The momentum of technical change in the delivery of information and in communications between brands and their audiences drives new agency formations, re-inventions and mash-ups like never before. Agencies and marketing officers alike struggle to determine if each new offering is relevant to their brand.

It is the agencies’ job to lead the evaluation of each new offering and recommend those that add value to their clients. But when 51% of chief marketing officers announce their intention to change agencies this year, and 90% of the same crowd create in-house digital groups because they believe agencies are not doing a good job integrating digital capabilities, the ad business has a problem. (Source: Marketing Agencies Fail to Evolve as CMOs Seek Integrated Digital Services)

Nothing really new here, is there?

We’re in the business of disrupting the status quo, so why shouldn’t we be disrupted? The great names of the 60s like Y&R, FCB, DDB, WR&G and O&M still haunt us. They evolved or disappeared into some embracing corporate acronym. Some believe if we wait, just hang in there, the problems will get better, or easier or clearer. Or maybe, just go away.

The CMO of a respected consumer brand told me he was tired of herding agencies. Tired of talking process. “Why,” he asked, “can’t the agencies handle all that stuff?” Of course, he added, “First show me creative that gets me excited, that supports my business plan — which after all is why I hired the agency in the first place.”

“I want to spend my time collaborating with smart people instead of managing a corral of resources. Why do I need a creative agency, a social media group, a media agency, and a digital agency? It’s still about a strong message efficiently delivered, isn’t it?”

He’s right. (I’m pretty sure we’re going to get this guy’s business.)

Look back — the advertising business has been changing since forever. . . . If I mashed some berries, I could color this sign. How can we use television in a print and radio world? What about cable? How do we survive without 15% commission? Five hundred channels? No way to affordably reach a mass audience. Where do the Internet, digital, social media fit into the plan? Into the budget?

Our job is to create compelling messages, find the smartest way to deliver the messages, execute, show results. At BBG we have a head start. Planted in today’s shifting soil by a combination of branding, creative, direct marketing and interactive/social media talent, we know our first job is connecting Brand to Customer. Our greatest challenge is finding more smart people to help us serve more smart clients.

Today, some trudge through the growing chaos looking for new tools to break through, to create awareness, to shock, to measure. BBG’s job is to help brands connect with their customers and prospects; that’s the priority — the other stuff follows. In order to thrive, we focus on doing four things better than other agencies and in-house marketing groups:

1) Attract strong service-focused talent.

2) Build magic into the creative.

3) Use the smartest technology to deliver the message.

4) Remember our job is to exceed the client’s goal.

I’ve been in the agency business most of my working life, and I’ve never seen a more exciting time — never seen more opportunity. Sometimes all this makes me want to google . . . er, giggle.

The results we’re after haven’t changed: Make the brand irresistible. Sell stuff.

Ingool

Advertising agency Burkhead Brand Group (BBG) today announced Melanie Ingool has been promoted to account supervisor as a result of the agency’s continued growth serving clients in the energy and automotive sector.

Joining BBG in April 2010, Ingool is now the lead account supervisor for BBG’s technology clients, where she oversees all aspects of integrated marketing and advertising campaigns including branding, lead generation media opportunities and social media programs.

“Melanie’s commitment to her clients and attention to detail makes her a valuable leader to all our agency teams,” says Managing Partner Scott Burkhead.

With over twelve years of advertising and marketing experience, Ingool has worked with several of the leading ad agencies in the Triangle. She received her degree in journalism with a concentration in advertising from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About Burkhead Brand Group (BBG)

Based in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, BBG is one of the Southeast’s fastest growing advertising and marketing agencies and is uniquely positioned to bring brands closer to their customers. The agency serves clients in the financial services, hospitality, retail, technology and automotive industries with a special focus on the alternative fuel vehicle market. BBG combines traditional media with emerging technologies to start global conversations that drive brand awareness, increase product sales and optimize return on investment. Visit BBG online at bbgintegrated.com.

# # #

POWER ANALYTICS™ SOFTWARE INSTALLED

AT ABB SMART GRID CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Raleigh, N.C., April 23, 2012 – Power Analytics Paladin® Live™ software was recently installed at the new ABB Smart Grid Center of Excellence at N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus to showcase the importance of integrating real-time data and displaying the information in a user-friendly format. The Power Analytics integration display will be presented April 23-26, 2012 at ABB Automation & Power World, ABB’s premier annual customer event held this year in Houston, Texas.

