Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

Wikimobipiedia: Mobile Media Planners’ New Favorite Site?

I received an email from Jamie Wells, US Mobile Director from OMD, about a new site he launched, Wikimobipedia. He also blogged about it at his site MobileStance.com.

He wrote:

I wanted to let you all in on a little side project that I've been working on, and was hoping you'd embrace it for the good of our industry.  The site is called wikimobipedia.org, and it's basically a public wiki where mobile marketing buyers can easily collect the info they need (case studies, contact info, audience comps, etc) to begin their planning process.

With our space moving so fast I felt the industry would benefit from a place that "keeps up with mobile (so you don't have to)", and so far things have been going pretty well.  I've yet to publically publicize the site (that's coming soon), and so far I've got most of the major mobile players involved - over 50 companies - in less than a month.

I love this idea for a number of reasons. One is that my least interesting collection is my media kit library, so having everything together on the web will potentially make one part of my job easier.

The other is that everyone Jamie sent that email too worked at different agencies that have some involvement with mobile. It’s safe to say no agency is going to win any business because of how current one’s media kit is, so this kind of collaboration will benefit everyone and threaten no one. Yes, some agency planners and strategists will probably discover a few more potential vendors and partners through this, but again, that alone isn’t going to come at another agency’s expense. And mobile’s an area where there’s so much going on but often in fits and spurts, so it’s great to have areas where people bring it together.

What’s Your Take on 360i’s Social Marketing Playbook?

On top of writing a weekly column, contributing to Ad Age, and posting at 360i’s Digital Connections blog, I’ve had another side project that’s kept me – and quite a number of my colleagues – busy over the past couple months. Today, my agency 360i released its Social Marketing Playbook, a comprehensive guide for how marketers should consider strategically approaching social media.

We’ve been keeping this under wraps for a bit, so now that it’s out, I really want to know what you think. You can comment here, blog or tweet your thoughts, of just email me privately – dberkowitz @ 360i . com. The last thing I want is for this to be a bunch of 360i people talking to ourselves.

Read 360i’s blog post on it at http://blog.360i.com/social-media/playbook or just download it directly at www.360i.com/playbook .

It’s a long read, but if the subject is relevant to you, I hope you’ll find it interesting.

Update: It’s now on Scribd so you can embed it if you’re so inclined:

360i Social Marketing Playbook

What Do AARP and the 4As Have in Common?

Image by Civil Rights via Flickr

Answer: both of them ditched their official names for their acronyms.

AAAA

Ad Age, April 2009:

President-CEO Nancy Hill told attendees that the group, for years known as the American Association of Advertising Agencies, has officially traded its name for its more commonly used acronym, the 4A's.

AARP

The New York Times, August 1999:

The American Association of Retired Persons is no longer the American Association of Retired Persons. It is AARP, and Horace B. Deets, its executive director, insists that, ''It is no longer an acronym.''

What’s next? The American Automobile Association? The American Anthropological Association? Share your predictions in the comments.

Technorati Tags: aarp,aaaas,acronyms,branding,marketing,associations

Facebook Social Ads will prove to be ineffective

If you've managed to stop by the Marketers Studio for any time the past few weeks you would have noticed that David has been unwittingly transformed from being a live, independent minded human being into a two-dimensional promotional vehicle by Facebook for the company Blockbuster Video.  It seems unending.  In fact, it's driven David to the point he's established a contest in which people can create their own Facebook style anti-Social ad.  That is so cool.

My own thoughts on this is that it's obnoxious.  They take an image of someone and place it - without the individual's prior consent or even knowledge - all over the place on Facebook.  And they have the friend implicitly endorsing a product or service.  The subject of the ad doesn't get paid a dime or benefit in any other way.  The ad agency and presumably the client cold save money by not having to pay for a photographer or a creative type or a model or even for stock photography.  And it is a direct violation of the concept of permission marketing, a sacred tenet for many in new media marketing.

But what isn't being discussed is something that would be vital to it's success.  Namely as to whether or not the concept as a marketing too at all.  And there it should fail as well.  Why?

Because it's not targeted to the ad recipient.  Because it's not targeted toward the needs and interests that the recipient that the person has laid out on their Facebook profile.  In fact, it has nothing to do with the recipient of the ad.  Instead, it's like spaghetti thrown up against a wall.  It's old style marketing.  But because it's on a hot property and it has the word "social" in it, it is supposed to be a new wave of advertising.  I think not.

