Marketing in the Digital Age

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Does offline advertising drive online site visits?
2008-05-06 20:28:00
Many advertisers are asking whether offline media drives their online traffic and to what degree. I recently had to review this for a major blue chip advertiser so I thought I'd share the sources and results I've found:1. Jupiter/IPSOS StudyJupiter and IPSOS got together in 2007 to survey 2,000 US web search users to analyse what drove them to make web searches. The Jupiter/IPSOS research found that 37% of respondents claimed they had searched in response to a TV ad, 30% had searched as a result of seeing a newspaper or magazine ad, 17% had searched after hearing a radio ad and 9% had searched after seeing an outdoor billboard ad. These results were higher amongst "daily searchers" i.e. people who say the use search engines at least on a daily basis. For example the percentage of daily searchers quoting TV and press/magazines as an influence climbed from 37% to 44% for TV and from 30% to 35% for a magazine ad.2. PPA / BMRB StudyThe PPA, a trade body representing UK press and magaz...
More About: Advertising , Offline , Drive , Site , Online

Google trades marks
2008-04-17 10:19:00
So Google is planning to relax its current restrictions and allow keyword advertisers to bid for trademarks and brand names belonging to other companies, including competitors. This means that Company A can bid for keyword searches on Company B - and display an ad in search returns for Company B's name. Clearly this raises issues for both consumers and company lawyers.From the consumer perspective, it seems slightly odd that Google is going down this route. One of Google's stated missions is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Serving up the wrong brand terms against specific brand name searches could cause confusion and even lead some consumers to adjust their respect for the integrity of Google's search processes. As far as I can ascertain (and I'm no lawyer), the legal position is complicated. Google is using trademarked terms in its search algorithm. The issue is whether or not a company can prove that there has been a trade...
More About: Marks

BA should create a Terminal 5 community
2008-03-31 13:14:00
I read today that Sir Tim Bell has suggested that BA or BAA close Terminal 5 for a couple of weeks in order to prevent the piling of this week's new woes on top of those from last week. In my view, BA or BAA should go one step further and use digital media to create a community area which can be used to restore relations with travellers. My suggestion would be a database-driven solution which links up with booking details and allows travellers to register their experience on a multiple choice questionnaire. Answers could be matched to ticket type and traveller type and "bespoke" compensation offers made. Customers could be segmented by:1. Ticket type2. Ticket value3. Customer value (if known) or stated frequency of flights in last year4. Amount of baggage lost (items or weight)5. Type of contents (Holiday, business etc)6. Time without baggage7. Whether departure was prevented or trip cut shortWhy bother with all this you may ask. Well the digital age means that disgruntled travell...
More About: Community , Create

Search Marketing: A new era for TV effectiveness?
2008-03-17 17:05:00
For many years TV advertising has struggled to present convincing arguments about its effectiveness. Whilst it has been possible to show the linkage between TV activity and advertising awareness, it has been far more difficult to identify and statistically explain a causal relationship between TV advertising and sales. What's missing is the numerical stepping stone that forms a quantifiable link between TV advertising and sales response. If such a measure were in place, it would become easier to create and cross the "bridge" between TV advertising and attributable sales - and to build compelling arguments for TV advertising in the Digital Age. Search traffic data may now be providing this bridge. There is increasing and compelling evidence that TV advertising drives search traffic and that the linkages are highly quantifiable. For example, the AA have teamed up with Hitwise and i-Level to contribute the 'Hitwise UK Media Impact Report'. This report contains two case studies, fro...
More About: Marketing

New Internet Measurement Panel
2008-02-25 12:54:00
This month, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the Association of Online Publishers and ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers) have announced a joint venture to create a BARB* style audience measurement panel for the Internet in the UK. The panel will be managed through JICIMS, the Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems. The advent of this panel could herald a major stepping stone in online's journey to full maturity as an advertising medium. But equally, the creation of such a panel creates a Premier League of online media owners. What does this mean for those online media owners who don't make it into the top flight? It's great to be in the BARB ClubIn the TV world, being on the BARB panel puts your channel firmly on the radar of media planners. When measured by BARB, your channel is part of a Premier League of measured media options. These are the channels which have high critical mass; t...
More About: Panel