The Power Analytics software will communicate with ABB substation automation MicroSCADA Pro® equipment using OPC (Object embedded and linking process control). OPC is an industrial connectivity standard that enables the transfer of data between automation hardware and software. Power Analytics Paladin Live and MicroSCADA Pro will work in concert to achieve complete functionality for real-time monitoring, management, decision support, and control of primary and secondary equipment in transmission and distribution substations. The information can be displayed locally or remotely using typical web browsers.

Power Analytics Vice President of Smart Grid Rajan Chudgar will present the Paladin Live software at the annual ABB Automation & Power World. Chudgar states, “We are proud to be a partner with ABB to show how electrical data streams can be integrated into one data system. We will demonstrate how our Power Analytics graphical interface screens display data and perform model-validated analytics on the electrical network.”

“Customers require the need for system integration analytics and the ability to display the information in a user-friendly format regardless of the downstream protocols,” said Tony Leszczynski, channels business development manager for ABB. “The intuitive Paladin Live software from Power Analytics achieves this goal while eliminating duplication of databases, and making data universally accessible over various operating systems, not to mention lowering the overall cost.”

About ABB

Opening in March 2012, the ABB Smart Grid Center of Excellence (COE) includes a testing and development laboratory, a verification center to certify customer solutions before deployment, and a demonstration showcasing ABB’s smart grid technologies and collaborative partnerships. The Smart Grid COE is the nation’s first-of-its-kind demonstration center and testing lab using cutting-edge Smart Grid software and equipment aimed at improving reliability in the midst of extreme weather.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 135,000 people. The company’s North American operations, headquartered in Cary, N.C., employ about 20,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service and other major facilities.

About Power Analytics Corporation

Used by the power industry for more than 25 years, Power Analytics’ software solutions have surged to the forefront of the electrical system planning, operation and smart grid market space for use in energy intensive, mission-critical facilities and microgrids. Paladin products currently protect more than $100 billion in customer assets including financial data centers, air traffic control sites, military installations, deep sea oil platforms, and power generation and distribution facilities. The company is headquartered in San Diego, Calif. and has a smart grid center of excellence in Raleigh, N.C.

Paladin, Paladin DesignBase, Paladin Live, Paladin SmartGrid, and Power Analytics are trademarks of Power Analytics Corporation. For more information about Power Analytics and its products, visit www.PowerAnalytics.com.

Pollard

Advertising agency announced this week the promotion of Allison Pollard to account supervisor as a result of its acquisition of a new financial services client and its continued growth serving clients in the energy and automotive sector.  Pollard is the lead account manager for the agency’s retail accounts and financial services clients, where she oversees all aspects of fully integrated marketing and advertising campaigns with a special focus in social media.

“Allison has been working in a social media and client support role since joining BBG,” says Managing Partner Scott Burkhead. “Her expertise in social media data analysis, along with her account management skills makes her an important advocate to several of our clients and an asset to our agency.”

With over ten years of consumer product marketing experience, Pollard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from North Carolina State University. She graduated Cum Laude while on the Dean’s List and Athletic Honor Roll as a varsity athlete. She is also a former board member and volunteer for AnimalKind®, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Raleigh and a volunteer for the Raleigh chapter of FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network).

About Burkhead Brand Group (BBG)

Based in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, BBG is one of the Southeast’s fastest growing advertising and marketing agencies and is uniquely positioned to bring brands closer to their customers. The agency serves clients in the financial services, hospitality, retail, technology and automotive industries with a special focus on the alternative fuel vehicle market. BBG combines traditional media with emerging technologies to start global conversations that drive brand awareness, increase product sales and optimize return on investment. Visit BBG online at bbgintegrated.com.

Facebook has recently launched the new Timeline layout for Brand Pages. Similar to the Timeline for personal profiles that many users are already familiar with, the timeline layout for Pages will go live for everyone this Friday, March 30 and emphasizes discovery, storytelling and brand visibility.

