers. Together they have reduced calories of drinks in US schools by 88% by offering more low- and no-calorie options. "Gee," I thought, "I'd like to learn more." So as I exited the subway, I took out my phone and searched "no calorie soft drinks." The top link broke the spell; an article on msn exposing the same risks that no calorie drinks have of their sugary cousins. My first thought was, "Well that isn't any better for our nation's children." My second was, "What the #$&?! Do these companies take me for a complete fool? Don't they know that I have the world's knowledge at my fingertips??" Apparently not.

The Right Way To Globalize Your Interactive Marketing Programs

Nate Elliott — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:56:34 +0000

I have a tailor named James.

Well, I say I have a tailor, but in truth I've only commissioned one item - a jacket - and it's not done yet. I had an initial fitting about 10 days ago, and I'll collect the finished article next week.

I decided to find a tailor because I was tired of off-the-rack suits that never fit quite right. So James took more than a dozen measurements. We talked in detail about sleeve lengths, and lapel widths, and how I liked my jackets cut. And once he'd made a sample, I tried it on so James could get the details just right. I expect it'll be a perfect fit.

When you look at your company's marketing efforts from one country to another, how well would you say those programs fit? In the past year I've worked with a bank, a consumer goods manufacturer, and a pharmaceutical company that are all struggling with how to globalize their interactive marketing programs. And while most of them had a couple different issues holding them back, there was one common theme: The global programs rarely fit the local markets.

Local interactive marketing managers tell us they're also tired of shopping off-the-rack -- in their case, being handed one-size-fits-all sites and strategies that aren't tailored to their markets -- and that they usually don't have enough resources to make the proper alterations. The result is a choice between using ill-fitting global programs that don't meet local needs or creating cheap one-off local efforts that don't meet global guidelines or standards.

Facebook Needs To Take Marketing Seriously

Nate Elliott — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:32:09 +0000

My colleague Melissa Parrish and I have been thinking about the Facebook IPO. Our thoughts:

The world's biggest social network will complete its initial public offering in a few days, with a valuation based largely on its strong history of innovation. But we have to wonder: Will Facebook ever focus any of that innovation on helping marketers?

After all, Facebook is fantastic at introducing great new features and services for its end users. The moment another social tool gains the interest of enough users - whether it's Twitter's rapid public chatter or Foursquare's location-based check-ins - Facebook updates its own site to offer similar features to its legions of users. We've rarely seen a company borrow from its competition as quickly or as well as Facebook. And that focus on better serving end users has seen Facebook grow quickly over the years, even in the face of consistent privacy concerns.

But as good as Facebook has been at evolving to serve consumers, that's how bad it's been at serving marketers. In the past five years Facebook has lurched from one advertising model to another. Remember when the site charged marketers to host branded pages? Or when every page featured banners from MSN's ad network? (You may choose to forget Facebook Beacon; Mark Zuckerberg would certainly prefer you did.)

Facebooks Needs to Take Marketing Seriously

Melissa Parrish — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:30:29 +0000

My colleague Nate Elliott and I have been thinking about the Facebook IPO. Our thoughts:

Engaging Your Ultra-Connected Customers

Melissa Parrish — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:03:04 +0000

Back in March, I hinted at my discomfort with the way SoLoMo has come to mean technology-focused, reductive marketing campaigns usually solely focused on the "check-in." But the reason people want to talk about SoLoMo is because of real trends in consumer adoption of technology and advanced technology behaviors. Those of you who were at Forrester's Marketing Leadership Forum last month know that this thinking evolved into what we've been calling the Always Addressable Customer -- a topic that I haven't stopped talking about since we debuted it. For those of you who haven't yet heard the term, the Always Addressable Customer is someone who:

· Owns and uses at least 3 data connected devices

· Accesses the Internet multiple times per day

· Goes online from multiple physical locations (for example: home, work, in the car, and at the mall)

These customers require marketers to think differently about their programs if they want to be effective. Always Addressable Customers don't stop to think about their devices or "technology solutions." Rather, technology is simply how they live their lives and get stuff done. It means that you can now reach this ultra-connected audience wherever they are, but more importantly, wherever and whenever they need you. That "need" is key here: I'm not talking about your ability to bombard your customer with irrelevant messages. I'm talking about how you can now provide true service and value to your customers whenever and wherever they need it.

