For this article as it appears in Wall Street Journal Market Watch, go here: http://on.mktw.net/10dsfvT

CHICAGO, May 9, 2013 — Billups Design announces the results of extremely successful Fall and Holiday ecommerce campaigns for Harry & David, and being picked as the lead digital creative agency for Harry & David’s 2013 ecommerce ad campaigns.

Harry & David ads combined branding with dynamic headlines tailored to specific customer behavioral segments and real-time product carousels to produce a 70% increase in average order value compared to 2011 Holiday campaigns.

Harry & David dynamic remarketing ads performed exceptionally well producing an 83% increase in average order value (year over year), and a 7878% ROI.

“We needed a ‘best-in-class’ creative agency that understands retargeting technology to tell our brand story and deliver product information our customers want,” said Jeff Allen, Vice President, Ecommerce & Online Marketing at Harry & David. “Billups Design’s LiveAds delivered, and also did an amazing job of new customer acquisition: 50% of remarketing conversions were first touched with a prospecting ad. Augmenting our acquisition strategy with LiveAds helped enable us to meet our aggressive customer acquisition goals.”

The dynamic ad campaigns for Harry & David were powered by TheLiveAds www.TheLiveAds.com, a behavioral messaging and creative retargeting platform which delivers sequential creative messaging to increase product relevance, expand brand awareness, and grow online revenue through segmented ad campaigns across all desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

Overall, dynamic ads achieved a 65% better conversion rate, 211% better revenue per 1,000 impressions, 41% lower cost per order and 312% higher ROI than standard ads.

“We are very excited to be collaborating with Harry & David again in 2013,” said Ted Billups, Founding Partner of Billups Design. “They are a forward-thinking company, and it’s a pleasure to develop strategies with their teams to substantially grow their online business.”

About Billups Design & TheLiveAds Billups Design www.billupsdesign.com is a highly creative and technology-driven agency with offices in Chicago and Philadelphia. Billups Design provides innovative digital marketing services to Fortune 500 companies including Harry & David, United Airlines, Nike, Hyatt, DoubleTree Hotels, General Mills, Preferred Hotels, Waldorf Astoria, Ferrari and many others.

TheLiveAds www.TheLiveAds.com delivers custom, dynamic display ad campaigns that respond to consumer needs in real-time to dramatically increase engagement and performance. TheLiveAds pairs data-driven, real-time messaging with real-time bidding to double return on investment for major e-commerce brands, retailer and hoteliers.

About Harry & David Nearly 80 years ago, Harry and David turned their extraordinary pears into the perfect holiday gift. You can still send – Royal Riviera Pears as well as many other fresh fruits of the highest quality, handpicked to the company’s exacting standards. Harry & David also makes it easy to send gourmet favorites like Moose Munch popcorn, chocolate dipped pears, truffles and more, most of which is made in the company’s own kitchens from recipes honed over time. All this yumminess is hand-packed into gift and fruit baskets and exclusively designed gift boxes, many of which are topped off with a hand-tied bow. The gifts are shipped to arrive on time, in perfect condition. Guaranteed! Through the company’s stores, wholesale, catalogs and websites, gifts from Harry & David, and its brands Cushman’s and Wolferman’s, are designed for festive occasions, entertaining and self-enjoyment throughout the year. Harry & David is a DBA of Harry and David, LLC. http://www.harryanddavid.com

Media Contact: Greg Lee glee@billupsdesign.com (610) 935-3800

In the last few weeks I’ve written a lot about how YouTube has attempted to drive original content on their site and begin to operate like a real TV medium, a genuine alternative to traditional cable outlets. Those attempts have had some stumbling blocks, but it’s been a huge boom for content creators, some of whom have build entire companies out of their YouTube channels.

Starting a few years ago The Streamy Awards began highlighting a few of these companies to show just how much new media has made, even if some of the major content generators cannot get it to work. Groups like Epic Meal Time, Geek and Sundry, and SourceFed, as well as, personalities like Grace Helbig have built entire careers and sold real products based solely off what they started on YouTube and other streaming sites.