You can read more about the modifications here but the changes you want to be aware of are:

1. The wall has become a timeline with the ability to add and highlight key company milestones dating back to founding. This is a great way to highlight your brand’s past accomplishments, key hires and product launches.
2. There are specific guidelines for the use of the new cover image, which is the new large image that is featured at the top of the Brand Page. The cover image must be 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. It cannot contain price or purchase information, contact information, references to “like” or “share” or explicit calls to action. More information on what is / is not allowed is available here.
3. The profile image is now limited 180 by 180 pixels. A corporate logo would be a fitting profile image, while the cover image allows more creative liberty to showcase your brand.
4. Photos, likes and apps are now listed at the top of the page. The photo stream that was formerly standard is no longer there, but images and other visuals will be featured more prominently in individual posts.
5. Facebook Apps can now be designed to be 520 pixels or 810 pixels wide. The larger width gives you more real estate to work with and can help you create stronger, more engaging applications and landing tabs.
6. Page administrators have the ability to “pin” a status update to the top of the page or “star” a status update to make it wider / more prominent. A special promotion or giveaway contest would be something to “pin” to ensure visibility.
7. The admin panel called the dashboard has been updated with a new layout that changes the look / feel of the Facebook insights, or analytics of your page. Administrators will see the latest posts, comments and messages from fans, in addition to a snapshot of your latest analytics.
8. Facebook has added the ability for users to contact the page administrator privately via messages. Pages can only message users in reply to a message.
9. And finally, landing tabs for non-fans are no longer available. Meaning a “welcome” tab that users formerly saw with a call to action to “like the page” can no longer be created. Even more reason to entice visitors to click “like” with the content in your cover image in addition to the engaging content you continue to post.

We’ll continue to keep a close eye on what other changes Facebook rolls out. In the meantime, are you ready to make the switch?

Suddenly everyone is saying that a two year-old startup with smart design and intuitive appeal seems to have staying power.

It’s a simple concept: an online pinboard allowing users to organize their favorite images from their own scrapbooks and from across the web.  Comscore reports that Pinterest attracted 18 million unique users in February, up from less than 12 million in January.  Most page views were from women-heart-of-America- upper-income.

Publications depending on photographic content (e.g. Glamor.com) are getting strong referrals from the site, and smart marketers such as General Electric are using Pinterest to tell interesting stories about their brand.

We see Pinterest as a strong addition to selected clients’ social mix.  And like any platform Pinterest won’t operate successfully for brands without love and attention.  There must be interesting content driven by a strategic understanding of what the brand expects to gain from its involvement.  Marketers will want to decide in advance what added value will come from the resources committed to yet another platform, and tweak involvement as they learn. Find the best ROI, in other words.

BBG looks at Pinterest not as just another platform to generate addresses, or brand awareness, or another channel for transactions, but as an addition to the social ecosystem that enhances appeal, encourages engagement, and adds what the banking business calls, ‘stickiness’.  (In short, stickiness means the user is so invested in the service that they will stick with their brand even if tired, bored or annoyed.)

There are legal issues emerging with Pinterest.  In a recent WSJ article Therese Poletti writes that Pinterest must figure out how to get above, or around, the legal/copyright issues that shut down the music-sharing website Napster.  Pinterest is taking the issue seriously and recently added two new features to potentially avoid legal trouble. First, the site now requires users to add a comment to each picture when they “pin” it. By commenting on that photo, Pinterest can make the argument that having the photo on its site could be protected under “fair use.” Second, Pinterest now reads webpages for a special code (what’s called microdata) that will tell Pinterest if a website doesn’t want users to be able to “pin” pictures.

In the long run, and that might mean a few weeks or months, we are approaching Pinterest in the same way we approach swimming: you can’t learn how without getting in the water.

In June 2011 Google – the world’s largest and most popular search engine – launched its newest foray into social networking. Called Google+, it is Google’s attempt to rival Facebook by creating a social network that allows users to more easily share information with friends, family and peers.

Google+ – Major Features & Benefits

Far from Google’s first foray into social media, Google+ was designed to make connecting people on the web more like connecting them in the real world. According to Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google, Google+ was developed to solve a core problem with social sharing online:

“Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of online tools.

In a basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.

We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. And so begins the Google+ project.”

Unlike Facebook, which has a busy and sometimes confusing user interface, Google+ sought to streamline how people interact through social networks and allow users new and innovative ways to connect, share and converse. In addition to the features users had come to expect from Facebook – such as a personal profile, newsfeed and photo sharing – Google offers users several new innovations.

Circles – an improved friend management feature, Circles are a way to group connections so that you can share updates with only those circles you find appropriate. For instance, if you have a status update about a work meeting, you can share that with your “work” Circle but spare your “Family” and “Friends” Circles from seeing the message.

