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5 ways brands create superfans

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Glee. The X Factor. Family Guy. The Simpsons. Powerhouse TV shows with enormous fan bases. But how do you turn a 30-60 minute weekly experience into a 24/7 superfan connection point, especially in the quickly evolving television experience?

In the past, the obvious strategy was connecting with audiences through the major social channels. For example, in 2007 Homer Simpson joined Twitter, and began sharing his insights with the world.

Fox's Glee now has enough Twitter followers to fill 17 Yankee Stadiums. And until recently, The Simpsons had more followers than President Obama. But there's no standing still in digital. (This week's top Twitter rankings go to @ladygaga, @justinbieber and @katyperry. @BarackObama is 8th.)

The next element of Fox TV's digital strategy quickly became the mobile experience.

�People are spending a lot of time with tablets and smartphones while watching TV, and we are looking for ways to take advantage of that with our apps,� says Hardie Tankersley, VP of social media and innovation at Fox Broadcasting.

But what works in today's connected/social TV environment? Find out in the clips below. We spoke with Fox's Hardie Tankersley, the guy responsible for Fox's social media, innovation, and apps. He's very smart. Also pretty funny.

So social is critical. Mobile is critical, especially as audiences move to a multi-screen, live interaction TV experience. The problem is we're facing two major challenges: fans don't know what they want, and no one knows what's going to work. Here's more:

Hardie wouldn't reveal all the specifics about his 2012 plans, but he recently gave these five important tips:

5 tips for creating superfans

1. Content is king
2. Give the fans something to talk about
3. Make it easier for fans to find your channels (on-air mentions)
4. Guest judges and celebrity performers increase fans/followers
5. Live tweet chats, polls, and contests increase engagement and fans

So, is anyone doing it right? Hardie says yes: Angry Birds.

As audiences get more used to the interactive experience, including tweeting and voting during live shows, watching shows on multiple devices, and using interactive program-related apps, there's an important question we need to ask: should the experience across the various devices be the same, or unique? Should we design programs specifically for tablets vs. iphones? Or do consumers want to find the same thing, no matter the device?

Here's Hardie explaining his approach to designing intereractive TV experiences for phones vs. tablets vs. computers vs. smart TVs.

One thing Hardie is insistent about is that the experience needs to be fun. He's excited to find new digital toys, and to create new interactive ways to tell stories. Here's what's coming soon from Fox.

Finally, we got to ask Hardie what his favorite show is this season. Any guesses? (Hint, it's animated. And new!)

As a bonus wrap-up, here are eight tips from Hardie's co-presenter Jeff Zabin on ways to win in social.

8 bonus tips for creating superfans

1. Tap into people's emotions
2. Long and boring don't go viral
3. Reach out to influencers
4. Do active listening
5. Make it easy to share the word
6. Think in terms of optimization
7. Make changes as you go
8. Use gaming techniques

Hardie Tankersley manages the portfolio of social media properties and apps for the FOX broadcast network. He started creating online and interactive entertainment by building a local BBS on a 300 baud modem on an Apple II back in the 70s. In the intervening years he has managed the development of online entertainment products including internet access for Apple�s eWorld, the official backstage webcast of the Grammy Awards, the Moxi cable media center DVR, the online video portal for Real Networks, and Yahoo!�s TV and Movies properties. He thinks that conventional wisdom is almost always wrong.

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8 tips for launching an effective paid Facebook campaign

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

While "set it and forget it" may work as a mantra in the infomercial world of Ron Popeil and small rotisserie ovens, it should most certainly not be the mantra of your Facebook ad campaign. True, digital media planning has always relied on constant optimization, but Facebook advertising has done to media planning what social media as a whole has done to most things -- changed the game. So, what is a media planner to do when trying to plan a successful Facebook campaign? Well, Facebook already offers some tips and best practices, but the truth is, because of how dynamic Facebook advertising is, every campaign needs to be approached individually. Here are eight recommendations to think about when launching your next Facebook campaign.

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Like search, apply a high touch, flexible approach

Similar to how search broke the buying mold in the early part of this century with auction-based, demand-driven media, Facebook advertising is accelerating the media planning cycle and approach for media planners and buyers. Success in the Facebook ecosystem requires a unique blend of skills -- a firm grasp of audience targeting and segmentation, a search engine marketer's understanding of auction-based media platforms, and the necessary analytical chops to apply daily optimizations to your campaign. Add in the fact that forecasting can feel like a wild-goose chase because planners must dig through a variety of demographic and self-identified interest data points in order to find estimated audience volume data, and each unique segment is treated as an individual campaign. This means that there are often few established benchmarks and limited insight into actual estimated click volume. Planners must therefore be armed to translate problem solving into action in a real-time environment.

Take advantage of segmentation features, but be careful not to limit your audience

The overwhelmingly unique attribute of Facebook advertising is the ability to target your audience based on an entirely new paradigm -- their self-professed areas of interest in parallel with their brand "connections" and more traditional geographic and demographic profiles. For some brands, this interest-based segmentation may be intuitive and come naturally as it may closely mirror the process of generating a keyword list for paid search. For example, a bicycle manufacturer can easily identify cyclists who may "like" certain cycling organizations or races, or have "connections" with complimentary (or competitive) brands. For others, this process is less clear.

Targeting based on interests is an in-depth exercise that requires diving deep into understanding the target audience. Often, this will mean piecing together a range of signals and information to identify a variety of personas and audience segments. This process should start with a consumer insights team working hand-in-hand with a media planning team to clearly identify behavioral and psychographic audience subgroups that represent the greatest opportunities for targeting.

While the ability to hyper-target an audience is appealing, and can lead to an extremely efficient campaign, there is a possibility that you can negatively impact a campaign by "over-segmenting" your audience. The more granular you get with audience segmentation, the more limited your audience becomes, which is a critical point when you consider both the likelihood for burnout and Facebook�s audience minimums -- minimum of 150 people per segment. This takes us to our next point.

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How to get the most out of the new gTLDs

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

By any definition, "generic" is a bad word. The notion of something generic is distinctly unappealing, a critical slap no matter what it represents. In the online world, where even great ideas have a hard time standing out from the mass of other content readily available, the specific goal is to be anything but generic.

Many of today's most widely known top-level domains (TLDs) are generic: .com, .info, .net are, by definition, generic top-level domains (gTLDs). What's important to note is that these gTLDs aren't descriptive. Regardless of company type, size, or products, everyone is leveraging the same vague TLD. That said, there's an interesting twist coming soon that will provide a chance to redefine the term "generic TLD" entirely.

The current plan by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) allows brands, companies, cities, states, and interested groups to apply for what are often referred to as "generic" TLDs.

With ICANN's plan, many of the examples tossed out to illustrate the benefits of a branded domain employ a recognizable corporate entity with numerous sub-brands that can be tagged on to the left of the dot (e.g. camera.cameramaker). Other examples cite functionality (agent.insurancefirm or dealer.carcompany), and yet others mention how topical campaigns can be incorporated into the domain (spring.fashionline).

While brand opportunities have been the most widely discussed, it's not just brands that can leverage the real estate on the right side of the dot. Groups like trade associations or non-profits with a common cause can come together to leverage and secure a "generic" term as a gTLD.

Now, the space on the left of the dot -- along with the new gTLD to the right of the dot -- can be very useful to organizations that share a common interest. Essentially, it can become a natural portal with a more specific generic. For example, the shift in generic TLDs from domain names that are non-descriptive, such as .com, to the specific, such as .auto, .music, and .food, will make both sides of the dot that much more relevant for search engines and internet users.

For brand and geographic (.location) TLDs, the issue has already generated considerable debate in tourism, marketing, technology, and legal circles, and it will surely play out publicly over the next few months. However, there's one specific element that's getting less attention than it should: With the possibility of using descriptive key words on the right side of the dot, what advantages are there to be had on the left?

One significant advantage will be the new, more specific portals via gTLDs that will be owned by groups, communities, or consortiums. That means the owner of the gTLD will not be one person, but rather a community of owners to gauge the content and additions to the domain name. Now, professionals, communities, and companies will have a gathering place under a grouped moniker. Several types of professions could take advantage of gTLDs such as .doctor, .lawyer, or .author. For example, if a writer wanted to publicize himself, he could eliminate ambiguity by creating JohnSmith.Author and leverage both the left and right, clearing up what type of content the site contains and which "John Smith" his site is showcasing.

From a community perspective, imagine a venture capital (VC) consortium that acquires the .startup gTLD. New companies searching for investors and partners could attach their name to that handle and gain the right kind of attention from investors. Once they emerge and raise the desired capital, they could leverage a brand TLD if desired. The VC consortium with a more technological focus could leverage .beta and bring together a host of emerging tech companies, and, in the process, create unprecedented marketing and networking opportunities.

Going further afield, in a possibility that has already emerged, environmentally conscious groups could coalesce under .green. Rather than one giant website, this would simply offer an easy access point to every interested party -- corporations looking to sponsor sustainability initiatives, individuals seeking to volunteer, or schools searching for educational collateral. The same process could apply to .charity and every other common interest.

In fact, the commercial possibilities here are virtually endless. For instance, trade groups of every stripe could benefit from .hotels, or .movies, or .themeparks. While some hotels have recognizable brands and others belong to a chain, new entrants surely have a hard time standing out even if they were able to afford the cost of a full brand TLD. By joining forces with others in the space, it's easier to lay claim to the specific market segment.

The use of new and more descriptive gTLDs doesn't make for a full corporate brand like that of a brand gTLD. It is, for lack of a better term, still generic, but it's a new kind of generic. It's a generic that is, in fact, descriptive. The internet is becoming more personal and in need of a crucial differentiator to target the right segments. By enabling entities to align themselves with others of a common interest (and reduce costs in the process), organizations will benefit from the new specific generic.

Jim Rogers is VP of marketing for Neustar Enterprise Services.

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"Optical fibers lights speeding" image via Shutterstock.

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4 lessons from video game marketing

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Some of today's most advanced online marketing strategies are being applied in the video game industry. The digital environment is the perfect space to market a digital product, and the male youth target had been difficult to reach before they all congregated on the web.

The powerful combination of digital advertising for a digital product in a digital environment has meant that game marketers have a greater ability to measure the effectiveness of their advertising, tracking at least some portion of sales and customer lifetime values in ways that are still elusive to other marketers. Video game marketers strive to build their brands but can also measure the real-world effectiveness of, and return, on their online advertising with the detail and precision of direct marketers. This has yielded data that have changed the way we approach brand marketing.

Here are a few things we've learned in our experience working with some of the leading gaming brands in the world.

As technology changes, so do your target markets, and your means of reaching them

In the last half-dozen years, the gaming market has changed dramatically. What has been traditionally the domain of young males has expanded greatly. Online games, social games, and mobile games have significantly expanded the audience. Today, somewhere around 60 to 70 percent of all Americans play video games. In social gaming, women make up the majority of players. These new female players are as passionate as, or more passionate than, their male antecedents. According to a 2011 study by Doritos, the majority of women stated they preferred online gaming over shopping or sex.

In a short period, the media universe for our clients changed dramatically. Traditional media outlets to reach gamers were still important for a segment of the market, but many new players entered the mix. Traditional audience metrics, demographics, and psychographics proved to be instructive as an initial guide to media planning, but the true value of media could only be judged by experimentation. Two major media outlets targeting nearly identical audiences with similar creative executions and costs could have dramatically different effects on sales. Maddeningly, these discrepancies in media performance are not always consistent, and every buy provides new insights.

Creative: Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Running an ad campaign with a single style of execution is like putting all your retirement savings in a single stock. Creative diversification is a relatively inexpensive cost compared to media budgets, and a properly optimized creative mix can multiply the effectiveness of your media spend several times over. But few advertisers embrace this approach, despite the proven results.

One area that has been particularly effective is interactivity and gaming within ad units themselves. Everyone likes to take a break and "play," if only to see what's new, different, and entertaining on the web. We've all heard that "engagement is the new reach," but while raw reach numbers will always remain important, engagement analytics are quickly catching up as an equally significant metric. And, if engagement is assessed based on the length of time a user interacts with an ad, what's more engaging than a game?

Entertainment and consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers are already on to this, and while promotional microsite games are losing ground to Facebook executions, creating an immediate opportunity to play around within a display ad is a compelling, measurable, and creative strategy that establishes a positive emotional association with a brand.

Of course, this approach can be abused with negative consequences. The "gamification" of brands can only be effective if there's some inherent element of competitive discovery of a relevant outcome. The user should be rewarded with a benefit tantamount to the brand experience, which is easier for video games as the brand experience is play.

The media plan is just the beginning

Often, by the time one of our campaigns finishes, we will only be using half the sites with which we initially started. There may be several additional sites added that were not part of the initial mix. Why, after doing this for over a decade, with hundreds of gaming campaigns under our belt, can't we accurately predict what sites will perform the best with anything better than 50 percent accuracy?

Agencies love to say that "every campaign is different," but few act as if this were truly the case. Every campaign is different, not because the media plans change, but for the same reason Heraclitus said you can never step in the same river twice: "All entities move and nothing remains still." This is especially true of the gaming-media landscape and customer base. It is also increasingly true of all marketing efforts.

Most agencies work to create and execute on a single media plan with the expectation that it will be successful based on past experience. In the gaming space, because there is so much change, we approach buys with both plans and contingency plans, and look at the constant change as part of the process, rather than the result of failure.

The future of advertising is very geeky

While the historical definition of gamers as geeky kids may be inaccurate, the future of advertising looks very geeky. Our media departments need to act like scientists and researchers, treating each campaign as a new experiment. In our creative departments, skilled programmers are taking their places alongside designers and copywriters.

Strategy and execution are no longer etched in stone. The days of simply establishing creative and media plans then executing them are over. Direct marketers have always known that every marketing effort yields two things: sales and information. What doesn't work is as illuminating as what does. It's not unusual to test a dozen creative approaches at once, across hundreds of relevant sites. Online advertising programs are simultaneously research projects. Optimizing target audience identification, creative effectiveness, and media efficiencies are all baked into execution.

Will Akerlof is president and co-founder of Liquid Advertising.

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"Computer gaming at internet cafe" image via Shutterstock.

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5 hot new jobs for digital marketers

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

In 1955, Peter Drucker gave a talk to IBM executives in which he said "we are at the beginning of a period of extreme flux, of extreme change and great competitive pressure in which traditional ways of doing things, traditional products, traditional processes will be challenged on all sides." Sound familiar?

Ironically, years later, Drucker seemed to clarify that quote a bit in "Managing In Turbulent Times," writing that it wasn't actually change, itself, that sped up -- but rather the awareness of change.

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Suffice to say we are all supremely aware of the changing landscape of our marketing departments. Our products and services have changed; strategies and tactics have changed; processes have changed. But, maybe most importantly, the construct of our teams have changed.

We are watching entire industries go through this change. In 2004, former U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley was quoted as saying that "none of the top 10 jobs that will exist in 2010 exist today." So, last year -- 2011 -- may have been the first time in history that college graduates were taking jobs in categories that didn't even exist when they first entered school. The difference is now we are so very aware that we are preparing our kids for occupations that haven't even been invented yet.

I was speaking with a CMO of a large organization recently who said something very revealing and important: "We're not hiring digital natives because they know how to use technology -- we're hiring digital natives because they know how technology changes our organization." That's incredibly important -- as it illustrates what the new jobs and job titles emerging this year represent; the real change that's happening to our marketing strategies.

I've had the great pleasure of visiting with more than 40 companies over the course of last year. In addition to keeping up my Platinum Status on American Airlines, I've also been able to keep track of what many marketing departments at companies both large and small are looking like. So, what are the top five hot new marketing jobs this year? Let's have a look.

Chief content officer
This new job might be the hottest new function in the marketing organization. Leading companies are literally creating entire departments around content marketing. Now, while organizations are definitely flexible with the actual title on the business card -- its function is similar across most organizations. Whether it's called CCO, vice president of content marketing, or director of content marketing strategy, the function is leading the content marketing initiatives for the company. Maybe no one represents this position as well as Joe Chernov, the vice president of content marketing for Eloqua.

I asked Joe for this article why he thought this job was so hot right now. He said "it's the hottest job function for a hiding-in-plain-sight reason. It's the only reliable way for a brand to be remembered. Paid media is all about brand recognition, but being 'remembered' requires something else entirely. It requires a value exchange and, moreover, a value exchange on the customer's terms. It's the CCO's job to figure out what those 'value opportunities' are, and then device the context, media and metrics for the delivery."

This is becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing function in both large and small organizations. One Fortune 500 company that I work with is creating an entirely new department solely dedicated to serving as the "news room" and "original content production" arm for both the field marketing group and corporate communications.

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How to get mobile commerce right

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Mobile commerce continues to generate a lot of buzz among online marketers. It holds out the promise of sizable incremental sales as tablet and mobile smartphone shipments continue to soar. Smartphone sales in 2012 are expected to be nearly 1.8 billion units, while tablet unit sales are expected to climb to nearly 100 million. Mobile commerce in the hands of this many consumers is a very exciting prospect. And it speaks to the very core of direct marketing -- go where your customers are rather than waiting for them to come to you. Mobile commerce will truly enable consumers to purchase anytime, anywhere -- on the commuter train, at the pool, at the game, and everywhere else on the go.

But, getting it right is more difficult than just pushing out your web content and shopping experience to a connected device. The challenge starts with the smaller screen, but it doesn't end there. There are other issues regarding consumer behavior and expectations, dedicated app versus browser, geo-targeting, and follow-up communication.

