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![consumer mobile searches rose 355% in the past year, since Q4 2010.
During the Search Insider Summit earlier this month, we asked marketers attending the event to name the percentage of their
online budgets earmarked for mobile in 2012. Half of the respondents said they would allocate between 11% and 20%, followed
by one-quarter who said between 1% and 5%, and another quarter that said they would allocate between 6% and 10%.
Marketers and advertisers should expect major changes to occur in search for 2012. Brands now imprint QR codes on
everything from pickup trucks to billboards, helping consumers find information on the go through smartphones. In a blog
recap posted last week, Googlers wrote that 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help when shopping by
comparing prices and finding more product info. About 70% use their smartphones in a store, and 77% have contacted a
business via mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business.
Aside from QR codes, marketers should expect a higher dependency on voice search in 2012. Google and Bing launched versions
first, but Apple's Siri for the iPhone showed us a better way to get answers and produce actions without typing keywords into
a search engine.
Yes, the Feds Are Spying on Social Media
by Erik Sass,
Just in case anyone still harbors illusions on this score, the answer is ―Yes, the federal government is definitely spying on
social media.‖ In the latest development, a group of online privacy advocates is suing the Department of Homeland Security for
failing to release records of its online spying -- which isn’t terribly surprising, considering that it’s not really spying anymore if
everyone knows what you’re doing.
The DHS has admitted in a public statement that it creates profiles to monitor ―publicly available online forums, blogs, public
websites, and message boards,‖ including social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, in what is known as the ―Publicly
Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative.‖ The aim is to ―to provide situational awareness‖ for
the federal, state, and local governments; the DHS ―may also share this de-identified information with international partners
and the private sector where necessary and appropriate for coordination.‖ Crucially, the DHS statement also reveals that
participating agencies may reveal personally identifying information about Internet users in emergency, life-and-death
situations.
The list of search and monitoring tools used by the DHS includes Collecta, RSSOwl, Social Mention, Spy, Who’s Talkin, and Shrook
RSS Reader, while public content and media sharing sites monitored by DHS include Hulu, iReport.com, Live Leak, Magma, Time
Tube, Vimeo, YouTube, and MySpace Video. Twitter alone is monitored through a score of Twitter-specific search engines and
trend monitoring services.
The array of search terms used by DHS to keep tabs on social media includes ―Secret Service,‖ ―Border Patrol,‖ ―Agent,‖ ―Task
Force,‖ ―Air Marshal,‖ ―Assassination,‖ ―Attack,‖ ―Drill,‖ ―Exercise,‖ ―Cops,‖ ―Dirty Bomb,‖ ―Militia,‖ ―Shooting,‖ ―Shots fired,‖ ―Deaths,‖
―Explosion,‖ ―Gangs,‖ ―Breach,‖ and ―Lockdown,‖ as well as -- surprise -- the names of agencies like the CIA, the FBI, and of
course the DHS itself.
Back in April 2011 an organization called the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request
for records pertaining to the DHS use of social media monitoring -- a request that EPIC says the DHS has failed to respond to.
Thus on December 20 EPIC filed an FOIA lawsuit against DHS for these records, which EPIC director Marc Rotenberg told ABC
News will supply more information about when, where, and how social media monitoring is used.
ABC News quotes Rotenberg: ―We want to know how they're collecting information online, what they're collecting online and if
there's legal basis to do this… We are trying to understand what the circumstances are when the DHS is engaged in tracking to
social media sites.‖
In an earlier post I wrote about the fact that the DHS is using social networks to ferret out fake "green card" marriages
between U.S. citizens and immigrants for the purpose of obtaining residency or citizenship for the latter. According to
awesomely frank internal DHS records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act
request, ―Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of ‘friends’ link to their pages and many of
these people accept cyber-friends that they don't even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for [the Office of Fraud
Detection and National Security] to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent
activities.‖
Top 14 Things Marketers Need to Know About QR Codes
Angie Schottmuller, December 30, 2011118 Comments
I recently spoke at SES New York on best practices for mobile marketing with QR codes. Here's a follow-up crash course on
tools, tactics, and best practices to confidently help you jumpstart a 2D barcode marketing campaign.
1. A QR Code is a 2D Barcode
QR codes are an encoded barcode image resembling a square-like maze. Unlike a 1-dimensional UPC code, a 2-dimensional
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![The company has safe search which means that you’re unlikely to find porn, unless you’re looking for it. In which case adult-
rated images may show up.
One of our employees, Matt, would run an internal test. His wife would bake cookies, if you could find porn, his wife would give
you a cookie.
When quizzed about the security of Google’s data logs, Schmidt revealed that though it does not monitor individuals, the search
giant does track IP addresses:
There are suitations where we maintan the logs of people’s queries, the information that is identifiable to an IP address is
retained on the order of a year. Identifying an IP doesn’t mean tracking you, if you search from a corporation it may not show up
as you.
It is true that for a period of time the record of your searches is retained, and at a certain point we anonymise it, in such a way
that you couldn’t go back [and trace the person who the searches belong to].
Business in China
Google was involved in the most public battle of any foreign company in China, which eventually led to it moving its core
operations from the country to neighbouring Hong Kong, which Schmidt refers to as ―the other China, which we like‖.
He describes China’s censorship as ―a truly bad set of laws‖ which Google couldn’t handle any longer after five years in the
country.
On learning to fly
It is not widely known that Schmidt is a fully licensed pilot, having taken up the hobby while he was at Novell:
I fly with professional pilots [when travelling for work but i] started flying at Novell, while we were working on a turnaround. I
need a distraction so I learnt how to fly.
My instructor told me, ‘you have to focus on this or you will kill yourself!” So it was a good focusing device.
Social media, gadgets and TV sets
Schmidt admitted that he doesn’t just use Google devices and products, and he readily admits that he tinkers with ―everything‖,
from Facebook to iPads and more:
Google Plus is my preferred tool but I’d encourage everyone to use all of this, not just Google’s. There are differences between
them, and it is what our age is about. I marvel at what people are to do, say and build online.
The company executive chairman did drop a bit of a clanger, however, when he referred to the Galaxy Nexus as ―the Nexus Prime‖,
before going on to champion it as the best device ever made.
As a former programmer, Schmidt spoke passionately about the potential of mobile. Though he didn’t mention his prediction that
Android would overtake iOS as the operating system of choice for developers on this occasion, he stress the importance of
mobile for developers today, saying:
If you’re a young programmer today, you’re building for the mobile phone, that’s where the action is.
Earlier this week, Schmidt told an Italian newspaper that Google would work onintroducing a tablet in the next six months and
he further discussed new areas for the company. Google is working on deals with TV manufacturers, he said, and that ―most‖‘ of
them are integrating Android into their ―high-end‖ sets.
With Apple reportedly set to make Steve Jobs’ dream of interactive a reality, it looks there will be a new area for Google to spar
with its rival in. Let’s hope this doesn’t end up in the courtroom too.
In a keynote before his interview at the event, Schmidt spoke of his belief that the Internet, mobile and technology can make a
positive impact across the world, as we earlier wrote.
2012 Digital Planning Guide
Robin Neifield
Marketers everywhere are scrambling to set their marketing and digital marketing strategies for the coming year, and
encountering obstacles ranging from corporate politics to shifting or disappearing budgets to a lack of appropriate information
upon which to base that strategy. Most would welcome a tested approach to help define a strategy in a way that can drive
planning and action and get internal support, but first we have to agree on what that strategy is. A budget allocation is not a
strategy; neither is a goal a strategy - regardless of how well-defined that goal might be. The strategy is the much-needed plan
to get you from your current state to your desired state.
This is an outline of a 12-step plan to help you understand your current state, define your desired state, and plot your strategy
to bridge the gap from one to the other for a successful 2012 in digital marketing.
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![As for the digital data, she said it's only preliminary and won’t be part of MRI’s official ratings until the spring when a second
wave of research will have been done.
As for the decline in print audience, she suggested that circulation, which has been on a downward trend, played a part.
―Circulation is down,‖ she said. ―There are fewer magazines out there. We don’t know how much of those [readers] have
migrated digitally. I’m not saying it’s good news. But we’re in the middle of a transition.‖
Want Digital Content Domination? - Accelerate content innovation
Jeanniey Mullen | December 23, 2011
Today, every brand wants to do more with the content they own. They want to share it with more people, sell it to more
people, or even just engage more of their company in reading it. And, this is no short-term task. The average company is
expecting to work on this for at least five years before they feel their digital content distribution strategy is solid and
effective. That said, no one person or company claims to know all of the answers in generating a proven path toward success
and high-value brand equity. Everyone loves to hear what others are doing and innovate off of that.
After having been on the road for three weeks, speaking with CMOs and CEOs of companies - from B2B to B2C, and across all
industries and countries, I felt there were 10 pieces of advice that could help everyone accelerate their innovation, or simply
gain enough courage to get started. A few people asked me to share them in a broader forum, so here they are:
1. Build an effective preference center (aka, get people to opt in). This means gather approval to email, text, Facebook
message, tweet, and whatever else you can think of. Putting my old email hat on, anyone who gives you permission
to speak to them will buy 25 percent more than those who don't.
2. Get a social sentiment monitor and gather the data. Every brand talks about monitoring social sentiment so they can
respond in a time of crisis. But that is not enough. You need to monitor your commentary and save the words people
use to talk about your brand. Those words then need to be used in your SEO, SEM, and marketing efforts. Speaking in
the terms your customers understand, you will increase revenue 15 percent or more.
3. Use print - don't lose print. If you do anything in print, you have this unique, once-in-a-lifetime chance to use it to
target your best prospects for digital. Stickers, QR codes, SMS codes, and more will enable you to educate and
transition your customer to your digital content.
4. Create and distribute video. Regardless of what business you are in, it can be represented visually. And that is
important, because one video can impact five efforts. Video is currently the most malleable digital format.
Meaning…you do not need to worry about resizing it for different mobile devices, or color correct. It can stream, or be
embedded. But most importantly, it can be overlaid into digitized documents easily to wow the consumer, shared on
social networks to introduce the prospect, included on your website for exclusive insights, and be used with partners
and sales team as well.
5. Define your international position. While the shackles of print have often held us back from thinking globally, digital
distribution enables us to overcome those issues. This is hard. It's hard to think globally for all content distribution.
But it's key to defining emerging market acceptance and true global domination.
6. Phone a friend. Just like the early days of email, none of us know what tomorrow will bring in terms of technical
advancements, strategies, consumer acceptance, etc. Now is not the time to try and do it on your own. Reach out and
ask an expert for help. Some great resources (and people) I have enjoyed working with recently include The CMO Club,
Argyle, ExactTarget, Webtrends, Skyword, and The IMA (and of course my own crews at my company and VIVmag).
7. Create a consumer panel. In our overly social world, consumers like to feel like they are making the decisions. They
want to help. Reach out to them and ask for advice, testing support, and help. If you have a consumer brand, you will
be shocked to see how asking for help will lead to new business deals.
8. Remember the four defining elements of a digital strategy. Consider what your goal is across these four factors when
building anything digitally to ensure you are reaching the right target with the right product features: age
(generation), access (small or large screen), intent (answers or entertainment), and engagement (fast flip vs. content
engagement).
Good luck! And share you stories and learnings. At this point in the digital distribution lifecycle, things are going to keep
getting better and more exciting!
Traditional Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Slowly Catching On To Online Search Marketing
by Laurie Sullivan,
While it may not come as a shock to online advertisers and marketers to find pure-play Internet giants at the top of the list
for companies most likely to take America's dollars this holiday season, it's important to note that the study also reveals
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![Does that mainly help existing players, or also open opportunities for new businesses?
Both. If you're an Amazon or a Facebook or a Google or even a startup, the fact that you can potentially address 2 billion
smartphones in the developed world or 6 billion in three or five years, in the entire world, it's just a huge expansive market.
But it also opens up new kinds of businesses. The big thing that happened in 2011 was sort of the rise of the verticals, and e-
commerce was the hotbed of that. We saw the rise of a whole category of e-commerce category killers in verticals that 5 or
10 years ago couldn't support high growth companies because the markets weren't big enough.
What e-commerce players are you thinking of?
We just did an investment in Fab, which is just growing by leaps and bounds, and there's Airbnb [Andreessen-Horowitz is an
investor]. That company is growing vertically. It's software eats real estate, software eats home furnishings. Another very
exciting company, which we're not invested in, is called Warby Parker, an e-tailer for eyeglasses. So it's software eats Lens
Crafters.
It's just on and on and on across different verticals because of the number of consumers who a) have PCs, b) are on the
Internet, and now c) have smartphones. I expect vertical specialization to continue and there to be killer Silicon Valley style
software companies in all kinds of verticals and categories in 2012 and 2013 that weren't viable three or five years ago.
Just e-commerce?
E-commerce was the hotbed of vertical personalization of 2011, and big fat vertical expansion goes into other categories
other than e-commerce in 2012. It could be content. It could be new kinds of service providers.
We've seen some already.
One I really like that we're not involved in is Uber. Uber is software eats taxis. It's almost entirely a smartphone-based
application bringing town cars to you.... It's a killer experience. You watch the car on the map on your phone as it makes its
way to you.
That's smartphone specific, and there's going to be all kind of things like that. Task services likeZaarly and Taskrabbit are
delivering a sort of distributed mobile workforce available on demand through your smartphone.
These are slicing and dicing different aspects of the economy into vertical slices or category slices and making them
available via smartphones hooked to these really powerful networks with cloud computing on the back-end. We're just
seeing a pattern of companies doing this over and over.
So who should be scared in 2012?
I think 2012 is the year that retail--retail stores--really starts to feel the pressure. And I don't say that because I don't like
retail stores. I loved going to Borders. I thought it was a great consumer experience. And I was a huge fan of Tower Records.
But the economic pressure is huge as e-commerce gets more and more viable and as these category killers emerge in the
superverticals. If I own mall real estate or retail stores in cities, or if I own chains like electronics chains, I'd be concerned.... I
think electronics and clothes are going to be a real pressure point. Home furnishing is going to come under pressure. It's going
to get harder and harder to justify the retail store model.
The model has this fundamental problem where every store has to have its own inventory and every store is also a
warehouse. The economic deadweight of that entire inventory in each store--that's what took down Borders.
Retail runs at very thin margins. So if e-commerce takes a 5 percent or 10 percent or 15 percent bite out of your category,
then it becomes harder to stay in business as a retailer. So I think 2012 is the year that that really kicks in.
Doesn't this bode well for the e-commerce incumbents?
For sure, Amazon is going to do really well and anybody with major e-commerce is going to do real well. But the new
companies in e-commerce verticals are providing a very differentiating customer experience that is much more like shopping
as entertainment.
Fab has more interesting products and merchandising and presents them in a more interesting way with much deeper social
interaction. At Fab, something like 25 percent of the purchases over Black Friday weekend were a result of Facebook referrals.
There's a whole fun element to shopping and whole entertainment element and whole excitement element that the first
generation of e-tailers were not very good at.
Like Amazon?
I like to say that the first generation of e-tailers was really good for nerds. Amazon for me is--I love it--it's like the biggest
warehouse superstore of all time. It's just awesome, and I love wandering up and down the aisles and it's like, 'wow, look at
that.' If I do enough searches I can discover anything.
The new generation of e-tailers are much more appealing to normal people--people who like to go the mall, have fun with
their friends and try on clothes and compare clothes, and go home and brag to their roommate what they got on sale, and all
the rest of it. A lot of new startups are not only very viable but also growing very fast because they provide a very different
experience.
Aren't there opportunities for startups to help?
Yeah, there's going to be a big opportunity for software assistance for the incumbents at getting better in the new world.
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![As an example, at eBay [where Andreessen is on the board], we bought a company called Milo, and there' a competitor
called Shopkick. These guys expose local inventory on retail store shelves and make it available as part of the e-commerce
experience. That's the kind of software that's going to be incredibly useful to retail chains as they seek to compete online
because it unlocks the local inventory.
The other category is represented by Groupon and Foursquare [both also Andreessen-Horowitz investments] and a whole new
generation of these local e-commerce platforms, which is bringing online the gigantic number of businesses in the world that
aren't on the Internet today at all. Whether it's a restaurant or hairdresser or day care center or yoga center or lawn care
firms and on and on, there are so many that just aren't online in any meaningful way today, even 15 years into the Web.
Advertising on Google doesn't do them any good because it doesn't matter if people come to their Web site, it's not how they
get business. So there's going to be a whole set of new companies, like Groupon and Foursquare, that are going to unlock
these local businesses that aren't even online today.
If nothing else, Groupon has done a great job of getting local businesses online.
I've always felt that the criticism of Groupon has been unwarranted. People have really underappreciated what Groupon has
done, which is they've created a way for small businesses that aren't online to spend money online and be able to dial up
customers on demand. That's a really big deal.
I think Foursquare is a revolution in the local experience of cities and connecting to small businesses around you, through
information and, increasingly, coupons and offers. Again, it's customer acquisitions. There are going to be more of these kinds
of things--and a whole bunch of new ideas in 2012.
And this all circles back to smartphones.
Foursquare was impossible before smartphones. There was no way to implement it. Then, there's the other side of this. There's
the user app for Foursquare, but there's also going to be the merchant app for all these things.
Local merchants, like local restaurant owners, are going to have a smartphone app they can use to dial up customers on
demand. Whether that's from Groupon or Foursquare--any of these companies can do that. A lot of small business owners are
going to start running their businesses from their smartphones.
With Bluefin Labs, Publicis' SMG Looks Beyond TV Ratings
Sure, They Watched Your Ads. But Are They Tweeting About Them?
Advertisers have long based TV-buying decisions on who's watching. Starcom Mediavest Group is adding another wrinkle:
targeting shows based on what those TV viewers are talking about in social media.
The Publicis-owned media network is adopting social listening technology from startup Bluefin Labsand will begin offering it
to clients, which include Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, P&G and Samsung. Bluefin, founded in 2008 and built on technology developed
at MIT, listens to social media and connects conversation to specific TV shows, and soon, the ads themselves.
Xfactor in social media
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![SMG, which spends close to $1 billion on behalf of clients each year, plans to use the technology throughout its US operations
to understand what shows and ads resonate with consumers beyond Nielsen ratings; specifically, what kinds of conversations
are being started and what those conversations are about. The findings could significantly shift how much brands are willing
to pay for a presence in shows, beyond what they know from Nielsen ratings.
"What Bluefin allows [our clients] to do is see who is talking and what they are talking about in near real-time so we can
start to respond to those consumers with different marketing stimuli," said Kate Sirkin, EVP of global research at SMG.
SMG plans to the use the technology in two ways that could alter the way brands measure the effectiveness of the millions
spent on branding through TV. First, it will help brands locate TV shows that are resonating with their target audience, as
judged by the conversation generated by the programming. Second, SMG is going to help Bluefin extend that capability to the
ads themselves. Did they generate conversation? Was it passionate? Positive? Negative?
"If a brand is spending $100 million in TV every year, it's not enough to understand how many eyeballs. You need to quantify
how much social conversation the campaign generated," said Bluefin VP Tom Thai. Other agencies including WPP's Mediacom
and IPG's Initiative have used Bluefin data, but SMG is "baking it into their internal platform."
One of the first big tests of the technology will come during the Super Bowl in February, when SMG clients will be looking to
see how their massive investments in ad time and creative impact the largest single-TV audience of the year. "The social data
will help us understand if the environment is truly worth it," Ms. Sirkin said.
As part of the year-long licensing deal, SMG will help Bluefin apply its technology to ads, a significant technical hurdle
they've been tackling for the past year. "It's a lot harder than doing it for TV shows," said Mr. Thai. "It takes a lot of
computation to get it right. We made a significant investment from our side in the engineering, and we're working with SMG to
push this out."
Measures of TV ad effectiveness is an inexact science usually based on surveys of a limited group. Ms. Sirkin sees Bluefin
technology as a "massive, real-time copy test. Much bigger than anything anyone could afford through traditional copy
testing."
A New Words Resolution
By Matt Straz
There were a number of words and phrases that infected media during 2011. Some made people feel queasy about the state
of the industry, while others left people confused about what we actually do for a living. Here are some of the words that we
should quarantine immediately:
Dead. This year everything from television, apps and the Web itself was declared ―dead‖ by various industry commentators. If
history is any guide, though, the technology of today will be with us far longer than we expect.
Disrupt. It became fashionable this year to claim a new technology would disrupt or destroy some existing one. For 2012, let’s
resolve to simply make the things that already exist like a little better.
Agonistic. Mark Naples of WIT Strategy points out that saying something is ―platform-agnostic‖ actually implies that the
technology doesn’t work with anything.
Bifurcated. I first heard the word ―bifurcated‖ spoken a few years ago by Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM North America, and it
sounded really smart. Fast-forward to today, and this four-syllable word is now all the rage across media. Let’s agree to
leave the fancy words to the CEOs.
Cloud-based. ―The cloud‖ sounds so much better than ―a bunch of servers housed in a big building that we don’t own‖ -- which
is probably why most companies use the former to describe the technology.
Amazing. Detecting earth-like planets 600 million light years away is truly amazing, but at this point there’s little that’s
amazing about a new mobile phone, ad platform or consumer app. Cool, maybe, but not amazing.
Leverage. Writer Brian Morrissey says he’s tired of hearing the word ―leverage‖ used as a verb -- as in, ―our company
leverages amazing, cloud-based technology that disrupts markets.‖
Chunky. Industry vet Sean Finnegan notes that the word ―chunky‖ is on the rise. The term is used to describe a difficult
problem, but given that ―Chunky‖ is already the name of a soup and a candy bar, we should stop this new application
immediately.
Sports jargon: If you spend time in the testosterone-filled boardrooms of venture capitalists, you know that these firms
speak in an endless stream of sports metaphors. ―Hitting a home run‖ means building a business that makes everyone gobs of
money. ―Skating to where the puck is going,‖ describes a business that isn’t making any money yet -- but hopefully will
someday.
Pivot. Another popular venture capitalist word, a ―pivot‖ can mean that a startup has discovered a better way to make money,
but it can also mean that their first (and sometimes second) business idea was really stupid.
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![The top expectation that comes with a ―like‖ is to be eligible for exclusive offers (67%), followed by the opportunity to
interact with other customers who share a consumer’s own experiences (60%). Games and contests are also a big draw, with
65% of people wanting to find them when making online brand connections, and 57% expecting them from brands on
Facebook.
For the most part, existing social media strategies are in place to support communications, but are not fully integrated into
overarching marketing strategies. According to the marketers surveyed, 20% admit that social media strategies are really just
a loosely connected channel, and 23% admit that while they have some strategies brewing, there has been a general failure
to launch.
But without a doubt, social media is skyrocketing in importance as an overwhelming majority (80%) has moved the channel up
their marketing priority list. This is demonstrated -- as the average social media following of the brands surveyed include
224,472 Facebook fans, 2,600 LinkedIn connections, 11,780 Twitter followers, and a growing representation on emerging
channels like Google+. For the most part, these channels are being managed by an average of only three dedicated social
media resources within the marketing team.
The majority of marketers (52%) believe their brands have a growing level of influence through social media channels, but
many (67%) are concerned that they don’t have the resources or time required to properly manage their social media
investments. Marketers are also increasingly concerned that they can’t measure or quantify the return or impact of social
media on the brand. As one marketing respondent summarized: ―We are worried about what we don’t know about social media
and what we are missing.‖
EA Sports Creating Real-World Experiences
EA Sports is no longer tethered to the virtual world. The brand, known for its celebrity-driven sports games like Madden and
the Tiger Woods golf titles, is branching out into airports and cruise ships.
―One of the overarching goals is to find a way to find unique ways to connect with consumers,‖ Chris Erb, senior director of
marketing partnerships at EA, tells Marketing Daily. ―The airport is a great way from a physical brick-and-mortar way to
connect with consumers.‖
This week, the company is opening its third ―EA Experience‖ airport venue in Salt Lake City (following Charlotte, N.C. and
Oklahoma City), and the company recently inked a deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to put EA-branded bars on all of the
company’s cruise ships. The goal of the locations is to link the EA brand with real-world sports, Erb says.
The stores, created in partnership with The Paradise Shops, feature amenities such as chairs and recharging stations for
digital devices, as well as a place to purchase gear from the local sports teams, and EA games and branded merchandise.
Similarly, the bars on the boats provide a way for travelers to keep up with their favorite teams and sports while away.
―Our goal is to create an experience in which we can let you come into our stores and catch you up on the latest sports,‖ Erb
says. ―If we can get good experiences at any time, that’s the upside for us.‖
Ultimately, Erb says, the goal is to find ways to deepen engagement with consumers, wherever they may be. ―When you’re at
our physical location, it’s about getting people to connect with our controllers,‖ he says. ―When you’re on Facebook and
Twitter it’s not about saying things. It’s about being engaged through the process.‖
Much of that engagement comes through outside partnerships, whether they be airport retail development companies, cruise
lines or food brands such as Doritos (through which EA has offered exclusive content of its games through on-package
promotions). ―I think we do the connectivity through our partners," Erb says. ―It’s really about finding partners that want to
give consumers value or fund experiences for people.‖
Of course, it’s also about making those experiences meaningful and relevant, with partners that make sense. First and
foremost, the partners EA chooses have some sort of sports connection (like a Nike, Gillette or even Lowe’s, which is an NCAA
sponsor). ―Sports consumers are bombarded with sports advertising and marketing,‖ Erb says. ―To reach those people we need
to partner with brands that are relevant in those spaces.‖
Moving forward, Erb says, the company will continue to evaluate its current initiatives (including the stores and bars) and
create experiences that build positive associations with the brand, which, hopefully, will translate into sales.
―[Next year] and beyond is about understanding what consumers think about what we’re bringing them and tweaking and
expanding that,‖ Erb says. ―It’s not about driving to the specific end goal of the sale. It’s about building the experience that
will translate to the sales at some point.‖
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![Rather, people were searching using phrases such as "sushi art" and "star wars steampunk" to curate well-designed collages
of images, and responding to one another with comments or collages, or their own slightly different take on the original. The
fun, evolving visual threads that result are very different from the text-centric threads on Facebook or Twitter.
"People are conversing through these rich shared queries," says Cheng. "I like allowing people to riff off of one another, and
this is one of the emerging behaviors that we need to learn from."
Another novel feature is dubbed "video party." It allows a user to cue up and watch a playlist of YouTube videos, and their
friends can join in and watch along with them. All the people taking part in a video party can add videos to the playlist and
share comments with other people there; Cheng says she hopes to add support for other video sites, such as Vimeo, in the
future.
It's hard to resist the parallel between the way So.cl is being tested and the story of Facebook, which was first available only
to university students before it ate the world. So.cl's novel features and their flexibility certainly seem competitive with the
features of existing social networks.
Cheng's desire to create a place where people can work together on information found online seems to be shared by those
working on Google's social network. As Google+ is connected with more and more of Google's other services, the company is
promoting productivity benefits like being able to share maps with friends when planning a trip or see social activity when
managing and sending e-mail.
However, Cheng remains adamant that So.cl is about learning, and not a warm-up to the launch of a general-interest social
network that will go up against Twitter and Facebook. "The project isn't specifically for formal learning, but learning as a
general activity on any topic," she says, "[So.cl] is one way you might combine search and social networking around learning."
Cheng isn't sure So.cl will evolve this way, though. She says another direction the project may take is to become a platform
for students and researchers to build and test new forms of social networks.
Choosing the Right Social Technology Vendors
MICHAEL BRITO
Finding the right social media technology vendor is not easy. While the good news is that there are dozens of vendors
offering ―white label‖ social business solutions, the bad news is that it makes the process for choosing one that much more
difficult. Additionally, many technology companies today are making acquisitions, so in the near future, the number of
vendors may dramatically decrease. That being said, there are several considerations that technology decision makers must
think about before deploying a social application, like first understanding the company culture and leadership, the technology
feature requirements, vendor support models, training and maintenance.
Understand the Organization, Culture and Leadership
Choosing a technology vendor has to be a strategic decision. Organizations need to first understand what it is they are trying
to achieve before thinking about which technology application to deploy behind the firewall. Are they trying to streamline
communication between business units or geographies? Are they looking to roll out a collaboration application that will
eventually replace their intranet? Or, are they planning to use Social CRM and weave it into their sales and marketing
initiatives? Whatever the case, it’s important to understand the culture of the organization and its leadership.
Social business transformation requires a change in behavior. It requires organizational leadership to embrace the social
customer, tear down organizational silos, empower the organization to share knowledge across job functions and
geographies, and invest in technology that will help facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing. It’s more than lip service,
too. These change management initiatives have to be driven by organizational leadership and practiced at every level in the
organization from senior leadership all the way down to a customer support agent. Otherwise, change will not occur. This
means that executives must not only talk about changing the organization but exemplify the behaviors that really do
facilitate and practice change.
Technology will not change an organization’s culture. That has to be a decision from company leadership and then supported
by employees at all levels. What technology will do is help facilitate collaboration and communication across job functions
and geographies.
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![companies to locally produce radioisotopes — and make deliveries on a just-in-time basis to small-town hospitals around the
country. Now, with GE Healthcare's frugal "pay-per-use" pricing model and just-in-time delivery mechanism, the supply of
radioisotopes has become affordable and dependable for many rural hospitals.
The jugaad mindset — and its associated principles and practices — is increasingly relevant for companies worldwide who are
seeking to grow in an increasingly complex and resource-constrainedbusiness environment. Unlike traditional, structured
innovation methods that rely on time-consuming and expensive R&D processes, the more fluid jugaad approach delivers
speed, agility, and cost efficiencies. Jugaad is a "bottom up" innovation approach that provides organizations in both emerging
and developed economies the key capabilities they need to succeed in a hypercompetitive and fast-moving world: frugality,
inclusivity, collaboration, and adaptability.
Is your organization using the jugaad approach — and its underlying principles — to innovate faster, cheaper, and better? We'd
like to hear about it in the comments section below.
Take Control of Your To-Do List
Having an unruly to-do list can be overwhelming. If you find yourself rushing around, but not actually getting anything done,
try the following process:
• Write it all down. Put everything on one list. Determine which tasks are easy and which are more difficult.
• Do some easy things. Spend 15 minutes doing the easy tasks. Focus on speed: make the quick phone calls, shoot off the
brief emails. Cross as many tasks off the list as you can.
• Turn to a bigger task. Turn off your phone, close all the open windows on your computer, and focus on one of the more
challenging tasks. Do this for 35 minutes without distraction.
• Take a break. After 35 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Then return to step two
Crises in rich countries the major challenge for emerging economies
For Assis Moreira and Alex Ribeiro | From Geneva and Washington
The sharp fall in industrial production in India, released yesterday, after similar data relating to Brazil and China, confirms that
the major emerging economies are slowing, infected by the crisis in rich countries.
India's industrial output fell 5.1% in October compared to the same month of 2010, the first contraction in more than two
years.Yesterday, Mexico announced that industrial production fell 0.54% in October compared to September, although still
high at 3.3% in the last 12 months.
Last week, IBGE released figures showing that the Brazilian economy stagnated in the third quarter, compared with the
previous quarter, a sharp slowdown compared to the 7.5% growth seen in 2010. The index of industrial activity in China
dropped to 49 in November from 50.4 in October, which already indicates contraction in the sector, the worst result since the
beginning of 2009. On Saturday, China also reported a sharp fall in its trade surplus in November, $ 17 billion to $ 14.5 billion.
"The situation [the emerging] tends to get worse, because the crisis is in Europe, USA and Japan, and the three together make
up 70% of the world," said the chief economist at the United Nations Agency for Trade and Development (UNCTAD ), Heiner
Flassbeck.
"Emerging economies are far from immune to the crisis in the euro zone, especially in manufacturing," said Chris Williamson,
chief economist at Markit UK-based consultancy that specializes in monitoring global industrial activity. Exports of goods are
under pressure because of low demand, especially the most indebted countries of Europe, which now apply new austerity
measures.
This slowdown is beginning to impact on projections for developing countries. The company's credit risk assessment Fitch
Ratings lowered by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3%, its projection for growth of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in 2012.
For 2011, the growth projection is 6.7%, down from 8.4% in the last year.
Collectively, the emerging economic growth slowed to about 6% in November, well below the first two digits of the year.
Before the recession, the weak growth of emerging economies has not occurred since mid-2003. The slowdown has been
evident in Brazil, China and India, but also in economies like South Korea and Taiwan.
The loss of dynamism in emerging economies is due on the one hand, the contagion of the crisis of Europe, which made
investors more risk averse. It is also a result, on the other hand, monetary and macroprudential policies more restrictive
implemented by some countries, like Brazil, India and China, to contain inflationary pressures and address the emergence of
bubbles in their markets.
"It is every day less number of emerging economies that show some resistance," said chief strategist for emerging markets
bank Societe Generale, Benoit Anne.
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![Founders: Adam Pritzker, Jake Schwartz, Brad Hargreaves, and Matt Brimer
Funding: $4.25 million plus other unattributed amounts from Yuri Milner and others
What it is: General Assembly is a school for entrepreneurs with courses taught by the community and cheap desks to rent
office space.
The founders believe school is important but feel traditional universities aren't training students to succeed in the 21st
century. Prtizker says General Assembly fills that void by focusing on collaboration and innovation instead of lectures.
―People always talk about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all dropping out [of university]. The reality is they all
thought of those ideas in college,‖ Pritzker tells Financial Times.
Giftly is a way for anyone to buy a gift card to any store in the world, even ones that aren't nearby.
Founder: Tim Bentley
Funding: Giftly has a few million in funding; Thrive Capital and Dave Tisch are investors
What it is: Giftly offers a way for anyone to buy a gift card to any store in the world, even ones that aren't nearby.
Gift cards are designed by the gifter and sent via email. The recipient opens the email and unlocks the payment when they're
in the store. Money (a refund for the purchase) is sent to his or her bank account.
GetAround is like Airbnb for cars. Rent your vehicles to neighbors when you're not using them
Founders: Elliot Kroo and Jessica Scorpio
Funding: $3.4 million from CrunchFund, Netflix founder Marc Randolph, Time Warner’s largest shareholder Vivi Nevo, Redpoint
Ventures, and others.
What it is: Car rental service for you and your neighbors. Rent cars from each other instead of from Hertz.
Skillshare turns any place into a classroom and turns anyone into a teacher
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![Founder: Lincoln Brown
Funding: $8 million; Ellen DeGeneres is an investor; so is at least one other A-list celebrity. Warner Brothers is affiliated with
SoJo Studios; Ester Dyson and Dave Morinare on its advisory team.
What it is: SoJo stands for Social Joy. Brown's mission is to get people to play online games that actually impact the real
world. In Zynga's games, users build fake farms and landscapes. In SoJo's WeTopia, most actions have some sort of real world,
charity-driven effect.
Instead of virtual currency, SoJo's users earn Joy and they can spend it on projects like planting trees or giving schools clean
water. Whenever Joy is spent on a project, SoJo gives one of its partnering charities money to accomplish the task, or a
similar task, in real life.
Here's Ellen promoting it on her show (this advertorial crashed SoJo's site):
Warby Parker is taking on Luxottica. It sells designer and prescription glasses at discounted rates
Image: Warby Parker
Founders: David Gilboa, Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt and Jeffrey Raider
Funding: $13.5 million total; $12 million Series A led by Tiger Global.
What it is: Warby Parker is a prescription glasses online discount retailer. There are other online glasses retailers, but
investors' excitement for New York-based Warby Parker seems to stem from its early traction and the big industry it disrupts.
"It's an overnight sensation which is very attractive," says an investor. "It came out of the gate fast and hard and solves a real
problem. No one has been able to cut Luxottica [the force behind LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut] out of the market yet."
WeWork Labs is a startup incubator in New York City that houses more than 50 entrepreneurs.
Founders: Matt Shampine, Jesse Middleton, and Adam Neumann
Funding: Backed by WeWork and some of its sponsors.
What it is: WeWork Labs is New York City's newest stomping grounds for aspiring entrepreneurs.
For $250/month, founders and freelancers with backgrounds ranging from PR and marketing to IT and biz dev can rent desks.
The founders hope sticking talented people in a room together for months at a time will lead to great new startups.
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![It's about inspiration and influence. A lot of productive social media marketing efforts are more likely to influence business
outcomes than be the channel where those outcomes occur. Public and media relations, for example, isn't that different.
Positive media coverage creates awareness and inspires search or discovery of the brand and the sale occurs on the company
website. Social experiences can provide brand-advertising benefits and inspire consumers to buy sooner, more quantity, or
more often, as well as to choose one brand vs. another. What company wouldn't want to sell more products, more often, more
quickly?
Here are a few interesting data points and examples that suggest a correlation between social engagement and consumer
buying behavior:
eMarketer - Over 50 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to purchase from brands they follow.
USA Today - Coca-Cola Facebook fans are two times as likely to consume product and 10 times more likely to
purchase than non-fans, according to Wendy Clark, senior vice president of integrated marketing.
Yahoo - Brands who sponsored content with social features increased purchase intent by 13 percent.
Mashable - "Following Brands on Twitter Increases Purchase Intent." A study by Constant Contact and research firm
Chadwick Martin Bailey reports that 60 percent of brand followers are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend
after following the brand on Twitter, and 50 percent of brand followers are more likely to buy from that brand.
The missing piece to many assessments of what value social media participation provides is that most marketers are chasing
popular platforms with their own interpretation of what will motivate customers to buy. What they should be doing is
understanding customer preferences and optimizing for the kinds of social experiences that will not only inspire purchase,
but social sharing, advocacy, and loyalty. Social media is a communications platform that can help businesses serve customer
needs across the lifecycle, not just at the top of the sales funnel. Understand that and an entirely new opportunity is
revealed.
Do We Need Stinkin' Badges?
Sean Carton
"Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
Mexican Bandit, "Blazing Saddles," 1974
If you've ever been responsible for hiring someone, you know that it can be a nerve-wracking experience. Sure, they might
have a stellar resume, have sailed through the interview process, and have glowing references, but it's still tough not to feel
that little tug in your gut the first day they show up at work and you have to ask yourself "Will they actually be able to do
what they say they can do?"
Hiring an agency or a consultant is no different. Will they perform? Were they worth the investment? Will they embarrass you
in front of your boss? Will one bad consultant hiring decision cost you your job?
Considering the kind of work marketing professionals do, there are good reasons to be nervous. After all, measuring what
makes someone "good" at their job is often more of an art than a science. Marketers deal with a lot of subjectivity and most
work is done in teams. Even if someone brings you a portfolio of their past work, it's tough to determine exactly what part
they had to play in it.
Because we online marketers are in such a young industry, job titles don't mean much either. The person who is a "web
designer" at one place might be considered a "developer" somewhere else. An "account leader" at one agency might have
similar skills to a "project manager" at another. Heck, just because someone's a "chief [insert noun] officer" doesn't guarantee
that they know more than a lowly "director" or "manager" or even "analyst" somewhere else.
When looking at any job in the "digital" industry (even though we have a tough time defining even whatthat means), it seems
like they usually follow a pattern as a technology matures. When a new technology arises, those who "specialize" in it are
usually more technically-oriented. As that technology matures, jobs seem to split into technical and
strategic/creative/content camps. Rising complexity necessitates increasing specialization. In the early days, self-taught
"experts" usually have to be able to master both the technical and the creative, but over time the "creative" and/or "strategic"
folks move away from the hands-on work of mastering the "technology" and the more technical move closer and closer to the
code. It wouldn't surprise me if many of you old-timers reading this (or…ahem…writing this) who now function in more
strategic roles haven't touched a line of code or had to master the intricacies of a new application for a long time. You've got
other people to do that stuff. You focus on the big picture.
The result of all this is a lot of confusion when it comes to hiring. Titles don't mean much. Skills are hard to determine.
Standards vary from organization to organization. While older, more mature disciplines like medicine and the law have
standardized job titles and credentials through a system of certifications and licensure, we're still in a state of flux.
Right now there's probably nothing more confusing than trying to sort out what people with "social media" in their title do.
But that's not surprising…the whole social media marketing industry is pretty young. Still, however, the slapping of "social
Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 156](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/babelfisharticlesdec2011-120103170640-phpapp02/75/Babelfish-Articles-Dec-2011-156-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byBrian Crotty
Babelfish Articles Dec 2011
The document is a compilation of various articles and insights highlighting trends in social media, mobile marketing, and consumer behavior as of December 2011. Key points include the rise of location-based and social media marketing in the food and beverage industry, the innovative use of platforms like Foursquare by brands, and the shifting preferences of millennials towards cause-marketing and casual dining. The anticipated impact of mobile search and display advertising on the marketing landscape for 2012 is also discussed.