Epic Meal Time is a cooking show in the tradition of Guy Fieri. Just like Guy, they have managed to parlay their particular brand of bacon and cheese concoctions into a growing following that has gotten them book deals and brands in an increasingly large number of stores. Like all great YouTube success, it started with guys who had personality, some kind of skills to show off (contrary to what some people tell you, yes you do need skills to make money as a “YouTube Sensation”) and nothing to lose. The guys at Epic Meal Time did what they do for fun and decided to put it up for the world to see. It was basically like starting a business without any startup cost other than the video camera. From there, they caught the attention of some sponsors and advertisers, mostly food products catering to crowds that food products do not normally advertise to. There are few ways for grocery stores to market products to young males, but Epic Meal Time gave them that chance. Now they have grown into a burgeoning empire with investing only time… lots of bacon…. and whatever their doctor bills are. (Check the link and see the stuff these guys have made.)

Another person trying to adapt the Food Network’s model into a social media and streaming video crowed is Hannah Hart and My Drunk Kitchen. It is more of a strait forward cooking show that has benefited hugely from YouTube’s recent $100 million investment in original programming. Although that funding has since ended, My Drunk Kitchen used it as a springboard to stardom. They cleaned up at the Streamy awards and managed to build a huge web following, bringing in its own ad revenue.

Beyond cooking shows building a cult following, the Streamys also highlighted personalities that have built brands around themselves. Grace Helbig started working for a YouTube rival, called My Damn Channel. While that did not last, she kept at it by moving her daily video blog to YouTube. Her show highlights new trends and technology along with bringing her own brand of comedy. Grace parleyed all that into a national following that culminated in two big Streamy wins.

SourceFed is another company that started on YouTube not long ago and cleaned up big at the Streamys. Unlike some of the other companies I’ve mentioned, SourceFed has gone all out by using their YouTube brand to push customers toward www.forhumanpeoples.com. The site makes t-shirts and merchandise based on various cult memes and trends. The YouTube channel is a newsfeed for niche properties, but they have managed to turn this into big business all based on a cult following that started online.

Ultimately, these YouTube success stories all have a something in common, it was not an original idea that propelled them to Internet stardom. The folks at Epic Meal Time and My Drunk Kitchen are not really doing anything the Food Network has not already doing; they just have a fresh personality that satisfies a niche market that had yet to be explored. There are plenty of sites doing what Sourcefed and Helbig are doing, but they do not have that personality that draws in the people. It just goes to show that the Internet is random and as far as what catches on, a big personality goes a long way.

“The currency of Internet marketing is people’s attention spans,” Streamy host Chris Hardwick said in a Nerdist.com interview. “One way you get that is to make sure you’re consistently posting things on a weekly basis.” Not only do you need to have a personality that draws people in, but also you need to show up on a regular basis in order to get people to come back, again and again. Then you can only hope that, like these people, you start to make some money.

Streamy Award Winners
“Streamy Awards” Showcase Awkward Relationship Between YouTube And Hollywood

Working with Google SEO has become an ever-changing task. One minute you’re working on keyword integration and the next thing you know, they’ve merged Google Places and Google Plus into something and you find yourself working on a social media site. In Google’s ever increasing attempts to establish for all intents and purposes a monopoly position in search engine marketing, they’ve ruffled the feathers of many big agencies and others, the biggest amongst them being Facebook.

Google’s initial attempts to compete with Facebook have had less than encouraging results. Google Wave and Google Buzz failed to obtain any foothold within the crowded social media scene. Thanks in large parts to conglomerating Google services; Google Plus has managed to gain momentum. Due to Google using their search brand to put over their social media brand, Facebook’s current and yet to come features have been knocked down a peg. Facebook has not responded well to this, with shouts of “monopoly” from the social media luminaries. Looking at the current state of Google SEO, they’ve made huge strides by including streaming video sites like YouTube (which they own), but they’ve made virtually no means to utilize Twitter or Facebook in your SEO strategy. Even social media links or links to other review sites on Google Places pages are absent. This means if you want Google SEO to work for you then you have to use what they give you for reviews and social media.