Consumer behavior and expectations

Consumer behavior and expectations while using a mobile device continue to evolve and diverge from the behavior they display while using a PC or laptop to access the web and web-based commerce. Most significant are expectations around simple, easy-to-navigate user experiences. Think about it -- the consumer is on the go, perhaps in the company of other people and most often with a more limited keyboard. He or she wants an expedited shopping experience that can be completed quickly. Solutions like stored credentials and account information become crucial to consumers overall good buying experience. Marketers should be even more sensitive to the number of steps and necessary information that needs to be captured during checkout processes on a mobile device.

Smaller screen size

We've all experienced the less than satisfactory user experience while accessing web content on a mobile device. Most often this is in the form of having to scroll left and right and up and down to fully view a page or image or even text. Obviously, the smaller screen size presents a challenge to the marketer. Combine this with the changing consumer behaviors and expectations mentioned above and not getting the content and format right can dramatically interfere with a successful launch of a mobile commerce initiative. Part of the solution is device detection and designing the web content for an optimized mobile experience. Most of the best web content management systems can perform device detection and have tools that allow the marketer and designer to build pages perfectly optimized for the screen size of each device.

When planning the optimal mobile commerce experience, it's important to keep a few things in mind. First, mobile commerce lends itself to less complicated, higher impulse products. Solution selling with highly structured, complicated products is less suited to the mobile environment. For complex products, typically the best option is to dangle some teaser copy and images and direct the user to another channel, such as a phone call to a sales representative from the smartphone. Or maybe a short lead generation form for follow up in an alternative channel like email. Second, recognize the fact that cross-selling and up-selling are more difficult and at times downright disruptive to closing the sale on the mobile device. When compared to a laptop, the experience and screen size just don't accommodate accessorizing as well, whether it is on a product detail or interstitial page. In some cases, business models that depend on driving higher average order values through such techniques may not transition well to the mobile device.

The dedicated app versus the browser

Many merchants wonder whether a dedicated, branded app distributed through an app marketplace can make a significant impact on the mobile commerce experience. These apps are generally designed with a built-in browser that allows the end user to browse and shop from the online merchant without accessing the device's native browser or a third-party browser. In addition, they also often come with other useful functionality that can enhance the user experience, for example, account information or perhaps a locker of previous purchases in the digital content space. A dedicated app also generally eliminates the need to execute standard device detection as mentioned above. Finally, having a dedicated app on the home page of the device is a great marketing opportunity to keep your brand top of mind at every use of the device. On the other hand, due to app proliferation, standing out amongst the clutter is getting harder and harder.

Geo-location

Geo-location has become an important feature in improving many online user experiences. For example, the search engines include local content on search results pages. In addition, you have likely seen internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers incorporate targeted local news, weather, and sports on their content pages. And merchants are using geo-location to improve the online shopping experience. In the same way, brands thinking about mobile commerce should definitely include geo-targeting in their mobile user experiences. Most mobile operating systems enable a dedicated app through API's or the native browser through HTML5 to access the GPS of the mobile device. Through this functionality merchants can provide value added information, such as best sellers in the consumer's area, location of the nearest stores, and even targeted merchandising. This might include merchandising outerwear on the home page to people located in northern climates in the winter. In some instances, this more precise location detection can create an even better user experience than geo-targeting through IP address detection on a laptop in the home or office.

Follow-up communication

Marketers are beginning to optimize their promotional emails for the smaller screen of mobile devices. Post transaction email communication to the customer, including confirmation and bounce back emails are sure to follow. Marketers should be tracking customers' online shopping channel preference and optimize the follow-up communication for the highest frequency channel. Another approach would be to optimize each individual follow-up communication based on the channel of the related purchase. In this way, mobile buyers would get confirmation and bounce back emails optimized for their mobile devices. Another best practice is to include a "view online" link, which allows the marketer to code the email web page in a way that is fully optimized for laptop and mobile device viewing.

Mobile commerce presents exciting new possibilities for marketers. And tablet and smartphone penetration and growth are just too big to ignore. But, marketers need to be realistic about how quickly their mobile commerce sales will build. Certain categories, including less complex and higher impulse products, are more amenable to the mobile shopping experience. Regardless of the category, however, all marketers can improve their results by paying attention to both the limitations and the expanded opportunities of selling through mobile devices.

Jim Wehmann is senior vice president of global marketing for Digital River.

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"Pay by mobile, cell smart phone" image via Shutterstock.

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Digital marketing's 4 biggest disappointments

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Digital bipolar disorder (DBD)

Oh boy, does the digital buzz machine ache for a metaphorical magic pill -- some blockhead simple "cure" for many of the marketing challenges facing brands. When new things come along, the buzz about their potential effects on the marketing body sometimes gets blown out of proportion.

Our industry appears to have its own form of digital bipolar disorder. ("DBD" for the TV campaign every new disease needs -- cue the contemporary sound track and vignettes of deliriously happy people raising their arms to the sky.) People in our industry looooove new things. And then, about six months later, we often despise those same things. In many cases, it's not the platforms and technologies that are at fault -- it is the collective DBD and the unrealistic expectations it creates and then dashes.

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What's caused this epidemic of DBD? It seems driven by a desire in some to "take care of" digital -- deploy something simple and understandable to make this wonderfully, horribly dynamic environment more manageable. We want to bring structure to something that feels formless.

Just because the latest digital "thing" is transforming communications doesn't mean it is a panacea for brand challenges. This article looks at four digital "things" that instantly captivated many, only to lose their luster just as quickly when it became evident that they were not magic pills. It also points to a short list of considerations to make the next time everyone is calling something "white hot." I've deliberately picked four fundamentally sound concepts and platforms to demonstrate how it is misplaced marketer expectations that are the problem here -- not the technologies themselves.

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The ultimate answer to "What's in it for me?"

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

As digital evolves more and more quickly, who determines the new standards? For example, how to measure digital TV viewership vs. traditional. And how do you navigate the emerging gray "crossover zones" of paid, earned, and owned content?

Ted McConnell, EVP of digital at The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), learned the hard way in his years at P&G. He says he couldn't convince anyone to make changes, unless he could prove with metrics "what was in it for them." Now Ted is one of the guys making the new indsustry rules (or at least asking the new questions). He recently wrote:

Traditional publishing [left] advertisers with relatively few choices: There's an ad. It appears in a box. The box contains copy. Ad agencies make the copy. The brand figures out "who," and the media ecosystem delivers those eyeballs. Put money in the slot, and out comes advertising... But when advertisers create content for themselves, no "box" is required, and weaving brand and content becomes a craft... The web adds dimensions to that dynamic by enabling advertisers to knit content fragments into whole fabric.

In its 75 years of existance, the ARF has helped advertisers track and measure audience engagement through a number of shifts. Consider the evolving terminology: reads, views, clicks, purchases, impressions, downloads, likes, tweets, shares... The challenge is making decisions as new trends emerge. And it's not always obvious what the answers should be.

Watch as Sarah Fay tries to get a straight answer from Ted about what the new standards should be. In this "glass half-full, glass half-empty, do-I-really-need-a-glass" conversation, he manages to never definitively say, "This is how you do it." Instead, Ted seems to have a different perspective on everything from how to measure earned media in a social environment, to what even qualifies as content. (The usually unflappable Sarah even shows her frustration at 12:38 in the interview!)

Conversation Highlights

0:00 - Learning the importance of measuring at P&G
2:20 - We used to ask people questions, now we observe
4:10 - Direct respose doesn't care about attitudes
5:00 - The gray areas of paid/owned/earned media
6:00 - Is a chip in a Nike shoe content?
7:15 - Is OnStar advertising?
8:15 - 2 ways the ARF is helping companies measure social value
9:55 - iTV
11:20 - TV should come begging us to help with ad targeting
12:30 - Is the consumer ready to learn a new interface?
13:30 - Conventions will emerge...
14:15 - Which giants will establish the standards?

Run time is 14:52

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3 tricks for more visitor clicks

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It's a time-honored question: Why do people do the things they do? In the digital marketing world, that translates as: "What moves site visitors to action?" When you're selling online, "action" is the Holy Grail.

Have you heard of the 90-9-1 rule of participation inequality on the web? While developed with social media participation in mind, it applies to many business websites as well. Some 90 percent of your visitors are so-called "lurkers" who rarely or never take action.

But the success of your business depends on high quality leads -- and preferably, lots of them. So how do you get them online? How do you improve your site's conversion rate and increase the number of qualified leads coming through your website? We need to look beyond the more commonly known techniques of tuning and testing various page elements. Cognitive science researchers in the academic world are studying this problem from a psychological perspective. What they're discovering could change the way marketers persuade potential customers and -- here it comes -- move them to action.

Dr. BJ Fogg, psychologist and founder of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, has developed a proprietary behavioral model that describes how behavior change happens. The gist of it is that in order for a behavior (e.g., a click to subscribe, or filling out a form on your landing page) to occur, three conditions must be present at the same time: motivation, ability, and an effective trigger.

Motivation

There are three basic human motivators. Can you guess what they are?

Sensation -- The desire to feel pleasure, and the need to avoid pain. Generally, pain avoidance is considered to be the stronger motivator.
Anticipation -- The hope that good things will occur in the future, and the dread or fear that bad things may happen. Fear is considered stronger.
Social cohesion -- Our need for social acceptance, and the avoidance of social rejection. Ostracism and shunning are the stronger motivators.

Are you seeing a pattern here? As nice as it would be to think that people are motivated by pleasure, optimism, and the quest for social acceptance, the truth is they try harder to avoid pain, negative or frightful outcomes, and being ostracized. Marketers that understand these powerful motivations and know how to impact people as strongly as possible near one of these extremes can change customer behavior.

Ability

In order to perform a target behavior, a person must have the ability to do so. There are two paths to increasing ability. You can train people, giving them more skills. We've seen many an eager brand marketer when faced with the question, "But why would they take action here?" Give the answer, "Because we're going to teach them how. We'll educate them."

Have you ever seen that actually work? Of course not. People are lazy! They don't want to have to do more than they have to. Instead, you can just make the target behavior easier to do. Dr. Fogg calls this approach simplicity. Simplicity is a function of your scarcest resource at that moment -- which could be time, attention, effort, or money. By focusing on simplicity of the target behavior, you increase ability.

Triggers

Triggers tell people to "do it now!" Sometimes a trigger can be external, like the sudden sound of a car horn. Other times, the trigger can come from routine: Walking into your house reminds you to take off your shoes.

The Fogg behavioral model describes the three trigger types and how to use them:

Facilitator: If someone is motivated but not responding because it seems hard (perceived lack of ability), then use a "facilitator" trigger. It should include a call-to-action and some messaging that says "it's easy."
Spark: If someone can do a task (has the ability), but is not motivated to do it, you should try to design a "spark" trigger. It should include a call-to-action plus some sort of motivator.
Signal: If a person has both the motivation and ability to do something, then all that's needed is a straightforward "signal" trigger. This is essentially a "do it now" reminder. Don't try to motivate these kinds of people or emphasize simplicity or ease of doing the task.

You might know trigger by another name: call-to-action. Many marketers make the mistake of asking people to perform a complicated behavior. They might think their call-to-action is incredibly simple, but it's not. It's also tempting to pack too much into a trigger. "First they'll click this button, then fill in their name and email, vote in the poll, and 'like' us on Facebook!" You're asking the impossible. Note, however, that when done right, triggers can lead to a chain of desired behaviors. An effective trigger for a small behavior can lead people to perform harder behaviors.

Put hot triggers in front of motivated people

The best way to get a desired behavior, then, in the words of Dr. Fogg, is simply to "put hot triggers in front of motivated people." You've seen this technique used with great success by Amazon, with their special "bundled" pricing that encourages you to buy one or two extra items along with the item you're looking at. And many e-commerce sites have adopted the "You might also like" offers displaying related products they want you to buy. You're obviously motivated because you are looking at product detail pages, and they're giving you some hot triggers.

Think about how you can apply the Fogg behavioral model to your website to better persuade visitors to take action. Start with your analytics -- what are the key pages in your conversion funnel, and how are you currently triggering action? Think about your audience in the context of the three types of triggers, and you'll probably come up with some new ways of prompting action. Don't just approach triggers from your own viewpoint. Think about them from a behavioral and cognitive science perspective. Using this 3-point framework for behavior change, you can turn your website into a powerfully persuasive sales tool.

Tim Ash is CEO of SiteTuners.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

"Internet shopping buy key on a black keyboard" image via Shutterstock.

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How to defeat 3 common video ad problems

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Video advertising grew more than 50 percent in 2011 alone, and the latest forecasts call for growth to continue into the next four years, which is great news for any publisher looking to monetize video content on their site.

Of course, growth comes with growing pains, and publishers dealing with video inventory certainly aren't immune from ad-serving woes. The lost impressions, devaluation concerns, and complications of dealing with multiple demand sources are enough to keep an ad ops manager awake at night. Fortunately, there are ways to overcome each of those ailments.

Lost impressions

A lost ad exposure is one of the worst publisher experiences, yet it is an all too common occurrence in video. Agency ad servers often flip "off" a campaign or change creative without notice, forming significant issues for publishers and networks alike. When a specific ad slot is designated to an advertiser and the ad server returns no ad -- for whatever reason -- the publisher using a general daisy chain structure will experience significant latency and likely time out the ad call and move to content.

Publisher and networks often try to devise manual or partially automated approaches to "monitoring" ads that are returned or not returned from third party ad servers, but these systems are reactive at best. A network or publisher can go a whole weekend with no resolve, yielding millions in lost ad exposures.

Automatic monitoring can counteract this problem, but publishers also need to think about holding demand partners accountable for bids. Filling remnant inventory isn't just about price -- the buyer needs to be ready with an actual ad when they win a bid. Just because an ad source bids 20 percent higher then the next bidder doesn't mean that buyer is right for higher yield. If there's no actual ad returned, the smarter move is to take the lower bidder with an ad ready to go.

RTB is not about merely accounting for the highest CPM, but ensuring the right "real" buyer is matched with an eligible ad slot.

Private exchange and ad blocking

Premium publishers are still hesitant to open up unsold video inventory to ad networks, despite the promise of high CPMs, because of questions about "devaluing" their inventory. Network models that promise blind execution don't do much to challenge the devaluation argument, but ad quality can.

Universal control over the ads coming from a network is a larger concern in video than in display, due largely to the premium nature of the video environment. Video earns higher CPMs and the ads themselves have greater exposure than display units. Publishers concerned about maintaining value and brand safety should consider private exchanges and tools to deal with ad blocking.

The private exchange model means publishers only open their remnant inventory to trusted networks or trading desks. In fact, publishers could use private exchanges to upsell their current advertisers for higher spend and lower CPMs, all while reducing manpower via their private marketplace. This helps publishers focus on streamlining their current relationships, rather than worry about devaluing their inventory.

Multiple demand sources

Video is still nowhere near display in terms of scale, but over the past two years it has grown enough to draw the attention of demand-side platforms. There are roughly 15 to 20 active demand partners in the video ecosystem, led by five core buyers. Every six months or so, a new demand partner enters the game, generally in the form of a display network trying to make money in video. But each new demand source adds to the complexity of managing remnant inventory.

Aside from revenue, a publisher's biggest concern is avoiding sales channel conflict and respecting direct-buy requests for category exclusivity. When dealing with multiple DSPs, it's very difficult for ad operations teams to manage these directives while maximizing yield.

New entrants will often pay to play, so publishers can't ignore them. Yet these new DSPs don't spend enough for a publisher to devote significant time. By enlisting the help of a supply-side platform, publishers can use RTB to level the playing field, giving each buyer equal standing while achieving the highest possible yield for every ad slot, maintaining quality and avoiding channel conflicts.

A publisher's core mission is to foster direct-sale advertising relationships. Video is an exciting new revenue stream, but it can also be complicated. By taking the precautions above, publishers can enjoy the benefits of video monetization without sacrificing their core mission.

Erwin Castellanos is EVP, sales and business development, at LiveRail.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

Feature art sourced from mgrhode1.

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Tactics for using social sharing data

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

These days, online social sharing statistics are used for everything from predicting the latest box office hit to charting the most recent Wall Street disaster. With 16 billion-plus things shared daily on the open web, social sharing offers amazingly rich data insights for advertisers.

In order to capitalize on the meteoric rise of social sharing, advertisers must understand the implicit social graph -- the friends and family connections of your customers. Explicit graphs, which just show all the connections out there without ranking their relevance, have a weak signal-to-noise ratio and don't provide the level of audience understanding that you need to make audience targeting perform well. On the other hand, an implicit graph can show you the strongest connections of your targets and tap into the most relevant connections.

To take advantage of the implicit graph, advertisers should try the following tactics:

Publish in real-time

Rather than spending months on a campaign, create simple content that people can react to and quickly share with their friends across the open web. This will not only save you money, but will increase your ROI. Walmart, for example, just rolled out an animated fruitcake that will comment on your Facebook wall. It's simple, viral, and fun -- and it will get a lot of people who are not even Walmart shoppers spreading the brand.

"Like" vs. click

As the law of sharing explains, people are constantly sharing content every day. A recent eMarketer study pointed out that people are much more likely to "like" or "share" an ad before clicking on it, which is great news for advertisers. Don't worry about click-throughs, focus on creating a relevant and fun experience people will pass on. Indeed, the most successful ads from the Super Bowl last year were also the ones that were most shared online. Super Bowl ads were watched more than 350 million times on the web last year, and it is estimated that they will be watched a half billion times this year, according to Visible Measures.