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Babelfish Articles Dec 2011
- 1. Babelfish Articles December 2011 Brian Crotty Babelfish.Brazil@gmail.com Articles that caught my attention this month
- 2. Index 1. Social, Mobile Hotter Than Ever in 2011 2. How Mobile Will Change Search And Display In 2012 3. Yes, the Feds Are Spying on Social Media 4. Top 14 Things Marketers Need to Know About QR Codes 5. Gamification: A Fad Or The Future 6. Healthcare Takes It Up A Level On Gaming 7. Leadership for the Marketing Optimization Team 8. Cash in on Content and Social Media Marketing in 2012 9. 'Social Media Agency': Fad or Revolution? 10. M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All 11. Content and Device Separate 12. Listen Without Reacting 13. Push Notifications: Keep Mobile Users In Touch 14. 2012 Forecast: Mobile Marketing 15. Kiip Raises Stakes On Mobile Game Rewards, Partners With Disney 16. The Ten Most Annoying Management Terms Of 2011 17. CPG Shopping Habits Reduced To Four Kinds of Trips 18. You're Using the Wrong Social Media Metrics! 19. Mobile Devices Have Eclipsed the Desktop Experience; Get Over It 20. Look At The Big Picture In 2012 21. 5 Innovative Campaigns You Might Have Missed 22. Use Your Facebook Timeline Profile for Your Career 23. 10 facts of the marketing year (Brazil) 24. Top 5 Most Common Networking Mistakes 25. ERIC-SCHMIDT-DISCUSSES-GOOGLES-COMPETITORS-CHINA-ACQUISITIONS-AND-MORE 26. 2012 Digital Planning Guide 27. 6 Game-Changing Digital Journalism Events of 2011 28. 5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 29. Fjord: Year-End Round-Up: Digital In 2011 30. Online Love: Amazon Earns Highest Marks Yet 31. Don't Worry About Your First Job 32. Exposure to Social Media Linked with Changes in Sales and Brand Perception 33. Set the Stage for your Next Meeting 34. Digitas' Bitterman On Owned, Earned And Hype -- And Why Google+ Has Been A Negative 35. How to Ace a Google Interview 36. The iPhone App Store Generates 4X The Revenue The Android App Store 37. For Google, Fixing Android Is Like Herding Cats 38. Creating an Engagement Index 39. Time to Change Our Thinking...Again 40. Publishers Challenge Audience Report 41. Want Digital Content Domination - Accelerate content innovation? 42. Traditional Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Slowly Catching On To Online Search Marketing 43. 3 Marketing Mega Trends For 2012 44. Optify Forecasts Trends For Marketing and Social Media in 2012 45. Will Digital Media Folks Own the Next-Gen TV Conversations At CES? 46. Biggest Trend Of 2011 In Online Video 47. How Data From Social Media Will Impact Marketing 48. FCC Moves Toward 'WiFi On Steriods' By Approving 'White Spaces' Devices 49. ComScore’s 2011 Social Report: Facebook Leading, Microblogging Growing, World Connecting 50. 2012 Trends: Sports Sponsorship Meets Digital Media And Entertainment 51. Where Are the Talent Shortages As We Start 2012? 52. 4 Megatrends in Social Media and Social Business 53. A Few Link Building Predictions For 2012 54. Why Discovery Must Evolve To Save Social Commerce 55. 5 Reasons Why real-time bidding Is Not About Price 56. Marc Andreessen: Predictions for 2012 (and beyond) 57. With Bluefin Labs, Publicis' SMG Looks Beyond TV Ratings 58. A New Words Resolution 59. Moms Say Social Media Impacts Retail Purchases 60. New Year's Predictions? No Time For Them! 61. The Problem With Gamification 62. The Age of And - The mix is where the marketing alchemy comes in Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 2
- 3. 63. Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012 64. Stop Competing to Be the Best 65. McDonald's Digital Promos Geotarget College Kids 66. Global Executives Treading Cautiously Into '12 67. Marketers Struggle With Social Media 68. EA Sports Creating Real-World Experiences 69. Social Business Planning in 2012 70. Microsoft Mixes Social Networking With Search 71. Choosing the Right Social Technology Vendors 72. Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent 73. Ten Issues Marketers Should Have on Their 2012 Agenda 74. Enhance Your Agency-Client Relationships for The New Normal 75. Digital Works to Lift Brand Awareness and Sales -- Without Direct Response 76. 7 Things Highly Productive People Do 77. Study Finds Google Wallet Could Leak Consumer Data 78. Use Jugaad to Innovate Faster, Cheaper, Better 79. Take Control of Your To-Do List 80. Crises in rich countries the major challenge for emerging economies 81. Forrester's "Three Social Thunderstorms" At LeWeb 82. David Armano: Six Social Media Trends for 2012 83. 5 Ways to Spot a Bad Boss In An Interview 84. Web no celular é o maior desejo das classes C, D e E 85. Why I Hire People Who Fail 86. Augmented Reality Apps Are The New QR Codes 87. Top Trends To Keep In Mind In '12: Mediapost Engage Moms 88. 10 Strategies For Building A Successful Social Business 89. How to Be a Social Media Power Influencer (And Why!) 90. Beyond The Dashboard: Online Advocacy And Offline Sales 91. How Online Publishers Should Approach Mobile Ad Networks (With Caution) 92. Twitter Just Fired A Cannonball At Facebook And Google+ 93. Twitter Announces Redesign And New Features 94. Don't Short-Sell App Engagement -- Or Video 95. Tech Trends: Increasing Traffic With HTML5 Microdata 96. SEO: Obstacles, Opportunities and the Future 97. The Horse's Mouth 98. Asking Better Questions 99. Trick Questions 100. Chief Analytical Officer 101. The New Social Order 102. Test Your Innovation IQ 103. Cutting Through the Remarketing Clutter With Real Time Bidding (RTB) 104. Social Media ROI Remains a High Priority for Marketers 105. 3 Online Advertising Trends To Watch In '12 106. More QR Codes In Store (And Elsewhere) For '12 107. Goodbye QR Codes, Hello Near Field Communication? 108. Implementing 'Digital Is a Philosophy' 109. How to Know When You Should Advertise to Tablet Users 110. Digital Is a Philosophy: A New Looking Glass for Common Digital Tactics 111. Brands face "big data" test 112. Google Adds Graphical Math Calculator To Search Results 113. The 20 Best New Startups Of 2011 114. Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in Social Media? 115. 15 Ways to Bring Social Media to Events 116. DATA CRUNCHED: How email deluge makes workers go postal 117. MAGNAGLOBAL MEDIA OWNERS ADVERTISING REVENUE FORECAST: 118. Social Media - It's Not About Technology 119. Social Media Connections Between Consumers and Brands That Inspire Sales 120. Do We Need Stinkin' Badges? 121. Casting the Right Hook Into the Digital Talent Pool Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 3
- 4. SymphonyRI: The CPGBasket: Fostering Growth in a Time of Conservation Dec… Ogilvy: Exposure to Social Media Linked with Changes in Sales and Brand Pe… Interbrand Best Retail Brands 2011 Edelman: Social Business Planning Comscore Top 10 need-to-knows about social networking_and_where_it_is_head… Comscore The power of like ICT facts figures 2011 MMA mobile advertising white paper english MMA spain mobile white paper spanish Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 4
- 5. Buddy Media +Booz co campaigns-to-capabilities-social-media-and-marketing… Break Media Video study 2012-12-8 PWC Millennials At Work 2011 Most Contagious 2011 MIllward Brown: 12 digital predictions for 2012 JWT10 trends for 2012 executive summary 11 12 05 Magnaglobal global advertising forecast 20 december 2011 Babelfish Articles Nov 2011 Earnst & Young: Innovating for the next three billion CMO council survey: Localize to optimize sales channel effectiveness Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 5
- 6. Social, Mobile HotterThan Ever in 2011 by Karlene Lukovitz Social media and mobile marketing continued to heat up in the food/beverage and restaurant categories in 2011 -- as Marketing Daily’s most-read stories in these areas amply demonstrate: 1. Location-Based Marketing To Diners To 'Explode' Consumers today want a moveable feast -- sometimes quite literally, as the remarkable growth of specialty and even chain- owned food trucks has shown. And in another tough year for much of the restaurant industry, location-based and social media enabled chains and independent operators to target diners in ways that can only be described as revolutionary. Starbucks, McDonald's, Chipotle and Burger King were among the biggies that leveraged Foursquare, Facebook and (in some cases) Twitter to drive folks through their doors, increase per-diner spend and engender loyalty/repeat business with rewards and offers targeted via consumers' profiles and transactions data. Not to mention the continuing explosion of mobile ordering and electronic payments… 2. A First: Pepsi Using Foursquare on Global Basis Speaking of location-based marketing, restaurants are far from alone in employing this hyper-targeted platform to the max. In the beverage category, Pepsi pulled off an ingenious marketing first: Using a Foursquare badge on a global basis. During the prime soda-drinking July 4th weekend, the brand previewed a fun new TV commercial -- featuring a hip polar bear and his brown-bear friend by the pool -- on its Facebook page and YouTube. The spot -- the first-ever from a major CPG brand to employ Foursquare messaging -- debuted on "America's Got Talent" the same evening. The ad encouraged fans around the world to follow Pepsi on Foursquare to ―unlock summer fun‖ (those who checked in from specified locations like beaches and parks earned badges and entry in a sweeps). It was supported by Twitter ads, takeovers of Yahoo and other mass-reach sites, and QR codes on in-store promotions that linked fans to the campaign commercials. Marketing Daily readers were wowed by this campaign's innovation, integration and sheer logistics. 3. Dunkin' Launches K-Cups; Starbucks Soon to Follow If there’s anything that’s hotter than single-serve coffee, it’s the rivalry among the major brands pushing to grab maximum market share in this lucrative, rapidly growing category. In August, Dunkin’ Donuts made its extremely popular coffee brand available for sale in its stores in single-serve Keurig K-Cups, for at-home enjoyment. Soon after, Starbucks, also through a deal with Keurig parent Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, launched its own single-serve packs for the brewing system in food, drug, mass, club, specialty and department stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. Starbucks also has a deal with Courtesy Products, the leading provider of in-room coffee service to U.S. hotels, to make Starbucks ground coffees available in up to 500,000 luxury and premium hotel rooms across the U.S., for use in Courtesy's CV1 in-room and on-demand brewed coffee system. Now, we’re awaiting Starbucks’ next moves. Might the coffee titan create its own brewing system? 4. Brand Keys: Loyalty Now Hinges On 'Delight' Marketing Daily brought readers an exclusive first look at the results of this year’s always much-anticipated Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, based on tracking key loyalty factors across 528 brands and 79 categories. Just one food/restaurant brand made the overall top 10: McDonald’s, at #7. The other brands that rose to the top by ―delighting‖ consumers with innovative, life-enhancing products and services were #1 Netflix (prior to its ill-advised jacking up of subscription pricing), Apple, Walgreens, Discover, Hyundai, Mary Kay, J. Crew, Samsung and Nikon. 5. Report: Gluten-Free Momentum Accelerating What’s causing so many Americans to develop allergies or intolerance to gluten? No one seems to know for certain, but addressing this problem has proved a bonanza for a major CPG makers, private-label purveyors and specialty brands alike. Packaged Facts documented the trend, estimating that the gluten-free food and beverage category had experienced startling 30% sales growth in the U.S. between 2006 and 2010. Indeed, the researcher upped its previous sales projection for 2011 to $2.64 billion, from $2.3 billion. With annual compound growth projected at 14% between 2011 and 2015 (to $5.6 billion), the continuing stream of new gluten-free products should keep a lot of marketers very busy for the foreseeable future. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 6
- 7. 6. Cabot SoupSwap Mixes Events, Social Media Cabot Creamery, a cooperative of 1,200 family dairy farmers, demonstrates that leveraging social media in sophisticated, highly effective ways need not require big budgets. Case in point: Cabot's "Community Soup Swap," which combines at-home events thrown by popular bloggers, a social media-driven recipe contest, donations to food banks, and Facebook and Twitter outreach. Cabot also employs its extensive social media and blogger networks to marshal volunteers who organize cheese- sampling events in their localities. Furthermore, it recognizes people who serve their communities via programs in partnership with national organizations and its online ―Random Acts of Cheddar‖ initiative. 7. Millennials: Big On Cause-Marketing, Not On TV Research of relevance to virtually all categories, including food/beverages and restaurants. A study from Barkley marketing agency, Service Management Group and The Boston Consulting Group confirmed that Millennials are more aware than Americans of other generations of cause-marketing-based ad campaigns, and more likely to be exposed to these through social media and online channels. Equally important, just 26% watch 20-plus hours of TV per week, versus 49% of the rest of the population. Among the other key findings: Millennials seek peer affirmation/advice; they crave adventure and fun; they use their mobile devices to scope out deals and products while shopping; they’re more likely to grocery shop in groups; they’re big on snacking, and they prefer casual dining. 8. McDonald's Using Foursquare in N.Y.C. The QSR giant's first use of Foursquare in the New York metro area focused on driving awareness and sampling of its McCafé beverages. McDonald's encouraged residents of nine metro areas to celebrate their hometowns and engage in three separate rounds of friendly competition to win McCafé ―parties.‖ The three boroughs/towns with the most Foursquare check-ins from McDonald’s locations each won a full day during which free, small McCafé drinks were distributed at a local McD’s. The concept was supported by a Twitter campaign, mobile banners, radio, out-of-home and in-store merchandising. In addition to supporting McCafé sales and boosting brand loyalty, the initiative yielded ample marketing intelligence about regional product preferences and behaviors. 9. Brand Keys: Amazon Is 2011's #1 Loyalty Leader More insights from Brand Keys’ 2011 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index study, this time showing the top 100 Loyalty Leaders. Topping the list: Amazon, Apple (smartphone), Facebook, Samsung, Apple (computer), Zappos, Hyundai, Kindle, Patron tequila and Mary Kay. 10. Gen Y Changing Alcoholic Beverages Marketplace Another piece resonated with readers because of the pressing need to understand Millennials’ behaviors across all product categories. Nielsen's Millennial Study found that those in this age cohort are more open to exploring new alcoholic beverage products; consume more wine and spirits than their parents did (although they still drink beer most); are more likely to equate cost with quality; and are heavily influenced by social media. The researchers stressed the impact of multicultural Gen Y’s, in particular, on the alcoholic beverages market. How Mobile Will Change Search And Display In 2012 by Laurie Sullivan, Dec 28, 2011, 12:49 PM Google has developed a framework for the AdWhirl SDK that allows developers to display banner ads from different networks in their iOS and Android applications, but it also enables them to turn off the refresh rate for ads serving up in apps on mobile devices. Allowing developers to turn off the refresh rate is significant because the longer the ad remains on the screen visible to the user, the better the chance it will be clicked on. Eric Leichtenschlag on the Google AdMob team tells us that advertisers need only indicate to AdWhirl the ad networks where ads should appear, along with the percentage of requests to allocate to each network. AdWhirl handles the ad requests through Ad Mob. Eliminating the refresh rate prevents AdMob from grabbing and serving up another ad on its own. Framingham, Mass.-based IDC estimates Google will take 24% market share of the $2.1 billion U.S. mobile ad biz this year -- up from 19% and $877 million, respectively, in 2010. IDC believes Google holds about 91% share of the mobile search market. Combine mobile search with mobile display, and IDC pegs Google's share at 71%, up 11% in the past year. No doubt about it -- mobile search and display ads will become the hot trend for 2012. In November, IgnitionOne reported that Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 7
- 8. consumer mobile searchesrose 355% in the past year, since Q4 2010. During the Search Insider Summit earlier this month, we asked marketers attending the event to name the percentage of their online budgets earmarked for mobile in 2012. Half of the respondents said they would allocate between 11% and 20%, followed by one-quarter who said between 1% and 5%, and another quarter that said they would allocate between 6% and 10%. Marketers and advertisers should expect major changes to occur in search for 2012. Brands now imprint QR codes on everything from pickup trucks to billboards, helping consumers find information on the go through smartphones. In a blog recap posted last week, Googlers wrote that 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help when shopping by comparing prices and finding more product info. About 70% use their smartphones in a store, and 77% have contacted a business via mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business. Aside from QR codes, marketers should expect a higher dependency on voice search in 2012. Google and Bing launched versions first, but Apple's Siri for the iPhone showed us a better way to get answers and produce actions without typing keywords into a search engine. Yes, the Feds Are Spying on Social Media by Erik Sass, Just in case anyone still harbors illusions on this score, the answer is ―Yes, the federal government is definitely spying on social media.‖ In the latest development, a group of online privacy advocates is suing the Department of Homeland Security for failing to release records of its online spying -- which isn’t terribly surprising, considering that it’s not really spying anymore if everyone knows what you’re doing. The DHS has admitted in a public statement that it creates profiles to monitor ―publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites, and message boards,‖ including social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, in what is known as the ―Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative.‖ The aim is to ―to provide situational awareness‖ for the federal, state, and local governments; the DHS ―may also share this de-identified information with international partners and the private sector where necessary and appropriate for coordination.‖ Crucially, the DHS statement also reveals that participating agencies may reveal personally identifying information about Internet users in emergency, life-and-death situations. The list of search and monitoring tools used by the DHS includes Collecta, RSSOwl, Social Mention, Spy, Who’s Talkin, and Shrook RSS Reader, while public content and media sharing sites monitored by DHS include Hulu, iReport.com, Live Leak, Magma, Time Tube, Vimeo, YouTube, and MySpace Video. Twitter alone is monitored through a score of Twitter-specific search engines and trend monitoring services. The array of search terms used by DHS to keep tabs on social media includes ―Secret Service,‖ ―Border Patrol,‖ ―Agent,‖ ―Task Force,‖ ―Air Marshal,‖ ―Assassination,‖ ―Attack,‖ ―Drill,‖ ―Exercise,‖ ―Cops,‖ ―Dirty Bomb,‖ ―Militia,‖ ―Shooting,‖ ―Shots fired,‖ ―Deaths,‖ ―Explosion,‖ ―Gangs,‖ ―Breach,‖ and ―Lockdown,‖ as well as -- surprise -- the names of agencies like the CIA, the FBI, and of course the DHS itself. Back in April 2011 an organization called the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records pertaining to the DHS use of social media monitoring -- a request that EPIC says the DHS has failed to respond to. Thus on December 20 EPIC filed an FOIA lawsuit against DHS for these records, which EPIC director Marc Rotenberg told ABC News will supply more information about when, where, and how social media monitoring is used. ABC News quotes Rotenberg: ―We want to know how they're collecting information online, what they're collecting online and if there's legal basis to do this… We are trying to understand what the circumstances are when the DHS is engaged in tracking to social media sites.‖ In an earlier post I wrote about the fact that the DHS is using social networks to ferret out fake "green card" marriages between U.S. citizens and immigrants for the purpose of obtaining residency or citizenship for the latter. According to awesomely frank internal DHS records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act request, ―Narcissistic tendencies in many people fuels a need to have a large group of ‘friends’ link to their pages and many of these people accept cyber-friends that they don't even know. This provides an excellent vantage point for [the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security] to observe the daily life of beneficiaries and petitioners who are suspected of fraudulent activities.‖ Top 14 Things Marketers Need to Know About QR Codes Angie Schottmuller, December 30, 2011118 Comments I recently spoke at SES New York on best practices for mobile marketing with QR codes. Here's a follow-up crash course on tools, tactics, and best practices to confidently help you jumpstart a 2D barcode marketing campaign. 1. A QR Code is a 2D Barcode QR codes are an encoded barcode image resembling a square-like maze. Unlike a 1-dimensional UPC code, a 2-dimensional Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 8
- 9. barcode stores datain both directions and can be scanned vertically or horizontally to be decoded. 2. 2D Barcodes Can Store a Variety of Data A traditional 1D barcode (UPC/EAN) stores up to 30 numbers, while a 2D barcode (QR) can store up to 7,089 numbers. The additional storage capacity accommodates a variety of data beyond numbers: Text Hyperlink Telephone number (Phone call) SMS/MMS message Email (Send message) Contact entry (vCard or meCard) Calendar entry (vCalendar) Storing a hyperlink presents a myriad of possibilities beyond just loading a web page -- play a video, download a mobile app, check-in on Foursquare, update a Twitter status, "Like" a Facebook page, display map directions, and more. 3. Read/Decode a 2D Barcode by Scanning it With a Smartphone (A 2D barcode reader app is required to decode the encoded data.) 4. 2D Barcodes Can be Placed in and on Nearly Any Location Once the barcode image is created, it can be printed on nearly any surface and location -- newspapers, TV ads, billboards, temporary tattoos, product packaging, clothing labels, cake frosting, and more. This enables you to drive traffic, interaction, and conversion from anywhere. 2D barcodes excel at bringing non-digital media to life. Note: Use caution placing barcodes online. They should always enhance the user experience. If a user could click a hyperlink, don't make them scan a code to complete the same task. Bear in mind the location must be easily scannable. Plastic frames and packaging can reflect light. Lighting can cast shadows, and hillsides and subways can kill Wi-Fi access. Consider all contextual factors that could impact the scanning experience. 5. Mobile Barcode Scanning is on the Rise 2D barcode scanning outnumbered 1D (UPC) scans in Q1 2011. - ScanLife's Q1 2011 Trend Report Mobile barcode scanning grew 1,600 percent in the year 2010. - ScanLife's 2010 Trend Report (PDF) QR barcode scanning was up 1,200 percent in the second half of 2010. - Mobio's Naked Facts Report 22 percent of the Fortune 50 have already used mobile barcodes. - Burson-Marsteller Report Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 9
- 10. QR codes canbe used for nearly any function (logistics, advertising, customer service, etc.) for B2B and B2C across a variety of industries: Best Buy uses QR codes on in-store price tags for quick access to online reviews. Golf Digest uses Microsoft Tag in their magazine to accompany tips with interactive video. Real estate agents use 2D barcodes on "for sale" signs providing prospective buyers access to virtual tours. Libraries are using QR codes to facilitate learning via interactive scavenger hunts. 6. QR Isn't the Only Type of 2D Barcode The most popular 2D barcode formats are QR code, DataMatrix, ScanLife EZcode, and Microsoft Tag (Tag). There are several key differences in these code formats. ScanLife EZcode and Microsoft Tag are proprietary formats only decodable by their tools, while QR and DataMatrix formats are open standard. (Additional format differences can be addressed in another blog post.) A Google Trends analysis of these 2D barcodes shows "QR code" dominates by far from a search popularity perspective. QR has become a common term used to reference a 2D barcode (2D code, mobile tag, mobile barcode, etc.) even when codes are technically a different format. Even@MicrosoftTag uses the #QRcode hashtag on Twitter. 7. Tools to Generate and Read 2D Barcodes are Free Tools are available for all major mobile phone handsets. To run a 2D barcode campaign you'll need to following: 1. 2D barcode generator (Website service) 2. 2D barcode reader (Mobile app) 3. [Optional‖ 2D barcode management/tracking tool (Website service) Generators: Different generators have varying features. Choose a generator based on the options for: Code Format (i.e. QR, EZcode, Tag, etc.) Stored Data (i.e. hyperlink, meCard, SMS, etc.) Output (i.e. color, size, download file type, etc.) QRstuff.com is a comprehensive QR generator providing a variety of stored content, color, size, and output options. ScanLife's generator creates their proprietary EZcode as well as QR and DataMatrix formats. Microsoft Tag only generates Tag. Note: To generate a code on the ScanLife or Microsoft Tag sites, you'll first need to create an account. (Tag requires providing personal info like birth date, gender, etc.) Readers: Microsoft Tag and ScanLife EZcode can only be decoded by their respective reader apps. Because of the open standard for QR codes, dozens of reader apps are available. (DataMatrix is usually supported on most QR readers.) Some mobile handsets come with a reader app pre-installed. The following 2D barcode reader apps work on the majority of phones/handsets. Download Link Reader App Code Formats (from your mobile phone) RedLaser QR, UPC/EAN redlaser.com BeeTagg Reader QR, DataMatrix, BeeTagg get.beetagg.com AT&T Code Scanner QR, DataMatrix, UPC/EAN scan.mobi ScanLife EZcode, QR, DataMatrix, UPC/EAN getscanlife.com Microsoft Tag Tag gettag.mobi RedLaser and AT&T Code Scanner also have geolocation features for local price comparison shopping. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 10
- 11. 8. Management Toolsare Available to Track Scanning Analytics URL-shortener and web analytics for 2D barcodes storing URL hyperlinks are a great start. For comprehensive scan tracking, you'll need to use a barcode generator tool that includes tracking analytics. (These tools are not independent.) Some management tools will merely track the number of scans while others provide detailed metrics like demographics, repeat scans, geolocation, and more. Collected analytics depends on the reader app used for scanning, so data results may vary. Management tools are relatively inexpensive and sometimes free. Paid plans typically have a free trial with fees based on the number of scans. 2D Barcode Management & Tracking Tools: Microsoft Tag (Tag) ScanLife (EZcode, QR, DataMatrix, UPC) Tappinn (QR, UPC) Paperlinks (QR) QReateBUZZ (QR) BeQRious (QR) SPARQCode (QR) QReate and Track (QR) 9. 2D Barcode Content Should Provide Special Value for the Customer It's work to scan a barcode, so users have higher expectations as to what content they will find. Reward the user with discounts, exclusive content, or useful tips relevant to the code's context. Consider scenarios that leverage smartphone features (email, SMS, phone call, video, map, apps, etc.) to save the user time. For example, including a QR code on a business card that links to a meCard would be a lot easier than the user manually entering the contact record. In contrast, a QR code that links to a website homepage adds limited value. Note: If you link to a web page, make sure that it's mobile-friendly. 10. Small or Complex QR Codes Can't be Scanned by Smartphones With Lesser Quality Cameras Complex 2D barcodes (a lot going on, not very dense) are more challenging and time consuming to scan. In the case of QR codes, more stored content forces a larger code size. In general, it's best to minimize data stored in 2D barcodes. Always use a URL-shortener to shrink hyperlinks. (Add analytics tracking parameters before shortening the link.) Warning: Small, complex QR codes are the biggest mistake currently being made by marketers. (Microsoft Tag and EZcode formats generally don't have this issue.) Smartphone cameras with resolution less than 4-megapixels can't scan a QR code smaller than about 1"x1". Moreover, without the auto-focus (AF) camera feature, a complex QR code will have the same scanning issue, even if the code is larger. The iPhone 3GS and Blackberry are popular handset examples that lack both of these camera features. Unscannable codes kill and delay the adoption rate for 2D barcode campaigns. Tip: Always provide a back-up (i.e. hyperlink, SMS text message, etc.) option for users to retrieve info within the code. A back- up enables non-smartphone users to also participate. 11. Consumers Need Guidance to Scan 2D Barcodes The variety of code types, readers, and different terminology is confusing to consumers. Nielsen Company estimates that only 40 percent of U.S. mobile devices are smartphones as of Q1 2011, growing to almost 50 percent by Q3 2011. That means there are a lot of smartphone rookies that barely know how to use their phone, much less distinguish differences in mobile barcode formats and reader apps. As long as 2D barcodes are a novelty concept, always include a brief step-by-step guide with the context of your code. Logical steps: 1. Get the reader app 2. Scan the code with your mobile device 3. (Action that happens upon scanning) Tip: For the reader app download, include a URL link or SMS shortcut to expedite the process. This step is imperative when using proprietary Microsoft Tag or ScanLife EZcode formats since only one reader is capable of scanning their codes. Steps two and three can be combined as a call-to-action. Example: "Scan to ____." (... watch a video, download our app, call customer support, etc.) 12. 2D Barcodes can be Customized Artistically Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 11
- 12. QR codes includean Error Correction Level (ECL) that enables "damaged" codes to still be scanned. The error level tolerance (set by the code generator) can be as high as 30%. As a result, creative license can be used to create designer QR codes from a variety of colors or materials (i.e. jelly beans, sand castles, product packaging, etc.) as long as there is adequate contrast to read the code. When it comes to advanced QR code graphic design, it's harder than it looks. If you want to get fancy, I recommend connecting with QR art experts at QRarts.com or Delivr.com. Microsoft Tag also allows for artistic codes. Their custom tag tool allows users to generate art from codes or even overlay codes on top of photographs. Tip: Some artistic design is fun and good to see; however, don't go overboard. As long as 2D barcodes are novelty, it's important that users easily recognize a scannable code from a distance. 13. Testing Scannability is Imperative. Before you mass print or distribute barcodes be sure to test for scannability. Testing factors: Smartphone cameras (resolution/auto-focus) Reader apps Scan context (i.e. lighting, shadows, surfaces) Scan distance Scan timing 14. Seek Expertise to Ensure Successful Campaigns To ensure campaign success, consider consulting with a mobile barcode marketing expert, especially if it's your first time running a mobile barcode campaign. Technology, trends, and tools in this arena are rapidly changing. A few hours of expert consulting can bring your team up to speed, help optimize campaigns for success, and avoid unnecessary embarrassment for poor implementation. Expertise goes beyond consultants: Talk to your web analytics guru and learn all you can about the mobile users currently accessing your website. Seek out mobile marketing industry statistics regarding popular devices and demographics to appropriately target your audience. (Compete,ScanLife, and eMarketer provide regular useful reports.) Follow the #QRcode Twitter hashtag or subscribe to "QR Code News & Mobile Trends" (Paper.li) for the latest news and case studies. Finally, download my QR Code Best Practices Checklist & Campaign Worksheet to help plan and manage your campaigns: Next Steps...Are you ready to jump start a QR code campaign? What questions do you have about the technology, tools or tactics? Please let me know in the comments below. I'll be sure to address the most popular topics in upcoming articles. Gamification: A Fad Or The Future There is lots of evidence that brands see loyalty increases when they invite consumers to participate in an experience. Even Facebook ―likes‖ increase with the smallest gesture of asking people for their opinion in a survey. People collect experiences and they value the involvement that an experience offers. For that reason ―gamification‖ or the application of game mechanics to other types of experiences is interesting because it increases involvement and it’s been shown to create consumer loyalty. And as we all know, loyalty has real business value. While we’ve seen success applying gaming principles to experiences we’ve built for Millennials, there seems to be an emerging debate as to whether or not gamification is here to stay or if it’s currently at the tail end of what Gartner Research deems a hype cycle. This marketer for one thinks gamification will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. There sure doesn’t seem to be a slow down in gaming. Fifty-seven million Americans have played games in a social network (the highest percentage of which are 18 - 34) and according to Research by Pop Cap Games, the number of people spending 6+ hours a week playing social games has doubled since January 2010. But beyond the rise of gaming, here are a few reasons why the relevance of gamification might continue to be applied to Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 12
- 13. other types ofexperiences: 1. People want it. In a recent study by Latitude Research on the Future of Gaming, they found that more than 50% of smartphone users who identify as casual gamers would like to see game dynamics applied to issues outside of traditional games including learning and education, healthcare, and financial planning. 2. The principles of game thinking are very aligned with Millennial values: competition, community, self-expression and reward are all things Millennials value and they are core to a great game experience. These principles are being applied to everything from sport participation (Nike+) to loyalty programs (Starbucks) and health management. I am currently using a new app called The Eatery by Massive Health that helps people improve their health through better eating habits using a game like interface. 3. Entertainment and work have collided. With increased mobility today, there is little separation between the two and as Gartner Group predicts, gamification is something that every CIO, IT Planner and Enterprise Architect must be aware of. As Millennials look for gratifying work experiences, gamification in work can improve results and satisfaction. Salesforce.com has already adopted a Bunchball plugin called Nitro that uses game-like progress tracking, team standings and rewards to increase motivation, engagement and performance. 4. Millennials and Gen Z have grown up as gamers: As such they are very familiar with gaming interfaces in a variety of user experience scenarios. Who hasn’t given their kid their iPhone to keep them busy while in line at Starbucks? What Windows was to baby boomers, gaming interface is to these generations. Ford recognized that and has brought gaming principles into its new Ford Fusion dashboard display. Drivers compete to add leaves to a digital tree by driving more efficiently. 5. Gaming principles have been proven effective for problem solving. In fact, in a study published in the journal Natural Structural & Molecular Biology, players without backgrounds in biochemistry used a game called Foldit to help scientists predict the structure of the retroviral protease, which plays a critical role in the way HIV multiplies. According to Seth Cooper, the game designer, using Foldit to turn a scientific problem into a competitive game ―provides a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans.‖ Computers don’t have great special reasoning skills whereas humans do. If gamification is here to stay, how do we as marketers use that to our advantage? Successfully applying game mechanics to create engaging experiences that increase loyalty requires recognizing that just as all people are not the same, neither are all gamers. Before designing any game driven brand experience, marketers need to understand who their target is and what they favor as an interaction mode. Are they competitive and strive for status (Foursquare), community and sharing oriented (Turntable.fm), curatorial (Digg), or creative (SETIquest). And finally, gamification requires that brand experiences support people on their journey from novice to expert because they will have different needs to stay engaged as they progress: 1. Make it easy to learn so on-boarding is fast and engaging. 2. To be involving, show them the way to mastery so there is a path to accomplishment. 3. Increase challenge and reward along the way with fresh content, activities and access. Whether or not you believe gamification is here to stay, at least for Millennials, bringing game mechanics to a brand experience can help add familiarity and fun, deepen involvement, increase performance, and most of all, build loyalty. I for one say game on. Healthcare Takes It Up A Level On Gaming Gamification, the tactic of applying game mechanics to traditional activities, has officially realized its self-fulfilling prophecy from early 2011 predictions of becoming the next big thing. In March, we blogged about our experience at SXSW, noting Seth Priebatsch's belief that the next decade will likely see the game layer prevail over social media. Gamification is slated to lead a new era of incentives, giving users a way to interact with traditionally non-game activities. If you think adding a game layer to a marketing experience will benefit your brand, there are a few ways to up the ante when incorporating it into your strategy. The concept of gaming, rewards and incentives isn't new. Companies have been helping brands do it for years with sweepstakes, instant win games, loyalty solutions and more. But we are now shaping it in new ways, in new places and for newer audiences. Making Health Fun AARP launched a program this fall under its Brain Health channel, inviting site visitors to a photo memory challenge and offering a chance to win an Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad2, iTunes gift cards, Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit Plus, and $250 toward Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 13
- 14. nutrition counseling –all prizes that tie in to users' overall health and wellbeing. Games, according to health experts, can help ward off diseases like memory loss, dementia and Alzheimer's. "Our brain health games are some of the most popular on the site,‖ said Nataki Edwards, vice president, digital strategy & operations for AARP. ―The Photo Recall Challenge brought together our users' love of games, as well as their interest in staying healthy and vibrant. We knew that a game challenging memory would work well with our audience and the results did not disappoint –more than 134K people entered this sweeps." Think games are just for kids? Games also are effective for repeated brand engagement, and a surprising gamer segment is the over-55 crowd, who enjoy playing games, puzzles and trivia in the online environment. "It’s not surprising that the over-50 crowd loves games,‖ Edwards added. ―Sudoku, solitaire and mah-jongg were all very popular games played in the 'real world' and now they can be enjoyed online as well." Blue Cross Blue Shield gets in the game Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida was looking for new ways to encourage Floridians to live an active, healthy lifestyle. "In February 2011, we refreshed our brand promise with three core tenets: affordability, access and community support,‖ said Kate Warnock, social media community manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF). ―The Pursuit was created as a way to connect Floridians with nonprofit organizations who expand the reach of our brand promise and help more Floridians in their pursuit of health." To drive awareness, a social media campaign highlighted three non-profit organizations on BCBSF's Facebook page, inviting Floridians to vote for the organization that should win the monthly mash-up. Each monthly winner was awarded $3,000, while each of the runners-up received $1,000. A leaderboard posting the monthly winners put visibility behind the initiative, showing which organizations were benefiting from users' votes, as well as the total amount donated to date. Don't think gaming aligns with your audience? Maybe that's a perfect reason that it does. Gaming by nature is fun, interesting and even competitive. What audience doesn't want to be captivated? Rather than using the same old tactics to convince, persuade, and educate, reprogram and think about the entertainment factor. The questions every brand should think out loud are, "Is my brand providing organic value to the consumer?" and, if not, "Can we at least make their experience interesting so they spend more time with us?" Whether or not your brand marketing aligns with a true gamification strategy, remember that in today's world, the consumer is always assessing ―what's in it for me.‖ If your brand, service, or organization can provide extra value, you'll be sure to lock in their attention. Leadership for the Marketing Optimization Team Bryan Eisenberg I rarely get new questions I haven't written about before in this column - as I mark my 11th year as a ClickZ columnist. Yet, at SES Chicago in November, one of the attendees asked me how you go about building out a marketing optimization team. What kind of people do you need? What kind of backgrounds should they have? I know I've discussed this with clients, but I haven't written about it before. First, please notice that I didn't call the team the landing page optimization team or the conversion optimization team. This organizational monstrosity is part of the we-work-in-silos-but-pretend-to-cooperate mentality that produces poor and disconnected experiences for customers. For digital marketing efforts to maintain consistency across all channels, traffic generation needs to be intimately connected to your website and, if appropriate, your offline experience - after all, those are the experiences promised. Never forget that your website is the glue that binds all your channels together. Jeffrey Eisenberg, my brother, likes to remind people that in our increasingly transparent experience economy, marketers are no longer paid to make promises that the business has no intention of keeping. If you're still in an organization that thinks they can promote their way to success, bail now. Experience is what matters and you better deliver better than what you promise or the world will quickly know. Is building a successful optimization team possible? Yes! Based on my experiences working with and training successful optimization teams and the research I've seen from Econsultancy and MarketingSherpa on the topic, I can tell you how to make optimization succeed. The first and most critical position is to have someone at a vice president or above level that is in control of the conversion rates directly responsible for your optimization efforts. They, along with their staff (we'll discuss shortly), should all be incentivized directly based on their results of improving conversion rates and revenue. The KPI should relate to marketing Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 14
- 15. efficiency. There area few ways to calculate this but gross margin over marketing expenses is my favorite. This leader should be the online equivalent of your offline VP of sales. This executive should have direct accountability to someone in the C-suite who supports the effort. This person should be both extremely curious and driven. This person should also possess a high degree of empathy for the customer and the customer's experience. This person is also a competent jack of all trades with significant understanding of online marketing methods including: search engine marketing (SEO and PPC), affiliate marketing, social media, etc. They've probably been reading a bunch of the books on this list I put together. They will need to work collaboratively with all those teams and the web analytics group to segment and continuously tweak both the traffic driving efforts along with the site experience efforts. I'm not done. This person should be comfortable working with a variety of methods of identifying insights and optimization techniques. Econsultancy's 2011 conversion report found that companies whose conversion rates have improved over the previous 12 months are using on average 26 percent more methods to improve conversion than those companies whose conversion rates have not improved. Irrespective of the leader of the team, it's very important that the culture of your organization allow for intelligent risk taking so that this person is empowered to try radical efforts to improve conversions and not simple methodical efforts. A strong analytic background is truly not required. Nevertheless, this person should have the ability to be able to use data to tell the story of what is happening to your visitors based on that data they gather themselves or they get directly from an analyst. I can't emphasize strongly enough how much more important it is to be connected to the narrative of the experience than the data it leaves as residue. This is generally why most traditional web analysts don't make for good optimization team leaders. They love the data diving but not the storytelling and brand value. This person must also have the authority to draw upon a steady stream of talent ranging from web analysts, creative resources (designers, copywriters, videographers, merchandisers, etc.), as well as IT resources in order to be able to execute on a continuous basis. Ideally there are resources dedicated to the optimization team, but they can be shared as long as there is a strong value placed on prioritization and execution in the organization. This team should not exist as a vacuum within the marketing organization but should draw upon the knowledge and experience of the media team including search, display, email, affiliates, and even offline media. The research shows that organizations that have more people dedicated to improving conversion rates tend to improve their conversion rate the most. Not a big surprise, I'm sure. Lastly, in order to be successful, you need the tools in place to have the agility to gather insights, create ads and landing pages (or paths), refine marketing campaigns and pages, launch tests, and segment and personalize website experiences. Allow this person to be trained and train your team in the art and science of marketing optimization and allow them to create a structured approach to conversion and you can virtually guarantee you'll squeeze a lot more conversions from all your marketing efforts. The reality is I have only met a few dozen of these individuals who have this experience over the past decade. I'm sure there are some I haven't met yet, but they are a rare breed. These leaders are going to have to be trained and mentored in order for more companies to see the massive traction that these leaders have brought to their organizations. You can't outsource this core competency or downplay it. It's a serious commitment, but one that has a high payout over the long term. P.S. Ever wonder why the leaders in conversion outperform the average conversion rates by a factor of 500 to 1,000 percent? Think compounding! For example, a 5 percent improvement every month for a year is an 80 percent increase. Steady disciplined optimization is not a project, it's a core competence for industry leaders. Cash in on Content and Social Media Marketing in 2012 It has been predicted that 2012 will be the year of content. Whether you’re building your personal brand for career development and professional growth or you’re building your business brand to reach new levels of success in the new year, content marketing and social media marketing should be part of your 2012 marketing strategy. Following are strategic steps you should take (if you haven’t already) to ensure you’re poised for social media marketing and content marketing success in 2012 and beyond (adapted from 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, McGraw-Hill 2010; and Content Marketing for Dummies, Wiley 2011). 1. Begin with Branding The first step to joining the digital age and starting your journey on the social Web is to evaluate your own brand promise. How do you want to position yourself in the marketplace? A focused brand is a strong brand, so determine your niche and use it as your primary brand message and image. Your audience needs to develop expectations for your brand in order to develop loyalty to it and feel secure enough in your brand message to talk about it with their own friends and connections, particularly across the social Web. You must meet audience expectations in every brand interaction or they will feel confused and turn away from your brand in search of another that does consistently meet their expectations. Don’t let your audience get away. Determine your brand promise and Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 15
- 16. position and stickto it at all times. 2. Create Your Branded Online Destinations Once you know how you want to position your brand in your audience’s minds, you can create your own branded online destinations. The destination you choose to start with is up to you and depends on the types of tools you enjoy using and feel like you can stick with for the long-term. Start a blog, create a Twitter account, get on Facebook, connect with people on LinkedIn, and get active on Google+. Most importantly, choose one branded online destination to be your core branded online destination. This is the place where all of your online content and conversations will lead back to. It will be the central hub of your online presence and will become the go-to place for people to learn anything and everything about your brand. I recommend a blog for a core branded online destination because blogs are so search engine friendly and flexible, but the choice is yours. The most important factor is that your core branded online destination is kept fresh with new content that effectively represents your brand promise and invites interaction and sharing. 3. Find Your Best Audience Who do you want to connect with online in order to build your brand, business and career? You can engage with existing and potential clients, online influencers, experts, customers, and more on the social Web. You simply need to determine who you want to talk to and go out and find them. Visit Google.com and type in the keywords your audience is likely to use to find brands, businesses, content and conversations like yours. Follow the links. Chances are you’ll end up finding multiple sites where your target audience already spends time. When you find your target audiences’ online hangouts, spend some time listening to the conversations happening on those sites. What topics are important to them? What gets them excited? This type of information-gathering is extremely valuable and allows you to create your own content strategy to best meet your target audience’s existing wants and needs. 4. Join the Conversation Look for social destinations such as blogs, Twitter profiles, Facebook pages, forums, and so on where you can interact with other people by publishing comments, asking questions, and answering questions. However, you must avoid self-promotion. No one will want to engage with you if you spend all your time trying to sell yourself or your business. Instead, apply the 80- 20 rule of marketing to your activities, and make sure at least 80% of the time you spend on social media activities is not self-promotional and only 20% is self-promotional. In time, those audiences will get to know you and develop expectations for your conversations. Eventually, you can lead them back to your own branded online destinations through links to related content. There you can deepen relationships. It’s this type of relationship-building that enables you to develop a band of brand advocates online who will talk about your brand and defend your brand against naysayers. There has never been a more powerful form of word-of-mouth marketing, and you can tap into it thanks to the social Web! 5. Publish Shareworthy Content Believe it or not, everyone can benefit from social media because of a phenomenon I call the compounding effect of social media participation. Here is how it works: How do people find information about businesses in the 21st century? Do they pick up the printed Yellow Pages directory? No. They log into their computers or pick up their smartphones and visit Google where they type in keywords related to the business or professionals they want to find. You need to be represented when people search for keywords related to you and your business! Here is how the compounding effect of social media participation can help you do it: Imagine that you have a website for yourself or your business with 10 pages. That’s 10 entry points for Google to find your site through keyword searches. Now, imagine that you add a blog to your website and write a new blog post every day for a year. That’s 365 more entry points for Google to find your site. Next, imagine that your blog posts are incredibly useful and meaningful to your target audience. Your amazing content, which I refer to as shareworthy content, is good enough that your audience shares it with their own online connections. They might share links to your content via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, social bookmarking sites, and even in their own blog posts. Each of those links back to your blog creates additional entry points to your website. Google ranks search engine results with a lot of incoming links (particularly from authoritative sites) higher than results with few incoming links under the assumption that no one would link to a page if the content on it was terrible. More incoming links to your website increases the likelihood that it might appear on one of the first few pages for Google keyword searches related to your business thereby driving more traffic to your site. You’ve gone from 10 entry points to your website to hundreds or thousands and increased your search engine results rankings all because you published amazing, shareworthy content. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 16
- 17. 'Social Media Agency':Fad or Revolution? Gary Stein Have you noticed a growing number of companies hiring "social media" agencies? I certainly have. In fact, I've been responding to calls from companies for social media agencies for at least two years or so and some of these calls have been for pretty lucrative projects and long-term engagements. But, to be honest, I've wondered if this was a fad that would hit hard but quick, or if we were experiencing something new. That is, were we actually experiencing the formation of a different sort of an agency being brought to life through a new kind of need? Whatever the case was at that point, we (meaning me and many others in this industry) certainly jumped on the opportunity, responding back to those requests for proposals and carefully crafting new agency raps extolling our abilities. I don't mean to say that we were merely opportunists, but rather we responded to the current need that our clients had and (the best of us) saw this as a new-but-unique channel through which we could drive business and achieve goals. That is to say, none of us really knew in 2008 if we would be getting social media request for proposals (RFPs) in 2011. Well, guess what: we are. In fact, the pace of this line of business seems to be picking up. The agency Big Fuel (which has modern advertising legend Jon Bond as its CEO) recently won what was reported to be a seven-figure engagement to perform social media duties for T-Mobile. This assignment from T-Mobile is not to replace its interactive, creative, or media agency. This is a net-new piece of work, and a significant one at that. Our industry has expanded. It's time to figure out what it means. Social Media Services The problem with social media (and therefore, the problem with hiring a company to do social media for you) is that social media is not so much a thing as it is a way. What we generally call social is really a collection of business practices from advertising to support to retention services to satisfaction and advocacy. While the consumer has a solid and clear understanding of the difference between a commercial on television and a call to customer service, the same can't necessarily be said of their concept of a Twitter feed. When the calls go out for a social media agency, there tends to be at least 5 big areas of services that a brand is looking for: Acquisition (brands want help increasing their audience in social media) Engagement (brands want help getting fans involved in the conversation) Advocacy (brands want help having messages spread through the network) Governance (brands want clear rules on operating in social media) Creative (brands want content that can be used in social media) Of course, the best RFPs and the most serious brands are going to look first and foremost for a strategy that is going to underpin all of this. I'd love to say that, over the years, social media RFPs have evolved away from simple tactics ("we want a Facebook page") and gotten more sophisticated. But the RFPs that ask for social media services to serve a particular goal remain in the minority. Of course, those are also the ones that produce the best work. The reason is simple: if you can get smart marketing people to think about a goal, and then give them a tool, you'll get success. It doesn't matter what the tool is, as long as the smart people understand it. If you go the other way (give smart people a tool and ask them to do something with it), your chances of success are no better than a roll of the dice. How to Send Out/Respond to a Social Media RFP I do believe that we will continue to see more social media RFPs in the near future, which really means that we'll see more brands establishing specific social media practices in the near future. While this is a net-new agency service, I don't think it is necessarily an entirely new practice. Not considering strategy, which should be a consistent element through all work, we should think of social media services as a mashup of a few other, more familiar services. If you are on either end of a social media RFP (sending or receiving), you should think about these core practices first. The first service is creative development. There are certainly some new formats and guidelines for the building content to go on social media. But don't think about it as just some tweet or set of images. These are impressions that you are placing upon your audience and they should be of the best quality you can muster. The other is media placement. I have long used the language of media to describe the work done within a social campaign. For example, we don't "post" content, we "traffic" it, just like we would with an ad. That means it is planned, placed, and measured. The last big one is community management. This is a tricky one. I've had community managers working on projects for a long, long time. But we always thought of their work based on their title: they managed a community. They kept it focused on the topic, kicked off the bad people, and provided topics for discussion. Now, we want them to do all that, but the goal is not to manage the community; it is to manage the community to grow value for our clients. These people are now the most front- facing component of a campaign. They can't just be there to manage the community, because "the community" is the entire point of the campaign. And that, I suppose, is the bottom line on all of this. There are more social media RFPs coming because more brands are taking Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 17
- 18. social media veryseriously. And they are taking it very seriously because they are not just seeking to fill a new channel with their message. They are not thinking about social media as a thing, but as a way - a way to connect more closely with their consumers. Which is really a good thing for all of us. Let's agree to make sure that we take the opportunity to either bring in an agency or be the agency brought in to social media to make sure that this isn't just a trend, but in fact a revolution. The dollars are there to justify, for sure. But most importantly, so is the opportunity. M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All M.I.T.'s Simmons Hall For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the ―social injustice‖ of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background. TheMassachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world. The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. The certificate will obviously not carry the weight of a traditional M.I.T. diploma, but it will provide an incentive to finish the online material. According to the New York Times, in order to prevent confusion, the certificate will be a credential bearing the distinct name of a new not-for-profit body that will be created within M.I.T. The new online platform will look to build upon the decade-long success of the university’s original free online platform, OpenCourseWare (OCW), which has been used by over 100 million students and contains course material for roughly 2,100 classes. The new M.I.T.x online program will not compete with OCW in the number of courses that it offers. However, the program will offer students a greater interactive experience. Students using the program will be able to communicate with their peers through student-to-student discussions, allowing them an opportunity to ask questions or simply brainstorm with others, while also being able to access online laboratories and self-assessments. In the future, students and faculty will be able to control which classes will be available on the system based on their interests, creating a personalized education setting. M.I.T.x represents the next logical evolution in the mushrooming business of free online education by giving students an interactive experience as opposed to a simple videotaped lecture. Academic Earth(picked by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best websites of 2009) has cornered the market on free online education by making a smorgasbord of online course content – from prestigious universities such as Stanford and Princeton – accessible and free to anyone in the world. Users on Academic Earth can watch lectures from some of the brightest minds our universities have to offer from the comfort of their own computer screen. However, that is all they can do: watch. Khan Academy, another notable online education site, offers a largely free interactive experience to its users through assessments and exercises, but it limits itself to K-12 education. By contrast, M.I.T.x will combine the interactivity of the Khan Academy with the collegiate focus of Academic Earth, while drawing primarily from M.I.T.’s advanced course material. ―M.I.T. has long believed that anyone in the world with the motivation and ability to engage M.I.T. coursework should have the opportunity to attain the best M.I.T.-based educational experience that Internet technology enables,‖ said M.I.T. President Susan Hockfield in the university’s press release. According to the university, residential M.I.T. students can expect to use M.I.T.x in a different way than online-only students. For instance, the program will be used to augment on-campus course work by expanding upon what students learn in class (faculty and students will determine how to incorporate the program into their courses). The university intends to run the two programs simultaneously with no reduction in OCW offerings. According to the New York Times, access to the software will be free. However, there will most likely be an ―affordable‖ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 18
- 19. charge, not yetdetermined, for a credential. The program will also save individuals from the rigors of the cutthroat M.I.T. admissions process, as online-only students will not have to be enrolled in the prestigious, yet expensive, university to access its online teaching resources. Those chomping at the bit to dive into M.I.T.x will have to wait, as the university doesn’t plan to launch a prototype of the platform until the spring of 2012. According to M.I.T. Provost L. Rafael Reif and Anant Agarwal, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, the prototype might include only one course, but it would quickly expand to include many more courses. Once launched, M.I.T. officials expect the M.I.T.x platform to be a giant hit amongst other universities looking to create or expand upon their online course materials. ―Creating an open learning infrastructure will enable other communities of developers to contribute to it, thereby making it self-sustaining,‖ said Agarwal in the M.I.T. press release. Whether M.I.T.x will directly threaten the margins at for-profit online universities, such as the University of Phoenix, APUS, or DeVry remains to be seen. But as M.I.T.x starts to provide many of the salient virtues of for-profit online colleges, such as a robust learning management systems and real-time virtual interaction, these publicly traded education companies might have to lower fees in order to compete with M.I.T.x’s compelling free price. In addition, the success of M.I.T.x, OCW, and Academic Earth may push dramatic technological innovation at for-profits, so that they can maintain a unique selling proposition versus their free competitors. Moreover, as the rapidly growing number of what are termed ―self educators‖ choose free college education, a cottage industry of social media support services might evolve to bring them together for free in-person study and help sessions. Which is all to say that, against this country’s sizable need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) graduates, M.I.T.x is nothing short of revolutionary. This is especially true if you aren’t a credential freak and, like me, just want to improve your chops in a marketable subject area. Heck, maybe Gene Marks’ (―If I Were a Black Kid‖) tech-based view of education can become a reality after all. Content and Device Separate Gary Stein The papers have come through and the divorce is final. I know. This is a bit of a shock, but really, I'm sure we'll all agree that the two parties will be much happier separate from each other than they were together. This is one of those cases where, separately, each one will be able to grow in new directions and achieve new things. Things that, I have to say, they never were able to do together. I'm talking, of course, about content and devices. I know. You thought this was going to be another article about Ashton and Demi. I'll save that for Twitter. No, the big split that has happened that we in the world of online advertising and marketing need to be concerned with is that content - sound, movies, documents, and so on - is no longer necessarily tied directly to the devices that we use to view and listen. The last few months of this year have seen a real growth in technology and services that are fueling this split. Apple introduced iTunes Match, a pay-for service that allows you to have all your music and movies up in the cloud, and accessible on your laptop, connected iPod, or television. Google introduced Google Music, which offers much of the same functionality (but also tied to the Google+ social network). Earlier this year, Amazon shifted the concept of the Kindle toward being more of a service: buy a book and you can read it on your Kindle device or any other thing (such as a smartphone) that has the Kindle software installed. I can start reading a book on my Kindle, place a bookmark, pick up my HTC Sensation 4G (a very cool phone, btw), launch the Kindle app, and find myself in the exact same spot that I left off. This is, of course, the next evolution in cloud computing, which, more than a simple technology, is a redefinition of what it means to be "online." Long ago (in the 1990's), going online meant finding a computer that was able to dial into the Internet and spending time sitting there. Today, it's more like we live inside a bubble that allows us to connect to content and functionality anywhere, anytime. Marketing With Content The trend in technology of separating content from devices is running smack into another major trend in marketing: the consistent communication cycle. Consider the work of past brand marketers. They would have the chance to encounter their consumer only a few times a week, at most, since the nature of the media they had to work with moved so slowly. People would only read a few magazines a week and would only do so in the evenings. Or they would just listen to the radio as they drove to and from work. Today, consumers are connected constantly and brands have the opportunity to speak far more frequently. Which means that we need to find more things to say. The closest analogy we have to what is happening inside advertising right now is the massive disruption that occurred to the news industry when CNN burst on the scene. When news went from being something we got in 30-minute doses, once a day at 11 at night to a constant stream of information that never quit, it changed not only Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 19
- 20. the news industry,but also politics, business, and more. Advertisers now find themselves in much the same situation. A consumer no longer simply encounters your ad as they flip through a magazine. Rather, they have connected to you on a social network and now…expect you to give them stuff. As a result, a great many marketers have invested in developing content that is relevant to the brand but also seen as valuable to the consumer. But, as we do this, we need to be aware that we are stepping from one spinning disk to another. Content consumption patterns are going through a dramatic shift from download-and-enjoy to open-up-access. This actually creates a great set of opportunities for marketers, if we operate within the media channels correctly. In particular, we need to: Build a Library Brands that are going to invest in content should put a significant amount of their overall budget (that is, more than 60 percent) toward creating a high-quality, long piece of content. This could be a film that describes your product. Or a set of recipes that complement your product. Or a series of interviews with thought leaders in the field where your product is relevant. Build a very solid library of content, way more than you think you might possibly need. Break It Up Once you have created your content library, break it up into a bunch of small pieces and group those pieces in new ways. Find all of the recipes that use a particular ingredient. Identify all of the times in all of the interviews where a certain topic is mentioned. Catalog all of these pieces so that you can quickly find and group them. Spread the Content Once you have all of these content elements, begin to place them in strategic spots. Bundle all of those recipes with the particular ingredient into a downloadable PDF and tweet links to it. Place all of those quotes about the particular topic, create a PowerPoint, and place it on SlideShare. You can have a single place where the full-length content lives, of course. But you can also split that content into new pieces that can be mixed up and redistributed in new ways. The result of all this is that your consumer will go from being someone who has to be driven to content to someone who is consistently surrounded by your brand. When you achieve this, you are in the exact same place where people want to be. Listen Without Reacting Listening is harder than speaking. Even the best listeners sometimes have to bite their tongues to stop from reacting, interrupting, or trying to console the person talking. Here are three ways you can truly listen: Avoid distractions. This doesn't just mean putting down the Blackberry or closing your web browser. Try not to think about what you're going to say next. Simply focus on what the other person says. Repeat back. This sometimes feels silly, but repeating back what you heard shows the other person that you're listening. Ask thoughtful questions. Ask open-ended questions that help you see the issue more clearly and allow your conversation partner to go deeper into what he cares about. How to Really Listen One morning, my wife Eleanor woke up, turned over, and said, "I am not looking forward to this day." I asked her why. What came out is that we were at the start of the Jewish high holy day season, which means colder weather and three weeks of big social meals, long religious services, broken routines, and children out of school. Eleanor didn't grow up with these traditions, and they can be overwhelming. Now, I run a management consulting company; problem solving is what I do. So it didn't take me long to jump in. "Cold weather means ski season is about to start," I said. "You love skiing. And these holiday meals are fun and filled with people you love — they'll make you feel better. And I'll be with you; you won't be alone with the kids. Also, you know, Jesus was Jewish, so it's kind of your tradition too." Even as I said it, I knew that last one was a reach. It became clear that I was making her feel worse and now she wasn't just sad, she was angry. And when she got angry, I felt myself get angry too. And self-righteous. Here I am trying to help her and this is what I get? But then I smartened up. Instead of giving in to my anger, which would have really blown things up, I shut up and listened. When I did, I began to hear the real stuff, the things that neither of us was actually saying. What I discovered was that she was upset because the focus on mothers during the Jewish holidays taps into her insecurities about motherhood, not being a Jewish mom, and not having time to spend on her own work. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 20