This has become the reality of search engine marketing in this era. Much like during the Golden Age of Hollywood, making the movie was the easy part, but if you wanted people to see the movie you had to get cozy with a studio that owned the means of distribution as well as production. Google owns the means to find the websites you want and if that means the sites you want are the sites they have, naturally they’re going to give priority to their own.

Ultimately, not including social media and Internet juggernauts, Facebook and Twitter, hurts Google more than it hurts social media. With Facebook, Twitter, and Apple (who’s also not exactly on Team Google), becoming larger parts of the mass media landscape, including TV and digital streaming, they’re eventually going to freeze Google out of that scenario if possible. Much like how Bing has managed to actually build a following because they were more amiable to droid brands then Google. Google could see their review sites lose significance once Facebook and Twitter reviews start populating your TV screen and mobile devices.

One issue that Google has to deal with is that Google Plus isn’t getting the traffic of the sites they want to compete with. They can pad the stats by making people sign up for Google Plus just to leave reviews and such, but if you have a huge amount of users and a small amount of regular visitors you really do not have much of anything.

In the near future, as far as your social media dollars are concerned, Google Plus is a 50/50 bet. They definitely do not have the traffic of any other major social media site, but having a well maintained Google Plus page is still a necessity because of the current state of Google Reviews. Also, because of the likelihood that Google and YouTube will use Google Plus as the hub for your business’s Google Places, YouTube page and everything else… except Facebook.

This is a big battle that’s going to affect your advertising dollars in the short term and the long term. Bottom line, both of these juggernauts are looking for your advertising dollars and while Google does allow you to reach a broader audience, Facebook’s ad targeting allows you to reach the audience you want in a streamlined fashion. It’ll be a long time before you can use them together, which is a shame because they could be making huge money collectively with you.

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Facebook vs. Google: It’s on in search
Facebook and Google not in a relationship, Zuckerberg says
Facebook ‘Friends’ Apple and Takes a Shot at Google

I spoke to a gentleman who was still using newspaper ads. He listened to all the people who told him print was dead. He was a smart guy and he had a pretty good print media strategy, but the fact was that instead of paying for a newspaper ad that reached a wide demographic, he could spend less and target his exact audience. In response, this smart older guy told me that he liked newspapers because he reaches the widest possible audience.

This not a wrong statement, well it actually is… but there was a time when that idea represented the best thinking amongst marketing professionals. You wanted to reach the widest audience possible. These days, not only has the means to reach your audience changed, but also the best practices and the widest market have become two completely different aspects to consider.

If you could go back in time and visit those marketing guys in the 80’s, you would see they were doing everything they could to cast the widest net possible with limited budgets. Being able to show them tools like Google Adwords, as well as, Internet ads with massive remarketing engines and analytics would certainly blow them out of the water. Back then, they had to shoot for a wide net because many smaller nets were not much of an option and the ones that were there were not cost effective for a consumer business, but this has all changed.

The days of mass target markets are fading quickly. In its place is a more powerful tool that concentrates on converting the individual consumer from shopper to buyer. The method of both print ads and television ads were to toss out into a target (geographic + time) market and pray that someone who was interested in the topic saw the ad and bought the product. That works well in some cases, but those media platforms have lost audience to online and mobile marketing. The difference is that mobile marketing is individually based. It utilizes location or geographic demographics to target the individual with ads that are customized to that specific individual’s interest and not to the broader interests of a mass target audience. The focus becomes conversions on an individual basis. This works because of the way mobile technology and Internet data collection work. They both make it very easy for mobile users to customize their devices with all of the individual’s interests such as location, favorites, and preferences on the local market. It also allows individuals to become fans of products such as automobiles, bands, and social movements.

A remarketing strategy is key for anyone looking to catch a specific demo or a specialized target audience. It allows you to tie your ads to people who visit your site. Remarketing is the fastest way a new business can build an audience from the ground up. Social media can take time, months even before it can help you turn your Internet following into customers. Remarketing, along with pay per click can be up and running and converting customers in days, hours, if you’re lucky.

Along with mobile marketing and social media came a new trend known as geolocation. I’ll be honest, as part of a marketing team I fought geotargeting for some time. Sites like Foursquare that work off your mobile phone and social media felt like more of a fad then a new medium. However these days, not only is Foursquare a major player in the social media scene, but both Facebook and Google have adopted the technology. The recent changes to Google Plus show that it’s clearly here to stay and plays a key role in specific demo targeting and building a core audience via the web.