Scrabble, Scrabulous and Facebook
2008-02-15 10:11:00
It has amazed me that Hasbro and Mattel have demanded the removal of Scrabulous, the online Scrabble application, from Facebook . Scrabulous was a social marketer's dream; many agencies spend endless hours developing Facebook applications hoping to catch a big social media wave, but very few ever make it. The "stars" reach more than 500,000 active users. Scrabulous was one of that elite group; it reached over 650,000. So, given that Scrabulous was effectively a social marketing campaign to die for, why did Hasbro and Mattel ban it? Their lawyers have argued copyright was being infringed. Executives at these leading toy companies probably felt that players playing Scrabulous would dent or damage sales of the original Scrabble board game. Let's not forget that before all this happened, Scrabble was a tired brand. It was a fifties product owned by an over fifties audience. It needed a shot in the arm. I can just imagine the agency brainstorm convened to resurrect the brand. It might...

Microsoft+Yahoo! Search: 1+1 doesn't equal 5
2008-02-05 19:15:00
Healthy competition between media owners and communications suppliers is a good thing and should be encouraged. Competition keeps products healthy, prices fair and consumers happy. But I'm not sure a Microsoft /Yahoo ! search merger is sufficient to create any notable or lasting impact on the current structure of search marketing. The problem is that Google is the giant in search - especially here in the UK where it has an 81% market share. That leaves Microsoft, Yahoo! and some others carving up the remaining 19%. The problem with these percentages is that they are real peoples' behavioural preferences. Changes in industry structure and product ownership will not necessarily change consumer behaviour. History tells us that dominant brand positions can be very difficult, if not impossible to dislodge. In fact category leaders are not dislodged; categories are dislodged. We can use transport examples to illustrate the point. The leading stagecoach companies gave way to the leading...
More About: Search , Equal , Yahoo search

Press ad revenue to fall by £1bn - at least
2008-01-21 13:44:00
The Guardian has reported WARC and the Advertising Association research which forecasts that UK press advertising spend could fall by £1.6 billion by 2019. At the Newspaper Society Conference in 2000 I identified a stratum of media communication that was dangerously exposed to competition from the Internet. It's that layer of product and service based advertising - where to go, where to find it, how to do it - often locally. In short, it's the "small ads"; fractionals, classified ads and directory entries. This recent forecast is at least realistic and possibly an over optimistic scenario for press. Press is under attack from three sides. First, consumers aren't using it for news in the way they used to, second consumers are finding product information in online search when they need it, niot in fractional press ads when media planners think they need it, and third, as a consequence of item 2, advertisers are finding far greater sales efficiencies for product ads in areas like...
More About: Revenue , Fall

Online revolutionises SME marketing
2008-01-14 22:04:00
Targeting Small and Medium sized enterprises with less than 250 employees (SMEs) has been a notoriously difficult area of marketing and communications planning for many years. Even though there are nearly two million UK businesses employing between 1 and 250 people, the available communications options were based around four areas:1. Direct communications: Direct Mail, telemarketing and email2. Trade journals (i.e. verticals catering for a specific area of SME activity)3. Business sections in broader newspapers and magazines (i.e. horizontal targeting of management and business owners)4. Sponsorship of trade exhibitions and eventsCreating something new within these options was a bit like seeing how many different ways one could fold the same piece of paper. Even more difficult was reaching buyers through these channels when they were active and at the point of making a purchase. But now the growth and maturity of internet has spawned a large number of new, highly targeted and relev...
More About: Marketing , Online

Circulation of The Sun drops below 3m
2008-01-11 14:25:00
To many outside the media community, this statistic may not seem like a big deal. But to those within it make no mistake; this is a bombshell. Whilst it wasn't unpredicted it's a media equivalent of a Thames Barrier breach or a visit to central London by space debris. December is often a tough month for newspapers, but that can only come as cold comfort to The Sun's executives. They'll be painfully aware of the significance of this watershed number.This week's events with Barack Obama hint as to why this is happening. On Wednesday morning UK newspaper readers didn't wake up to news, they woke up to the best bet on the outcome as it stood on the previous night. UK newspapers ran generally non-committal, hedge-betting pieces alongside other unrelated headlines. For example, The Times ran a "Cannabis Clampdown" main headline under a picture of Obama (the pollsters' safest bet at the time) with a sub-head reading "Obama magic lures record number of voters." It's now an inescapab...