- 21. I also discoveredthat my own babbling wasn't so much to help her feel better as to help me feel better. I'm the reason she's in New York City, living through cold winters, and part of a Jewish family. In other words, by trying to make her feel better, I was doing the opposite of making her feel better. I was arguing with her. In fact, most of the time when we try to make people feel better, we end up arguing with them because we're contradicting what they're feeling. Which, inevitably, makes them feel worse. Listening, it turns out, is magic. Not only did it help me understand what was going on with both of us, but it helped Eleanor feel better, too. It made her feel that she wasn't alone in her feelings; I was with her. All I had to do was listen. But listening isn't easy. The more we listen to others, the more likely we will react — or overreact — to what they say. Listening, it turns out, is much harder than speaking. We have to allow things we might disagree with to hang in the air. We have to move over a little and create space for those things to linger. That kind of listening takes tremendous courage. But if we're interested in learning — about ourselves as well as others — then it's worth it. And if we're interested in being connected to others, showing them respect, helping them feel better, and solving problems between us, then it's more than worth it. It's essential. Until people feel heard, they will fight to be heard. But once they are heard, there is little left to fight for, and then we can move on, not as "us vs. them" but simply as "us." So how do you listen in a way that transforms conversations and relationships? 1. Actually listen. And only listen. That means don't multitask. I'm not just talking about doing email, surfing the web, or creating a grocery list. Thinking about what you're going to say next counts as multitasking. Simply focus on what the other person is saying. 2. Repeat back. This feels a little silly at first but works magic. If someone says she is angry about the decision you just made, you can say "you're angry about the decision I just made." I know, I know, she just said that. But it shows you're listening and it communicates to the other person that she's been heard. If you don't have the courage to try it with an adult, try it with a child. You'll see what a difference it makes and it will embolden you to try it with a colleague or your spouse. 3. Ask questions. Explore the other person's thoughts and feelings more deeply. And "You don't really believe that, do you?" does not count as a question. You are not using the Socratic method to prove your point; you are trying to better understand what's going on so you can better understand your partner in this conversation. Really listening can feel risky, which seems strange because listening doesn't materially change anything. But sometimes you'll hear things that are hard to hear. Remember that listening is not the same thing as agreeing. And it will never force you to take any particular action. If anything, it will reduce the intensity of people's insistence that you take a specific action. Because in many cases what they're looking for is proof that you've heard them. So if they feel you've really heard them, their need for action diminishes. As Eleanor spoke, I noticed my own resistance to various things she was saying. There's no question that it's hard to really listen. But once I relaxed into it, I heard her in a much deeper way. That made her feel better. Call me co-dependent, but it made me feel better too. It turns out that sometimes, just listening is problem-solving. Push Notifications: Keep Mobile Users In Touch ADOTAS – Push notifications are a messaging medium that allow applications installed on any connected device to actively communicate with an end user, even if the device is inactive. It’s called ―push‖ because the technology enables a device to listen for messages being ―pushed‖ to it from the application owner’s servers. Push notifications are a powerful new mobile communications channel that create a persistent, streamlined and engaging mobile messaging experience. Similar to email marketing, push notifications can consist of plain text or rich HTML and must be opted into. Messages can be generated automatically from a server; triggered based on user activity, context (like user location) and preference; or sent manually through a web interface. Audience groups can be segmented providing the ability to create campaigns. Like SMS, push gives you the same ability to engage users directly on their mobile devices, but at a fraction of the cost. Push costs less because it utilizes data and wifi networks instead of cellular networks. Push notifications are a direct, persistent, user-controlled and cost- effective mobile communications channel. Why are Push Notifications important? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 21
- 22. With the averagelifespan of a mobile app hovering at 30 days after being downloaded, push notifications are becoming the centerpiece of solid, long-term mobile strategies. By driving increased consumer engagement, awareness and conversions, push notifications extend the life of an app and add usefulness to consumers. Push is catching on for companies big and small across all industries, giving brands a voice in the mobile channel and allowing them to create deep customer relationships. Push notifications provide personalized experiences, giving users control to personalize preferences and opt in or out at any time. So what does it take to get started? To send push notifications, you first have to build an app. Smart phone users spend the majority of their time with the device in apps, creating a large opportunity for brands to connect with consumers in new ways. This opportunity is creating a demand for companies to invest more on building solid apps and measuring success in more tangible ways. Gone are the days of building throwaway apps and measuring success using download count and app store rating. Today success is measured by how many times users open the app, how much time is spent in the app, and conversion rates, among other metrics. Mobile networks, like Verizon, and platforms, like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, are investing in push notifications too. They are answering the demand to build better user experiences on their devices and enhance capabilities for their customers. This evolution is providing businesses with a new ability to use social, local and mobile context to create more engaging and personal experiences. Social integration, geo-based messaging, the ability to create campaign landing pages within apps, business-friendly composition and measurement tools, along with investments in new offerings such as Notification Center and Newsstand, are helping to bring push notifications into the core of mobile strategies. Use cases Companies like ESPN, New York Times, Groupon, Dictionary.com, Warner Brothers and thousands of companies are using push notifications to drive user engagement, awareness and conversions. Push notifications are delivering new content, news, media, local information and deals, and they’re providing social dialogue between people. These companies all benefit from increased interaction and decreased messaging costs, while getting a ―built for mobile‖ experience that can’t be matched by other messaging channels. Here are a few examples of how Push is driving business results: Delivering A Daily Dose Of Learning Push notifications gave the world’s largest and most authoritative online dictionary, Dictionary.com, the ability to create a Word of the Day app that could actively engage their users. Dictionary.com uses push as a vehicle to deliver a new vocabulary- building word every day, directly to millions of iPhones and Androids. ―We wanted to provide our popular Word of the Day to app users direct to their mobile device,‖ said Lisa Sullivan-Cross, Dictionary.com’s general manager for mobile. ―Our word-lovers can enjoy our features without needing to launch another program or app.‖ Making Radio Social The Jelli music app aims to provide a dynamic, social, and gamified approach to radio. To better realize this goal, Jelli began promoting community and game features with a social strategy. It used push notifications through my company, Urban Airship, to revitalize social sharing and rating functions, delivering real-time alerts to highlight the app’s unique features. When users suggest a song to Jelli, they will get a push if their song makes it to the radio and if the community enjoys their song. The push notifications drove a 30 percent increase in user engagement along with dramatic increases in app usage and frequency Driving Commerce According to comScore, 14 percent of users respond to offers via push notifications. LivingSocial, Groupon, and Swirl by Daily Candy all offer their daily deals to customers using push notifications. With push, these companies can assure that their customers never miss a sale, even when they are on the go. Giving users the ability to click from a daily push directly into the app has given Swirl a 60 percent increase in mobile traffic and a 20 percent increase in total mobile orders. They are experiencing 40 percent higher conversion rates than through their mobile browser, which is driven primarily through email. 2012 Forecast: Mobile Marketing ADOTAS – Having been involved in the mobile and advertising industries for over two decades, I can say with confidence that 2011 was a banner year for the discipline. Over the past year, consumers have proven that the mobile phone has become an integral part of the shopping experience. This is creating a number of exciting new opportunities for marketers to reach consumers at multiple touchpoints throughout the buying process. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 22
- 23. Lessons From 2011 Let’sstart by taking a look back at 2011. The biggest lesson we learned is that campaigns must tie directly to return on investment. Mobile campaigns are no longer experimental: Brands have significantly increased their budgets, and with this, expectations to show ROI have also increased. A big factor in achieving desired ROI is reach. Despite what some may think, Apple does not have a lock on market share. Mobile marketers must think beyond iOS to reach consumers on all types of devices and networks. Mobile campaigns such as Macy’s Backstage Pass proved that providing consumers with choice in the call to action (i.e. providing a QR code and an SMS short code) drives strong results. It is with these lessons in mind that we look to 2012 and where the coming year will take us. Thinking Beyond the Click In the coming year, we can expect more pressure to produce results from mobile campaigns. This means it is critical to think beyond a one-time transaction. In 2012 we will see more long-term engagement opportunities and learn to think ―beyond the click.‖ There will be even more device types in the hands of consumers (new smartphones, tablets, e-readers, etc.), making it important to provide positive user experiences, rather than catering to the least common denominator. Successful mobile campaigns have prominent calls to action and provide multiple ways to engage. Brands should consider using an SMS call to action and QR code on print advertising campaigns that point to a mobile website that can capture the customer’s information. This engages the consumer and introduces a concept of immediacy. Social Media is Here to Stay We can safely expect more social interaction via mobile device at the point of sale, making customer service vital. In a world where a good experience – and, unfortunately, a bad one – can end up on Twitter and Facebook in seconds, the mobile phone has become a megaphone from which customers broadcast thoughts in real time. Savvy brands can integrate mobile and social in a smart way to ensure positive customer experiences and avoid potential disasters. More Vendors, More Promises In such a high growth industry, we can expect more new vendors will enter the marketplace in 2012. My advice to brands and agencies is to proceed with caution. There is a lot to be said for experience when it comes to driving results. Any ―two guys in a garage‖ startup and claim to know what they’re doing, but it’s important to ask questions and read case studies to make sure they can back up these claims beforehanding over your precious budget. Patent Litigation Will Abound Along with more vendors often come more ―me too‖ technologies. This means patent lawyers will be busy in 2012. Patent infringements are continually identified and enforced, making it imperative to work with a company that has protected its industry knowledge and can keep you out of trouble. Year of the Mobile Web If I were to predict a breakout star for 2012, I would nominate the mobile web. As we move closer to the time when mobile web access eclipses PC web access, brands, agencies and others will realize they need a mobile Web offering that over-delivers. This has not yet happened, but we’re getting closer every day, and soon the time will come when consumers will demand it. 2012 Surprises Social networks will play a more important role in the way we buy and recommend products. We don’t know yet what Twitter or Facebook will launch regarding product recommendation or commerce initiatives, but we should be prepared to react to new products and make sure all our initiatives are integrated with these social networks. Will others join the race to become the killer app and be able to deliver in such a crowded category? Will price points continue to be brought down with offers of discounted product in exchange for receiving ads a laKindle? These answers remain to be seen. New Year’s Mobile Resolutions? In the New Year, we should all resolve to tie CRM into our mobile programs, ensuring a deeper relationship and more relevant information to the opted-in subscriber. Think after-the-click in mobile advertising – provide a means to an ongoing relationship. Follow behavior and interest research – just because you can do something technically doesn’t mean you should. Know your customers and prospects and market to them in ways that you have the best chance to succeed. Happy Holiday’s and happy marketing in the New Year! Kiip Raises Stakes On Mobile Game Rewards, Partners With Disney ADOTAS – Kiip, the company that pioneered offering real-life, physical rewards for mobile game players, announced today it had leveled up and has begun incorporating big-ticket items into its rewards. Kiip has partnered with Disney during this holiday weekend in a promotion whereby people playing mobile games can enter flash competitions to win prizes as large as a Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 23
- 24. surround-sound HDTV. That’sa big step up from, say, a free soda for trouncing a video game boss. Kiip has been around a few minutes now, having launched in April with a still-teenaged CEO, Brian Wong, at the helm. Wong had looked to way web advertising had been hurriedly adapted for mobile (Wong has been known to describe that adaptation ―Honey, I Shrunk the Banner Ad‖), and he looked at the way people were increasingly glued to the video games on their mobile devices, playing for no benefit other than a sense of achievement. Enter Kiip, which took, as Wong explained it in a phone call yesterday, ―the moment of achievement — it’s also a moment of pause,‖ with all of its emotional weight, and used it to offer a physical reward. The idea, psychologically, was that the player, in that triumphant moment, thereby develops an affinity with the brand offering the prize. Early brands to get involved included Vitamin Water, popchips, Dr. Pepper, Carl’s Jr. and 1-800-Flowers. Wong explained Kiip had been looking toward promotions with a wide range of industries, but the number of people playing mobile games at any given time initially posed a challenge. ―What about auto? What about travel?‖ Wong mused out loud. ―You can’t give away a million cars.‖ On the other hand, he pointed out, ―You’re playing with a hundred, thousands, a million people at the same time. How are you able to harness those people?‖ Indeed, considering the numbers almost made it imperative that there were higher stakes with rewards. And that’s why these flash competitions, in which game-players on the Kiip network face off against each other in real time — the feature’s called Swarm — are different from what Kiip has been doing all along. ‖With every Kiip-enabled game, we can say, ‘Okay, for the next two hours, you get the highest score, you can win a‖ big-ticket item, Wong explained. Disney’s the first brand to jump on board with a Swarm campaign — it’s a four-day (through Dec. 26) promotion for its John Carter movie. Great timing for Disney: The entire set of people playing video games on Christmas is quite the captive audience. But the ―captive audience‖ factor is, according to Wong, one way of circumventing some of the trial and error that goes into online marketing. ―This guarantees a participating audience,‖ he said. The Ten Most Annoying Management Terms Of 2011 We are nearly at the end of 2011 and another year of mayhem behind. We will be judging our 2011 Non-Predictions and trying to dream up some new ones for 2012 in the next fortnight or so but this week we have been able to get some long needed admin done. With it came a realisation that even if the financial industry is suffering, the creative management community has been in full swing dreaming up new terms and phrases to camouflage the blindingly obvious. The evolution of ‘management speak’ means some phrases die and some survive and flourish. TMM really doesn't know what determines the success of one term or phrase over another other than, as with the arts, adoption and patronage by the most respected in the field. TMM hope that this year’s rash of newcomers all die off naturally but we would like to help with a shove into their deserved obscurity. TMM have noticed that every cause nowadays needs an "Awareness" campaign and though we feel that "doing" is of much greater importance than "awaring," we will go along with the fashion and launch a Management Talk Awareness Week with the list of phrases and terms we have found most irksome this year. So here are TMM's top ten annoying phrases of 2011 (even if some are older) that we would like to see the back of. 10 - Internalise - As in "What you have all failed to internalise is that there has been a paradigm shift. As a result you are all now behind the curve when it comes to the multi-lateral interoperability needed to realise the supra-organisational mission statement.‖ Even though there is an awful lot to detest in that statement "Internalise" is the word we most object to. It appears to just means learn or remember but as telling someone to learn or remember something appears instructive, suggesting they internalise it will sound more empathetic, but at the severe cost of sounding like a clone-monkey. 9 - Hi, I hope all is well - With the birth of the email there came an awkward period when the formality of letters, with their "Dear Sir / Yours sincerely" had to be detuned to fit in with the new immediacy and informality. After a stuttering start the world passed through an embarrassed joint squirm and settled on "Hi" for anything other than legal representations. But 2011 has seen a pernicious ingress of a new form of insincerity with the addition of "I hope all is well" to the "Hi". Rather than questioning either the validity or sincerity of that statement, we would just ask that the bulk senders of such missives consider where they are sent to, as for many recipients things are blindingly obviously not well. We suggest the only time this greeting is appropriate is when addressed to bore-hole companies. 8 - Weaponise price opacity - As the scarcity of new Himalayan Pink Salt in the financial market takes its toll on the bottom lines of financial institutions it is becoming more important for them to make sure that they maximise the profitability of existing basic products. Opacity of price is critical in this process but weaponising it? Wow. 7 - Ideation - What happened to good old "have a think" or "come up with some ideas"? Even running things up flag poles is less irksome than "ideation" which sounds as though it should involve radioactive iodine. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 24
- 25. 6 - StakeholderCommunity - Not a Transylvanian village but the new plural of stakeholder. Theoretically a stakeholder is anyone who can affect, or is impacted by, your decisions and so could be a lowly minion in your company, but deference only ever seems to be made to "stakeholders" when they are either your bosses, investors or regulators. Please let's call them who they really are. 5 - Socialise - When issues got out of hand in the old days you would normally either just tell the boss, or perhaps "take it upstairs." But now a cunning adaptation of the old mantra of "My profit, our loss" has invoked a caring sharing attitude to screw- ups by "socialising" them. As in "I think we should socialise this issue with senior management and the stakeholder community." 4 - Complementary - Odd one this, and it's really down to our own stupidity, but we have regularly opened emails this year expecting some nice free service only to re-read it and find it's not "complimentary" but something expensive and homeopathic. We expect the marketing world to soon be jumping on this and emailing multitudes of complementary not-at-all-free offers. Such as Ryan-Air offering "Complementary Flights" which sound as though they are free but are actually expensive and just "complement" what a decent service should be by being dreadful. Or have they done that already? "Complementary" should be banned from subject lines so that the vaguely dyslexic amongst us shouldn't be taken advantage of. 3 - Bandwidth - The adoption of IT geeky words into mainstream fashion is nothing new but the latest over-usage of "Bandwidth" by management is particularly grating. Just as "spending more time with my family" has become the acceptable expression of "Just been fired/stiffed/shafted/backstabbed/found out but have photos" so has "I'm sorry I can't action that, I don't have the bandwidth‖ become the generic replacement for "I don't have the time/resources/authority or inclination." But the saddest part is the way it's used under the false allusion that "bandwidth" is new and fashionable. Our grandmothers, thanks to broadband adverts and home routers, know what bandwidth is so please, unless you are the type of person who still uses "groovy" in the boardroom, please drop "bandwidth." 2 - Geosourcing - Why you lose your job to someone in a different part of the world. "The support function has been geosourced" or "How's the front office geosourcing project going?‖ It's the sharp end of a simple belief of ours that if there is someone able and willing to do your job for less than you, you are toast. But the use of "geo," which has connotations of environmental friendliness married to "source," which conjures images of babbling fresh springs in the mountains, results in a super-eco word which actually means "You're fired." 1 - Reaching out - TMM first came across 2011's winning term in July and since then it has spread like wildfire, which has us looking like Irish Riverdancers as we try to stamp it out as fast as we can. The origins and epidemiology of this disease has us suspecting it's the product of some Class of 2011 Management School somewhere. It really is complete and utter rubbish. If you are about to call an investor for some documents you don't "reach out to the client," you phone or mail them. If you want to know why a trade hasn't settled you don't "Reach out to Bangalore" you "call back-office." So let's just kill that one right now before someone gets accused of molestation. And with that we open up "Management Talk Awareness Week." We are sure you all have your own experiences to share and we look forward to the comments column acting as a joint cognitive pan-cohesual empathy forum leading to textualisation of common goal and achievement recognition programs. CPG Shopping Habits Reduced To Four Kinds of Trips Trip mix has shifted during the course of the economic downturn, but pantry stock-up and quick trips together still account for about two-thirds of CPG trips and dollar sales. According to SymphonyRI, in a recent study ―the CPG Basket, Fostering Growth in a Time of Conservation,‖ consumers are very discerning about the money they spend today. They are carefully choosing what they will buy, when they will buy it, and where they will buy it. They are choosing to eliminate and/or postpone some purchases in the name of keeping their budgets manageable. During the past few years, for many getting by has meant embracing frugal and well-thought-out purchase strategies. This report provides insight into evolving economic conditions and consumer response to those conditions vis-à-vis the consumer mindset during the predominant CPG trip missions. During the past year, CPG prices have been on a northward march. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently placing the all- food Consumer Price Index at 3.5%-4.5% for 2011. In 2012, the rate is expected to moderate only slightly, to 2.5-3.5%1. Escalating food and fuel prices and increased budgetary pressures are having a significant impact on the way consumers approach their grocery-related tasks. Trip mix has shifted during the course of the economic downturn, but pantry stock-up and quick trips together still account for about two-thirds of CPG trips and dollar sales. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 25
- 26. Trip Missions Overview Trip Type Overview Quick Trip Special Purpose Fill-In Pantry Stock-Up Mindset Need it now, have to Buying for a specific Routine fill-in an heavy Prepare for the coming make a trip week event (not routine) use categories # Items 1-5 2-10 5-15 15+ All Outlet Average $ <$40 $20-$50 $30-$80 $50+ Spent % of All Outlet Trips 56% 16% 14% 13% % of All Outlet CPG $ 24% 18% 19% 39% Source: SymphonyIRI Trip Typology, SymphonyIRI Consumer Network™ 52 Weeks Ended 8/21/2011 Understanding trip missions among key consumer segments will enable retailers to optimize product mix and store layout. It will also empower retailers to create powerful cross-promotion and merchandising campaigns to reinforce or realign primary trip mix, says the report. Increases in average basket size, evidenced most predominantly across pantry stock-up and fill-in trips, are reflective of inflationary CPG pricing trends. Average basket ring, across and within trip missions, has been a moving target during the course of the past two years. Basket ring is being influenced by changing consumer rituals as well as vacillating pricing trends. In the first few months of 2011, average per trip spending began to climb across all trip missions, except special purpose. These increases coincided with an escalating pace of inflation. Baskets within these missions have been growing at an increasing rate throughout much of 2011, yet, the rate of increase remains below the level of inflation. Average Basket Ring (% Change vs. Prior Year 13 Week Period) % Change vs. YA Period Ending % Avg. Price/Unit % Unit Sales May 2010 +0.8 (1.4) Aug 2010 (1.7) (2.2) Nov 2010 +0.4 +0.2 Feb 2011 +1.1 (1.2) May 2011 +1.8 +0.1 Aug 2011 +4.0 (0.2) Source: SymphonyIRI Consumer Network, 13 Weeks Ended 8/21/2011 and preceding 13 Week periods Within grocery, mass/supercenter and club channels, the predominant trip mission is the pantry stock-up mission. This mission accounts for one-half of sales in grocery, and one-third of sales in each the mass/supercenter and club channels. In all of these channels, pantry stock-ups account for 15%-20% of trips. Quick trips are a strength of the drug and dollar channels. Within these channels, it is these ―need it now‖ purchases that drive a majority of dollar sales and trips. Purchase and consumption habits are shifting in a way that is favorable to these retailers. Their ―nearby‖ locales make it convenient to swing by for a few quick items without a significant time or gas outlay. During these missions, consumers are eliminating purchases deemed ―non- essential‖ and they are changing the timing of purchases to accommodate cash flow. Today’s consumers are focused more on needs versus wants and they are buying closer to the point of consumption. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 26
- 27. Trip Mission asPercent of Trips, 2011 Mission Channel Stock-Up Fill-In Special Purpose Quick trip Grocery 18.6% 18.1 13.3 49.9 Mass/Super 15.1 16.7 22.7 45.5 Club 15.3 18.3 21.1 45.3 Drug - 4.8 16.6 78.3 Dollar 1.7 6.9 17.8 74.0 Source: SymphonyIRI Consumer Network™ 52 Weeks Ended 8/21/2011; U.S. Department of Energy Trip Mission as Percent of Channel $ Sales, 2011 Mission Channel Stock-Up Fill-In Special Purpose Quick trip Grocery 49.8% 19.2 12.3 18.7 Mass/Super 39.1 22.3 20.7 16.9 Club 35.6 22.8 21.8 1 .8 Drug 1.1 16.7 29.5 52.7 Dollar 6.4 18.3 26.9 48.5 Source: SymphonyIRI Consumer Network™ 13 Weeks Ended 8/21/2011 and preceding 13 Week periods For CPG marketers, the difficulty is that no ―one size fits all‖ budgetary ritual exists, says the report. Rather, strategies vary by channel, category, brand, and market. Indeed, strategies often vary at the individual household level. The report concludes by suggesting that an intimate understanding of current and emerging trends within these trip missions will enable manufacturers and retailers to develop and execute strategies that align with overall corporate goals while simultaneously addressing the complex and changing needs of U.S. shoppers in a turbulent economic environment. You're Using the Wrong Social Media Metrics! John Lovett In my experience, I've found that the vast majority of practitioners measuring social media currently rely on the wrong metrics. Metrics such as fans, followers, +1's, shares, likes, and dislikes are easily captured and readily delivered by social networks, but they represent merely the low-hanging fruit of social analytics. These are the "counting metrics" of social media because using them typically equates to counting up digital trivia. Effective measurers of social media go beyond counting metrics to create outcome-based metrics and ultimately report on business value metrics to senior stakeholders across the enterprise. In this column, I'll elaborate on the minutia of counting metrics and where they can add value to your social media operations, as well as how to take the next step of creating outcome and business value metrics to ratchet up your social analytics game to the next level. Testing the Social Media Waters The temptation for businesses to experiment with social media is practically irresistible. And in fact, you'd be foolish not to venture into new and emerging channels if your target audience leads you there. But experimentation and ongoing participation in social media must continually prove out the potential for business value. Often times, this potential is demonstrated in metrics that are indicative of volume and activity. Counting metrics do just that because they are measures that tell you how deep the social media pool really is. These counting metrics are typically the freebies offered by social media networks that quantify the basic observational statistics of participation. The stats include: number of users, number of fans, number of followers, number of posts, number of comments per post, number of check-ins, number of ratings, number of reviews…and so on. You quickly see that there's numbers on top of numbers. Yet, stopping at this point and using only counting metrics to measure and manage social media is not only just plain lazy, but also detrimental to your business. These metrics are important for gauging the health and activity of your social media Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 27
- 28. operations, but theyfail to tell you if you're achieving your business goals. Counting metrics can offer insights into how many people are swimming and if the water is too cold, or just right. They can also tell you how many people you are reaching with your social media messages and if your content is worthy of passing on to their friends and followers. But, what counting metrics cannot tell you is who the lifeguards should be watching, and where management needs to focus their efforts. Thus, it's imperative that you go beyond the counting metrics offered by social media platforms to formulate outcome metrics that constitute real measures of success. Identifying Outcome Metrics for Social Media Measurement Stepping away from the pool for a moment, I ask you to consider why you're participating in social media in the first place. Are you working to build awareness for your new products or services? Do you want to initiate a dialogue with your customers to solicit their input on what you could be doing more effectively? Are you building goodwill with consumers by giving back through social media and encouraging philanthropy? Or, can you increase your profits by selling directly through social media platforms? The answers to these questions reveal the business outcomes that you should be working towards when participating in social media. It's only when you have a clear understanding of what you're trying to accomplish with your social media efforts that you can develop truly effective measures of success. If you can't pinpoint why you're participating in social media today, or if your answers are flimsy and won't stand up to the scrutiny of executive leadership, I strongly advise that you stop everything and rethink your efforts. However, if you have a strategic vision of what you're trying to accomplish with social media, then developing your outcome metrics will become a much easier task. For example, if gaining exposure is the outcome that you are after, then metrics like reach, velocity, and share of voice will be extremely helpful in determining your progress toward this outcome. Similarly, if you're working to foster a dialogue with customers, focus on metrics like audience engagement, key influencers, and trending topics. Or if cold hard cash is what you're after, then metrics like social referral source, cost per acquisition, conversion rates, and average order value will illuminate progress toward your stated social media outcomes. Each of these metrics tells you how well you're doing according to plan and reveals valuable business information. Demonstrating Social Media Business Value Now that you're straight on using counting metrics for sizing up opportunities and outcome metrics for quantifying purpose, the next step is tying all this together to communicate your fabulous progress. To do this, you need to detach yourself from the metrics that you use everyday to manage your social operations and translate these granular metrics into more generalized business language. Think carefully about the things that matter to your organization and the stakeholders that oversee the business and communicate in ways that resonate with them. In most cases, this means aligning your business objectives with corporate goals. Demonstrate which social media channels are contributing to new customer acquisition, which are adding dollars to the corporate coffers, or which are elevating customer satisfaction. This takes some skill and corporate savvy to indoctrinate non-believers into the world of social media metrics, but it's an entirely worthwhile endeavor that will pay dividends for your organization in the long run. I've found that the most effective way to present a strategic plan and communicate your successes using metrics is to leverage a framework for social media measurement. The one I use includes an inside-out strategy that begins with corporate goals, then aligns business objectives, maps these to measures of success, and then extends out to operational tactics. Using this framework allows me to solicit feedback from stakeholders by actually including them in the planning process of developing social media programs. This encourages participation and gives everyone involved a vested interest in the success of social media endeavors. Ultimately, your social media metrics should build from the basic counting metrics to outcome-based objectives that wholly support your corporate goals. Once you have a solid plan and a strategic roadmap for how you'll stitch this all together, then you're ready to dive into the deep end of the social media pool. Mobile Devices Have Eclipsed the Desktop Experience; Get Over It Andrew Solmssen Two years ago, a group of us at my company had a conversation on this topic: "What's the one device you couldn't live without?" We were pretty well split between laptop and phone. Twenty-four months later, when I revisited the conversation for this column, everyone picked their phone or their iPad without any hesitation. Let's start with some background and a few premises. We've had powerful mobile devices ever since the PalmPilot (for some old-school geek cred, mine was made by US Robotics) came on the scene - a solid 15 years ago. These devices seemed incredible because they allowed us to take part of the desktop with us. First contacts, tasks, and calendars, and then email: the devices felt magical because they made it seem like we were using a computer away from the computer. It was a cheap facsimile of the computer experience, of course, but it untethered us, and that was amazing. Once the Treo, BlackBerry, and other truly useable "smartphones" arrived, devices had their first advantage, and the first time you looked up a contact's phone number and dialed was pretty special. Making a phone call with your computer was basically impossible at the time - even today, it's nowhere nearly as seamless as a call from a handset. Today, as the pace of technology continues, devices differentiate themselves in many different ways. GPS. Your phone knows where you are. Far beyond mere IP targeting, knowing where a user is via GPS is a huge advantage, Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 28
- 29. providing bespoke, relevantinformation and helping search immeasurably. Apps. Hardware-accelerated, Internet-connected software at a blistering pace (plus a built-in distribution model): the apps marketplace has helped consumers understand the value of a program that does one tiny thing (like identify the title of a song), but does it very well. Our EVP of UX, Jason Brush, refers to this as "purpose-built." Browser capabilities. High-end mobile devices, broadly speaking, have much better support for elegant browser-based experiences because they use more uniform, standard browsers. Mobile browsers are way ahead in terms of being able to deploy HTML5 experiences through WebKit, the rendering engine that powers Chrome and Safari on phones and tablets. Camera. Yes, most laptops have cameras, but except for video chat, they're not particularly useful. In-phone cameras allow for QR codes, barcode readers, and have rendered the point-and-shoot cameras (and more recently, flip cams) completely useless. The experience of capturing and sending media in the same motion beats the heck out of attaching a camera to the desktop, moving images over from the camera, and attaching them to an email. Extra points for the microphone that, unlike a PC, is always hooked up and ready to go. Economic model. The mobile app store has provided a vast marketplace for small software developers. The result: a commensurate lift in innovation for the platform. Direct interface. I wouldn't recommend writing your novel on your smartphone - typing input can be difficult on mobile devices. But, where typing falls short, direct input via multitouch and accelerometer interactions encourages navigation and engagement directly with content. At my company, we find we're increasingly advocating starting development with mobile. As a team, we've taken away a lot of useful information and perspective from Luke Wroblewski's writings on "Mobile First." I recommend that you take a look at his work, as it clearly demonstrates that mobile doesn't take a backseat to the desktop anymore. In fact, the experience on mobile is better, and it should be at the center of any application strategy. Further, the mobile surge is accelerating. With near field communication (NFC) devices coming into the mainstream over the next year, and companies like Square changing the point-of-sale options, our phones are going to become the consumer's wallet and the retailer's storefront. Based on such marketplace currents, the International Data Corporation has predicted a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent for mobile Internet use, with mobile Internet traffic eclipsing PCs and wireline devices by 2015. Mobile devices will continue to provide the richest, most fully featured experiences and we'll see the gap continue to grow. Look At The Big Picture In 2012 by Gord Hotchkiss Another year’s pretty much in the can. And because I’m working on idle this week, trying to catch my breath with my family before plunging headlong into 2012, search marketing falls somewhere behind the recent releases on Netflix and trying out the new Wii game on the list of things preoccupying my mind. So, don’t expect any salient and timely search news from me! When I look back on what has preoccupied me over the last 12 months, I will say that much of it has been spent ―stepping back‖ and trying to look at the bigger picture. As online interactions have taken a bigger and bigger chunk of our lives (you’ll notice that both of the recreational options I mentioned have online components woven into them), trying to understand how our actions play out against a broader online backdrop has been the thing I think about most often. We digital marketers tend to take that ―bigger picture‖ and break it into pieces, trying to make sense of it by focusing on one small piece. Digital marketing lends itself to this minute focal depth because of the richness of each piece. Even the smallest chunk of an online interaction has a lot to explore, with a corresponding mound of data to analyze. We could spend hours drilling into how people use Linked In, or Twitter, or Google+ or Facebook. We could dig into the depths of the Panda update or how local results show up on Bing and never come up for air. But think back to what, at one time, was another holiday season pastime. Some of us remember when we used to get a jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. You’d dump out all 5,000 of those little photographic morsels and then begin to piece it together into a coherent image of something (usually a landscape involving a barn or a covered bridge). Success came not only from examining each piece, but also in using the image on the boxtop to help understand how each piece fit into the bigger picture. Without understanding what that bigger picture was supposed to look like, you could examine each piece until the cows came home (again, often a topic for jigsaw art). So, much of my 2011 was spent trying to understand what the picture on the top of the puzzle box was supposed to look like. What would ultimately tie all the pieces together? In physics terms, I guess you could say I’m been looking for the Unified Field Theory of online marketing. And you know what I realized? You won’t find it by focusing on technology, no matter how cool it is. Foursquare marketing or search retargeting or hyperlocal optimization are all just pieces of a much bigger puzzle. The real picture emerges when you look at how people navigate the events of their lives and the decisions they must make. It’s there where the big picture emerges. A few weeks ago I was speaking to a group of marketers about the emerging role of mobile. This was no group of digital slouches. They knew their mobile stuff. They had tested various campaign approaches and honed their tactics. But the results Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 29
- 30. were uneven. Somewere hits, but more were misses. They knew a lot about the pieces, but didn’t have the boxtop picture to guide them. My message (for those who know me) was not a surprising one: understand how to leverage mobile by first understanding how people use mobile to do they things they intend to do. Don’t jump on a QR code campaign simply because you read somewhere that QR codes are a red-hot marketing tool. First see if QR codes fit into the big picture in any possible way. If you do that, you might find that QR codes are a puzzle piece that actually belongs in another box. After delivering my sermon about the importance of understanding their respective big pictures, I asked my favorite question: ―How many of you have done any substantial qualitative research with your customers in the past year?‖ Not one hand went up. This was a group of puzzle assemblers working without any boxtop picture to guide them. If you want to sum up my past year and fit it into one final paragraph for 2011, it’s this: Understand your customers! Spend a good part of 2012 digging deep into their decision process and their online paths. Make it personal. Stalk if necessary. Ask questions that start with ―why.‖ Observe. Make notes. Broaden your online reading list to include blogs like Science Daily, Futurity, Neuroscience Marketing and Homo Consumericus. At some point, the bigger picture will begin to emerge. And I bet it will be much more interesting than a landscape with a barn and some cows in it. 5 Innovative Campaigns You Might Have Missed Tessa Wegert In digital marketing hindsight is 20/20, and that's a perilous fact. While we can't know for certain how our buys will pan out before we make them, we must do our best to keep ourselves informed. One way to prepare? Assess what others have done, whether it worked, and why, and look for opportunities to make a similar impact for our own brands. In the examples that follow you'll find a nod to some of the biggest trends of the year, from social media to mobile apps and branded videos. But you'll also see mainstay formats and platforms used in creative ways. What sets these 2011 campaigns apart wasn't how much the brands spent to produce them, but how much value they provided, both to the consumer and advertiser alike. 1. Dunkin' Donuts' Geo-Social Buys We saw an uptick in Foursquare usage this year as the social service grew (it now boasts 15 million users), and Dunkin' Donuts was among the brands to embrace it. In August, it sought to crown the "President of Dunkin' Nation" in a five-week campaign that allowed consumers who checked in at its nationwide locations to enter a contest to earn the name and a grand prize. Now it has set its sights on the holidays. Since late November, it has been granting entry into prize sweepstakes to mobile users (both Foursquare and Facebook Places) who check in at their New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut locations. By the end of the first week of the holiday campaign, the brand collected 1,500 registrations and awarded 300 prizes as digital-savvy consumers clamored to gain from an easy action that is quickly becoming a force of habit. 2. Kathy Beth Terry's Facebook Page Singer Katy Perry's imagined teen attracted the attention of hundreds of thousands of consumers this year, on Facebook and Twitter alike. The star of the video for Perry's hit song "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" made good use of her fame to extol the singer's virtues through exclusive videos. The comedic campaign generated so much attention that it attracted over 180,000 Twitter followers, nearly 740,000 fans on Facebook, and spawned additional videos on Funny or Die and MTV online. Most remarkable of all is that Perry managed to take a fictional character and turn her into her own personal brand evangelist. 3. X-Men Takeover Ads When the latest film in the franchise, "X-Men: First Class," came out this year - first in theaters and then on Blu-ray and DVD - consumers knew it, thanks to a series of international home page takeover ads. On MSN in the Netherlands, the ad began with a page skin and video clips and ended with an attention-grabbing page distortion and full-screen presence that launched the film's trailer. A few months later additional takeovers ran on TMZ.com, Yahoo Movies, and YouTube. The latter was a clever play on film character "Magneto's" ability to attract and warp metal objects at will; after the movie trailer ran for a few seconds, the content on the surrounding YouTube began to break apart and fly into Magneto's hands. Whenever a brand is able to thematically tie ad functionality into its product, consumers are bound to take notice. 4. Toyota's "Living" iPad Ad In November, iPad users were treated to some advertising eye candy courtesy of Toyota's Prius V. By sponsoring the new Yahoo Livestand digital reading iPad app, the brand was able to place interactive and sequenced videos promoting the model, while presenting them in a magazine-style expanded format. The ads appeared next to news content and featured clickable content throughout. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 30
- 31. According to Yahoo,ads within the app generate higher than average interaction rates and a favorable perception of advertisers. Compared with static ads, Yahoo says, consumers were 78 percent more likely to interact with the "living" ad and twice as likely to spend more time with it. One thing's for certain: the app ad has major impact that can't be missed. 5. HBO's "True Blood" Facebook App Brands have asked consumers to "Elf" themselves, "Simponsize" themselves, and turn themselves into celebrities, so it was only a matter of time before they were invited to become immortal. HBO series "True Blood" this year launched a Facebook app that allowed fans to insert their image (and those of their Facebook friends) into an interactive video. The clip used as the foundation of the experience was exclusive and never before seen on the air, making the concept that much more interesting to fans of the show. In the first few weeks alone users created more than 90,000 videos and the brand gained over 35,000 new Facebook fans, but the app served a purpose beyond generating buzz: it helped to bridge the previous and upcoming seasons of the series, thus inciting past viewers to return and inviting new viewers to give the show a try. Use Your Facebook Timeline Profile for Your Career Brian Carter I spoke to Brian Carter about how professionals can use the new Facebook timeline to advance their careers. Brian offers social media training to B2C and B2B businesses of all sizes and he’s been an internet marketing consultant and trainer for 11 years. He is the co-author of Facebook Marketing, and author of The Like Economy. In this interview, Brian discusses the Facebook timeline privacy settings, how the new timeline pages will affect businesses, the best way to measure Facebook ROI, and more. How will the Facebook timeline affect professional users? Should they hide their profiles? I see the Timeline, especially the big new ―cover‖ photo as a big plus for professionals. People certainly can connect to you in a bland way over on LinkedIn, but when they come to Facebook they expect a little more personality and creativity. They want to know who you are. They’re looking for a way to connect emotionally. I use mine to show me speaking, since I’m promoting myself as an expert speaker and trainer. It’s very important to learn the privacy settings so that if you ―allow subscribers‖ you’re only posting publicly the things you want everyone in the world to see. And you can create friend lists to post more personal things to your best friends and family. But some people make their profiles TOO private, and I can’t see anything about them, even when they’ve requested me as a friend. Sometimes you request a friendship when you’re in the getting-to-know you stage and you need some kind of professional-but-colorful way for them to learn something about you that will make them want to accept your friendship. How will it affect businesses when it’s rolled out for fan pages? Facebook hasn’t said exactly what the next evolution of brand pages will look like- only that they’re thinking about it. It’s not clear yet if there will be a historical timeline approach. I’m not sure that makes sense for all businesses, or if they’d even want to show some parts of their history. But we’re all hoping that the brand pages begin to look as exciting as the Timeline profiles do now. The folks doing graphics for brands would love to have more options. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 31
- 32. What are someFacebook marketing strategies that worked a few years ago that are no longer effective? It’s less and less acceptable to just push out content without thinking about how it will be received. The threshold for what’s interesting enough has risen, because there is more and more noise (more people and more pages posting). That means it has become even more important for page admins to understand what leads people to like and comment on posts. I think the new ―reach‖ metric has surprised some brands about how few of their fans they’re reaching. They may need new, more targeted fans to combine with interesting content and calls to action like ―Click like if…‖ and ―Comment below about…‖ if they want greater reach. How do you measure success in Facebook? What is the answer to the dreaded ROI question? You measure success according to your goals. If it’s sales, you measure true ROI. I’ve seen numerous companies measure this and succeed with Facebook profitability (my clients and clients of JB Chicago, aimClear and Upward Wave, to name a few). Also, I’ve seen multi-touchpoint analytics evidence from Buddy Media and aimClear that the awareness and interest initially generated by Facebook is often attributed entirely to search engines. If you want to answer sophisticated questions like, ―How does Facebook marketing impact my sales?‖ then you need to install sophisticated analytics. How have you used Facebook to grow your brand? I’ve used Facebook pages to some degree, but as a professional, the networking I do in Facebook groups has actually led to more business opportunities for me. I also post blog posts in some of these groups and on Twitter. My social networking relationships plus the quality of the posts leads to greater exposure. Results vary by post, so you have to keep writing! I’ve used Facebook ads for my new book, ―The Like Economy‖, which has led to 4.5 million ad views for just over $500. Again, branding can’t always be tracked, and there’s no way to track book sales accurately on Amazon, but my opportunities to get paid speaking and doing services for companies have increased since I started advertising. 10 facts of the marketing year (Brazil) Mergers - like those in the pharmaceutical sector - March 2011 December 23, 2011 • 09:05 The year 2011 brought strong marketing drives and particularly in the retail sector.Were highlighted, for example, the initiative of the entrepreneur Abilio Diniz, who tried to merge the operations of the Group of Carrefour Sugar Loaf. In the pharmaceutical sector, concentrations occurred, especially from the second half. Since Procter & Gamble bet heavily on its operations in Brazil, which also boosted the performance of companies purchasing collective. Remember the list below the top 10 facts Marketing year: Pao de Acucar went back on the merger with Carrefour, after pressure from social CasinoCredit: Arthur Noble 1. Merger between Carrefour and Pao de Acucar was the role in May 2010, the news that Abilio Diniz negotiating a merger with Carrefour, whose departure the Brazilian operation of the French, surprised the whole market - including his partner in GPA (Grupo Pao de Acucar). Biggest competitor of Carrefour in France, the Casino, which is replaced by the right to nominate and take control of the GPA in June 2012, filed for arbitration against the Diniz family in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. The shareholders approved the merger of Carrefour and dissemination of material fact by the Group confirmed the Pao de Acucar BNDES participation in the proposed ownership structure for the company to be formed. Until Jean-Charles Naouri, chief executive of the Casino, went to the counter-attack and personally came to Brazil to meet with representatives of the institution of government funding. Diniz tried to defend the trade, but clashed with the uncompromising stance of Naouri. The situation became untenable and Brazilian businessman withdrew from the scene. The French owners of the Casino, in turn, are increasing the stake in GPA: October already held 48.1% of the Brazilian company. 2. Acquisitions increase the concentration of the pharmaceutical retail already diagnosed the fragmentation of retail pharmacy began to be "treated" by large investors and leading groups in the sector. The year was marked by the appearance of Ray Drogasil, the association between outcome and Drogasil DrogaRaia, the Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 32
- 33. merger between drugsPacheco, of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and drugstore network and the recent purchase by Brazil of Bahia Galdino Star Pharma, owned by the bank BTG Pactual. The drive in the fourth largest consumer market for drugs in the world caught the attention of U.S. Walgreens. Executives of the largest pharmacy chain in the world with 8,100 stores, held talks with local players such as Brazil and even Onofre Pharma. The expectation is that the business continues overdose in 2012, since the sector has potential for a higher concentration: today, the five largest chains account for only 25% of the Brazilian drugstores, which today totals about 60 000 establishments. Rock in Rio, with the likes of Metallica, has attracted a lot of weight advertisersCredit: Disclosure 3. Marketing in Rio Rock in Rio opened the way to Brazil for the coming of rock groups and pop stars hitherto unpublished or had not long here in these parts. Ride in the shows by Guns N 'Roses, Stevie Wonder, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John, Itaú brands like Heineken, Trident, Niely Cosmetics, Bis, Chilli Beans, among others, have gone beyond the usual two hours of concerts and have attracted more attention than many of the artists themselves. The crowd of 700 000 people who accompanied the more than 160 shows during the seven-day festival showed the strength of the Brazilian festivals and concerts. Coping with the enormity of the public also was a learning experience for the organizers and sponsors, who have reshaped the concept of the Rock in Rio for the next few issues, it would decay as the hours in line facing the spectators to get a snack. For these and other, the edition of 2013 is already confirmed, but with a maximum audience of 85 thousand people per day - 15 000 less than what was recorded this year. 4. St. Paul turns the tables and will kickoff the 2014 World Cup earlier this year, 11 cities were already confirmed as the headquarters of the World Cup 2014. Because of uncertainty as to the stage that receives the parties, the question was on St. Paul, until July, the city was not sure he would receive any part of the World. That's when the City took the game and passed the bill providing for the granting of tax incentives to the stadium for Corinthians. Political pressure and the fast pace of work in Itaquera - 20% of the construction was completed in four months - were left with no alternative to FIFA but to hand over the opening of their most precious event to the state capital, he left behind in the race Belo Horizonte , Brasilia and even Rio de Janeiro, a candidate in the wings to receive also the opening match. Fortress also emerged victorious in the competition to host the games: Fortaleza to receive six World Cup games, including one from Brazil and one in the first phase of the quarter-finals of the tournament. The third presentation of the national escrete will be in Brasilia. But the Maracana only serve the Brazilian national team in any decision - to reach the Grand Final winning all the battles of the first phase, the green and yellow team will also play two times in Belo Horizonte. 5. Busy year for bitter tastes Schin The year began and ended warm warm beer in the domestic market - for more than two adjectives are not part of good vocabulary for the category. The main movements occurred in the second half, all from August. The Kirin bought Schincariol, a purchase that cost the Japanese more than $ 5 billion and consolidated in two steps, the second one after a legal dispute involving two sides of the family of the former owners of the company. The clash also left expensive in points of sale in October for the first time in eight years, Schin lost the second position in the market, taken by the Petrópolis.Schin The agency also changed (changed by Euro RSCG Leo Burnett Tailor Made) and Brahma did not prevent the master to take the share of the sponsorship of the Carnival of Salvador, the brewery owned captive Itu was 11 years. The absolute leader Ambev still continued its strategy of segmentation and finally launched Budweiser, which has ended up in Africa after many tests. Heineken has already emerged as the main sponsor of music festivals in the country and renewed communication and flavor Kaiser, targeting the class C. 6. The start of the P & G in Brazil Present in the country for 23 years and working here in half of the 30 categories in which competes in the world, Procter & Gamble already counts Brazil among the top ten company's operations, with revenues exceeding $ 3 billion. In the disposable diaper category, has won the lead with 29.6% share of Pampers. The matrix, founded in 1837, both the Brazilian subsidiary of the five largest multinational five years - and spared no efforts in searching for a larger share of the Brazilian consumer. The company, which joined the list of the ten largest advertisers in the country in 2010, followed with a strong media presence in Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 33
- 34. 2011. Were featuredin such notice the sponsorship of the club most fans of the country, flamenco and expansion of the promotion Airplane Faustão, led by the presenter Fausto Silva, one of six ambassadors of P & G next to Ana Maria Braga, Angelica, Luciano Huck, Rodrigo Faro and player Paul Henry Goose, and the Brazilian team Santos. 7. The explosion of collective shopping sites Impulsivity the Brazilian and the taste for purchases made by an offer off the collective shopping sites in the country in 2011. Recent business here, the new model of e-commerce began to expand in Brazil in 2010, when they arrived and clickon the Groupon and was launched in Rio de Janeiro, in March, the Urban Fish. Today, the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce estimates that the country has 1,200 collective shopping sites, which should make R $ 1.2 billion in 2011 (for a total revenue of e- commerce that should be around R $ 18.7 billion) . Although there is a total number of number of clients served, the six members to the House-e.net (Groupon, clickon, Fish, Urban, Club Discount, Cheap Travel and Must), representing 85% of the market, sold two million coupons until November. The rapid growth has generated some problems with Procon, mainly due to failure of the partners in the delivery of offers and services contracted by the purchase of coupons. To resolve or at least lessen the complaints, the Purchasing Committee of the House Collective-e.net last month introduced a Code of Ethics and Self-Regulation. 8. Neymarmania takes care of the country's soccer 1.50 m tall and less than 40 pounds, with only 13 years old, Neymar was discovered by the press in early 2005 and was soon labeled as the "new Robinho". Seven years later, the athlete is already considered the biggest star of the club after Pele Within the lawns, won the Paulista Championship, the Libertadores Cup and played in the Club World Cup in Japan with the Saints (the tournament ended on Sunday 18 ). Outside it was the protagonist of the play that broke new ground by reversing the logic of world football: a bold marketing strategy, Santos refused the million dollars offered by Barcelona and Real Madrid, shortened the term of the contract and handed over the image rights of Neymar to the player's family and their representatives - to read 9ine of Ronaldo. Thus, virtually ensured the presence of the star at the club until the 2014 World Cup, when he could move to Europe pocketing the full value of the transaction.The personal sponsorships grew in proportion to worldwide fame of the attacker. In 2010, only Nike and Panasonic had a contract with the ace. This year, Baruel, Lupo, AmBev, Red Bull, Santander, Unilever and its brands also associate course the boy's village. 9. The wave of the UFC phenomenon Anderson Silva and The Octagon took over Brazil in 2011. The MMA fight that kind of success has always been a niche here, is now up in the novel and nine in the Globe's most notorious brand of mixed martial arts tournament, Ultimate Fighting Championship, was the most talked about topic of the year by the Brazilian Facebook. Originally from the MMA created by the Gracie family, the UFC was born in 1983 in the U.S., and today carries more than 20 annual events, which may be accompanied by the TV in 145 countries.The Brazil struggles to watch live from 2002 - Fighting the pay channel, and now by RedeTV by Globo TV, which, eyeing the success of the year, bought the rights. Among the fighters, Anderson Silva took over as sports idol. Born in Sao Paulo and raised in Curitiba, Silva was the first success abroad. To improve the image in the country, "Spider" Silva is known as the United States sought the entrepreneur Sergio Amado at the beginning of the year. The 9ine took the athlete's career, managing your image, attracting sponsorship and digital life champion. The agreements reached with the speed of the blows of Anderson, which was sponsored by Bozzano starred in campaigns for Budweiser, Burger King, Ford and Honda, is Nike athlete and represents the Corinthians in the sport. 10. Crisis management in times of social networks With the incorporation of social networks to life for a growing number of consumers, the repercussions of an image crisis out of control as fast as a click. PepsiCo has been involved in some of the controversies that rang in virtual communities in 2011.The main one was the contamination of a batch of Toddynho with detergent, causing the hospitalization of more than twenty people in Rio Grande do Sul The incident put the chocolate in the headlines and Trending Topics on Twitter. Even the fate of fashion brands Arezzo, who faced a barrage of criticism also on Facebook, after announcing products with animal skins, and Zara, denounced the prosecution for the use of slave labor in the Spanish Zara suppliers in Brazil. In this scenario, many companies have hired professionals or companies to respond and propose solutions to minimize the effects as soon as word of mouth online. Top 5 Most Common Networking Mistakes Still trying to tap your network for favors before you've offered anything yourself? Big mistake. By Jeff Haden Everyone tries to network, but few people do it well, often making the same basic mistakes. Here’s what not to do when you’re trying to expand or leverage your network: 1. Try to take before you give. The goal of networking is to connect with people who can help you make a sale, get a referral, establish a contact, etc. When we network, we wantsomething. But at first, never ask for what you want. In fact you may never ask for what you want. Forget about what you can get and focus on what you can provide. Giving is the only way to establish a real connection and relationship. Focus solely on what you can get out of the connection and you will never make meaningful, mutually beneficial connections. When you network, it’s all about them, not you. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 34
- 35. 2. Assume othersshould care about your needs. Maybe you’re desperate. Maybe partnering with a major player in your industry could instantly transform red ink into black. No one cares. No one should care. Those are your problems and your needs. Never expect others to respond to your needs. People may sympathize but helping you is not their responsibility. The only way to make connections is to care about the needs of others first. Ask how they’re doing. Ask what could help them. Care about others first; then, and only then, will they truly care back. 3. Take the shotgun approach. Some people network with anyone, tossing out business cards like confetti. Networking isn’t a numbers game. Find someone you can help, determine whether they might (someday) be able to help you, and then approach them on your own terms. Always select the people you want to network with. And keep your list relatively small, because there is no way to build meaningful connections with dozens or hundreds of people. 4. Assume tools create connections. Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections are great—if you do something with those connections. In all likelihood your Twitter followers aren’t reading your tweets. Your Facebook friends rarely visit your page. Your LinkedIn connections aren’t checking your updates. Tools provide a convenient way to establish connections, but to maintain those connections you still have to put in the work. Any tool that is easy or automated won’t establish the connections you really need. 5. Reach too high. If your company provides financial services, establishing a connection with Warren Buffett would be great. Or say you need seed capital; hooking up with Mark Cuban would be awesome. Awesome and almost impossible. The best connections are mutually beneficial. What can you offer Buffett or Cuban? Not much. You may desperately want to connect with the top people in your industry, but the right to connect is not based on want or need. You must earn the right to connect. Find people who can benefit from your knowledge and insight or your connections. The ―status‖ level of your connections is irrelevant. All that matters is whether you can help each other reach your goals. ERIC-SCHMIDT-DISCUSSES-GOOGLES-COMPETITORS-CHINA-ACQUISITIONS-AND-MORE Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, discussed Google’s work and activities during an interview at an event held by The Economic Club of Washington’s event earlier this month, broadcast by C-Span yesterday. On Google’s competition When asked whether Facebook was its biggest competitor, Schmidt stressed the wide range of Google’s products gives it a number of competitors: Today we have one very clear competitor, which is Microsoft, we used to two, with Yahoo, but Yahoo largely outsourced the search stuff to Microsoft. We seem them as the core competitor, we have additional competition from different corners, so Facebook is a competitor in a bunch of properties and also for attention. Rather than pick out individual companies for mention, Schmidt is more wary of the threat and opportunity that is developing from the growth in ownership of smartphones and tablets: We’re more likely to face competition, and there’s lots coming, in these vertical applications that answer questions. People search differently on the mobile phone. In the next year, more searches and page views will come off of mobile phones than PCs or Macs. It’s a huge change that provides a competitive front for us. Acquisitions Schmidt revealed that, in his early time at Google, he was not always aware of the companies and talent that was bought by the company: We did a lot of acquisitions of small companies for talent. Typically, Larry and Sergei would just buy them and tell me after they’d done it. Android showed up, Google Earth showed up. They’d set this technical framework that we’d plough investment into to scale. Things have changed since then with the company reportedly buying companies at a rate of one a week. When asked about reports that Google does not always disclose its acquisitions, Schmidt said that ―sometimes we forget or they are just too small‖. The former Google CEO then went on to describe his ideal acquisition as ―four technical people who can solve a very precise problem, are brilliant and don’t have a high valuation‖. Dealing with pornography and securing data Like it or not, pornography is a big drive of Internet traffic and search, making it an important talking point for Google. Schmidt rejected claims that pornography accounts for one in four Google searches, but he did shed some light on how Google deals with porn in an innovative way: Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 35
- 36. The company hassafe search which means that you’re unlikely to find porn, unless you’re looking for it. In which case adult- rated images may show up. One of our employees, Matt, would run an internal test. His wife would bake cookies, if you could find porn, his wife would give you a cookie. When quizzed about the security of Google’s data logs, Schmidt revealed that though it does not monitor individuals, the search giant does track IP addresses: There are suitations where we maintan the logs of people’s queries, the information that is identifiable to an IP address is retained on the order of a year. Identifying an IP doesn’t mean tracking you, if you search from a corporation it may not show up as you. It is true that for a period of time the record of your searches is retained, and at a certain point we anonymise it, in such a way that you couldn’t go back [and trace the person who the searches belong to]. Business in China Google was involved in the most public battle of any foreign company in China, which eventually led to it moving its core operations from the country to neighbouring Hong Kong, which Schmidt refers to as ―the other China, which we like‖. He describes China’s censorship as ―a truly bad set of laws‖ which Google couldn’t handle any longer after five years in the country. On learning to fly It is not widely known that Schmidt is a fully licensed pilot, having taken up the hobby while he was at Novell: I fly with professional pilots [when travelling for work but i] started flying at Novell, while we were working on a turnaround. I need a distraction so I learnt how to fly. My instructor told me, ‘you have to focus on this or you will kill yourself!” So it was a good focusing device. Social media, gadgets and TV sets Schmidt admitted that he doesn’t just use Google devices and products, and he readily admits that he tinkers with ―everything‖, from Facebook to iPads and more: Google Plus is my preferred tool but I’d encourage everyone to use all of this, not just Google’s. There are differences between them, and it is what our age is about. I marvel at what people are to do, say and build online. The company executive chairman did drop a bit of a clanger, however, when he referred to the Galaxy Nexus as ―the Nexus Prime‖, before going on to champion it as the best device ever made. As a former programmer, Schmidt spoke passionately about the potential of mobile. Though he didn’t mention his prediction that Android would overtake iOS as the operating system of choice for developers on this occasion, he stress the importance of mobile for developers today, saying: If you’re a young programmer today, you’re building for the mobile phone, that’s where the action is. Earlier this week, Schmidt told an Italian newspaper that Google would work onintroducing a tablet in the next six months and he further discussed new areas for the company. Google is working on deals with TV manufacturers, he said, and that ―most‖‘ of them are integrating Android into their ―high-end‖ sets. With Apple reportedly set to make Steve Jobs’ dream of interactive a reality, it looks there will be a new area for Google to spar with its rival in. Let’s hope this doesn’t end up in the courtroom too. In a keynote before his interview at the event, Schmidt spoke of his belief that the Internet, mobile and technology can make a positive impact across the world, as we earlier wrote. 2012 Digital Planning Guide Robin Neifield Marketers everywhere are scrambling to set their marketing and digital marketing strategies for the coming year, and encountering obstacles ranging from corporate politics to shifting or disappearing budgets to a lack of appropriate information upon which to base that strategy. Most would welcome a tested approach to help define a strategy in a way that can drive planning and action and get internal support, but first we have to agree on what that strategy is. A budget allocation is not a strategy; neither is a goal a strategy - regardless of how well-defined that goal might be. The strategy is the much-needed plan to get you from your current state to your desired state. This is an outline of a 12-step plan to help you understand your current state, define your desired state, and plot your strategy to bridge the gap from one to the other for a successful 2012 in digital marketing. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 36