Real life still matters

To make the most of social sharing, you need to create advertising that creatively taps into your prospect and their implicit connections' "real life" passions. The automotive industry is great at understanding the excitement of car enthusiasts and creating advertising that excites them, and we need to carry this same type of call-to-action advertising online. We need to tap into people's interests and create ad units that excite them so they will want to share. Think of Nike and its ability to inspire runners and then engage them with free online tools.

So, if advertisers are to make the most of the conversation economy, the game plan is simple enough: React in real-time, give consumers something to do rather than click, and understand that the connections that really matter are not the obvious explicit ones but the implicit ones. By tracking what people care about and who they share it with, the implicit graph gives advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to create truly targeted, impactful advertising that can finally be delivered in real-time.

Gurbaksh Chahal is founder and CEO of RadiumOne.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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How social data mismanagement can doom your campaign

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Social media's effect on digital marketing and advertising is undeniable. It has made a major impact by allowing consumers and companies to create, share, and interact with one another in ways previously not possible. For companies, one of the most advantageous by-products of consumer social media participation is data generation -- and lots of it. In fact, IBM estimates that we now produce 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day. Welcome to the big data era. A sizable chuck of that daily data production comes from participation on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., in the form of unstructured social data. Unstructured data can be messy as it lacks organization but its timeliness makes it attractive for near term uses.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

In this piece, we'll explore social data and best practices to consider when evaluating and using it to help power your digital marketing and advertising efforts.

What is social data and why should you care?

Social data is a term currently applied to a wide range of different types of data produced from the daily activities people exhibit on social media platforms. Some are well known, such as a Facebook's "like," Twitter's "follower," or YouTube's "favorite." Others are more obscure, but can be just as (and in some cases even more) beneficial to marketers looking to identify critical insights into the audiences they serve.

Social data can be incredibly valuable because it expands on the traditional understanding of an audience or individual. Historically, digital marketers have relied heavily on demographics and some behavioral data to segment and target their audiences. Social data can now be used to supplement that strong foundation with a rich variety of data that provides key insights into what really matters to the audience you're trying to reach.

Relevance is everything. Thus, using the right social data types to inform your strategy is critical to the success of any social media campaign.

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3 ways to survive the Wild West of mobile content

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Tablets and smartphones have introduced a whole new realm of interactivity. Users can rotate cars, look around rooms, and make Puss in Boots chase a light... simply. There's very little learning curve for users to feel "fluent" with the behaviors. For some examples, watch this demo reel of possibilities, put out by Google.

But creating the content that users are expecting comes with a daunting set of challenges. Here's Sarah Fay to talk with Miha Mikek about "the wild west" of mobile rich media.

Conversation Highlights

0:53 - The wild west of the mobile marketing space
1:25 - The 3 biggest challenges of mobile rich media
2:20 - Solving the challenges
3:05 - 300 million smartphones, huge mobile Twitter and Facebook use
4:15 - Growth in Japan
5:10 - Give the industry a grade on creative...
6:45 - Campaigns for Infiniti and Bank of America
7:55 - The pros and cons of being based in Slovenia
9:00 - Creators need to be the heaviest users of the products
9:45 - Opportunities with Shazam, Rovio, Facebook

Run time is 10:53

As a bonus, here are some campaigns created by Celtra.

Celtra offers the most flexible and easy-to-use platform that enables scalable, rich media mobile advertising across native apps and the mobile web on the most popular device platforms. Celtra empowers agencies, ad networks and publishers to quickly create, distribute and measure rich media mobile display advertising. The company�s AdCreator platform offers unmatched flexibility for creative campaign execution, best-in-class ad formats and extensive metrics to track and optimize campaigns.

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5 big SEO changes you might have missed

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Introduction

Yes, it's important to stay on top of best practices for website design and function, but it's also vital to keep up to date with how you drive visitors to your site. With constant changes in the search world, it can seem tiresome to know how to get the most out of your search engine optimization (SEO) tactics.

Take note of the most recent SEO shifts that are crucial for marketers to know.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Google makes significant algorithm updates

Making algorithm updates is nothing new for search giant Google, but their latest update, "freshness," will impact 35 percent of online searches. This new algorithm will ensure that recent content is at the top of search results. Google is aware that not every search query is best with the "freshness update." For instance, a chocolate chip cookie recipe that was posted nearly ten years ago is still served as one of the top results, because of its popularity -- with more than 5,000 reviews and thousands of "saves," Google knows that this recipe is what people are looking for.

However, when searching for current events and topics, Google serves up the most recent content to those searching timely information. To witness how the "freshness" update works, observe the search results below for the newly released film, "My Week with Marilyn." The results mimic a timeline -- the top results consist of the latest content followed by more dated material.

So how does Google's "freshness" update benefit marketers? It gives them the opportunity to place well in search results by developing relevant and creative content. The "freshness" update should encourage brands and businesses to display timely news on their website -- easy ways to do this are by blogging more frequently by and posting press releases to a news page.

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Using QR code haircuts to get the word out

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

OneXOne (pronounced One on One) is a non-profit foundation committed to improving the lives of children around the world, with a focus on water, hunger, healthcare, education, and play. The organization has done an impressive job enlisting big-name ambassadors like Matt Damon and the cast of Entourage.

Last year OneXOne asked media agency Engageia to help them execute a unique campaign: shaving QR codes into the backs of the heads of their "hope" agents--high school and college students. Scanning the codes allowed supporters to donate $5 by text message or credit card.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

We asked Engageia's Kent Speakman how the QR code haircuts worked.

For more information about OneXOne, visit the foundation's Facebook page or follow the hashtag #ScanYYC on Twitter.

While we had him in the interview studio, we also asked Kent about a new mobile video app Engageia is working on.

As a bonus, here's a clip of Matt Damon directing Adrian Grenier in a PSA shoot. And click here to see videos with the cast of Entourage.

Kent Speakman is president and managing partner of Engageia. On Twitter? Follow Kent at @kentspeakman. Follow iMedia at @iMediaTweet.

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How to cash in on banned ads

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

In the past, brands needed to be much more careful with their image and reputation, but in the age of the internet, getting ads banned is not always a bad thing. It can mean even more exposure and profit. And when it comes to lucrative banned advertisements, banned Super Bowl ads are king. Ads like Bud Light's commercial featuring skinny-dippers in 2007, or the slew of steamy Go Daddy ads featuring "Go Daddy Girls" like Danica Patrick profited heavily from being leaked online. The banned status itself is a great way to grab consumer attention.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Many companies submit an over-the-top commercial for review with no real expectation of it being accepted. Then, companies can jumpstart a fast and affordable publicity campaign around "the commercial the TV networks don't want you to see!" Many see the tactic as cheap or overdone. In 2011 Advertising Age declared a moratorium on coverage of banned Super Bowl ads. "It's an annual tradition that companies, who likely don't even have the money to spend on an actual Super Bowl spot, find willing suckers in the media who give them some free PR," Ad Age wrote. "Not going to happen here."

But the fact is, when it comes to Super Bowl ads, it can make much more economic sense to create a Super Bowl ad that doesn't actually run. Running an ad for the Super Bowl can cost up to $3 million, while a banned Super Bowl ad can get enough press to be even more popular than the televised ads. In fact, creating ads that are "too hot for TV" has become an established marketing tactic. Banned ads are all over YouTube, and even Hulu has a hub called "Banned Ad Zone." So, as long as you aren't afraid of a little scrutiny, there are great opportunities when it comes to banned advertising.

Advocacy groups often attempt to take advantage of the Super Bowl to get attention. In 2009, a Catholic group called Fidelis pushed an ad showing a fetus that, because it was not aborted, grew up to be President Obama, and NBC axed it. Focus on the Family, another anti-abortion group, actually made it on-air with a commercial showing Tim Tebow's mother talking about her difficulties while pregnant with the college football star. CBS accepted the ad, which was vague but directed viewers to a website with an anti-abortion message. And then there is the infamous "Veggie Love" from PETA, featuring women engaging in steamy foreplay with vegetables and declaring that vegetarians have better sex.

More than any other brand, Go Daddy has "too hot for TV" advertising figured out. The brand's banned ad for "Super Bowl 2008" broke records with 2 million hits to the site. Go Daddy now releases tame versions of its ads to run on television, with a message telling viewers to see the uncut ad that was "too hot for TV" on Go Daddy's website. The site features a video hub with all of the Go Daddy ads, both tame and uncut. Each ad is labeled as either a TV version or internet-only, some with a flame icon signifying a super-steamy video.

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Industry Update: Yahoo and more

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

33Across announced it has acquired Tynt Multimedia. 33Across now has the largest social and interest graph in the world, reaching over 1.25 billion users.

90octane has hired Mary Harpin as storyteller, Trevor Nelson as account manager, and Jake Lanier and Dale Walker as account coordinators.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Adara Media has secured $12.4 million in funding from venture capital firm August Capital.

AMP Agency announced the hiring of Joel Breen as digital account director.

Blitz named Gail Whitcomb vice president, director of strategic communications.

Buddy Media announced in the past year the company has added more than 300 new customers, doubled employee headcount to more than 225 globally, and opened three new offices in London, San Francisco, and Singapore.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is now accepting entries across all 15 categories for its 2012 awards which will be judged and awarded by the dedicated juries in Cannes, France, in June. Entry forms can be completed online.

Digitas and Walgreens launched the game "Play Cupid" on Walgreens' Facebook page.

The Dubai International Advertising Festival is proud to announce that Raja Trad, CEO of Leo Burnett Group MENA and member of the Leo Burnett Wordwide Global Leadership Council (GLC), will be presented with the prestigious Dubai Lynx Advertising Person 2012 Award.

eXelate and Nielsen Catalina Solutions are joining forces to help CPG marketers reach consumers with more relevant digital advertising that is based on actual in-store purchasing behavior.

Horn Group announced the promotion of Ben Billingsley to partner.

Knotice and Gigya announced a strategic partnership that will transform the way marketers can leverage permission-based Facebook data across addressable, direct digital marketing channels.

Local Corporation announced an updated and optimized mobile-enabled version of its flagship local search site, Local.com.

RadiantBrands completed development of a new website for Western Technology Investment.

Red Door Interactive announced that Jeannie Fratoni will judge the 2012 IAB Rising Stars Mobile Ad Format Competition.

Tribal Fusion is the world's second largest source of display advertising, according to comScore�s December 2011 rankings of leading global display networks.

True Action Network announced the appointment of Billy Seabrook as chief creative officer for True Action Network, North America.

Yahoo's marketing solutions leadership team appointed MaryBeth Malcolm as senior director of Yahoo category development and marketing solutions, Debbie Menin as category lead for entertainment and travel, and Karina Montgomery as category lead for CPG/FMCG and health.

YuMe announced the results of a joint study with Nielsen, which quantifies the impact of a $500,000 online video ad buy when combined with a $2.6 million TV advertising campaign for a major CPG brand.

Editor's note: We list the companies and people alphabetically. Our bimonthly column is always looking for announcements, so please email them to chloe@imediaconnection.com.

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How brands can reach consumers on every platform

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The current proliferation of media -- and devices on which to consume these media -- is great for advertisers. Reach has exploded as new and affordable consumer-facing technologies hit the market, from inexpensive smartphones to reasonably priced tablets. However, with added exposure comes the risk of saturation, which leads to a more competitive media marketplace.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Media brands need to make connections with consumers across several platforms, not just one. Marketers looking to make the biggest impact need to ask themselves if their research plans include efforts to expand the value of the brand, strengthen or retain its foothold in the hearts of media users, and deepen its pool of ad dollars.

Great media brands do not appear overnight. Ideally, they are carefully crafted through one consumer experience after another, each forming a building block. Here are the key building blocks for making an impact across the web.

Brand resonance

When consumers feel an affinity with almost anything -- a coffee type, skin care product, or TV network -- we say that the brand resonates. By measuring the resonance of media elements, such as personalities, programs, and brand names, companies can confirm the connection between engagement and advertising, as well as ad recall and reactions to advertising. To do this, marketers should evaluate numerous statements to enable analysis at a detailed level, uncovering brand opportunities and challenges.

Additionally, by analyzing responses to combined statements, marketers can gain a quick view into brand strengths and weaknesses in four key areas: loyalty, attachment, engagement, and community.

Here are example statements for each key area:

Loyalty: "I consider myself loyal to this network."
Attachment: "I would really miss this network if it went away."
Engagement: "I identify with others who watch this network."
Community: "I would go out of my way to watch this network."

Wantedness

Once a brand has determined resonance, it's best to implement a four-part measurement to understand the importance that consumers attach to media brands. Do they see a brand as indispensable or simply "nice to have," and what makes the difference? These are the aspects of "wantedness:"

Value -- defined as worth, usefulness, or importance
Necessity -- something that is essential, indispensable
Effort -- the amount of work put into viewing a program
Persistence -- repeated viewing, endurance

Again, wantedness is derived from numerous statements, and the following statements apply to each of the key aspects listed above:

Value: "The time I spend watching this network is time well spent."
Necessity: "I would pay extra to be sure I continued to have access to this network."
Effort: "I plan in advance to watch one or more programs on this network."
Persistence: "I watch programs on this network from start to finish."

By evaluating the findings from resonance and wantedness, both separately and together, the brand gets a clear sense of the value it holds for consumers.

Competitive benchmarking

The process of competitive benchmarking serves as a logical extension of resonance and wantedness, and can help assess a brand's relative strengths and weaknesses. This worthwhile analysis informs both tactical (marketing) and strategic (brand development) decisions to improve the performance of a brand.

Taking the first step

While today's multi-platform environment can have a powerful effect on media brands, the core elements of equity -- including resonance and wantedness -- still apply. Having a clear sense of the value that your brand holds for consumers can also reveal whether they are likely to be involved in the advertising that supports it. This knowledge translates into the opportunity for brands to redefine themselves, enhancing their value for advertisers and consumers alike. Taking charge of your brand's standing begins with knowledge of how consumers perceive you within the competitive landscape in relation to their expectations and needs.

Kimberly Ficarra is VP of the media team at Knowledge Networks, a GFK company.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

Feature art sourced from rintakumpu.

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What new gTLDs mean for your brand

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

By the time this article is published, the application period for new generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, will have been open for a matter of a few weeks and will run until April 12, 2012. Top-level domains are the extensions that appear at the end of domain names, after the "dot." There are currently 22 generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like .com, .net, and .org, and over 200 country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) like .JP, .MX, and .UK. Shortly after the close of the application period, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization behind the New gTLD Program, will publish a list of all the applications for these new extensions; by some estimates, there could be close to 1,000.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Over the next year or two, we will begin seeing web addresses that end with terms like .shop, .restaurant, .music, and even .company, .product, and .brand extensions. This newly expanded naming system will significantly change how web addresses look, and what internet users expect when navigating online. If Coca-Cola, for example, acquires .Coke and begins advertising domains like Diet.Coke and Drink.Coke, consumers will eventually expect to find similar content for Pepsi at .Pepsi addresses.

But a new understanding of what web addresses will look like is not the only change that new gTLDs will bring about for the internet as we -- both businesses and internet users -- understand it today. While some companies may decide to apply for and operate their own gTLD or gTLDs, it will not be practical (or even feasible) for all companies to do so. However, they will still need to adapt their digital strategies to the new name space and how Internet users react to that new space. In this article, I will explore some of the additional changes that businesses will be aware of once new gTLDs become part of the domain name space.

Adaptation 1: Defensive registrations in other new gTLDs
One major cause of anxiety that businesses have felt around the impending onslaught of new gTLDs is the fear that they will have to spend exorbitant amounts of money defensively registering domain names across all new gTLDs in order to protect their brands and trademarks from being cybersquatted, as they had to with past launches of new gTLDs for extensions like .info and .biz.

But there's good news: First of all, I predict that approximately two-thirds of the estimated 1,000 applications for new gTLDs will come from businesses applying for their .company, .product, or .brand extensions. The majority of these companies will not sell second-level domains to third parties, so the risk of cybersquatting in these gTLDs is basically zero.

Second, this time around, ICANN has put into place at least some safeguards that will save businesses from having to defensively register their domains in every single new gTLD. These systems are not perfect, nor are they particularly cheap, but they can help businesses protect their trademarked names and will, to an extent, help prevent a complete digital free-for-all where cybersquatters scoop up your brand name before you have a chance to register it.

However, there will be certain cases where it will be wise to register, not simply block, your second-level domains in new gTLDs. I'm referring specifically to category or geographical-term gTLDs here. A major retailer like Nordstrom will likely find it beneficial to register Nordstrom.shop as well as other domains like Nordstrom.NYC, to use as dedicated sites for those local stores, or to redirect them to Nordstrom.com. As new gTLD registries begin developing new and innovative technologies on these platforms, businesses may find it beneficial to have a presence in those spaces. Of course, it will not be necessary for a company like Nordstrom to register domains like Nordstrom.auto or Nordstrom.scuba, because there is a very low likelihood that consumers will navigate to those domains expecting to find the familiar high-end apparel and accessories retailer. Instead, the company might wish to block use of its name in those extensions. What companies should do, once ICANN publishes the list of applied-for new gTLDs in earlu May, is determine which are applicable to their business and develop a strategy for which domains to register in each, as well as how to use them.