Coverage, frequency and response rates - the old rules apply online too
2008-01-03 20:56:00
Every now and then the topic of coverage, frequency and response rates arises and marketing or agency personnel find themselves trying to identify the optimal levels of communications spend required to maximise response ROI. Some argue that in order to maximise response rates the message has to be seen 'several times' before it is acted upon. Others take the view that each ad has to stand on its own two feet and 'do the the business' each time it is seen. So what is the optimal frequency level required to maximise direct response ROI?Over the last few weeks I've had cause to dip into both Drayton Bird's excellent Common Sense Direct Marketing and also Graeme McCorkell's equally robust and informative Direct and Database Marketing. Both the books emphasise what I know to be the case from countless experiments:Any direct response ad must wash its face on the first exposure. Adding exposures actually decreases the overall response rate and consequently increases the overall cos...
More About: Online , Rules , Rates , Coverage , Frequency

Is this the Mother of All Direct Mail packs?
2008-01-03 17:51:00
Whilst this year's Reader's Digest prize draw direct mail pack may not win this year's 'Most Creative Direct Mail Pack of the Year' award, what you are looking at here could be the Mother of All DM packs. The folks over at Reader's Digest are masters of direct marketing. They've been doing direct mail for years; testing, refining, testing and refining, year in and year out. They analyse performance to the nth degree, looking at sales value, customer value, response data files, segment results and ROI from almost every imaginable perspective. They work out what delivers and do more, and they work out what doesn't and do less.So, what you see here is not down to chance. It's based on knowledge. The envelope size, colour, markings of priority and response deadlines you see here are all devices that have earned the right to be there, they are all devices that work to generate the highest possible sales per £ spent. Given its lack of creative credentials, this pack throws open ...
More About: Packs , Rect

Christmas retail sales: slump or channel shift?
2007-12-20 18:27:00
As we approach Christmas many business analysts are making their forecasts and observations on retail sales. The British Retail Consortium offers a gloomy set up for Christmas with its November Sales Monitor reporting that retail sales in November added up to the worst sales growth in two years. Kevin Hawkins of the BRC adds, ?This is the worst result for London since October 2005 and does not bode well for the run-up to Christmas". Whilst interest rates are clearly part of this picture I think there may be other factors at work. As we move into November and December consumers start thinking about Christmas shopping. For many years the only option was to wrap up warm and battle your way down city centre pavements. But now of course, that's all changed. Consumers can sit at home or in the office (at lunchtime of course) and graze effortlessly from one online catalogue to another. That this is happening should not come as any surprise. And certainly not to anyone who read Michael de...
More About: Channel , Shift

Create your own bespoke version of Bob Dylan's classic video for Subterrane
2007-12-10 18:30:00
This blog rarely reports on digital creative work, it's usually about digital strategy, online media issues or search marketing - but this Bob Dylan messaging service by design agency Ten4design caught my eye. It allows you to create your own custom version of Bob Dylan's classic card video for Subterranean Homesick Blues. Try it hereOn a topical note the day Led Zeppelin reform (10/12), the guy with the beard in this video looks like a younger lightweight version of Zeppelin's very own stick wielding manager Peter Grant.
More About: Video , Classic , Version , Create , Spoke

Is losing customer data the only way to raise its profile?
2007-11-26 12:58:00
So, a copy of the entire UK Child Benefit recipient database has gone missing. If you haven't heard the story, a junior government employee is alleged to have put the entire database of 7 million families receiving the government's Child Benefit - along with their bank account details - onto two CDs and somehow they've got lost in the post. They don't appear to be at the location they were sent from, nor at the location they were sent to and not in the hands of the courier company who is supposed to have carried them. It doesn't surprise me that this has happened. Some might say it was bound to happen sooner or later. But this wasn't the first time a database has gone missing and it certainly won't be the last. Moreover, it's certainly not the first time an organisation has unwittingly compromised the security of individuals on whom it holds sensitive personal data. In February of this year the Nationwide Building Society was fined £980,000 after a laptop containing 11m cust...
More About: Data , Customer , Profile , Profil