- 37. Understanding your currentstate: 1. Review past results. In an industry like ours, the past should be viewed primarily as a directional guide because all of the opportunities and channels have morphed in significant ways in the last year. Don't ignore the stats but delve well- beyond them to the important insights about audience behaviors, channel preferences, and other learnings that can be applied to the opportunities present now. Start with the past year's results (or another appropriate time period) against goals. Look at channel-specific impacts. Identify both the spectacular winning and losing efforts of the past and dissect them to understand why they fell in one camp or the other. Gather all of your stats - site, social media channels, email lists, etc. (including trending data) and dig in. Identify any dips or spikes in activity or performance and explain them. 2. Review environmental realities and changes. As noted, the world continues to spin while we make our plans and you want your new strategy to be relevant, so take into account any channel or industry changes. Do you have new competitors? New distribution options? New regulations? Supply chain issues? Budget challenges? Bad PR or a failed product launch to overcome? Factor the real world into your planning and identify key opportunities as well as risk factors. Document competitor activity including any new entrants noting spend, approach (channels, tactics), messaging, assets, and results. Set trackers to follow their progress and try and look for patterns that suggest where they are seeing results. Look for any changes in your audience. Mine your stats in various channels to establish demos and any trending information you can use. Use your partners to gather behavioral data. Defining your desired state: 3. Articulate business goals. The marketing strategy and goals are nonsense if they do not ultimately reflect and support the business goals. Start at the top to understand what business moves and impacts on your organization plans to make for the year and how you can accomplish them. Translate those business goals into specific, quantifiable objectives with timeframes that can help define your optimal marketing strategy. 4. Articulate channel goals. Review all your options and identify how each channel is best used for your overall marketing goals. The channels and options are not interchangeable and each should have its own set of objectives. Look at how each one can contribute to the overall goals. In a best case, they help and support each other. Some elements of the plan might be great at driving awareness or traffic, while others create an excellent platform for remarketing, for example. Budgets, timeframes, messaging, and other elements should be revised according to your plan needs. Don't forget your offline elements in this mix. 5. Articulate testing goals. What questions do you want to be able to answer about your audience, products, business, or campaigns this year? Set yourself up for success by structuring those tests to ensure the answers in advance. Setting your strategy: 6. Confirm total budget. Unless you live in a fairytale marketing world, this budget is probably handed down to you before you have a chance to set the strategy. If the established budget does not give you the ability to meet your marketing goals, then you must prioritize, clearly communicate the lost opportunities, and set revised goals that make sense within the budget parameters. To make the most of your budget, establish out-clauses that don't tie your hands as you optimize across channels once you start getting results. 7. Brainstorm initial approaches/tactics and messaging. Allocate budget across goals (not channels!). This is often the step where people start their strategy work - in a room with a white board and not enough information to get the job done well. The tactics that make up your strategy should be the steps that take you from your current to your desired state. Even the best, most innovative ideas may not take you down the path you need. Be sure to continually check back to your defined path while involved in your brainstorming so you won't be tempted off course. Now that you have a set budget, you need to tie that budget back to your goals - not the channels. Don't forget creative or production budgets, email broadcast fees, talent, stock, or other miscellaneous add-ons. 8. Allocate budgets for an initial period. It may be tempting to set the strategy for the entire year and wash your hands of the exercise, but in reality the plan is never set in concrete and should be optimized regularly for best results. One way to ensure regular check-ins is to mandate them by planning for an initial period and institutionalizing the regular review. The length of that initial period may depend on the seasonality and other factors specific to your business. 9. Set project timelines checking assets and resources for the proposed plans. It's reality-check time. You have done your homework and stayed on plan and in budget to define your strategy, but there are still risk factors. Now is the time that strong project management can save the day. Do you have the time, expertise, and resources to execute on your strategy? Double-check with vendor partners on specs and lead times so you don't have any surprises. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 37
- 38. 10. Sit onthe finished plan for at least a couple of days and then review it with fresh eyes.Have you accounted for mobile, social, email, site impacts, integration with offline elements? New browser updates or devices? In your gut, does this feel like the right way to go or a watered down compromise? Ask someone not involved in the plan production to review the background information and completed plan. An outside consultant can be very helpful here. 11. Set appropriate internal expectations on results. Make sure everyone's expectations are set on the scale and speed with which you expect to see results. Set official check-in dates with a dashboard that tracks results against stated goals and outlines recommended next steps. This should allow you to continue to march forward toward that desired state without uninformed organizational nervous twitches creating panicked off-plan responses. 12. Create a concise mission statement for your plan. Use this mission statement to rally the troops, remind everyone of the goals, and to test the new inputs that will invariably come up during the year. If you can't articulate what you want to achieve with this multi-faceted, multi-dimensional plan in a sentence or two, start back up at step No. 1. Have you started down the strategy road for 2012? 6 Game-Changing Digital Journalism Events of 2011 The year 2011 brought extraordinary progress for online journalism. From breaking news curation to new revenue models, many an organization put its best digital foot forward. Social media became more tightly integrated into reporting and overall strategy, while mobile app creation and content optimization were no longer a nice-to-have, but a must. These trends are quickly shaping the young and agile web news industry. As journalists redefine themselves with new tools and skill sets, they’re reinvigorating a business that just a few years ago was written off as doomed. Here’s a look at six moves with the biggest impact on digital journalism this year. 1. Paywalls Find Their Footing If 2010 was the year of the paywall, 2011 was the year the paywall worked. News organizations stopped using ―our content is worth paying for‖ as a sole rationale, and began strategically providing value for their online content. While the The New York Times‘s strategy was much-criticized when it launched in March, it has since turned a profit. The Minneapolis Star Tribune made an estimated $800,000 in digital circulation revenue during its first month of having a paywall, despite a 10-15% decline in web traffic. For both papers, tying online access to print subscriptions has been key to success. The Strib saw nearly 20% of its new digital subscribers also buy a Sunday subscription, while The Times said 800,000 print subscribers have linked their accounts for digital access. These paywall models have shown the potential for creating dedicated digital subscriber bases that advertisers could eventually pay more for. 2. Andy Carvin Becomes an Icon The Arab Spring was undoubtedly one of 2011′s biggest news events — and its main newsman comes in right behind it. When the Tunisian uprisings began last winter, Andy Carvin’s duties as NPR’s senior strategist took a backseat while his Twitter account Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 38
- 39. became a one-mannewswire dedicated to the culminating situation in the Middle East. He paired his knowledge of and contacts in the region to curate the best and most accurate information tweeted from the ground. What set Carvin apart was not only his volume of tweets — his record is 1,200 tweets in 48 hours, according toThe Guardian — but also his recognition of fellow Twitter users as experts. He wouldn’t hesitate to tweet unverified information and ask his Twitter followers to help him determine its accuracy. For the journalism community, Carvin proved the value of social newsgathering and its ability to complement rather than replace traditional reporting. 3. Journalists Flock to Google+ Google kickstarted digital journalists’ biggest love affair of 2011 when it launched social network Google+ in June. Many were quick to sign on and explore the platform’s potential for news gathering, reporting and audience building. New Jersey newspaper The Trentonian was lauded as the first to use Google+ for breaking news after its producers found a key source in a breaking news story via her comment on the paper’s Google+ page. For Missouri’s KOMU-TV, it was a social breakthrough when reporter Sarah Hill began integrating Hangouts into live TV broadcasts. She would give Hangout viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the newsroom and then interview Hangout participants on-air. While interest in Google+ has waned since its launch, news organizations’ initial enthusiasm shows a desire to expand to communities beyond Twitter and Facebook. As the social media landscape continues to grow, this early adopter mentality will be crucial to web journalism success. 4. Mobile Gets Competitive Though the necessity for a mobile presence was recognized far before 2011, news organizations showed a new commitment to smartphone and tablet apps this year. News Corp took its chances with a mobile-first strategy when it launched iPad-only newspaper The Daily in February, while Betaworks’s News.me came on the scene in mid-April. Both much-hyped efforts flopped, in part because free social news reading apps, such as Flipboard and Pulse, were already widely used on tablets. In arguably the biggest mobile move by a news organization, CNN acquired iPad app Zite in August. KC Estenson, CNN’s general manager of digital, told Mashable that Zite’s technology would help improve CNN’s digital properties and help it serve more personalized content. There are now so many news apps, Apple felt compelled to launch Newsstand, a digital repository for magazine and newspaper apps. With an increasingly massive pool of apps, news organizations will need to find their own competitive edge in the mobile news market. 5. Facebook Makes Personal Branding Easier Since Facebook Subscribe rolled out in September, journalists have been using the tool as a personal branding and content distribution opportunity. While Facebook fan pages have long been common for recognizable names like Nicholas Kristof, Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 39
- 40. Subscribe gave lesser-knownjournalists a way to connect with readers on a larger scale. For some journalists, the switch from using Facebook as a personal network to a public forum has been a challenge. Others are embracing the platform’s change by openly offering subscribers a look at not only their work but their lives. Establishing a bonafide web presence is becoming essential for journalists who aim to become thought leaders in their coverage areas. Taking it beyond professionalism and showing personality adds to journalists’ appeal because it makes them more relatable. Moving forward, they’ll become more open about what they share on social networks, showing that they’re not just journalists, but people too. 6. The Pulitzer Goes Digital The Pulitzer Board announced earlier this month it had revised its Breaking News category criteria to emphasize real-time reporting. This is the ultimate recognition that web journalism has come into its own. Under the new set of guidelines, ―it would be disappointing if an event occurred at 8 a.m. and the first item in an entry was drawn from the next day’s newspaper,‖ said to the board. In other words, the web is crucial to alerting a community about a breaking news event. The Pulitzer Board’s gesture sets a precedent for future breaking news coverage. The recognition of web reporting’s importance by such a well-respected journalism entity will inspire more news organizations to invest in digital reporting — if they haven’t already. What This Means for 2012 After an incredible year of news events and milestones, online journalism in 2012 has a tough act to follow. We can certainly expect more successes and more failures when it comes to business models and mobile strategies. News organizations will clamor to be the first on new social networks — they’re already flocking to pinboard site Pinterest. Journalists will connect further with their individual followers, and the 2012 Breaking News Pulitzer winner will have done a great service to its community via the Internet. While we can only guess what the future of digital journalism holds, 2011 paved a strong path, leaving us hopeful and confident that the best has yet to come. 5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 2012 promises to be a very busy year in all things digital, but, as with any annum, there will be just a handful of big, memorable trends. Here, I’ve collected five such movements that are likely to make a big impact in our technologically-enhanced lives. Augmented Reality It’s now in games, location apps, business cards and coffee shops and could start showing up in cars and eveneyeglasses. Augmented Reality, which puts a virtual view on top of your real world, is really just a cool way of saying, ―Reality with Style.‖ Instead of simply viewing your apartment through your phone, you’re playing Star Wars Arcade Falcon Gunner on top of it. Instead looking up a restaurant in your neighborhood, you’re using Yelp to see its location and reviews for it and other restaurants right on top of your on-screen view of the street. 2012 will mark the beginning of exponential growth for Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR). According to a report from Visiongain, 25% of all app downloads will feature some sort of augmented reality. Though adoption hinges on more powerful, high-speed and camera-ready mobile devices, it’s clear to me that the majority of smartphones and tablets in end-users’ hands next year will be 3G-to-4G-ready, high-def, large-screen devices with not one, but two multi- megapixel cameras. Trust me, by 2013, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who hasn’t at least tried augmented reality. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 40
- 41. The Micro-Payment Economy Appmanufacturers are not the only ones who can make money selling tiny wares and incremental upgrades. The barrier to entry for starting your own small business has been effectively knocked down by a variety of online merchants who are willing to hawk your wares for next to nothing. In truth, the merchandise isn’t entirely yours. In fact, these companies are often just selling your idea on top of their wares and you get a tiny slice for each sale, or for when the numbers of sales reaches a certain threshold. Sites like RedBubble do everything for the artist; all they need to do is upload the content. RedBubble will, for example, make the T-Shirt with your art, sell it for you, manage the distribution and, of course, collect payment. The site lets you set the price above their fixed price. Yes, you could add as much as you want onto a $16 T-shirt, but most smart sellers know this means they won’t sell a single garment. Instead, you add 1%-to-5% (maybe 10% if you’re feeling strong) and then promote the dickens out of your product on the site and through various social networks. RedBubble is just one of many destinations popping up to help the aspiring entrepreneur. They join established platforms like Lulu (self-publish books), and YouTube. YouTube has been inviting videographers into the commerce tent for years, letting them add AdSense accounts to popular videos and then sitting back and watching the pennies roll in. As the economy sputters along, look for more and more of the sites helping you sell almost anything you can imagine and making you a ―fortune‖–one micro payment at a time. The Rise of the UltraBook Tablets dominate the tech conversation, but that doesn’t mean the PC is dead. No, it’s alive and well, but in a form that will closely mimic some of the best features of tablets. I don’t have numbers yet, but I’m betting Desktop PCs were not big sellers this holiday season. Laptops may have done a little better, but who among you was willing to give junior an end-of-life netbook instead of a sexy, touch-screen tablet? (I’m imagining no one raising their hands). A term coined by Intel, Ultrabooks describe exquisitely thin and light, yet pleasingly powerful laptops. Think MacBook Air and you get the idea. No, they don’t have touch screens or apps (though that’s changing, too) and Ultrabooks usually have just one HD camera. Still, with just a little more heft and girth than your garden-variety iPad, an Ultrabook adds a full-sized keyboard and far more powerful components. In other words, they’re perfectly designed for getting real work done, but no one will be embarrassed to carry one around. 2012 will witness an explosion of these devices as manufacturers pin on them their last best hopes for regaining consumer computing interest. Social/Digital Exhaustion Facebook will break the 1 billion user mark in 2012, but its numbers have flattened out in the U.S. Twitter is growing; it may have as many 450 million users, but no one knows how many people are really active users. Google+ is growing steadily, but is still well behind the two most established networks and much of the public is unaware of its existence. There is the now persistent, with good reason, backlash against mobile phone usage in cars and on streets. In general, more and more people seem to be reevaluating their social and digital existence. Even the SOPA battle is revealing some unforeseen schisms. The Stop Online Piracy Act is a bad idea, not because piracy is good, but because of the plan for enforcement is wrong and dangerous. That said, no one who creates content can deny that the digital revolution hasn’t forced them to rethink how they create, sell and distribute content. There are no easy answers here and 2012 will be a year of introspection; one where we possibly rewrite the rules of content, copyrights and social interactions. Mobile Chip Wars The tech industry is gearing up for a rather intense battle—on a micro scale. With ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) -based CPUs in virtually all of today’s tablets and handsets, Intel, the dominant system CPU manufacturer, has no presence in the mobile space. It’s a situation the company promises to change in 2012 with Medfield—its rethinking of the Atom CPU (popular in netbooks). Meanwhile a consortium of Pacific Rim manufacturers have just banded together to produce new mobile CPUs for phones and tablets. These efforts may not mean much, though, as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Motorola, Marvell, Nvidia and others all license the ARM architecture and show (along with the hardware partners) little interest in switching to a new or once-established platform. Even Microsoft is developing Windows 8 to run on ARM-based CPUs in addition to traditional Wintel machines. Fjord Year-End Round-Up: Digital In 2011 ADOTAS – 2011 was a year in which there was more change in technology than I can remember, some of it exceptionally surprising.Nokia and Microsoft, formerly arch rivals,joined forces — and somehow managed to deliver a Nokia phone armed with Windows Mobile 7 within nine months. HP bought, introduced and then, within a month, killed its first tablet offering, and seemingly sat on its acquisition of Palm for months, only recently announcingwhat they would do with their WebOS. Apple made tremendous progress from the iPad to the iPad 2, leaving competitors in the dust and giving the market a phenomenal pass- down in the process. Coworkers, children, and younger siblings never got such a good pass-down product so fast. The new iPads Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 41
- 42. are now everywhere,from airplanes to classrooms. The iPad, of course, is a testament to the genius of the lateSteve Jobs, whose passing earlier this year shook the world of technology and leaves a potentially gaping void — but still, I think Jobs’ legacy will prove to be lasting. As Apple migrates from ―What will Steve do next?‖ to ―What would Steve have done?,‖ the company will be tested. Jobs may have left plans for Apple well beyond his passing (his output in the final year of his life is truly mind-boggling); so of course, without his assertive style of management, there will be some struggles for the company as they enter the Tim Cook era. And through all of this, the world of tech was increasingly entering into the mainstream, with the news cycle dominated by product and company announcements and a whole new generation of adopters eager to talk about their new devices. 2011 marked a turning point in how we talk about — and therefore, how we utilize — digital technology. Every year for the past five years, Fjord has released its Fjord Digital Trends forecast for the coming 12 months. Sometimes we’re right; sometimes we’re wrong. But as we prepare for the release of our 2012 predictions, I wanted to look back at those we made for 2011, this busy year in tech, to see where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. 2011 Prediction: Pimp Your Life, Gaming Style Foursquare mayors have to work hard to maintain their positions — their places assured not by campaigning but by customer loyalty. With its Radar feature, it becomes a local guide and, for many, a trail of places visited. Instead of just check-ins, the service takes up a central place in the social and local scene, providing increasingly creative marketing solutions (and, for the user, still offering a competitive experience). In 2011, perhaps spurred by Foursquare’s lead, we saw that anything can become a contest — customer loyalty, yes, but also household chores, weight loss, physical activity and more. And for the less competitive amongst us, gamification offers a platform for encouragement. Facebook, for instance, is the stage on which you can act out the play of your weight loss, your increasingly challenging jogging routes, your quest to find the best hamburger in New York: Your friends, your audience, are there to applaud your achievements. The dual spheres of competition and encouragement are moving beyond the realm of social and into the real world, with marketers seeing the value of making their campaigns games. Brands are tapping into our naturally competitive instincts and rewarding us for striving against our peers. Lifeboats for the ―App Flood‖ With more devices launched in 2011, there are now even more places where you can buy apps. But how can you keep them all straight? Aggregators like Appolicious this year helped us find apps, but 2011 also saw the launch of several ―Super Apps‖ — apps like Angry Birds that transcended the app store and took on lives of their own, marketed initially through their ranking and valued through CPMs. Angry Birds has even taken on a life outside of the app world, with t-shirts, stuffed toys, and even a retail store in the works. 2011 Prediction: ―Superphones‖ Go 4D — And Beyond We expected that Superphones would go into 4D, and maybe Siri is a good example of that, but it seems we greatly underestimated the slowness at which the platforms would progress, and only a few vendors are dipping into 3D experience without much user love or market attention. This shows a change in dynamics: how phones have become mobile computing platforms, progressing at the pace of app developers. 2011 Prediction: Discovering ―Lifestreams‖ Now that the Facebook Timeline has begun rolling out to all users, early complaints are turning into praise, as nostalgia trumps resistance to change. But beyond reminiscence, life recorders, platforms that track your activity over time — whether it be your jogging routes or your most frequently visited websites — are hitting the mainstream because they have an inherently practical side, too, and one that the expanding digital user base seems to have latched on to. Because the success of advertising often hinges on the connection consumers make to a brand, smart marketers who use Lifestreams effectively can establish the connection users have to, or reliance they have upon, certain brands, by showing them in the context of the user’s life. History, for the first time, can become the future of advertising, as journeys into the virtual past open up doors to the virtual present. This could become a massive opportunity for engineered marketing serendipity. 2011 Prediction: Digital Magazines Are Still Searching for a Soul Not only did they search in 2011, but at least some magazines also seem to have found one. Flipboard, which we predicted in 2011 could be an inspiration for other tablet-formatted magazines, truly took off this year, becoming incredibly central in the space. The Economist’s bi-monthly Intelligent Life is now offered for free in the App Store, sponsored by Credit Suisse. The fact that media are willing to give away a high-value product such as this shows that they’re panicked about retaining their readership and will go to extreme lengths to retain it. Of course, it also devalues the magazine, taking away some credibility by not charging a premium for content. At the end of the year, while digital magazines are seemingly finding themselves, printed media seems to be soul searching more than ever. 2011 Prediction: The Cloud Becomes a Kite Think about how many devices you check your email from on any given workday. You might start off on your tablet over breakfast, transition to your smartphone while on the subway to work, spend eight hours at your desktop, and then head home and send a few last-minute emails from your personal laptop. You should have increased possibility and productivity with all these devices at your disposal, rather than being hamstrung because you didn’t think to email yourself a file on the way out the Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 42
- 43. door. Enter Dropboxand Evernote, strong candidates for efficiency-maker of the year. Apple entered a new era withiCloud liberating their mobiles from the Mac, as Amazon turns the Cloud Drive into a kite with introduction of the Kindle Fire. 2011 Prediction: Going with the Flow: ―Liquid Experiences‖ That familiar blue thumbs-up that you see on almost every website you visit shows the pervasiveness of the Facebook ―Like‖ feature. Like a page, see it on your feed. But now, as Hulu, Yahoo News, The Guardian and other popular sites integrate more fully with Facebook, you don’t need to actively ―like‖ something in order for it to appear on your profile — it’s posted automatically. The iPhone has integrated Twitter; Spotify will stream music wirelessly over a Sonos music system; and with the launch of the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s Whispersync becomes even more important to Kindle Store customers. Moving fluidly from device to device, app to app, task to task, makes the experience more enjoyable, the user more engaged. And engagement is one of the best things a marketer can hope for. So What’s Next? Digital is here to stay. Consumers are hooked. Marketers are finding success in new channels that weren’t even available a few years ago. Developers are having a blast, and device manufacturers are doing everything they can to uncover new segments. As with all other years I have been in mobile and digital, 2012 is going to be mind-blowing. Online Love: Amazon Earns Highest Marks Yet by Sarah Mahoney, When it comes to online shopping satisfaction and the holidays, shoppers still can’t get enough of Amazon. In the E-Retail Satisfaction Index, perennial favorite Amazon jumped two points to 88, the highest score ever attained by any retailer since ForeSee started its online satisfaction index in 2005. Meanwhile, Netflix’s PR and pricing blunders hurt it, with its score falling from 85 to 79. (Traditionally, Netflix and Amazon have vied for the No. 1 spot.) This year’s survey, which tracks all categories of holiday shopping, found consumers were less sensitive to price than in years past, and more likely to respond to merchandise and content. Other top performers include Avon, JC Penney, QVC, and Apple. Sites that score poorly include Overstock and the Gap. ForeSee says the satisfaction scores are important in that highly satisfied shoppers say they are 64% more likely to consider the company next time they make a similar purchase, and more likely to return to the site, recommend it, and stay true to the brand. It’s also key in multichannel retailing strategies, since satisfied online customers are 48% more likely to purchase from the retailer offline. Its analysis has shown that on average, a one-point change in Web site satisfaction predicts a 14% change in Web revenues. ForeSee, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., uses the academic methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) created at the University of Michigan to determine the scores. The survey is based on some 8,500 responses, collected between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Meanwhile, Santa’s coming -- and going -- did little to slow shopper passion for Internet shopping this season. IBM Benchmark says that online shopping on Dec. 25 and 26 was just as strong as in the weeks leading up to the big day, gaining 16.4% from the prior year on Christmas Day, and 27.8% on Boxing Day. And mobile traffic was healthy as well, with 18.3% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site initiated by a mobile device, up from 8.4% last year. Apple’s iPad led all mobile device traffic, followed by iPhone and Android. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 43
- 44. Don't Worry AboutYour First Job Graduates, take note: Few people start their work life in the right place. So don't stress about your first job out of college. Chances are it's not going to predict your future field, income, or career path. Instead of looking for the perfect job, look for these three things: Opportunities to learn. Whatever job you take, you should acquire new skills and experience. Enough money. You don't have to be a banker. Waiting tables is perfectly respectable if it affords you the time and flexibility to do what you care about. Chances to contribute. Everyone wants to feel a sense of purpose. Find a position that allows you to be a force for good. If you can't find a job that fits the bill, volunteer on the side. Your First Job Doesn't (Really) Matter I recently polled a trailblazing group of women leaders — Northwestern University's Council of 100 — about their careers. How many of us were in the same job or even on the same career path today as we were when we graduated from college? The answer was three: three out of one hundred women. Then I asked how many were in the same industry. The number went up to about twenty. So, at twenty-one years old, 20% of us knew the field we wanted to be in (and would ultimately succeed in) and 3% of us got both the job and the industry right out of the starting gate. Gen Y's, don't worry: this isn't a cautionary tale; it's a reprieve. Don't worry so much about your first job — you're probably not going to get it right anyway, and that's okay. What's more, there are better things for you to worry about that will ensure that, no matter what job you choose today, you build skills and create options for the long-term. Instead, worry now about learning, earning, and contributing. Those three areas will get you much farther than nights of stress worrying about what interviews you'll get and which networking opportunities to approach. Learn When I graduated college, I headed off to the Peace Corps in Latin America to travel and change the world. Travel I did. I'm no so sure about changing the world. And I didn't end up in the international aid field either. But what I did do is learn a whole lot about myself, about relating to others, about adjusting expectations and managing difficult workplace environments. The Peace Corps demanded that I think outside the box, overcome challenges, problem solve in non- traditional environments, and push my self beyond my comfort zone (and then some). Beyond using those skills in my day-to- day work, I often use examples from that time period when I need to highlight my abilities. Whatever first job you land after college, there is learning to be had. Be an observer of people and your environment. What is the team dynamic like? Why do people love (or hate) the boss? Who can you emulate or model yourself against as you move through the ranks? Why do the jerks who bring in the most accounts still get ahead? Who wields power and influence and who is relegated to the sidelines? How do people who always solve problems do it? Earn Doing what you love and making money doing it don't always coincide. But making money often helps you ultimately do what you love. There is no shame in honest work. If you can't land a job at Google or Groupon, don't despair. Go get a job waiting tables, working at a call center, or freelance for a small business. Moonlight as an artist and build out your social media profile and skills. Blog on the side and work retail during the day. Just do something to make some cash, be able to support yourself, and hopefully start building a nest egg. I had multiple periods of "not having a real job" during my twenties. I temped, waitressed, barista'd, babysat, worked multiple jobs — I did everything I could to make ends meet between jobs and while searching for my next "real" thing. That focus on earnings gave me flexibility and created choices. I was able to fly to D.C. (on my own nickel) for a long-shot interview (I got the job). I was able to take a GMAT class when, out of the blue, I decided to go to b-school. And years later, I was able to launch my own business as an entrepreneur after socking away my Wall Street salary post MBA. I've never had to forego a twist or turn in the road because I couldn't support myself doing something new — continually being able to pay my bills (no matter how humble the job) has provided me with a sense of pride and a sense of empowerment. Contribute What Gen-Y's (and in truth, everyone) most want is fulfillment and a sense of purpose. If you're not utilizing your "highest and best" value in the marketplace, take that energy and enthusiasm and apply it elsewhere as a force for positive good. Do charity work on the side or join a non-profit board. Get involved with a cause or an organization you care about. Take the skills you're hoping to build a career on and apply them to a local organization that needs your help. You'll demonstrate your passion and conviction to future employers, and you might just make important connections that will lead to your next big thing. Crazier things have happened than landing your dream job because of volunteer work. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 44
- 45. Even though it'shard to imagine right now, the economy will turn around. Things will get better; they always do. As you wait out this recession, don't think that you're college degree is worthless: it's not. Your lifetime earning potential is higher, your chances of unemployment are lower, and the benefits of the network you've built are incomparable and long lasting. And, as first generation digital natives, your tech savvy skills are invaluable. Whatever you're doing today or trying to do, keep in mind the learn, earn, contribute trifecta. If you can check off one or two at a time, you'll ultimately end up with all three along the way — and find that career path or job or circuitous round-about path to happiness and prosperity somewhere in between. Exposure to Social Media Linked with Changes in Sales and Brand Perception by Irfan Kamal With various types of social media (Facebook, Twitter, message boards, blogs, private social communities, Youtube and other social sites) taking up an increasing portion of consumer attention, we wanted to understand just how relevant social content exposure is to changes in sales and brand perception. Much of the work to date has looked at direct channel impacts; for example, do direct clicks from a social media site result in sales? This study of restaurant consumers attempts to understand the more complex factors that lead to consumer purchase and perception changes. We released our final report yesterday at Pivot Conference 2011 in New York. We found that in the real world, social content exposure - by itself and more broadly when combined with other types of media exposure such as out-of-home, PR or TV ads - is linked with 2-7x higher likelihood of consumption and actual spend increases. And, social content exposure alone is associated with the largest impact on week-to-week brand perception changes. The infographic below the fold provides a summary of the results. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 45
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- 49. Results were onlyreported if statistically significant. The study was conducted in staggered 1-week reporting intervals between January 6, 2011 and May 6, 2011. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the link between short-term media touchpoint exposure and immediate shifts in sales and/or brand perception. Set the Stage for your Next Meeting From the moment you send a meeting invite, as the meeting organizer you are responsible for setting the right tone and making the meeting a success. Here are three things you should do before people get in the room: Clarify the objective. Make sure people know why they're invited. If it's to make a decision, give participants the time and materials they need to prepare. Prep important people. Talk with key participants about agenda items ahead of time. You may hear insights that could change how you run the meeting. Expect full participation. Ask attendees to do their homework, come with relevant materials, and show up ready to contribute. Digitas' Bitterman On Owned, Earned And Hype -- And Why Google+ Has Been A Negative by Mark Walsh, Dec 24, 2011, 3:09 PM Facebook continued to dominate the social media landscape in 2012, but Google+ and Twitter introduced advertising and LinkedIn led the way to Wall Street with a successful IPO. To discuss these developments and look ahead to 2012, Online Media Daily asked Jordan Bitterman, senior vice president and social marketing practice lead at Digitas, for his views on the dynamic space. OMD: Facebook’s latest overhaul, including features like Timeline and Ticker, as well as Open Graph apps, encourages brands to create their own apps for the platform. How do you think that will play out next year as these features fully roll out? Bitterman: Publishers and app developers have real incentive to build into the Facebook graph. In doing so, they put themselves at the center of a highly sharable environment that provides both exposure for their brand and earned distribution for their content. While this immediate opportunity will create huge momentum for continued use of the platform, both consumers and brands are questioning whether the resulting abundance of push updates will create the dynamic of over-sharing -- and ultimately, burnout. On balance, we see strong growth, but will keep a firm hand on the tiller to make adjustments as necessary. OMD: A number of social media properties have started brand (or company) pages recently, including Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Google+ and newsreader app Zite. Will a Facebook Page still remain the anchor for social media marketing efforts? Bitterman: With 800 million users and legions of committed brands, Facebook has a huge head start. This will translate into another fruitful year for Facebook’s sales force. As the other platforms develop their brand page offerings, with new functionality and the possibility of streamlined graphics and coding standards, others will gain steam. For example, Twitter recently rolled out its brand pages, which made the site more consumer and brand-friendly. While these brand pages likely won't pull followers away from engaging their favorite brands on Facebook, interaction with a brand for the users -- and ultimately, marketers -- will be greatly enhanced. Overall, social brand pages give marketers options to connect with an audience, and numerous factors such as content, participation and listening will be increasingly critical for marketing success. OMD: What, if any, developments (or non-developments) in social media this year surprised you? Bitterman: We were surprised by the lack of true adoption of Google+ after an initial burst. With all of the resources at their disposal, we don’t count them out by a long shot, but integrating G+ into other parts of the Google ecosystem -- as they intend to do --– would be wise. 2012 feels ripe for a breakout in this area. We are pleased with the speed in which brands are embracing marketing as service. (Digitas defines this as developing experiences with utility built-in.) OMD: Will there be a standard metric for measuring effectiveness in social marketing campaigns? Is one needed? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 49
- 50. Bitterman: Digitas hasbeen working both on our own and with industry partners to solve the equation. Generally, however, trying to measure effectiveness in social is analogous to doing so in brand and direct marketing: Every client is different and every client situation is different. The value of a fan or a follower depends on what you intend to do with them once you acquire them. The value of a connection on one platform is different than the value on another. Ultimately, we are making great progress toward standardization, but it will be a marathon in getting there -- not a sprint. If anyone says differently, don’t believe them. OMD: For Digitas clients, what proportion of their digital budgets goes to social media, and what portion to earned or owned media versus paid advertising? Bitterman: Investment in owned and earned channels is adopting rapidly. Hype is driving part of this shift. Brands are also realizing that in the social age, working media simply doesn't work well on its own. Still, even at strong growth multiples, it’s challenging for clients to take the plunge. The paid media ecosystem –- and the associated metrics -– have been an established driver of objectives for decades. For the next ring of dollars to move to line items beyond paid media -- owned and earned live in this column -- innovator brands such as American Express and P&G will have to show the way. OMD: Do you have any thoughts on what trend(s) in social media might emerge next year? Bitterman: Driven by the opportunity for exponential ROI gains, brands will embrace social commerce more fully in 2012. Consumers will become more comfortable buying through technologies on networks, and the technologies themselves will become more mainstream and reliable. Social will prove to be the ―killer app‖ that drives mobile growth and adoption. Two-thirds of Americans are on Facebook and three-quarters visit social networks regularly, yet smartphone penetration is at just 50%. Social will be a force to push that figure higher. Investments in initiatives that stretch beyond paid media -- so-called 'non-working media,' such as development costs for brand pages or social applications -- and the buildout of the content that populates those experiences, will continue to scale as innovative case studies demonstrate an effective path forward. How to Ace a Google Interview Brain teasers like the ones used for hiring by the Internet giant are spreading to other picky employers. By W I L L I A M P O U N D S T O N E Imagine a man named Jim. He's applying for a job at Google. Jim knows that the odds are stacked against him. Google receives a million job applications a year. It's estimated that only about 1 in 130 applications results in a job. By comparison, about 1 in 14 high-school students applying to Harvard gets accepted. Jim's first interviewer is late and sweaty: He's biked to work. He starts with some polite questions about Jim's work history. Jim eagerly explains his short career. The interviewer doesn't look at him. He's tapping away at his laptop, taking notes. "The next question I'm going to ask," he says, "is a little unusual." You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do? Google receives a million job applications a year. The interviewer looks up from his laptop, grinning like a maniac with a new toy. "I would take the change in my pocket and throw it into the blender motor to jam it," Jim says. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 50
- 51. The interviewer's tappingresumes. "The inside of a blender is sealed," he counters, with the air of someone who's heard it all before. "If you could throw pocket change into the mechanism, then your smoothie would leak into it." "Right… um… I would take off my belt and shirt, then. I'd tear the shirt into strips to make a rope, with the belt, too, maybe. Then I'd tie my shoes to the end of the rope and use it like a lasso." Furious key clicks. "I don't mean a lasso," Jim plows on. "What are those things Argentinian cowboys throw? It's like a weight at the end of a rope." No answer. Jim now realizes that his idea is lame, but he feels compelled to complete it. "I'd throw the weights over the top of the blender jar. Then I'd climb out." "The 'weights' are just your shoes," the interviewer says. "How would they support your body's weight? You weigh more than your shoes do." Jim doesn't know. That's the end of it. The interviewer begins ticking off quibbles one by one. He isn't sure whether Jim's shirt—shrunken with the rest of him—could be made into a rope that would be long enough. Once Jim got to the top of the jar—if he got there—how would he get down again? Could he realistically make a rope in 60 seconds? Photo illustration photography by F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal Jim doesn't see where a word like "realistic" comes into play—unless Google has a shrinking ray. "It was nice meeting you," the interviewer says, extending a still-damp hand. *** Jim isn't quite imaginary. He's a composite. For the last eight years I've collected interview questions. The blender question is real. Several Google interviewees recounted to me what happened when they came up against it. And though Google doesn't comment on the specifics of its hiring process—it likes to maintain an air of mystery, which has led to a cottage industry of samizdat Google questions passed among hopeful future employees and curious outsiders—former and current Google HR specialists have shared rather freely with me what it is that motivates the way they interview job candidates. “You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?” Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 51
- 52. We'll get tothe longer answer, but the short answer is that Google isn't looking for the smartest, or even the most technically capable, candidates. Google is looking for the candidates who will best fit Google. That's tougher than it sounds. And the dilemma Google faces is emblematic of our depressed knowledge economy. We live in an age of desperation. But in our current economic climate, employee screening has become more, not less, important. In a boom, companies could afford to be cavalier about hiring. If a worker didn't fit, he or she would soon move on. Today, employees cling to jobs like limpets to wet rocks. The only way to get rid of someone is to fire him (an increasingly fraught maneuver in our litigious society). Thus, the flood of job applicants has to be strained more finely than ever before, as even unsexy firms find themselves with multiple well-qualified applicants for each position. How are companies coping with this new environment? In September 2009, the Labor Department reported that job seekers outnumbered job openings by 6 to 1. These unemployment numbers have spread riddles, loaded questions and multiple-interview marathons across the corporate food chain, into mature and less cutting-edge industries. Each year Glassdoor.com compiles a list of "oddball" interview questions (puzzles, riddles and the like) reported by members. In the most recent list, only about a quarter of such questions came from tech firms. The rest were from mainstream corporations, from Aflac to Volkswagen. "If you could be any superhero, who would it be?" "What color best represents your personality?" "What animal are you?" These questions, posted by job candidates on Glassdoor.com, aren't from some wacky Silicon Valley start-up—they're asked of applicants at AT&T, Johnson & Johnson and Bank of America, respectively. Goldman Sachs interviewers ask candidates the firm's stock price. Morgan Stanley asks interviewees to name a recent story they've read in the Financial Times—apparently, a lot can't. J.P. Morgan Chase asks the value of pi. (It's thought to be instructive to see how many digits the candidate can recite.) Since being a math or tech whiz is irrelevant to running most businesses, some companies have redoubled their efforts to find the perfect match of candidate and corporate personality. Whole Foods interviewers have candidates describe their perfect "last meal." It's a quick way of gauging the applicant's knowledge of food and passion for it. Expedia does the same thing with travel, asking questions like "If you could go camping anywhere, where would you put your tent?" The online retailer Zappos has a trickier question: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?" The preferred answer is somewhere in the middle, CEO Tony Hsieh explained in a speech to the Asia Society in 2010. A 1 "might be a little bit too straitlaced for the Zappos culture," and a 10 "might be a little too psychotic." Does any of this work? Weird interview questions have become a meme, like a joke or a viral video. It's catchiness, rather than proof of their effectiveness, that keeps them in circulation at many companies. But folks who believe they need to shake up the traditional method of hiring—the standard job interview—are certainly on to something. The deep, dark secret of human resources is that traditional job interviews don't work very well. In fact, there's been quite a bit of research on the topic. One example is a famous experiment that Nalini Ambady and Robert Rosenthal of Harvard did in 1992, with videotapes of traditional interviews. People who saw 10-second clips of an interview had roughly the same opinion of the interview subject as did the actual interviewer—making a strong case that job interviewers go by first appearances and are fooling themselves into believing they've gleaned additional information from everything that comes after. Unfortunately, the human-resources profession has yet to identify a widely accepted alternative. But it's hardly been from lack of trying. Some companies have used "biodata" (a mash-up of the words biography and data). In World War II, it was found that promising pilots could be identified with a simple question: "Did you ever build a model airplane that flew?" In the 1950s, the emerging computer industry latched onto logic puzzles as an attempt, however makeshift, to identify those capable of thinking in new ways. Does the puzzle approach popularized by the tech industry work? A controlled experiment is difficult—you would have to ask a lot of applicants the same question, record the results and then hire them all. “The best answers to many of the questions begin with, 'It depends.'” But these types of questions do reflect the general findings of employment psychology. There is significant evidence that "work sampling," the use of tests similar to the work being performed, is a better predictor of future performance than the usual job-interview chit-chat. Google does a lot of work sampling, such as requiring coders to write code in the interview. The rationale for the creative-thinking questions is that they test the type of mental processes used in inventing a new product or developing a new business plan. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 52
- 53. So how doyou measure a talent for invention? The blender riddle encapsulates the process of inventing a new product. You begin by brainstorming. There are many possible answers, and you shouldn't be in a hurry to settle for the first idea that seems "good enough." The two most popular serious answers to the blender riddle seem to be (1) lie down, below the blades and (2) stand to the side of the blades. There ought to be at least a nickel's width of clearance between the whirring blades and the bottom or sides of the blender jar. Another common reply is (3) climb atop the blades and position your center of gravity over the axis. Hold tight. None of the above answers scores you many points at Google. Former and current Google interviewers have told me that the best answer they've heard is: Jump out of the jar. Huh? The question supplies an important clue: the word "density." "Being shrunk to the size of a nickel" is not a realistic predicament. For starters, it might mean eliminating 99.99% of the neurons in your brain. To deal with a question like this, you have to decide where to suspend disbelief. The fact that the interviewer mentions a detail like density is a nudge. It says that things like mass and volume matter in this question and that a successful answer can use simple physics. In short, if were you shrunk to 1/10 your present height, your muscles would be only 1/100 as powerful—but you'd weigh a mere 1/1,000 as much. All else being equal, small creatures are "stronger" in lifting their bodies against gravity. Were you shrunk to nickel size, you'd be strong enough to leap like Superman, right out of the blender. Think of the feats performed by fleas in a flea circus. That is the kernel of a good answer to the question. But Google's interviewers are not just looking for someone who has the basic idea. The best answers to many of the questions begin with, "It depends." What's the most efficient way to sort a million 32-bit integers? It depends on the makeup of the list of integers and the constraints of time and memory. The applicant is expected to ask about these things. In general, Google is not trying to fill a particular job. The way the company morphs and grows, they want to find people who can join in one role and end up doing something completely different. Google has tried biodata. "Did you ever make a computer from a kit?" was one question that the company found could isolate candidates with a lifelong passion for computers. But such methods have been de-emphasized in favor of its sometimes quirky interviewing process. Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco. Use a programming language to describe a chicken. What is the most beautiful equation you have ever seen? Explain. By design, none of these questions has a right answer. This has led to intense speculation and even paranoia among Google job candidates. It's also led to other companies adopting Google-esque questions without having any idea what constitutes a good answer. Fifteen million Americans are now out of work, and many of them can expect to come into contact with this new and alien culture of intense interviewing practices. The blender question is a metaphor. The growth of a company, or of anything we humans care about, is all about change of scale. Solutions that work when something is small do not necessarily work as its scope expands. Google's quirky interviewing works for Google. But other companies need to understand why it works at the tech giant—and how it might intelligently be adapted to other contexts. And job candidates need to understand what kind of thinking and skills are being sought by firms that are hiring. Often, all it takes to succeed is one good mental leap. But it's important not to jump out of the blender and into the fire. 5 Google Interview Questions 1. What's the next number in this sequence: 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66 … ? Asked at Google 2. You're in a car with a helium balloon on a string that is tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you step on the gas pedal, what happens to the balloon—does it move forward, move backward, or stay put? Asked at Microsoft 3. Using only a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, measure exactly nine minutes—without the process taking longer than nine minutes. Asked at Google Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 53
- 54. 4. A bookhas N pages, numbered the usual way, from 1 to N. The total number of digits in the page numbers is 1,095. How many pages does the book have? Asked at Google 5. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened? Asked at Google ANSWERS 1. What's the next number in this sequence: 10, 9, 60, 90, 70, 66 … ? A. Spell the numbers out: Ten Nine Sixty Ninety Seventy Sixty-six They are in ascending order, based on the number of letters in the spelled-out numbers. A correct response will have nine letters: 96, for instance. A cleverer answer is "one googol." That's the huge number that can be written as a "1" with a hundred zeros after it. Google, the company's name, was originally a misspelling of "googol." 2. You're in a car with a helium balloon on a string that is tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you step on the gas pedal, what happens to the balloon—does it move forward, move backward, or stay put? A. The near-universal intuition is that the balloon leans backward as you accelerate. Well, the intuition is wrong. Your job is to deduce how the balloon does move and to explain it to the interviewer. One good response is to draw an analogy to a spirit level. For the not so handy, a spirit level is the little gizmo carpenters use to make sure a surface is horizontal. It contains a narrow glass tube of colored liquid with a bubble in it. Whenever the spirit level rests on a perfectly horizontal surface, the bubble hovers in the middle of the tube. When the surface isn't so level, the bubble migrates to the higher end of the tube. The takeaway here is that the bubble is simply a "hole" in the liquid. When the surface isn't level, gravity pulls the liquid toward the lower end. This pushes the bubble wherever the liquid isn't— toward the opposite end. Untie the helium balloon and let it hit the moonroof. It becomes a spirit level. The balloon is a "bubble" of lower-density helium in higher-density air, all sealed in a container (the car). Gravity pulls the heavy air downward, forcing the light balloon against the moonroof. When the car accelerates, the air is pushed backward, just as your body is. This sends a lighter-than-air balloon forward. When the car brakes suddenly, the air piles up in front of the windshield. This sends the balloon backward. Centrifugal force pushes the air away from the turn and sends the balloon toward the center of the turn. Of course, the same applies when the balloon is tied to something; it's just less free to move. The short answer to this question is that the balloon nods in the direction of any acceleration. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 54
- 55. 3. Using onlya four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass, measure exactly nine minutes—without the process taking longer than nine minutes. A. Start both hourglasses at 0 minutes. Flip over the four-minute glass when it runs out (at 4:00); ditto for the seven- minute glass (at 7:00). When the four-minute glass runs out the second time (at 8:00), the seven-minute glass will then have one minute of sand in its lower bulb. Flip the seven-minute glass over again and let the minute of sand run back. When the last grain falls, that will be nine minutes. 4. A book has N pages, numbered the usual way, from 1 to N. The total number of digits in the page numbers is 1,095. How many pages does the book have? A. Every page number has a digit in the units column. With N pages, that's N digits right there. All but the first 9 pages have a digit in the tens column. That's N - 9 more digits. All but the first 99 pages have a digit in the hundreds column (accounting for N - 99 more digits). I could go on, but not many books have more than 999 pages. A book with 1,095 digits in its page numbers won't, anyway. This means that 1,095 must equal: N + (N - 9) + (N - 99). This can be simplified to: 1,095 = 3N - 108. That means that 3N = 1,203, or N = 401. That's the answer, 401 pages. 5. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened? A. He was playing Monopoly. The iPhone App Store Generates 4X The Revenue The Android App Store Jay Yarow Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 55
- 56. The top 200grossing apps in iPhone's app store generated four times as much revenue as the top 200 grossing apps in the Android app market, says mobile analytics company Distimo. It also says the top apps in the iPad app store are generating double the revenue of the Android app market. Distimo doesn't break out specific numbers, and didn't respond to a request for information on the absolute numbers it estimates for each market. As Android continues to take smartphone market share, stats like this are important to keep in mind. The growth in market share only matters if Apple loses its appeal with developers. Once it loses developers it loses its edge in software / applications. Once it loses the edge in applications, it really loses out. It makes it difficult to sell phones to users. Would you want a phone with inferior applications? For now, Google is totally blowing its market share lead. For some reason people aren't paying for apps through Android. The mobile ad market is not big enough to offset this problem, and arguably it will never be all that big -- tiny banner ads won't work. Unless Google figures out a way to sell more apps, or generate more revenue for developers, Apple will remain the first choice for developers making the best software in the world. For Google, Fixing Android Is Like Herding Cats Matt Rosoff | Dec. 16, 2011, Last May, Google announced a deal with a bunch of cellphone makers and wireless carriers that was supposed to fix a big problem with Android. Now, as PC Magazine's Jamie Lendro reports, that alliance is basically dead. Of the seven companies in it, only one, Sony Ericsson, has publicly promised to live up to the pledge to release new versions of Android to ALL phones that are less than 18 months old. Motorola, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon all danced around the question. This is a problem for users -- they're not always getting the latest experience that Google has created, and they can't always use the latest apps. It's a huge problem for developers -- if they target only the most recent software, they don't know how many customers they'll be able to reach, and on what timeline. The thing is, this deal was never going to work. Google can't force these companies to do anything that wasn't in the terms of their contracts -- and even then, Google only has leverage over partners who want official Google certification. Anybody can take the basic underlying version of Android and customize it to their own ends, like Amazon has done with the Kindle Fire and Facebook is reportedly doing with its phone. Meanwhile, handset makers and carriers want to maintain differentiation-- they release phones with different hardware specs, layer their own UIs on top, and so on. Updating all those phones requires a lot of extra work. It's like herding cats. Fortunately for Google, if the feds and the EU approve the Motorola deal, Google will have a little more leverage -- it can build its own phones to its own desired hardware specs and tell software developers to target those specs. If other handset makers and wireless carriers refuse to come along, that's their loss. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 56
- 57. Creating an EngagementIndex David Daniels As an email marketer, it is vital to understand the overall engagement of your list of subscribers. While based on a single mailing it may be easy to view aggregate measures, such as unique click-through rate, often I find that many are not looking at such audience engagement measures over time. Understanding audience engagement on both a macro and subscriber level is important to determining which subscribers have churned or are showing signs that they are about to leave. A consumer survey conducted by my consultancy found that 30 percent of consumers changed or created a new email address in the past year. Developing key performance indicators and using them to build an engagement index is a necessary tool to determine how many of these address churning subscribers are on your list. Here's how to do it. First, develop key performance indicators. Although rates for open, click-through, conversion, and delivery are useful to know, they are also the necessary ingredients for developing an engagement metric to trend the health of a mailing list or segment over time. Along with the aforementioned metrics, add the unsubscribe rate, spam complaint rate, new subscriber rate, and hard bounces to a quotient that directionally indicates the quality and performance of the mailing list. Each sub-metric can be individually evaluated, but rolling all of them up into one metric is an easy way for marketers to gauge the health of subscribers over time. With these key metrics in place you are ready for step two. Next, take all the key performance indicators, and score them on a three-point scale, with the value of 1 when you are below your benchmark average, the value of 2 when you are at or within 2 percent of your benchmark average, and the value of 3 when you are 2 percent or more over your benchmark average. Apply this approach to all your major key performance indicators, and sum them up. The higher the number, the better your list is performing. It signals that your audience is relatively engaged with you. For the purposes of illustration, your engagement metric calculation may look like the following. How to Create an Engagement Scorecard Note: These numbers are for illustrative purposes only. They are not industry average benchmarks. Score Delivery rate = 95% 3 Open rate = 24% 1 Click-through rate = 12% 2 Conversion rate = 1.5% 2 Percent of list clicking within past month = 3 50% Opt-in rate = 3% 3 *Spam complaint rate = 10% 1 *Unsubscribe rate = .01% 2 Total engagement score 17 *With the spam complaint and unsubscribe rates, the higher the number for these metrics, the lower the score should be The overall engagement score in this example is 17. Although each metric is a key performance indicator, rolling up the metrics in a scoring system like this will give you a quick snapshot of the audience's health and its performance. If there is a big change from mailing to mailing, it is easy to identify which individual key performance indicator is dragging you down. From here you can begin to focus on subscriber behavior when creating audience segments. Create engagement rules (for example, the number of subscribers clicking at least one link during past three or four mailings vs. those clicking more frequently and those not clicking at all). This approach will create a behavioral segmentation framework to drive subsequent mailings and remarketing campaigns and in turn provide an overall effective means of targeting subscribers based on their engagement. Applying this approach to reactivation mailings can help spot dormant subscribers and with the right offer breathe new life into dying ones. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 57
- 58. Time to ChangeOur Thinking...Again Sage Lewis One of the most difficult aspects of the information age is having to change our perspective. People hate change. There has been a wide adoption of social media in the business world. I continually get businesses of all sizes desperately trying to figure out how to use social media. But I don't think it's because they want to grow into better human beings. I think it's only because they are being forced to use it. I believe two things happened: 1. 800 million people got on Facebook 2. A massive recession swept through the country I believe many businesses have been suffering over the last couple years and have, therefore, been scrambling to find new ways to promote their products. Fundamental shifts in business always happen during recessions and depressions. If things are good, there is no reason to change. Businesses gravitated to social media because everyone is there. And there is no cost of entry other than time. So while we are all on the change train, I would like to suggest that we just keep the change coming. The change I am suggesting has to do with the silos we have all created. I hate segmenting and siloing things. But I believe it is a necessary evil. There's simply too much information to have a flat, non-departmentalized system. However, the structure we have today is wrong. Look at how this, and virtually every other site in the online information market, is structured. The topics are organized like this: Email Analytics Marketing Media Mobile Search Social This is the approved and accepted structure of most sites. The issue is that virtually every topic crosses over almost all of those segments. Take Google for example. Gmail is, on its face, email. But it also has paid search listings. It has a mobile component that includes apps. And, I don't know about you, but it is the search bar I use most often right after Google.com. You can email people in Google+. And of course, it is considered a social tool. Google Analytics is increasingly incorporating social statistics within its interface. Google AdWords and Google.com are now incorporating +1's within those results. We also now recognize YouTube as the second most used search engine. And of course, you can buy ads through YouTube Promoted Videos. I bring this all up because I was getting stuck with each topic I wanted to write about today. Initially I wanted to talk about the Google Panda update. But then I thought I was going to probably have to talk about video and social signals, not to mention usability. It seemed like a search column. But it could've easily moved into virtually every other topic within this site. I believe that you would not be telling the whole story of search engine optimization if you were not talking about virtually all the topics segmented here. This isn't just something that ClickZ and other publishers need to address. This is a way of thinking that we all need to change. We are no longer doing search engine optimization from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., social media from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and paid search from 11 a.m. to lunch time. You cannot be a search engine optimizer today without a Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ strategy. Search engine optimization is bigger than on-the-page content and link building. You need to think about it by the brand and product you are targeting. Strategies you have will be: Google SEO Google AdWords Google+ Facebook Pages Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 58
- 59. Facebook Ads Bing SEO Microsoft adCenter Twitter Google Analytics We all are thinking about how to get the most use out of the specific product. We need to stop thinking about our social media strategy on one hand and our search engine optimization strategy on the other hand. They literally go hand in hand. It would be like segmenting your business publishing website by office supply: How to use pens How to use paper Getting the most out of paper clips Making the most of manila folders You would then tell your writers that their topic is one of the above. "You can talk all you want about how to use paper. But just don't get pens involved." We are thinking the same way about online promotion. We as businesses and we as publishers need to start thinking differently. We still need to segment but the segmenting needs to be done by the tool and what needs to be accomplished. Not by individual activity. Publishers Challenge Audience Report Fall study shows widespread readership declines By Lucia Moses Magazine publishers are demanding explanations from GfK MRI after its fall magazine audience report showed more than two-thirds lost audience versus a year ago, many of them by double digits. Some year-to-year audience fluctuations are common, but the fall report was unusual. About 70 percent of the 220 magazines measured were down, according to MRI. Big decliners includedWired, down 22 percent to 2.5 million; Bon Appétit, down 17 percent to 5.8 million; O, The Oprah Magazine, down 10 percent; and New York, down 14 percent. Print ad buyers use the semiannual report to decide where to spend clients’ budgets, so declining audiences are the last thing publishers need. Until now, the overallmagazine audience had held steady, giving periodicals nee ded ammoat a time when newsstand sales and ad revenue were falling. The fall MRI report showed the total magazine audience down 3 percent,though. Publishers’ unhappiness doesn’t end there, though. Some are complaining that the report under-represents their digital audience. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Until recently, magazine measurement firms focused on their print audiences, but readers are now getting magazine content on mobile devices and online as well as in print. To that end, MRI, along with rival Affinity, has begun measuring magazines’ digital footprint, a step that some publishers hoped would boost their overall numbers. MRI’s fall report was its first to include such comprehensive data. One publisher, whose title saw a double-digit audience decline, fumed, ―Magazines with robust readership are showing declines, and magazines with significant digital platforms are not seeing those recognized. MRI is going to have a lot of explaining to do.‖ Another publisher, Bon Appétit’s Pamela Drucker Mann, said it was a ―challenge‖ to understand why Bon App’s audience fell 17 percent, given strong year-over-year newsstand sales for the past several issues under new editor Adam Rapoport. ―We did speak to MRI about this, and they said it typically takes syndicated research 12-18 months to reflect an editorial change,‖ she emailed. ―Therefore, we conclude these numbers to reflect reader fatigue toward the former Bon Appétit editorial product and the exact reason Adam’s team was brought on to reshape the editorial vision of the magazine.‖ Howard Mittman, publisher of Wired, said the problem was the methodology itself. MRI gathers the information by conducting in-person surveys with 26,000 interviewees. ―The last wave had Wired showing a healthy double-digit increase, and this latest wave has us showing a double-digit decline,‖ Mittman emailed. ―Frankly, I believe any drops, or increases, are less a symbol of a magazine’s audience than they are a shining example of deficiencies in the research collection process itself. Do you really think a Wired reader is going to spend that amount of time completing a written and online survey? If so, they're not likely the affluent, intellectual readers we target anyway.‖ Anne Marie Kelly, MRI’s svp of marketing and strategic planning, said MRI stands behind its research. While it’s true that MRI changed its questions with this survey to capture digital readership, she said, ―We did a lot of testing to make sure this question would be understood by all consumers and would not impact the print numbers.‖ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 59
- 60. As for thedigital data, she said it's only preliminary and won’t be part of MRI’s official ratings until the spring when a second wave of research will have been done. As for the decline in print audience, she suggested that circulation, which has been on a downward trend, played a part. ―Circulation is down,‖ she said. ―There are fewer magazines out there. We don’t know how much of those [readers] have migrated digitally. I’m not saying it’s good news. But we’re in the middle of a transition.‖ Want Digital Content Domination? - Accelerate content innovation Jeanniey Mullen | December 23, 2011 Today, every brand wants to do more with the content they own. They want to share it with more people, sell it to more people, or even just engage more of their company in reading it. And, this is no short-term task. The average company is expecting to work on this for at least five years before they feel their digital content distribution strategy is solid and effective. That said, no one person or company claims to know all of the answers in generating a proven path toward success and high-value brand equity. Everyone loves to hear what others are doing and innovate off of that. After having been on the road for three weeks, speaking with CMOs and CEOs of companies - from B2B to B2C, and across all industries and countries, I felt there were 10 pieces of advice that could help everyone accelerate their innovation, or simply gain enough courage to get started. A few people asked me to share them in a broader forum, so here they are: 1. Build an effective preference center (aka, get people to opt in). This means gather approval to email, text, Facebook message, tweet, and whatever else you can think of. Putting my old email hat on, anyone who gives you permission to speak to them will buy 25 percent more than those who don't. 2. Get a social sentiment monitor and gather the data. Every brand talks about monitoring social sentiment so they can respond in a time of crisis. But that is not enough. You need to monitor your commentary and save the words people use to talk about your brand. Those words then need to be used in your SEO, SEM, and marketing efforts. Speaking in the terms your customers understand, you will increase revenue 15 percent or more. 3. Use print - don't lose print. If you do anything in print, you have this unique, once-in-a-lifetime chance to use it to target your best prospects for digital. Stickers, QR codes, SMS codes, and more will enable you to educate and transition your customer to your digital content. 4. Create and distribute video. Regardless of what business you are in, it can be represented visually. And that is important, because one video can impact five efforts. Video is currently the most malleable digital format. Meaning…you do not need to worry about resizing it for different mobile devices, or color correct. It can stream, or be embedded. But most importantly, it can be overlaid into digitized documents easily to wow the consumer, shared on social networks to introduce the prospect, included on your website for exclusive insights, and be used with partners and sales team as well. 5. Define your international position. While the shackles of print have often held us back from thinking globally, digital distribution enables us to overcome those issues. This is hard. It's hard to think globally for all content distribution. But it's key to defining emerging market acceptance and true global domination. 6. Phone a friend. Just like the early days of email, none of us know what tomorrow will bring in terms of technical advancements, strategies, consumer acceptance, etc. Now is not the time to try and do it on your own. Reach out and ask an expert for help. Some great resources (and people) I have enjoyed working with recently include The CMO Club, Argyle, ExactTarget, Webtrends, Skyword, and The IMA (and of course my own crews at my company and VIVmag). 7. Create a consumer panel. In our overly social world, consumers like to feel like they are making the decisions. They want to help. Reach out to them and ask for advice, testing support, and help. If you have a consumer brand, you will be shocked to see how asking for help will lead to new business deals. 8. Remember the four defining elements of a digital strategy. Consider what your goal is across these four factors when building anything digitally to ensure you are reaching the right target with the right product features: age (generation), access (small or large screen), intent (answers or entertainment), and engagement (fast flip vs. content engagement). Good luck! And share you stories and learnings. At this point in the digital distribution lifecycle, things are going to keep getting better and more exciting! Traditional Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Slowly Catching On To Online Search Marketing by Laurie Sullivan, While it may not come as a shock to online advertisers and marketers to find pure-play Internet giants at the top of the list for companies most likely to take America's dollars this holiday season, it's important to note that the study also reveals Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 60