Adaptation 2: Get personalized
Companies that acquire a new gTLD will have the ability to provide personalized domain names to customers to use as customized portals, if they so desire. Consider Lowe's, which recently launched its new "My Lowe's" application that allows homeowners to store information about what brand and color of paint they used on the exterior of their house, or the type of tile they used in their bathroom. If the company acquired a .Lowes gTLD, Lowe's could give John Doe the domain name JohnDoe.Lowes, where he could have direct access to all of his stored "My Lowe's" information without having to navigate through the Lowes.com homepage in order to log in. Lowe's could even send John information about upcoming sales or reminders about when to plant bulbs for the following spring through a personalized John@JohnDoe.Lowes email address.

Of course, businesses that do not acquire their own gTLD will not have this same capability. But we could begin to see an uptick of personalization in web browsing activity across the board. Consumers may begin to expect the websites they frequent to display information that is most relevant to them, whether it be a sports site that leads with information about their favorite teams or a shopping site that displays items in the styles and sizes they typically purchase. Even businesses that cannot offer their customers personal domain names may be expected to step up and provide a more customized, personal experience in the future.

Adaptation 3: A new era in search?
A major question from all businesses, across industries and regardless of whether or not they plan to acquire their own new gTLD, is what impact these new extensions will have on search engine rankings. Some, like Forrester's Jeff Ernst, have made a "self-fulfilling prophecy" argument, saying that because search engines strive to deliver the most relevant and authoritative results, if companies acquire new gTLDs, then search engines will have to adjust their rankings and will, as a result, give authority to these new gTLD domains. Others argue that domain names are not a big enough piece in the puzzle of search engine rankings to significantly tip the scales in one direction or another.

The fact is, search engines keep their algorithms close to the vest, so there is no way of knowing how, or even whether, they will adjust them to account for new gTLDs. Established brands that have worked hard to achieve the high search engine rankings they currently enjoy should, at least initially, employ a conservative strategy of redirecting new gTLD domains to their existing sites. Alternatively, they could begin by using new gTLD domains to host microsites for specific marketing campaigns until it becomes clear how search engines will adjust their rankings to these new domains.

Businesses that do not acquire new gTLDs should do their best to keep up with any shifts or alterations in ranking algorithms, and adapt their Search Engine Optimization strategies accordingly. This is also another place where owning domains in key category or geographical-term gTLDs can be beneficial: If search engines do start to show preference for new gTLD domains, then having a presence in other new gTLDs could provide companies a boost in the rankings, provided they create unique content for these domains and treat them as microsites.

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What your email subscribers really want

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

As marketers, we all know how important it is to make sure that our email and other direct marketing efforts are relevant to our customers. We also understand that customers are taking more control of their relationships with us and are demanding that we engage with them in ways that work. Doing this effectively requires a marketing strategy that integrates efforts across channels, while allowing for us to continuously "listen" to our customers and adjust tactics based on what we "hear" from them.

As we enter 2012, here are a few of the main themes that our analysis shows will be on every email subscriber's wish list, as well as ways to engage with them and give them what they really want.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

To belong

Everyone wants to feel like they are part of something. Utilizing "welcome" programs to initiate a sense of belonging -- letting subscribers know more about your brand and your email, social, and mobile programs and their benefits -- is a great way to make them feel part of your community.

This year, consider taking your welcome emails a step further and deploy a welcome series. Strategically crafted creative elements, calls to action, and messaging in each treatment of the series can enable continuous subscriber engagement and optimize results with double the open and click rates and three times the transaction rates of promotional mailings.

Integrating your digital programs can also create a sense of belonging and increase engagement. For example, leveraging Facebook to optimize email performance and acquisition by including email sign-up on your Facebook page can bring your digital programs together and make your subscribers feel connected.

A recent Experian CheetahMail study indicated that only 25 percent of brands have email sign-up on their Facebook page. What are you waiting for? Make 2012 the year you add it to yours.

To be known

As customers increasingly take control of the relationships they have with you, it is vital to treat them like individuals. Use what you know about your audience to personalize content as much as you can. This step can be as simple as using a subscriber's first name. On average, subject lines with a subscriber's first or last name have 58 percent higher unique open rates than those without.

Here are some great examples of subject lines we have seen recently:

Be our guest [first name]. Enjoy a free photobook.
Real vacation deals just for you, [first name].
Winter is here, [first name]. Time to plan!
Hey [first name] -- Meet our Facebook favorites!

Keep in mind, however, that a best practice is to use this tactic occasionally so that subscribers do not tire of it.

Here is another option that is even more effective: Showing products that subscribers are interested in can double transaction rates. For example, images of products left in abandoned shopping carts visually remind customers of the items they wanted and often make them more likely to purchase. This tactic can pay off just as much when it comes to ratings and reviews, as well as product recommendations in order and shipping confirmations.

What do you know about your email subscribers? This year start taking what you know and use it to personalize your customer communications.

To feel special

Along with demanding more personalized interaction comes a desire to "feel special." Customers want to be rewarded for their loyalty and continued engagement with your brand. Consider "friends and family" emails or loyalty points and rewards communications. These types of email marketing initiatives are personalized and create a unique experience for each individual driving continued engagement and loyalty. Also, make sure to use language that evokes this sort of special feeling. Did you know that the word "exclusive" in subject lines provides a 14 percent lift in unique open rates?

Have you identified your best customers? Are you rewarding them? In 2012, make your subscriber feel special by launching a loyalty program.

To be treated well

You know that feeling you get when you're walking around a store and can't find any associates to ask for help? Emails, especially transactional emails, without "help" or "customer service" links can leave customers with that same feeling. Treat your customers the way you want to be treated -- or better.

Also, remember your manners and say "thank you" to your customers. Shipping confirmations that thank customers have 60 percent or higher click and transaction rates than those without a "thank you" included.

To belong + to be known + to feel special + to be treated well = what they really want

As much as we marketers like to believe that we know what our customers want, we have to recognize that their desires and needs change rapidly. Therefore, it's important to have testing, an analysis of subscriber behaviors, and a collection of subscriber feedback (via surveys, research, social media tools, etc.) as part of standard daily business practices.

Remember, recognizing and acting on what your subscribers want not only makes them feel special and produces happy customers, but will also increase their engagement and improve your program performance.

Regina Gray is vice president of strategic services, Experian CheetahMail.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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6 ways the social web is revolutionizing market research

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

For decades, traditional research practices have informed marketing strategy for major brands. While this has proven indispensable in crafting marketing communications, this type of research lacks the dimension required to paint the full picture of a consumer's mindset, especially in a new era of discovery where a marked shift in consumer behavior has exponentially accelerated change in the world around us.

People today are equipped with the tools and means that allow them to function as real-time sharers, creators, and curators of content. This democratization of media makes it ever-important for brands to understand what people are saying, who is doing the talking, and how and where the conversations are taking place.

Online listening, also known as "buzz monitoring" or "social media monitoring" can do all of this and it can do so in near-real time. Through mining public conversations across a range of digital platforms, marketers can analyze this information to glean actionable insights about their brand, their category, their audience and the greater cultural context of their business.

Here are six powerful things that online listening can do for brands.

Discover how people perceive and engage with your brand in an organic context

The nature of traditional focus groups places a narrow lens on the types of insights that can be derived. Participants are generally aware of their role in the process, placed in an unnatural setting, and asked to answer a restricted field of questions. Online listening functions without such limitations, as brands can learn what people are saying in candid conversations occurring in natural environments. This means you can uncover sentiments and trends that may have gone unnoticed through traditional research.

It's not about waiting for answers; it's about learning in real time

Traditional research often operates on a multi-month delay given the time and resources needed to plan, conduct, and collect data, and consequently, brands conduct this type of research less frequently.

Marketers who rely solely on traditional research risk acting on stale insights. So much can change within your audience's mindset, your category, and the broader culture in the blink of an eye. Online listening can keep pace with the fast and furious nature of today's marketing landscape thanks to sophisticated tools that leave more time for human-powered analysis.

Listening can monitor within a larger context

Individual brands exist within larger ecosystems of competing products and companies clamoring for attention. Online listening can paint a picture of the broader environment and determine how specific brands fit within it.

The average person encounters more than 5,000 brand messages a day. Beyond competing with rivals in your category, you also compete with a broader range of brands vying for attention in a crowded space. A packaged goods company, for example, may today consider consumer electronics companies, automotive manufacturers, etc. as viable competitors -- beyond similar CPG companies in their category. Listening can also introduce you to new opportunities for strategic partnerships with brands you might not have previously considered.

Envision your audience as people, not just consumers

Marketers can take a closer look at public conversations to develop personas or identify tribes. Who is your audience apart from being "consumers?" How do they describe themselves? What are their hobbies, interests and passions?

By gathering publically available information from sources such as Facebook and Twitter bio pages, as well as connecting blogs, Tumblr feeds, etc. of individual authors, marketers can paint a fuller picture of an individual's daily life. By cross-referencing this data, you can build profiles to be grouped into behavioral or psychographic "tribes." For instance, if a focus group finds that a brand particularly resonates with a certain demographic (e.g. 18 to 34 year-old women), online listening might also reveal that the brand is specifically popular among music fans and foodies. This kind of analysis helps tap deeper into consumer psyche and generates ideas for how best to engage the relevant tribe.

Spot emerging trends in consumer behavior

Social media sits at the crossroads of culture and people. It's never been easier to understand shifts in consumer behavior (think cultural trends or emerging media platforms, for example) at scale and in near-real time.

The most direct way to spot shifts in behavior is to listen to what topics of conversation a particular segment is talking about, and where they are having those conversations across the web. While bottom-up trendspotting is good for forecasting cultural insight early on, understanding how those with online authority are leading culture is another way to track trends that already appeal to wider audiences.

Works alongside more traditional research methodologies to further hone in on the why and how once new trends are uncovered

Given the popularity of short-form status updates (e.g. Twitter), it can be challenging for marketers to determine why people feel a certain way about a product, or why they chose to purchase a specific brand. For example, an individual might say "I love brand X", but unfortunately they don't often provide more detail as to why.

There are several ways to supplement online listening and gain deeper insights on emotional connection and a consumer's path to purchase. One is to simply ask them, either through an opt-in survey or a more in-depth qualitative interview. Another is through ethnographic research, or any type of investigation in which you observe first-hand how people engage with your brand in their everyday lives.

New technology has empowered marketers to more easily collect public conversations -- but, as the volume of information available to brands increases, an approach based on human-powered analysis becomes critical to piece together the deeper meanings behind the outpour of real-time data.

Online listening has emerged as a critical tool for brands to gather insights about people and culture in unprecedented ways. These insights -- deeper and more holistic than traditional findings -- can shape marketing strategies in ways that allow you to provide better experiences to people, within your advertising and beyond.

Sarah Hofstetter is president of 360i.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

Feature art sourced from ex_magician and cheetah100.

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2011 Super Bowl wins and fails

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Introduction

The Super Bowl is the loudest shout of old media -- it is the opportunity to connect with more than half the nation in one afternoon with a message that's guaranteed to be watched, discussed, and scrutinized. Plus, if your ad is really good (or a total piece of junk) there's always the chance that you'll be featured on the front page of newspapers coast to coast.

But Super Bowl advertising is a lot more than that -- it's also a brilliant beacon within new media. People love to talk about experiences, and the Super Bowl is something that we all experience. It is an incredible opportunity for savvy (and well-heeled) brands to drive thousands of friends and follows in one short afternoon. It's an opportunity to mesmerize bloggers from coast to coast, and to motivate their typing and embedding fingers.

The Super Bowl is the perfect media storm. And if your ad actually makes the product compelling, it's the opportunity to sell loads of stuff lickety-split.

That being said, let's relive some of the wins and fails of last year's Super Bowl!

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2 ways smart TV will change media buying

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

GroupM is the media investment manager that aggregates WPP's clients' budgets. The group reported annual worldwide billings of $73.5 billion, and has a marketshare of 32.7 percent, with nearest competitor Publicis at 23.1 percent.

Sarah Fay spoke with GroupM COO John Montgomery about the shift to digital TV, including Apple's Genius TV and Microsoft's Kinect, and how the evolution will create a new model for ad buying. Will TV buying look more like audience buying? How will automation drive the planning process?

John also talked about about whether or not GroupM is competing with media buyers, and whether or not agencies have fully embraced mobile. See the full interview below.

"It's a fantastic win/win for media owners. Sell us your inventory, you'll get more from us than you will from the ad exchanges, because we can�integrate it with our brand strategy."

"90 percent of all data was created in the last 24 months. From an advertising/tech point of view�we're learning a lot about consumer behavior from the [data]."

Conversation highlights

0:00 - GroupM aggregates WPP's clients' budgets
0:50 - Are you competing with media sellers?
1:45 - We've attracted the attention of the FCC
2:28 - Educating consumers about choice-based ads
3:30 - Learning about consumers through automated ad planning/buying
5:20 - Running cookies on smart TVs and voice/gesture-based interactions
6:18 - Clients have fully engaged with mobile
7:55 - Taking TV into the social space
8:50 - An evangelist for industry shifts
10:07 - What's coming...

Run time is 10:59

GroupM is WPP's consolidated media investment management operation, serving as the parent company to agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, Mindshare, Catalyst and Xaxis. GroupM is the global number one media investment management group (RECMA 2010). Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP's media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

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How to guarantee your social media is regulation compliant

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Most companies have accepted the fact that by now they ought to be engaging in social media activities in one form or another. Those who are late to the party, however, are often from highly-regulated industries such as financial services or pharmaceuticals. Despite the promise of genuine, real-time communications with customers that could greatly benefit marketing and public relations efforts, social media can present quite the challenge with regard to regulatory compliance. Organizations need to engage in social media in an intelligent way that complies with relevant industry regulations -- without completely stifling the creative, genuine nature of the medium. This can be a difficult balance to strike, but it can definitely be achieved.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Social media compliance challenges

For years, instead of leveraging social media, companies in heavily-regulated industries have either avoided it altogether or have been extremely conservative with their use of it. Instead of having a sound plan, far too many organizations are simply winging it and handling issues on a case-by-case basis. This doesn't work for even the smallest of businesses, and is therefore especially risky for those trying to maintain organizational compliance.

Why can social media be such a headache when it comes to regulatory compliance? First of all, the very nature of social media is real-time, unfiltered conversations -- an online stream of consciousness. Whether it's your employees or your customers, the idea of real-time can be terrifying for anyone concerned with adhering to internal or industry policies. For example, brokerage firms dealing with FINRA regulations need to be concerned about whether any responses their employees provide to customers in social media communities are adhering to rules about suitability and investment product recommendations. Likewise, pharmaceutical companies engaging in social media must ensure that any conversations about a product, whether they are on Facebook or Twitter, feature the FDA required safety information. And, any public company needs to be on top of every tweet to monitor whether it complies with the SEC's public disclosure requirements. With all of this to consider, how can a company enter this world safely? Two words: policy and education.

Social media policy and training

Every company, even those without regulations to contend with, must have a well thought-out social media policy in place that deals with both employee and customer use. What should this policy include?

Your internal social media policy should make it clear to your employees what they can and cannot do or say, and how anything they disclose in a social media community has an impact on the company. Be clear and concise to avoid overwhelming them with complex details that could be misconstrued. Your policy -- which should be documented -- should clarify who has the authority to speak on the company's behalf on social networks and the consequences that exist if any of these rules are broken.

Beyond the written component for employees, your policy needs to include embedded processes and workflows that ensure compliant social media communications. One necessary process is content moderation. For example, put controls in place that automatically review any outbound content for policy violations. Having a process like this ensures that communication can still be published in a timely manner without exposing the company to unnecessary risk.

Speaking of risk, it is also prudent to make sure your policy leverages a method to limit the number of employees who are granted admin rights to social media accounts. While you want to grant employees access to your communities, you also want a simple way to take this access away if they leave the company. Ensuring that only a select few have admin rights makes this possible. Imagine the potential for regulatory violation (and impact on your company's reputation) if a disgruntled employee accesses your corporate Twitter account.

Any company facing regulatory controls could also face an audit at any moment. Your social media policy should account for this reality by implementing technology that archives all content in a way that could quickly and adequately prepare you for an audit.

Another critical component of your policy is how it deals with participation from external stakeholders, such as vendors or customers. You need to let your communities know your company's social media policy and how you will handle responses. You must make them aware of what will and won't be tolerated on your social media pages, especially since you have regulatory requirements to consider with every comment and response. It might, therefore, take more time for your team to respond to inquiries depending on the review process and you should set expectations accordingly.

One of the best social media moves is to be transparent. This will help to build trust within your communities and comply with regulations. If a customer blogs on your behalf, you must disclose if they are being paid, getting free products, or being given special treatment of any kind. For companies dealing with multiple regulations, posting disclaimers for all social media activity is a sound practice. This protects your company and minimizes potential confusion on what is a personal statement versus corporate.

Now that you have created a fool-proof policy, how do you make sure your employees adhere to it without having to threaten them on a regular basis? Employee education and training is the best way to uphold policies, meet regulatory requirements, and mitigate risk. Make it part of your process to regularly educate employees about current social media policies, new programs or networks, and best practices. You can also hold regular "lunch and learn" events and launch a social media certification program that grants graduates new levels of privileges in your social communities.

Despite the fact that regulatory compliance is a constant consideration for your business, social media does not have to be the enemy or hinder your compliance efforts. With a strong understanding of the risks involved, a well thought-out social media policy and effective employee training program, you too can harness the power of social media and improve your business through the building of communities.

Scott Oppliger is founder and CEO of SocialVolt.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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What you need to know about social's future

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It's been a big year of growth for social media as an industry, and, as it shows no signs of stopping any time soon, here are five things to keep an eye on.. After all, we are a bunch of geeky social media enthusiasts who just can't keep our traps shut on the topic.