Now I realize that initially it may be intriguing for many at first.  And that interest may last a little longer for college students and high school kids.  But as one gets older (and hits their mid-twenties) gets a little less exciting.  Our interests solidify and we don't need as much affirmation of our interests from our peers as we did when we were a few years younger.  Tangerine Toad has a great piece about it here.

Now, I wasn't much for Beacon either.  But I see this as another extension of over-hyped banal marketing designed to hopefully meet their silly $15 billion valuation.

Facebook Marketing: A Marketer and Member Speakers

In response to my column last week about Facebook, I received an email from Tanya Cottrell, a student at San Diego State University, and her experience struck me as a great example of a 'small business' approach to Facebook. With her permission, I've excerpted some of her thoughts below. I welcome your stories on how you're using the network.

Tanya writes:

I am a student at

San Diego

State

University

and I have used Facebook to promote to my fellow classmates new programs and activities for Campus Recreation. It is very inexpensive and easy to use. I think it cost me $20 to target 20,000 students or something.

Sincerely,
Tanya Cottrell

PS. I think Yahoo should allow niche marketing for their yahoo groups because I know some could be targeted by different industries too. Ex. I am on the Yahoo CIU Italy group which is designed for students who will be studying abroad at the University in Italy and any traveling industry business should promote on this group page because they have a captured audience.

She then added in a subsequent email:

 

Something else I would like to mention I know I previous commented on Yahoo but on Facebook it is incredibly easy to create groups and invite friends to join too. For example, as soon as the fires started raging here in

San Diego

a friend of mine created a group on Facebook where we informed each other of what was happening instead of the news, since the news was spread pretty thin. It was very convenient for people who lived in

San Diego

or friends who lived outside of

San   Diego

and were worried about the situation.

Also, I am studying global marketing abroad in Italy next semester and usually you don’t meet other people going on the trip until you get there but someone opened a Facebook group for our 2008 semester specifically. With our group are able to exchange advice, meet people who are going on the trip before we even go, and a bonus is we are able to coordinate flights and meetings to travel together into

Italy

. As a person learning in marketing, it is these “niche” groups that I would seek out and advertise on. If not advertise have a company account and post comments on the pages. Ex. A tour company can leave a wall post for students with a deal on weekend tours in

Europe

. Everyday there are at least one new person added to the group and a couple wall posts.

Honestly, I haven’t really noticed any of the new Facebook ads unless they have something to do with something already in my mind set. Ex. I am planning my trip for Europe so if I see an ad that says “

Europe

” it catches my eye.

 

Do you actually have an account? You should join. You would be amazed at how many adults are currently on it and as my generation grows older I don’t see Facebook becoming any smaller. We are the social chat room generation - we will always be online.

 

Sincerely,
Tanya Cottrell
San Diego State University 2008 Graduate and Marketing Executive at VivanTech

This is a great snapshot of a multitude of ways marketers and members both can use Facebook.

 

Conversational Autoresponders

One of the classic elements of marketing is surprise, and one way to do that is to include a message in a place that someone wasn't expecting to see it. Last weekend, I did as much with what's typically one of the most boring forms of correspondence: the out-of-office autoresponder:

I'm out until Monday, 9/17 with sporadic access to email until then.... [contact details followed]

David

PS: If you have nothing to do between now and when I return, might I recommend a good book? I'm currently reading John Adams by David McCullogh, which is as much of a love story as it is a history book. What are you reading?

Some people then took the time to respond to the autoresponder. A client wrote, "Dude, the John Adams book is SOOOO 2001. Are you also really excited about Gladiator and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?  :)" Another person wrote, "I loved John Adams and agree it’s a great read.  Currently, I’m finishing a Star Trek novel and am looking at my towering stack of To Be Read to see what will be next." Both cases presented opportunities for conversation that wouldn't have existed otherwise.

I do a similar writeup with my email signature file for my work address. There's a legal disclaimer included at the bottom of the default signature, written in a 7-pt font that no one is ever supposed to read. When someone reads the message on a BlackBerry or for any reason in text rather than HTML form, the text looks bigger, and that's most likely when someone will notice my appendage to the sig file:

This e-mail and attachments, if any, may contain confidential and/or proprietary information. Please be advised that the unauthorized use or disclosure of the information is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete all copies of this email. If you read all this, you need to unwind a bit. How about a good book? I recommend Ali & Nino by Kurban Said, together with Tom Reiss's The Orientalist. Have you read anything good lately?