Colossus Restart
2007-11-15 11:00:00
Today one of the world's first digital computers, Colossus has been restarted at Bletchley Park after 14 years of reconstruction. Colossus was designed and built in the 1940's to crack German wartime codes. The restart is being given added atmosphere by German radio amateurs who will transmit authentic messages from Germany using an original German Lorenz SZ42 machine. Colossus will try to crack the code. Apparently, anyone with their own computer who can receive the signal can join in the code-breaking fest. There are three levels of challenge based on the wheel settings of the Lorenz machine in Germany. First up is what could be considered the easier option (which I'd call extremely difficult if not impossible), then medium (which I'd call impossible) and finally "the Killer" (a challenge that could be compared to racing a wheelbarrow against a highly tuned Ferrari). Anyone who fancies having a go can find the transmission details here. According to Tony Sale the leader of th...
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The new white goods
2007-11-12 12:11:00
Many marketers use the terms brown and white goods to describe electrical products. Historically white goods were fridges, freezers, washing machines and dishwashers. Brown good were things that I suppose where originally produced in bakerlite - radios, TVs and radiograms (remember, your granny may have had one like this). But of course now Apple has redefined ownership of white. What were brown goods items have become white goods. I wonder if white goods will go brown?
More About: Goods , White

Radiohead new album sales
2007-11-08 23:43:00
All sorts of conflicting stories about online sales of Radiohead 's new album In Rainbows. Consensus seems to be around 1m downloads with revenue per download at between $5 (£2.50) and $10 (£5)per sale. Apparently, Thom Yorke is keeping quiet. All I can say is a) I did register, but have forgotten to buy it and b) that's what we used to pay for albums in the late 70's.
More About: Sales , Album

Can Facebook take adrevenue from Google?
2007-11-07 20:44:00
So Facebook 's founder Mark Zuckerberg has declared that "The next 100 years start today, and it's going to be different." Well both points are certainly true when isolated from the immediate context of his comments. But are they true for the audiences he is specifically addressing?By saying that the next 100 years start today, young Mr Z. must surely be waving a derogatory digit at Google . From Google's perspective, the next 100 years began in autumn 1997 when Backrub was renamed and made available to Stanford students. Mr. Z. thinks he's onto something bigger and better than Google. And maybe he is. But the reality is that nobody can say for sure. Why? Well that's because Google's adrevenue model is proven and Facebook's is not.To date, Google's adrevenue has been generated from a direct response model; PPC effectively took us back to the old results-based payment per inquiry (PI) deals. Direct response advertisers like paying for sales results and not for simply being see...

Is Facebook worth $15bn?
2007-10-26 18:27:00
So Microsoft has paid $240m for 1.6% of Facebook which makes Facebook potentially worth $15bn. The question on almost everyone's lips; is it really worth that much? Well when you look at everything Facebook potentially opens up, it may well be. Here's why:First, This deal potentially gives Microsoft a new advertising platform that will enable it to compete much more effectively with Google for ad revenue. Facebook merges the capability to collect individual level member data with the ability to show ads. So it's like fully segmented direct marketing in an online display environment. Or put another way, it's like Google Adwords with customer data as the driver of ads served rather than the keyword terms being searched. Microsoft has a 5% share of the paid for search market versus Google's 75%. If Microsoft's strategy is right, they may well significantly increase their share of online ad revenue. Second, the marketers holding the ad revenue purse strings spend large chunks of...
More About: Worth , Wort