Looking Forward To A World Ruled By The Viewable Impression

Joanna O'Connell — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:17:57 +0000

Ad impressions will drop by 50% or more. CPMs will increase commensurately. ComScore 500 publishers will finally get the respect they deserve and recapture market share from their junky ad network rivals. Consumers will start noticing - dare I say liking? - display ads. Display will no longer be the red-headed stepchild in the shadow of direct response rival search or brand rival video. That's what we can look forward to in a world ruled by the viewable impression standard.

Why am I on my high horse about viewable impressions? And why do I think it's such a big deal for the industry? Well, we in the display advertising world have a real problem, and it's been plaguing us since the earliest days of the medium: how to think about, understand, and make sense of the true value of a display ad impression. Our initial answer, back in the late 1990s, was to say, "Let's just measure what we can - clicks!" and our addiction to the click-through rate (CTR) as the key measure of display advertising's success - or more often failure - was born. We should all be kicking ourselves for that, and I know many of us are: We took a brand new marketing vehicle, ripe with promise and untainted by the rules of marketing channels that came before it, and turned it into a cheap, bottom-of-the-barrel direct response mechanism.

Who did this serve? No one.

It didn't serve publishers, who were - and still are - under constant pressure to prove that the display banners they sell in their premium, proprietary environments have intrinsic value.

Boost your content ecosystem with video

Darika Ahrens — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:33:25 +0000

When I picked online video content marketing for my inaugral Forrester research report I knew it was a hot topic and an area of growing interest for interactive marketers. But even I was surprised when our data identified that for consumers branded online video content is as engaging as display advertising (read the report for more on this data).

I can guarantee that if I got a group of interactive marketers together in a room and asked for a show of hands comparing how many have a display strategy vs. how many have an online video content strategy, the display hands would vastly out number the video content hands. Seeing the levels of consumer engagement for video outlined in our research (and these days it's all about engagement right?) will hopefully make many brands start to sit up and take the medium seriously.

But how to use online video content?

When you talk to marketers who use video online it can feel a little more art than science. People enthuse that video "can work better than text" but struggle to validate or quantify how that can be. And most successful viral marketers seem to rely on gut instinct to create the next social video hit. No wonder the majority of marketers stay in the pay-to-display area of online video, never exploring content itself.

What this report does is put the data, or the science bit, behind the online video opportunity, hopefully convincing even the most hardened C-Level executive of the commercial benefits to brands using online video content. (HINT: It's not just about getting YouTube views).

We then outline how to use that video content across your entire brand ecosystem.

Please enjoy reading Boost Your Content Ecosystem With Video available to download now.

From Advertising to Advice - Intelligent Marketing Agents

Anthony Mullen — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:57:30 +0000

Before the clouds, webs, and distributed networks people had to create their own spaghetti of logic inside a single building using machinery that looked like props from Doctor Who. Spurred by the need to crack the 'Enigma' naval communication codes during the Second World War Alan Turing developed an electromechanical device called the Bombe which played a major part in defusing the war. 2012 is the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Turing and he is rightly considered to be the father of computer science and Artificial Intelligence. Turing had both a wonderful and terrible time of it and his life story is well worth a wiki.

The British genius didn't just advance computer science using valves and wires. He is almost as famous for his thought experiments concerning how we may build machines and computers that can engage in intelligent discourse with humans. Could machine responses fool us into thinking that they were sourced from a human? To answer this question Turing developed a methodology to test the validity of the machine generated responses, fans of Science Fiction are likely to recognize this as the inspiration behind the 'Voight-Kampff' test administered by Deckard in Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner.'

Importantly Turing's test wasn't about whether machines could think like humans - but "are there imaginable digital computers which would do well in the imitation game?". This is the best way to frame the test because it ultimately reveals a focus on usefulness and deftly avoids the circular discussion of "what is human intelligence?"