It's like an Easter egg for sig files, and it's updated periodically so those who figured it out wind up finding something new should they check again.

It's hardly conversational marketing; rather, it's more like marketing conversations - the entire point is to stimulate further conversation (in a context where parties are already communicating). It is a surprise though, and it's a way to slightly liven up an otherwise dead space.

 

Search, Media, and Marketing - iHollywood

More from iHollywood - a great panel, and hopefully the notes capture a lot of these best practices for search engine marketing.

Search, Media, and Marketing
*Dave Fall, VP Product Mgmt - Search Technology, DoubleClick
*Adam Stewart, Industry Dir - Media & Entertainment, Google
*Dema Zlotin, Founder & VP - Strategic Services, SEMDirector
*Robert Hayes, SVP/GM - Digital Media, Showtime
*Bill Macaitis, VP Online Marketing, Fox Interactive Media
Moderator: James Lamberti - SVP Search & Media, comScore Networks

Notes from the panel (my comments in parentheses):

Google - talking to movie studios about films coming out next May

DoubleClick - betting heavily on search (okay, but Google probably could do the search thing pretty well on its own)

comScore: Search as direct response vehicle - is there more?

Google - did study with Nielsen talking to moviegoers after movies. After TV, word of mouth, people were going to Web for most info about films. In terms of level of influence, online was on par with TV. 1/3 of all moviegoers were searching for films online. Gets to full picture of online driving offline.

Showtime: Branding, awareness, tune-in all important - having results consistently ranking high in natural and paid gives positive effect to brand. Latent effect also there. One goal: subscriber acquisition. Targets lifestyle, behavioral campaign (eg people moving). Some responses happen weeks later. Tracked in many ways, such as through rebate offerings.

SEMDirector: Role of search in buying cycle. Search has best ROI of all forms of media. Search is used for arbitrage - monetize traffic on site, but pay fraction of cost on search engines from paid perspecitve, plus organic traffic is free. Some clients have 60% of traffic to site comes from search.

Showtime: 60% of traffic comes from search

comScore: Average is 30%, but can get up there. Most of value of search happens offline. Q: Can search impact brand awareness?

Google: pay attention to whole ecosystem

comScore: Major lift on brand terms when marketing on non-brand terms - holisitc linkage with  rest of media. Q: ROI of paid search, SEO?

Fox: Aggressive with both. SEO - incredible ROI, especially for long run. Takes a lot of work though. Engineers, designers, editorial - all levels of company must get involved. Both provide great ROI.

comScore: Do you need to do both SEM and SEO?

Showtime: Many shows are generic terms - Weeds, Meadowlands, Dexter (maybe not so much for Tudors) - hard for them to beat Dexter shoes on organic search, so need to plan in advance and must purchase words when news hits.

comScore: Any trends of in-house or using agencies for search?

SEMDirector: More of a shift to in-house. More talent coming on the market (really? - not seeing it). Technologies to measure/manage have evolved.

comScore: What about advanced learnings from search?

Google: Amazing correlation between search volume and box office results (outdated study too, before great tracking). Database of intent.

Fox: Most popular gaming search is "cheats." Created new site for cheats. No advertising. 2  million unique visitors in a year and a half. Revolve content creation strategy around search trends.

Showtime: For 2nd, 3rd seasons - uses past search history as planning process for next campaign, eg around top characters/actors. It can factor in even who gets top billing.

(Expect lots of new features starring Paris Hilton)

SEMDirector: Distinction between company selling laptops and notebooks - they sold notebooks, but changed it to laptops because that's what drove searches.

comScore: What would you recommend newcomer do as forward-thinking use of search?

DoubleClick: Companies organizing around organic/paid with comprehensive campaign are doing much better. Takes some mental toughness to reorganize around copy, IT issues, etc.

Google: Integration into other channels - focus on offline.

SEMDirector: Centralizing Center of Excellence model where core strategy for search is set at senior, central level.

Showtime: Sync with offline campaign, eg commercials syncing with paid search.

comScore: Include awareness offline in planning. Use data understood by whole organization.

Where Your Marketing At?