A nice touch
2007-10-09 14:25:00
When Dorling Kindersley wanted to promote their book 'Reflexology for Life' by Kevin and Barbara Kunz, they could have run a DM, press or magazine campaign targeting health fanatics. All these would have been interesting, but they would have lacked any form of interactivity able to to bring the subject of reflexology immediately to life. So instead DK created a widget. Rolling over the widget allows you to see which areas of the palm are connected with different parts of the body. It's a question we've all asked from time to time, and if we've had it answered, probably forgotten. So the idea has appeal to anyone who has even a latent interest in the subject.The widget can be downloaded into blogs, facebook and other social network sites. It makes the promotion much more interactive and it's a fun way of drawing attention to the subject. And of course, people will pass it on - for nothing. A nice touch, you might say. You can find out more here
More About: Touch , Nice

Can keywords help define Brand DNA?
2007-10-03 17:45:00
Brands are defined by many factors; their personalities, the personalities of their owners, the opinions of their consumers, their attributes, their positioning relative to competitors, their packaging, their price, distribution, advertising and so on. But as substantially more marketing budget moves towards online, we may be about to see another set of definitions being used to define brands. These new definitions will be built around the keywords that consumers use to meet their needs, solve their problems and locate brand solutions. We?ve all heard about the long tail. And so far that?s been a power law / Pareto curve. But I reckon that when it comes to specific brands, and we move from generic to custom search terms and keywords, strange things may happen to the relationship between keywords and customers along that curve. For example, we know that conversion rates are more likely to increase as more refined ?long tail? searches are made. But other things may happen too; the v...
More About: Keywords , Brand , Define

Can direct marketing work for FMCG products?
2007-09-28 12:00:00
I read this week that Warburton's bread is seeking a lead DM agency. Even as one of direct marketing's staunchest advocates, I found myself asking why an FMCG brand like Warburton's would hire a DM agency. Is it because bread is a high ticket item worthy of high levels of individual level communication investment? Nope; at around 70p, a Warburton?s loaf costs about the same as a fully costed unit of direct mail. Is it because Warburton?s bread is a highly complex product that requires the type of detailed explanation that only DM or online can deliver? Nope; surely bread is one of the simplest things in life requiring the least explanation. So is it because retail buyers have become so enamoured with direct mail effectiveness that they?re now more likely to stock product because it?s supported by a DM push than a 600 rating TV campaign? I doubt it. Many marketers on the client side feel pressured to show they are using more 'cost effective' techniques like DM. But there's a p...
More About: Marketing , Products , Direct Marketing , Work , Direct

Branded Apps are the right way to exploit Web 2.0
2007-08-30 21:55:00
Whilst messing around in Facebook, I noticed this "Show Friends Where You've Travelled" application from Tripadvisor. For those marketers who're trying to make sense of Web 2.0 and figure out how it relates to their business, this is part of the answer. I also like the way it ties in with the "18,103,970 Travelers From 190 Countries Planned Trips Here This Week" count on their homepage. For what's essentially an information service, it's a smart way of telling current and prospective customers how good they are. Oh, and there's data collection too. The only downside was it's US only, and I'm sat here with (most) of my friends in the UK.
More About: Exploit

Hulu: Will it work?
2007-08-30 17:14:00
Hulu is the new "YouTube2" from media giants News Corp and NBC Universal. It will be the online home of quality TV content such as 24, The Office and The Simpsons. Apart from "where do they get that name?", the online world is asking the question, will Hulu take off? A quick look at today's 'most popular' on YouTube tells us that both user generated and 'corporate' generated TV content are happy bedfellows. Corporate content runs through many of the most popular clips, though in virtually all cases it has been reduced to snippets or rearranged as a video montage. As well as being cuts, these popular clips have another tricky characteristic for the likes of NewsCorp and NBC Universal: they are short, often just a few minutes long. This is because YouTube uploaders know what YouTube viewers want. When people use YouTube they are in a particular mindset; they are looking for immediate results; that moment when... Viewers are often not interested in the ten minutes before or the te...
More About: Youtube , Work , Hulu