Social media is going to gain more attention and spend

No brainer, right? Companies are paying a lot more attention to the value of social media, and it has become increasingly obvious that social media marketing has moved beyond pushing funny tweets and begging unsuspecting networks for friends to please, please, please "like" a company's new Facebook page. This is the year for social media to rise above fun marketing fluff, and into the ranks of hard marketing campaigns. A joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, showed that 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEOs label social as a high priority. As people start to take social media marketing more seriously, hopefully the industry will become better defined with more standardized practices across the board.

Search and social will become synonymous

Of all the predictions, the most common theme I discovered (and have been loudly championing for some months now) from social media gurus across the web is that the lines between search and social are becoming increasingly blurred. Google+ is definitely going to be a game changer in this arena. It will be interesting to see if it really challenges Facebook, as many people initially predicted, or if it will just quietly create the ultimate social search engine and melt our faces off in awe. Google+ will find its balance, integrate with other platforms, and undercut Facebook on advertising. Hopefully, Google will buy a social media management system that will have hooks into Google Analytics, Webmaster tools, and Google +, which other platforms will cower behind.

Social influence will affect SEO rankings more than ever

Influence is no stranger in the world of search. As search marketers, we are well aware that Google has long been the well-respected professor rewarding good influence with higher grades in the form of single digit rankings. We have been watching Google for years to determine just how its algorithms determine what is well optimized, influential, and worthy of being found in search results. The same goes for social media influence. With social media content already manipulating search engine results pages (SERPs), it begs the question of which content will have the most influence. I see Klout, a platform whose algorithm gives your influence a weighted number, and similar companies gaining momentum in the coming year, as what's shareable is going to become as important as what's searchable. I could really use a Venn diagram right about now�

Social sharing will become standard on every website

In the same vein as social search and influence is social sharing. What is social, if not a giant shared space of individuals' ideas, opinions, media, whereabouts, and status updates? One of the first industries to really capitalize on this was online publishing, as popular sites began adding sharing options to content, which ultimately led to more page views and higher rankings in SERPs. So, what's going to happen next year in terms of social sharing? The actions will start being monetized with ecommerce and web transactions. As more and more companies realize that users may not understand that something is worth sharing until they are given the option, these companies will allow a user to share a product or review with their networks without ever leaving the site. (Hmm�maybe someone in my Facebook network would be interested in learning more about the fancy cheese grater I just ordered from Amazon.com?)

Social media marketers will move beyond measuring fans to real revenue related metrics

What's in a name? For the past few years, as social media has continued its steady ascent into domination, the focus has been on fans, followers, and "likes." These real people, with real names and attempted clever handles, have actively pledged their allegiances to their favorite brands. Unfortunately, a company saying they have 5,000 names of people who love their brand is worth as much as Monopoly money. Yes, brand awareness has incredible value and influence, but that's a hard sell to clients without solid ROI numbers attached. This year will bring better metrics platforms, with the ability to attach real revenue numbers with each social media brand champion. Ultimately, these improved metrics will provide marketers a better view of data which will lead to better content and campaigns.

So, there you have it, my crystal ball full of tweets, shares, and status updates for this year. Even if I really was some sort of mystical social media shaman, it wouldn't make a difference. This industry is moving faster than news of celebrity splits, and keeping up with social media trends is harder than keeping up with the Kardashians.

Heather Sundell is creative editor at The Search Agency.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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9 social media hacks you need to embrace now

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Social media isn't inexpensive, it's just different expensive. To do it well requires a tremendous time commitment, and regardless of what your life and lifestyle entails, the time you spend on social comes with an opportunity cost price tag. Thus, one of the characteristics that sets adept practitioners of social media apart from less successful adherents is wise use of time.

Using your limited social media time wisely is all about going beyond the obvious activities. If you're doing the exact same things everyone else is doing in social, I can guarantee you will not have an advantage. But, if you do some things differently, you may find activities where the reward is disproportionate to the effort. These nine efficiencies -- hacks -- are what you need to embrace right now.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Listen to podcasts
Sure, they've been overcome by newer and sexier social flavors du jour but podcasts are still the best way to spend time when you're not in front of a screen. Driving to work? Listen to Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation or MarketingProfs' Marketing Smarts with Matthew Grant. Working out? Put on the earbuds and embrace John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing, or Chris Penn's Marketing Over Coffee.

Take and curate photographs
I'm not certain if a picture is worth a thousand words, but it's definitely worth 140 characters. This is the year that photos challenge writing as the lingua franca of the social web: Instagram; Pinterest; Path; Google + using large thumbnails in the news feed; face recognition technology. All trend lines point toward photography. If you're not taking and posting pictures to dedicated photo networks and cross-posting (when appropriate) to Twitter and Facebook, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to grow your network and see the world through the eyes (or cell phone cameras) of thousands of new friends.

Read LinkedIn today
It's pretty safe to say that most people keep their LinkedIn shrubbery more closely pruned than their Facebook or Twitter trees. Thus, when content is shared in LinkedIn, it often has a better chance to have been shared by people you trust, or at least people with a modicum of business sense. That's why when I'm looking for a summarized source of what's happening in the categories I care about, I turn to Linkedin Today.

Buffer your links
One of the most insidious time sucks in all of social media -- especially for content curators -- is the "Oh, I found something cool. I should share this on a social network or four!" keyboard fire that spontaneously erupts a few times a day. This kills your focus and productivity. The better approach is to set aside a chunk of time first thing each morning to find the handful of truly interesting content bon mots that are worthy, and use Buffer http://bufferapp.com/ to automatically share them across your chosen social networks at pre-determined, optimized times. While you're at it, add the Buffer button http://bufferapp.com/goodies/button to your blog too.

Use "If This, Then That" recipes
If This, Then That (IFTTT) is the best social tool nobody ever mentions. It's like a virtual assistant social media robot, where you can create an almost infinite array of conditionally-defined, time-saving tasks. Create an account and hook up all of your social profiles, blogs, cell phone numbers, etc. Then sift through the mountain of existing recipes to find processes that will save you effort.

For example, want your Twitter profile photo to change automatically when you update your Facebook profile photo? Done. Want to have your favorited tweets automatically emailed to you? Done. Want to automatically store your Instagram photos in a Dropbox account? Done. Want to automatically post to your Pinterest board any link you add to Facebook? Done.

The opportunities are nearly endless at IFTTT.com.

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Why you should look beyond Google

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

In a recent survey by MarketingSherpa, the majority of marketers named their biggest marketing challenge as generating high quality leads. Tight budgets and a need to show quick ROI certainly add to the quandary.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Why is lead generation so problematic? A couple of factors come to mind.

Technological advances -- your potential customers can block out any offers they don't wish to receive
Poor website experience -- if your site content is not properly aligned to your prospect's life cycle, you lose out
Ineffective use of internal marketing database -- segmentation is key in tailoring your messages. Keeping contacts up-to-date is basic, yet often overlooked
Sticking with traditional marketing methods -- it's so easy to stay with what's worked in the past even if it's no longer working well

Google campaigns alone may fall into the last category. Despite the fact that costs can be astronomical and the competition is fierce, some marketers still believe if you're not on Google, you don't exist.

In a tough economy ROI is critical; it makes sense to widen your horizons. Opt-in email targeting, alternative pay-per-click (PPC) networks, and social media marketing are worth a closer look.

Opt-in email targeting

Google recently introduced Interest Category Targeting for AdWords. Typically an ad in Google's display network only appears if it's relevant to content on the page. With the "Interests" feature, advertisers can target users on other sites based on their behavior and overall interests.

Opt-in email is similar. Advertisers have the ability to reach people who've "raised their hands" to see ads based on their overall interests. Many people actually want to see ads that align with their passions. Email publishers can offer high-performing, high qualified customer lists. With opt-in email, your future customer has been highly qualified and is a red hot lead.

In a recent survey we conducted, lead generation professionals responded that third party opt-in email is considered the most underutilized platform for lead generation. Sixty-four percent noted that they had not yet utilized such campaigns.

For lead generation professionals seeking the best tools that deliver results, third party opt-in email is a must to consider. Since the consumers previously opted in to receive updates from publishers, these email campaigns usually perform extremely well. In our experience with clients, the average conversion rate is 9 to13 percent. According to the Direct Marketing Association (Q4 2010 email trends and benchmark report), the industry average conversion rate is a dismal 2.9 percent.

Alternative PPC networks

Diversifying your traffic from Google results allows you to monetize alternate traffic sources at a lower cost-per-click, ultimately delivering a potentially higher ROI.

Search marketers have the opportunity to work with alternative PPC providers. Many alternative networks are made up of smaller and niche websites that do not receive Google ads, so they bring an audience unsaturated by your competitors. That allows for a greater return on your investment.

These PPC ad networks find success in numbers by aggregating traffic from across their network of search and content publishers, serving paid links when a user searches for a relevant term. Taking your ads beyond Google and Bing is a win-win as it provides a lower cost-per-click and allows marketers to pay less while ranking higher in search results.

Challenges in lead generation surely will continue to result in new methods for marketers who are scratching their heads. While participants in our survey highlighted the effectiveness of PPC as a great way to target and qualify leads, there are multiple networks that can be effective. Regardless of the platform you choose, set measurable goals, then track your campaigns. Conducting limited testing coupled with measurement will get you headed in the right direction.

Social media marketing

A whopping 93 percent of brands are doing some type of social media marketing, according to a recent BtoB Magazine study. Perhaps not surprisingly, most are focused on the most popular channels including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Tips for getting started with lead generation in the social arena include pushing out a steady stream of useful content coupled with clear calls to action. Content creation can be time consuming (hence a challenge for some resource-strapped departments), but the attention you can attract is worth it. A call to action that you can track ("join this LinkedIn Group") is essential for understanding your progress.

It's important for marketers to regularly remind themselves that there are always fresh and effective new solutions that must be explored. It's just a matter of stepping outside of your comfort zone. The best way to do this is to allocate a certain amount of your ad spend on testing new lead generation sources. You never know what works until you try it.

Daniel Yomtobian is the founder and CEO of Advertise.com.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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The benefits of integrating paid, owned, and earned media

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The concept of paid, owned, and earned media has evolved. What were once separate notions of media can be integrated in new ways to better serve brands and consumers, and disrupt the traditional online marketing landscape.

As a result, smart marketers are re-evaluating the ability of paid media to serve as a vehicle to amplify the impact of earned and owned media rather than viewing each media channel as a separate and totally disconnected effort.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

How are marketers building successful digital marketing campaigns that take advantage of the synergy in a combined paid, owned, and earned media strategy? Based on successful campaigns we've seen conducted by some of today's leading technology brands, there are some important steps to achieving success.

Understanding what it means to integrate paid, owned, and earned media

For years, marketers have viewed paid, owned, and earned as separate strategies: paid (i.e., ad buys) to blast their messages, owned (i.e., branded social media pages, blog, website) to showcase their own marketing messages, and earned (i.e., articles, social media commentary, and engagement) to provide third-party validation about their products.

As paid, owned, and earned media evolved, marketers learned how to break down the walls to get these three distinct disciplines to work as a team. Many of today's digital and social media campaigns strive to take advantage of the intersection of these media channels.

Earned media is the most coveted because it offers outside validation that a brand is delivering value through its products or services. Whether it comes through as a positive review, a tweet, a Facebook update, or a blog comment, marketers and brands rejoice. The objective is to integrate positive comments, posts, and feeds from earned media into the paid and owned strategy in order to amplify the message.

To illustrate, brands can use paid media (i.e., display, text, or search ads) to broadcast earned media in a scalable and targeted way to reach broader audiences. Likewise, by integrating earned media into owned media properties (website, blog, branded Facebook and Twitter pages), marketers and brands are educating the rest of the community on what resonated with their most engaged and passionate users.

However, if you're going to spend the time, money, and energy building a strategy around paid, owned, and earned media, the earned media that you integrate should be as influential as possible.

The importance of influencers

The term "influencers" is used a lot today in discussion of the impact of social media, but what constitutes an influencer? What is the influencer's role in shaping opinion about a brand?

When it comes to considered purchases that require research before commitment, such as an automobile, mobile device, or expensive appliance, consumers are increasingly using the internet to seek out the independent opinions of professional bloggers and influential experts to help guide their purchase decisions.

Integrating paid media with earned media and measuring results

When considering an integrated paid, owned, and earned media strategy, it is important to recognize that paid media, or advertising, can be useful to consumers who are making a considered purchase, especially if it leverages independent influencer content that they are actively seeking to inform or support their decisions.

Consider: If you are in the market for a new television set, which of these two ads would increase your level of consideration or likelihood of purchase: a generic banner ad flashing a picture, message, and price for one brand of television, or an interactive ad unit that showcases articles and social feedback from trusted experts in the television arena?

As a marketer, imagine having the ability to tie your messaging to objective editorial content that an independent expert has written about your brand, and to then use your paid media spend to amplify that message, along with the validating content, across sites that your consumers visit to make their decisions. This approach is unique because it offers relevant and helpful information and allows for a heightened level of engagement to socially drive consideration for a brand's product.

Furthermore, because marketing online allows for tracking and measurements, brands can learn whether or not an integrated paid, owned, and earned media strategy has succeeded. Today, analytics software can track how brands are viewed compared to competitors and can even identify and measure the influential content that is consumed and shared about a brand.

Of course, one size does not fit all. An integrated strategy that leverages influential content is best utilized in considered purchase categories like technology, automotive, and other big-ticket items. This is because considered purchases are ones in which consumers do research and seek out the advice before buying. It is not as well suited for everyday commodities like paperclips, napkins, or light bulbs.

Conclusion

As the digital marketing landscape has evolved, so have the strategies. Changes in the structure and definition of media have broken apart the silos of paid, owned, and earned media and have spurred marketers to re-examine how paid, owned, and earned media can be integrated for greater success. In doing so, marketers have realized better ways to engage audiences by offering relevant information that informs and helps the consumer make better purchase decisions, rather than a one-size-fits-all message that is simply blasted where consumers happen to be. Integrating paid, owned, and earned media means that marketers are now viewing paid media as a means to amplify the impact of earned and owned media. It also means marketers are putting increased emphasis on the value to the consumer rather than treating each media channel as a separate and totally disconnected effort.

Peyman Nilforoush is CEO and co-Founder of NetShelter.

On Twitter? Follow Nilforoush at @netshelter_ceo. Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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Why the days of interruptive advertising are over

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Super Bowl Sunday is a day unlike any other. It's the day we gather to watch titans compete. But, amidst the combat on the field, another contest is taking place all over the country. It's not one of strength or field position. It's a battle of ads.

Super Bowl ads don't really seem like ads at all. We experience them as content because we choose to watch them, and we choose to watch them because the content is awesome. It's why we talk about them long after the game, and why many like them more than the game itself.

Sadly, as Monday comes along, we hate ads again. The reason is simple: Our everyday ads seem determined to hate us back, so we choose not to watch them. And now, more than at any other point in advertising history, consumers have the power to choose what they watch. Additionally, as consumers' ability to choose increases, it's harder and harder to acquire their attention by interrupting them.

So, let's not interrupt them, but draw them to us by creating content that people want and choose to watch, giving them a reason to share. Let's make every day the Super Bowl.

There's a Super Bowl-sized audience online everyday just waiting to watch and share great content, making it a lasting part of our culture. Here are five reasons why every day can be the Super Bowl:

Choice

Super Bowl Sunday is no longer the one day a year that people will choose to watch ads. Millions of people now choose to watch and share brand videos online every day. Additionally, marketers no longer need to rely solely on interruptive advertising delivery models. Social video distribution platforms offer the ability to deliver brand videos across the web solely in choice-based placements.

Creativity

The reason why people choose to watch Super Bowl ads is that they are highly creative. We expect them to be entertaining. Likewise, the growing level of creativity and imagination in online video advertising is bringing that same level of consistent interest among consumers to watch brand videos throughout the year.

We are consistently seeing new forms of branded content, such as Dermablend's "Go Beyond the Cover" series, which are changing the way we think about advertising. It's no longer about the one-hit wonder viral phenomena. Brands are now creating new characters and experiences through online video that people want to keep around in their lives because of their originality and entertainment value.

Sharing

Brands get enormous lift from the word of mouth generated from their Super Bowl ads. Now, sharing via social media has become so engrained in our culture that brands get their creative videos shared every day. This is why videos like Lululemon's "Sh!+ Yogi's Say" can generate hundreds of thousands of shares in fewer than two weeks.

Because of the increasingly central role of social media in our identities, we can now say "we are what we share." As a result, brands have the opportunity to continually produce content that consumers will share with their personal networks if they identify or emotionally connect with it.

Reach

The Super Bowl still boasts the largest reach for a live event, but popular brand online videos are now approaching and even exceeding those viewership numbers in a short amount of time. A quick look at YouTube's most watched ads of 2011, shows that a broad array of brand videos racked up tens of millions of views last year. The speed with which these videos are able to get up to millions of views has also increased, as with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's "The Vet & The nOOb," which quickly eclipsed 20 million views. Expect these numbers only to grow in the years ahead.

Not just for big brands

With genuinely creative content and a smart social distribution strategy, even smaller companies and brands can create a Super Bowl-worthy video, and get it in front of huge audiences for a fraction of the cost. Blendtec continually reinforces this point with their massively popular "Will it Blend?" series, which has now generated over 185 million views to their YouTube channel.

eMarketer recently noted that "68 percent of companies said they were shifting from traditional forms of marketing to more emphasis on branded content," another clear indicator that a wide variety of brands are embracing the content opportunity.