- 61. that traditional brick-and-mortarstores continue to lose the battle for online sales. Most just can't apply learned physical- world strategies to the Web. A Conductor study released this week identifies Amazon, Zappos, Overstock, and eBay as being the top retailers most likely to take the majority of online consumer spending during the 2011 holiday season. These companies -- known for being most familiar with search engine optimization (SEO), paid search, and all-around online customer buying and return habits -- appear to be maintaining an edge on traditional retailers. I can completely understand why. Conductor Senior Research Analyst Nathan Safran has a slightly different perspective. He found the "solid showing by the big- box department stores" surprising. Historically, they have not done well in natural search, reminding me that back in 2009, Conductor published a study on the natural search visibility of the big-box retailers showing that Target was buying nearly half of their search traffic from Google on paid search to the tune of several hundreds of thousands of dollars daily. "Given the large sample size and focus on retail of the keyword studies, the study suggests they are taking natural search -- their biggest online channel -- far more seriously," Safran said, noting that the company was "fairly rigorous" about the methodology and sample size. Perhaps I have simply turned into an online shopping junkie with zero desire to walk in a store to find specific items among rows of overstocked shelves. I would much rather open a browser, type in a specific URL to find the retailer's Web site, enter a term in the box and hit the search button, rather than try and find the items in any one of several dozen display or product aisles. I nearly made it through the entire pre-holiday season without setting foot in a store, but on Wednesday night I popped into Best Buy to try and find the movie "Lion King" on Blu-Ray for a friend after checking stock availability online. Given enough time, I would have bought it on bestbuy.com -- which, by the way, ranked No. 5 in Conductor's top 10 retailers best positioned to take America's money online during the 2011 holiday season. I became so overwhelmed in Best Buy with the inability to sort through the mess to find the one DVD I nearly walked out of the store. Lucky for me a salesperson knew exactly where to look for the item. More than $30 billion was spent in the first 46 days of the November-December 2011 holiday season -- up 15% compared with the same time person a year ago, according to comScore. The Conductor study also cites stats from Marketing Sherpa estimating that 81% of all online adults research products using a search engine and 71% buy something using a search engine. The study breaks down the retail sites by category, such as Clothing, Electronics, and Health and Beauty. For clothing, Zappos took the No. 1 spot, capturing the largest percentage of traffic this holiday season. Focusing on long-tail queries, Zappos ranked on page 1, for the most queries. Shopping engine Nextag captures the fourth-greatest amount of traffic. In the Health and Beauty category, Amazon took the top spot, capturing the largest number of visitors from search in the category. Drugstore .com came in a close second, ranking on page 1 for a large number of high-volume keywords. Health and Beauty as a category had a broad representation of diverse domains coming up in the search results with appearances by online retailers, such as drugstore.com and overstock.com for brand names like esteelauder.com, loreal.com, macys.com, and walgreens.com. 3 Marketing Mega Trends For 2012 by Andy Crestodina, PMI lead strategy for my Web design company, and one of my primary roles is to connect with potential clients. This means I am in the middle of 1,000+ conversations per year about marketing -- its past, present and future. Based on these conversations and experience, I will share my predictions for 2012. Mega-Trend #1: Mobile Ecommerce Will Reach a Tipping Point It was a quiet explosion and it’s not over yet. Purchases made on mobile devices will jump significantly in 2012. If you’ve never bought anything on your phone, watch yourself in 2012. You may personally contribute to this trend. In 2010, e-commerce sales from mobile devices on Black Friday were 3.2%; in 2011, this number jumped to 9.8%. This year will be the tipping point for the ecommerce portion of the mobile mega-trend. Retail spaces will still be stores, but more than ever, will become showrooms for their Web sites. Big retailers will make it easier to order online from the store on your phone. For small brick-and-mortar retailers, “buy it where you try it” will be the rallying cry. Either way, in 2012 shoppers will realize they can scan, price shop and order any product in front of them, then have it delivered tomorrow. Mega-Trend #2: The Decline of Apps Well -- not an actual decline, but a decline relative to the growth of mobile sites. 2012 will be the year when people who say ―I want to build an app‖ also say ―...unless the same thing is possible with a mobile site.‖ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 61
- 62. Potential mobile applicationbuilders are starting to figure out that building an app really means building two apps (one for iPhones and one for Android) or else leaving out a big chunk of the audience. Mobile Web sites don’t have that problem. A properly built mobile site will display on any mobile device. When something is purchased through an app, there’s a middleman who usually takes a cut (Apple takes 30% of purchases made through iPhone apps, for example). But when you sell something through a mobile site, you don’t have to worry about this. Sales are handled through the company. App development is expensive and time-consuming and usually has no advantages over mobile sites. They have to be downloaded and installed: This is not my preferred way to access things -- is it yours? Plus, apps can’t be linked to easily, so they’re harder to promote. In 2012, marketers will begin to realize that mobile sites can do virtually everything an app can do, easier, faster and cheaper. Mega-Trend #3: Enter Inbound Marketing This is the year that millions of companies large and small realize that inbound marketing, rather than outbound advertising, is the way to go. By inbound marketing (a/k/a content marketing), we mean writing and promoting content using search marketing, social media, blogging, email marketing and PR. As we begin year four of the recession/recovery, marketers are still cost-conscious. They will find that inbound marketing takes time, but the out-of-pocket expenses are low. Business-to-business companies seem to be leading the charge, but everyone will be on board soon. Year 2012 is the year of content marketing. Inbound isn’t a fad or the next ―shiny object,‖ it’s a long-term commitment of real time and energy. But as word gets out about the clever ways to combine search marketing with blogging, social media with PR, hordes of marketing departments will jump in. And to help all these marketing departments, a new generation of marketing company will rise to prominence: the inbound agency. These companies will combine the disciplines of formerly separate companies. Look for hybrid SEO/PR/social media firms. These will be small strategic firms that write search-optimized press releases and understand social media analytics. Optify Forecasts Trends For Marketing and Social Media in 2012 Posted by @Optify Team | December 5th, 2011 Leading Online Marketing Software Company Identifies Five Key Predictions that Will Shape the Industry SEATTLE, WA – December 02, 2011 – Optify, the leading provider of online marketing software and services for the real time web, today announced its top five 2012 predictions based on insights from customers, analysts, and partners. The past year saw many new developments in online marketing, including evolving organic and paid search landscape, convergence of social media and search marketing, growth of mobile and local searches, and a rapid rise in spending on social media marketing using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Online marketers have only begun to explore and respond to these new opportunities. In this evolving landscape, Optify’s top predictions include: 1. Mainstream Organizations Adopt Marketing Automation & Social CRM Marketing automation has traditionally consisted of email and email nurturing. However, 2011 witnessed the expansion of Social CRM, enabling another channel to reach and interact with customers and it has become one of the fastest growing segments within the CRM industry. In the next year, Social CRM will evolve from an early adopter strategy into a mainstream solution for organizations wanting to connect marketing operations from the top of the funnel, to online search, down through sales and customer management. Companies that learn how to adopt and implement these solutions will more effectively be able to reach and engage with their customers and have a clearer path to a positive sales and marketing ROI. 2. Social Media Becomes an Increasing Factor in Search Algorithms Social media networks are growing. In 2011, Facebook’s social signals were integrated into Bing search and Google+ emerged with native integration into Google search. Companies also started using social media in earnest and began experimenting with ways to influence their rankings using these social factors. In 2012, Optify expects this trend to continue with social media becoming more of a key component of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) algorithms. For companies looking to preserve or improve their rankings, social marketing activities will no longer be optional; they will be a necessary element of traffic driving success. 3. Customers and employees become an extended part of companies’ marketing teams As social networks are used ever more frequently for aggregating and sharing interests, expect opinions, both positive and Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 62
- 63. negative, about productsand services to spread with lightening speed. As a result, businesses customer relationships will become increasingly focused on creating and managing perceptions. In 2010, companies began listening to customers wants and needs via social buzz. In 2011, they focused on responding to digital customer commentary. In 2012, companies will need to proactively scale their marketing efforts by creating and sharing information with employees and influential customer evangelists to help define their brands, products and services from the ground up. Salesforce.com’s recent extension of their Chatter feature, allowing businesses to share information and files with their customers through a hosted network, is early evidence of this. 4. Mobile + Social Evolve Together to Create New User Scenarios Customer interactions and purchases, in specific marketplaces such as travel, shopping and dining, will occur with increasing frequency on mobile devices. A recent study found a third of all American adults utilize smartphones and that number is expected to rise in the coming year. Travel related click-through-rates are already higher on mobile devices than on PCs and location-based marketing fueled by companies like FourSquare will continue to soar. Online purchasing is indisputably moving to mobile. Google estimates 44% of last-minute online shopping searches will come from Smartphones and tablets. This holiday, the majority of last minute shopping transactions are expected to take place on mobile devices. This creates an opportunity for marketers to zoom in on specific and unique user scenarios they may not have been able to address using pure traditional online marketing tactics. 5. Facebook platform grows and expands into new markets Facebook‘s IPO in 2012 is estimated to surpass Google’s IPO (1.67 billion in 2004) with a goal of raising $10 billion. This should fund quite a bit of expansion. With a large infusion of IPO cash and the potential to create social shopping experiences, Facebook will be well positioned to give online retailer Amazon a run for its money. While analysts have begun speculating Amazon will launch a Smartphone in 2012, Facebook will likely do the same. These visionary companies see that the mobile phone is quickly becoming the portal to purchase; an opportunity to get in front of customers before they’ve even arrived online or a physical store. Facebook, along with their competitors, will be vying to put their products and services in their users’ hands first. Expect Facebook to also leverage ‘other people’s work’ to build a developer ecosystem similar to Salesforce.com, Amazon and Google’s Android marketplace to capture the innovation of others to help expand their platform. ―Success for marketers in 2012 will be based on their ability to embrace and implement integrated online, search, and social marketing campaigns,‖ said Anthony Joseph, VP Marketing of Optify. ―Experimentation with emerging mediums will be warranted, but an integrated solution that measures ROI and return on effort across these various channels will be critical to know what’s working and what isn’t.‖ Will Digital Media Folks Own the Next-Gen TV Conversations At CES? By Dave Morgan In three weeks, thousands of consumer marketing executives will descend on Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show. CES is fast becoming a must-attend annual event for the advertising/marketing and media industries. As all media and entertainment become digital, everyone in the industry must now understand and experience the latest devices people will use to receive, interact with and share media. This year, a significant focal point of CES will be the future of the digital living room and next-generation television and video viewing experiences. We will see everything from smart, connected TVs to new set-top boxes or on-demand video streaming to ―second screen‖ tablet and mobile devices, with applications for social TV viewing. Next-generation TV and the +$500 billion spent globally for consumer TV services and TV advertising will be center stage at CES. That television, the dominant global advertising platform, is now becoming digital has not been lost on brand marketers, which is why so many of them will be at CES. The fact of TV’s digital transition has not been lost on TV ad and media agencies and media sellers, either -- which is why so many of them will be there as well. The big question is, who will lead the next- gen television conversations? Will it be the traditional TV folks? Or, rather, will digital media folks elbow their way into the conversations? I think that we’ll see quite a bit of the latter. Here’s why: CES done right requires curating and translating. CES can be overwhelming, and not all of the best stuff is either easy to find, understand or easy to get into (yes, lots of velvet-roping goes on there). To do CES right, it helps to have some really smart and well-prepared veterans take you around, show you the best stuff and help you understand which and why things are important. Folks like Jack Myers, Shelly Palmer and Medialink are brilliant at this. This year, virtually all of the big agency holding companies are hosting clients and taking them around, recognizing how important CES has become. Most TV media folks don’t have digital pedigrees yet. Most of the folks who buy and sell the billions of dollars of TV advertising transacted each year were born, trained and matured in the TV business and have virtually no digital media experience. Of course, there are exceptions. Group M’s Irwin Gottlieb was coding in the ‘60s; colleague Rob Norman led CIA’s digital efforts in the mid-‘90s, and The Weather Channel’s Mike Kelly and Beth Lawrence both have great digital advertising resumes, but most other traditional TV folks don’t. Digital folks want a piece of TV, and they can talk the next-gen TV language. The online ad display business today is most known for ever-expanding inventory, ever-dropping CPMs. and fighting over tenths of a cent. Not so in TV advertising, where Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 63
- 64. money is movedin billions of dollars, inventory capacity remains stable and prices continue to rise. The digital folks know that as TV become digital and all viewing become directly measured, much of TV advertising will be bought, sold, targeted, measured, optimized and accounted for with Web-like metrics. That is a world they know well. I believe that we will see a lot of digital folks driving and owning the next-gen TV conversations at CES, ultimately hoping to win budgets. Their traditional TV media counterparts will be standing nearby, hoping to learn as much as they can, as fast as they can, in fear that the digital TV advertising of the future will slip away from them if they don’t. What do you think?s Biggest Trend Of 2011 In Online Video by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, In our end-of-year series, we asked a number of online video professionals three questions. The professionals included: - Brian Fitzgerald, CEO of Evolve (content producer, publisher, ad representation) - Matt Heiman, CEO of Diagonal View (content producer) - Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 (content producer) - Adam Singolda, CEO of Taboola (distribution and aggregation) - Brett Wilson, CEO of Tubemogul (distribution and ad network) - Steve Woolf, VP content blip (aggregation and network) We’ll start with one question, and will cover the other two in upcoming posts: What was the biggest news/development/trend of 2011 in online video? Jim Louderback: ―YouTube priming the pump with hundreds of millions.‖ Steve Woolf: “Number 1 was investment in content. YouTube has justly garnered most of the press around this with their channel initiative, but Yahoo, AOL, Netflix, and Hulu, among others, have either launched new initiatives that signal an increased amount of investment in original web video content, or continued their support of internal programs designed to keep web video programming progressing into the mainstream. Number 2 is that media buyers finally get it. If the ad buys and RFPs coming to blip are any indication for the original web series market, brands and agencies are finally starting to understand the value of these eyeballs. Media buy sizes and campaign lengths took off like a rocket in 2011, and huge RFPs come to us on a daily basis now. We look at it as validation of the position we've had for years. Perhaps most interesting was the shift in peak viewership -- for us, the prime-time hours became our biggest viewing period, indicating that audiences are looking at original Web series as a legitimate alternative to television entertainment. This is a compelling metric to media buyers.‖ Matt Heiman: ―Mobile usage. Roughly 20% of our views are now on mobile, representing incremental views sold at a premium.‖ (Heiman’s company is based in Europe, historically always one step ahead of North America (until the iPhone came along, of course). Adam Singolda: ―I think the biggest change in 2011 versus the previous year is that video monetization became real, and maybe even possible for the first time. I saw the industry stuck in 2010, where it didn't matter if publishers increased their video views, as there was not a lot to do with that increase. In 2011, between companies like Tremor, Yume, Adap.tv and more -- video is monetizable and in different ways and formats. I think the actual details of what ad format is the best -- whether it's skippable ad, overlay, from an exchange or through a traditional pre-roll -- is less important than the bottom line. For the first time, video inventory equals money. Of course, just as online is starting to ‘grow up’ and take shape, we’re seeing emerging platforms take off.‖ Brett Wilson explains why we saw an investment in content: Brett Wilson: “More demand than supply, leading to the launch of multiple exchanges and CPMs trending upward for top sites. This scarcity also led to the rise of fake pre-roll gaming the system, which totals over 3.3 million impressions per day according to technology we built to block it.‖ Brian Fitzgerald explains what led to things taking off: Brian Fitzgerald: ―The establishment and fairly rapid adoption of VAST 2.0 as a standard, and agencies pushing for compliance with it.‖ To conclude: I think YouTube’s dominance was the story. - YouTube spent anywhere from $100-$250 million in guaranteed money to lock up content exclusively for one year. This makes YouTube the only online company doing ―upfronts,‖ and continues its scorched-earth philosophy of making it hard for any other aggregator to build a business around video online. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 64
- 65. - YouTube and comScore’s partnership to open up audience measurement per channel will give an incentive to many producers who rely on YouTube for distribution to invest in a sales team or at least have a shot at building a business around their YouTube presence. - But the clutter that content creators face online is an obstacle: with over 48 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute, the reality is that most content creators cannot justify the expensive process of producing content. While in aggregate there’s more video viewing than ever, each video seems to represent a needle in a haystack. Ultimately, content needs to be i) good enough and ii) produced at the right price point to make it worthwhile. How Data From Social Media Will Impact Marketing by David Baker, Vivak Palan, When you shop for a new product that you know little about, are you more likely to trust the recommendation of a friend or an ad? If you answered "your friend," then you're not alone. Recent surveys by Nielsen indicate that a recommendation from a friend or even a review from a virtual stranger are generally far more likely to be trusted than ads. Moreover, people now spend three times more time on social media than on email. And this trend is not limited to youth, either. The average age for a Twitter user is 31. As social media grows to the point where almost everyone on the planet has some form of a social identity, the next issue will be to better understand the consumers on these platforms and deepen engagement. As the richness and complexity of social media increase with different types of content being shared, the types of data available about consumers will also increase. Twitter and Facebook have given powerful incentives for consumers to volunteer this information freely, either in the form of comments, creation of personal videos, or sharing and recommending existing content. The challenge will be to sort through the complexity of these different types of data to generate the necessary consumer insights, although quite often, the data is in separate databases without a clear way to link them together. Unlike the structured data typical of traditional databases (e.g., name and address fields, marital status flag), much of social data consists of free-form, or unstructured content: short tweets, longer blog comments, video uploads- basically anything that can be created by a user. Organizing the data will be a prerequisite for meaningful analysis. Then there is the privacy hurdle. Most people don't read the terms of use on a site. Regardless, the more important issue is not legality, but rather whether targeted marketing is expected or welcome. Some users are completely indifferent. But it may seem creepy to others when an ad shows up that coincidentally seems to know everything about their personal life (e.g., Just had a fight with your girlfriend? Buy flowers!) > If not managed properly, this could damage the brand being advertised. To address these issues, we recommend the following: *Many companies are now starting to use social listening systems to monitor references about their brand on the Web. In addition, we recommend that marketers also consider a wider use of these social listening tools to segment and then analyze users discussing not only their brand but also related topics. Use this data to understand what aspirations, behavioral preferences and intent your consumers have. Finally, incorporate those insights into marketing decisions pertaining to product research, post-launch feedback, and real-time alerts around customer service trends. *For most companies, social media currently sits as a silo within the enterprise, and as a result, many of the insights it holds are not actionable. It will be important to invest the time to build a data management platform that can do the following with the data collected: link different data types together to enable a multidimensional view, manage privacy constraints on sensitive personal data, and have an ability to integrate with other CRM systems to improve engagement. *Rather than fighting against the current, marketers should look for ways to help users set their preferences, signal their buying intent, and opt out of receiving offers they don’t care for. A number of companies are now working on ways to facilitate this kind of explicit demand signaling. The privacy policy should be able to be easily understood by non-lawyers and have a simple opt out process. By lowering the risks and barriers to leave a marketing program, consumers will have less to fear about their information being mishandled. As more data becomes available, there is a real danger of becoming overwhelmed. Data creation is accelerating and arriving in multiple unstructured forms, requiring more sophisticated ways to manage and analyze it. Moreover, the value of the real- time component is indicative of intent, which decays rapidly if not used quickly. Despite these numerous roadblocks, marketers must rise to the challenge to better serve their customers. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 65
- 66. FCC Moves Toward'WiFi On Steriods' By Approving 'White Spaces' Devices The prospect of ―WiFi on steroids‖ took a big step forward today with the Federal Communications Commission's approval of the first database and first device for ―white spaces,‖ or the unused spectrum between TV channels. ―With today’s approval of the first TV white spaces database and device, we are taking an important step towards enabling a new wave of wireless innovation,‖ FCC Chair Julius Genachowski said in a statement. ―Unleashing white spaces spectrum has the potential to exceed even the many billions of dollars in economic benefit from Wi-Fi, the last significant release of unlicensed spectrum, and drive private investment and job creation.‖ When the FCC approved the use of white spaces for mobile broadband in 2008, then-chairman Kevin Martin said the decision would lead to WiFi on steroids. But technical details proved challenging and the FCC didn'tadopt final rules until last year. Google, Microsoft and broadband advocates backed the plan to use white spaces for Web access, arguing that it will encourage companies to create new wireless broadband networks because the radio airwaves are powerful enough to transmit through walls and across large areas. But incumbent users like the National Association of Broadcasters, Broadway theaters and performers criticized the move, saying that mobile broadband on the spectrum could interfere with existing uses. One safeguard against interference comes from the white spaces database, which will track which frequencies are available. Spectrum Bridge was named today as the first database provider; Koos Technical Services was named as provider of the first devices that will be allowed to operate on unused TV waves. Advocacy group Public Knowledge cheered today's announcement by the FCC. Harold Feld, the organization’s legal director, said in a statement that using white spaces for WiFi ―marks a new era in open wireless technology.‖ ComScore’s 2011 Social Report: Facebook Leading, Microblogging Growing, World Connecting You already know that social networking sites have been getting huge around the world, but an annual report out today from comScore shows what exactly is going at a wonderful new level of detail, with surprises for even long-time industry watchers like me. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 66
- 67. 1 in every5 minutes of time online is now being spent on social networking sites, up from a mere 6% in early 2007. The sites, led by Facebook, now reach 82% of the world’s internet-using population — about 1.2 billion people in total. This growth is happening across countries, with 41 of the 43 countries that the web measurement firm tracks showing penetration of 85% or more. Within these big numbers, though, all sorts of differences emerge. People in Latin America spend an especially large portion of their time online on sites like Facebook and Twitter — 28%, or 7.6 hours per month. That’s much less the case in Asia, where it’s 11% and less than 3 hours per month. Those are broad averages, and full of anomalies. The Philippines, for example, is actually the most socially networked country in the world, with 43% of users time going to these services, and above 8.7 hours. Facebook itself is making up the largest portion of all this usage — even as all sorts of rivals and alternatives are surging. The service reached 55% of the worlds’ online population in October, with incredibly high engagement: 3 out of every 4 minutes on these types of sites, and every seventh online minute. For the most part, it has surged into first places across countries that had previously been on rival sites, like Orkut in Brazil. But Facebook is running out of new users in North America and Western Europe simply because it has so much of these markets already (even though it’s not running out of users’ attention). In the meantime, a whole other crop of social sites are booming everywhere, led by Twitter. The microblogging service has grown by 59% in the past year to reach 160 million monthly unique users worldwide. Professional social network LinkedIn has grown by 55% to nearly 100 million. Easy-blogging site Tumblr is up 172% to nearly 40 million; Chinese Twitter-style site Sina Weibo shows almost identical growth (albeit mostly in China). Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 67
- 68. Report co-author AndrewLipsman says this is one of the trends that was most surprising to him about the report. There’s more and more people who want to share around interests, not just the close social relationships. All in all, many of these market leaders are also showing just how global they are these days, with Twitter and Facebook each now having 80% of their users outside of the US. The report has all sorts of other data gems, too. Here’s a few that jumped out at me: - Google+ now has 65 million users worldwide. That thing has some legs, even if we don’t always see them here at TechCrunch. - Women continue to lead men in engagement across the world — by 2 hours or 30% per month in North America and Europe. This is a long-term trend that comScore has seen across older services like instant messaging. But, men have shown a 10% bump since July of 2010, and they gradually appear to be catching up. A lot of this has to do with age. Usage is about at equilibrium among younger age groups, Lipsman notes. - Mobile is crucial to usage in many markets and growing, but continues to account for a minority of overall usage. Between a quarter and a third of users in Western markets reported accessing social networking sites at least once a month from mobile devices. - Ads are still playing catch-up to spending levels per traffic that you’d expect to see in other areas. - Email usage has been declining in usage among younger age groups, a trend that’s not likely to change. This is by no means all of the interesting data in the report. ComScore’s methodology, considered by many to be the best in the measurement business, includes large-scale opt-in user sampling around the world and across desktop and mobile devices. 2012 Trends: Sports Sponsorship Meets Digital Media And Entertainment This may be jumping the gun a bit – typically these annual prediction pieces come out in that slow week between Christmas and New Year's – but I figure it’s good to get these out now so you can do more important things that week (like eat a lot of unhealthy food!). So here goes, three predictions, actually more like ―trends,‖ that will thematically connect the worlds of sports sponsorship with digital media entertainment. Pent-up Demand Unleashed in 2012 Let’s face it, 2011 has been a bit of a drag in the sports world. Two lockouts, no great positive news stories to keep us enthralled (where’s Brett Favre when we really need him?), and enough global debt crisis black clouds to scare off even the most optimistic media buyer. So just playing the law of averages means that 2012 will be a big year. Labor peace pervades the NFL, NBA and even the MLB. Marketers can actually now build long-range marketing plans around the properties that they are investing. In the case of the NFL, the TV deals are going to run for the next 10 years – imagine how many ad impressions Tim Tebow might get over that span? Layer on top of this the fact that 2012 is an Olympics year and that Tiger Woods won a tournament in late 2011 (imagine what happens to golf if he wins a Major next year?), and the macro outlook for sports sponsorship and advertising spend looks very positive in the coming year. Leaping to Emerging Digital Platforms On the digital front, marketers will turn their focus to where sports fans are going – and that means mobile and social platforms. With another big holiday season of new smartphone and tablet purchases, more fans will be accessing sports content and entertainment through these smaller screens so sponsors will be smart to figure out how to embed their brands and messages into those experiences. From a social media perspective, Facebook and Twitter will continue to explore ways to connect top tier content publishers with brand advertisers. Part of this will take place on those dominate social platforms directly, but a big part of the experience will come through the smart integration of social elements within the publisher’s digital media experience. Of course, the perfect storm here for marketers will be the opportunity to partner with content publishers and properties around experiences that combine the social and mobile consumer experience. Expect to see a major shift towards innovation around this theme in 2012. Sports and Entertainment – Lines Continue to Blur Okay, we’ve been talking about the confluence of the sports and entertainment worlds for years – how long ago did ESPN Hollywood launch – and sunset? But we know how much entertainment stars love to hang out at sporting events and be Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 68
- 69. around athletes, andin turn, athletes all want to be entertainment stars (e.g., case in point, Shaq’s latest ad promoting the NBA on Turner). But 2012 truly feels like the year this sports-meets-entertainment theme really takes off. Part of it will be driven by the two trends above: labor peace means athletes will have their public stages for a full year without distraction and no group has embraced social media more than the athlete cohort. We should not overlook other data points that infer an inflection point here -- thank you, Kardashian sisters, for helping to really define ―NBA Entertainment‖ and thank you to the WWE for pushing for your own TV channel. Why does the acceleration of this sports-meets-entertainment trend matter for sports sponsors? Well, many advertisers have smartly caught on to the fact that by connecting with this theme they can keep a 24/7 narrative going with fans that doesn’t have to end when the game ends. For example, it’s great for Visa to be associated with what happens on NFL fields, but it’s even better if they can figure out how to stay in front of fans through an association with athletes and teams when they’re off the field or court – which will increasingly take place in that arena we’ve traditionally considered an ―entertainment‖ setting. Consider the lines officially blurred in 2012. So there you have it. Three trends to wrap your head around if you’re sitting anywhere on the spectrum between sports sponsor and publisher/property. Happy sports new year to everyone! Where Are the Talent Shortages As We Start 2012? These will be the five hardest slots for you (and any start-up) to fill in the new year. By Keith Cline | @VentureFizz | Dec 19, 2011 The year flew by mostly because it was a very, very busy one. Although the economy continues to face many challenges, the startup and tech industries are very much alive. The IPO window slightly opened up for companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon, Zynga, and Carbonite. We saw monster rounds of funding for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox. The appetite for seed and angel investing was extremely active. Tech incubators and accelerator programs kept popping up. It was also a very busy year for hiring at startup companies, as you know, and it doesn't look like that will slow down in 2012. We've certainly seen opinions on both sides of the fence as to whether or not there is a tech bubble or 2012 will be another active year of investing. I'm an optimist and I believe the pace of investing will remain consistent. Yes, some companies will fail, of course, but others will scale and grow their teams at a steady clip. Hiring the best of the best is an absolute must if you are going to build a successful company. You will need to be prepared to compete against big companies with deep pockets and other up-and-coming startups that also have blue chip investors and a game-changing idea. So, what are the most competitive areas for talent these days? Here's a look: Software Engineers and Web Developers The demand for top-tier engineering talent sharply outweighs the supply in almost every market especially in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. This is a major, major pain point and problem that almost every company is facing, regardless of the technology "stack" their engineers are working on. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 69
- 70. Creative Design andUser Experience After engineers, the biggest challenge for companies is finding high-quality creative design and user-experience talent. Since almost every company is trying to create a highly compelling user experience that keeps people engaged with their product, it is tough to find people who have this type of experience (especially with mobile devices including tablets) and a demonstrated track record of success. Product Management It is always helpful for an early-stage company to hire someone who has very relevant and specific experience in your industry. This is especially true for product management, since the person in this role will interface with customers and define the product strategy and use cases. However, be prepared, as it will be a challenge to find people with experience in these high-growth industries: consumer web, e-commerce, mobile, software as a service, and cloud computing. Marketing I'm not talking about old-school marketing communications. Companies are looking for expert online marketers who know how to create a buzz of inbound marketing or viral traffic through the web, social media, and content discovery. Writing a good press release just doesn't cut it anymore, as everyone is looking for the savvy online marketing professional who understands how the current state of the web operates and knows how to make it work to their benefit. Analytics Since data is becoming more and more accessible, smart companies are increasingly making decisions driven by metrics. Analytics is becoming a central hub across companies where everything (web, marketing, sales, operations) is being measured and each decision is supported by data. Thus, we are seeing a high level of demand for analytics and business intelligence professionals who almost act like internal consultants; they help determine what should be measured and then build out the capability for a company. 4 Megatrends in Social Media and Social Business 2012 is primed to be the year of social. In particular we can anticipate a blitz of publicity around social business. But social media too still has room to surprise. Talking with a group of people recently including Lloyd Armbrust at OwnLocal and Tom Smith of Global Web Index (and reading his blog) I picked out four megatrends that will shape social as it truly comes of age. The growth of the transmitter ecosystem Facebook, Twitter, Google have brought many more people into the online conversation. They’ve pretty much minced the barriers to creating online content – which is also good news for brands that are smart enough not to throw too much money into too many channels. But another part of the story is that more channels create a larger need for content. Many millions of those people now active online are not, however, content producers. They are sharers and curators. We have a content discovery challenge and we have curators to manage it. The importance of their role is on the rise. But does this mean we are migrating from a peer-to-peer conversational network, to a more top down one, where we become increasingly dependent on those curators with large follower groups? Does that make Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus top down networks? Tom thinks so but I have my doubts. Blogging too was very top down and I sense, by way of contrast, a strong peer culture in Google Plus. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 70
- 71. Around the timeFacebook became famous a well known blogger told me – why do I need Facebook? I know how to set up a website. The answer of course is that Facebook, then Twitter and now Google Plus provide you with the tools to communicate and the audience to talk with. Bloggers had to go out and find that audience and it was uphill for those who came even slightly late to it. There is no uphill in 2012 but there will be a growing role for the transmitter ecosystem. The age of global When American broadcaster ESPN wanted to extend its remit outside North America, it bought cricket blogging site cricinfo. So now a major US network is big in a sport that Americans don’t follow in a country half a world away. One of the most telling examples of a new emerging global culture can be found in a sport. When website cricinfo set up initially it was a placid English affair. But cricinfo pioneered live blogging of cricket matches and began to make the web relevant to sports fans without national boundaries or national broadcasting rights getting in the way. The site eventually found a market in India where cricket is treated almost like a religion. Separately, PlayUp is now building out the social network for global sports fans, more of which tomorrow. One of the beauties of cricinfo, and the same applies to all sports, is that reporters can follow and report on the tweets of celebrity sports people or tweet themselves from the training ground or nightclub. When English players misbehaved in New Zealand during the recent Rugby Word Cup it was global news immediately. A club bouncer uploaded CCTV footage to YouTube. Content is instant, continuous and pervasive. There is no reason why a national boundary or national broadcasting rights should exclude me from engagement. In the start-up community even Silicon Valley start-ups now want to hire talent from wherever, as long as it’s the best. Nairobi and Instanbul are, along with numerous other cities, start-up hot spots attracting American and European interest. The start-up is suddenly a global culture. There’s a new internationalism that segues with what is happening in the economy: more global, multi-polar, more equal – see this thread on Google Plus which discusses whether Google Plus is responding quickly enough to this desire to engage with global audiences. People care about this new globalism whether it arrives at their desk through sport or business or fashion or food. We need to work out how to become global online citizens. Social media vertical and local I think the next wave of social media will be in verticals and local. That trend is already visible in music and fashion. I don’t mean simply that there are more music and fashion bloggers but that refining social media marketing, working the nuts and bolts into place, is taking place in vertical markets. In country music for example pioneer Jessica Northey has near to 200,000 Twitterfollowers and a growing client base for Finger Candy Media who role is to make the musician the social media star. Expect to see more writing on the specifics of making social work in specific sectors. At the local level founder of OwnLocal Lloyd Armbrust tells me that his alliances with local newspaper owners are beginning to bring local businesses in small town America into the web in an accomplished way. Most small towns lack SEO or online content expertise. OwnLocal offers a suite of SEO and related social tools to rural and semi-rural business owners via local newspapers, as well as daily deals functionality. WordPress owner Automattic invested in OwnLocal back in October – giving WordPress a leg up into highly-local-social. Local has been difficult to crack but Lloyd tells me the smartphone is making it easier. Many small merchants do not own computers but they do have a Droid. The emergence of brand driven social media The general consensus on branding in social networks is that it can easily become an interruption. But that’s not necessarily even half true. Tom points out that: The fastest growing markets for social network adoption are in places like China, Indonesia, Philippines or Brazil where lower per capita GDP mean that many of the brands that consumers identify with are out of reach in the real world but now completely accessible via social networks. In those markets, engagement with brands is an important feature of the aspirational society. Audiences might not be able to buy branded goods yet but some of us dreamed about buying Levis when we were younger (yes true!) or Chanel. An emotional, aspirational connection with brands is available to people through social media, which is quite counter intuitive and perhaps taking brands back to their golden age. A Few Link Building Predictions For 2012 Dec 20, 2011 at 11:51am ET by Eric Ward It’s prediction time again. Before I dive into predictions for 2012, let’s take a look back at where I’ve been wrong and right over the years. I have a fairly good track record, and I like to take a few chances with these, rather than taking the easy way out with predictions like ―links will still matter‖. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 71
- 72. Footer Links GetThe Boot? I was quite wrong about search engines devaluing all footer link networks. As easy as these are to spot, it baffles me that some sites can achieve high rankings via this spammy tactic. Check out this amazing expose blog post from Joost de Valk. Prediction for 2012: This will be the year the footer link truly hits the ignore bucket. This tactic has been around since the early 90s with ―free web counters‖ that sneakily linked to other sites. Then came WordPress themes, then site-wides, blogroll spam, footer links and many other tricks. Key word: tricks. I am frankly amazed footer links have not been blown up. Like they should have been way back when school newspapers first used them like this below. Sorry, I’m not telling you the school. Paid links on a school newspaper web site Directory Links Take A Dive I was both right and wrong about general (non vertical) directory links losing all value. While some of the worst directories have finally died a welcome death, I have still witnessed sites improve rankings via submissions to weak no-name directories. It will stop someday, it just didn’t in 2011. Hopefully, 2012 is the year the generic link directory to nowhere and everywhere stops having any effect at all. How can any algorithm take seriously a directory that nobody uses other than the people submitting links to them? Sorry, Link-o-Matic is ficticious The name of the game here is curated verticality. And it’s what I’ve been going after since the day I started in 1994. Name me one single mass general directory that comes anywhere close to truly organizing and cataloging the Web. None of them can. Yahoo! couldn’t. DMOZ couldn’t. The Web’s very nature is distributed links pointing at expert content. Single source directories are antithetical to the nature of the web’s design. Prediction for 2012: Watch for hundreds if not thousands of small highly curated and vetted resource lists to appear. In fact, they already do, and have for years. I’m not going to give away the farm here, but for a recent project I gathered over 80 veterinary resource collections based at .orgs, coms, and .edus. These are small curated lists. And they matter. They matter more that you’d ever imagine. Notice the link on the bottom right: Veterinary Product Vendor Sites. Which of the two directories would you rather be in? Link-O-Matic above or this one below? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 72
- 73. Facebook Brand PagesBuild Likes & Links I was wrong thinking any company with an existing and well trafficked website could forgo having a Facebook page. While not an absolute necessity for every site, (are enough people really going to become fans of the Preperation H Hemmoroid Treatment Facebook page to matter?) the sheer mass and potential matriculation across the Facebook links space make it a worthwhile alternative mode to reach customers. At least for most brands it does. Prediction for 2012: Dare I say it, every brand not currently on Facebook will be by the end of 2012. Please Like Us - We Stop Itching! Twitter Link Cred I was right about Twitter having a far smaller effect on organic search rank that most claimed it would. Tweeted links have yet prove to me that their rank has improved due to being tweeted. Tweets are good for quick drive by traffic and that’s about it. The only Twitter impact I see in organic results is people with Twitter credibility will see their twitter profile rank quite high. I was a reluctant Twitter user several years ago, but I can’t argue with the fact that my Twitter profile ranks at position 4 for a search on my name, and I’ve done nothing other than be cautous about who I follow and what I tweet. My Twitter profile Ranks #4 Prediction for 2012: People will stop chasing followers and work on sculpting a more authoritative Twitter profile. What this means is instead of following 17,000 people and having 17,000 followers, people will realize that to have any influence at all, you need have more followers than you follow, and you need to tweet about things other than how wonderful your most recent column was. Share the good, curate the helpful, and the followers will come. Anchor Text Gets Devalued I was right about anchor text being devalued. This was never a reliable signal, because it was too SEO centric a signal and too easily gamed. You’ve heard me say before, in 17+ years of requesting links, I’ve never once asked for anchor text. The most trustworthy content on the Web is not going to give over editorial rights to you so you can anchor your way up the Google ladder. We are all the Hemingway’s of our own content, so don’t tell me how to link to you. The engines more than likely did not realize just how far people would go to try and manipulate anchor text, but the ironic thing about this is the more you try to manipulate your anchor text, the more you create a backlink profile that looks suspicious when compared to the mass of historical anchor text data the engines have to study. Prediction for 2012: Services like these below slowly but surely start to vanish. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 73
- 74. Two Final Predictions First,people will discover the fantastic and free linking data available from blekko. It’s incredible. Second, people will realize the futility of relying on search engines for all their traffic, and put more effort into link marketing tactics and strategies that have nothing to do with search results,like this. Don’t laugh, their last client’s QR code baked cookies resulted in a 40% scan and install rate for a mobile app. Forty percent. Via an edible baked cookie with a QR code on the icing. And yes, it was my idea and it had nothing to do with search engines. Here’s one they baked for me: Baked Cookie with QR Code Sometimes us early adopters who have been around a while can see the forest for the trees. Have a great 2012! Why Discovery Must Evolve To Save Social Commerce Brian Ficho: Shopping gets better. Welcome to the very beginning of a brand new phase in e-commerce, where personalization and discovery combine to uniquely fit consumer needs. This is when ―Wow I can’t believe what a deal this is!‖ turns into ―This combination Mongolian- fur-hat-and-MP3-player is just what I need for my walk to work in December in Chicago!‖ Phase One – the phase Amazon mastered – was Search, the process of helping people find what they’re looking for at the exact moment they want it. Phase two was Push, whereGroupon and Gilt led the charge. Push provided people with unbeatable deals on things they probably weren’t looking for, with elements of scarcity, limited time offers, and social baked in. Phase Three will combine these two elements, leading to highly relevant offers and product discovery at the exact right time. Everyone has their own way to break down the evolution of e-commerce, but for the sake of this piece let’s use these phases and keep it simple. Discovery and personalization – the generation of marketing opportunities based on an individual’s unique interests, wants, and values – is a wonderful thing. Phase Two businesses knew this. Most deal businesses are based, to some degree, on discovery and personalization. Groupon may know, for example, that a given prospect lives in Chicago, and Gilt knows that that prospect is a guy. Without better business models and technologies, however, the result is superficial discovery that quickly leads to deal fatigue. Contrast the current state of daily deal affairs with a different scenario: Say you’re a 28-year-old living in Manhattan. You enjoy cooking, fashion and going out with your friends. You don’t own a car and the 10-day weather forecast is trending below 30 degrees. Today you get offers for a scarf from an up-and-coming designer, a Dutch oven, and tickets to your favorite band. Serendipity? Or simply a better understanding of who you are as an individual? The reason today’s consumers are struggling with daily deal sites is because the filtering mechanisms and technology aren’t quite ready to handle highly targeted offers to individuals. There are too many ―deal pushers‖ at a time when consumers really want simplicity, relevance and accuracy. There’s another side to the situation as well. Because of the way many e-commerce companies’ business models were set up, moving lots of single SKUs quickly is how they make money. Many other providers of goods and services have great products but lack the inventory and scale needed to market through these channels. They default to Phase One e-commerce, listing theirgoods on Amazon, hoping potential customers will find them. With tens of millions of widgets out there, it’s a daunting task for a consumer. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 74
- 75. For online commerceto succeed, then, discovery theory must evolve. There are three aspects to the challenge: the discovery process itself; curation, or the sourcing of high-quality, appropriate product solutions; and personalization, which involves accurately matching the right product or service with the right individual, at the right time. Discovery, when properly executed, is about helping consumers find stuff they didn’t even know existed. It begins by encouraging customers to offer information about their interests using a variety of techniques that deal in the individual’s self-interest, from games and metaphors to direct feedback. Moreover, discovery is an ongoing process, one that is continually refined over time to generate relevance at deeper levels regardless of how the person’s interests change. Curation is about offering a filtered selection of high-quality products and services to consumers. So many e- commerce sites push an overwhelming number of unrelated, mediocre products with the goal of creating as many sale opportunities as possible. Unfortunately, this business model is incongruent with the consumer’s need for a quick, relevant and reliable experience. Creating a conscious effort to select a handful of products that are unique, interesting and high- quality eliminates excessive product sifting on the customer’s end. The result is a highly targeted, meaningful shopping experience. Personalization ensures that the right offer reaches the right person at the time that person needs it most. This has a lot to do with the technology and business model of the seller. All the big players are pushing hard in this direction, whether it’s Amazon’s recommendations, Groupon’s interest mapping, or Gilt’s verticals. All these businesses are getting better at it, but a new business model is needed to truly address the problem. To achieve this ultimate dialogue between merchant and customer, e-commerce companies must perfect the troika of discovery, curation and personalization, then apply all three consistently in the retail environment. Some non-commerce sites, e.g., Pinterest, Tumblr, and Stumble Upon, understand this dynamic. Pinterest allows users to self-curate by ―pinning‖ products, photos, news items and other online content onto a personal interest boards that serves as a discovery tool between users. Pinterest is taking off, demonstrating the massive potential waiting for venues that help people set themselves apart and discover new things based on who they are. It doesn’t take an expert to realize that personalized discovery has a long way to go. But certainly as this evolution begins, truly exciting new retail models will emerge in mobile, local and online commerce. Finally, deal fatigue will be a thing of the past. And what is ―serendipity‖ to the consumer, will be exceptional business success to the merchant. 5 Reasons Why real-time bidding Is Not About Price Matt Hardy I work for a trading desk. For those that are unsure what that means, I work for a division of a media agency that is focused on buying advertising in real-time bidding (RTB) marketplaces. This is all quite new to me as it is for the whole online ad industry. What I am coming to understand very clearly is that RTB is not really all about price. There is a lot of misinformation in the market about RTB. Principally, that RTB will crash CPM (expand) pricing, impoverishing web publishers. Apart from seriously not believing in this, I think that focusing on price is making people miss the point. RTB is about process improvements that empower online marketing to be much better than ever before. RTB is about process. It's about what we can do and when. RTB is the gateway to powerful marketing online with banners. Display media banners were once the king of online marketing. Search pushed banners into the shadows and those who have stayed with the medium have done our time as the "step-child" of online media. RTB turns things around and gives all the benefits of mechanical optimization of search marketing to a genuine broadcast medium. I am a fan of search. I think search is the backbone of any campaign and if it is done wrong, then the whole campaign can't function. However, search has its limits; search can't create interest, desire, or awareness. For other reasons social media can't do what display can either. Display is a broadcast and reach medium and the other parts of online media do not perform anywhere near as well. "If RTB is not about price, then what is it about?" You ask… With RTB we buy ads one impression at a time. This gives us the option to choose between the impressions being offered to us. We can choose those impressions that give us the best chance of delivering against our clients' goals. We can act as smarter marketers. Here are five ways: 1. Message control. RTB is data-backed marketing. A trading desk can bring together any data the client has, along with third- party data sources and transactional campaign observations. This means that for some clients we can tell them precisely which impressions are their existing customers and who are not. Segmentation of messaging based on what the data can tell us about the relationship with the impression being bought, is a paradigm shift from how banner buying is done today. Creative messaging in campaigns can now take a formulaic approach and bring logic, intelligence, and process to the customer dialogue. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 75
- 76. 2. Frequency control.We have always been able to control frequency in online display advertising. What we have not been able to do, is control duplication of the audience across multiple websites very well. A trading desk employing RTB buying techniques solves this problem by forming a unique point to view the campaign's data. With all buying being handled by one platform and impressions analyzed one-at-a-time before we buy them, the audience is effectively de-duplicated. Once that is achieved, real insights on optimal frequency can be observed. Then real campaign-wide frequency controls can be put in place. 3. Audience control. The same processes apply to audience control. Let's say we have a collection of cookies that we have identified as belonging to an audience we really want to target. Without RTB these would be hollow insights that we could probably do nothing with. With RTB, we can check the audience of an impression before we choose to buy it. Buying ads shown to just those cookied users that we wanted. Add this to better control over the messaging and this gives brands a better way to place their brand messages on key audiences. 4. Content and semantics. Placing an advertising message in context and controlling the environment is very important. RTB gives new powers of targeting in this regard also. Messages can be placed into content verticals, that's easy and something we have been doing all along with banners. New RTB enabled tools allow us to look into the semantic meaning of the page contents and deliver ads against more focused content. No longer limited to broad content verticals, we can now target granular content and importantly avoid specific content with sites or content verticals. 5. Privacy. If all of this sounds as if it comes at the price of robbing web-users of their anonymity, then you would be wrong. This is another piece of misinformation about RTB and data-targeted ads. A publisher may well have personally identifiable information (PII) on you or any web-user. A trading desk does not, nor do they want to. Trading desks (or at least ours) are not interested in targeting people; we are interested in targeting data points. For targeting data points we don't need names or email addresses or phone numbers. We only have the cookie and when you clear it all, its attributes are gone. The desk is not going to resurrect cookies. These data points, unlike people (thankfully) have fast expiry dates (30 days, 60 days, etc.) and need to be actioned for the campaign quickly or be lost. My question is "wouldn't you pay more for all these upgrades?" Regardless of what happens to CPM prices, RTB is of a huge benefit to the advertiser. The effects of the reduction of campaign trafficking, price negotiations, and campaign paperwork make the buys faster, more accurate, and less labour- intensive to execute. RTB is about much more than price. It's about process. It's about doing online marketing right. RTB is the future of banners and the future is bright. Marc Andreessen: Predictions for 2012 (and beyond) by Paul Sloan December 19, 2011 11:22 AM PST Marc Andreessen's view of the world boils down to software. From where he stands, as the guy who co-founded Netscape Communications and now co-runs the powerful Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, no industry is safe from software. Or, as Andreessen put it in a much-discussed piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, "Software is eating the world." Software has chewed up music and publishing. It's eaten away at Madison Avenue. It's swallowed up retail outlets like Tower Records. The list goes on. No area is safe--and that's why Andreessen sees so much opportunity. Fueling his optimism: ubiquitous broadband, cloud computing, and, above all, the smartphone revolution. In the 1990s, the Internet led to crazy predictions that simply weren't yet possible. Now they are. I caught up with Andreessen to talk about 2012 and software's onward march. Q: Let's start with smartphones. Andreessen: I think 2012 is the year when consumers all around the world start saying no to feature phones and start saying yes to smartphones. Feature phones are going to vanish out of the developed world and over the course of five years they'll vanish out of the developing world. That's a big deal because? That's a big deal because that's the key enabling technology for software eats the world broadly. Because that's what puts the computer--literally puts a computer in everybody's hand. In a way that the PC industry couldn't? Most of the people in the world still don't have a personal computer, whereas in three to five years, most people in the world will have a smartphone.... If you've got a smartphone, then I can build a business in any domain or category and serve you as a customer no matter where you are in the world in just gigantic numbers--in terms of billions of people. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 76
- 77. Does that mainlyhelp existing players, or also open opportunities for new businesses? Both. If you're an Amazon or a Facebook or a Google or even a startup, the fact that you can potentially address 2 billion smartphones in the developed world or 6 billion in three or five years, in the entire world, it's just a huge expansive market. But it also opens up new kinds of businesses. The big thing that happened in 2011 was sort of the rise of the verticals, and e- commerce was the hotbed of that. We saw the rise of a whole category of e-commerce category killers in verticals that 5 or 10 years ago couldn't support high growth companies because the markets weren't big enough. What e-commerce players are you thinking of? We just did an investment in Fab, which is just growing by leaps and bounds, and there's Airbnb [Andreessen-Horowitz is an investor]. That company is growing vertically. It's software eats real estate, software eats home furnishings. Another very exciting company, which we're not invested in, is called Warby Parker, an e-tailer for eyeglasses. So it's software eats Lens Crafters. It's just on and on and on across different verticals because of the number of consumers who a) have PCs, b) are on the Internet, and now c) have smartphones. I expect vertical specialization to continue and there to be killer Silicon Valley style software companies in all kinds of verticals and categories in 2012 and 2013 that weren't viable three or five years ago. Just e-commerce? E-commerce was the hotbed of vertical personalization of 2011, and big fat vertical expansion goes into other categories other than e-commerce in 2012. It could be content. It could be new kinds of service providers. We've seen some already. One I really like that we're not involved in is Uber. Uber is software eats taxis. It's almost entirely a smartphone-based application bringing town cars to you.... It's a killer experience. You watch the car on the map on your phone as it makes its way to you. That's smartphone specific, and there's going to be all kind of things like that. Task services likeZaarly and Taskrabbit are delivering a sort of distributed mobile workforce available on demand through your smartphone. These are slicing and dicing different aspects of the economy into vertical slices or category slices and making them available via smartphones hooked to these really powerful networks with cloud computing on the back-end. We're just seeing a pattern of companies doing this over and over. So who should be scared in 2012? I think 2012 is the year that retail--retail stores--really starts to feel the pressure. And I don't say that because I don't like retail stores. I loved going to Borders. I thought it was a great consumer experience. And I was a huge fan of Tower Records. But the economic pressure is huge as e-commerce gets more and more viable and as these category killers emerge in the superverticals. If I own mall real estate or retail stores in cities, or if I own chains like electronics chains, I'd be concerned.... I think electronics and clothes are going to be a real pressure point. Home furnishing is going to come under pressure. It's going to get harder and harder to justify the retail store model. The model has this fundamental problem where every store has to have its own inventory and every store is also a warehouse. The economic deadweight of that entire inventory in each store--that's what took down Borders. Retail runs at very thin margins. So if e-commerce takes a 5 percent or 10 percent or 15 percent bite out of your category, then it becomes harder to stay in business as a retailer. So I think 2012 is the year that that really kicks in. Doesn't this bode well for the e-commerce incumbents? For sure, Amazon is going to do really well and anybody with major e-commerce is going to do real well. But the new companies in e-commerce verticals are providing a very differentiating customer experience that is much more like shopping as entertainment. Fab has more interesting products and merchandising and presents them in a more interesting way with much deeper social interaction. At Fab, something like 25 percent of the purchases over Black Friday weekend were a result of Facebook referrals. There's a whole fun element to shopping and whole entertainment element and whole excitement element that the first generation of e-tailers were not very good at. Like Amazon? I like to say that the first generation of e-tailers was really good for nerds. Amazon for me is--I love it--it's like the biggest warehouse superstore of all time. It's just awesome, and I love wandering up and down the aisles and it's like, 'wow, look at that.' If I do enough searches I can discover anything. The new generation of e-tailers are much more appealing to normal people--people who like to go the mall, have fun with their friends and try on clothes and compare clothes, and go home and brag to their roommate what they got on sale, and all the rest of it. A lot of new startups are not only very viable but also growing very fast because they provide a very different experience. Aren't there opportunities for startups to help? Yeah, there's going to be a big opportunity for software assistance for the incumbents at getting better in the new world. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 77
- 78. As an example,at eBay [where Andreessen is on the board], we bought a company called Milo, and there' a competitor called Shopkick. These guys expose local inventory on retail store shelves and make it available as part of the e-commerce experience. That's the kind of software that's going to be incredibly useful to retail chains as they seek to compete online because it unlocks the local inventory. The other category is represented by Groupon and Foursquare [both also Andreessen-Horowitz investments] and a whole new generation of these local e-commerce platforms, which is bringing online the gigantic number of businesses in the world that aren't on the Internet today at all. Whether it's a restaurant or hairdresser or day care center or yoga center or lawn care firms and on and on, there are so many that just aren't online in any meaningful way today, even 15 years into the Web. Advertising on Google doesn't do them any good because it doesn't matter if people come to their Web site, it's not how they get business. So there's going to be a whole set of new companies, like Groupon and Foursquare, that are going to unlock these local businesses that aren't even online today. If nothing else, Groupon has done a great job of getting local businesses online. I've always felt that the criticism of Groupon has been unwarranted. People have really underappreciated what Groupon has done, which is they've created a way for small businesses that aren't online to spend money online and be able to dial up customers on demand. That's a really big deal. I think Foursquare is a revolution in the local experience of cities and connecting to small businesses around you, through information and, increasingly, coupons and offers. Again, it's customer acquisitions. There are going to be more of these kinds of things--and a whole bunch of new ideas in 2012. And this all circles back to smartphones. Foursquare was impossible before smartphones. There was no way to implement it. Then, there's the other side of this. There's the user app for Foursquare, but there's also going to be the merchant app for all these things. Local merchants, like local restaurant owners, are going to have a smartphone app they can use to dial up customers on demand. Whether that's from Groupon or Foursquare--any of these companies can do that. A lot of small business owners are going to start running their businesses from their smartphones. With Bluefin Labs, Publicis' SMG Looks Beyond TV Ratings Sure, They Watched Your Ads. But Are They Tweeting About Them? Advertisers have long based TV-buying decisions on who's watching. Starcom Mediavest Group is adding another wrinkle: targeting shows based on what those TV viewers are talking about in social media. The Publicis-owned media network is adopting social listening technology from startup Bluefin Labsand will begin offering it to clients, which include Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, P&G and Samsung. Bluefin, founded in 2008 and built on technology developed at MIT, listens to social media and connects conversation to specific TV shows, and soon, the ads themselves. Xfactor in social media Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 78