Ultimately, if you are not taking advantage of demographic targeting you’re just boxing with two hands while everyone else has four. There will always be a means to cast a wide net, this is not going away, even if your TV becomes an Apple computer and your Facebook and Google searches are tied to the shows you watch. This is still going to be a strategy and sometimes it’s not a bad one, people will tell you that it’s completely antiquated, but if you’re opening a business that wants to reach kids, mothers, single guys and girls and everyone in between with a dollar why would you do just specific targeting? Spreading a limited targeting budget too thin will get you nowhere. In the end, both types of targeting are weapons at your disposal and should be utilized when the time is right.

Be Imaginative in Your Remarketing!
The Year in Search & Social Marketing: Highs & Lows of 2012

There is an old saying amongst marketers working for casinos and the entertainment industry. When I worked in the marketing department of a casino during some of the worst economic times they referred to their business, along with movies and television, as “recession proof.” They thought, as others have believed since the days of Sullivan’s Travels, that entertainment and media would make money in any economy. Ultimately people will find the dollars to be entertained. Many of the same media strategists figured this old adage would extend to TV. However, based on an increasingly large culture of people looking for cheaper and easier TV via video game systems and their computers, this is likely to be not the case anymore.

The Cable Cutters, as some have called them, are the ever-increasing numbers of people who have decided to get rid of traditional cable and have made an effort to receive all their entertainment via their computers and video game systems.

Most of these trends, the increase in digital media streaming and web based entertainment, have been met with resistance by the major content creators, even while many of them were working with YouTube on their new Channel system earlier this year. At first, they were doing their best to make sure streaming video sites did not horn in on their act, but now, instead of trying to shut down alternative means of creating media they seem to be embracing it. There are many reasons, chief amongst them being that they’ve found ways to monetize content on video game systems where it has been difficult to do so on streaming sites.

Dan Ackerman of C-Net recently surveyed the new crop of technology coming to this year’s Electronics Entertainment Expo (commonly known as E3) and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). He has found that the bulk of the technology coming to your home provide means of watching TV that are alternatives to traditional cable.

“Take a look at the current crop of consoles,” Ackerman said in a G4 interview, “The new consoles are including the cloud as a built in feature.” The cloud is a means of storing your TV shows and movies across multiple forms of media, in the past this has been a huge hurdle, but with game consoles making room for it we could see digital streaming take a huge amount of cable’s customer base and this subculture of cable cutters will begin to seem like the norm.

The big knock against using game consoles was that there just wasn’t the storage capacity to handle all the content. A regular quality movie or an hour of high definition TV can take up many gigabytes on your hard drive, that’s not even taking into account Blu-Ray quality materials, which have been known to actually slow down your Xbox or PlayStation, as well as, use massive amounts of storage. The cloud puts an end to all this by storing your data for you. Some were skeptical of the technology at first but reviews have been solid and it’s only getting better.

The other big reasons why cable cutting is on the rise is because not only are individuals and families behind the movement, some of the biggest companies in the world have started to get behind it. “Apple TV continues to grow thanks to things like the cloud and people who were tired of virtual monopoly from Comcast see it as a great alternative.” Ackerman said.

Even with more and more people cutting their cable and moving online every day, there are still some hurdles to surpass. One of the draws of having traditional cable as a comfort is that it’s easy; you flip on the TV and your entertainment is right there. Someone once referred to TV shows as a screen saver for the mind. Digital streaming forces you to continue programming and updating software yourself. Until the digital streaming services become as easy to turn on and surf as traditional cable, they’ll still find themselves considered a little piece of what is a very large pie.

Ultimately, your advertising dollars will start being spent to this new format. Just like the dollars that went into magazines now go to websites, your TV dollars could start to go to PlayStation and Xbox in the very near future. YouTube and Hulu, among others, have taken huge strides in monetizing their model for advertisers by introducing services such as, YouTube Analytics. Adapting these services so they include PlayStation, Xbox, and Apple Apps isn’t the hard part.

The biggest laptop misses of CES 2013
Hollywood’s CES Cheat Sheet: 5 New Tech Trends
CES 2013: What It Means For The Future Of Video Games

It seems on a week to week basis there is a different Social Media site trying to work their way into the television industry. Whether it’s YouTube pushing for original content and exchanging funding for ad revenue or Facebook hinting at their own TV App that lets you surf what your friends are watching, the world is inching closer to using social media as the main source for entertainment and multimedia ad revenue. This week Twitter entered the game by announcing partnership with Neilson (the company that provides the TV ratings your favorite shows live and die by) to create a revolutionary new rating system that will include the social media site as it counts TV ratings.

This is a huge move for Twitter as it is makes them even more of a mainstream player, as well as, shows they have influence over mass media on par with Facebook. The thing that makes Twitter perfect for this partnership is the fact that its users are constantly active. Twitter might not have the over 1 billion users like Facebook, but combined their fan base sends over 1 billion messages every 3 days! This is a level of word of mouth that Facebook simply doesn’t reach.

Not only is this another step toward the integration of social media and your mass media experience, but it also plays an important role in the continuing push to monetize Twitter and increase ad revenue. If they can put a hard number on their tweets and prove they generate more television viewers, Twitter will become an even greater place to advertise. This could mean a lot for regional and local advertisers looking to get in on a sponsored trending topic or get their hash tag trending locally. If Twitter succeeds, this will show that they can provide hard numbers just like Facebook’s metrics currently do.

That has been a huge hurdle for Twitter in recent years, the lack of hard data to back up major media ad buys. One of the knocks on Twitter from big agencies is that they skew young and their numbers can be overinflated. A partnership with Neilson and an influence over TV ratings could put that outdated reputation to bed.

Just like Facebook, which started out skewing young too, older generations have turned Facebook into a platform for all demographics. Just this week Facebook unveiled a plan to include re-marketing ads, as well as, new ways they’re working with auto dealers and you generally do not cater to that clientele if your site is predominantly kids and college students. Facebook’s audience has broadened to include just about everybody and there is no reason to think Twitter could not level out its demos in the near future.

I’ve written a lot about how social media will be going after your cable TV dollars in the next few years, but this is one of the first times we’ve actually seen things go the other way. Instead of trying to compete, Neilson has acknowledging their system is somewhat outdated and needs to adapt to new technology. They’re taking an active step toward making social media an integral part of the greater mass media strategy. Other mass media companies could take a lesson from them. It’s going to bode well for them in the next few years as your cable box starts integrating social media (or is it going to be the other way around?). It’s better to be the one ready for change and in front of the next wave then it is to play catch up.

This is new partnership will be important for major and regional advertisers because it allows them to receive data from Twitter without the need of a focus group, additionally the data is in real time, which was previously only available to huge spenders. You can see exactly what people in your region are watching and adjust accordingly. It also gives regional advertisers a much wider base to work with.

In the end, Neilson needed to make some changes. Their model is dying and if they can use social media as a way to change things and set up a new model that integrates social media, DVR, and digital downloads, it will be great for everybody. The more data they compile the more you know where to put your money and the more confident major advertisers will be in new forms of media. Neilson’s partnership with Twitter could be benefiting advertisers and content creators very soon.

Twitter Data Will Now Be Part of TV Ratings
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YouTube made huge headlines in April when they announced they were funding content for over 1,000 YouTube channels with the caveat that it’s used to create original content. This funding lead to brands such as, Redbull, THNKR, Geek and Sundry, and The Nerdist receiving huge worldwide exposure. Recently, Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist sold for millions of dollars based largely off the content showcased on his YouTube channel. Some people thought funding these channels was a mistake on YouTube’s part saying that they were actually funding their own competition, considering a lot of these content channels were run by companies working with their own or other streaming sites. Others think it’s a great move toward making YouTube a content distributor on the level of a major network in a time of 24/7 online connectivity.

YouTube needs to take these steps now because within the next two to three years the next generation of manufactured electronics will be the first time that streaming video capability will be a standard included function. You can already see it now with Apple, Google, and Samsung making Smart TVs, PlayStation and Xbox having made apps that make watching and navigating YouTube as almost as easy as flipping TV channels.

Recently YouTube made a huge, unprecedented step toward adapting the TV advertising business model to fit theirs and get ready for the near future when they can compete with the major networks. They cut funding to almost all of the YouTube channels they initially gave money to. This might sound like backtracking at first, but it’s actually a very good move. For one, most of the channels that created genuinely good content are now self-sustaining enough that they don’t even need the funding. The funding was there to get them to show up. Now that they’re there and the YouTube presence has become a huge part of their digital strategy they aren’t going to leave. They’ll stick around and make money for YouTube and everyone involved in the future.

The second part of YouTube’s revised strategy includes something far bolder. They’re taking a few of these channels, the ones that want their funding, and giving it to them with the caveat that they pay it back in ad revenue. This is a huge step for YouTube in that it’s their first blatant attempt to adapt a model that major networks use and the first time one of these major streaming sites has attempted to set up a guaranteed ad revenue stream based on the content from their content generators. Not only does this show that YouTube is now going after major mass media ad revenue in a huge way, but it completely changes the way viral marketing campaigns work. Considering the major viral marketing platform has now gone mainstream and is looking to showcase mainstream content instead of underground and lesser known work.

In effect, the days of major mass media producers like movie studios and record labels making huge money off YouTube could be over. “Studios are learning YouTube with YouTube’s money,” said Michael Learmonth of Advertising Age in a G4 interview. “YouTube has been paying for Hollywood’s content experiments.”

One thing YouTube did learn from their first foray into being a genuine content creator is that they have some bugs to work out before they’re ready to take on the major television outlets. “One thing’s clear,” continued Learmonth, “serialized programming still doesn’t work.” This has been a big hurdle for YouTube and other major streaming sites like Hulu. Their attempts to showcase original programming in the same vain as TV stations haven’t been all that successful. The content from the YouTube channels has largely been 5-10 minute shorts or talk show style episodes ranging in the 20-minute range. For YouTube to compete they need to find a way to grab people’s attention for more artful content. The current content getting huge hit on YouTube isn’t enough to compete with the major networks…yet.

Ultimately, YouTube’s foray into funding channels shows how far they’ve come toward being a genuine player in mass media. At the same time, it also shows just how far they need to go. It may be a matter of just getting their content on the newest TV’s and technology or it could mean they need to get their name out there and change people’s preconceived notions. HBO was once considering a schlock channel when they first started, but they went on to revolutionize mass media. YouTube may find themselves in the same position in the very near future.

YouTube’s Original Channels Are A Risky Bet, But Google Doubles Down
Deadline’s YouTube Channel Rankings
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According to some, for almost a decade Amazon has been an evil empire casting a huge shadow over the publishing industry, while for others its been a great means to get content not available from the mass market retailers. Amazon’s business model has made careers and has broken them. They’ve also revolutionized SEO in the process.

Amazon has been wreaking havoc on the brick and mortar retailers. Retailers such as, Borders, have fallen in their wake, becoming the Tower Records of the modern era. Other stores have used the Amazon model to their advantage. Retailers such as, Anderson Booksellers, has used the huge network of social media and eBook sites that have spurned up in the last few years to drive business to their physical stores. Barnes and Noble has recently taken huge steps, using social media to highlight their physical locations. However, last week something happened that might break Amazon’s stronghold on the online booksellers market. Two of the biggest publishers in the industry, Penguin and Random House, merged into one massive physical and eBook publisher easily rivaling Amazon.

One advantage, Penguin/Random House has over Amazon is that have a ready-made system for content creating. Similar to Netflix, Amazon’s attempts to be a content creator have been a mixed bag of success. Having a ready-made system for content is a huge advantage; they’ll just need to start one-upping Amazon in the promotions department.

Amazon, and Google, just about invented the science of SEO, so there is a really slim chance to beat them in that aspect. Penguin/Random House is going to have to dive into the social media scene and find a new way to reach readers. This is where, as a web magazine publisher or someone looking to advertise in this market, you should be watching.