How would online advertising fare in a recession?
2007-08-24 13:21:00
Recent uncertainties about US credit and its distribution throughout the world economy have meant that we've been seeing and hearing a lot more of the word "recession". Naturally, this has prompted occupants of the online world to ask how another recession might affect them now the Internet is a far more established part of marketing. This might seem like a very daunting question, answerable only by those in possession of a crystal ball, but in fact, advertiser behaviour in a recession follows a reasonably predictable pattern. Here's a brief summary of what is likely to happen:1) Advertisers spend less: For many companies, a line of red ink through the ad budget is a quick and easy way to put some more money on the bottom line. If there's no immediate and significant downward effect on sales, then many senior managers will see it as a painless way to maintain profits.2) Advertising gets cheaper: As there's still roughly the same number of advertising opportunities, but low...
More About: Online Advertising , Online , Recession , Fare

Why marketers can't let Facebook jitters put them off Web 2.0 / Web 3.0
2007-08-08 15:25:00
This week marketers have discovered that sites like Facebook etc cover the whole socio-political spectrum, not just the fun, funny and socially acceptable bits. Let's hope this doesn't divert attention away from the significant opportunities that genuine Web 2.0 / 3.0 applications can offer marketers. Marketing in the 21st century will be about search and find, that is pull rather than push. It will be about solving personal needs with customised solutions i.e. one to one rather than mass marketing. This is why Google is worth $160bn; it has cornered the search/pull side of this equation. Success for many brands will be defined by their ability to be found by consumers. Using a standard ad to sales ratio of 1:10 Google's annual revenue of $10bn could put the value of the sales resulting from these searches at $100bn. Many Web 2.0 techniques will be at the core of this new 'search and find' marketing philosophy. Blogs are an excellent way to align brands to important content and...
More About: Marketers , Marketer

"You"
2007-07-09 22:11:00
According to Drayton Bird, Rudolf Flesch, the reading ease pioneer discovered that there is a direct relationship between effective selling and the use of the word "You". The more You's in your copy, the more sales. The idea being that sales success comes from talking about the prospect more than yourself. Whilst sorting through some old newspapers, I discovered Ben Schott's Beatles miscellany, compiled to celebrate the 40th birthday of Sgt. Pepper (Times June 2, 2007). In it, Schott analyses the Beatles' most sung words and observes that 'You' is the single most frequently sung word at 260 times. It is followed by 'I' at 178 and a bit later by 'Me' at 137. 'Your' comes in at 36.Yesterday, I saw a leading brand advertiser - one that is engaged in a new customer land grab - running copy along the lines of "...our...".

Jonathan Durden hits the Big Brother House
2007-06-15 19:50:00
Are the 15 minutes of fame really worth it? Once a person surrenders themselves to the jaws of the baying media, anything can happen. Many people who court and secure fame later find themselves regretting it. On the South Bank Show earlier this week Jarvis Cocker remarked that once he'd made it, after fifteen years of trying, he'd ?lost his own life?. I?ve worked with Jonathan Durden at PHD. He?s an ideas man. At the very least, he should be hosting something along the lines of ?The Apprentice For Those Who Think They've Got The Best Business Idea In The World ?. He?d be the perfect talent spotter to cover that intertidal zone between the chaos of creativity and the rationale of business. But fortune has chosen to make Jonathan Durden famous in a different way. Now he'll be remembered for what he does in the BB house over the next 20 days, not what he's achieved in business over the last 20 years. Moreover, when whatever's going to happen has happened, Jonathan Durden will ...
More About: House , Big Brother , Hits , Brother

The secrets of search copy success
2007-06-09 19:25:00
Paid for search marketing offers all advertisers exactly the same creative format; a small text box. What is said in that small box can have a critical effect on campaign success. Text box copywriters have to make it happen with three lines of around 35 characters (give or take the requirements of each individual search engine) or around 15 words in total. Success depends on arranging these basic resources into an effective headline and two compelling lines of copy. All search text boxes have effectively the same call to action. What are the secret of success? 1) Think before you write - work on your proposition and how well it reflects the attributes of your brand or the benefits your are offering before you start writing.2) Appeal to a need; consumers are searching because they want to solve a problem. Create copy that anticipates that problem and delivers a relevant solution. Don't over-promise; consumers don't like disappointment.3) Check out the competition, but don't let t...
More About: Search , Secrets , Copy