- 79. SMG, which spendsclose to $1 billion on behalf of clients each year, plans to use the technology throughout its US operations to understand what shows and ads resonate with consumers beyond Nielsen ratings; specifically, what kinds of conversations are being started and what those conversations are about. The findings could significantly shift how much brands are willing to pay for a presence in shows, beyond what they know from Nielsen ratings. "What Bluefin allows [our clients] to do is see who is talking and what they are talking about in near real-time so we can start to respond to those consumers with different marketing stimuli," said Kate Sirkin, EVP of global research at SMG. SMG plans to the use the technology in two ways that could alter the way brands measure the effectiveness of the millions spent on branding through TV. First, it will help brands locate TV shows that are resonating with their target audience, as judged by the conversation generated by the programming. Second, SMG is going to help Bluefin extend that capability to the ads themselves. Did they generate conversation? Was it passionate? Positive? Negative? "If a brand is spending $100 million in TV every year, it's not enough to understand how many eyeballs. You need to quantify how much social conversation the campaign generated," said Bluefin VP Tom Thai. Other agencies including WPP's Mediacom and IPG's Initiative have used Bluefin data, but SMG is "baking it into their internal platform." One of the first big tests of the technology will come during the Super Bowl in February, when SMG clients will be looking to see how their massive investments in ad time and creative impact the largest single-TV audience of the year. "The social data will help us understand if the environment is truly worth it," Ms. Sirkin said. As part of the year-long licensing deal, SMG will help Bluefin apply its technology to ads, a significant technical hurdle they've been tackling for the past year. "It's a lot harder than doing it for TV shows," said Mr. Thai. "It takes a lot of computation to get it right. We made a significant investment from our side in the engineering, and we're working with SMG to push this out." Measures of TV ad effectiveness is an inexact science usually based on surveys of a limited group. Ms. Sirkin sees Bluefin technology as a "massive, real-time copy test. Much bigger than anything anyone could afford through traditional copy testing." A New Words Resolution By Matt Straz There were a number of words and phrases that infected media during 2011. Some made people feel queasy about the state of the industry, while others left people confused about what we actually do for a living. Here are some of the words that we should quarantine immediately: Dead. This year everything from television, apps and the Web itself was declared ―dead‖ by various industry commentators. If history is any guide, though, the technology of today will be with us far longer than we expect. Disrupt. It became fashionable this year to claim a new technology would disrupt or destroy some existing one. For 2012, let’s resolve to simply make the things that already exist like a little better. Agonistic. Mark Naples of WIT Strategy points out that saying something is ―platform-agnostic‖ actually implies that the technology doesn’t work with anything. Bifurcated. I first heard the word ―bifurcated‖ spoken a few years ago by Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM North America, and it sounded really smart. Fast-forward to today, and this four-syllable word is now all the rage across media. Let’s agree to leave the fancy words to the CEOs. Cloud-based. ―The cloud‖ sounds so much better than ―a bunch of servers housed in a big building that we don’t own‖ -- which is probably why most companies use the former to describe the technology. Amazing. Detecting earth-like planets 600 million light years away is truly amazing, but at this point there’s little that’s amazing about a new mobile phone, ad platform or consumer app. Cool, maybe, but not amazing. Leverage. Writer Brian Morrissey says he’s tired of hearing the word ―leverage‖ used as a verb -- as in, ―our company leverages amazing, cloud-based technology that disrupts markets.‖ Chunky. Industry vet Sean Finnegan notes that the word ―chunky‖ is on the rise. The term is used to describe a difficult problem, but given that ―Chunky‖ is already the name of a soup and a candy bar, we should stop this new application immediately. Sports jargon: If you spend time in the testosterone-filled boardrooms of venture capitalists, you know that these firms speak in an endless stream of sports metaphors. ―Hitting a home run‖ means building a business that makes everyone gobs of money. ―Skating to where the puck is going,‖ describes a business that isn’t making any money yet -- but hopefully will someday. Pivot. Another popular venture capitalist word, a ―pivot‖ can mean that a startup has discovered a better way to make money, but it can also mean that their first (and sometimes second) business idea was really stupid. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 79
- 80. Tradigital. Mashable’s LaurenRubin has had enough with mashing the words ―traditional‖ and ―digital‖ together to form ―tradigital‖ -- and who can blame her? For evidence, here’s an excerpt from an actual piece that Adweek published on the topic:“What excites me most about the future of marketing? That's easy: tradigital. Not just because I enjoy the crafty nature of neologism, but because I'm captivated by the artful venture of respecting traditional branding ideas in the face of a new digital reality. It's what a whole new breed of tradigital agencies is all about.” Acronyms. Seasoned entrepreneur Dave Morgan points out that the media industry has become awash in acronyms -- to the point where it is now difficult to understand what anyone is saying. Using terms like DSPs, RTB or ATDs needs to stop, ASAP. Proxy. Dylan Parks of Brand.net is tired of hearing the word ―proxy.‖ I’ll take that as a sign that everyone else has, too. At the end of the day. Most Brits working in media -- as well as a number of Americans -- feel compelled to use the phrase ―at the end of the day‖ at every opportunity. Ultimately, though, we all need to find a better way of making a point. Those are some of the words that media people were sick of hearing this year. What are yours? Moms Say Social Media Impacts Retail Purchases Moms say their retail purchasing decisions are influenced by social media, according to a national survey of 700 mothers conducted by Fleishman-Hillard and ModernMom.com in September. Social media affects their in-store shopping experience with information about sales and coupons, as well as through blogger reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends. One caveat should be noted, as the moms surveyed here are obviously online denizens; within this group, however, the influence of social media was pretty clear. Overall 84% of mothers surveyed said they use Facebook to engage with brands, followed by blogs at 69% and other online communities at 63%. Likewise 63% of mothers surveyed said blogger reviews influenced their purchase decisions, and 48% said they are following a brand on Twitter. In terms of categories, mothers surveyed by FH and ModernMom.com said they were most likely to use social media to engage with brands in categories like food and recipes, at 88%; health and beauty, at 86%; children’s products, at 84%; and clothing and fashion, at 73%. Asked what helped drive engagement, survey respondents said they should be able to give feedback to the brand, read articles with tips and advice or get a sneak peek behind the brand. As noted, the survey group appears to be skewed towards online moms, who are logically more likely to use social media than non-online counterparts. But this turns out to be a large percentage of them, as mothers with children under the age of 18 are 19% more likely than the average American to use online social networks, according to data released by Nielsen in May of this year; what’s more, they are 31% more likely to like or follow a brand, 37% more likely to post photos, 25% more likely to link to articles, and 33% more likely to post status updates. In terms of online purchase behavior, Nielsen found moms are 20% more likely to buy magazines online, 15% more likely to buy digital music, and 7% more likely to buy video games. New Year's Predictions? No Time For Them! by Harvey Chipkin, If anybody is looking for New Year’s predictions, forget it. Things are changing too quickly and unpredictably. However, it’s a good time to think about how some of this year’s trends might have an impact on 2012. 1) Social media wags the tail of the marketing dog I went to an event at a trendy New York hotel recently and met the two managers (one fresh out of college) in charge of the property’s social media – that’s right, two people whose full time job is social media at a hotel of barely 250 rooms. Talking to them, I realized they were heavily responsible for planning the New Year’s events at the hotel and in promoting them. On top of that, they were deeply involved in all the advertising and marketing at the hotel. And maybe I’m the last one to see it this way, but rather than social media being an arm of marketing or a tool of marketing or an extension of marketing – it’s all turning around. Increasingly, social media is where it all starts – marketing, advertising, image-building – and yes, even booking the right act for a New Year’s party. As someone who has worked by and for himself for many years, I’m not sure how this would work in an organizational structure. I don’t know if the social media person (stereotypically younger and less experienced) would suddenly assume higher status than the veteran vice president of sales and marketing. This situation is not without precedent. Sales and marketing departments used to be separate and autonomous – with marketing the new kid on the block. Eventually, marketing came to be seen as central to the sales role and for a very long time, the vice president of sales and marketing has overseen a combined effort. 2) Consolidation: Anyone who has written about travel for many years is aware that the travel industry public relations and marketing field has been dominated by smaller boutique companies. The recent announcement that MMG Worldwide had Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 80
- 81. merged with Ypartnership– creating a powerful combined force called MMGY Global – is an indication that more resources might be needed than in the past. And the use of the word global recognizes that it’s necessary to have a strong presence in more than one place – ideally in more than one country. It’s simply become a challenge for a smaller agency to keep up with rapid-fire changes in the marketplace. Whether there’s more of this to come remains to be seen but there’s no question that traditional public relations skills might call for additional resources – and that may mean accelerated consolidation in the future. 3) Think presidentially. Holiday Inns got huge exposure for a fun and substantive promotion in 2008 by displaying a running account of how much each presidential candidate could have saved if they’d stayed in a Holiday Inn rather than in the more expensive hotels where they were staying. Since 2008 now seems primitive as far as using the Internet to get a message across, it will be interesting to see if any brand can make similar hay out of the 2012 electio 4) Good Travels and Great Marketing in the New Year. The Problem With Gamification Adrian Lee It's going to happen sooner or later…your client sidles up to you and asks you the golden question: "What are we doing about gamification?" Sure, you've heard all the great things about gamification, about how adding a few badges and levels to your campaign will instantly increase customer engagement and make instant followers of your brand, and your client believes that it will bring in the much needed key performance indicators to show off during their critical annual business review. If only. Now, I'm not an expert on this subject matter, but it seems to me that there is increasing hype around gamification and how it might be the silver bullet to help customer engagement and increase brand loyalty. But the fact is, the act of infusing game mechanics into a non-game scenario is not an easy task, and here is why. Gamification Tools Are Just That…Tools The first pitfall that people will fall into is the illusion that to "gamify" a campaign or a site, all you have to do is to assign points to actions that you want the customer to undertake, slap on a few badges and a leader board and finally watch in glee while the numbers crank up. This is compounded by the fact that there is now a plethora of platforms and tools out there that are offering solutions and engines that will provide your site with exactly those rewards; examples of which include Bunchball, Badgeville, BigDoor, PunchTab, FanGager, and many more. These tools and platforms, by and large, offer platforms and services to help you add rewards to your sites by offering users reward points, leader boards, and badges for tasks accomplished on the site. However, the concept of transforming a product into a game runs much deeper than that in my mind. Taking a Step Back Now, these tools and platforms are crucial, but one would need to take a step further back first to explore why gamification is supposed to work in the first place. Riding on the coattails of social media and the successes of gaming companies like Zynga and the like, people started realizing that if you took a non-gaming concept (like a brand), and started rewarding actions in both tangible and intangible ways -customers would receive incentives to engage more with your brand. It's a simple concept at its core but, in my opinion, it is flawed. One, it falls into a classic marketer trap - what I like to call the "dangle-a-carrot" hole where every campaign is led by incentives and not the brand or the messaging just to drive numbers and nothing else (an especially exacerbated situation nowadays with the increasing focus on short-term ROI). This does nothing for the brand and is at its worst an unsustainable metrics booster and not much else. Two, as adoption of cookie-cutter gamification increases, fatigue sets in. As consumers are faced with the disparate badges and rewards from all the brands that they are exposed to, novelty will wear off and along with it their interest as "gaming" will increasingly become a chore. In fact, I do believe we are already at the cusp of this as you see Foursquare, a pioneer of sorts in gamification, constantly revamping and improving its badging system to keep it from malaise. So What's the Problem? And I think that's the point. What is the problem that you are trying to solve? And how do you approach it. To be clear, I am not a skeptic of gamification – but I feel that one has to ask a few questions before rushing headlong to gamify everything you see. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 81
- 82. Is your brandor product already fundamentally strong enough for consumers to want to interact with it? If so, gamification is a wonderful way to provide more avenues for your loyal and interested customers to further engage with you. If not, don't waste your time and money – you have a much bigger problem that gamification will not be able to solve for you. The act of playing a game and investing time into earning stuff on your site or with your brand is just that on a consumer's part – an investment. And even if you have built the most wonderful, innovative mechanics around your brand for people willing to do that – they would be investing in your game, not your brand. The next question to ask yourself: Are you willing to go beyond the simplest mechanics of badging and rewards, and actually invest in the long term? Because, short campaigns aside, you will have to do that like it or not. It is a dedicated investment in terms of thinking, imagining and management just to keep your "gamers" enthused and interested in the long term. Yes, gamification is a good solid concept (although I can't bring myself to say that it's new), but approaching it with a one- size-fits-all solution is a mistake. Unfortunately, the gamification or social loyalty industry looks like it's headed that way, so tread carefully. The Age of And - The mix is where the marketing alchemy comes in by Kathy Timko, The argument that ITV has missed its opportunity because of the Internet's potential to deliver interactive ads to hundreds of millions is dramatically off the mark. I love this debate, because the idea that ITV is already over is demonstrably wrong. First of all, television remains the ultimate medium for building brands, and at every turn we can witness the Web's ―TV-envy.‖ It seems the Web wants to be TV when it grows up. And the universe of TV viewers has never been too small for advertisers’ interest. With about 100 million pay TV subscribers in the U.S., there are a lot of eyeballs to impress, hearts and minds to engage, and household purchase behaviors to influence. Already, Canoe's ITV platform reaches 25 million of those households. This is 56% of all digital cable households and 25% of the total U.S. pay TV universe. ITV is just starting to ramp up. Secondly, national advertisers are embracing ITV. At the recent annual conference of the ANA, Bob Liodice, president and CEO of ANA, pointed to ITV as a top 10 priority for the industry. Our enabled networks’ client rosters -- both those actively interested in as well as those already participating in ITV -- encompass all of the largest advertiser categories, including CPG, pharmaceutical, financial services and insurance, entertainment, travel and automotive. The reality is that the Web is making progress in its efforts to be more TV-like, and TV is becoming more interactive and accountable. The most well-respected voices I know say we live in ―The Age of And.‖ Marketers constantly tell us that their priorities include the development of integrated, cross-platform touchpoints that provide different dimensions of brand experience at each connection. There is no such thing as a one-off approach in marketing today. One must begin with a strong and well-considered philosophy, and a plan that strategically anchors every element of a campaign. At the core of every successful plan is the understanding that each platform must work in harmony with others -- even more so today with the social Web's impact on media consumption. Integrated and holistic -- these are the characteristics of an effective modern marketing philosophy in the Age of And. The mix is where the marketing alchemy comes in. But singling out any one platform as old or new, better or worse, is shortsighted and counterproductive. Indeed, ITV is not -- and never was meant to be -- a stand-alone silo. Canoe is in the business of creating better television, dedicated to expanding relevant, measurable engagement with viewers and enabling national networks with a tapestry of advanced capabilities. We’re doing that now with in-ad and soon, in-program interactive experiences that make programming and commercial messages more immersive, more social, more fun -- and yes, more accountable to advertisers. But we're also expanding our services to networks with dynamic ad insertion for VOD. This will give networks new inventory and endow advertisers with the ability to flexibly schedule advertising within cable's coveted VOD content -- programming that viewers attentively watch on their own schedule. Although distinct products today, you can imagine the not-so-distant future where interactive ads are placed into time- shifted content. As we move forward building scale for advanced television, it's important to recognize that ITV is only one facet of an ever-growing lineup of solutions for advertisers. Let's face it; the argument that ITV is being replaced by the Internet echoes the broader ―TV is dead‖ declarations we heard a few years ago. The companies that founded Canoe do offer their services on Web-enabled devices -- but not because television as we know it is on the wane. On the contrary, traditional TV viewing continues to rise, and as of July, topped 146 hours per person per month, according to Nielsen. Television remains the most powerful channel at our disposal. Everybody still loves to watch. They almost certainly always will. It's just that now they can watch on several screens, everywhere and anywhere. But that's addition, not subtraction. 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- 83. Marketers recognize thatemerging opportunities like advanced TV need to be supported, and that advertising in the 21st century is not a zero-sum game. In the Age of And, there is a role for every opportunity, and a place for every platform. Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012 I recently got back from a month's vacation — the longest I've ever taken, and a shocking indulgence for an American. (Earlier this summer, I was still fretting about how to pull off two weeks unplugged.) The distance, though, helped me hone in on what's actually important to my professional career — and which make-work activities merely provide the illusion of progress. Inspired by HBR blogger Peter Bregman's idea of creating a "to ignore" list , here are the activities I'm going to stop cold turkey in 2012 — and perhaps you should, too. 1. Responding Like a Trained Monkey. Every productivity expert in the world will tell you to check email at periodic intervals — say, every 90 minutes — rather than clicking "refresh" like a Pavlovian mutt. Of course, almost no one listens, because studies have shown email's "variable interval reinforcement schedule" is basically a slot machine for your brain. But spending a month away — and only checking email weekly — showed me how little really requires immediate response. In fact, nothing. A 90 minute wait won't kill anyone, and will allow you to accomplish something substantive during your workday. 2. Mindless Traditions. I recently invited a friend to a prime networking event. "Can I play it by ear?" she asked. "This is my last weekend to get holiday cards out and I haven't mailed a single one. It is causing stress!" In the moment, not fulfilling an "obligation" (like sending holiday cards) can make you feel guilty. But if you're in search of professional advancement, is a holiday card (buried among the deluge) going to make a difference? If you want to connect, do something unusual — get in touch at a different time of year, or give your contacts a personal call, or even better, meet up face-to-face. You have to ask if your business traditions are generating the results you want. 3. Reading Annoying Things. I have nearly a dozen newspaper and magazine subscriptions, the result of alluring specials ($10 for an entire year!) and the compulsion not to miss out on crucial information. But after detoxing for a month, I was able to reflect on which publications actually refreshed me — and which felt like a duty. The New Yorker , even though it's not a business publication, broadens my perspective and is a genuine pleasure to read. The pretentious tech publication with crazy layouts and too-small print? Not so much. I'm weeding out and paring down to literary essentials. What subscriptions can you get rid of? 4. Work That's Not Worth It. Early in my career, I was thrilled to win a five-year, quarter-million dollar contract. That is, until the reality set in that it was a government contract, filled with ridiculous reporting mechanisms, low reimbursement rates and administrative complexities that sucked the joy and profit out of the work. When budget cuts rolled around and my contract got whacked, it turned out to be a blessing. These days, I'm eschewing any engagement, public or private, that looks like more trouble than it's worth. 5. Making Things More Complicated Than They Should Be. A while back, a colleague approached me with an idea. She wanted me to be a part of a professional development event she was organizing in her city, featuring several speakers and consultants. She recommended biweekly check-in calls for the next eight months, leading up to the event. "Have you organized an event like this before?" I asked. "Can you actually get the participants? Why don't you test the demand first?" When none materialized, I realized I'd saved myself nearly half a week's work — in futile conference calls — by insisting the event had to be "real" before we invested in it. As Eric Ries points out in his new book The Lean Startup , developing the best code or building the best product in the world is meaningless if your customers don't end up wanting it. Instead, test early and often to ensure you're not wasting your time. What ideas should you test before you've gone too far? Eliminating these five activities is likely to save me hundreds of hours next year — time I can spend expanding my business and doing things that matter. What are you going to stop doing? And how are you going to leverage all that extra time? Stop Competing to Be the Best With Cyber Monday, the tablet wars kicked into full swing. Which one is the best? Is it the iPad? The Kindle? Who has the best technology? The best distribution? Who's the best overall? For most people, "being the best" is what competition is all about. So General Motors CEO Dan Akerson was simply echoing popular sentiment when, on the day the new GM went public, he threw down the gauntlet: "May the best car win!" he told reporters. The phrase reflects an underlying belief about the nature of competition that feels so intuitively correct that it is almost never examined or questioned. But if you want to win, says Michael Porter, this is absolutely the wrong way to think about competition. In fact, it's practically a guarantee of mediocre performance. The first problem with the competition-to-be-the-best mindset is that, in the vast majority of businesses, there is simply no such thing as "the best." Consider a business as prosaic as seating for airport waiting areas. You would think that there would be a "best" here — standardized, functional seating. Well you would be wrong. Different airports have different needs. Some want waiting passengers to shop. They don't want seats that are too comfortable. Some need the flexibility to reconfigure waiting areas. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 83
- 84. They don't wantlong rows of fixed seats. Many airports have to watch their spending. But others — airports in the Middle East, for example — have snapped up luxury designs. Some airports value seats built to take extraordinary abuse. London- based OMK makes "prison-worthy" seating, the industry's highest standard, using self-sealing polyurethane that can withstand a stabbing without showing the knife scar. If there is no "best" airport seat, now think about all of the industries in the economy. In how many does the idea of "being the best" make real sense? The best hotel for one customer is not the best for another. The best sales encounter for one customer is not the best for another. There is no best car. There is no best art museum. No one best way to promote environmental sustainability. Yet, it's a pervasive idea. Management writers — and leaders seeking to inspire — regularly reinforce it by using colorful metaphors from warfare and sports. These lend emotion and drama to business competition. But, they are misleading. In war, there can be only one winner. Not so in business, where companies like WalMart and Target can thrive and co-exist, each offering a different kind of value to its customers. In sports, there is just one contest with one set of rules. Not so in business, which is more complex and open-ended. Within an industry, there can be multiple contests, not just one, based on which needs are to be served. McDonald's is a winner in fast food, specifically fast burgers. But In-N-Out Burger thrives on slow burgers. Its customers are happy to wait ten minutes or more (an eternity by McDonald's stopwatch) for non-processed, fresh burgers cooked to order. Here's the problem: When rivals all pursue the "one best way" to compete, they find themselves on a collision course, trapped in a destructive, zero-sum competition that no one can win. Everyone in the industry follows the same advice. Companies benchmark each other's practices and products. Customers, lacking meaningful choice, buy on price alone. Profitability deteriorates. Instead, Porter urges a different kind of competition: compete to be unique. Focus on innovating to create superior value for your chosen customers, not on imitating and matching rivals. Give customers real choice and price becomes only one competitive variable. But understand that doing this profitably means accepting limits and making tradeoffs — you can't meet every need of every customer. Nothing is more absurd — and yet more widespread — than the belief that somehow you can do exactly what everyone else is doing and yet end up with superior results. Grasp the true nature of business competition and you'll see that the performing arts provide a better analogy than war or sports. There can be many good singers or actors — each outstanding and successful in a distinctive way. Each finds and creates an audience. The more good performers there are, the more audiences grow and the arts flourish. This approach produces positive sum competition. Companies that do a good job can earn sustainable returns because they create more value. At the same time, customers benefit by getting real choice in how their needs are met. What's your organization's underlying model of how competition works? It's a question well worth asking. If "best" is your model, you will follow the herd. Copycat products and services will always make sense. Growth at any price will seem reasonable. Acquisitions will always look better than they really are. How you think about competition will define the choices you make and your ability to assess those choices critically. McDonald's Digital Promos Geotarget College Kids Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 84
- 85. Sure, many collegestudents more or less subsist on fast food…but given the marketing barrages from a plethora of QSRs, even McDonald’s has to work at getting their attention and dollars in cost-effective ways. Recently, McDonald’s has been employing CampusLIVE’s Surge Marketing, a college-audience-specific platform that engages students with games, challenges and content tied to chances to win prizes from brands. CampusLIVE, founded in 2008 by then-University of Massachusetts-Amherst student CEO Boris Revsin and fellow students, has more than 100,000 registered college students who regularly engage with the activities on its destination site through school-specific sites that enable geographic targeting. (Hundreds of these have been built, and the company aims eventually to build sites for nearly all of the approximately 4,300 colleges/universities in the U.S.) The company sends emails to students who match a brand’s desired targeting parameters to alert them to new challenges. It gets paid only for documented successful engagements, and each marketer specifies a maximum number of students who can participate in a given campaign. This, says Revsin, enables marketers to plan and adhere to a specific budget, and also provides an element of urgency for students to participate before the limit is reached. Students must use a Facebook ID to log in and participate. For McDonald’s, CampusLIVE worked with Media Planning Group’s Mobext mobile marketing/communications arm to create customized challenges for two promotions targeted to select New England markets. The first, for McDonald’s’ new McCafé Peppermint Mocha espresso drink, was dubbed the ―Drizzle Draw‖ (referring to the chocolate drizzle topping the drink). It challenged students to use a graphics app to create their own drizzle designs on a virtual McDonald’s cup, and share them through Facebook and Twitter to get friends to vote for their entries (shown in a gallery on the CampusLIVE site). The entry drawing the most votes won free McDonald’s coffee for a year, and the 50 top ―sharers‖ won $10 McDonald’s coffee gift certificates. During its nine-day participation window (Dec. 2-10), the campaign drew more than 25,000 unique votes, reports Revsin. A second -- the ―McSmile‖ campaign now underway -- challenges students to visit their closest McDonald’s location, use a $1- any-size promotion to buy a cup of coffee, take a photo with it, upload it to CampusLIVE, and share it to drum up votes, or simply view the gallery and vote for their favorite photo. In this case, the Nov. 11-Dec. 31 contest offers a trip for two to Miami to the person whose photo garners the most votes, and $50 worth of free coffee to the top 10 sharers. Mobext Managing Director Phuc Truong says the CampusLIVE platform made sense for the two McDonald’s promotions because of its guaranteed reach and activation and the ability to geotarget schools that have a McDonald’s location within a specified proximity. Global Executives Treading Cautiously Into '12 Levels of financial optimism among senior executives are plummeting, according to an annual survey by Omnicom Group’s Doremus and the Financial Times. Six out of 10 respondents expect further decline in the global economy over the next six months. And nearly half of them do not believe the economy will recover until or after 2013. Respondents were only slightly more optimistic about the global and local economics than they were in 2008, and maintained the same level of optimism regarding their industries and companies. This year, there were 628 respondents to the ninth annual Decision Dynamics survey, representing a mix of company sizes and industries from North America, Europe and Asia. ―As we see companies increase their spending, even at miniscule increments, we expect there will be a steady snail’s pace back to recovery,‖ said Hope Picker, the Doremus director of strategic research, in a statement. ―Barring any further disasters, natural or otherwise, this show of modest spending is a sign of life, and gratefully not life support.‖ Only a quarter of the companies in the survey plan to hire this year while the same proportion expects their organization’s employment level to decrease. This is somewhat worse than the 2010 findings and very similar to the results from 2009. Low consumer confidence and U.S. and European debt issues will continue to impact more companies over the next six months or longer. Companies that operate globally are most likely to feel the fallout from some of the year’s global issues, namely: the European debt crisis, U.S. debt/budget, Arab spring, and Japan disasters. There are also geographic differences, with Asian respondents this year feeling the impact of European and U.S. economic issues. ―Global business leaders have felt the repercussions of the European and U.S. debt crises, as well as global unemployment, battered consumer confidence, and a year filled with natural disasters,‖ said Daniel Rothman, director of research in the Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 85
- 86. Americas for theFinancial Times, in a statement. ―As we enter 2012, the only sure fact for many companies is that visibility remains poor.‖ Marketers Struggle With Social Media Marketers are struggling to fully integrate social into their overarching marketing strategies, according to a new report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council. Marketers are investing in social media. People are logging in and "liking" their favorite brands. But this is where the synergies begin to weaken, according to the CMO Council in "The Variance in the Social Brand Experience." Social consumers indicate they are looking for exclusive experiences, savings, and perks from the brands they like. But marketers still believe that content and connection to peers are the primary drivers to likes and follows. The CMO Council study provides feedback from more than 1,300 consumers and 132 senior marketing executives. Lithium, a provider of social customer solutions, has also offered insights into how brands like Sephora have created a competitive advantage through targeted social engagements and strategies. Brands that gain social business advantage in 2012 will be those that feed unmet appetites for deeper engagement with each other and the brand. People are seeking more rewards with special offers, greater privilege, rank, and reputation. They want better experiences with games, contests, and other online engagement apps. ―There's no question that social media is one of the most highly influential marketing engagement channels we’ve seen,‖ according to the report. ―The constantly emerging nature of digital media has been pushing the engagement envelope for some time, but what’s new and different about social media is that it’s now a two-way street.‖ But in some cases, brands are missing the boat. They see the benefits of reaching out to people through social channels, but they are not yet fully invested, according to the report. While 52% of marketers reported they believe their brands have enjoyed greater influence thanks to their presence in social networks like Facebook, only 17% said social media is fully meshed, aligned and integrated into the overall marketing mix. People say they engage with brands through channels like Facebook and other social networks largely to learn about new products (55%), enter unique promotions or contests, or to play games (65%) offered specifically -- and often exclusively -- through these channels. Most use social specifically to connect with other fans (25%) or to share positive experiences (32%). Importantly, few consumers turn to social to bad-mouth brands or complain about negative experiences. Instead, they use open social communities to share more positive engagements and experiences. One case in point is Sephora’s ―Beauty Talk‖ community on its Web site. ―It was flooded with clients dying to talk about beauty with each other,‖ said Bridget Dolan, vice president of interactive media at Sephora. ―It was exactly what we wanted. What we found was that clients were not only trying to talk with us -- they were trying to talk with each other. And they were actually engaging in ways we had no idea they would.‖ Marketers will do well to consider a new mindset for social in 2012, according to the report. Great support isn’t just something that social customers expect, it can also build brand loyalty; 33% of consumers say that great online customer support keeps them loyal. Social support is the perfect way to enable people to help each other with the immediacy they demand. It can also significantly offset support costs. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 86
- 87. The top expectationthat comes with a ―like‖ is to be eligible for exclusive offers (67%), followed by the opportunity to interact with other customers who share a consumer’s own experiences (60%). Games and contests are also a big draw, with 65% of people wanting to find them when making online brand connections, and 57% expecting them from brands on Facebook. For the most part, existing social media strategies are in place to support communications, but are not fully integrated into overarching marketing strategies. According to the marketers surveyed, 20% admit that social media strategies are really just a loosely connected channel, and 23% admit that while they have some strategies brewing, there has been a general failure to launch. But without a doubt, social media is skyrocketing in importance as an overwhelming majority (80%) has moved the channel up their marketing priority list. This is demonstrated -- as the average social media following of the brands surveyed include 224,472 Facebook fans, 2,600 LinkedIn connections, 11,780 Twitter followers, and a growing representation on emerging channels like Google+. For the most part, these channels are being managed by an average of only three dedicated social media resources within the marketing team. The majority of marketers (52%) believe their brands have a growing level of influence through social media channels, but many (67%) are concerned that they don’t have the resources or time required to properly manage their social media investments. Marketers are also increasingly concerned that they can’t measure or quantify the return or impact of social media on the brand. As one marketing respondent summarized: ―We are worried about what we don’t know about social media and what we are missing.‖ EA Sports Creating Real-World Experiences EA Sports is no longer tethered to the virtual world. The brand, known for its celebrity-driven sports games like Madden and the Tiger Woods golf titles, is branching out into airports and cruise ships. ―One of the overarching goals is to find a way to find unique ways to connect with consumers,‖ Chris Erb, senior director of marketing partnerships at EA, tells Marketing Daily. ―The airport is a great way from a physical brick-and-mortar way to connect with consumers.‖ This week, the company is opening its third ―EA Experience‖ airport venue in Salt Lake City (following Charlotte, N.C. and Oklahoma City), and the company recently inked a deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to put EA-branded bars on all of the company’s cruise ships. The goal of the locations is to link the EA brand with real-world sports, Erb says. The stores, created in partnership with The Paradise Shops, feature amenities such as chairs and recharging stations for digital devices, as well as a place to purchase gear from the local sports teams, and EA games and branded merchandise. Similarly, the bars on the boats provide a way for travelers to keep up with their favorite teams and sports while away. ―Our goal is to create an experience in which we can let you come into our stores and catch you up on the latest sports,‖ Erb says. ―If we can get good experiences at any time, that’s the upside for us.‖ Ultimately, Erb says, the goal is to find ways to deepen engagement with consumers, wherever they may be. ―When you’re at our physical location, it’s about getting people to connect with our controllers,‖ he says. ―When you’re on Facebook and Twitter it’s not about saying things. It’s about being engaged through the process.‖ Much of that engagement comes through outside partnerships, whether they be airport retail development companies, cruise lines or food brands such as Doritos (through which EA has offered exclusive content of its games through on-package promotions). ―I think we do the connectivity through our partners," Erb says. ―It’s really about finding partners that want to give consumers value or fund experiences for people.‖ Of course, it’s also about making those experiences meaningful and relevant, with partners that make sense. First and foremost, the partners EA chooses have some sort of sports connection (like a Nike, Gillette or even Lowe’s, which is an NCAA sponsor). ―Sports consumers are bombarded with sports advertising and marketing,‖ Erb says. ―To reach those people we need to partner with brands that are relevant in those spaces.‖ Moving forward, Erb says, the company will continue to evaluate its current initiatives (including the stores and bars) and create experiences that build positive associations with the brand, which, hopefully, will translate into sales. ―[Next year] and beyond is about understanding what consumers think about what we’re bringing them and tweaking and expanding that,‖ Erb says. ―It’s not about driving to the specific end goal of the sale. It’s about building the experience that will translate to the sales at some point.‖ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 87
- 88. Social Business Planningin 2012 Today marks my two-year anniversary at Edelman, or what we affectionately like to refer to as an ―Edelversary‖. So much has changed in the industry since joining the team here—we are truly working in a real-time business environment. We’ve seen ―social‖ move from an item to be checked off the list from major brands to something they are genuinely grappling with in terms of integrating at scale across the enterprise. At Edelman Digital, we’ve always approached social a bit differently from others—focusing on the fact that much if it revolves around human-to-human interactions (we now call this community management), but if social is to scale—it must begin to spill out of the marketing silo and truly influence how we do business. We believe a connected business is better positioned for the future than a business, which remains disconnected and non adaptive. Today, we’re announcing a partnership with Edelman Consulting led by Mike Kuczowski, in which we are actively elevating our services around social business to meet what we believe will be the opportunity in the years to come. In order for a business to truly extract value from social initiatives, we must consider not only marketing but how it impacts research and development, human resources, innovation, business intelligence and other facets of an organization which help drive a business forward. Michael’s team has deep experience solving complex business challenges while our digital team possesses incredible savvy and a global perspective for how social-digital operates at scale (folks like Michael Brito, Zena Weist, Robin Hamman, Dave Fleet, & Chuck Hemann to name a few). Together, we’re looking forward to elevating the game for companies who truly wish to push their social initiatives beyond acquiring fans and followers. As an initial gesture, we are openly putting our approach out on the social web, which outlines not only our joint philosophy on social business planning but also, the methodology we use when working with clients. We believe that over the next ten years, most businesses will move past the ROI question of social—and get to work on doing business in a connected age. This will require gradual if not steady change and a commitment to evolving business practices. We’re looking forward to partnering with likeminded organizations and individuals who see the world in a similar fashion. You can read more information on this initiative here. We’re excited to play our part in moving the discussion of social business from philosophy to action. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 88
- 89. Microsoft Mixes SocialNetworking With Search Aimed at students, the new network shows that combining two of the Web's most popular activities has broader potential. When a social networking service from Microsoft code-named Tulalip or Socl was accidentally made public in July, less than a month after Google had launched Google+, the online rumor mill understandably began churning. The Microsoft site appeared to combine Web search with features familiar from Facebook and Twitter, neatly uniting the Web's two most successful products. Back then, Microsoft hurriedly took down the Socl page and said it was an internal research project accidentally made public. Now, the service has reemerged as So.cl, and the team at Microsoft's research labs has given Technology Review a preview. The rumors were right about So.cl's form. It's a well-made reinvention of the basic design shared by the major social networks, centered on Microsoft's Bing Web search engine. Most posts on the site start as queries typed into the search box at the top of the page. The top few results can be shared with friends, and images turned up through a Bing search can be turned into a slick collage to be shared. Regular text-based status updates and comments can be posted too, but friends on So.cl are more followers, in the model of Twitter. Lili Cheng, the Microsoft researcher who led development of So.cl, says the rumors were wrong about the social network's function. "The rumors were all that we were taking on Facebook, and that's not our goal," she says, "So.cl is really an experimental research project focused on how social networking and search can be used for the purpose of learning." Cheng heads FUSE Labs, a division inside Microsoft's research wing, Microsoft Research, which works on new ideas for social websites and services. The division collaborates with other parts of Microsoft Research as well as the main business, for example on a trial service that creates online Microsoft Office documents within Facebook. Cheng and colleagues got started on So.cl by thinking about how students use both Web search and social networking to find information for classes, and when working together, she says. "The tools that students use were each designed separately," says Cheng. "We're trying to imagine how they could fit together and change the way learning happens." Cheng and her team have been working closely with students at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University to guide development and test drive So.cl. Today they will start growing the user base by allowing those students to invite friends to join them in using So.cl. In coming months, the trial may open up even further, says Cheng. A walkthrough of what's currently happening on the site didn't show much evidence of students working on tasks like algebra assignments, but Cheng says she has seen math homework on So.cl. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 89
- 90. Rather, people weresearching using phrases such as "sushi art" and "star wars steampunk" to curate well-designed collages of images, and responding to one another with comments or collages, or their own slightly different take on the original. The fun, evolving visual threads that result are very different from the text-centric threads on Facebook or Twitter. "People are conversing through these rich shared queries," says Cheng. "I like allowing people to riff off of one another, and this is one of the emerging behaviors that we need to learn from." Another novel feature is dubbed "video party." It allows a user to cue up and watch a playlist of YouTube videos, and their friends can join in and watch along with them. All the people taking part in a video party can add videos to the playlist and share comments with other people there; Cheng says she hopes to add support for other video sites, such as Vimeo, in the future. It's hard to resist the parallel between the way So.cl is being tested and the story of Facebook, which was first available only to university students before it ate the world. So.cl's novel features and their flexibility certainly seem competitive with the features of existing social networks. Cheng's desire to create a place where people can work together on information found online seems to be shared by those working on Google's social network. As Google+ is connected with more and more of Google's other services, the company is promoting productivity benefits like being able to share maps with friends when planning a trip or see social activity when managing and sending e-mail. However, Cheng remains adamant that So.cl is about learning, and not a warm-up to the launch of a general-interest social network that will go up against Twitter and Facebook. "The project isn't specifically for formal learning, but learning as a general activity on any topic," she says, "[So.cl] is one way you might combine search and social networking around learning." Cheng isn't sure So.cl will evolve this way, though. She says another direction the project may take is to become a platform for students and researchers to build and test new forms of social networks. Choosing the Right Social Technology Vendors MICHAEL BRITO Finding the right social media technology vendor is not easy. While the good news is that there are dozens of vendors offering ―white label‖ social business solutions, the bad news is that it makes the process for choosing one that much more difficult. Additionally, many technology companies today are making acquisitions, so in the near future, the number of vendors may dramatically decrease. That being said, there are several considerations that technology decision makers must think about before deploying a social application, like first understanding the company culture and leadership, the technology feature requirements, vendor support models, training and maintenance. Understand the Organization, Culture and Leadership Choosing a technology vendor has to be a strategic decision. Organizations need to first understand what it is they are trying to achieve before thinking about which technology application to deploy behind the firewall. Are they trying to streamline communication between business units or geographies? Are they looking to roll out a collaboration application that will eventually replace their intranet? Or, are they planning to use Social CRM and weave it into their sales and marketing initiatives? Whatever the case, it’s important to understand the culture of the organization and its leadership. Social business transformation requires a change in behavior. It requires organizational leadership to embrace the social customer, tear down organizational silos, empower the organization to share knowledge across job functions and geographies, and invest in technology that will help facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing. It’s more than lip service, too. These change management initiatives have to be driven by organizational leadership and practiced at every level in the organization from senior leadership all the way down to a customer support agent. Otherwise, change will not occur. This means that executives must not only talk about changing the organization but exemplify the behaviors that really do facilitate and practice change. Technology will not change an organization’s culture. That has to be a decision from company leadership and then supported by employees at all levels. What technology will do is help facilitate collaboration and communication across job functions and geographies. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 90
- 91. Application Feature Sets Companiesneed to choose technology vendors that do more than just provide the features and functionality needed for today’s dynamic business environment. They must also choose the vendors with features that may be needed in the future. For community related software, some important features to consider include the following: Support for internal groups, forums, profile creation Support for topical sub groups (private or open) Multi-language support for global companies Support for micro-blogging, general blogging, group messaging, wikis and chat Email support and integration Single sign-on (SSO) capabilities that integrate the platform with other internal registration databases as well as external profiles like Facebook and Twitter Feature sets for collaboration applications may include: Document sharing and control Task management, shared calendar Workflow and roles-based management Reporting analytics Self-service features that enable dragging and dropping of various widgets to allow for customization of each user’s interface Full set of APIs for integration with other internal and external applications Several technology vendors offer both community and collaboration feature sets. Many of them are also starting to build in Social CRM functionality into their platforms and already have open APIs that integrate with traditional CRM applications. The benefit of this is that companies can use one vendor for everything, which is cost effective and easier to scale. Customer Support Models One key consideration when choosing a technology vendor is their support model. Many vendors today have their support teams overseas in other parts of the world. No matter how good a software application performs, there are always cases when support is needed to troubleshoot an existing problem. Having a support team eight or nine hours ahead can potentially be disastrous. Additionally, some technology providers may require a dedicated support staff per company or license, while others will provide customer support for a fee. The cost of hiring support staff needs to be factored into the buying decision. Support may be in the form of human help or an automated support engine. And in some cases, there may be a need to have a dedicated support person on site. Organizational Training Training is another form of support and is imperative to help an organization adopt and implement new technology. Some technology vendors offer free training (in person or e-learning) that will help their customers get up to speed quickly. In some cases, and depending on the size of the company, the vendor might offer paid training as well. This cost needs should also be factored into the purchase decision. Maintenance Considerations Maintenance models and cost efficiencies have a major impact on the performance and adaptability of most technology vendors. When the application is hosted externally by the vendor, it’s vital that the software application be available online at all times. In most cases, uptime expectations are covered contractually under the ―service level agreement‖ (SLA) and range from about 98% to 99.99%. Smart and innovative vendors are consistently improving their software applications, fixing bugs and releasing new versions to existing customers at no charge. Understand the Internal Technology Suite Before choosing any external technology vendor, it’s imperative to get a full understanding of the company’s existing internal infrastructure. Several questions must be answered before a decision is made: What current applications are powering the Intranet/network? Can the existing network infrastructure support the technologies that are being considered? Is there enough network bandwidth to support the application? If not, how much is going to cost? Does IT have the resources (both human and technical) to support the integration and/or installation of the application? Can this solution be built in-house versus being outsourced to a vendor? Conclusion Before jumping head first in choosing the right technology vendor, organizations need to listen, watch, understand and interview the constituent base that will be using the technology internally. It’s important to understand their feedback, expectations, requirements and how it will be received by the people and teams that will be using it. Additionally, it’s Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 91
- 92. important to ensurethat there is high involvement and buy in at the early stages of the initiative in order to establish collaboration and avoid internal push back. It’s imperative to also initiate conversations with Legal, Human Resources, IT and Privacy teams early on in order to understand the limitations and potential risks that may be associated with the technology initiative. As with any new business plan, companies need to do their due diligence and fully understand the risks involved with selecting, acquiring, integrating and installing social technologies behind the firewall. One thing companies should also consider is whether or not they should build or buy the technology they need. Most companies do have the expertise internally to develop their own solution (i.e., engineering and IT). They also have the infrastructure (server space, hosting, security, applications) to support and maintain the development of a robust application. The challenge with building the technology from scratch is timing and cost. These factors need to be considered before making any technology decision. In most companies, it can take years to build a new social application — mainly because most IT and network engineering teams are busy maintaining the company’s network and ensuring it’s safe from intrusion. Unless the initiative is a business priority, deploying a new social technology may even take a year or two to get started. Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again. Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management. Here’s my Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent : 1. Big Company Bureaucracy. This is probably the #1 reason we hear after the fact from disenchanted employees. However, it’s usually a reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no sense. But, when top talent is complaining along these lines, it’s usually a sign that they didn’t feel as if they had a say in these rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program. No voice in the process and really talented people say ―check please.‖ 2. Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion. Big companies have many moving parts — by definition. Therefore, they usually don’t have people going around to their best and brightest asking them if they’re enjoying their current projects or if they want to work on something new that they’re really interested in which would help the company. HR people are usually too busy keeping up with other things to get into this. The bosses are also usually tapped out on time and this becomes a ―nice to have‖ rather than ―must have‖ conversation. However, unless you see it as a ―must have,‖ say adios to some of your best people. Top talent isn’t driven by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge, that will change the world, and for which they are really passionate. Big companies usually never spend the time to figure this out with those people. 3. Poor Annual Performance Reviews. You would be amazed at how many companies do not do a very effective job at annual performance reviews. Or, if they have them, they are rushed through, with a form quickly filled out and sent off to HR, and back to real work. The impression this leaves with the employee is that my boss — and, therefore, the company — isn’t really interested in my long-term future here. If you’re talented enough, why stay? This one leads into #4…. 4. No Discussion around Career Development. Here’s a secret for most bosses: most employees don’t know what they’ll be doing in 5 years. In our experience, about less than 5% of people could tell you if you asked. However, everyone wants to have a discussion with you about their future. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers — even the top talent. This represents a huge opportunity for you and your organization if you do bring it up. Our best clients have separate annual discussions with their employees — apart from their annual or bi-annual performance review meetings — to discuss succession planning or career development. If your best people know that you think there’s a path for them going forward, they’ll be more likely to hang around. 5. Shifting Whims/Strategic Priorities. I applaud companies trying to build an incubator or ―brickhouse‖ around their talent, by giving them new exciting projects to work on. The challenge for most organizations is not setting up a strategic priority, like establishing an incubator, but sticking with it a year or two from now. Top talent hates to be ―jerked around.‖ If you commit to a project that they will be heading up, you’ve got to give them enough opportunity to deliver what they’ve promised. 6. Lack of Accountability and/or telling them how to do their Jobs.Although you can’t ―jerk around‖ top talent, it’s a mistake to treat top talent leading a project as ―untouchable.‖ We’re not saying that you need to get into anyone’s business or telling them what to do. However, top talent demands accountability from others and doesn’t mind being held accountable for their projects. Therefore, have regular touch points with your best people as they work through their projects. They’ll appreciate your insights/observations/suggestions — as long as they don’t spillover into preaching. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 92
- 93. 7. Top Talent likes other Top Talent. What are the rest of the people around your top talent like? Many organizations keep some people on the payroll that rationally shouldn’t be there. You’ll get a litany of rationales explaining why when you ask. ―It’s too hard to find a replacement for him/her….‖ ―Now’s not the time….‖ However, doing exit interviews with the best people leaving big companies you often hear how they were turned off by some of their former ―team mates.‖ If you want to keep your best people, make sure they’re surrounded by other great people. 8. The Missing Vision Thing. This might sound obvious, but is the future of your organization exciting? What strategy are you executing? What is the vision you want this talented person to fulfill? Did they have a say/input into this vision? If the answer is no, there’s work to do — and fast. 9. Lack of Open-Mindedness. The best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. However, a lot of companies have a vision/strategy which they are trying to execute against — and, often find opposing voices to this strategy as an annoyance and a sign that someone’s not a ―team player.‖ If all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy, you’re left with a bunch of ―yes‖ people saying the same things to each other. You’ve got to be able to listen to others’ points of view — always incorporating the best parts of these new suggestions. 10. Who’s the Boss? If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it’s likely not a coincidence. We’ll often get asked to come in and ―fix‖ someone who’s a great sales person, engineer, or is a founder, but who is driving everyone around them ―nuts.‖ We can try, but unfortunately, executive coaching usually only works 33% of the time in these cases. You’re better off trying to find another spot for them in the organization — or, at the very least, not overseeing your high-potential talent that you want to keep. It’s never a one-way street. Top talent has to assume some responsibility as much as the organization. However, with the scarcity of talent — which will only increase in the next 5 years — Smart Organizations are ones who get out in front of these ten things, rather than wait for their people to come to them, asking to implement this list. Ten Issues Marketers Should Have on Their 2012 Agenda ANA CEO Outlines Priorities for the Next Year Capture the Power of Personalization; Respect Privacy Mobile devices and social media have brought the ability to target ads to epic levels. But targeting brings challenges, such as ensuring privacy. The industry has formed the Digital Advertising Alliance and synergized its mandate with the work of the National Advertising Review Council. This self-regulatory program promotes display of the Advertising Icon to signify use of online behavioral advertising and adherence to our core principles. More than 350 companies have implemented the program, and the icon has been displayed online more than 3 trillion times. Agree to Universal Standards of Brand Valuation A crucial missing element of marketing is the value of the brands that we work so hard to create and strengthen. We need generally accepted brand valuation standards that can be applied across the industry. The ANA is collaborating with the 4A's, Advertising Research Foundation, Marketing Accountability Standards Board and our brand-valuation partners at Interbrand, Core Brand and Millward Brown have begun an effort to address this. Advance Digital and Cross-Platform Measurement The ANA, 4A's and Interactive Advertising Bureau have come together to improve cross-platform comparability through enhanced digital metrics and standards. We have announced five principles of digital measurement, which represent the foundation of 3MS -- Making Measurement Make Sense -- and a five-part measurement framework. The working group is now tackling Phase 2, which includes launching a pilot of the "viewable impression"; establishing a measurement governance body; and advancing GRP reporting requirements and a new classification system. Ensure Integration Across Expanding Media Platforms Interactive TV is one of the newest and most dynamic opportunities for marketers. BrightLine's 300-plus campaigns prove that marketers are leveraging interactive TV to raise the effectiveness of traditional-TV investments while advancing digital goals. Nationally scaled ITV has the potential to create another caliber of integrated advertising. The ANA will work with Canoe Ventures to enable programming networks to enhance content and advertising, and to energize them with interactivity. Improve Processes With Efficiencies There is a simple way to replace antiquated processes: common asset coding. Ad-ID produces an identifying code for each advertising asset, helps manage workflow, improve supply chain operations, and increases productivity and cost savings. Most important, it provides a foundation for industry-wide measurement across media platforms. Endorsed by all major trade groups and used by more than 700 brands, Ad-ID makes it easy to streamline the supply chain. Optimize the Agency-Client Relationship Two steps have been taken to close the chasm between brands and agencies. On the procurement front, a task force will work on the gaps in understanding, knowledge and value with clients, client marketing groups and external agencies. Agency search has also become a hot-button topic. With the 4A's, we developed the Agency Search Principles and Best Practices white paper to improve the process for client marketers and agency leaders. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 93
- 94. Develop 21st-Century MarketingSkills Constant changes in marketing and advances in technology make professional development a necessity. But most marketing organizations -- and I suspect agencies and media companies—lack comprehensive long-term strategies to enhance performance and capability. It takes money, time and commitment to elevate the skills of our most important asset: our people. Focus on Sustainability As a major public force, marketing has a broader societal obligation than facilitating commerce. Within and beyond our commercial campaigns, we are committed to addressing an array of social issues that touch the health, safety and well-being of our citizens and country. The ANA has formed a task force to establish guidelines for businesses to make the marketing supply chain more sustainable. Prove the Value of Marketing Our industry consistently, aggressively addresses government efforts that threaten our freedoms. This year, our partners came together to create the Global Insights Study, which shows that marketing accounts for nearly 20 million U.S. jobs and $5.8 trillion in economic output. We will continue to communicate this data to congressional leaders to thwart all efforts to tax advertising or deny full deductibility of expenses. Stop ICANN's Proposed Domain Program The organization responsible for coordinating the technical management of this internet system is scheduled to launch a top- level domain expansion in January. A coalition of more than 100 marketers and trade associations opposes this plan. Its justification is flawed and its cost excessive. It will hurt consumers and damage brand equity. We urge the entire brand community to demand that ICANN suspend this program. Enhance Your Agency-Client Relationships for The New Normal The ongoing post-recessionary economic doldrums have affected everyone in the ad business: the holding companies and the independents, the multi-nationals and the boutiques, the pure-plays and the 360-integrated. On top of impacting their bottom lines, the recession has also caused some seismic changes in Client-Agency relationships, leading to rockier and less stable connections. Clients’ patience grows thinner in tougher times, and demand for better, and more measurable, performance and ROI is the norm. But far from shying away from these realities, agencies today should be embracing the new normal for the long-term benefits this performance-driven mindset will yield. The following are ten ways to drive stronger Agency-Client relationships focused on mutual success. Some represent small adjustments to current approaches; others likely require more fundamental changes. Regardless of their appropriateness for today’s economic climate, these approaches are the new normal — relevant today and into the future. 1. Stop developing ads; start developing business solutions. This may sound strange for a company that develops ads for a living, but you shouldn’t view yourselves as simply making advertising. You’re in the business of creative business solutions, and that approach is timelier than ever. Ads can be overly clever, precious, and self-interested; business solutions are smart, holistically developed, and focused on driving sales. If you have this as your focus, you don’t ever get into those self-involved, outdated debates about logo sizes, fonts, jokes, etc. You don’t talk about design and layout like they’re languages the client can’t understand. You really listen to clients and start to understand the real business challenges and goals that are behind your communications programs. When you do this, you may find new ways to help drive growth and meet goals that have nothing to do with traditional advertising. 2. Collaboration makes ideas better (including with clients). You have to believe that no idea is born perfect — they all need a collaborative push and continuous optimization. This means that clients help make ideas better as well. And even when you don’t like the content of the comment, your team’s efforts to develop solutions will no doubt improve the ideas, the work, and the outcome. 3. The work can’t be called ―great‖ if it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work, if it doesn’t move the needle, if it doesn’t achieve your objectives, then it cannot be deemed ―great creative,‖ pure and simple. Yes, there are tons of factors beyond the control of the communications program — and many campaigns fail due to in-market dynamics that a) couldn’t be predicted or b) are way beyond its purview. Nevertheless, calling campaigns that don’t achieve their goals ―great‖ is just an apology. View greatness as something that is achieved, not granted subjectively. Conversely, your agency (and especially anyone with a title that includes the word ―Creative‖ in it) should embrace and fall in love with efficient-yet-ugly work as well. Email, search copy, and lead-gen forms are all just as important and just as ―creative‖ as Super Bowl ads. The sooner everyone gets that, and the quicker everyone gets good at these things, the better. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 94
- 95. 4. Focus onthe bottom of the funnel. Advertising has traditionally viewed its role at the top of the purchase funnel, driving awareness, familiarity, and positive opinion. However, with their average length of tenure down to less than 23 months, CMOs know they need to demonstrate in- market success before the sand in the hourglass empties. In these times, there’s nothing more important than driving low- funnel consideration and shopping activity. In addition, the bottom of the funnel is where analytics will help you track performance and optimize your plan. Every program you develop should think through consumer activity throughout the purchase funnel and seek to convert consumers along the path towards purchase and re-purchase, un-blocking roadblocks along the way. This will have the combined effect of a) helping connect your creative solutions to actual purchases and b) demonstrating to your clients your unwavering interest in their bottom line. 5. Be maniacal about measurement and Return-On-Investment. Don’t wait for your client to measure the results of the campaign or evaluate its success or failure — begin the process yourselves. Start every project asking the question, ―What problems are we solving?‖ Set up in advance what your program’s goals are, determine what and how you’ll track them, and set up regular updates. Put someone in charge of timely (read: daily) updates and tracking. And don’t just celebrate and report when you’ve crushed your objectives — be equally outspoken when you’re below-goal, and use these experiences as learning and improvement opportunities. Demand of yourselves a continual striving for improvement of performance. Never give up on finding new, fresh approaches and vehicles to try — even if the client isn’t asking for them. And never execute any aspect of a campaign just because it’s cool. 6. Extend your focus to the point-of-sale. No matter who your day-to-day contacts are with the client, broaden your connections and relationships to those closest to the sale and to where the client makes its money. In other words, amplify your contacts with and understanding of the sales force, the dealers, the store managers, salespeople, etc. These are the folks closest to the consumer and who know the nitty gritty about the marketplace. You can often find serious insights that can help drive communications. Plus, broadening your agency’s constituency is never a bad thing. For example, our Porsche Field team’s dealer visits led to the insight that the dealership could be intimidating, even to our most likely prospects. This was the kernel that led us to a test-drive program called ―First Mile,‖ that was designed to attract prospects with a low-risk, no-pressure driving opportunity. 7. Display urgency, but radiate calm. In these days, clients won’t abide by a laid-back approach to anything. They want to see partners who are restless, constantly dissatisfied, and near neurotically driven to uncover issues or problems before they happen. However, don’t confuse passion with panic. A client wants to know you’ve got it under control; that you’ll always be calm under pressure. And that, despite your restless, driven behavior, you’re rock-solid and dependable. 8. Communication includes listening. One thing I know for sure is that no one knows all the answers; solving for complex business issues takes the right team, collaborating across disciplines, titles and companies. That includes agency and client. You can’t be effective without co- authorship, co-creation, and co-ownership with clients. So refrain from selling anything — discuss and listen to feedback. Because another thing I know for sure is that ideas have a way of getting better that way. So you should try to work in a process that features early collaboration — e.g., brainstorms, tissue sessions, and ―Big Idea‖ workshops — in order to get client buy-in and commitment on broad ideas first. Also recognize that ―listening‖ means going beyond just hearing the words the clients are speaking. You have to attune your hearing to the music behind the lyrics, as well… 9. Always test. This needs to be a mantra during the development of every initiative and project you develop — ―What ideas or variables are we testing?‖ Testing helps optimize your performance now as well as helping to drive better results for future efforts. 10. Nothing beats a face-to-face. Everyone has tightened the spigot on expenses and, naturally, airfare, hotels, and dinners are a place to look. However, make sure you regularly head to out-of-town clients’ offices. It’s worth the investment to look a client in the eye, to feel the buzz at the offices, to walk the halls and make the rounds, and to grab some social time, if possible, as well. It’s the relationship building and insight gathering that drives smarter work now and better relationships later. As we all know, the new marketing world is a demanding place — and it demands that agencies adapt and change their approaches in managing and keeping clients. Nevertheless, adapting to this new business-focused, results-oriented mindset will deliver big opportunities for long-term gain. Have you uncovered a new normal you’d like to share? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 95