With the Penguin/Random House merger forming such a huge content creator, we could very well be seeing the beginning of a proverbial war for eBook publishing territory, akin to what is happening with streaming video, or has happened with Facebook and Myspace. As we’ve seen in battles the past, when there is huge competition for multimedia supremacy, the regional advertiser tends to come out on top. One way Penguin/Random House can grab the upper hand is to create a system that makes it easier for small businesses to advertise on eBooks or create a means for more online magazines to publish their content on tablet computers.

As I said, Penguin/Random House isn’t going to win in SEO against such an established online brand as Amazon. They’ll need to get a foothold in online shopping via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. One possibility is to sponsor blogs from already established talent. Authors such as, Stephen King and John Grisham, have managed to stay relevant for a whole new generation by owning successful blogs and keeping up regularly on Facebook. This model could be used across the board and help the Penguin/Random House brand as a whole.

Another possibility is to hold contests over Facebook and Twitter that would get younger people talking about their products. Amazon’s attempts at online promotions haven’t always been successful because they’ve had very limited control over their content. Penguin/Random House doesn’t have this problem and to beat Amazon in social media they can use this to their advantage, building their Internet marketing campaigns around this.

One more thing, I’d like to see them do is highlight independent talent. Kickstarters can help get people talking, as well as, devoting some of their Internet space, highlighting new talent trying to make it. Even if that talent isn’t theirs, this could still be a huge success. You can’t manufacture a viral marketing campaign, but you can give one a little head start. When people see that, they’ll see your brand. Latching on and pushing viral marketing campaigns like The Nerdist has made Legendary Entertainment a huge player in online publishing content and web magazines.

Ultimately it’s not the amount of competition that helps smaller companies have successful digital media marketing campaigns. It’s the kind of competition you get with a small group. Microsoft and Apple’s rivalry helped develop Internet advertising into what it is today and the rivalry between Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube has accelerated streaming video light years ahead. Following these trends, you could begin to see a huge leap in online magazine and eBook advertising possibilities very soon.

Who wins from Random Penguin?
A New Era for Books: The Random House-Penguin Merger Is Just the Start
A Merger in Publishing: And Then There Were Five

Some time ago, I wrote about the fall of the family-friendly radio drama in the 60s and how that gave rise to the need for a new medium to reach all four major demographics (men over 30, women over 30 and young boys and girls in a nutshell). The need was filled by Saturday Morning cartoons, which peaked in the 80s and 90s. Now, with the rise of at least five different cartoon channels running all hours of the day, some designed only for niche markets (there are currently three transformers cartoons on the air and only one is geared specifically for a younger audience, same with Iron Man) it seems like the need to find a medium to reach a four-quad audience is rising again, except this time the tool box is wide open and all forms of media both new and traditional are gunning for the spot.

The potential of the family, or four-quad market rivals the largest professional sports franchises for advertisers. Studios Warner Brothers and Fox lagged behind Disney, Universal and Paramount before Family programming and Saturday morning cartoons catapulted them to the top of the field, while making many advertisers huge money and companies like McDonald’s synonymous with kids and families. While it can be difficult to achieve success in the family demographic, when you do capture this audience the upsides are virtually endless.

With the old model of the Saturday morning cartoon going extinct, this is a great opportunity for a fledgling digital media content provider to make a huge impact. YouTube has gone to great lengths by striking deals with Disney for their movies and TV shows, but if someone is going to go after this group they need a multimedia strategy. One of the reasons the Saturday morning cartoon push was so successful was that they advertised it to both kids and adults as the one place on Television that your kids can watch shows made for them. Major content providers rolled out huge, across the board marketing campaigns pointing at Saturday morning with the proverbial big neon sign.

Channels, such as Disney XD and The CW have made an effort to promote themselves with the old Saturday morning cartoon model, using a one hour block and advertising it as family viewing during both kids shows and adult prime time. However, Cartoon Network recently announced they were pulling this particular block because it just wasn’t cutting it anymore. They’ve sighted disappointed advertising revenue and toy tie-ins (the bread and butter for marketers back in the 80s) as a cause.