Q&A With Jermaine Dupri, Grammy-Award Winning Producer, Hip-Hop Artist, And CEO Of So So Def Recordings And Global 14

Christine Overby — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:27:49 +0000

Celebrity and marketing go way back. That said, yesterday's celebrity endorsements are giving way to something more complex, sometimes complementary, and sometimes competitive -- witness classic alcohol brands fighting for shelf with Barrymore Pinot Grigio (Drew Barrymore), Mansinthe (Marilyn Manson), and 901 Tequila (Justin Timberlake). Celebrities are in familiar water with social networking, having long created content and acquired fans. Yet that relationship is changing too, as for some, setting up Facebook pages gives way to building their own communities in the same way they've built brands. The best example of this today is Jermaine Dupri and his new social networking community Global 14. Later this month to explore this initiative, I'll be sharing the stage with JD (never thought I'd type those words!). Here's a sample of what we'll discuss at the Forrester Interactive Marketing Summit in London:

Hot Off The Presses: Forrester Wave™ For Interactive Attribution

Ari Osur — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:58:48 +0000

So how was your winter? I hibernated, holed up in a cave studying the interactive attribution category. Like a freakish, human Punxsutawney Phil, I emerged - but unfortunately I saw my shadow and hit the snooze button. According to tradition, this means that we are subjected to more cold days ruled by the "last click" measurement standard. And we're still stuck in those cold days: even among marketers we surveyed who work with an attribution provider, 28% indicated that they still rely on "first click" or "last click" to assign value to their interactive marketing activities.

Now for the good news: the thaw is coming and we're optimistic that it will be permanent. I'm excited to announce that The Forrester Wave™: Interactive Attribution Providers, Q2 2012 is now available to help you select the right partner and learn more about attribution. In it, we discuss how momentum is accelerating for the interactive marketing community to dismiss "last click" and employ advanced attribution, the measurement of the partial value of each contact that contributed to a desired outcome.

In the Wave report we evaluated eight vendors: Adobe, Adometry, C3 Metrics, ClearSaleing, Convertro, Google, IBM, and Visual IQ. These vendors, plus others with attribution offerings that didn't meet our screening requirements, are partnering with forward-leaning marketers to usher in the transition to smarter measurement. Compared to the previous Wave we published on this category, we identified several encouraging developments:

Q&A with Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare

Christine Overby — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:18:45 +0000

Adopting a social mindset requires a change in culture. Tough to accomplish. Now layer on top the added complexities of a B2B sales cycle, strict industry regulations, and dozens of regional markets. Welcome to the world of Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare and keynote at our upcoming Forrester Interactive Marketing summit in London on May 23. Clive has managed through these complexities to create successful B2B influence marketing programs in customer communities like Philips NetForum and public communities like LinkedIn. I recently caught up with Clive to learn more about how he did it. I hope to see you in London where Clive will share the full story!

CO: What's unique about nurturing influencers in a B2B environment?

How Unilever, Philips Healthcare, And Jermaine Dupri Master Digital Engagement

Christine Overby — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:48:33 +0000

In 2007, Forrester published our first report on engagement. We defined it as "the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence that an individual has with a brand over time." Fast forward five years: marketers still prioritize engagement in both principle and practice. Why? Two reasons, really. First, it's the right aspiration. When a brand gets it right and earns a place in the ongoing dialogue, its customers become its fiercest advocates and a kind of outsourced marketing department. Second, it's hard to do. Today, we're talking about ongoing interactions that somehow manage to stay authentic and personal despite the explosion of devices and customer touchpoints. So, as marketers, I believe that we prioritize engagement because we enjoy the challenge (Solving it makes victory all the sweeter!).

On May 23 in London, I'm hosting our inaugural Interactive Marketing Summit on the topic of Mastering Digital Engagement. Our external keynotes include Debbie Weinstein, Senior Director of Global Media Innovation at Unilever; Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare; and Jermaine Dupri, Grammy-award winning producer, CEO of So So Def Recordings, hip-hop artist, and songwriter. I'm a bit in awe of their fabulousness. You can expect our keynotes to address key points such as:

Starbucks Makes It Personal

Darika Ahrens — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:46:28 +0000

"I went to the Starbucks at the [redacted] campus today in between classes to pick up a drink. I was in a pretty good mood and I left the store with my drink. On my way to class, I noticed that the Barista had a better name for me. (See the picture attached). I have no clue what made the person write that. I wasn't mean at all. I don't think I'll be going back. That's too bad for Starbucks since I usually go 1-2 times per day. I'll be taking my business to Peet's Coffee." - "Why Did Starbucks Write "Big D*ck" On My Drink Cup?" on The Consumerist.