- 96. Digital Works toLift Brand Awareness and Sales -- Without Direct Response It's a Myth to Say We Can't Measure the Internet's Role in In-Store Purchases By: Catherine Spurway-Hepler What better time than the holiday season to burst some popular digital retail-advertising myths? The beauty of digital is that you still have time to make last-minute changes to your campaign, if you need to. Myth 1:It's impossible for marketers and advertisers to measure the effect of consumers' online activity on offline sales. Reality: Not true. Advanced in-store tracking can measure everything -- from increases in basket size and sales of items by household segments -- and connect it to the performance of online video, rich media, display and other formats. For example, grocery retailer Supervalu recently partnered with Nielsen and my company, PointRoll, to measure Internet users who shop in stores. The campaign featured banner ads within digital circulars in two formats -– standard display ads and expandable ads -– with localized pricing and product information. In-store sales increases were three times higher with the more-engaging expandable ads than with static standard display ads. General Mills has received a lot of press about the marketing of its Betty Crocker products. To reach a new generation of consumers, General Mills stepped up its presence in 2011 at bettycrocker.com, on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as on mobile and within apps. The 1.4 million fans on the Betty Crocker Facebook page are affecting sales. In General Mills' first fiscal quarter, June through August, sales at Betty Crocker rose 5% from the same period in 2010. Myth 2: Marketers can't create locally targeted advertising for digital media, as they do with local newspaper and television ads, to drive a target audience to nearby stores. Reality: Advanced application program interfaces (API) make local data scalable across digital media. This technology can digitize retailer print circulars to incorporate localized retailer promotions to shoppers. Consumers can be reached through online circulars, display advertising, search, Facebook and digital out-of-home ads. The technology can be customized to include store events, clearance items, inventory, catalogs, coupons, ratings and reviews and buying guides. Brands can use the data collected by advertising-technology partners to deliver ads locally at scale and in a more personal way than in television or print. Ford used Pandora's growing customer base to deliver iPhone ads that considered a listener's location and music preference while providing vehicle information, localized offers and a way to find the nearest Ford dealer via the phone. In addition, brands no longer need to think about that 15- or 30-second window before the start of online video as a home for repurposed TV spots. This passive viewing can include interactive features and audience-relevant, localized messages that are automatically assembled at run time. On Facebook, retailers can present local offers via geo-targeting. Myth 3: Digital advertising is most effective for direct-response retail campaigns. Reality: Digital retail advertising has proved effective in direct-response and brand-awareness campaigns. TJX's "excuse to go to Home Goods" didn't feature enhanced direct-product and pricing information to draw shoppers into stores, but it generated word-of-mouth interest through social networking. Twitter users could tweet their reasons for visiting a store directly from an expandable banner ad. Bacardi's holiday campaign, called "Unwrap the Night," is about personalized interactivity. The campaign mimics walking into a house party and uses Facebook data to show a user's closest friends at the party, drink menus and a DJ booth. The result? An immersive and personalized interactive experience that focuses on brand awareness. Recent research by KN Dimestore shows that users exposed to expandable banners ads are 34.4% more likely to recommend advertised products, versus 25.1% with preroll online video and 10.9% with standard Flash banners. Formats like interactive preroll can only increase performance, as will more relevant, dynamic Flash and interactive ads for PC display, mobile devices and tablets. But whatever the format, efficiently delivered, locally tailored digital advertising will produce big results for major brand retailers this holiday season -- and with 45% of all retail sales expected to be web-influenced by 2014, according to eMarketer, in the future. 7 Things Highly Productive People Do You have more important things to focus on than, um, focusing. Get back on track with these tips. By Ilya Pozin You probably don’t want to admit it but you love distractions. In fact, just like monkeys, you get a shot of dopamine every time something pulls you in another direction. Why do you think you check your email so much? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 96
- 97. Want to bemore productive and get your focus back? There are no secret tricks here… do one thing at a time. Stop multitasking—it’s just another form of distraction. Easier said than done, I know. Recently I sat down with Tony Wong, aproject management blackbelt whose client list includes Toyota, Honda, and Disney, to name a few. He’s an expert in keeping people on task, so I thought he’d be a good person to ask. Here are his tips for staying productive: 1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. Writing ―launch company website‖ at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list. 2. Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women). 3. Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task. 4. Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity. 5. Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead. 6. Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day. 7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours. Study Finds Google Wallet Could Leak Consumer Data by Laurie Sullivan , Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 Consumers typically don't like the idea of being targeted by ads based on behavior because they believe it violates their privacy. But a recent study from security firm ViaForensics on Google Wallet, the electronic payment system, suggests consumers could have concerns other than just being followed around the Internet and being targeted with ads. While Google Wallet does store credit card numbers securely and uses near field communication (NFC) to make the transaction, it also leaves personal information easily accessible. ViaForensics researcher conducted the study on a rooted NFC-enabled Nexus S 4G phone, which means the analyst had control of portions of the device most thieves would not have. I guess that would depend on whether the thief was a techno geek. The research suggests Google Wallet does a good job in safely storing passwords, but it does not encrypt credit card data safely. It writes unencrypted database files containing payment transaction history, including account numbers, balances, and credit limits. The application also created an image of a credit card that could provide data to carry out a "social-engineering attack" against the consumer or the provider. Connecting the data on the phone with data found online about the owner of the phone, such as an address, would make the thief well-armed, according to the report. Google does require a personal identifiable number (PIN) to gain access to information and authorize payments, noting the application locks after use and when the phone screen goes black. But "the amount of data that Google Wallet stores unencrypted on the device is significant," according to the research. The ViaForensics research made Google aware of the security holes. Google sent an updated build of Google Wallet for additional testing, which the company explains in a summary. Some holes have been plugged. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 97
- 98. Use Jugaad toInnovate Faster, Cheaper, Better 11:57 AM Thursday December 8, 2011 by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja | Comments (43) We recently attended the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2011 in Mumbai, where we moderated several panels and workshops on the topic of innovation. The experience gave us some insights into a unique approach to innovation called jugaad, which entrepreneurs and enterprises are practicing in complex emerging markets like India. Jugaad is a Hindi word that loosely translates as "the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources." Jugaad is an antidote to the complexity of India: a country of mind-blogging diversity; pervasive scarcity of all kinds; and exploding interconnectivity (India is adding 10 million cellphone subscribers every month). This highly resource-constrained and chaotic environment inspires jugaad innovators — i.e., the Indian entrepreneurs and corporations who practice jugaad to develop market-relevant products and services that are inherently affordable and sustainable. Jugaad innovators are modern-day alchemists who transmute adversity into opportunity, and in so doing create value for their organizations and communities. And while we first learned about jugaad while conducting field research in India over the past several years, we've found thatjugaad innovators exist around the world, including right here in the U.S. There are three aspects of jugaad that make it particularly effective. Specifically: Jugaad innovators innovate faster: Jugaad innovators don't use linear, pre-planned, time-consuming R&D processes. Rather, they rely heavily on rapid prototyping techniques — i.e., they collaborate intimately with customers and use their constant feedback to zero in on the most relevant product features. For instance, Jane Chen and Rahul Panicker, Stanford graduates and co-founders of Embrace, worked closely with village pediatricians and patients in rural India to iteratively optimize the design of their breakthrough portable infant warmer — which costs less than 5% of incubators sold in the West (which are typically priced around $20,000). Jugaad innovators innovate cheaper: Jugaad innovators are very frugal. Rather than reinventing the wheel or splurging on expensive R&D projects, they develop new solutions by building upon existing infrastructure and assets, as well as by recombining existing solutions. In doing so, they can pass the cost savings on to their customers. For instance, YES Bank, one of India's leading private banks, has deployed a mobile payment solution that enables money transfer via cellphones without the need for a bank account. This solution piggybacks on India's existing robust mobile telephony infrastructure that extends to the remotest of villages in India (a country where nearly 870 million people have cellphones, but 600 million or so do not have a bank account). Jugaad innovators innovate better: Jugaad innovators recognize that consumers in emerging markets are low earners, but high yearners. As such, jugaad innovators attempt to meet customers' high aspirations by developing solutions that are not only affordable, but that also deliver superior value. In sum, they strive to deliver more (value) for less (cost). Take, for instance, SELCO, an Indian renewable energy firm founded by the U.S.-educated Harish Hande. Recognizing the diverse needs of the Indian rural population, SELCO set out to personalize the value proposition of its solar lanterns to individual customers — be they a village midwife who doesn't want the toxic fumes of a kerosene lamp polluting her patient's environment; a rosebud collector looking for a modular lighting solution that can be repaired quickly in a remote location; or a vegetable seller who doesn't want to contend with the electrical outages that are typical across India. As a result, more than 115,000 rural customers now use SELCO's solar lanterns — not only because they are affordable, but because they deliver superior value by addressing customers' unique needs. What makes jugaad innovators so adept at innovating faster, cheaper, and better? The answer lies in their unique mindset — characterized by two key attributes: adaptability and inclusivity. Jugaad innovators are highly adaptable: Indian entrepreneurs who practice jugaad are a resilient bunch: they continually find ways to bounce back from the adversity that permeates every aspect of their lives. Jugaad innovators sense and respond to rapid changes in their environment by dynamically reinventing their business models. For instance, Chen and Panicker, co- founders of Embrace, initially set out to design a fixed incubator at a low-cost — but once they discovered that Indian village women preferred to hold their newborn babies close to their bodies, they quickly adapted their business model around a portable infant warmer. Jugaad innovators are inclusive: In India, more than 800 million citizens lack access to healthcare, 600 million are unbanked, and 400 million live off the electricity grid. While most corporations view these marginal segments as being unprofitable, jugaad innovators like YES Bank's Rana Kapoor and SELCO's Harish Hande have invented inclusive business models for profitably serving the millions who live on the margins of society. For these entrepreneurs, including the margin not only provides for greater social good, it also makes great business sense. Interestingly, we have noticed that jugaad is practiced not only by Indian entrepreneurs and corporations, but also by some pioneering multinationals in India. Take GE Healthcare, for instance,which used the flexible jugaad mindset to make high-quality cancer diagnosis and treatment accessible to underdeveloped communities across India. Until recently, India had been importing the radioisotopes required for nuclear imaging such as PET/CT scans. This was not only unaffordable for many rural hospitals, it was ineffective because the radioisotopes decay over time (in hours or even minutes), so they need to be administered to the patient soon after they're produced. GE Healthcare partnered with private diagnostic centers and airline Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 98
- 99. companies to locallyproduce radioisotopes — and make deliveries on a just-in-time basis to small-town hospitals around the country. Now, with GE Healthcare's frugal "pay-per-use" pricing model and just-in-time delivery mechanism, the supply of radioisotopes has become affordable and dependable for many rural hospitals. The jugaad mindset — and its associated principles and practices — is increasingly relevant for companies worldwide who are seeking to grow in an increasingly complex and resource-constrainedbusiness environment. Unlike traditional, structured innovation methods that rely on time-consuming and expensive R&D processes, the more fluid jugaad approach delivers speed, agility, and cost efficiencies. Jugaad is a "bottom up" innovation approach that provides organizations in both emerging and developed economies the key capabilities they need to succeed in a hypercompetitive and fast-moving world: frugality, inclusivity, collaboration, and adaptability. Is your organization using the jugaad approach — and its underlying principles — to innovate faster, cheaper, and better? We'd like to hear about it in the comments section below. Take Control of Your To-Do List Having an unruly to-do list can be overwhelming. If you find yourself rushing around, but not actually getting anything done, try the following process: • Write it all down. Put everything on one list. Determine which tasks are easy and which are more difficult. • Do some easy things. Spend 15 minutes doing the easy tasks. Focus on speed: make the quick phone calls, shoot off the brief emails. Cross as many tasks off the list as you can. • Turn to a bigger task. Turn off your phone, close all the open windows on your computer, and focus on one of the more challenging tasks. Do this for 35 minutes without distraction. • Take a break. After 35 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Then return to step two Crises in rich countries the major challenge for emerging economies For Assis Moreira and Alex Ribeiro | From Geneva and Washington The sharp fall in industrial production in India, released yesterday, after similar data relating to Brazil and China, confirms that the major emerging economies are slowing, infected by the crisis in rich countries. India's industrial output fell 5.1% in October compared to the same month of 2010, the first contraction in more than two years.Yesterday, Mexico announced that industrial production fell 0.54% in October compared to September, although still high at 3.3% in the last 12 months. Last week, IBGE released figures showing that the Brazilian economy stagnated in the third quarter, compared with the previous quarter, a sharp slowdown compared to the 7.5% growth seen in 2010. The index of industrial activity in China dropped to 49 in November from 50.4 in October, which already indicates contraction in the sector, the worst result since the beginning of 2009. On Saturday, China also reported a sharp fall in its trade surplus in November, $ 17 billion to $ 14.5 billion. "The situation [the emerging] tends to get worse, because the crisis is in Europe, USA and Japan, and the three together make up 70% of the world," said the chief economist at the United Nations Agency for Trade and Development (UNCTAD ), Heiner Flassbeck. "Emerging economies are far from immune to the crisis in the euro zone, especially in manufacturing," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit UK-based consultancy that specializes in monitoring global industrial activity. Exports of goods are under pressure because of low demand, especially the most indebted countries of Europe, which now apply new austerity measures. This slowdown is beginning to impact on projections for developing countries. The company's credit risk assessment Fitch Ratings lowered by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3%, its projection for growth of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in 2012. For 2011, the growth projection is 6.7%, down from 8.4% in the last year. Collectively, the emerging economic growth slowed to about 6% in November, well below the first two digits of the year. Before the recession, the weak growth of emerging economies has not occurred since mid-2003. The slowdown has been evident in Brazil, China and India, but also in economies like South Korea and Taiwan. The loss of dynamism in emerging economies is due on the one hand, the contagion of the crisis of Europe, which made investors more risk averse. It is also a result, on the other hand, monetary and macroprudential policies more restrictive implemented by some countries, like Brazil, India and China, to contain inflationary pressures and address the emergence of bubbles in their markets. "It is every day less number of emerging economies that show some resistance," said chief strategist for emerging markets bank Societe Generale, Benoit Anne. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 99
- 100. A rare positiveexception is Turkey, which reported yesterday an increase of 8.4% in third quarter (see text below). Fears about the impact of lower growth in the developed world about the emerging intensified in August, and has only increased since then. With the expansion of the richest 1% in the next moment, and little room for improvement for next year, the growth of emerging "inevitably will be contained for some time," Williamson said. The expectation in the markets is that most central banks in emerging markets will lower interest rates to promote growth, as Brazil has been doing. It is what is expected in India, where the maintenance of monetary tightening due to rising inflation, clearly affected the industrial activity in Asia's third largest economy. "Industrial production in China has also been falling, especially in heavy industry, which needs a lot of energy," says Wang Qinwei at Capital Economics in London. Chinese production grew 12.4%, 13.2% below the previous and the lowest level since mid-2009. This was done for two reasons: the fall in exports and construction. "The fall in November inflation, industrial production and investments made in the Chinese government to speak of prudent monetary policy, but in practice has been relaxed," says the analyst. To Flassbeck, UNCTAD, the most affected will be emerging as the three major economies - Europe, USA and Japan - are almost recession. The results were less bad in the U.S. in the third quarter as consumers started to use the savings. In Japan, the consensus is that the stimuli for recovery of the tsunami disaster are already running out. And in Europe, the summit last week hit more spending cuts, which "makes the situation worse" in emerging countries The Institute of International Finance (IIF) continues to project strong growth in domestic demand in emerging markets in 2012-13. Much of the force is "a long-term process of economic convergence." Emerging economies are in the process of growing middle class. Forrester's "Three Social Thunderstorms" At LeWeb I didn't attend LeWeb this year, but judging by the chatter, one of the more discussed talks was given by Forrester's CEO, George Colony who outlined three "thunderstorms" approaching the tech & business world. I just finished watching his talk, and thought it would be interesting to outline portions of his talk with my take layered on it: Thunderstorm 1: The Death of The Web You'll have to watch the video (above) to grasp the full intricacies of what George is putting forth, but essentially he's making a call that app economies which have the potential to tap both processing power and the cloud, will change the Web and move it away from a network/browser model to something which leverages devices, apps and the cloud in a more powerful way. My Take: Scale & Sustainability vs. Experience I get what George is saying and claiming the death of anything gets headlines, but really what this will likely come down to is user experience vs. sustainability and scale. Apps already show promise of providing better experiences than browser/network, but a question remains how scalable it is for enterprises vs. consumers. While HTML 5 is already working on a more stable browser experience, apps are often dependent on OS systems. What's more probable is that the Web as we know it doesn't die—but loses dominance in the consumer area specifically. For businesses specifically, the demand will be formed around what model scales and can be sustained globally over time. Thunderstorm 2: Social Saturation Social is running out of hours and people meaning there is finite demand to meet the current glut of social start-ups and networks competing for our attention, usage and loyalty. As a result, we are moving into a "post social" world in which we see the demise of platforms like Foursquare which don't offer enough value to survive. The post social web will see new or evolved players who offer efficiency and value. My Take: Value Is In The Eye of The Beholder I think George is right on the bubble assessment but claiming that social platforms will move away from the Foursquare's of the world to platforms which offer concrete effiiencies and value is debatable. Both Twitter and Facebook emerged and evolved as different tools from which they started. Essentially the free market will demand what happens here, but it is likely that the ones who succeed will look more like a Kickstarter over yet another photo/location sharing network. Thunderstorm 3: The Enterprise George cited that 72 percent of enterprises are either interested in or already implementing social technologies as part of how their business operates. He cited a number of players in the enterprise space such as Salesforce, IBM and Microsoft and hinted that these could evolve and new players could emerge as well. He also noted that one of the core reasons enterprises are interested in social has a lot to do with their customers (the primary focus of enterprise social as he puts it). My Take: Social Business George isn't just talking about the internal social enterprise, he's talking about extracting business value from social, like more efficient employees, better business decisions made from data and data analysis, and improved products and services Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 100
- 101. informed by customersto give a few examples. Most organizations are in their infancy of figuring out how to get real value from a newly connected environment and I agree that it's going to take a changing of the guard over time but there are massive opportunities. He's essentially describing social business, which over the next 10 years will need to be executed upon. David Armano: Six Social Media Trends for 2012 Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at mypredictions from last year. How'd I do? Not bad. Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint studyfrom Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO's label social as a high priority. I was also partially accurate in predicting that Google would "strike back" in 2011. They did, with Google Plus, a formidable initiative that acts as Google's "social layer" to the Web. Part social network and part social search, Google Plus has industry observers scratching their heads, wondering if Facebook will be given a run for their money or if the service evolves into something complimentary in a highly social Web. I had one big swing-and-miss on Facebook's intrusion in the location-based services war. While Facebook still supports location tracking in a number of ways, it has not put Foursquare out of business. Foursquare still enjoys a niche audience of highly active participants who enjoy telling the world where they are and post pictures to prove it. It is however worth noting that Facebook recently acquired location based network Gowalla, so continue to watch this space. So what can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order: Convergence Emergence. For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with "real life," we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could "swipe" their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino's Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of "trans- media" experiences are likely to define "social" in the year to come. The Cult of Influence. In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout's attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we'll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to "score" digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it. Gamification Nation. No we're not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It's likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company's digital leaderboard. Social Sharing. Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don't know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it. Social Television. For many of us, watching television is already a social act, whether it's talking to the person next to you, or texting, tweeting, and calling friends about what you're watching. But television is about to become a social experience in a bigger and broader sense. The X Factor nowallows voting via Twitter and highlights other social promotions, which encourages viewers to tap social networks while they watch. Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can "check-in" to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows. The Micro Economy. Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the "inventor" takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 101
- 102. into hotels andtravelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions. These are a few emerging trends which come to mind. As with anything, looking to the past often gives us clues for what may come in the future. Please weigh in with your thoughts: where do you see "social" going in 2012? 5 Ways to Spot a Bad Boss In An Interview A boss can literally, make or break your career. Here are five ways to spot the bad ones before they become yours. A great boss can make you feel engaged and empowered at work, will keep you out of unnecessary office politics, and can identify and grow your strengths. But a bad boss can make the most impressive job on paper (and salary) quickly unbearable. Not only will a bad boss make you dislike at least 80% of your week, your relationships might suffer, too. A recent study conducted at Baylor University found that stress and tension caused by an abusive boss ―affects the marital relationship and subsequently, the employee’s entire family.‖ Supervisor abuse isn’t always as blatant as a screaming temper tantrum; it can include taking personal anger out on you for no reason, dismissing your ideas in a meeting, or simply, being rude and critical of your work, while offering no constructive ways to improve it. Whatever the exhibition of bad boss behavior, your work and personal life will suffer. Merideth Ferguson, PH.D., co-author of the study and assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Baylor explains that ―it may be that as supervisor abuse heightens tension in the relationship, the employee is less motivated or able to engage in positive interactions with the partner and other family members.‖ There are many ways to try and combat the effects of a bad boss, including confronting him or her directly to work towards a productive solution, suggesting that you report to another supervisor, or soliciting the help of human resources. But none of those tactics gurantee improvement, and quite often, they’ll lead to more stress. The best solution is to spot a bad boss— before they become yours! Here are five ways to tell whether your interviewer is a future bad boss. 1. Pronoun usage. Performance consultant John Brubaker says that the top verbal tell a boss can gives is in pronoun choice and the context it is used. If your interviewer uses the term ―you‖ in communicating negative information ( such as, ―you will deal with a lot of ambiguity‖), don’t expect the boss to be a mentor. If the boss chooses the word ―I‖ to describe the department’s success—that’s a red flag. If the interviewer says ―we‖ in regards to a particular challenge the team or company faced, it may indicate that he or she deflects responsibility and places blame. 2. Concern with your hobbies. There is a fine line between genuine relationship building, and fishing for information, so use your discretion on this one. If you have an overall good impression of the potential boss it may be that he or she is truly interested in the fact that you are heavily involved in charity work, and is simply getting to know you. On the other hand, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether you have too many commitments outside of work. The interviewer can’t legally ask if you are married, or have kids, so digging into your personal life can be a clever way to understand just how available you are. 3. They’re distracted. The era of email, Blackberries and smartphones have made it ―okay‖ for people to develop disrespectful communication habits in the name of work. Particularly in a frenzied workplace, reading email while a person is speaking, multi-tasking on conference calls and checking the message behind that blinking Blackberry mid-conversation has become the norm of business communications. But, regardless of his or her role in the company, the interviewer should be striving to make a good impression—which includes shutting down tech tools to give you undivided attention. If your interviewer is glancing at emails while you’re speaking, taking phone calls, or late to the interview, don’t expect a boss who will make time for you. 4. They can’t give you a straight answer. Caren Goldberg, Ph.D. is an HR professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University. She says a key ―tell‖ is vague answers to your questions. Listen for pauses, awkwardness, or overly-generic responses when you inquire what happened to the person who held the position you are interviewing for, and/or what has created the need to hire. (For example, if you are told the person was a ―bad fit,‖ it may indicate that the workplace doesn’t spend much time on employee-development, and blames them when things don’t work out). You should also question turnover rates, how long people stay in given roles, and what their career path has been. All of these answers can indicate not only if the boss is one people want to work for, but whether pay is competitive, and employees are given a career growth plan. 5. They’ve got a record. Ask the potential boss how long he or she has been at the company, in the role, and where he or she worked before coming to it to get a feel for his or management style, and whether it’s what you respond to. For example, bosses making a switch from a large corporation to a small company may lead with formality. On the other hand, entrepreneurs tend to be passionately involved in business, which can be a help or a hindrance, depending on your workstyle. Goldberg also recommends searching the site eBossWatch, where you read reviews that former employees have given to a boss. If you’re serious about the position, she also suggests reaching to the former employee whose spot you are interviewing for, and asking for their take on the workplace. (LinkedIn makes this task easy to do). The former employee’s recount may not necessarily reflect your potential experience, but it can help you to determine whether his or her description of the job and company ―jives‖ with what the potential boss said. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 102
- 103. Web no celularé o maior desejo das classes C, D e E Brasileiro quer web mobile FOTO: Folha O que as classes C, D e E mais gostariam de ter no celular? A considerar uma pesquisa encomendada pelaFolha de S.Paulo à Plano CDE, a resposta está na internet. A consultoria entrevistou 891 pessoas ao redor do país, com renda familiar até R$ 3.181 por mês. Setenta e oito porcento delas disseram que, se recebessem um aumento de R$ 500, gostariam de poder se conectar via celular. Ter um tocador de MP3 no aparelhos é o segundo item mais desejado, alcançando 73%. Depois vem câmera fotográfica (71%), Bluetooth (70%), filmadora (69%), acesso a e-mails (64%), SMS (63%), TV (60%) e rádio (53%). A maior parte das pessoas consultadas tem a câmera fotográfica dos aparelhos como função principal (70%), seguida pelo SMS (68%), o tocador de MP3 (65%), o Bluetooth (61%) e a câmera filmadora (61%). Então aparecem rádio (52%), acesso a e-mails (40%), internet (35%) e jogos (24%). Why I Hire People Who Fail A few weeks ago, I wrote about avoiding social media failures. I briefly mentioned our company's "Failure Wall" and was surprised by the number of comments and questions I received about it. What's the purpose? How does it work? And what other kinds of things do you do in that crazy office of yours? The failure wall was part of our efforts to create a company culture where employees can take risks without fear of reprisal. As NPR's Here and Now reported earlier this year, we started by collecting inspirational quotes about failure. Among my favorites: "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." – Winston Churchill "I have not failed, I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work." – Thomas Edison "Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life." – Sophia Loren One random Thursday night, I returned to our corporate headquarters afterhours with a bottle of wine and a box of acrylic paints. My assistant and I used stencils to paint about three dozen such quotes onto a large white wall in our break room. As first time stencilers, this project itself seemed destined to end up a byline on the (slightly gloppy) failure wall until we gratefully accepted some much-needed painting assistance from my wife. After we finished painting around 1:00AM, we fastened a dozen Sharpies to the wall alongside these simple instructions: (1) describe a time when you failed, (2) state what you learned, and (3) sign your name. To set the tone, I listed three of my own most memorable (and humbling) failures. In the beginning, the wall was met with surprise, curiosity and a bit of trepidation. We didn't ask anyone to contribute and we didn't tell people why it was there, but the wall quickly filled up. Some of the entries are life lessons: "After 7 years of practicing, I quit playing violin in high school to fit in. Lesson learned — who cares what other people think." Some are financial mishaps: "I thought buying Yahoo at $485 a share was a good idea." Many are self-deprecating: "My successful failure is working in online marketing when I came to LA to work in showbiz." Some are more than a little amusing: "I thought it was spelled 'fale.'" Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 103
- 104. I've said thisbefore but it bears repeating: success by failure is not an oxymoron. When you make a mistake, you're forced to look back and find out exactly where you went wrong, and formulate a new plan for your next attempt. By contrast, when you succeed, you don't always know exactly what you did right that made you successful (often, it's luck). We don't just encourage risk taking at our offices: we demand failure. If you're not failing every now and then, you're probably not advancing. Mistakes are the predecessors to both innovation and success, so it is important to celebrate mistakes as a central component of any culture. This kind of culture can only be created by example — it won't work if it's forced or contrived. A lively culture is nebulous, indefinable, ever-changing. Try to package it in a formal mission statement and you just may suffocate it. The best way to shape culture is of course to focus on hiring the people who will ultimately make up that culture. Yet this is often overlooked, replaced with corporate values, slogans, and mission statements. It took billions of years to create and define all of the world's great cultures — through failure after failure — so it is with arrogance alone that we executives think we can create and define one for our company. To be blunt, cultures are not created or defined by executives; they evolve around the people who make up a company. I personally interview every candidate at our corporate headquarters. By the time a prospective employee's resume reaches my desk, the department heads are convinced that the candidate can do the job. But for each person we end up hiring, I still end up interviewing countless other highly qualified candidates who were vying for the job. I'm mainly looking for cultural fit, and there is no more important job for a CEO. If we hadn't hired people who cherish failures, my entries on the failure wall would be very lonely. Often when interviewing, I poke around and see if I can get the candidate to acknowledge a failure. It's a red flag to me if a candidate can't admit a mistake with a bit of self-deprecating humor. The tendency to dodge direct questions with a Miss America-style answer may indeed be a great asset to someone else's company, but it's not a great fit for success at mine. Augmented Reality Apps Are The New QR Codes Last holiday season, QR codes, those pixilated packets of information, were everywhere. This season, they’re being out-shined by augmented reality (AR). AR is finally going mainstream, but is it ready for the public? And are we ready for it?? Augmented reality consumer applications have been around for a while— about as long as QR codes — and now that a majority of Americans have smartphones to access the technology, it has the potential to take off. Notice we say ―potential.‖ Millennials are the tech-savviest generation yet, and even they are struggling with these new-fangled consumer enticements. There’s a learning curve. In the case of both QR codes and AR, the user needs to first download an app to their phone to read the images. Once they have figured that out, they need to activate the app, focus on the particular image, and, in the case of AR, the app will generate an overlay presenting information or entertainment over the phone’s camera image. For example, this season Starbucks has winter images on its cups, and, using its AR app, coffee drinkers can bring the characters on the cup to life. Users can play with a friendly fox and watch ice skaters glide around their screens. It all sounds Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 104
- 105. pretty cool, right?But AR apps and QR codes aren’t winning over consumers, though they are getting plenty of media attention. In both cases, the technology can be a barrier. Even when Millennials realize they need to have an app to access AR features, they don’t always want to take the time to find the app and download it to their phone unless they know the payoff will be worth it. If they do download it and it doesn’t work as expected, their frustration mounts and they may avoid AR in the future. I’ve had issues with Starbucks’ app — it tells me to hold the phone steadier (after drinking strong coffee!) or to place the cup in brighter lighting — all just to see an animated critter romp around my screen. I finally gave up after spending far too much time fiddling with it. As a novelty, AR works to get customers interested (I don’t usually go to Starbucks, but wanted to test out the app), but there’s a danger that the user experience will fall flat and fail to improve one’s impression of the brand in the end. It will take more than novelty for Millennials to bother to use AR on a regular basis. Some companies are making strides in the right direction. Macy’s, which has also made extensive use of QR codes, launched an AR program this year tied to the popular holiday newspaper editorial, ―Yes, Virginia.‖ When shoppers are in the store, they can use the app to let kids interact with animated characters from the story. But Macy’s took it a step further, building in a mechanism to let the users snap photos of the kids with Virginia, not only to have a memento of the experience but also to then send the pictures as a holiday e-card to family and friends. Chobani yogurt launched an AR app at the same time it introduced its new kid-oriented line, Chobani Champions. Using the Champlify app, the product lid activates special AR games. But it’s not a one-off experience; kids can play the AR games to earn points and trophies, and the app has other fun activities that take advantage of smartphone technology that kids can do without needing a yogurt lid or AR, which means they can play anytime. It’s that sort of thoughtfully planned app that users will keep on their phones and come back to, rather than deleting it once the novelty has worn off. When Millennials adopt new technology, they need to see how it fits in to their lives to make things more convenient or more fun. Social media made it easier to connect with friends, streaming video lets them enjoy entertainment on their own schedules, but in most instances, AR has yet to prove its usefulness. Apps like LocalScope and Layar that are designed to help users find nearby points of interest are more difficult to use than Yelp. Most AR apps designed for entertainment are, so far, very limited, and nowhere near as fun as the regular games and videos available for smartphones. AR will draw Millennials’ attention based on the curiosity factor alone and can help build brand awareness, but brands need to put AR to work more wisely if they want deeper, more enduring engagement with customers. Top Trends To Keep In Mind In '12: Mediapost Engage Moms Lolita Carrico A new year is upon us – and with it comes the pundits with their predictions about trends and what to expect in the upcoming year. Since I’ve been in the trenches planning Q1 initiatives for clients, I’m sharing with my thoughts about moms, their top concerns, and the trends we marketers should anticipate when looking forward to 2012. But before we touch on the trends for 2012, let’s recap the highlight of 2011 which will continue to play a big role in the New Year. The most significant trend in ’11 has to be the incredible jump in smartphone usage among moms. In 2009, only 22% of moms owned a smartphone. That figure jumped to 62% this year: a whopping two-thirds of moms now own a smartphone and the device is quickly becoming her primary ―screen‖ since she’s always on the go. In 2012, marketers will need to focus on how to effectively reach mom on her smartphone in meaningful and relevant ways. Most importantly, the key will be to rise above what is quickly becoming as cluttered as the web is now. A word of caution: push notifications have the potential to be the new ―pop-up‖ ad. Make sure this very effective touchpoint is managed wisely. Ok, so on to the subject at hand: 1. Bargain Hunting: As I’ve mentioned before, ―never pay retail‖ has become the mantra for moms. They’ve demonstrated their prowess in finding deals using favorite social media and mobile tools. Mom won’t pay full-price without first exhausting her resources – of which there are many. If Amazon’s brilliant campaign to push users out of stores and to the web with discounts as a lure is any indication, the trend to use bargains that shift and maintain loyalty will be important in 2012. 2. Going Green: The green movement isn’t new however in years past, moms have considered ―going green‖ cost prohibitive (remember the term ―Whole Paycheck‖?), so the trend appealed to a wealthier demographic. Today, Moms realize that ―going green‖ doesn’t mean breaking the bank. Continued education and messaging that green living goes hand-in-hand with a budget-conscious lifestyle will be big in 2012. On the flip side, when it comes to food, moms are willing to spend more -- especially since they’re working hard to save money elsewhere. More than three-quarters (78%) of U.S. families now purchase some organic foods and 48% of parents believe that organic products ―are healthier for me and my children‖ – so they’re paying more for those Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 105
- 106. products. We’ll continueto see shifts away from overly processed items and artificial ingredients and increased spending on healthier foods. 3. Education and Technology: As the debate over the quality of our school systems continues, more and more moms are turning to external supplements to enhance their children’s education. Number one of the list of teaching aids? Technology. Tablets and the infinite number of educational apps available on them, as well as game-changing resources like KhanAcademy.org (touted by Bill Gates as being on the leading edge of education), are taking the place of tutors and creating significant waves in the way we teach. In 2012, smart marketers will continue to connect the dots between technology and education to address the movement towards the rethinking of the way we educate our children. 2012 has the potential to be one of the biggest years yet as far as significant shifts in the way moms interact with brands and how they spend their hard-earned, but plentiful dollars. Brands can be integral in those shifts as long as they engage with moms respectfully, smartly and in meaningful ways. 10 Strategies For Building A Successful Social Business Mark Fidelman is general manager and vice president of sales for the Americas forharmon.ie, which provides email collaboration software. It becomes clearer every day that corporations are facing some major decisions. They can either choose to be social or stick with the status quo. They can either throw out the stuffy, traditional business playbook and adapt to the needs of today’s socially connected consumers, or risk extinction. Faced with adapt-or-die decisions, shareholders are counting on executives to integrate social technologies with corporate culture in order to meet the expectations of their customers. An integration plan that includes technology, people and strategy. Unfortunately, the social enterprise is but a fantasy for most CEO’s, which is why there will be considerable executive turnover in the next few years. Whatever the reason, CEOs appear not to notice how their current and future customers are trampling over the old playbook, and rewriting it with their own rules – rules that shift power to the consumer. The few that are paying attention, the visionaries, recognize that in order to adapt to their customers’ needs, they must restructure their organization to anticipate and deliver value on their customers’ terms. They are, in effect, preparing for the future social workplace. But why are the visionaries preparing for tomorrow’s workplace while the rest are left confused about whether the social enterprise is the right model? Well, for one, the playbook hasn’t been written. Second, most of the old guard do not have the will to restructure their companies (heck yes, change is difficult). Third, the ROI models are just starting to show results – which the late adopters need to fuel their investment in change. Still, the visionaries are playing offense, snapping up social playmakers and training others. They recognize where the proverbial puck is headed, and they’ve made plans. Here are 10 strategic plays based on interviews we’ve conducted with over 20 social business visionaries: #1: Replace Traditional Marketing with Content Marketing As we well know, traditional marketing via TV, radio and print is slowly disappearing. It’s failing because consumers are tired of the one-way broadcast. Instead, people want interaction and the chance to develop a relationship with the brand. Enter Content Marketing. Content created on SlideShare, YouTube, Flickr and corporate blogs is all easily shareable and interactive. Your TV is not. Online content is portable, traceable, findable and can be more effective in the long tail of context. Print media is not. Smart visionaries are publishing high value content directly to its database of customers and in turn their social networks. #2: Recruit a Chief Social Evangelist Earlier in the year I wrote about why every company needs a Robert Scoble. That Scoble personifies the type of individual every company should have onstaff. His formula is simple. Produce or share quality content with his legions of followers in order to create what psychologists call the herd effect. Admittedly, the visionaries are having trouble finding the right mix of social evangelist and industry expert. Some are training their current staff to be more social, while others are bringing in outsiders and training them on the industry. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 106
- 107. Interestingly, once theevangelist is on board, the visionaries realized they needed to strip their public relations department of their censorship duties. Social evangelists can’t be effective when every time they speak into the virtual microphone they’re met with PR interference and a diluted message. ―It’s all about speed and getting content out there and not, we got to get PR or legal to review this and wait 24 hours to move forward,‖ emphasizes, Dell’s Chief Blogger, Lionel Menchaca. #3: Become Your Own Media Publisher If the old traditional marketing playbook consists of X’s, O’s, and dotted lines, the new playbook resembles a rich tapestry of company-generated content, designed to engage their customers. The visionaries are creating and self-publishing the tapestry of content, because now it’s viewed as a strategic asset. They now put as much thought and design into content as they do their products and services. And the visionaries are assigning the Chief Social Evangelist to anchor the program, backed by a team of social reporters and a camera person. That is why the visionaries are scaling back their PR efforts. Ostensibly it’s to save money, but some whisper it’s because they can’t connect the dots to revenue like they can with socialized content. Instead, visionaries are enlisting industry thought leaders to tell their brand’s story. #4: Use Social Analytics to Drive Key Strategic Decisions The visionaries are not measuring success by the number of press articles and earned media; they are measuring the impact and reach of each link, image, video and web page of every piece of content. And that’s just the beginning. Most of the visionaries are also setting up social listening and response war rooms to monitor conversations about their brand. They measure their product and brand sentiment, answer customer support questions, and listen to who is saying what about how their products and services are being used to detect patterns. Paul Cole, Vice President of Customer Operations Management at Cap Gemini used this approach to detect a new purchasing pattern for a global furniture retailer. ―It was a completely unknown, unrecognized pattern that allowed our client to then shape communications to target and appeal to people who are looking to buy birthday presents, boosting revenue as a result.‖ Unlike the traditional means of measuring advertising or PR, social analytics will also make tomorrow easier to predict. Symantec’s Senior Manager of Digital Strategy, Tristan Bishop explains, ―At the end of every day, we use a summary dashboard to report out social metrics and share these reports based on sentiment trends by product, influencers and engagement.‖ They use that data to make predictions about their customers, competitors and product offerings. #5: Chief Marketing and Sales Officers will be Social or Become Obsolete Earlier in the year I surveyed the Fortune 100 and found only 15 of the CMOs/CCOs had twitter accounts. Unfortunate, since the primary owners of Social lay with the marketing team. Social absence also appears to be the case for VPs of Sales and Chief Revenue/Sales Officers. The reason CMO’s need to be social is because traditional marketing has become less effective as people search for dialogue, and it will eventually be replaced with content marketing, brand communities, social campaigns and thought leadership. They’ll need to adapt quickly. For sales leaders, all business interest generated by marketing will need direct follow up and engagement. Sales will be more collaborative and do less traditional selling with prospects in order to solve their problems and drive revenue. A sales leader that doesn’t understand the new social model will be unemployable. #6. Engage External Communities Formed Around Your Brand’s Value Proposition The most significant opportunities for converting prospective customers into sales opportunities lie in solving the business problems of an industry. Now, and more so in the future, industry- specific communities are forming in part to help other members solve these same problems. Failing to participate and help to healthy communities will be detrimental to a company’s long-term business success. In the future, the health of a community will be prerequisite for a successful and growing business. Ignoring these communities and looking the other way will be reckless. A healthy business and a sick community are not compatible. #7. Invest in Social Media Training and Certification ―We got 10,000 people trained and certified in Social Media that can engage Dell customers,‖ explains Susan Beebe, Dell’s Chief Listener, ―but that’s not enough. We want to arm all of our employees with the information they need to have relevant conversations with customers.‖ The days where PR and Legal control external conversations with customers is coming to an end. The visionaries recognize that in order to stay engaged and be responsive with customers, the old rules need to be thrown out. Social Media policies supplemented with training and certification programs will replace today’s antiquated, corporate communication rules where PR dictates who and when employees can engage with people outside the organization. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 107
- 108. #8. Deploy Social Platforms to Support Your Social Business Strategy According to the visionaries, the primary social business platforms companies are most using to support their social strategy are Microsoft’s SharePoint, Jive Software, Yammer, IBM’s Connections, Salesforce.com with Chatter and Drupal. It’s important to note that while these platforms can help enable organizations to be social, they do will not replace the need for a coherent social strategy and seamless integration ofthese tools into current processes. As these solutions evolve, the visionaries expect these platforms to better connect people with information in new andcontextual ways. Jeff Schick, VP of Social Software at IBM, expanded on this point: ―I see information being embedded or being leveraged within the context of the ways people work to socially augment messaging and real-time communication. Organizations that aggregate and create experiences for their employees in context, will be far effective in multiple dimensions of their business.‖ #9. Leverage Employees, Suppliers and Partners as Sources of Innovation It is the responsibility of business to convert information into new ideas, that is, into new solutions. And it is the irresponsible executive who doesn’t provide a frictionless platform for aggregating, discussing then bringing these ideas to market. Excuses don’t cut it anymore, as there are social business solutions like those from Spigit and BrightIdea that facilitate the ideation process. From idea generation to idea refinement and implementation, the visionaries repeatedly stress that the key to remaining competitive in a social business world is to nurture the innovation process. For example, the major innovations of the last 20 years were, to a large extent, the result of converting the new social environment — the Internet — into myriad business opportunities. This resulted from a new platform that enabled the sharing of ideas (forums, blogs, wikis), greater transparency of the success (or lack thereof) of these ideas (after all, most everything on the web is visible to everyone else on the Web), which gave rise to even better business ideas (after studying the mistakes of the previous generation). A similar system can be cultivated and made more efficient within a business. To do that, companies need to focus on the right formula for success: Software infrastructure, idea transparency, the right incentives, and internal funding to bring ideas to market. #10. Re-focus Human Resources on Human Experience Employee problems are dysfunctions of the corporation, and if left without correction, become degenerative diseases. But for the social organization, and, above all, for human resources, they represent a major source of opportunity. Here’s how. In the future workplace, human resources will focus more on developing internal communities that are supported by a social business platform. HR’s role will be to ensure the platform’s user experience, aesthetics, and collaborative elements support the HR mission of employee recruiting, satisfaction and retainment. So if analytics and sentiment about employee discontent is trending, HR can take meaningful steps to stop or learn from it. As Rachel Happe, Co-Founder & Principal, The Community Roundtable put it to me: ―Internal community management will become the human experience within an organization that parallels the digital user experience. With more interactions happening online, this is a critical competency for companies to establish.‖ So Let’s Review… The top 10 strategies for building a social business represent the most frequently cited transformations occurring within the world’s most visionary organizations. Of course, mobile will be important; so will cloud computing. Interestingly, policies around the ownership of social information created on internal social business platforms is something the visionaries are just starting to think about. Yet, much of the business community, including most mid-sized organizations, is not acting on these trends. Most businesses are proceeding on the belief that, at least as far as the future workplace goes, that it doesn’t matter — that they can count on business as usual simply because they are still profitable. But that’s not a safe assumption. Sometimes, the naysayers claim, new trends end up as fads, like Total Quality Management or Management by Consensus. But sometimes new business trends are disruptive. So disruptive that entire industries are wiped out or forced into bankruptcy. Just think about how fast the retail software, music, video and book chains have vanished. Can a similar phenomenon happen to businesses that are not listening, engaging and nurturing their employees and customers? Perhaps, but it’s less likely to occur as quickly. In reality, the visionaries are still experimenting with social business principles. But their playbooks are rapidly coming together, and they are better than yours. How to Be a Social Media Power Influencer (And Why!) Last week, in writing about the top social media influencers I was struck by the sheer scale of connectivity that leading influencers create for themselves. Chris Broganfor example has an astonishing 122,000 identifiable followers onTwitter (up from 115,000 last week) and strong followings on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google + where he has almost 67,000 followers. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 108
- 109. 60,000 people subscribeto Mari Smith’s public updates on Facebook, along with approximately 77,000 identifiable people who follow her on Twitter. Two things are remarkable about the numbers. The first is the scale. Chris Brogan has a pull or reach that is over 3,000 times more powerful than that of the average Twitter user. Mari’s reach (or social pull) is 1800 times greater than the average Twitter user’s. The second is the fact that we can identify those 122,000 people through tools like PeekYou analytics. In building a web of identifiable people we’re also moving the point of connection in business from the corporation to the person and creating more opportunities for a more individual form of captialism where the person, the networked power of the individual, is the new capital. To get a better handle on that I asked three of the social media power influencers about their network building and what it means to their businesses to have strong social media influence. The three are Mari, Pam Moore and Jason Falls. Jason is exceptional in having a very large average network size (13,000). That means the average network size of each of his followers is 13,000. Mari – with a much larger following – has an average network size of 11,000. Pam Moore with an identifiable following of around 41,000 has a reach, or social pull, approaching 1600, that is 1600 times the average Twitter user. Q: I wanted to know when they decided that this was a goal for them – to grow a powerful network: Jason Falls My focus on networking for business purposes began in earnest in late 2005 and early 2006. I was transitioning out of a niche area of public relations into mainstream marketing and PR, and social media was beginning to percolate as a subject in the broad marketing world. I’d used social media (blogging and social network platforms in particular) for personal reasons for a long time and knew my way around. As I began to add professional contacts in the mainstream world, my network began to grow. It wasn’t until late 2007, early 2008, however, that I started speaking at conferences and focusing my networking on influencers. That’s when I went from 1,000 social contacts to 5K, 10K, etc. At BlogWorld & New Media Expo in the fall of 2007, I decided to target the power players, get introduced, ensure they knew who I was and I was working with brands and knew a thing or two. Every bit of my networking since has been targeted and purposeful. Mari Smith I joined Twitter in September 2007; I was already active on Facebook about four months prior to that. At the time, I was running my business fulltime from the road, traveling the U.S. in an RV. I would share all manner of photos from my various travels and my network began to grow from there — people would tune in to find out which city I was in and what activities I was enjoying. I kept my growth milestones moderate at first, growing to my first 1,000 followers, then 2,000 and so on. I was never aggressive in pursuing followers, but I was proactive. Q: I asked what are they are most focused on? Pam Moore: I don’t like to focus on one network over the other. Instead I like to focus on an integrated strategy that leverages content to connect with audiences with a goal of meeting both life and business objectives. How I use each of the following: Blog: Provide the best possible content I can to inspire and connect with target audiences. Twitter: Enables me to reach a large network of folks who enjoy and share my content with their friends. Also enables me to build communities that are taken offline and on to other social networks for further nurturing. LinkedIn: Where people validate what I do, what I have done and who I am. Facebook: Enables me to more intimately connect with people via my personal Facebook page, business page and private groups. YouTube: Similar to my blog but in video format. It was a key success contributor while in startup mode. Google+: Similar to all of the above but enables me to connect with my most favorite, geeky friends. I get the highest number of qualified leads from LinkedIn. However, I have also received hot leads via Twitter DM and Facebook messages. I have been a member of LinkedIn for many years. I have a network size of 1700+ and know most all of the people I am connected to. I have over 50 recommendations from current and past colleagues and clients. The growth of this network has been 100% organic and a spill over from past employers, other social networks and life! Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 109
- 110. TweetChats: I host#GetRealChat on Tuesday 9pm ET. We average 12-18 million impressions for a single TweetChat. The community has grown substantially since January. We have had many guests including AT&T, Argyle Software, Klout, Webtrends, Kred, EmpireAvenue and many more. It enables me to connect with brands as well as give back to the community who has helped me. I have seen people join the tweet chat not knowing how to do a retweet. Many of these same people are now leading communities, quitting their corporate gigs to pursue a life of their dreams. MS: Facebook has always been my ―first love‖ when it comes to social networks. I proactively, but slowly, built my friends to the maximum of 5,000 over a period of approximately 18 months from 2007 to 2008. Once Facebook launched fan pages for businesses in late 2007, I also began to slowly build up a fan base. It wasn’t until 2009 that my fan page really took off, though. Now, with the recent introduction of the ―Subscribe‖ feature on personal profiles, I gathered over 60,000 subscribers in just 2.5 months and have passed the number of likes on my fan page (57k). Amazing. I’ve found the Subscribers to be the fastest growing social channel I’ve ever seen. Q: I wondered were there particular thresholds that were like waymarks where the network building started to grow or change. Mari has some interesting points to make there: MS: Yes. On my Facebook personal profile, those thresholds were at every 1,000 friends – especially given I had been very deliberate about hand-picking most all individuals with which to connect. I was deliberate in reaching out to many influencers, authors, speakers, leaders and Internet marketers. On Twitter, the threshold seemed to be 10,000 followers – once I got to that point, my growth, reach and impact was exponential. I saw some decent traction on Google+ too; I got up to 30,000 followers fairly quickly (less than three months), but am still testing how G+ fits into the mix for my social media marketing plans. Q: I also asked what are the business gains from having this scale of network? JF: Credibility is the big thing. CEOs of some companies will call me back. Marketing managers of brands who pay a bit of attention to Social MediaExplorer will take my calls. I’m not cold calling if they at least know my name. Micro-celebrity does have some benefits. Being recognized and given a head start on credibility is one of them. PM: 1. 24/7 Market Research: One known fact about social media is there is always someone to talk to. I love the power of real- time conversation. If you have a question about anything, even at 2 am on a Saturday night you are guaranteed to get a handful of solid opinions and suggestions within a few minutes at the tweet deck! 2. Agility: Having an always on engaged network provides agility in brand awareness and time to market with new products or business ventures. As an example, our agency ZoomFactor is experiencing much growth as a result of social media. We have a new business partner and are excited about how agile and accepting our audience is as we transition our brand and launch new services. We take them along with us each step of the way. 3. Ability to establish authority. Because of the reach a solid network provides, it’s easier to establish authority in a specific topic or content area. This of course assumes you have knowledge and real authority on the content area. 4. Trusted Voice: Our ability to walk the walk, not just talk the talk helps us close deals and earn trust of new clients based on proven methodologies. By earning our clients trust earlier in the engagement cycle, we can more easily help them become a social business and integrate social media into their business versus simply hiring us to setup their Facebook page (which is what they usually initially think they need). th 5. Hang with the right peeps. I always say that if you hang with 9 brokes you’re going to wind up being the 10 ! It’s important people new to social media hang out with people who are going places. Don’t sit on your lonely Facebook page wishing someone would ―like‖ and talk to you. Instead get out there and engage. MS: Three primary benefits that I enjoy: 1) the ability to help people out, share their content, and bring a spike in traffic to a quality post, new resource or tool, 2) greater opportunities to participate in – and speak at – online and in-person events around the world, and 3) early invitations to beta test new platforms, tools, and apps. Is there much network crossover, i.e. people following you from Twitter to elsewhere? JF: People who follow me on Twitter inevitably try to connect with me elsewhere. I’m more choosy on other networks — I want high quality connections, not just passing acquaintances — but I have a fairly low threshold for who’s worth connecting to. I like being connected to a lot of people. It helps you drive more action when you need to. MS: Absolutely. I intentionally cross promote across my various social channels. At times, I’ll tweet out a permalink from a Google+ post to bring more people over to my Google+ profile. I do the same with the permalink of a post on my Facebook fan page from time to time. I often say to my clients and students that, of all the social networks, Twitter is the easiest to proactively grow. Even though the relationships are non-reciprocal, when you follow people the majority will follow you back. Whereas on a Facebook page, it can be much slower to gain momentum – the act of liking other pages doesn’t create an increase in your own likes. Page owners need to be creative in building a highly engaged community in order to grow their network. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 110
- 111. Advice to newbies? PM:Focus on the people. Relationships are the life raft of evolving technology change. Focus on the art of social media over the science. Knowledge of the tools will come with time. Network growth will come with time. Invest your efforts in connecting to real people, one person at a time. Focus on the heartbeat of social which is real people. JF: Make sure you’ve got substance to stand on. You can be popular and know everyone, but when they start reading your materials, asking you to speak at events, look at your experience … if there’s little there to speak of, you’re going to be just another follower to them. You’ve got to have a foundation of experience, wisdom, smarts, clients or something to solidify yourself with influencers in your field. Then you can become one yourself. Those without substance don’t last long. MS: Be active every single day, if only for a few minutes a day. (Okay, you can take Sundays off if you wish, but that’s often a very active day on social networks. Plus, Sunday is Monday on the other side of the world!) During that time, 1) share quality content, 2) engage back, and 3) proactively friend/follow a few more people. You can always do this via your mobile device when away from your desk. Beyond The Dashboard: Online Advocacy And Offline Sales ADOTAS – It’s the dirtiest secret in marketing today: As marketers, we know social networks and engagement have revolutionized the way individuals evaluate and engage with brands – and ultimately choose what to buy. And as marketers, we’re terrified. Social media — from blogs and forums to networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — have inserted a very powerful force into the buying process: peer-to-peer dialogue on a network scale. While shoppers always have been able to talk with a few friends and family members to seek out a product recommendation, today they can talk with experts on a specific product or service anywhere in the world. They can find reviews of their prospective purchase in just seconds online and rapidly compare features and prices for competing brands. So where does the terror enter the mix? How do you measure and quantify these discussions? Where are the most important conversations taking place within the social grid, and how can marketers keep on top – let alone activate – the same? The sheer pace of digital innovation has made it difficult for marketers to feel proactive and confident about how to measure progress and what really matters to their brand portfolio. Furthering the fear factor is one matter of the discussion that may not be on the new marketing radar. My company MotiveQuest’s analysis finds that as many as 90 percent of online conversations are not about brands at all — they are about categories and the motivations that drive people within those categories. Dashboards and other numerical ways of measuring favor in social media may help in calculating a brand’s reach, but marketers must dig deeper to learn what consumers actually are thinking and what really will persuade consumers to buy. Marketers then need to try to connect their brands to those specific motivations. Dashboards won’t provide the intelligence that marketers need to capitalize on motivations in the marketplace — only listening where the conversations are really happening and analyzing the motivations behind the words — will do that. Stop Asking and Start Listening The best and only valid way to measure what is driving the market is to stop asking questions and start listening to conversations. In this new social environment, we can actually observe the buying behavior of consumers, rather than merely asking them about their behavior. We can measure if, how and why people are talking about a product. Instead of asking them if they like it, we can measure the positive or negative words and context they are using. Perhaps of greatest importance, we can observe individuals as they make recommendations to friends, acquaintances or even strangers in a group or forum. It turns out, not surprisingly, that the sorts of things people talk about around the kitchen table are the same sorts of things they talk about online. Of course, social media conversations are just a sample of all conversations, but online forums enable us to overhear those networked conversations, which were already happening but which we had no way of listening in on before. A Stunning Discovery We have previously noted the motivations that drive conversations in social networks are the real treasure to be mined by marketers, because the more we explore online conversations and reveal the motivations that are common to all of us, the more effectively we can position our brand, and ourselves, to be unique. But the consequences of examining motivations extend beyond brand positioning — they can be a precise and predictable indicator of future sales. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 111