One company, already familiar with the family demographic that could find a way to create advertiser-friendly content is Nintendo. The Wii, much more so than Xbox and PlayStation, is a system geared towards families with titles including the Ninja Turtles and Epic Mickey. Similar to how Xbox has struck deals with ESPN and major sports outlets, it would be a great idea for the Wii to make the same deals with Disney and Warner Brothers for kid-friendly content. Make the Wii the system for families to get great entertainment. They already have two huge advantages over the old Saturday morning cartoon model, they can be on anytime of the day and they have the potential to target commercials towards the different types of households watching.

Just like when browsing YouTube, the more you surf the more the commercials change. If Nintendo and the Wii can develop a way for consumers to easily reach content on their system, something they’re currently behind their competitors on, they could see a huge upsides and become a new place for advertisers to reach the whole family demographic.

As someone looking for places to spend your advertising dollars, especially if you’re looking at events geared toward the whole family, you should be keeping track of ways to reach people beyond their televisions. Websites, such as YouTube, Hulu and others could very well become the home for family viewing far quicker than you think. One trend visible throughout mass media history shows that kids are always the precursor to what is coming next. They were the ones who first flocked to television, to social media via MySpace and Facebook, and to file sharing services via Napster, leading to the introduction of iTunes. Simultaneously, pornography has also been a great canary in a coalmine for new media trends to watch… just keep an eye on that industry too.

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One of my first social media marketing jobs as a fresh-faced, young freelancer was working for a movie theater chain. Back then, social media didn’t have all the analytics and market watch software in place just yet, therefore, it was a little more fly by the seat of your pants.  One thing I was surprised about, in a meeting regarding the fall outlook they said what amounted to, “Don’t worry, fall is never good for us.  It’s our off-season.”  Again, I was a little bit surprised.  I figured the point of having a business was to make sure there were no off-seasons and besides they had never had a dedicated social media team before.  I pushed the idea and they told me to go ahead with whatever, considering they didn’t have anything to lose anyway.  Their confidence in me notwithstanding, I did my best to turn their off-season around.

For that reason above all, off-seasons can be a marketing teams best friend. A free pass to try anything and throw whatever you can at the wall to see what sticks; provided it does not cost the company anything. This is a great time to experiment with different forms of social media. The bad news is they are not going to spend any money for it.  A lot of times, the “off-season” can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. While they don’t want to give you any resources because they don’t make any money, maybe they don’t make any money then because they don’t give you any resources.

There is one great thing about working for a movie theater company, they always have swag to give away.  There are usually posters and promotional items sitting around gathering dust or waiting for employees to take them home. There was not really enough to give away online, so we had to turn it into a game that got people in the door.  If you give something away on social media it has to be big, but if you give away the potential of giving something away you have a little more flexibility.

Off-seasons can be broken down to a matter of a mathematical equation.  Your business’s value has changed.  The value the customer gets from coming to you is less than the value they get from not doing so. It doesn’t matter if it’s the weather or a distraction such as the start of a new school year; it’s just a question of how to increase your value in the right way.  In our case, the movie theater during fall had to contend with school beginning to be in session.  I figured if stores could have successful back-to-school sales, why couldn’t a movie theater have a back-to-school event?

I gathered some coupons and things left over from the summer and distributed them around local record stores, bookstores, and the college library. I even got the high school to stick some on their bulletin board. We had our coupons and we had our swag to give away.  Now we just needed a place to promote this little shindig (note: kids really do not like when you use the word shindig). The key to all this was synergy and while I was passing out leftover fliers, I was also making sure our Facebook and Twitter handles were visible, as well as, giving interviews to both the college and high school newspapers.  I took advantage of one basic truth about the world that we live in; everyone has an opinion about the movies.  I gave people something to talk about and let them know if they wanted to discuss movies with other people, our Facebook page was the place to do it.

Did it work? In all honesty it didn’t give us the bump we had hoped for, but we did get something and the next off-season I heard there was a little more money for coupons and giveaways resulting in an even bigger turnout.  Sometimes changing perceptions in marketing can be a slow burn.  I know someone who went to a comic con and he always told his company they should go to. He got them to start with a small table and years later they would have a huge booth there, alas, this was long after he’d been fired for spending too much at the comic convention.

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