Dan Greenberg is co-founder and CEO of Sharethrough.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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3 brands that failed on Facebook

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

There's no denying the power Facebook has had on businesses. You've probably recognized the increased use of that unmistakable Facebook icon on company websites, print ads and commercials, as well as the rise in custom-designed Facebook pages. But with the push to gain fans, many businesses are finding themselves unprepared to handle the "engagement" that comes from asking people to '"like" a business page.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Facebook is becoming the Borg -- you had better embrace the collective and make the best of it, or it will find your brand and build its community. Companies need to apply the same business sense, crisis management, and strategic planning they would to any brand messaging, marketing campaign, or customer-service protocol. Perhaps even more forethought is needed when it comes to social media, as customers will "talk back" and companies need to be prepared.

This is especially true when it comes to customers posting their ideas, suggestions, concerns, or problems on your wall. If your business is primarily communicating with customers via wall posts and you have a large fan base, you run the risk of coming across as unresponsive, or worse, not listening if a response is not timely.

One other missed opportunity I've been noticing is the high number of businesses not using Facebook to leverage their corporate brand. Here's a perfect medium for communicating with present and future customers that what you have to offer is worth purchasing, and too many companies don't seem to know how to use this social-media tool to their advantage.

To illustrate this further, I've selected three companies who I think are failing when it comes to marketing on Facebook: Tesla Motors, Netflix, and Goldman Sachs.

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What Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon are missing

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Google. Facebook. Apple. Amazon. Four major companies that are defining the current social/device/tech landscape. Consider recent headlines: "Facebook Floods Timeline with Oversharing Apps." "Amazon sells the Kindle Fire at a loss because it makes so much money on media." "Google+ now lets you start a conversation from search results." "Apple brings textbooks to iPad."

But there's no coasting, even for a giant. The popularity and success of these companies are dependent on consumer habits and consumer trust. We asked the always-candid Molly Wood what the big four need to do this year to stay on top. (Note: This interview was recorded in late 2011. A few business developments have occurred since taping.)

Let's start with Google: maker of Android, Google+, and much more.

Here's what Molly thinks Google should work on. (0:55)

Next, the ever-evolving Facebook.

Here's Molly's advice for Facebook as the company navigates the fine line between consumer trust and advertising revenue. (1:39)

What about the church of Apple?

Admittedly, Apple is in a strong position. But Molly thinks Tim Cook has a big opportunity, and thinks the company needs to be careful about something. (1:48)

And understated Amazon.

Many consumers still think of Amazon as an online shopping storefront. But as digital marketers know, the company has become so much more. Here's Molly's advice as the company continues to move into new areas including devices, business tools, and entertainment. (0:45)

A major industry insider, we had to ask Molly what technology or service she's most excited about. Here are two she has her eye on. (1:02)

Molly Wood is an executive editor and on-camera video host for CNET.com and CBS Interactive. She is the host of the Buzz Report, a weekly show about the latest in technology industry news, co-host of the incredibly popular Buzz Out Loud technology news podcast, and author of the Molly Rants blog at CNET News.com. Molly's expertise and passion for the world of technology make her an informed analyst who uses wit, humor and, sometimes, brutal honesty to explain the business of tech and the latest in consumer electronics. Molly�s expertise is frequently sought out by major media including CBS, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, as well as major local television affiliates throughout the country.

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Will future employers check your Klout score?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

With just 45 employees, and $30 million in new funding, Klout is a unique player in the social media landscape.

Klout founder and CEO Joe Fernandez (Klout score at time of publication: 69/100) says, "It's simple -- if you create interesting content that your network interacts with and shares, you will have a high Klout score." Fernandez noted that the average score is about 20. Most consider a score above 30 to be reputable and a score above 50 to be elite.

But people have mixed feelings about Klout scores. For example, an algorithm change in late 2011 left users asking questions.

Klout says the algorithm change affected ratings in the following ways: allowing users to be measured on more than one primary network, filtering out bots and spam, and using a 90-day average instead of a 30-day average to calculate scores. But most scores went down. User feedback included site posts like: "Very unhappy with this change. My score went from 73 down to 53. 20 point drop. I've been working for months to increase my Klout score. Please fix this."

Despite the bumps, Klout's user base continues to increase. The company has assigned scores to more than 100 million people and brands. Klout analyzes 2.7 billion pieces of content and connections per day, receives more than 8 billion API calls per month and has worked with more than 5,000 partners and developers.

So...will future employers check your Klout score? Depending on the company, yes. Klout's Garth Holsinger (current Klout score: 38/100) describes current Klout score use to Questus' Joey Dumont. (1:15)

How do you increase your score? Here's what Garth recommends. See below for additional pointers. (0:45)

What's coming next? Will hotels give you incentives if your Klout score is high? And what if you're big on YouTube, but not on Twitter? (0:53)

Garth says despite initial outcry from users, the algorithm change had some positive results. (0:42)

Want more advice about increasing your Klout score? Mark Schaefer, author of "Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing" gives these pointers:

1. Build a network. The key to increasing a Klout score is similar to finding success on the social web in general: Build a targeted, engaged network of people who would be legitimately interested in you and your content.

2. Create meaningful content. Adopt a strategy to create or aggregate meaningful content that your network loves to share with others. Provide links!

3. Engage. Actively engage with others in a helpful and authentic way. Ask questions, answer questions and create a dialogue with your followers.

4. Don't scheme. Any gaming behaviors that fall outside the basic strategies will eventually catch up to you. For example, specifically targeting conversations with high Klout influencers will probably be more annoying than successful. If you keep focused on your network strategy and your content strategy, you'll succeed.

5. Interact with everyone. Don't be afraid to interact with Klout users with lower scores -- it won�t hurt your own score. In fact, it helps build their score and in turn makes you more of an influencer.

6. Publish. Remember, you don't have to make a movie or be elected to office to have power now. All you need to do is publish. Access to free publishing tools such as blogs, video and Twitter have provided users with an opportunity to have a real voice, so take advantage of these many platforms.

7. Keep at it. Don't be discouraged by your score. It�s more important to just enjoy your social media experience and let the chips fall where they may.

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How to raise ROI on daily deals

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

If you want to find new customers -- and really, what business isn't in the business of finding new customers? -- running a daily deal can be a great way to dramatically increase your organization's visibility within targeted communities. According to a comScore study, 47 percent of consumers subscribe to at least one daily deal website. Subscribers are young, affluent, tech-savvy, and more than 75 percent female.

On the flip side, daily deals can be unprofitable. If a deal is poorly planned, it can turn a business opportunity into a business nightmare. One of the most persistent failings of a daily deal is its uncertainty in finding repeat customers. If you want to increase your odds of repeat foot traffic, you'll want to develop execution and retention strategies in advance of running your deal.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

On the most basic and integral level, successful execution hinges on your business having the capacity to serve both new and existing customers. If you've already determined that you have excess capacity and are prepared to staff appropriately for the deal...congratulations! With these two variables covered, your business can make sure that your new daily deal customer's first visit is a positive one.

To take your promotion to the first-class, box seats, home-run level, create a customer experience that is not only positive but also memorable, and not only manageable but also successful. These four tactics will send you on your way.

Pre-promote your daily deal

While it would be a logistical nightmare to staff and plan for 500 redemptions and receive 5,000, it would be equally nightmarish to staff and plan for 500 redemptions and only get 50. That's why it's important to use your email lists and social media channels to pre-promote the deal. This step is especially important if you're using a lesser-known provider with a smaller subscriber base.

Capture deal seekers' information

For tracking purposes, you'll want to capture three pieces of information: the coupon usage itself, whether the user was a first-time customer, and the total amount spent in addition to the coupon. Capture the first two pieces at the point of sale and the third piece through your sales records.

For marketing and engagement purposes, capturing information like email addresses and phone numbers can be your chance to cement relationships with new daily deal customers. It isn't enough to place an email newsletter sign-up sheet by the register. You need to tell your customers about the value of that newsletter. For example, mention that subscribers receive exclusive coupons or industry-specific tips.

Engage your staff ahead of time to get their opinions and buy-in for information-capturing tactics. Your staff is your frontline when it comes to gathering information, so train them well, and get them excited to help.

Reward repeat customers

Consider offering in-person rewards or additional coupons to encourage repeat business. Develop special add-ons and up-sells for customers who redeem your coupon. When possible, waive initial membership or set-up fees.

After the initial sale, use that buyer information you captured to build lasting relationships with your daily deal customers. These customers are used to communicating through email, which makes it the perfect platform for follow-up messages. Create a new group for your daily deal users, and send them a special welcome email.

You can also segment and test this group to weed out those who aren't likely to pay full price later as return customers. How? Just send the group a value-based message, and track your results. Those who open and engage with the message may have been attracted to your business by the discount, but they're interested in your brand as well.

Further test the non-responders by sending that group a 10 or 15 percent off email coupon. Those who respond are likely customers who appreciate value, but are also interested in your business and will visit again. These customers have the potential to be weaned off discounts.

Non-responders to both the value and discount emails are likely deal seekers who have no intention of visiting your business without a deep discount, or customers who don't want to be reached by your brand through email. Either way, they're not your ideal customers. If they remain unresponsive to your emails for six months, remove them from your list.

Leverage social media

Some customers may be more comfortable interacting with your business via social channels, so develop a plan to promote your deal through these channels as well. Design special signage or nifty takeaway cards with your business' Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare contact information, and encourage customers to like you, follow you, and check in. Consider offering exclusive updates and rewards through your favorite social networks.

With variables that are innumerable and often hard to quantify, creating a successful daily deal can be overwhelming and confusing. It can be daunting to not only reach a larger pool of customers who need an extra push into your business, but also to retain these customers once the deal is spent.

A survey from The About Group found that 68 percent of deal seekers returned without a second discount. Fifty-three percent of these went on to become regular customers. By using these tactics, you can propel your business into the upper percentile.

Grey Garner is market strategist for Emma, Inc.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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The answer to inadequate metrics

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

With today's advanced technology, the best online display ads are rich with website-like capabilities, making ads personalized and allowing customers to have an interactive experience without ever leaving the page they're viewing. A recent Adobe study revealed that consumers who were exposed to interactive ads had stronger engagement, message involvement, and purchase intent than those who saw static ads. What's more, advances in consumer tracking technology have enabled ad creators to feature tailored content that matches each individual's shopping/browsing behavior -- giving consumers a more personalized ad (and brand) experience than any other advertising medium.

Combined, these innovative features not only make ads more noticeable and inviting to consumers, but they also empower them to engage with advertisements without committing to a click. Engagement ranges from scrolling through featured products to searching catalogue inventory to watching a video. Because all this can be done within the ad, it extends the unique experience of visiting a brand site to properties throughout the web.

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The dynamic features of this new generation of online display ads have made them increasingly influential in the conversion process, and more capable than ever of attracting shoppers that wouldn't have otherwise returned to make a purchase. However, as is the case with view-through conversions, the value of dynamic display advertising would be completely lost without the ability to track engagement and, more importantly, its influence on user behavior.

The great news is that this capability exists.

Revolutionizing campaign measurement with engagement

The interactive nature of dynamic online display ads creates a unique opportunity when backed with intelligent tracking technology -- it's possible to connect logged conversions to consumers who engage with ads. This post-engagement attribution enables advertisers to fill the gaps left by impressions, post-impression conversions, and clicks, and allows advertisers to see that:

The ad was placed in viewable inventory.
The user saw the ad.
Subsequent behavior is directly attributable to the corresponding campaign.

It's clear that there's value in targeting engagers versus clickers. Empirical data supports the contention that no metric will give you more confidence in the value of your display ad campaign than post-engagement.

In October 2011, mediaFORGE compiled data from 14 participating advertisers, and analyzed more than 180,000 purchases resulting from our display media campaigns. In an effort to evaluate whether engagement was a competitive indicator of purchase intent, mediaFORGE analyzed the average number of delay hours between an in-ad action and a purchase/conversion to assess whether there was a significant difference between clicks and other types of ad engagement. The results revealed that in-ad interaction proved to be an equally direct indication of purchase intent. In fact, in many cases, engagers will convert faster than clickers and will frequently spend more.

On average, those who engage with dynamic interactive display ads return and convert 44 percent faster than those who click-through. This significant improvement suggests that, although a click-through is a demonstration of interest, it's not the most convincing indication of purchase intent. mediaFORGE click-through rate (CTR) ranges from .08 percent to 1 percent, while engagement rates range from 10 percent to 20 percent -- an indication that users are more comfortable interacting with shoppable ads than clicking through to another website. In the case of retargeting, it's unreasonably assumptive to think that users are immediately ready to return to a site from which they recently abandoned.

Interestingly enough, those that do interact with dynamic banner ads also spend more on average than clickers. For instance, 60 percent of campaigns studied had a 5 percent higher post-engagement average order value than post-click.

So, if more people engage with banner ads than click, and engagers purchase more rapidly and spend more on average than clickers, then why would anyone choose to optimize/pay for clicks? Clearly, they shouldn't.

Performance oriented display media often becomes the responsibility of paid search managers. While paid search can and should be rigidly measured by cost-per-click and CTR (mostly because users are more willing to click on text links), display media should be treated differently because it's clear that consumers do not click on banner ads.

Forging the era of value-driven performance metrics

There is no doubt that engagement is the most defensible metric for measuring the influence of an online ad campaign on actual conversions. As advertisers continue to advance the call for higher quality performance analytics, post-engagement should be considered the new standard for metrics that instill a higher level of confidence in return on ad spend. Gone are the days when advertisers were cornered into accepting the gaps created by archaic metrics like CTR and view-through attribution. Engagement is forging a new era of performance metrics that better utilize today's intelligent technology and better engage a generation of increasingly savvy consumers.

Tony Zito is CEO of mediaFORGE Inc.

On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.

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How to optimize with social media

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Media optimization is done to determine which specific advertising placements are working and which are not. Based on the analysis of various data and reports, campaigns are broken down and then rebuilt based on which ads are performing the best.

In the digital world, this often means adjusting placements and ads based on metrics like click-through rate, conversions, and cost per lead. It's pretty easy in theory: do more of what works.

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For example, if ad X is consistently driving more conversions or leads than ad Y, you should move more resources to ad X.

As web analytics and digital measurement have become more sophisticated, it has been easier and easier to decipher which placements are doing the heavy lifting and which are under-performing. The more data became available, the number of dimensions for optimization steadily increased.

As social media or "earned media" continues to grow as a brand advertising channel, media optimizers must turn their attention toward understanding how their ads fit into the new digital ecosystem.

It's important to note that the basic concept of optimization does not change. Adding social media to the equation does not mean that the other variables must be thrown out the window; social media simply becomes one more factor to consider.

Every campaign and team will likely have a different process for optimizing with social media, but the four guidelines below should help shape this process each time.

Make your social media goals SMART
Every campaign should have SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound). Even though social media often seems qualitative, it's critical for goals to be set and used to understand how well campaigns are performing.

Social media activities may strive to accomplish goals similar to those of online display ads, such as driving traffic to a corporate website or encouraging consumers to fill out a contact form.

In this way social ads and social engagement may be measured against the same benchmarks. Depending on data availability, it may be trickier to connect the dots between specific activities and consumer actions, but there are plenty of steps that can be taken to gather the right data.

If social media engagement is the end goal, you'll simply want to optimize for higher engagement, whether it's retweets, Facebook comments, or re-blogs on Tumblr. Again, it may be tricky to tie digital ads or even social ads to subsequent engagement, but it's not a hopeless cause.

Track social data and plan to integrate
It seems we can't stop talking about social media tools like Klout these days, but there are a wide variety of tools that will help you track the right data for optimization:

Social listening tools like Visible Technologies and Crimson Hexagon will help find individual social activities like tweets and Facebook posts related to your brand or campaign.
Platform-specific tools like Facebook Insights often give the best information and data for the individual platform.
Web analytics such as Google Analytics and Omniture will allow you to understand how consumers arrive at your website from social media or perhaps how they behave once they are on social properties.
Using URL shorteners like bit.ly allow you to track how many folks are clicking on the content you share on social media, which can help you determine the impact social may have on your campaign.
If you're working with third-parties to serve display ads, you will likely have access to data through them as well. Be sure to ask up front what they can (and will) provide throughout the campaign.

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3 outdated metrics you're still using

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Recent conversations regarding the "Making Measurement Make Sense" (3MS) initiative indicate that advertisers recognize the shortcomings of campaigns focused on impressions or post-impression attribution, and with campaigns optimized for clicks. In explaining the genesis of the 3MS initiative, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) website states that "while consumers have embraced digital media and continue to adopt new media behaviors, the marketing and media businesses have yet to create the tools necessary to keep up with consumers' behavioral changes."

Traditional measurement tools, such as impression, post-impression attribution, and click-through rate (CTR), handicap marketing managers and force upon them campaign measurment tactics that should have long been abandoned.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Impression targets

Optimizing a performance campaign to serve a specific number of impressions is the worst way to get substantial results from display media. While impressions are an important component of campaign strategy, companies that base campaign success on the number of ads served are solely focused on increasing ad volume, not conversions. Theoretically, more ads served mean more exposure, which should return more results. This is simply not reality.