This weird instance of customer service is part of a Starbucks campaign that is rapidly going pear-shaped online. It started with the brand giving away free lattes in exchange for customers telling the barista their first name and continued with Starbucks staff still merrily writing customer names on cups but with frequent misspellings leading to a host of comedy sites springing up like http://whatsmynamestarbucks.blogspot.co.uk/, http://starbucksspelling.tumblr.com/ or my personal favorite, "The Starbucks Name Generator."

The earlier example of name-calling (and it's not a one off) shows that even the staff aren't taking it seriously anymore . . .

To Succeed In Social Media, Lower Your Expectations

Nate Elliott — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 09:49:54 +0000

I've been hopscotching Europe this week, seeing clients and colleagues in London and Istanbul -- but my thoughts have been in Los Angeles, where in a couple of weeks I'll be giving a speech called "Taking Social Media From Cool To Critical" at the 2012 Forrester Marketing Leadership Forum.

I chose that topic because it's a concern I hear almost every day -- and sure enough, I heard it from several clients on my travels this week. "We've put time and resources into social media marketing, because it seemed like we had to, but . . . it's just not having much of a business impact." By comparison, four or five years into the era of search marketing, most companies were making a killing from their SEM programs. The same goes for email marketing. But here we are four or five years into the era of social media marketing -- and for many companies, social media is still a curiosity, a sideshow that attracts lots of interest but adds little value. It's still cool, but at most firms, it's just not a critical part of the marketing plan.

I think the main reason marketers still struggle to make social pay is simple: They overestimate social media as a marketing tool. Let me be clear: I'm not bashing social's value for marketing; social media can have an enormous impact on the success of your marketing programs, as we've seen time and time again. The point I'm making is that it can't create that success all on its own. You need to use it as merely one tool in your marketing tool kit.

Gilt Grants Discounts Based On "Influence" -- Does This Have Staying Power?

Ari Osur — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:55:17 +0000

Gilt Groupe recently ran a promotion with Klout in which it offered tiered discounts based on a person's influence score (see the screenshot below). Members of Klout Perks received a discount for Gilt purchases based on their Klout score; the higher the member's influence score, the higher the discount.

Gilt's primary objective with the promotion was to build brand awareness through word of mouth and acquire new customers. It will be interesting to see how the program performs for Gilt in terms of first-time purchases, long-term customer behaviors, and ROI.

This promotion got me thinking about the potential uses of influence scores for marketing purposes. I've blogged about these scoring methodologies before and believe that we're still feeling our way through their construction, relevancy, and value. But I do see at least two general use cases forming. In addition to incorporating them into analyses for customer insights, marketers can use influence scores -- either home-grown or externally derived -- to:

Interactive Marketing

Bet On Always Addressability Now, Not Later

The Right Way To Globalize Your Interactive Marketing Programs

Facebook Needs To Take Marketing Seriously

Facebooks Needs to Take Marketing Seriously

Categories:

Engaging Your Ultra-Connected Customers

Categories:

Looking Forward To A World Ruled By The Viewable Impression

Boost your content ecosystem with video

But how to use online video content?

Categories:

From Advertising to Advice - Intelligent Marketing Agents

Categories:

Q&A With Jermaine Dupri, Grammy-Award Winning Producer, Hip-Hop Artist, And CEO Of So So Def Recordings And Global 14

Categories:

Hot Off The Presses: Forrester Wave™ For Interactive Attribution

Categories:

Q&A with Clive Roach, Social Media Strategist at Philips Healthcare

Categories:

How Unilever, Philips Healthcare, And Jermaine Dupri Master Digital Engagement

Categories:

Starbucks Makes It Personal

To Succeed In Social Media, Lower Your Expectations

Categories:

Gilt Grants Discounts Based On "Influence" -- Does This Have Staying Power?

Categories: