The Forrester Blog For Interactive Marketing Professionals

Online Video Contests Can Help Marketers Listen To And Energize Their Customers

2009-07-07T20:48:31-04:00

Chances are you've seen an online video contest lately. In fact, you've probably seen a lot of them: more than 20% of interactive marketers -- including category leaders like P&G, Nike, Coca-Cola and Sony -- tell Forrester they've run campaigns asking users to submit online content in the past year. I've been collecting a list of dozens of great video contests, and one contest clearinghouse site says there are 115 user-generated video contests accepting submissions right now, across a huge range of categories.

Some of these contests -- like Tourism Queensland's Cannes-Lion-winning "The Best Job in the World" contest, or Doritos' "Crash the Super Bowl" contest -- generate a lot of media coverage. But there are many hundreds more each year, promoting everything from steak sauce to psoriasis research, that don't get as much notoriety.

Why are so many marketers running online video contests? Because users love online contests almost as much as they love online video -- and because user-generated video contests can help marketers achieve a huge range of marketing objectives.

Video contests let marketers listen to their customers and learn about their needs -- like student loan provider Access Group, which asked law students to enter videos about their concerns and then used insights from those videos to create its "Student Loans, No Worries" ad campaign. Contests can help marketers energize users an drive a viral marketing effect -- like Servus Credit Union, which encouraged entrants to develop their own marketing campaigns to drum up votes, and found the three finalists generated as much publicity as the credit union's PR firm did. And they can give marketers access to cheap, original online video content -- like ski resort Sunshine Village, which used its contest to generate a video library of its mountain's trails and terrain.

Of course, not every video contest succeeds. They often take months to plan, they can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $250,000 or more, and they usually require the coordinated efforts of several internal departments and external vendors. And if you don't get the "three Ps" right (choosing the right premise, offering the right prize, and picking the right promotional strategy) you could fall flat on your face.

I've spent the last two months studying hundreds of contests, and have just published two new reports on the topic. User-Generated Video Contests: Best Practices For Driving More Entries And Creating Viral Impact is designed to help marketers understand which users they should target with video contests, what goals they can achieve, and how to get the most value from their contests. Video Contest Checklist: How To Choose The Right Premise, Prize, And Promotion For Your Contest contains a checklist that guides marketers through every single step in the contest process -- including choosing a contest premise, selecting a prize, planning a promotional strategy, choosing a voting structure, picking a vendor, setting a schedule, establishing a budget, getting internal buy-in, and measuring the results.

Over the next few days, I'll be publishing some of the most important lessons I've learned in my research -- including the best promotional strategies I've seen, and mini-case studies on what makes contests successful -- on my personal blog.

In the meantime, if you've been thinking of running a user-generated video contest -- or if I've convinced you it's a good idea -- drop me a line (nelliott at forrester dot com). I'd be happy to work with you on making your video contest a success.

Interactive Marketing Nears $55 Billion; Advertising Overall Declines

2009-07-07T15:58:39-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

I'm pleased to announce that Forrester's five year forecast is now complete and live on Forrester's site. It feels like this has been a long time in coming from my side too! Please see the full report for detailed explanations of the trends affecting overall marketing budgets and the growth of the channel in the forecast.

You may remember we previewed our forecast at Forrester's Marketing Forum at the end of April. If you cross reference this post to the one we posted as follow up to the forum, you will notice that the "% of all advertising spend" has changed. The absolute forecast is still the same, we just changed this calculation to make sure it was done in the same way as in years past. See below for the most recent release:

This research will certainly help marketers plan their channel strategies.

Search continues to lead interactive spend followed by display.
And owned social media assets (like internal blogs, community sites) are really the only emerging media getting traction in today's economic climate.

But to me, the most interesting takeaway from the research is that overall advertising budgets will decline. Yep. With dollars moving out of traditional media toward less expensive and more efficient interactive tools, marketers will actually need less money to accomplish their current advertising goals. But reasonable marketers won't relinquish budget because their programs are running too efficiently. Instead, marketers will allocate unused advertising dollars into investments like innovation, research, customer service, customer experiences, and marketing-specific technology and IT staff, in order to further marketing's strategic influence within their companies.

New Limits for Text Messaging?

2009-07-01T19:11:30-04:00

Marketers using text messaging beware. A recent federal court ruling says sending ads in text messages potentially violates the law.

In a nutshell, here's the situation:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court mistakenly absolved Simon & Shuster and its agency partner ipsh! of violating telecommunications law in sending text messages to promote Stephen King's novel "The Cell" in 2006.
The case hinges on two critical questions: Was an auto-dialing system used for the campaign? And, should a text message be defined as a "call"?

The case, which now goes back to the lower court for review, has galvanized mobile vendors like Shane Neman, CEO of Ez Texting, whose own company faces a similar suit. Neman has organized the Mobile Advocacy Coalition, which intends to ask the FCC to recognize vendors as "mere conduits" of text messaging, giving them an exemption from this kind of legal action - an exemption the carriers already enjoy, he notes. The coalition is not seeking to exempt unscrupulous marketers who violate the law by sending unsolicited text messages.

This is a very important case for marketers because it could result in new restrictions on the use of text messaging. It also points to the growing pains for mobile as it becomes a more established marketing platform.

Report: Companies Should Organize For Social Media in a "Hub and Spoke" model

2009-06-25T19:08:52-04:00

I often get asked by brands: "How should we organize our company for social media?" or "Which roles do we need", or "Which department is in charge". So for our latest report (clients can access all the details) answers just that, it has data and graphs about spending, brand maturity in the social space, which department 'owns' the program, and how companies are organizing.

Companies organize in three distinct models For this post, let's focus in on how companies are organizing. There are three basic models that I've observed and surveyed brands:

The Tire (Distributed): Where each business unit or group may create its own social media programs without a centralized approach. We call this approach the “tire,” as it originates at the edges of the company.

The Tower (Centralized): We refer to this centralization as the “tower” — a standalone group within a company that’s responsible for social media programs, often within corporate marketing or corporate communicaitons.

The Hub and Spoke (Cross Functional): Like the hub on a bicycle wheel, a cross-functional group that represents multiple stakeholders across the company assembles in the middle of the organization. The hub facilitates resource sharing and cross-functional communications (via the “spokes” in the wheel) to those at the edge of the organization (or the “tire”)

The above graphic shows how brands we surveyed are organized

Which way should companies organize? We believe the most sophisticated and effecient way is the Hub and Spoke, which provides centralized resources that can support business units. The business units still have the freedom and flexibility to dialog with the market --and should be in alignment with what other spokes are doing. Social doesn't impact one department --but impacts marketing, pr, product, services, support, and development --every customer touchpoint.

Remember: 80% is Strategy only 20% is Technology On a related note, thanks to heavy collaboration with colleague Zach Hofer-Shall we've also published a report for clients on a community launch checklist. This checklist reminds brands that 80% of their success is dependent on understanding their customers, defining an objective, and assembling the right strategy that encompasses: plans, roles, process, budgets, measurement, and training --not a focus on technology.

The faster brands can realize that approaching social marketing and collaboration isn't about technology, but about process and change management the better off they are. You'll find simliar thoughts from David Armano --who's scoping out different models within their framework of social business design. Love to hear from you: Which way is your brand organized? In a tire? tower? or hub and spoke. In my experience, I often ask stakeholders in companies to vote by raising their hands on which model they think they are --most often, not everyone agrees --but most want to evolve to hub and spoke. Try polling your internal teams to start a lively discussion.

European Social Media Marketing? Alive and Kicking!

2009-06-12T10:32:12-04:00

We hear a lot about the exciting stuff that US marketers are doing in social media, but it's important to realise that, whilst consumers in many markets in Europe may not be quite as active as US consumers (even though over half of online Europeans use social media regularly, and my next report will be looking at our brand new 2009 Social Technographics data, so watch this space!) a lot of interesting experimentation is happening here in Europe too. My latest report "The Practicalities of Social Media Marketing" highlights some of them, with case studies from Daimler, Ford, Carphone Warehouse and Innobasque, showing how these brands are reaching out to, talking to and supporting consumers in Europe using social media.

For example, Daimler shared with us how their blog works to engage stakeholders both internally and externally, whilst Ford and their agency We Are Social reached out to influencers in the arts world to spread awareness of the new Ford Fiesta through the This Is Now strategy, generating over 40,000 submissions so far (you can also read more information on the case study here)

If you have any more examples of interesting social media marketing activities in Europe - and you've got ideas on how you can measure the success of those ventures -I would love to hear from you; rjennings@forrester.co.uk.

Confirmed: The Recession Limits Interactive Experimentation

2009-06-08T10:13:52-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

Forrester's "Interactive Marketing Channels To Watch, 2009" -- our annual look at actual interactive channel adoption compared to hype -- went live on Friday. A few of the study's key takeaways:

*Few marketers experiment with emerging media with the exception of social media applications. They stick with email and search and are waiting for a better economy to embrace online video and mobile marketing.

*Marketers embrace social media applications. 64% of our sample are already building social media applications, despite a general hesitancy to experiement with emerging media

*Display media penetration has declined due to marketers prioritizing direct response investments over branding ones this year

How does this adoption of interactive tools match with your own?

Mobile Apps Will Still Matter, No Matter What Apple Does Next Week

2009-06-06T03:42:39-04:00

[Posted by Neil Strother]

Much speculation surrounds Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Will Steve show up? Will a new, cheaper iPhone be announced? Or will Apple further pump up its iPhone 3.0 software upgrade? Only Apple insiders know for sure.

For marketers looking for signs of an even larger iPhone audience at which to target branded apps, it won't matter much. The number of users is already quite large (17 million worldwide) and growing steadily. And the broader audience for mobile applications continues to build on other platforms: the just-launched Palm Pre (and store), the recently launched BlackBerry App World, Nokia's Ovi Store, and Microsoft prepping its own app store. There will be plenty of places to offer apps to a hungry mobile audience.

But how does a marketer decide a sensible mobile app strategy? Check out my recent report, "Is An iPhone App Right For You?" Or join my June 12 teleconference to find out.

What are your thoughts about mobile applications? Is it a smart move for brands, or not? Post a comment below, or let me know directly at nstrother@forrester.com.

An Affiliate Program Can Help in Tough Times

2009-06-05T01:35:15-04:00

[Posted by Neil Strother]

Affiliate marketing has taken its share of abuse as a less-than-ideal way to advertise online. However, in today's tough economy, major brands are taking a second look at affiliate programs as a way to boost sales at a very reasonable cost. Indeed, data from our survey of online marketing executives shows that a majority would spend more in online advertising if they had proof it would increase sales. An affiliate program is one such method that is all about lifting sales, and the proof is easily measured since the advertiser only pays for a completed sale of qualified lead.

If done properly, an affiliate program can be a valuable asset to an overall marketing effort, with manageable risk. Commission Junction - a leader in this space - reports that between 5% and 30% of incremental online sales can come through the affiliate channel. My latest report, "Performance Marketing: How To Build An Effective Affiliate Program," outlines a framework for launching a successful effort.

For marketers looking to drive new acquisitions and live within constrained budgets, an affiliate program could be a welcome tool.

Post a comment below, or let me know directly what you think of affiliate programs at nstrother@forrester.com

New: Social Buyer Profiles and Groundswell Nomiations for B2B

2009-06-03T18:55:56-04:00

[Posted by Laura Ramos]

Social media continues to be a hot topic in 2009. If you have been following my posts on this subject, here are two developments that may interest you.

Try Out Forrester B2B Buyer Social Profile Tool

Social media give a voice to buyers who can now describe their experiences, accomplishments, and disappointments to a global audience. Earlier this year, Oliver Young and I published Forrester's first research describing the social behavior of technology business buyers. We surveyed more than 1,200 business technology buyers and found that they exceed all previous benchmarks for social participation.

If you'd like to know how social media fits into the marketing mix based on how willing your target customers are to engage in social activity, can use the Social Technographics® profiles of B2B buyers tool. This tool can help decision-makers to design marketing programs that not only capitalize on emerging social behaviors but also fundamentally change the nature of the marketing relationship between B2B buyers and sellers. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

Forrester's Nominations for Groundswell Awards Are Now Open

For the third year in a row, Forrester will recognize the most effective social technology applications at the Forrester Groundswell Awards. Starting now, anyone is free to submit an entry and I'd like to encourage those of you using social media in your business marketing efforts to consider doing so.

The submission form is here. The entry deadline is September 2, 2009.

If you're going to enter, please read the Forrester Groundswell Awards Rules before submitting your entry. You can submit each entry only once, and once submitted, you cannot modify it. Sorry, but that's the rule. I plan to blog and write about the most interesting ones, regardless of who wins. Although, judging from past winners, this year is bound to include many new and interesting examples.

This year the Forrester award committee divided the categories for the prototypical groundswell objectives (listening, talking, energizing, supporting, embracing) into business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). Specifically for B2B, we added a new category, "spreading," to recognize social applications in which you sell ideas or products to employees of a company, then get them to sell others at that company -- thus speeding adoption of your technologies or service sthrough social channels and activities your customers engage in internally. Besides the objectives categories, we also include a category for pro-social applications ("social impact") and applications within an enterprise ("managing").

That's 13 categories in total, so while we expect even more entries than the 150 we received last year, there are more ways to win this year. To learn more about the awards and how to submit your applications, please visit the Groundswell microsite.

[Cross-posted from B2B Marketing POSTs by Laura Ramos.]

Carl's Jr. Brings Sponsored Conversations to Video

2009-05-31T20:02:29-04:00

[Posted by Nate Elliott]

My colleague Sean Corcoran stirred up a bit of controversy recently with his research on sponsored conversations -- a.k.a. paying bloggers to discuss your products. (The 20,000-foot view of that research: the practice is here to stay -- in fact it's growing -- so everyone involved must ensure there's full disclosure, and follow other best practices.) But until recently, I'd only ever heard of sponsored blogging and sponsored twittering. So I was fascinated to hear that fast food chain Carl's Jr. is running a new sponsored YouTube video campaign.

Carl's Jr. -- no stranger, of course, to pushing boundaries in online video -- recruited YouTube stars and gave them a simple mission: make a video about how you eat hamburgers, and mention the chain's new portobello mushroom burger. They won't say how many video creators they've engaged for the campaign, or how much they're paying each. But they expect the videos to generate a total of more than 10 million views.

Considering how difficult it is to launch a successful viral video campaign, this approach makes a lot of sense: the marketer is guaranteeing lots of reach, and the videos will carry a reasonable level of authenticity and trust. And they appear to be following the best practices that Sean laid out in his report -- which might just be enough to keep the critics at bay. I'll be watching to see how this campaign works out for Carl's Jr. -- and whether YouTube finds a way to take control of this practice and turn it into a viable revenue stream.

What do you think -- how do sponsored YouTube videos compare to sponsored blogging and sponsored twittering? And would you pay YouTube stars to make a video about your product?

Microsoft's Bing Will Change The Face of Search

2009-05-28T11:52:41-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

Microsoft announced today its Bing search engine, a "decision engine" that will replace live.com worldwide as of June 3. A distant third place in the search engine game, Microsoft hopes that this engine will help it gain more searcher share by delivering results and content more relevant to how users actually search. What makes Bing different from existing search engines?

Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages. Microsoft research shows (and Forrester's research affirms) that users rely more and more on search engines to deliver solutions...hotel reservations, movie listings, gift ideas, newsclip replays...not just a directory of Web sites. Bing was developed to help consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content.
Bing organizes content/results by searcher (not algorithm) relevance. Using research of what types of results have proven relevant to former searchers, Microsoft has organized its Bing interface to deliver the content users are most likely to value, rather than just content that matches an algorithmic formula.
Bing filters out results that aren't relevant. Instead of giving users an overwhelming volume of results, Bing acts as a concierge to help point users to the results most likely to meet their need.

What does Bing mean for interactive marketers?

More, quality search inventory. Today most advertisers buy search ads just with Google and Yahoo because Microsoft has a measly 8% share of searches -- not enough reach to make buying search ads with MS worth the trouble. Forrester expects Bing to change that. We expect Bing to appeal to the savvy searcher seeking more relevant search results.

A new approach to SEO.

Search engines will become information portals. Search engines have long been used as gateways to Web content. But as a decisioning engine, Bing introduces a search engine that actually delivers Web content without sending users away to other destination sites. A search for "airfare to Denver" shows avaiiable fares, pricing trends, a buy or wait recommendation, and a link to purchase. Since we expect other search engines to follow Bing's lead, this means marketers should expect increased costs for search and display ads. We also expect online media planners to adjust the sites where they buy. We expect consumers to frequent Bing (and other similar search engines in its wake) instead of other portals (Yahoo) and preferred destination sites.

Small Steps for Location-based Advertising

2009-05-23T05:25:15-04:00

[Posted by Neil Strother]

Location-based mobile advertising – a perpetual star in the wings – took some small steps toward a bigger stage this week.

Alcatel-Lucent and partner 1020 Placecast announced a wireless carrier-based solution that promises to marry user location with relevant ads. Sounds good, but call me skeptical. The technology might be ready, but consumers are still mostly on the sidelines, and just as important so are advertisers.

Glympse is another location-based service out this week that potentially has ad-support in its future. It’s a free application similar to Loopt and Google Latitude. But it aims to cut down on the creepiness factor by allowing you to selectively share your location in small increments – or “glympses” – of time. You send a text message or email to someone, perhaps your spouse or the person you plan to meet for lunch in an hour, who can then follow you from zero minutes to four hours… you choose.

Glympse is currently only available for the G1, the Google Android phone from T-Mobile, but the company expects to port it soon to iPhones, BlackBerrys, Windows Mobile phones and other handsets. Someday advertising will turn Glympse into a sustainable business…someday maybe.

What’s your take? Are ad-supported location based services set to take off, or are these latest moves just more hype? Post a comment below, or let me know directly at nstrother@forrester.com.

iPhone App Frenzy Rolls Along

2009-05-23T05:15:49-04:00

[Posted by Neil Strother]

The iPhone app frenzy continues apace among recognized brands, with Dow Jones’ All Things Digital – which features venerable Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg – getting into the act in recent days.

Likewise, Gillette has launched an iPhone app to promote its Fusion razor. This simple yet whimsical app, called uArt, allows you to take a photo and then play around with different facial hair styles.

On the same topic, my recent report titled "Is An iPhone App Right For You?" keeps attracting new readers. If you’re considering a mobile application for your company, I invite you to join my June 12 teleconference on the subject. You’ll learn what all the fuss is about and some practical tips on how to proceed, or not.

What’s your take on branded iPhone apps? Is it a smart marketing method? Post a comment below, or let me know directly at nstrother@forrester.com.

The FTC and Sponsored Conversation

2009-05-21T18:34:58-04:00

by Sean Corcoran

The Federal Trade Commission’s recent proposed updates to the “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” has rekindled the heated discussion around sponsored conversation. The proposed updates, to be voted on this summer, include examples and language that directly affect anyone working with bloggers. Because Google and the federal government have come out with updated guidelines around this subject since we wrote our report, we felt it necessary to update and clarify our position on it (our position has not changed, we’re just highlighting why things like disclosure and authenticity are as important as ever).

First let me state that, just as we support Google’s policies, we also support and agree with the FTC’s updates to their guidelines. These guidelines have been developed to both protect consumers and ensure free market competition – a necessary role in an online world that experienced too many deceptive practices (i.e. spam, link farms and undisclosed pay for post schemes). And while the guidelines themselves are not new, they have been updated to include online marketing tactics such as paid blog posts. Here are the most important points you need to know about the guides when working with bloggers:

Advertisers must disclose “material connections” between themselves and their endorsers that might “affect the weight of credibility of the endorsement (i.e. if you compensate or pay in any way, you must disclose)
Endorsements by bloggers must “reflect honest opinions, findings, beliefs or experience” of the endorser
Both the marketer and the blogger can be held liable for misleading or false statements made by the blogger about the brand

There is no doubt that the use of sponsored conversation is growing and at Forrester we believe that marketers can compensate certain bloggers to create content for their brand in an above board fashion – one that follows all of the necessary rules so blog readers know when they are reading legitimate editorial content and when they are reading paid content. Sponsored conversations are a form of paid media but they do have the ability to create earned media (i.e. word of mouth conversation) when done the right way.

Here are our updated rules for any marketer considering the use of sponsored conversation:

Know the rules and educate everyone involved. Before you even think of dipping your toe in the water you will need to familiarize yourself with all of the necessary rules including the existing FTC guidelines, the proposed updates to those guidelines and Google’s policy on the use of no-follow links. Also take note that other countries such as the U.K. have have stringent policies on this subject as well. Get legal involved upfront and make sure anyone working on it is educated on the subject.

Mandate absolute disclosure and transparency. We have preached this from the beginning as it is by far the most important rule. The FTC’s guidelines are clearly about deterring deceptive advertising, a practice you shouldn’t be involved in anyway. Make sure any and all bloggers you work with make it VERY clear to their audience that your brand is involved in the development of the content. If you fail to do this you will put yourself at risk for not only a bad PR mess but legal trouble as well.

Ensure authenticity. You must allow bloggers to speak freely and authentically – not just because the FTC requires it but because credible reviews are better for your business. Just as consumers find product reviews on e-commerce sites more credible when negative reviews are included, consumers will find reviews about your products more credible when the reviewer is allowed to speak about it in their own voice. This is the real power of working with bloggers – to get them to talk freely about your brand with their community, not to use them as a megaphone to spin your message. If you’re not comfortable of letting go of your brand then sponsored conversations aren’t for you (and you may want to revisit your overall social media strategy).

Be relevant and provide value. Working with bloggers gives you the opportunity to have an influential talk about your brand with their community. Make sure you choose bloggers that develop relevant content for your brand so you can provide value to their readers. Also, make sure the blogger is armed with all of the necessary facts about your brand and/or product because if they write something false, you could be liable.

Don’t talk and walk away. A strong social marketing strategy is one that is about commitment to relationships and it’s no different when working with bloggers. Closely monitor the content your blogger partners are creating for you and listen to what the blogger and their community of readers has to say so you can actually follow up with the conversation.

Choose your partners wisely. There are plenty of potential pitfalls when working with sponsored conversation so it’s important to work with experts who understand the ins and outs. If your agency plans on implementing it, make sure they know the rules inside and out. Get to know the bloggers you work with and avoid bloggers who consider themselves journalists. Finally get to know any vendors you work with. Learn their history in this space and make sure they’ve been following the rules all along.

Start small. Once you know all of the rules it’s best to start slowly with a conservative approach. Once you learn the ropes you can begin to expand it out. Look to organizations such as WOMMA and The Blog Council for guidance.

While it seems as though influential people like Andy Sernovitz disagree with our position, the fact is we’re not that far apart. We all agree that advertisers and bloggers should not use this form of marketing for deceptive purposes and should always follow the rules set up by the FTC – disclosure being the most important. Readers should know when they are seeing paid content. Where most people disagree is what that content looks like and the type of compensation that is used. At Forrester we believe that the policies from organizations such as the FTC and Google will help create standards to solve these debates. Paid content on blogs will be clearly marked and disclosed to the audience. We ultimately expect the end product to look something like paid search – a value to the consumer (unlike most display ads) but clearly marked as paid content. Either way you look at it, make sure not to take the use of sponsored conversation lightly because the punishment could be heavy.

The Golden Rule of SMS Marketing

2009-05-14T23:59:16-04:00

[Posted by Nate Elliott]

Here at Forrester we continue to see a lot of industry excitement around mobile marketing. In a recent survey more than 60% of mobile marketers told us they'd continue to increase their spending on the channel despite the bad economy. And according to our latest ad forecast, mobile marketing spending in the US will more than quintuple over the next five years.

There's just one problem: SMS is the only mass-reach mobile marketing channel, and no one -- not marketers, and certainly not users -- seems to like it much.

More than twice as many people use SMS as use the mobile internet -- or any other mobile service, for that matter. (The mobile internet and mobile video may well become great ad platforms one day, but the fact is not many consumers use these services right now and those who do use them don't spend much time with them -- meaning there's simply not much reach or inventory.) And believe it or not SMS can actually work incredibly well for marketers. We regularly hear that SMS campaigns get response rates of 5% to 25%. Better yet, when Calvin Klein and their agency OMD sent SMS messages to a well-targeted SMS list, fully 39% of users who received the message opted in to receive a sample of CK's new fragrance.

But despite this success, marketers just can't seem to love SMS as a marketing channel. Some marketers are worried about looming government regulation. And lots of marketers tell us they're waiting for richer channels (like mobile display ads and mobile video) to come of age. But the biggest problem is that marketers are afraid users will hate them if they send SMS. According to a survey we did in the UK last year, they're right to be worried. On average, consumers are four times more likely to delete SMS and MMS marketing messages without reading them than they are to take a moment to consider the product or service being offered:

So how can SMS marketers avoid user backlash and generate those great response rates we hear about? I think they need to follow a simple best practice that I call the "golden rule of SMS marketing": If you can't target an SMS, then don't send it. After all, when your marketing is targeted well, users stop thinking of it as marketing and start thinking of it as content, or a service. That's the reason CK did so well with SMS -- they targeted users who were most likely to appreciate the offer of a free sample. In fact, in nearly every successful SMS campaign I've heard about, messages were only sent to users who were either pre-qualified or targeted in some other way.

There are two ways for marketers to follow the golden rule of SMS marketing:

Only send messages to your own list. If users have signed up to hear from you by SMS, then you know they're qualified leads who won't be offended by your choice of marketing platforms. Every marketer interested in using SMS should work to build a house list of SMS leads -- with a contest, a lead form on your site, or if you're in a hurry by promoting a short code in your traditional marketing efforts like Kraft has done.
Get access to a highly targeted list. Blyk is one good example of a vendor who can segment and target their SMS audience, but at the moment they only operate in the UK and the Netherlands. We haven't seen many other ad sellers who can do this (if you want to recommend others, do so in the comments below) -- but I've no doubt we'll see more operators and vendors take this approach in the future.

If you want to read more about our research on SMS marketing, check out my report The Joy of Text: Using the Golden Rule of SMS Marketing in Europe or my colleague Neil Strother's report SMS Marketing: Leveraging Call-to-Action Features of Cell Phones to Maximize Effectiveness.

And as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts -- feel free to comment below, and I'll check back to participate in the conversation.

[This was cross-posted to my personal blog]

Your chance to compare yourself to your peers

2009-05-14T13:38:35-04:00

Many of you look to Forrester for comparative information: You ask us to compare you to other marketers for marketing budget allocation, success benchmarks and competency with emerging tactics. Now is your chance to make our answers to those questions more accurate and more helpful - by participating in our Interactive Marketer panel survey. We thrive on your feedback, so please send this link to colleagues at other companies to take it as well. We'll be taking the results and reporting on them in the coming months so that you can see where you fit in compared to other marketers. You can get to the survey here: http://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=13B5T92C4Z5UL

P&G Digital Night hits Europe

2009-05-12T13:41:06-04:00

A couple of months ago my colleague Shar posted about being converted to social media by attending the P&G digital night in the US, aimed at using all types of social media to sell Tide Loads of Hope t-shirts. That event raised around $50k for charity.

Well, I drew the golden ticket in Europe, and am at the European HQ of P&G in Geneva, where 200+ employees, social media experts, and media folk are having a similar night, this time raising money for vaccine for tetanus, to help save the lives of the world's most vulnerable babies; see www.justgiving.com/pampersfeelnlearn.

And the social media world is responding - in a couple of hours the teams have raised around £2500 already, and there is a lot more outreach going on. This is a great venture, really showing to the teams here the possible value of social media - OK, it's an artifice to highlight some specific tactics - clearly, when you are asking people to reach out to their personal networks, in a real world marketing context you need to think long and hard about the value you are bringing; but as a tool to educate employees and excite them about the possibilities, it's hard to beat.

Search Marketing Automation Will Compete With Agencies

2009-05-07T18:05:26-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

In Q1 I met with an SEO automation vendor called Altruik. Under development since 2006, Altruik launched in January and provides a technology solution to help dynamic (and static) sites get top search engine rankings.

Before Altruik, I'd had a spate of updates from search marketing automation tools (Marin Software, Kenshoo, Omniture Search Center, Coremetrics), but all focused on the paid search side. Altruik was the first enterprise-level technology I had met dedicated to SEO.

I think we are at the beginning of a major trend here. I think we can expect to see the development of more technologies that turn search marketing project work into tech-enabled processes. And why not? Altruik charges a $7500 installation fee and then $500-2000/month (depending on site complexity) to guarantee rankings. Pretty nice price compared to $150-200,000/site pricetag standard for most agencies.

Interactive Budgets Are Growing At The Expense Of Offline

2009-05-04T16:56:00-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

During my presentation at Forrester's Marketing Forum on April 23, I previewed Forrester's latest forecast of interactive marketing spend. We expect marketer spend on display media, search, email, mobile and social media to reach nearly $55 billion by 2014.

This growth is due to marketers seeking lower cost, more accountable channels which are also widely used by their customers. This year, we are also finding that marketers are migrating dollars away from traditional channels and into interactive ones.

Direct mail and print are suffering the most loss to interactive tools. According to our survey, 40% expect to cut direct mail budgets, while 35% will decrease newspaper spend and 28% will slash magazine money in order to spend more in interactive media.

I'm actually currently at work on Forrester's full forecast report detailing the growth trends around each of the channels itemized in this forecast. Look for that report -- which will include additional data and explanation -- on our site around the first part of June.

Online Media Insights from Sportgenic

2009-05-04T14:07:48-04:00

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

I had breakfast last Friday with Robert Tas, CEO of Sportgenic an ad network and advertising management platform focused on targeting advertising to sports enthusiasts. He was in Boston meeting some agency partners (although he did manage to catch game 7 of the Celtics/Bulls series while in town!)

He shared a few observations based on ad sales at his business so far this year:

*Like most publishers, he is finding that advertisers are shifting dollars away from branding and toward direct response vehicles because of the recession. He and I both agreed that this is a very short-sighted strategy. Not only does it set your firm up for a poor recovery after the recession ends, but it also means you are likely paying more per conversion than if you invested in some upstream activity focused on warming up an audience to convert easier when they reach the direct response of point of sale touchpoint.

*He's seeing limited experiments with mobile. Despite the advances in mobile devides and the promise the mobile medium holds for marketers (and of course to the chagrin of my Forrester colleagues here dedicated to mobile marketing), I maintain my cynicism about mobile as well. With limited marketing budgets available today. I would definitely invest in trusted channels first and wiat for mobile to work out some more of its kinks.

*Recent new investment is coming from auto and financial services companies. After being dark for several months, these industries are back buying online doing reach campaigns (cheaper than TV) and targeting specific users in market for new cars or investments.

*The recession is breeding bad habits. I have a theory that because business is slower during the recssion, vendors and marketers actually have time to think and develop, which will lead to a burst of innovation after purse strings open back up at the end of the downturn. Tas, decidedly disagreed with me. He is finding that marketers are so focused on getting results that they are going after any and all low hanging fruit. This means they aren't necessarily doing the right thing, but rather doing the thing that gets them to their needed result. And of course, it will be hard to break bad habits that have been practiced throughout an 18-24 month recession.