Hangouts – a group video chat feature that allows up to 10 different people to participate in a synchronized online video conversation.

Sparks – a real-time news feed, similar to Twitter, that provides news updates based on topics and interests you select.

Search – improved social media search functionality that builds on Google’s expertise in the industry to allow you to find information from your Circles more quickly and easily.

+1 Button – Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like button, +1 is a feedback system that allows you to instantly share information with your Circles. The +1 button is widely available online including on websites, blogs, videos and event advertisements.

Who Is Using Google+?

There’s no arguing the fact that Google+ has grown quickly. According to new research published by Mashable and DataDial Google+:

• Has over 90 million users, and is on track to have more than 400 million users by the end of 2012.
• Skews male with 67% of the user base being male and 32% female.
• Is predominantly young, with 69% of users in the United States being 18-34 years old.
• Users are more likely to be students (20% of the users) than any other single occupation.

As a new social network, the demographics are continuing to morph over time, but it’s clear that the trend for Google+ is that it’s most frequently used by tech savvy young adults and young professionals who live in the United States.

Search, Plus Your World

Until recently my de facto perspective on Google+ was that it is an interesting new development in social networking, but expect for brands that are highly prioritizing social media that it was better to take a “wait and see” approach. However that all changed when in January 2012 Google announced Search, Plus Your World (http://www.google.com/insidesearch/plus.html).

Search Plus Your World (SPYW) is Google’s attempt at tightly integrating social influence into search engine results. See, over the years Google has developed a sophisticated algorithm for its search engine that ranks websites based on a number of factors including the perceived intent of the user’s search, how relevant the content on the website is for that particular search and how many trusted sources are linking back to the website. With SPYW Google has now added social media – and in particular Google+ – as a major factor in its ranking algorithm. Meaning that if you are logged into Google+, Gmail, YouTube, or any of Google’s other numerous services and you search on Google.com than the results you see will be different than if you were not logged in. In other words, your history on Google+ and the actions of your connections now impacts the information you receive when searching on Google.

If You Care About Search, Care About Google+

For most brands, search engines drive a significant amount of website traffic. As a result a high organic ranking on Google results in a significant upside and with the launch of Search, Plus Your World brands that want to rank highly on Google’s search engine now need to use Google+ to help drive that ranking.
So how are brands using Google+? Quite frankly, most are using it in a similar way to Facebook and Twitter – posting logos, pictures, product information and interacting with customers. For instance, Macy’s has a Google+ presence very typical for the social network:

As you can see the brand is using their logo for the profile picture, has an updated photo stream at the top of the page and is regularly updating the page with new status updates. Google+ does not currently allow for much customization to the brand page beyond these features, so it is best practice for brands such as Macy’s to instead focus on driving engagement (e.g. comments, +1s and shares) with customers who follow the brand on Google+ as a way to increase visibility and effectiveness of the profile.

Your Brand On Google+

If your brand values Internet marketing, traffic to your website from search engines and engaging with customers online than you can no longer ignore Google+. While it is far from the world’s largest social network, it is quickly growing and with its oversized impact on your brand’s ranking on Google’s search engine now is the time to set up your presence and beat your competitors to the punch.

Every seasoned advertising manager has heard the 1934 quote from Philadelphia’s famous haberdasher John Wanamaker, “I know half my advertising doesn’t work. I just don’t know which half.”

For 75 years after that, neither advertising agencies nor their clients worried too much about which half wasn’t working, so long as half did. Actually, direct marketing pioneer David Ogilvy figured it out. He knew that the half of the advertising that didn’t work was likely to be the part where the client was telling customers what to think rather than giving them a benefit and an offer and letting them decide. Of course, he went on to build an advertising empire around that idea which still endures today.

In the meantime, most advertisers and agencies did try to mitigate advertising’s negative half-brother through pre-advertising research focus groups, mall intercepts and one-on-one interviews, etc. Over time however, the cost, resource utilization and sample size limitations of these programs have made them less attractive and proved to be less reliable than other means.

And, in a digital world where analysts measure a company’s performance and value on a quarterly basis (or less), who has the luxury of a 90-180 day advertising campaign planning and development schedule? Plus, in today’s pervasive social media environment in which customers control the conversation how nimble you are in responding to consumer preferences can be key to engaging them with your brand.