RealVu, an advertising analytics company, recently published a report evaluating "ad impressions that appear within the viewable computer screen area" versus ads that appear in non-viewable areas. Their research exposed that "viewable impressions were never more than 56 percent and could be as low as a shocking 6 percent on an individual campaign basis." Another report from AdXpose shows that "more than 50 percent of the ad impressions delivered, and 95 percent of clicks, came from suspected fraudulent sources," and that "nearly all the fraudulent traffic was hidden behind numerous layers of nested I-Frames (ad units that pull ad content from other sources) that can purposely hide URLs and in-view data."

As is evidenced by these reports, networks or other vendors focused strictly on the volume of impression delivery may design campaigns to purchase inexpensive and often non-viewable ad inventory to maximize the number of impressions they can serve within their budget.

Serving ads to users is not the same as creating an "impression" or generating a "view," making both of these terms industry misnomers. Most ads do not show up in a viewable area. Even in cases when advertisers are fortunate enough to place an ad where users can be exposed to it, there is another barrier commonly recognized as "banner blindness." This phenomenon is a testament to the value of dynamic ad content and the need for evidence that ads are influencing consumer behavior. Even brand marketers can benefit from the added value of knowing which impressions were loaded and viewed.

If as much as 94 percent of ad inventory is invisible to consumers, then we can easily explain why the remaining 6 percent of viewable ad space is so costly -- it's scarce. So, marketing managers are faced with a dilemma: sacrifice reach for inventory quality, or access a larger portion of the target audience and guess about campaign efficacy.

Post-impression (view-through) attribution

If advertisers have ever run display-ads with a performance goal, then they've likely paid for post-impression conversions, or at least attributed a portion of post-impression conversions to a campaign. In this case, advertisers were likely charged for consumer behavior that was not influenced by an ad, given that ads may not have been seen at all. All the same, too many advertisers allow partners to get away with attributing too many post-impression conversions to their banner ad campaigns.

Attributing post-impression activity is especially troublesome for retargeted banner buys. Retargeted audiences have already expressed interest in the advertiser's product/service/brand by visiting the website, and, as a result, have an existing propensity to return and convert. Serving ads to site visitors after they've already visited and abandoned (left without purchase or conversion) is a highly effective methodology, but care should be taken in attributing perceived subsequent success.

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The "TVization" of online video

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

While industry academics and conference panelists continue to debate the relative merits of GRPs as a currency for online video, major media agencies have quietly embraced the metric. This is most clearly demonstrated by the number of campaigns we've seen in recent months, mandating the inclusion of Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings service. This adoption shouldn't really surprise anyone -- why wouldn't an advertiser want to apply a trusted, uniform metric against all video sources? But the impact of TV's buying currency, as the spark that lit the fuse for the "TV-ization" of online video, has still been eye-opening.

So, what are some of the major themes shaping this movement and potential implications for the online video industry in 2012?

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

Video agnostic buying teams become prevalent

Buyers ultimately shape any market. So perhaps the strongest indicator of the "TV-ization" of video are the first signs of consolidated TV and online video buying teams at the major media agencies. Zenith's recent announcement, combining broadcast with online video to create a national buying team, was indicative of this new mind shift.

Implications: Cue the coming-out party of video from online poster boy to burgeoning, fully fledged TV daypart, complete with its own line item on the TV flowchart.

GRPs and the increasing importance of audience reach vs. impressions

GRPs, TV's barometer for coverage against an audience, will become a standardized buying currency for video. Reach, frequency, and cost-per-point will similarly become key measures. Impressions, the legacy buying metric, will become marginalized -- further separating video from its digital brethren. Richer, nuanced behavioral targeting overlays will still be employed but ultimately factored into the campaign GRP bucket.

Implications: Given that audience reach is the major component of GRP calculations, publishers will scramble to do two things: 1. Aggressively drive unique audience to bolster their ability to drive scale. 2. Catalog their audience by traditional TV age and sex demos and merchandise appropriately, which segues nicely to number 3...

Audience guarantees based on third-party (i.e. Nielsen) validation

Nielsen's Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) has already been a major catalyst for the "TV'ization" of video, with the ability to independently validate impressions by age and gender, helping to establish video's place in the TV ecosystem. This offering becomes infinitely more attractive to advertisers with version 2.0 -- which promises to fuse OCR with Nielsen's offline TV ratings.

Implications: Buyers will demand audience guarantees based on demo. Reciprocally, sellers will take steps to understand their audience based on Nielsen's validation methodology. A bright, potentially uncomfortable light is shone on third-party targeting providers. Nielsen and Facebook (the lion's share of the OCR panel) will slowly but surely establish an inextricable beachhead as the next generation measurement "currency."

Content remains king

The heritage of consolidated buying teams will be grounded in TV, and their daypart approach to video will be dictated by content transparencies. The importance of brand safety, the long-time Achilles heel of the video industry, takes on even greater significance. This time, the promise of TV dollars will lead to aggressive self-policing.

Implications: The potential influx of TV dollars will drive publishers to catalog inventory in a more TV-centric way -- think channels, dayparts, and estimated ratings. Brand safety verification services that evolve from text-based to frame-by-frame video analysis will become a must-have component of any buy.

Will upfront dollars move into online video?

Consolidated buying teams, the adoption of GRPs, audience guarantees, and content cataloging all pave the way for potentially the biggest implication for the industry as a whole -- the movement of television upfront dollars to video. It's a day we've waited for with baited breath for many years, and maybe, just maybe, it's finally upon us.

Vijay Rao is the senior director of strategic planning at Adap.tv.

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Are big agencies taking over digital?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Randall Rothenberg is the President and CEO of the New York-based Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). He spoke with Sarah Fay, Chairman of the Board of Governors for ad:tech and iMedia, about the major changes he's seeing in the digital industry.

"A lot of the [recent] movement in digital...is from agencies with fantastic long-standing creative chops."

"Mobile spend is still quite low. CMOs are fascinated, they know it's coming, but they still view it largely as R&D."

"It's not clear whether tablets are mobile devices or not [when it comes to digital planning]."

"Creative shops...are forcibly taking back digital advertising from the digital natives."

- IAB President & CEO Randall Rothenberg

Find out more in this insightful interview. Use the conversation timeline below to navigate the soundbites.

Conversation Highlights:

0:00 - Randall Rothenberg: CEO and President of the IAB since 2007
1:45 - How do we explain the rush of innovation?
2:30 - Mobile is coming like a freight train
3:00 - The IAB mobile marketing center of excellence
4:15 - Spend is still low...CMOs still see mobile as R&D
4:45 - We're still deciding if tablets are "mobile devices"
5:50 - Major agencies are doing a lot of the digital work
7:30 - The IAB used to work primarily with media agencies. Not anymore...
8:35 - The inevitability of connected TV
10:00 - We're living in a multi-screen environment

Run time is 10:26

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86 percent of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive's share of total marketing spend, and of its members' share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

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iMedia 25: 2012 Brands Pioneering Online Video

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

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How to know when retargeting will make a difference

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

A common component of any successful online marketing campaign today is retargeting, which involves repeatedly marketing or displaying ads to audiences that have expressed interest in your products and services or bought from you in the past.

The results of a recent study on retargeting campaigns uncovered similar behavioral patterns among different audiences -- these patterns extended to audiences as dissimilar in nature as e-tailers and insurance companies. These insights can prove invaluable to helping companies in these highly competitive industries determine how to most effectively use their remarketing dollars. The findings include:

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies for iconic branding? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Feb. 5-8. Request your invitation today.

Don't retarget customers too soon
It is often assumed that retargeting needs to be done throughout all phases of the marketing funnel in order to ensure that customers convert. But in fact, research shows that retargeting someone still on your website has no impact on conversions. In fact, retargeting visitors within the first four hours was found to be detrimental, possibly doing more harm to your brand than good. On the other hand, these findings also show that retargeting potential buyers after the four-hour mark of the purchase consideration phase does improve conversions.

Don't wait too long
While retargeting potential customers or site visitors too early in the consideration phase can negatively impact your brand, waiting too long is also ineffective. The analysis of retargeting campaigns shows that the best time to re-market to potential buyers is between 16 and 32 hours. In addition, the longest amount of time to retarget a potential customer was 128 hours. Waiting any longer had little influence on converting visitors into buyers.

Know the ideal frequency
It would seem logical that if you show more impressions, users would be more likely to convert. The problem with showing more impressions means you're also spending more money. After some period of time, the amount of dollars invested in impressions ceases to be cost effective for any campaign and the conversion rates become saturated at 64 impressions. Evaluating user behavior revealed that it's most effective to show between two and eight impressions to each potential buyer in a retargeting campaign.

Understand when to use tailored vs. generic ads
Another common assumption among online marketers is retargeting with tailored ads works better than generic ads. It makes sense that potential buyers are ready to consume a more tailored message after the first impression, and data shows that the overall lift companies experience from tailored ads is higher. However, analysis also demonstrates that timing is critical. Tailored ads are only more effective as time progresses. In the first 16 hours of retargeting campaigns in the study, generic and tailored ads were equally effective. After 16 hours, the effectiveness of retargeting campaigns using tailored ads jumps considerably, resulting in as much as 200 percent more lift than campaigns employing generic ads.

Determining the right time frames and frequency to remarket in specific industries is an important undertaking. And establishing these simple guidelines can serve as a framework for helping all online marketers become more effective with their remarketing efforts.

Nina Marin is senior scientist of Adometry.

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How to bolster ad effectiveness in a sagging economy

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

No one can argue that the economy is shaky. With a double-dip recession in question, digital marketers are asking: "How do poor economic conditions affect ad performance? Can ads still motivate awareness during a weak economy?"

Great questions. We took a look, and here's what we found.

There are strong correlations between economic conditions and ad performance indicators. A weaker economy is generally associated with lower ad impact, both at the top of the purchase funnel (aided brand awareness), and lower down the funnel (purchase intent). And more importantly, declining purchase intent impact might be a leading indicator of a weakening economy.

According to recent data, we confirmed that when the economy weakens, consumers are less swayed by advertising. Price becomes the dominant determinant of purchase intent, and advertising is less likely to persuade.

In fact, purchase intent impact actually drops before we see declines in consumer sentiment. Looking at the decline in 2007, and the drop in the first half of 2011, we submit that the impact of advertising on purchase intent is a pretty good leading indicator of declining consumer expectations.

This should be of particular concern to advertisers. During the first half of 2011, online advertising's impact on consumer sentiment remained stable, but its impact on purchase intent dropped precipitously. Advertising does not have the same impact on purchase intent that it did even a year ago, and it might just be picking up the early signs of more trouble for the consumer sector. Case in point: there was a big drop in purchase intent impact even before the onset of the 2008 recession (the same year of Lehman Brothers' and Bear Stearns' storied collapses).

Interestingly, there is no indication of a relationship between unemployment and purchase intent averages. Even as unemployment spiked in 2008 and 2009, purchase intent impact recovered. That said, when unemployment goes up, awareness impact scores go down. Higher unemployment is associated with a lower impact of advertising on brand awareness. (Initially, we thought these correlations were spurious, as we have seen a long-term increase in baseline aided brand awareness and a decline in deltas on aided brand awareness as online advertising has become more ubiquitous. However, even controlling for baseline awareness, there is still a strong, positive, statistically meaningful relationship between deltas on aided brand awareness and consumer sentiment. The same negative relationship holds for unemployment even when controlling for baseline awareness.)

So why is purchase intent not impacted but awareness is? The tune-out explanation: consumers don't have discretionary income to spend and as result, tune-out more advertising, but subconsciously they may still fully intend on making purchases.

Two recommendations for marketers:

1. As marketing budgets are squeezed, it is tempting to cut corners on creative or media buys. Invest in quality -- quality creative and quality placement. Remember that there are big variations in impact across campaigns, and it's proven that strong advertising outperforms weak creative. Better to run one really good campaign than several that go unnoticed.

2. When you conduct research, dig deep on how consumers view your product or service differently given their current economic circumstances. Messaging that works when the economy is good may not resonate with consumers who are hurting.

Aaron Katz is director of MarketNorms for Dynamic Logic.

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A marketer's guide to engaging the tablet user

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

We are in the midst of a tablet revolution, with both consumers and enterprises embracing tablet computers for everything from internet browsing and social networking to mission critical business applications that increase employee productivity and drive revenue. Forrester Research predicts that, beginning in 2012, tablet sales will start to outpace notebooks. This widespread adoption can be unequivocally credited to Apple's introduction of the iPad in 2010, but the upcoming launch of Amazon's tablet Kindle Fire is set to expand the market even further, attracting more users with its lower price point.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies for iconic branding? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Feb. 5-8. Request your invitation today.

It's clear that marketers today cannot ignore the tablet as a channel. However, tablets have added another layer of complexity onto the diverse mobile internet arena, which is already crowded with a rich variety of web-enabled mobile devices from various manufacturers running different operating systems. With new versions of smartphones and tablets being brought to market every day to capitalize on this global trend, the mobile device landscape is becoming even more complex and confusing for brands and consumers alike.

This article will help marketers better understand what makes a tablet different from other mobile devices and PCs, as well as how to leverage the tablet as a critical piece of their mobile web content development strategy. Readers will also learn best practices for building an optimized, engaging web presence on tablet PCs.

A unique niche

So where does the tablet fit in? Somewhere between a smartphone and a PC -- clearly in its own unique niche, but one that is still very new to consumers and businesses alike. Tablets are almost as portable as smartphones, yet they have much larger screens and can provide more immersive experiences. However, they lack a mouse and external keyboard and typically have tinier screens than even the smallest laptop. From a user experience perspective, a website that sings on a small smartphone screen will be too simple for a tablet, but a website designed for a larger PC screen and a mouse-driven pointer will likely be too detailed for the tablet user, who will have trouble "clicking" on small links with their fingers.

Hone in on user behavior

Web content strategy for a tablet goes well beyond aligning with device form factor, however; another key factor to take into account is consumer behavior -- what type of content people consume on tablets, how they interact with it and where. From there, you need to adjust your experience to meet the user's expectations for the channel. Based on the device's size, portability and functionality, people tend not to use the tablet for serious work, but they expect significantly more from it than their smartphone. Several recent studies have examined consumer tablet usage trends, and all have cited email, social networking, games, search, news consumption and shopping as top usages. A Pew internet study puts email and news at the top of that list.

People are also giving tablets a lot of their time. According to a recent Google survey, 43 percent of respondents spend more time with their tablet than with their desktop or laptop. Because people use tablets to access leisure-based content such as movies and books, they tend to spend a longer time on them than smartphones, with most survey respondents using tablets for at least an hour or two per day. Furthermore, while it's an app world for the smartphone, the browser gets substantially more face time on the tablet.

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What the decline of print means for digital

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Plenty of sobering news about the print industry has been released over the last week. Yes, print is in steep decline. So is print advertising. It's important not only to ponder and understand why print is declining so precipitously now, but also to draw some lines into the future and understand how this trend might impact digital media going forward. The implications are big for advertisers and publishers alike.

The most stunning story is from eMarketer, predicting that online advertising will surpass print ad spend -- this year.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies for iconic branding? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Feb. 5-8. Request your invitation today.

The firm estimates digital newspaper ad revenue in the U.S. grew 8.3 percent to $3.3 billion in 2011. Meanwhile, newspaper print ad revenue dropped 9.3 percent to $20.7 billion. Magazines fare only slightly better. In the U.S., print ad revenue is expected to rise a below-anemic 0.5 percent to $15.34 billion this year, up from $15.3 billion last year. Digital magazine ad spending grew 18.8 percent to $2.7 billion last year.

This is due not only to the internet, of course, but to a proliferation of mobile devices that decouple newspapers and magazines from dead-tree publishing. It's already happened with books; e-reader editions outsell both paperbacks and hardcover books on Amazon, and have for some time.

As e-reader devices conflate with tablets (think: Kindle Fire), readers are inevitably eschewing print in higher numbers still. Among tablet owners, according to a recent International Data Group survey, 72 percent of professionals worldwide say they're buying less since owning a tablet. Seventy percent buy fewer physical books, and 49 percent buy fewer DVDs. (And naturally, readers who can afford tablets are in a much more desirable demographic to most advertisers than those who cannot.)

Like Facebook adoption a few years ago, tablet adoption is in its hockey-stick phase. There were 64.7 million tablets in the world globally at the end of 2011, according to IHS iSuppli. By the end of 2015, that number will metastasize to 287.2 million.

What can be interpolated from all these trends -- a proliferation of tablets, content migrating to digital formats, advertising dollars accelerating their shift to digital from print -- is that not only print is changing. The ways that print adopts to digital formats is changing as well in ways that will fundamentally change the use and perception of the written word over the next few years. Writing has always been literally flat and two-dimensional. That's going to change -- and very soon.

Already, there's a growing market for enhanced ebooks, books created for digital formats that go beyond flat text into video, audio, games, and other multimedia and interactive features. As prices for tablets plummet (the Kindle Fire is priced at just over $100, and you can get a free Nook by signing up for a year of The New York Times), books will become more like apps. In fact, it will soon be hard to delineate where "book" stops and "digital platform" begins.

Before purists get all up in arms, don't worry. There will always be plain-text versions of the Bible, Shakespeare, "War and Peace," and other classics of literature. But going forward, publishers will look very closely at how they can enhance the titles in their catalogues, or turn books into a single component of transmedia storytelling.

Marketers, take note. These changes in the written word -- how it's conceived, presented, and experienced -- apply to you, too. For a soon to be published research report on content marketing, we recently interviewed 56 marketers, many of them at Fortune 500 companies, about the content channels they're using. They were asked what's important now, what channels are diminishing in effectiveness, and where they plan to place more marketing emphasis in both the short and long term future.

Overwhelmingly, these marketers say they're looking to video in the future (with mobile running a close second). "Visual information" is on the rise overall. What's on the decline? Articles. Columns. Digital PR. Long-form content. White papers.

Do you see a trend here? I do. The written word is in decline in digital channels. It won't ever vanish, but it is diminishing and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Publishers and marketers alike are compelled to start considering, now, how to add more visual and multimedia material to written pieces to make them stand out, to encourage opt-in and tune-in from target audiences, to deliver appropriate content to mobile platforms, and to make complex information easily and visually digestible -- in a hurry. (Infographics are becoming very, very popular with marketers, as are charticles with publishers.)

Now, this is not a call for hysteria (the written word is dead!) or overreactive fiats (nothing we produce can contain words anymore, ever!). Both those statements are utterly false and nonsensical.

But we are seeing some very real and very fast moving trends here: a shift away from paper and on to digital devices; advertisers following those eyeballs; changing consumer expectations as they consume written content on faster, cheaper, multimedia-capable devices; and marketers' need to create and deliver messaging that's experiential, compelling, engaging, and that drives the message home in an easily digestible format.

So, that white paper your department is working on? By all means publish it as a written document. But at the same time, you'd better start concocting ways to deliver its message in interactive, digital, visual, and multimedia environments.

Or risk being the sound of the proverbial dead tree falling in a very dense forest.

Rebecca Lieb is an analyst, digital advertising/media, for Altimeter Group.

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5 marketing tips for putting customers first

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

During the holiday season, it is not unusual to find people in a better mood and more willing to help others by going above and beyond what they would normally do. To me, this is both one of the greatest aspects of this time of year, and one of the most depressing. It's depressing because I often wonder why people can't act this way all year long. However, because this is not likely for a number of reasons, I have another holiday wish for the business world: Bring back customer service. There are so many times during the year that I don't understand what companies are thinking when it comes to how they work with their clients and treat their customers.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

One example of this involves my wife. She recently wrote a children's book and worked with a self-publishing company in order to make it available to everyone via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets. As she was talking with various publishing companies, she read through their marketing material, talked with their sales folks, and finally agreed to work with a particular company. As she began, she was bounced from one person to another depending on what stage of the process she was at, and once she moved from stage one to stage two, the project manager for stage one seemed to no longer willing to return her emails or phone calls. This continued to happen at every stage of the process and got to a point where my wife began looking for other companies that would take better care of her through every stage.

According to dictionary.com, marketing is "the total activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the customer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing and selling."

In today's digital world, customers have so many choices available to them, which means that we, as marketing professionals, must not only ensure that our customer-focused messages are on target, but also work with our internal folks to make sure that we can deliver on them.

It is our job to bridge the gap across multiple departments to ensure what we are promising clients is actually being fulfilled by the rest of the company. Most marketers probably don't want to hear this, but it is true: If you aren't going to work hard to ensure that your internal organizations are providing the products and services that you are selling to the world, who will?

The problem is that too many marketers believe it is simply their responsibility to get people "in the door." However, in reality, it is your job to make sure that they come back after the purchase. It is your job to keep your customers engaged and make sure that they have a satisfying experience with your brand, your company, and your product. Here are five tips for creating campaigns that drive both customer satisfaction and results.

Here are five steps to creating mutually rewarding campaigns:

Set expectations up front for the customer

Think of how you would like to be treated as a customer and then try to exceed your expectations.

Over communicate

As a marketer, you have unique insight into the focus and frequency of your programs, so don't assume that consumers have that same level of understanding. As a result, you need to set expectations with both your customers and with everyone else involved with your campaign internally.

Get internal support

Make sure you have the backing of the entire organization when you create a new offer or campaign. It is extremely important to make sure that everyone within the company knows what is expected from each other to meet your customer's expectations.

Set realistic goals

It's important to have clear and obtainable goals for each program as well as each individual group involved. By assigning goals to each organization involved in your campaign, you are more likely to see positive results. Letting them know that they that they will be measured against predetermined metrics creates a sense of accountability.

Review results broadly

After the campaign is over, have a post-mortem meeting with everyone involved. Explain to those involved the wins and the losses for the program and what could be improved for next time. This will continue to give your teams a sense of togetherness as well as keep the focus on the customers.

As we go into the new year, remember to try and find ways to not only be a little extra nice to those you personally know, but find ways as a marketer to be extra nice to your customers. By showing them the holiday love all year round and making them feel special with every interaction they have with your organization, you won't have to worry about them being swayed by a competitor.

Good luck and good sending.

Spencer Kollas is director of delivery services for StrongMail.

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3 reasons Google+ is not a social network

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

With the launch of Google+, there has not been a lack of opinion on whether Google's foray into the realm of social networks will be successful. As Google+ is still in its infancy, it's hard to tell how users and brands will be experimenting with this project. In my opinion, Google+ is not a social network.

In fact, Nikesh Arora, Google's chief business officer said, "It is a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer. So you have seen YouTube come into Google+; you've seen Google+ with 'direct connect' go into our search business."

While Google+ brand pages were thought to put Facebook at risk, the feature-sets and overall functionality are just not going to cut it. Facebook, obviously, has sheer numbers on its side -- not to mention an advanced developer platform that enables brands to build robust engagement opportunities with users through applications. Facebook is still the interactive platform, while Google+ is proving to be less engaging.

Read ahead for three reasons why Google+ is not a social network, and why brands should still participate.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies about connected televisual entertainment? Attend the iMedia Video Summit, Mar. 25-28. Request your invitation today.

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Tips for sure-fire email deliverability

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

In this age of split-second attention spans and increasingly skeptical consumers, email deliverability is more important than ever. And, while a marketer's ability to reach consumers with timely, relevant content is still paramount, there are more pieces of the puzzle to consider. When detailing the fundamentals of deliverability, it is important to note that the integration of your data with the sent content plays an instrumental role in closing the gap between you and your customers.

It's essential not to overlook the fact that even the most brilliant emails will go unnoticed if your messaging isn't received at the right time -- or worse yet, not at all. Just making it to the inbox can be a harrowing experience. Therefore, here are the requisite steps to ensure that your messages reach their destinations, efficiently increasing your campaign's effectiveness.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies for iconic branding? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Feb. 5-8. Request your invitation today.

The basics

The fundamental ways to reach your costumer's inboxes are white listing, formatting messages correctly, creating solid subject lines, maintaining lists, and making sure your campaigns are CAN-SPAM compliant.

Delivery rate boosters

Maintaining a good relationship with internet service providers like Yahoo and Gmail helps ensure successful message delivery. In addition, choosing the right email service provider makes a significant difference, as one bad client can impact the deliverability of other clients. Furthermore, creating messages that don't heavily rely on images can help you find the inbox, and obtaining up-to-date data boosts delivery rates as you reach customers with highly relevant information. Additionally, it's important to scrub out un-subscribers and bad email addresses frequently.

Subject lines

Even before your email hits inboxes, subject lines are a make-or-break proposition. If your message is too "spammy," it can be flagged as such. If your message makes the cut but is not compelling, it may be overlooked. Subject lines that clearly communicate the benefit of the email consistently outperform those that lack clarity. Unfortunately, subject line best practices are frequently neglected, seen as something to be taken for granted.

Email experience

A successful email campaign doesn't just do one thing well. From design to deployment, all the elements must work together. Although messaging with consistency is an effective strategy, it is made more efficient when costumers are reached when they are ready to act on your message. Assuming you're complying with CAN-SPAM regulations, the next major obstacle is making sure your message adds value to the customer experience. This is where deliverability and content merge.

You should see your content as currency. In other words, you must be able to trade on your own name. While a customer may be committed to your brand, that doesn't necessarily translate to rock-solid deliverability and open rates. You must create content that matters. When customers see your email, they should know that there's something worthwhile inside. Don't waste their time. Your messaging will be ignored if your emails contain outdated or irrelevant information. However, if you can prove to your costumer that you're bringing something of value, something they can use -- whether it's an offer or just helpful information -- you're enhancing a positive reputation. It would be a shame to think that after all the trouble you took, without the right content, the value of your email community is rotting from within.

Know your customers

Now let's backtrack a bit. Before you invest time and energy in design, copy, and subject lines, you need to get the facts about your customer. Your ability to know what customers want, when they want it, is vital to your ROI. How closely your data and content align can determine the success of your campaign.

Here's where your email service provider (ESP) comes in. There are plenty out there to choose from -- some good, some great -- but if you really want to make an impression, you need to know what separates them, and why.

Data matters

How ESPs handle your data is a key factor in determining the good from the great. We all know how quickly the market changes, and that your campaigns are only as good as the data that supports them. But, what does this mean? It's simple -- if you're relying on an external data feed from a third party that requires you to upload, import, and export to try to make things work, you could be putting yourself at risk. Not only will data fall through the cracks (hurting potential ROI), but you also compromise your standing with customers by inadvertently sending them outdated or irrelevant messaging.

When an ESP gathers and manages data natively, the ability to communicate effectively with customers increases exponentially. Every impression, click, and open becomes an opportunity to keep pace with the individual's ever-changing interests. This allows you to serve them with highly targeted emails based on the most recent data.

Consumers are growing increasingly wary of marketers. Only the most relevant messaging makes the cut. As inboxes fill-up faster than ever, you can't afford to have your emails miss their mark.

Marketers need to increase their understanding of the difference between a so-so campaign and an industry-leading one. This means not only knowing the fundamentals of deliverability (CAN-SPAM compliance, white listing, and strong subject lines), but also going above and beyond. Take a look at what you're sending. Ask the tough questions about your content. Dig into where your data is coming from, how it's managed, and whether or not it's properly used to power relevant campaigns. Having an integrated platform to easily manage customer-focused campaigns across all channels is key.

Patti Renner is the director of marketing at Knotice.

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What new Cheez-It flavor did Kellogg's customers choose?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Asiago, Colby or Romano? Kelloggs asked its customers to choose the newest flavor of Cheez-It in their "Cheez-It Choose the Cheese" promotion. Consumers voted via online, text message, in-store, and in-person. The final tally was almost 28 million votes cast, with most votes coming through the Cheez-It Facebook page.

Kellogg's Associate Director of Global Digital Strategy Bob Arnold tells us about the campaign. (0:29)

Kellogg's has extended its product brands digitally through a careful balance of paid, owned, and earned media. In this short clip Bob gives some tips. (0:50) Hint: Think of paid media as "science," while earned and owned require experimentation.

Bob talks about building your fan base through earned media, timing your campaigns, and what's coming up in 2012. (0:59)

Who else is doing it right? Here's a creative campaign for a taboo product. (0:46)

Bob says he continues to be surprised by the importance of Facebook. Here's his advice. Also, his favorite Kellogg's product. (0:32)

Bob Arnold is Associate Director of Global Digital Strategy for Kellogg where he works to define and enable digital strategy for some of the world�s most iconic brands. Before Kellogg Bob was a 10 year veteran at Procter & Gamble leading digital marketing efforts across several global categories. This included Feminine Care where he led the awarding winning beinggirl.com digital platform into 50 countries and consistently delivered the category�s highest ROIs � several times higher than traditional media. Bob and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, as a case study by Forrester and in �Groundswell�, a Businessweek best selling book.

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Media Motion: Legolas Media, Yahoo, and Digitas

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Antler and Magners Irish Cider are again partners for the third annual Magners Comedy Festival to be held in Boston in January at five venues.

Attensity announced an initiative with Yahoo to provide millions of viewers a voice in the ABC News debate on Jan. 7 in New Hampshire.

Stay informed. Looking for the latest digital strategies for iconic branding? Attend the iMedia Brand Summit, Feb. 5-8. Request your invitation today.

Clearspring, provider of AddThis, announced that it has brought on Lee Hoffman as senior vice president of sales. The company also added Bryan Weston to its Detroit office as sales director, focused specifically on the automotive industry.

Digiday's industry survey sponsored by Vizu said marketers will be allocating nearly 60 percent of their online budgets to brand advertising in 2012.

Digitas announced the appointment of Simon Calvert to lead worldwide strategic planning.

HookLogic announced Jeff Griffin will be its new president of retail.

House Party announced the hire of Chris Maher as CEO to lead the company in its next phase of growth and evolution into the social media space.

Legolas Media has hired Tami Kelly as its first director, account management.

Local Corporation announced record fourth quarter 2011 search traffic. The company reached total traffic of 93.7 million monthly unique visitors on the website and network during the fourth quarter.

MediaBrix announced that it has hired Manny Berrios as its chief technical officer, and Sandro Camarao as vice president of product management.

R/GA is pleased to announce the addition of Chris Bradley as executive creative director. Jess Greenwood also has joined the agency as director of business strategy.

Remark Media announced Carrie Ferman has been named CEO after serving as the company�s executive vice president of corporate strategy. Bradley Zimmer, formerly executive vice president and general counsel, will assume the role of chief operating officer and general counsel. Eric Orme will remain as chief technology officer.

[x+1] announced that Peter Massey been named president and COO.

Yahoo announced that the company is promoting Javier Garcia to the newly created position of general manager of the U.S. Hispanic business.

ZEDO moved out of the office on 2nd Street in San Francisco to 850 Montgomery Street, Suite 150, San Francisco, CA 94113. The phone number will remain the same, (415) 348 -1975.

Zmags announced securing $7 million in financing to fuel growth in multi-channel rich media merchandising and commerce.

Editor's note: We list the companies and people alphabetically. Our bimonthly column is always looking for announcements, so please email them to chloe@imediaconnection.com.

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What the death of Flash means for mobile's future

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

When Adobe abandoned its mobile Flash product last month, the general emotional reaction was rather predictable, yet strangely irrelevant: Steve Jobs was right. He indeed was, but truth be told, Flash was never going to be a serious contender in the mobile arena and Jobs was always going to be right. The abandonment of mobile Flash is an important milestone for the mobile industry, not only for video or games, but also for mobile display advertising, where it carries more of a symbolic value versus practical implications.

Although the mobile advertising industry never really considered accepting Flash as its technological platform, it is constantly looking at the online world for ideas and concepts, and is largely emulating the approaches of online display advertising, which has been continuously dominated by Flash.

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With its ubiquitous Flash player, Flash mainly stands out as a symbol of standardization in online display. But despite the advent of HTML5 enabled mobile devices, that symbol is still casting a shadow over mobile. HTML5 is largely seen as a Flash replacement -- a technology that will do for mobile display what Flash did for online -- uniform ad products that can be built by anyone and can be published anywhere.

Standardization of online display advertising has evolved organically. Online display advertising originating on web portals (later joined by blogs), were so incredibly fragmented that standardization was a necessity. Flash technology made things easy -- it served not only as a creation tool but, more importantly, as a distribution platform. Flash ads could run on any website and could be tracked consistently.

Mobile is significantly different on both fronts.

First, the media landscape has changed dramatically. Early adopters were social, entertainment, and other services, versus portals, which command a huge majority of the mobile audience. In addition, these varying properties appeared more or less at once, causing two key effects:

The media landscape is less fragmented, and a much smaller number of properties are needed to achieve the desired reach and demography. Ad products standardization across them would help, but it's no longer necessary.
Display advertising, which in the online world is inherent to the "portals", is considered a relevant ad product for all mobile services. Standardized ad products simply don't work anymore, thanks to the variation in both content and user experience that.

Second, ad creation and distribution are equally different. While authoring tools outputting HTML5 based ads are quickly improving and will soon solve the creation problem, distribution will be too difficult to standardize. At the moment, the market is flooded with various SDK solutions. Even MRAID, which is the most supported standardization initiative, is unlikely to garner the same authority Flash has in the online world. It will take a lot of time, effort and resources to produce a default starting point for online display advertising.

Thus, online might not be the best model for classic display advertising but could offer some useful insight into the direction that mobile is moving to. Recently, there are two trends dominating the online world: the rise of ad exchanges, and a shift towards social ads. The unprecedented growth of Facebook's advertising business is a proven illustration of the undergoing changes.

Here's a simple exercise to understand what is happening and why. Think of any online display ad that's not Flash -- or, even better, any online display ad at all. Banner blindness is at least as much the consequence of ad standardization as it is of trashy creatives. Just look at Facebook and try to imagine 728x90px and 300x250px standard size Flash ads stuck somewhere in the header and in the right sidebar. Would you click that? Would you still be using Facebook? Facebook advertising is growing more than 100 percent a year because it has developed fantastic ad products that don't hinder the content and leverage the unique social capabilities of the network. These ad products can only live on Facebook, making them specific, unique, and special.

This does not mean that there won't be standardization in mobile advertising. Standardization still makes a lot of sense for long tail inventory that will be increasingly sold through ad exchanges. Premium publishers, on the other hand, will probably try to develop custom, more intelligent, engaging and sensitive ad products to monetize their valuable audience more effectively.

Mobile advertising is, much like its online sibling, an industry where technology meets the art of persuasion. Today, much of the effort in this young industry is concentrated around infrastructure -- automation and ease of use -- and rightly so. Enabling ads to run efficiently and helping advertisers easily launch campaigns is absolutely essential. But it must never be forgotten that, at the end of the day, advertising is completely consumer-driven. Standardized products, supported by intelligent machines, create efficiencies for the industry at large. That said, humans are not robots. Ad products have to be targeted at the consumer -- their behavior, needs and desires must be the impetus driving the innovation behind everything. They have to appeal to the consumer. And only when they do, they will suck less.

Matevz Klanjsek is chief product officer and founder of Celtra Inc.

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