I was just watching VH1 and caught a tagline for the sponsor Boost Mobile that wins the Talking Down to Your Customers Award this week (even if the slogan is quite a few months old):

The good news: Boost ranks first in Google for its slogan, even without the quotes.

Thanks to MobileCrunch for the image (via Google Image Search).

Don't Mess with Texas Branding

I spent Thanksgiving in Dallas, and during part of my stay, Cara took me on a road trip to Austin, with a number of stops along the way in towns as large as Austin and as small as… well, I’m not sure, but they all seemed to have a Bush’s Chicken, a chain that makes Kentucky Fried Chicken seem like fine dining (Bush’s has managed to sign up Time Warner Cable as a promotional partner, testifying either to Time Warner’s marketing brilliance or its desperation).

Along the way, we were constantly reminded of one thing: we were in Texas. We saw far more Texas flags than American flags, and every billboard, pit stop, and inch of space devoted to marketing had some Texas connection, outside of the ads for Kia, which doesn’t seem to get the whole Texas pride thing.

I can’t recall what the New York state flag looks like (I was writing this offline). I think it says something about the Empire State, I vaguely remember a tree, and I think it’s either blue or green, but that’s as close as I can get (it's blue, it says "Excelsior," and there's no tree). This is a state I’ve lived in all my life. On one road trip (we had to wander outside of Dallas for the full effect, as Dallas is only a little less Texan that New York City in most respects), the image of the state flag was branded into my brain to the point where I doubt I’ll never be able to forget it.

Austin was another story. Cara filled me in on the difference between the University of Texas Longhorns and the A&M Aggies. Go figure – the same weekend that I discovered I’m a fan of Vince Young’s alma mater, Vince Young punished my New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys took first place. It’s tough having dual loyalties.

In Austin, everyone was clad in burnt orange Longhorns gear – really, everyone. Babies, grandparents, waitresses, bellhops… everyone. As Cara noted, even the homeless wear the merchandise. The street signs are in burnt orange, and there’s even this odd orange glow about the town. It’s brilliant in some ways from a marketing perspective, but from a visitor’s perspective, it’s either cultish or militaristic. They indoctrinate their young at birth (no joke), and there have been more than a few violent clashes between Longhorns (“hook em!”) and Aggies (“Gig em!”).

As an epilogue, when I was returning from lunch to the office today, I was in the elevator with a flower delivery guy wearing a gray sweatshirt with the word “Texas” in orange emblazoned across the chest, an orange Nike swoosh below. For the first time in my life, I actually knew what that shirt meant. I had to say something, so I did.

Me: UT?
Delivery Guy: Huh?
Me: Longhorns – are you a Longhorns fan?
Delivery Guy: Huh?
Me: Nevermind.
Delivery Guy: No, tell me.
Me: Your shirt – University of Texas Longhorns.
Delivery Guy: Oh, that – I was in Texas visiting a friend and got it there.
Me: I was just there too.

I got off at my floor and he stayed on the elevator, smiling. There we were, two non-Texans in completely different lines of work, 1,500 miles from Austin, bonding over a football team neither of us claim as our own. Branding (and merchandizing) unites us all.

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Blogger's Cattle

WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, just released its "Ethical Blogger Contact Guidelines - 10 Principles for Ethical Contact by Marketers."

The principles can be summed up this way: Abide by the same ethics you'd use when pitching journalists, and don't do anything illegal. Also, avoid coveting thy neighbor's blogger's cattle.

My question for WOMMA, and for any readers: do we really need ethics guidelines for this?

Those marketers who are engaging in best practices already know all this, and those who aren't don't care. As to the handful of marketers in the middle who aren't following these principles but would if only they knew these principles existed... okay, I think that's a straw man; I don't think such a marketer exists.

Do marketers really need guidelines like "I will never ask bloggers to lie for me" and "I understand that if I send bloggers products for review, they are not obligated to comment on them"?

I'm not a member of WOMMA, and I'm in no particular rush to join, but if I were a member, I'd want my dues being put to better use.

As an aside, I'm still not sure what a WOMM is. You can engage in outdoor advertising or not. You can use search marketing or ignore it completely. Word of mouth marketing is something every marketer does, whether they know it or not, and it's inherently part of any type of marketing. When it comes down to it, no marketer is in the business of driving word of mouth; marketers want to drive revenues, and WOM is usually a part of that.

Perhaps it's this confusion over what WOM or WOMM is that led to a list of principles that no one really needs.