Fortunately, one of the big benefits of social media is that it has spawned a variety of related technologies that enable advertisers to track, manage and evaluate customer behavior faster and cheaper and with greater accuracy than ever before. For example, the availability of online consumer panels that can be geo-demographically segmented then polled overnight means that advertisers no longer have to wait until after they run their advertising to find out if the message resonates with their customers and how likely consumers are to respond to the ads.

This means that today there is no excuse for bad advertising. Here is a case in point: Our agency recently conducted an overnight poll to determine which of four print advertising concepts would be preferred by our client’s demographic and to which ad they would most likely respond in advance of buying the media to support them. In 24 hours we had a definitive answer. Happily for the agency, consumers preferred the ad we recommended to the client.

The value of having tools like these maximizes the opportunity for successful advertising and can reduce the “other half” to a statistical anomaly. Just for fun, review the ad concepts we tested below. Then click on the link at the bottom to see how your preferences compared to the actual survey results.

Just for fun, review the ad concepts we tested below.

Then click on the link at the bottom to see how your preferences compared to the actual survey results.

www.bbgintegrated.com/testresults

If you are like me, this holiday season was a mix of confusing and astonishing consumer behaviors. How do you reconcile watching hordes of pepper spray toting holiday shoppers fighting their way into stores to buy the latest version of Nike’s Jordan Air sneakers with Americans’ continued bleak assessments of economic conditions, both with respect to the national economy and their own financial situations?

So, what is really going on here? Well, it may be that they saved for it.

Recent Pew Research reports show that Americans may have turned a corner in the recession long before their politicians, because they are both saving more money and rethinking which items are worth buying. As a result of what’s been happening with the economy, 60% of Americans say they are changing the way their money is saved or invested, up from just 48% two years ago; 32% say they have adjusted their retirement plans.

And, U.S. Department of Commerce studies show that Americans put aside an impressive 6.4% of their income after taxes last year. By comparison, Americans were saving less than 2% in 2007 just prior to the recession.

They weren’t just saving for Christmas, either. About a third of adults say they had an unexpected expense in the past year that “seriously set [them] back financially.” Among this group, the most oft-cited such expense is medical (34%), followed by car-related expenses (24%) and home and housing related-expenses (20%).

What are the implications of this to advertisers? Perhaps the longer the recession lasts, the more there is pent up demand for what consumers now regard as ‘essential’ goods and services. For example, are auto sales up because more people have more money, or because a car that was two years old in 2008 is now six years old and needs to be replaced?

The new savings paradigm also suggests that advertisers should realign their thinking about where the opportunities are in the struggling economy and reconsider programs like charging customers $5.00 a month to use their debit cards, vs. getting a share of the additional 6.4% of consumers’ new savings.

Food for thought as we enter the New Year.

Car enthusiasts concur that Hyundai has superb products that are getting better each year. Its Genesis and Sonata models are exemplary. And, if you really want to be wowed, take a look at its flagship product, Equus. Simply breathtaking at its price point.

Engage Customers By Emphasizing Benefits

I recently saw a two-page spread in Newsweek and The Economist magazines promoting Hyundai’s new 2012 Sonata Hybrid. It contained a lot of techno-speak about Hyundai’s new lithium polymer battery, and sounded more like a conversation between auto engineers. My reaction was the company may have missed the mark in communicating what’s important (the benefit) to consumers when it comes to buying hybrids and other alternative fuel vehicles.

According to an April 2011 J.D. Powers survey, the most important thing influencing consumer purchasing of hybrids is fuel economy and cost of vehicle operation. Consumer preferences for hybrid features start with mileage, then vehicle cost (hybrids tend to cost more than gasoline powered vehicles). Maintenance ranks third in preference and that is where battery reliability is important, because many consumers are wary of how much it would cost to repair or replace one. Surprisingly, saving the environment ranks fifth among consumer preferences.

Customer Expectations & Information Needs

My suggestion to manufacturers is this: Focus on customers’ expectations and their need for information. I may be a consumer research marketing professional, but I’m also a consumer. I want to know the MPG and range on a single charge and tank of fuel, the MSRP cost of a hybrid versus a similar gasoline-powered car, and the projected cost savings over three years of ownership – in other words, the benefits of ownership.

By placing so much emphasis on its new technology, as impressive as it is, manufacturers like Hyundai run the risk of tuning out their potential customers. Communicate the benefits, not the attributes. That’s what engaged dialog marketing is all about.