- 112. To understand thecorrelation between social media and sales, we must first determine which aspects of online conversations we should measure. Five years ago, MotiveQuest began working with statisticians at Northwestern University to examine all the components of these conversations and attempt to find the most impactful elements. Our simple goal was to determine which elements in online conversations have the biggest influence on sales and market share. We looked at correlations and metrics related to such factors as the number of times a brand is mentioned, likeability of the product or service, and the power of influencers. We uncovered what ultimately became a stunning discovery: The highest correlation — and a direct, measurable correlation – between social-media conversations and offline sales occurred when people online went out of their way to pick a brand and recommend it to a friend. Statements like, ―I would recommend the iPhone‖ — rather than, ―You might like the iPhone, Samsung or Nokia brands‖ — led to precise correlations with offline sales. We began to linguistically pull together all the ways people talk about recommendations, and from these cues we developed an Online Promoter Score, an index of the strength of the online community’s recommendation of a brand. The Best Metric of a Brand’s Health The most important, unalterable finding that we drew from listening to and scoring the ways people recommend products is that these recommendations — actual advocacy of a brand in online conversations — continue to correlate with offline sales in virtually every category. The type of product doesn’t matter; in these conversations, only the level of advocacy influences sales. The best metric of a brand’s health in online conversation, we were able to declare, is advocacy — the number of individuals actively promoting the brand. Note that advocacy measures the number of individuals making recommendations, not the number of conversations. And further, understand that advocacy, not sentiment, offers the highest correlation with changes in market sales or shares. Finally, metrics must be based on insights — and insights are not gathered through an automated process; rather, they are developed by applying hard work, thought and analysis. In our research for a national financial services company, we measured the number advocated a particular brand to other people. Among those who discussed more than one brand, we assigned a score to their most favored brand. Our analysis showed, with statistical significance, that people’s willingness to advocate for the brand online is a leading indicator of the brand’s new-customer acquisition. Even in relatively low-interest, low-engagement categories like personal finance, then, what people say online allows us to predict shifts in consumer behavior offline. A Canary in the Coalmine for Market Shifts All this is not to say that the correlation between online advocacy and offline sales means that online advocacy necessarily causes increased sales. What it does mean is that advocacy is an indicator of the offline and other unmeasured conversations that are going on around a product. The Online Promoter Score is the canary in the coalmine for brands, telling us something is going on in the real world, as well as in online conversations, that is boosting sales or forcing them to plummet. The power of listening for recommendations produced astonishing results for Sprint, the phone carrier. Sprint was losing a steady stream of customers to rivals AT&T, Verizon and TMobile, but it didn’t know why. MotiveQuest launched a project for Sprint designed to find the reason and the solution. We built custom linguistic models to understand the essence of the conversation about the company online, categorizing those who posted their opinions in social media as current or former Sprint customers. We then aggregated carrier advocacy conversations — messages in which one brand was being actively recommended over another — to learn what drove recommendations and retention. We discovered that customers had three primary reasons for staying loyal to a carrier: 1. Customer service 2. Models 3. Coverage Sprint trailed competitors in all three areas. The company determined that its best opportunity resided in upgrading its customer service; we discovered that it was the biggest driver of carrier advocacy, ahead of models and coverage. Sprint implemented a number of initiatives to revamp customer service, including the retooling of its programs and rewriting scripts for call centers based on the consumer expectations revealed in our research. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 112
- 113. Subsequently, a ConsumerReports satisfaction survey of carriers ranked Sprint second, and five months later, the American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Sprint first in customer service. Most importantly, after listening to the advocacy conversations, Sprint’s reinvigorated customer service efforts pulled in 644,000 net subscribers in a single quarter, an astonishing turnaround from its loss of 565,000 during the same period the previous year. Six months later, it added 1.1 million net new customers in a quarter. The Secret of Boosting Online Advocacy What, then, is the secret to boosting online advocacy for your brand? Above all, consider ways to create products and services that are remarkable; inherently, that’s the best way to ensure people remark on them to each other. Social networks turbo-charge this process, accelerating good products to the forefront and quickly killing off products that are disappointments. For your product to become remarkable, you should attach it to a core passion or movement in the marketplace in a three- step process: • First, identify what your best customers are most passionate about. • Then, figure out how you can be useful around that passion — how you become part of the movement. • Finally, create buzz-worthy products and services that help serve the passion. For instance, Apple created MacWorld, a conference that is little short of a religion for its advocates. MacWorld is a movement. Connect your brand to a passion, something people care about at their core, and you create the foundation for advocacy that can lead to higher sales offline and improved market share. How Online Publishers Should Approach Mobile Ad Networks (With Caution) Lets Not Make The Same Mistakes In Mobile That The Content Industries Did On The Web Mobile networks are different than the Internet. Mobile networks know who we are, and mobile networks know where we are. This is not something sinister. This is something that is absolutely necessary so that mobile networks can do the job they were created to do – reach us with phone calls and text message any place in the world that we happen to be. Mobile networks also differ from the Internet in that they are privately owned (ie: Sprint, Verizon Communications, AT&T and T-Mobile). And because they are privately owned, the endpoints of the network are controlled by, and visible to, the network owners. We enter into contracts with these network owners and they supply us with devices that have a unique number. These unique numbers can be directly associated with individual people – you and I. These devices can also be located geographically by triangulation between cell towers, or with even greater precision by using the Global Positioning System. On the Internet, in sharp contrast to mobile, anyone can buy a computer and connect it to the network without the involvement of our Internet Service Provider. And unlike mobile networks, the devices we choose to connect to the Internet betray little or nothing about who we are, or where we are. As mobile networks have increased in speed and capacity, and feature phones have been obsolesced by Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, mobile has emerged as a powerful distribution channel for content publishers. In fact, because mobile now looks and feels so much like the Web, content publishers have quite naturally presumed that mobile will accommodate an advertising model that mimics the model on the Web. Yet demand for mobile advertising from premium brands is not keeping up with increased utilization of mobile websites and applications. As a result, many publishers are being tempted to turn their inventory over to mobile advertising networks for monetization. A word of advice: Before we rush to embrace the introduction of ad networks in mobile, let's remember the lessons learned on the web. Any website with a direct sales force can attest to the value destruction wrought by the intermediation of online advertising networks. Even worse than the collapse of pricing power, the early and widespread utilization of ad networks by online publishers facilitated the insertion of intermediariesinto the online advertising ecosystem. Trading on user data, these opaque third parties now run rampant and have necessitated a self-regulatory regime, which, although robust and well intentioned, may still not be enough to keep Congress out of our business. It is crucial that we not let history repeat itself in mobile. At a minimum, we must at the outset strive to replicate the self- regulatory framework that we've put in place for the web. Additionally, publishers should seize this moment to adopt a much more muscular policy toward companies trying to insert themselves between our audiences and our content on mobile platforms. If we knowingly choose to allow intermediaries to build businesses on our backs, let's take advantage of the fact that in these early days we still have the upper hand and demand some value in return. It is easy to presume that the advertising model for mobile will mimic the model on the web. But before we default to that viewpoint, wouldn't it be wise to unleash our "inner Apple" and Think Different? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 113
- 114. Let's envision anew model, where mobile isn't an isolated channel, planned and bought in a silo. Let's think of mobile as the connection point between a customer and the physical world, and make it the hub for cross-platform programs. And let's start now, while mobile advertising is still in its infancy. That way we could bypass all the intermediaries who have swamped the Web ecosystem in favor a simple direct connection between audience, media and advertiser, plugging all the data leakage holes before they are even drilled. Twitter Just Fired A Cannonball At Facebook And Google+ Twitter is revamping the service with personal Twitter profile pages, a new timeline that includes rich media and other related information embedded into tweets, and easier search for information based on @ symbols (usernames) and hash tags. Talking at Twitter's unfinished new headquarters building in San Francisco, founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo explained that the changes are meant to make Twitter more accessible to everybody. Their three goals: Expose the "universe within every tweet." Tweets aren't just 140 characters -- there's also context like retweets and replies, and embedded content like videos, images, and songs. Today, accessing this material still feels like opening a "side drawer," said Costolo. Make Twitter less obscure to use. Today, the @ and # symbols are too obscure -- people don't know what they mean. This contributes to a lot of people visiting Twitter but not really participating actively. The redesign surfaces these symbols and makes them the gateway to find out more information about people and topics on the surface. Share it with everybody. The world has 7 billion people. Most of those people are "not yet on Twitter," said Costolo. The redesign will roll out to mobile devices simultaneously, and is streamlined to load up to 500% faster. The trick is doing this without adding too much complexity. As Dorsey put it, "simplification is the key here." Here are elements: Personal profile pages. Every Twitter user will get a new profile page that contains everything about them -- all their tweets, followers, favorites, images they've uploaded, and so on. "Tell more compelling story for you." New home timeline. The new timeline page will embed everything about a particular tweet right in the tweet -- retweets, favorites, and added content. Twitter will also put an embed code into every tweet, so Web sites can take entire tweets and put them on Web pages, just as they do with YouTube videos and other content. #Discover. A new # option at the top of the page will take you to a list of interesting stories related to people you're following, or people Twitter thinks you might be interested in. (The relevance algorithm isn't that great yet -- the top two stories for me right now are about Ice Cube and Rick Perry, neither of whom I've ever followed or tweeted about.) @ names are now the shortcut to people. A new @Connect item at the top of the Twitter home page will let you see everything that is happening related to your username -- all retweets, direct messages, and so on. We're also going to snap some photos of the new HQ building, which is still a big concrete block but has a ton of potential. (Great bones, as they say in real estate.) Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 114
- 115. Twitter Announces RedesignAnd New Features On Thursday Twitter announced a new design of their blog service as well as new features. Twitter’s creator returned to the company in March as an executive. The company said that when people first signed up to use Twitter it helped them discover information of people’s interest based on their locations etc. Twittersenior executive, Satya Patel stated that it was not just a visual redesign but a conceptual one to make Twitter more accessible to billions of users. In the next few weeks the redesign of Twitter will go out globally. A section will be added to every user account on Twitter called ―Stories.‖ Stories show users content on Twitter that they may find interesting. CEO Dick Costolo said that it was the first step to start to surface rich content for people pouring into the platform for first time users. Twitter currently allows to users to broadcast message called ―Tweets‖ up to 140 characters in length. The company recently said that Twitter has over 100 million active users and the majority of its accounts are based overseas. The company now has over 700 employees who will move into the new headquarters in the middle of 2012. Twitter competes with other social networks such as Facebook. Don't Short-Sell App Engagement -- Or Video by Will Kassoy , Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011 I’m with Greg Stuart. It might surprise you that I agree with the Mobile Marketing Association CEO in his pointed criticism of negative influences that still haunt mobile marketing. He made these criticisms in mid-November at the Mobile Marketing Conference in L.A., saying that technology had not yet evolved enough to support the best consumer experience on mobile devices. I’m in this business of mobile advertising. From my point of view, banner advertising on mobile networks or within a mobile app does not fulfill the promise of this media. It clutters the user experience for an app and has terrible click through rates, most of which are caused by accidental clicks. That lacks value for an advertiser. We can do better to support the customer experience and advertiser value. We are on the edge of a transformational change in mobile advertising. Coming from a history of 20 years in brand management, I’ve seen a range of ad units in my career, but nothing compares to the effectiveness of video. The key, however, is how to present the video in an environment that is relevant, and present it to a user who is open and willing to receive that message. I believe video is a big part of the answer. Mobile marketers need a video format that delivers dynamic advertising in largely free apps where consumers are open to receiving ad messages. But we’re behind the curve. To illustrate how far behind the industry is with mobile video, I recently got an email from a prominent industry trade association for their mobile conference (not the MMA), and it included a video asset that took more than three minutes to load and buffer on my phone, before it actually froze. It was even more ironic that this marketing asset came from an industry association touting their insights for an upcoming mobile conference. Another area that causes a poor user experience in mobile is ―offer walls‖. Even though some powerful forces have worked to limit these web pages, they persist. While providing good revenues in the short term to publishers, for advertisers, they can be deceptive. Advertisers who are trying to find scale in mobile are attracted to it, but when you look at the user experience, we have found that they generally attract a consumer who’s looking to get something for free and are less valuable consumers to the advertiser in the long term. Our research has found that users are 15-26x more likely to come back to an app, engage and monetize vs. leading ―offer walls.‖ The main reasons: The right audience was served with access to the most relevant app, the video itself tells the story of the app in a way that no other medium can, and we are not incentivizing the click to download. Therefore the user experience is pure -- and advertisers are only getting engagement from users who are truly interested and engaged with their product. Offer walls persist because some app developers believe they promote affiliate offers, drive leads and increase app distribution. All of this is true to some extent. But as consumers continue to be more sophisticated about their mobile experience, the long-term cost of using offer walls must be equally weighed. The best way to promote and advertise mobile apps is by getting them in front of the right audience. Offer walls may claim to do that, but high quality mobile video ad networks will be more specific and in the end drive the best engagement. Unless you’re in the mobile business for the short term, there’s no other way to play it. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 115
- 116. Tech Trends: IncreasingTraffic With HTML5 Microdata Posted by Ben Truyman We’re going to change things up a bit for this month’s Tech Trends post. Instead of quickly discussing a handful of new trends in technology, the focus now will be on a single important topic. This month that topic is a hidden gem in HTML5 called Microdata. When we hear about the capabilities of HTML5, we typically see things like Geolocation, CSS animations, mobile-compatibility, native audio/video support, or even 3D WebGL experiences — but rarely is there any discussion about how HTML5 can help drive more traffic to websites via search engines. This is where Microdata comes in and it’s going to fundamentally change the way we discover and consume content on the web. Microdata is a component of HTML5 aimed at adding more semantics and contextual information to existing content on a page. By doing so, Microdata provides others, like search engines or browsers, with more information about the contents of a page. This allows them to handle data in new and interesting ways. For example, a product detail page may list out a product’s SKU, pricing, reviews and availability — but there’s no real way for Google’s search engine crawlers to know exactly what that information means. With Microdata, we can explicitly tell Google how much our products cost and what rating our users gave it. But why would we want to do this? Introducing Rich Snippets Have you ever used Google to find a tasty roast turkey recipe for the holidays? Or maybe you wanted to find some concert tickets at your favorite venue. You might notice Google’s not just giving you a list of blue links and descriptions for your search results — you’re seeing enhanced search results that Google is calling Rich Snippets. For recipe searches, Google will try to give you an estimated total cook time and user rating for that recipe. Not only that, but Google will let you refine recipe results by ingredients, total cook time, and even total calories. For events like concerts, Google might list out the next few upcoming acts under a search result. Often times, this extra information is being powered simply by Microdata. It’s also very important to mention that if a user does refine their search results based on Microdata (such as a recipe by ingredients), only sites using Microdata will likely appear in the results. More simply put, if you’re not using Microdata, you might not show up in a search results. So how important is this Microdata content in search results? Very important according to an eye-tracking study posted on the SEOmoz blog. In the study, eye-tracking software was used to see where users’ attention was spent most on a given search result page. The subjects of the study were asked to perform a handful of pizza-related queries on Google while the eye-tracking software tracked which search results the users’ eyes were focused on the most. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 116
- 117. The study concludedthat users were much more interested in the enhanced results as opposed to the typical plain blue link and description result. Users focused on things like pictures, videos, maps, and local place results. While the conclusion might not sound surprising, it was quite dramatic to see that, for once, the number one result was not always the most relevant result for most users. Instead, users were much more interested in these enhanced results. After seeing this, it was pretty clear: Microdata will soon become an integral piece in any digital experience on the web. Implementing Microdata The first question I get about Microdata is ―how much is this going to cost me to implement?‖ This is the beauty of the simplicity of Microdata: the cost of implementation is almost nothing. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not completely. Implementing Microdata on a new or existing page consists of adding a few extra bits of HTML, and that’s it! There’s no need to completely re-architect a page’s content to allow for someone like Google to pick up on this extra data. All that’s needed is some code that calls out certain pieces of content as being Microdata. There’s not much else to it than that. The next obvious question is ―what types of Microdata can we implement?‖ Recently, all of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) have partnered together to develop Schema.org which defines dozens of ―vocabularies‖ (or types of Microdata) that may be eventually supported by these search engines. For the time being, however, Google has stated they only support a handful of these Microdata types which include: reviews, people, products, businesses and organizations, recipes, events, music, and video content. If your website has any of these types of content, you’re eligible for a Microdata implementation. What’s the Catch? It’s important to note one caveat with Microdata. Just as we’re used to with search engines, we don’t control how our content is ranked or displayed. That is to say, just because Microdata is implemented on a page doesn’t guarantee Google will display that content in its search results. However, I think it’s safe to assume a search engine like Google would be more inclined to show its Rich Snippets rather than not. Beyond Search Results Over the next few years, we can anticipate Microdata support to become more expansive by allowing more types of data to be crawled and surfaced in search result pages. But that’s just the beginning. Imagine having the power to query this type of data with just our voices and a smartphone. With technologies like Android’s voice search or Apple’s Siri, we might soon begin to see Microdata affecting the display and relevancy of the results these technologies provide. In addition to mobile, we could begin to see desktop browsers begin to acknowledge certain pieces of Microdata. For example, a browser viewing a site using the ―Event‖ Microdata could add a concert to your calendar with a single click of the mouse. Or maybe add a person to your address book if they’re using the ―Person‖ Microdata. This is all a part of the Semantic Web movement or ―Web 3.0‖ as coined by Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. That’s to say, the creator of the web views technologies like Microdata as being the future of the web itself. Although, with all of the more flashy demonstrations of HTML5, Microdata is a technology your’e not likely to see discussed widely. But I can say with confidence that its significance over the next few years will soon prove its value. So why not get ahead of the curve while we still can? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 117
- 118. SEO: Obstacles, Opportunitiesand the Future Posted by Richard Deede Last night I had the pleasure of speaking to the Chicago Interactive Design and Development group (CIDD) about SEO. The audience was made up of a wide variety of people with diverse knowledge and backgrounds, so tailoring the discussion towards one particular skill set was not possible. Instead I started by talking about the foundation of SEO and how the search engines work and a brief history of what the search engines algorithms are based upon. The primary content of the presentation focused around the basics steps someone should take when trying to optimize their website, but the fun part came once we took at look at the future of SEO. When it comes to site optimization there are 3 essential steps I discussed last night. 1) Technical optimization – Ensuring that your site is free of roadblocks for search engines and is able to be crawled quickly and easily. 2) Content Optimization – Once the site is fully crawlable, you want to present content in meaningful manner that includes keywords that users are looking for. 3) Offsite Optimization – We want to drive traffic and spiders to the site from external sources. These sources would preferably be of high quality and related content to our website. Now these steps are just a high level overview of what should be done to optimize your site for organic search, but they are the essential foundation of what has be shown to be an effective SEO strategy. The closing portion of the presentation focused on the future of SEO and where it could be headed. The important thing to note about SEO is that it is constantly evolving and adapting to the changing world and new technology. It is critical to stay on top of the latest technology and web trends as there is a good chance that if it catches on, then Google will find a way to incorporate it in to its search results or algorithm in some way or another. Two emerging trends that we looked at are: Real-Time Search Google is now incorporating up to the minute information pulled directly from sites like Twitter. This shows that the search engines are aware of the increasing demand for information on demand. The question is how can this be leveraged for your site? Does your site have consistently fresh, up-to-date content that could be a potential source of information that the search engines could pull in to their organic search results? Even if the content isn’t directly on your site, maintaining a social networking presence on a site like twitter can allow you to not only have your main site appear in search results, but also your twitter feed. Search engine optimization continues to expand well beyond the standard web page result. It’s a matter of optimizing all of your site assets to take advantage of these changes. Mobile Search Mobile devices are quickly over taking the PC as the primary computing platform in this country which means more people are now using their smart phone to access the web than ever before. The algorithm for mobile search results is different from the standard algorithm with an increased focus on location based information. Does your business have a physical Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 118
- 119. address? If so,are you making this information readily available to search engines so you can get the most of mobile search? Mobile search best practices will typically follow standard best practices with a heavy reliance on HTML text, but it’s the slight differences that are still being uncovered that can make all the difference in how your site performs in mobile search. What other trends are you seeing? Or what SEO questions have you scratching your head lately? We had lots of question and a nice long conversation after presentations last night. Feel free to comment down below to turn this post into more of a discussion as well! The Horse's Mouth Jim Sterne People do the strangest things when you don't know what they're doing. This was brought home to me at the conferences I spoke at over the past two months in Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Philadelphia, Melbourne, and London. At each conference, one or more of the presenters mentioned the necessity to step away from the numbers and go talk to real customers. The first, worst enemy of analysis is averages. The average number of people who click a certain button, the average bounce rate, the average number of 404's - all useless. Of course, a big spike or a big drop in any average is cause for alarm and review, but the average itself is meaningless. The next, worst enemy of analysis is climbing into your own head and staying there. Humans like to create mental models of the world. It's useful. It's convenient. It helps us remember where we left our keys and what our uncle-in-law's second wife might like for Christmas. But when we create a mental model of the marketplace, we make decisions based on a photograph instead of keeping our eyes on the movie. It's like driving with intermittent stills from Google Street View on the windshield instead of seeing the landscape in real time. What's an analytics manager to do? Field trip! Get your team to peel their eyes off the numbers and look into the eyes of customers. Deducing what people are doing based on their footprints is much easier if you get the chance to speak with them as well. The expectant mother is curious about strollers and looks at a few on her iPhone while in line at the grocery store. She then goes to the department store to get a feel for the quality and durability of the strollers she likes. While there, she looks on her iPad for other features she should be asking about. When satisfied, she heads home to compare, contrast, and shop price online. Finally, she heads back to the store with her stepfather because he wants to buy it for her today. From a numbers perspective, you have three different people visiting your online properties in three different segments of the sales cycle, and one buyer walking into your retail store with a credit card at the ready. You cannot deduce this very understandable, human behavior purely by the numbers. Invest in a tool that lets you see what people actually did on your website; something like Tealeaf, ClickTale, or BMC End User Experience Management. Watch the mouse as it darts back and forth, hesitates over a drop-down menu, and then strikes! Invest in a focus group. Yes, it may seem silly to bring a bunch of people together and lock them in a conference room until they tell you what you want to hear... and it is! Instead, gather some of your customers for a conversation and listen to them. Not in a quantitative way, just in a get-to-know-you, qualitative way. Conduct formal interviews. Kristin Zhivago is a master of calling up customers and asking open-ended questions that yield insight instead of numbers. She has years of experience in the tech sector and can ask your customers about their use of social media (or of your products) and their first-hand experience of your company. She finds out their needs and their expectations - the first factor of customer satisfaction. Observe your customers in their natural habitat. Shari Cleary, vice president of strategic insights and research at Viacom Entertainment Group likes to conduct ethnographic studies. The company sends researchers into peoples' homes and hangs out with them. That's the only way to know how people really watch Comedy Central or Spike TV. Are they really listening to their iPods while watching TV, texting their friends, and playing Angry Birds on their iPads at the same time? Remember, you're not the target audience. They don't know what you know, they don't think like you think, and they can multitask like you wouldn't believe. Making assumptions about your customers as if they were you is wrong. Making assumptions about your customers as if they were you and basing those assumptions on numerical averages is business suicide. Tweet Where am I? › Home › Column › Analytics › Verifying Business Value Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 119
- 120. Asking Better Questions JimSterne | November 10, 2011 When Ryan Caplan, CEO, ColdLight Solutions, spoke at last week's Web Analytics Association Symposium in Philadelphia, he shared a Harvard Business Review article that was well worth repeating. On a side note, if you have the chance to see Ryan speak, do yourself a favor and spend the time. He's smart, funny, and knows his stuff. The article in question was a blog post by Judith Ross called "How to Ask Better Questions" and, as Ryan did for us in person, I will summarize for you in print. Judith advises us to ask questions that "inspire people to think in new ways, expand their range of vision, and enable them to contribute more to the organization." Here's Judith's (paraphrased) list of what makes for great questions. You can recognize the most effective and empowering questions because they: Create clarity. Delve into the problem to see it from more sides. Get the person you're working with to reveal more and thereby understand the problem better herself. Improve working relations. Rather than putting people on the spot, frame the question in a way that proves you are on their side. Instead of, "Why did the project fail?" ask, "What can we do better next time?" Help people think analytically and critically. "What are the consequences of going this route?" "What other benefits might we garner?" Inspire people to reflect and see things in a fresh, unpredictable way. These questions get people to see things rationally rather than emotionally. They encourage lateral thinking. "What if we approach this issue from the other end?" Encourage breakthrough thinking. Waaay out-of-the-box thinking. "Can that be done in any other way?" Challenge assumptions. What if...the budget were different?...there were fewer restrictions?...we had to get it done sooner? Create ownership of solutions. Ask questions that give the problem identifier authority over the process. Consistent asking of empowering questions changes corporate culture and gets people taking on more responsibility for problems, solutions, and responsibility for outcomes. It lets those around you feel more valuable. Judith Ross' post delves into asking open-ended questions as a management style for teasing insight out of employees. We can learn from this to ask better questions of the data we collect. And beyond just thinking about how to get more insights from the data you're collecting, don't forget to help the people in your organization feel more insightful and train them to ask better questions as well. Everybody wins. Many thanks to Ryan Caplan for the pointer. It inspired me to think in new ways, expand my range of vision, and contribute more to my readers. Trick Questions Jim Sterne Analysts are problem solvers. They are Sudoku workers. They are detective novel readers. They enjoy puzzles. In fact, they enjoy puzzles so much that it's easy to distract them from their core job of providing organizational and customer insight. Take a simple question: "Can you tell me how many people retweeted this comment, didn't click on the link, and used the special promotion code anyway?" The typical marketing analyst immediately starts thinking about how to collect the data, how to join tweet stream info to click-throughs and shopping cart data, and what the dashboard should look like. They were tricked into doing too much work that's going to have too little value at the cost of their real work. Trick questions will trip you up every time. Here are three typical trick questions. See how well you fair. (Answers below.) Trick Question No. 1 A disabled airplane falls from the sky and comes to rest directly on the point where Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan meet. Where do they bury the survivors? Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 120
- 121. Trick Question No.2 You're driving a bus up 7th Avenue in New York. At 27th Street, four students get on from the Fashion Institute of Technology. At 29th, three doctors get on from Doctors Without Borders and two get off at the very next stop for St. Jude's Children's Research. At 35th Street, six freshly groomed riders get on from the Eyebrow Threading Salon and three of the FIT students get off at 38th Street for FedEx Shipping Center. All of the remaining doctors get off at 40th Street to go to the Garment Center Congregation. What's the name of the bus driver? Trick Question No. 3 You're out bear hunting with some friends and one morning you leave your camp site and head due south for five miles. You then turn due west, spot a bear, and shoot it. You haul your prize five miles back to your camp site and call it a day. What color is the bear? The first question is an example of misdirection. You do not bury survivors. They walk away. I feel that conversion rate is another example of misdirection. Don't get me wrong - conversion rates are very important to monitor and master all other things being equal. But all other things are never equal. If you just spent a metric boatload of money on a display ad campaign, then your traffic is going to go up and your conversion is going to drop precipitously and the unwary conversion expert will be left wondering what happened to the shopping cart navigation. The second question is an example of analyzing the available data before knowing what you are solving for. The name of the bus driver is deeply buried at the very beginning of the question by all that data about the stops and the passengers. That, and the fact that 7th Avenue in New York is one-way and runs north-to-south. Tricked you! The point of this one is to know the business problem that needs work before jumping into a vat of data just for the fun of it. Yes, you can API all of the tweets you like, but when all is said and done, what is the business value of knowing that the world's record is 7,196 tweets per second? Don't get caught up in the thrill of analyzing the data at the expense of solving real problems. These first two questions are best served verbally. Hearing "Where did they bury the survivors?" is very different from reading it. One glance back at the bus driver question and you are not amused. The answer is obvious. Hearing the question is a different kettle of fish. But the third question about the bear is not so easy. Curiously, it actually does contain all the information you need to determine that the bear is white. You just need to use a little lateral thinking and some high school geometry. There is only one place on Earth where you can head due south for five miles, due west for five miles, and then walk five miles back to camp. An equilateral triangle has three equal length legs and equal angles of 60 degrees. That precludes heading due south and due west...except at the North Pole, where legs of equal length and angles of equal degree prevail. Ergo, your bear is white. In a recent post on online behavior called Web Analytics Tools: Question Generation Machines, Yahoo Web Analytics Account Manager Emer Kirrane wrote that the most important question in web analytics is "Why?" "Web Analytics is not about the tool (though not every vendor may concede this). It is about collecting, slicing, manipulating and attempting to understand data, and then using your findings to improve your website, your customers' experience, your revenue and so on." Sadly, those who do not understand marketing analytics continue to "...use statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts - for support rather than for illumination." (Andrew Lang) Those analysts who feel too junior to the task, succumb to the whiles of inquisitors and never come into their own as insight generators. For them, the solution is in the response, "I would be delighted to help you accomplish your goals. But first, I need to know what your goals are." "Why?" it turns out, is the inverse of a trick question. Chief Analytical Officer Jim Sterne Back in 2005, Bob Chatham, then at Forrester Research, spoke at an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in London. He got everybody's attention when he predicted that people who were in "web analytics" today, would find themselves in business intelligence tomorrow and, eventually, the C-suite. Bob talked about the data warehouse people striving to answer Big Questions with Big Data on the one hand and indulging in pattern recognition and discovery on the other. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 121
- 122. Web analysts area different breed, he said. Web analysts are interested in optimizing specific functions: get more traffic, attract more valuable traffic, optimize landing pages, improve conversion, grow lifetime value, etc. When web analysts, indoctrinated in the arts of process optimization, turned their attention to the massive corporate data warehouse, they would look for more processes to optimize. After optimizing prospect acquisition, lead management, persuasion, and conversion, web analysts would look at product development, product delivery, customer service, and more - and end up with a front row seat on what it would take to optimize the whole company. The eMetrics audience thought he was wonderful. In July of 2010, I wrote a blog post called "What if Analysts Ran the Show?" In it, I introduced Craig Sullivan, formerly the manager of digital and usability at LOVEFiLM.com and now at auto glass repair giant Belron. Craig grabbed multivariate testing tools and A/B split testing methods with gusto and went to town. He was the first to admit that he didn't have the answers, but he had really good questions and a testing methodology that couldn't be beat. He has mastered the fine art of online persuasion through the automated manipulation of text and visual elements. "I can run tests on ten thousand lab rats on my websites whenever I like. It's exhilarating." And then Craig turned his testing tools on the call center. What sort of music should be on hold? Should the voice intoning how important your call is be male or female? Craig is on his way to integrating multiple touchpoints. That brings me to the story of Joe Megibow. Joe built avionics systems at EDS and then moved to helping Ernst & Young clients get organized. He then joined a technology company called Tealeaf, assisting its clients to monitor and manage online customer experience. When calls came in, customer service reps could see where the caller ran into trouble on their website. One of Joe's old college friends hired him to run the Tealeaf implementation at Hotels.com. Joe dove into the practical side of matching systems monitoring with web analytics. The company did so well that it was acquired by Expedia and things got even more interesting for Mr. Megibow. Joe went from vice president of customer experience and online marketing at Hotels.com to vice president of global analytics and optimization at Expedia, to vice president of mobile and e-commerce optimization. Last month, Joe told me it was time to update his keynote bio on the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit website because he was just made vice president and general manager for all of Expedia in the U.S. Bob Chatham was right. The person with a clear understanding of where the data comes from and how the data can be used to improve the business, will rise to the top. Of course, being wicked smart and contagiously enthusiastic helps, but the lesson is that our relationship with data is changing - for the good. THE NEW SOCIAL ORDER Marian Salzman Does the notion of ―me time‖ almost always mean ―we time‖ in this decidedly social age (even if me plus one or more is virtual)? I wonder what Greta Garbo (who infamously crafted a reluctant catchphrase in the movie Grand Hotel: ―I want to be alone‖) would think of alone time circa 2011? Later in life she discounted the plea and said, ―I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be left alone.’‖ More recently, Andy Rooney’s emotional farewell included both a nod to his desire to be left alone and a shoutout to the broad public who reached out to him all kinds of ways, including email. Regardless of whether you’re an American icon, an aging starlet or a fatigued social media stalwart, one thing is clear: We are never really alone, or left alone, anymore. Our society (socialiety?) has succumbed to a full-on state of codependence. We upload photos of ourselves in dressing rooms to solicit opinions from friends, we collaborate in the office over clouds and texts and Skype calls. We come home from lunch, dinner or a date and broadcast our thoughts to our extended social networks. We can’t seem to keep anything to ourselves anymore; nothing is sacred, private or not worth sharing. (Women post when they’re fertile, men post about their erectile dysfunction; dysfunctional families duke out their differences on Twitter and Facebook—and we all grin when we see one another and feign lack of knowledge about someone’s intimacies, even though we know all. Or know all they’ve posted.) Though it’s hard to imagine life without social media, there actually was a time when we weren’t clued in to what an ex–college boyfriend ate for dinner. There was also a time when, say, your spouse would go into the bank or the store and leave you sitting there, maybe scanning radio stations and staring at the scenery out the car window. Now, we bury ourselves in our smartphones for fear of doing nothing; we are codependent on our yearning to know about others and we’re positively addicted to our gadgets and to staying connected. You can’t even be alone on a plane anymore, because many flights now offer in-flight Wi-Fi to keep us connected from 35,000 feet. I’m grateful for the connectedness—I just did a quick hit-and-run to Silicon Valley for an innovations conference and needed my Sky-Wi-Fi, but part of me craves the transcontinental flight of yesteryear, when nobody could find me for a blissful six or seven hours and I could read a book, catch up on some magazine articles, get some work done sans interruptions or maybe, just maybe, veg out. (That’s something else that died with all this connectivity—my ability to play eggplant and think and do and communicate nothing.) Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 122
- 123. And all this―we time‖ is starting from the cradle. Sure, it’s a cliché to say, ―We’re born alone, and we’ll die alone,‖ but is that really true these days? A friend of mine was tweeting within 30 minutes of giving birth, and her son had an email account and a full social life before he’d been through his first box of Pampers. Every moment of our life is now brought to you by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Is anything sacred anymore? Social commentator Jesse Kornbluth recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times that he once had a boss who told him, ―The real test of a relationship is how quickly you can get out of bed after making love to check your email.‖ We’ve seen all this screenaged existence backfire on those who spend less time alone than anyone: celebrities. Kim Kardashian’s recent nuptials fail had many calling for a boycott of her family’s reality show. It’s hard to salvage credibility when you publicize every moment of your life; maybe the backlash against her quickie divorce separation annulment would have stung less if she had gotten married in private, and without a supposed payday that beat winning Lotto. Weirder still is that all these calls for privacy are taking place in the least private of places: online. The case for codependence is at its apex in our growing ―like‖ culture. We can’t seem to go anywhere or do anything without asking the opinion of friends or agreeing to like everything from our local yogurt shop to a childhood friend’s son’s band. The constant search for approval has made us needier than ever; there used to be a small panel of experts who you summoned when you were going to see a film or eat at the latest restaurant downtown, but now everybody is an expert and every opinion counts in a culture that is constantly seeking validity. Although there are some great things about our fully transparent approach to life (as a response to bad business practices, it’s great), do we really have to tell each other everything? Are we really that afraid to keep our thoughts and beliefs to ourselves? The case for some solo time is going to be made in the years to come. Connection fatigue is going to lead to full-on exhaustion. It’s not surprising that places such as Bhutan and Myanmar are becoming hot destinations for people searching for something a bit more enlightened and decidedly more disconnected. But I’m afraid that many of us are experiencing life through others’ photos and that real ―experiences‖ are becoming fewer and further between. One area of life where flying solo is becoming the new normal is in nurturing life itself: parenting. We’re seeing more people choosing to be a single parent. More than one of my friends, in fact, has commented that solo parenting is easier than the constant negotiations between partner parents over everything from religion to how strict is strict enough. In terms of every other endeavor I can think of, though, we are never really alone for long. The quest for companionship has gone 2.0 to include thoughts and opinions and shared moments from people we might know only casually. Do we really know everyone in our social networks? Some people reject friend requests from people they don’t know; others report that they’ve made genuine friendships with folks they met online. But is our pursuit for anything but ―me time‖ causing our constant need for connection to outweigh the ability to create real, lasting relationships? Are we going to go the way of Garbo, incognito and requesting a life led offscreen, and offline? I’m calling for some balance between codependence and being left alone: a day a week without social media, a spin class spent without a cellphone on the handlebars, and a dressing room foray where I try things on, completely alone and without judgment or the eyes of social media. I’m thinking about Zappos these days, and its new social shopping endeavor called RNKD that will, according toAdvertising Age, ask users to ―share what they wear by uploading photos of their clothes and then tagging them by brand‖ in the hopes of securing badges through an assigned rank. For loyal brandlings, the reward will be access to products and discounts. Sigh. Doesn’t that seem like too much trouble? Why on earth would we want to do that? Are we really willing to sacrifice our privacy to secure deep discounts from our favorite brands? In this new social order, look for ―me time‖ to be the most coveted and exotic luxury brand there is—regardless of rank, discount or number of Facebook friends. Test Your Innovation IQ Everyone knows that innovation means coming up with the next great idea in your industry, right? Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that. Test your ability to separate innovation fact from fiction by answering the following questions true or false: 1. Innovation is the act of coming up with new and creative ideas. 2. Innovation is a random process. 3. Innovation is the exclusive realm of a few naturally talented people. 4. The biggest obstacle to innovation is a lack of organizational resources and know-how. 5. The most important type of innovation involves bringing new products and services to market. 6. Teaching employees to think creatively will guarantee innovation. 7. The most powerful way to trigger your brain is to simply ask it a question. 8. Most companies pursue incremental rather than disruptive innovation. 9. Most companies are not structured to innovate. 10. Listening to your customers is a great way to innovate. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 123
- 124. Answers: 1. False. Inbusiness, innovation is the act of applying knowledge, new or old, to the creation of new processes, products, and services that have value for at least one of your stakeholder groups. The key word here is applying. Generating creative ideas is certainly part of the process. But in order to produce true innovation, you have to actually do something different that has value. 2. False. Innovation is a discipline that can (and should) be planned, measured, and managed. If left to chance, it won’t happen. 3. False. Everyone has the power to innovate by letting their brain wander, explore, connect, and see the world differently. The problem is that we’re all running so fast that we fail to make time for the activities that allow our brains to see patterns and make connections. Such as pausing and wondering….what if? 4. False. In most organizations, the biggest obstacle to innovation is what people already know to be true about their customers, markets, and business. Whenever you’re absolutely, positively sure you’re right, any chance at meaningful innovation goes out the window. 5. False. It’s certainly important to bring new products and services to market. But the most important form of innovation, and the #1 challenge for today’s business leaders may really be reinventing the way we manage ourselves and our companies. 6. False. New ideas are a dime a dozen. The hard part is turning those ideas into new products and services that customers value and are willing to pay for — a process that requires knowledge about what your customers want and need, coupled with implementation. 7. True. Ask a question and the brain responds instinctually to get closure. The key with innovation is to ask questions that open people to possibilities, new ways of looking at the same data, and new interpretations of the same old thing. 8. True. Most companies focus on using internally generated ideas to produce slightly better products (incremental innovation). Then they strive to get those slightly better products to market as quickly and as cost-effectively as possible. This approach is quicker and cheaper than disruptive innovation. But it rarely generates the results that lead to sustainable market leadership. 9. True. Most organizations are physically set up with accounting in one area, marketing in another, and management off by itself. Employees rarely interact with other departments unless they need something to get their jobs done. And leaders and departments often withhold information, believing that it puts them in a position of power. Innovation requires teamwork, communication and collaboration, not isolated silos. 10. Trick question! The answer is ―it depends.‖ Research shows that customers can be a good source of ideas for improving existing products and services — if you’re looking to achieve incremental innovation. However, by itself, customer research is not sufficient for generating disruptive innovation because it only uncovers expressed, or known, customer needs. Disruptive innovation solves problems that customers didn’t even know they had or were unable to clearly articulate to themselves or their vendors. It redefines the market at a very fundamental level or, in many cases, creates a new market. If you got 8 or more correct answers, give yourself a pat on the back. If you scored between 4 and 7, I recommend some more research and work on these critical leadership skills. If you scored less than 4, wake up and smell the burnt coffee! Get some help. If you’re not constantly looking to improve your products, services, systems, and managerial processes, you will fall behind. And once you fall behind, it can be very difficult and often impossible to catch up! Cutting Through the Remarketing Clutter With Real Time Bidding (RTB) Jeff Green Have you ever gone to a marketing company's website and you still can't figure out what that business does? After five minutes on the site, you leave wondering, what do they actually do? Since the display landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, this happens more than ever in the display ecosystem, and the plethora of solutions out there for accessing real-time bidding (RTB) inventory can be confusing. There is a meaningful segment of marketers that say in effect - there is so much hype and so much incomprehensible talking in RTB that I'll stick to what I know. But let me say emphatically, that would be a mistake. RTB is worth it. Every marketer should be buying RTB display remarketing. I suspect some of you read that last sentence and want to give a moment of silence for the part of you that died once upon a time when you tried to make some display effort of yesteryear work. Keep that justified, skeptical, and cautious guard up as we look at why this can be different. First, RTB gives marketers the opportunities to look at hundreds of billions of impressions per month and only bid on those that are interesting to them. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 124
- 125. Second, since theauction is fairly transparent with lots of metadata, there is both room and need for technology companies to build unique optimization and bidding technologies. So huge amounts of intelligence and data can be layered into this environment (more than any other marketing channel - on or offline). Third, RTB is hundreds and often thousands of percentage points more effective than display was three years ago, even with the very best tech of that day. As a result, forget about every experience you had with display before because the world is different now. And finally, because every marketer can easily access so many impressions, display RTB remarketing is the lowest hanging fruit in all of online advertising. Chances are you've dialed in your search dollars. Of course, there is always room for improvement. Search deserves and demands attention, but for most marketers they are asking - what more can I do? In almost all cases, RTB display and remarketing is the clear answer. The next question: how do I get access to all of these hundreds of billions of RTB impression views? To begin, a word of caution - whenever someone says they buy RTB display, press them further for more details. In some cases they're buying direct from one of the exchanges with no proprietary bidding technology of their own. Other times they're convinced that buying direct is optimal. I've been asked by more than one advertiser, "Why would I use a DSP when I can buy from the ad exchanges myself?" If you're new to the world of display, it may not sound like there's much of a difference. Both can work to access RTB inventory. But if you're looking to take your display campaigns to the next level, let's break down the advantages of using a bidding technology like a demand-side platform (DSP). All exchanges operate differently, but in most cases you can access cheaper inventory when buying through the exchange's API via a DSP. This may seem counterintuitive, but impressions can actually be cheaper by using a DSP than buying direct through a UI of an exchange. Nevertheless, I would never base your decision solely on where to get the cheapest impressions. The question you should be asking is where you can get the most cost-effective inventory, performance, and access to the users you want to message to. Display is like search on this issue. Being in position number nine on any given keyword will always be cheaper than position number two, but it is most likely not as valuable even when weighting in the cost. Similarly, DSPs may bid more aggressively for the impressions that have a propensity to convert. The granularity of the bidding features and the targeting of which impressions to buy is the real differentiator. In short, the tech that good DSPs have may come with a cost, but it can and should create more value than it costs. Second is the difference in reach. Rather than buy direct from one exchange, DSPs integrate with all of the major ad exchanges. The more reach, the more efficient a campaign can work at scale. Recency and frequency matters tremendously with remessaging, so 6 million sites allow you to find those users much faster while the data is still relevant, than say what 100,000 sites can do. One could try to overcome this by buying from all of the exchanges individually, but in addition to being an operational mess, you wouldn't be able to have a universal frequency cap and make holistic decisions. The advantage of buying from all the exchanges on one platform is that the data and insights that a DSP gets in one exchange are applied to the buying decisions across all the other exchanges in real time. You can't do this manually. Also, direct and DSP have very different value props on optimization. A good DSP is going to help you see how display and remarketing fits into your holistic marketing efforts. They are also going to optimize impressions using data from other channels and insights from all of the exchanges in one central place. The exchanges themselves really can't offer any of that. Lastly, demand-side platforms are named accordingly, because they only represent the interests of the advertiser. DSPs are incentivized to only buy the impressions that matter and to buy them at the best possible price. They represent you. Not the market or their inventory. A good DSP is going to be upfront with you about cost. It will create more value than it costs, and it is the best way to grab the lowest hanging fruit in online advertising - RTB remarketing. Social Media ROI Remains a High Priority for Marketers by Erik Sass, Coming to grips with the return-on-investment from social media marketing is a high priority for marketers, according to a survey of 362 marketing executives by Lenskold Group -- but that doesn’t mean they’re confident in their ability to do so. Overall 77% of marketers are using social media to promote their business, a proportion that holds true across businesses large and small, Lenskold found. Within this group, 55% (42% of the total sample) said they considered measurement of social media efforts to be a high priority. The most popular reason, cited by 65% of marketers who said it’s a high priority (or 27.5% of the total sample) was the need to improve effectiveness, while 59% (25% of the total sample) said they ―need to improve integration with other marketing.‖ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 125
- 126. Among the 45%who said measuring social media is not a high priority, 39% (17.6% of the total sample) said it’s because they are ―still testing and experimenting on a small scale.‖ Meanwhile 18% said it’s because their social media budget is too low to warrant measurement, 9% said it’s because management doesn’t ask for measurement, and 8% said because they don’t think the right tools for measurement exist. However, even among those who make it a high priority, confidence in ability to measure social media effectively is fairly low: just 19% of respondents who say it’s a high priority said they felt they had a strong ability to measure ROI, and 18% said they can measure incremental sales from social media marketing. That compares to 43% who said they feel confident in their ability to measure engagement or participation, and 32% who said they can measure prospects or leads generated. 3 Online Advertising Trends To Watch In '12 by Cella M. Irvine It’s that time of year again, when people like me hold forth on where we’ve been as an industry this past year, and where we’re headed. When you think about it, of course, it’s a little silly to assume that come Jan. 1, the focus of a whole industry suddenly shifts at midnight when the ball drops. In my mind, the key themes and issues for digital advertising in 2012 look a lot like the ones we grappled with in 2011. The same things that excited us about digital in 2011 will see us into the new year. But, technology evolves at a breakneck pace these days, and with every new capability comes a new opportunity to engage. After all, delivering good advertising (and by ―good,‖ I mean relevant) is really about harnessing a moment. It’s about harnessing the user’s intent at the very instant he’s looking for information, looking to find an answer, or looking to solve a problem. We’re all at our most receptive to advertising when it’s consistent with what’s on our mind at a given time. And technology allows us to understand what’s on the user’s mind and match it with a relevant message from an advertiser. Making that connection – on every platform and in every context – will continue to drive the direction of digital advertising in the coming year. There are other macro-level dynamics at work here, too. SOCIAL ON THE RISE: Audiences are changing, for good: The so-called ―digital natives‖ are growing up fast, and we need to change our approach to engaging them. This generation’s social-media adoption is broad and deep. Digital natives turn to friends and family as a primary source of authority, and call for transparency after witnessing a great deal of corporate and institutional incompetence and corruption (think Enron, Tyco, etc.). Digital-native consumers will expect that what is of most value to them will come to them, from friends or networks, rather than from sources they search out. As a result of this shift, social-media ad revenues have skyrocketed, and are predicted to reach $8 billion next year. But if brands want to make that money really work for them, they can’t just throw any old social-media strategy to the wall and see what sticks. They need new ad formats that push those Facebook pages and Twitter feeds to consumers in a relevant context, as opposed to pulling them away to social sites. In the right context, social can work with content to add significant value for the consumer, rather than eliciting useless ―Likes‖ that advertisers struggle to monetize. VIDEO IS ROLLING: As they say, when you’re looking for answers, you should always ―follow the money,‖ and that definitely holds true in advertising. If your first stop on the money trail is social, then video is close behind. Video – beyond pre-roll and in-stream – is dynamically innovating our space. In 2011, we have seen online video emerge as the fastest-growing digital ad format. In 2012, we will see online video that is more creative, engaging, and useful. Advertisers are no longer simply taking what works on TV and placing it online. We are seeing a revolution in video, with more creative content coming directly from users, which helps brands develop a more meaningful engagement with consumers. At Vibrant, our approach is bringing sight, sound and motion together to deliver an immersive, user-initiated experience that is delivering compelling results for advertisers. SMARTER ANALYTICS: Behind the scenes, as ads grow more dynamic and multifunctional every day, marketers who need to demonstrate ROI continue the search for better metrics. After all, the best campaigns are interactive, offering users utility and entertainment via search boxes, news tickers, and gaming portals. So advertisers are looking more closely at user behavior with pre- and post-click data that gives them more mileage from their campaigns. Finally, we’re seeing a burst of new technologies that can more clearly measure reader engagement and retention, and I think there will be a continued interest in gathering and analyzing data that can go beyond CTRs and counting clicks. With these results available, we will see that all content is not created equal, and that despite the recent increase of volume of content, results will come from placements in better quality environments. Social, video, and measurement: That’s what I think 2012 will be about. These elements played an important role in what we’ve done in 2011 and drive the direction of the innovation and creative possibilities digital advertising is capable of achieving in the coming year. And we’ll be using technology to connect with consumers in better, more relevant, more sophisticated ways that serve both advertisers and consumers. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 126
- 127. More QR CodesIn Store (And Elsewhere) For '12 by Aaron Baar Get used to seeing more of those QR codes on product packaging, advertisements and everywhere else. According to a new survey of more than 500 marketers commissioned by AT&T, 88% plan to increase their mobile marketing programs over the next year, with mobile apps (those appearing on smartphones) and mobile barcodes topping the list of strategies they’re interested in deploying. (Only a little more than half are currently using them as part of their mobile strategy.) The main driver among marketers to adopt QR codes into their mobile strategy is consumer engagement, says Mobeen Khan, chief marketing officer and executive director of AT&T Mobility Solutions. ―What a barcode allows you to do is connect that offline world to the online world,‖ Khan tells Marketing Daily. ―As soon as the consumer scans that barcode, you’re getting an engagement.‖ At the same time, several other factors also contribute to a rising interest among marketers for barcodes, Khan says. First is the rapid adoption of tablets and smartphones among consumers. At the same time, consumer understanding and acceptance of such codes is increasing. And finally, marketers are beginning to understand how to make the experience richer for consumers. ―The consumer usage was not very thoughtful in early campaigns and it pushed the initial users off,‖ Khan says. ―Now we are at a point where companies are educating the market about what is a good experience and what are the best practices.‖ Moreover, two-thirds of respondents said they expected mobile barcodes to drive the innovation in overall mobile marketing next year, and 80% said they believe the tactic can increase brand awareness and customer engagement. The biggest factors to consider when creating these programs: consumer demand, security and cost. But what it all comes down to in the end, Khan says, is the value of the consumer experience. ―The consumers are engaging a lot more with these barcodes,‖ he says. ―If the consumer experience is good, you are more than likely to use the scanner more and more for other products and other engagements than if you had a real bad experience.‖ Goodbye QR Codes, Hello Near Field Communication? by Tim Supples Another day, another technology being called ―THE‖ thing to have this year. Discussion around Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in smartphones has been bubbling for months if not years, coming to a head recently with Google’s official support of NFC and their dropping of QR code support in the Google Places service. NFC has the potential to be very useful for marketing and engagement, but is it all that different from existing solutions? What is NFC? Near Field Communication is a short range wireless technology that is based around a passive, non-powered source and an ―initiator‖ device (i.e. your smartphone). The passive device is very similar to RFID, containing ultra-slim circuitry that is actually powered by the radio frequency field of your NFC-enabled smartphone. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 127
- 128. When your smartphoneis placed within 2 inches of an NFC-tagged item, such as a sticker or poster, the NFC technology in your phone reads information from the item. From there, the possibilities are endless and only limited by the services that choose to integrate NFC capabilities. What can be done with NFC right now? The big application that everyone is watching is mobile payments. With properly secured applications, you could purchase specific items or even pay at the register as normal just by waving your smartphone at a special pad or sticker. This has obvious benefits at a tradeshow or other type of event, providing a possible counterpart or even replacement to theSquare mobile payment system I previously wrote about. Google is hard at work creating infrastructure to support NFC use. They are working with VeriFone to test NFC mobile payment in New York and San Francisco. NFC tags have also replaced QR codes in their small business marketing kits, which are built around Google’s Places service that is integrated into every Google product (Search, Maps, etc). Beyond the payment infrastructure and casual information transfer, NFC doesn’t have many practical marketing applications already created. The challenge is that this technology is just hitting mainstream and it seems most are still figuring out what to do with it, if anything. This means that if you want to do something with NFC beyond a web URL or other simple information, you’ll need to develop your own mobile software applications to suit your use case. How is this different from using QR codes for marketing? NFC offers many of the same capabilities that QR codes do, primarily centered around embedding important information like a web address or other pertinent text. This isn’t just limited to your www.yourwebsite.com though, as the creative ones will find more engaging uses. These can be a URL that leads to a special discount page, a unique YouTube video designed just for the customers who scan that code, or any number of other engaging tactics. Due to how the phone ―collects‖ these tags for reference later, a ―scavenger hunt‖ type activity would lend itself well to NFC. For marketing purposes, the difference between QR codes and NFC comes down to usability. If you hadn’t seen it yet, I coveredall about QR codes extensively in a previous post. As noted there, one of the roadblocks to QR code usage is public knowledge about how to use a QR code and the software needed on their smartphone. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 128
- 129. NFC removes mostof that barrier. An NFC-enabled phone has the capability to react automatically to an NFC tag, with no manual action required by the user. However, users can choose to disable NFC and it is possible not all phones will have NFC enabled out of the box, so this is still not a truly seamless experience. Check out the video below for an idea of how NFC works in application. The Challenges While NFC is easier to use than QR codes, the general public will still largely be unaware of what it is or how to use it. You’re still going to have to have a little flyer in place at least telling people what to do, and include a ―Works with NEW smartphones‖ disclaimer. On that note, it is also important to mention that there are very few smartphones out currently with NFC technology. The Samsung Nexus S, designed closely with Google, is the prime example and more are expected later this year and in 2012. It is also unknown if the ever popular iPhone will get NFC in its next update. How to get started So you’ve decided that you want to give NFC a shot and you understand the basics of how it all works. To get started you need NFC tags, a device capable of programming the NFC tags, and the software necessary to program the tags. There are a handful of options for this, but again this is a new technology for personal use and its accessibility will change over time. Our friends at ReadWriteWeb recently put together a post on how to write your own NFC tags, with lots of great resources. A popular vendor noted there istouchatag, who offers a few different NFC packages in their store to get you started as well. Either of these should work for most people’s needs, but if you come across another option or even a marketing firm that offers NFC as part of their services, drop us a comment! How are you going to use NFC? Now that you’re up to speed on NFC, how do you plan to incorporate this into your marketing, if at all? What are you excited or concerned about regarding NFC? Leave us a comment! Andy Schichter Do you think companies who use QR codes in advertisements will switch to NFC in the near future? With all the time and money they’ve spent investing in QR codes, I’m not so sure they will be willing to jump ship just yet. Also, like you said people don’t really know NFC, and QR codes are just becoming accepted by the masses. I think QR codes will be around for a while, but man does NFC look cool! Interesting… I’d be interested to see if there are costs associated with creating a printable item with NFC capability, and interested to see if the NFC scanning tech is open-source or not – both will have significant impact on the adoption rate of users and app developers. Like QR Codes, there’s going to be a cool-down period for some time before people get familiar with this, I’d give it 3 years before NFC becomes cost-effective as an option for corporate marketing spend. All 3 have their uses and functions. The main differentiator with NFC and RFIC is that both parties need equipment, plus proximity to one another. It removes the learning curve but not the adaptation curve. With QR Codes, the recipient would need the app and a smartphone and a little know-how, but no additional equipment and can read the code from far away if they can get a good focus on it. It removes a level of physical requirements but not the learning curve or the adaptation curve. It just depends on the needs of the activity, really. It does seem like NFC and RFID need more investment than QR codes, which uses the web and not chips. This post was not plagiarized, by the way. Both posts the anonymous commenter mentioned were properly written and referenced. You can check this on http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/ Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 129
- 130. Andy – Ithink QR codes are still better suited for general advertising. QR codes can be put on anything, anywhere and as long as your phone’s camera can snap the whole code, it works! With NFC, you obviously have to be up close and its best suited for interactive situations. Reuben – There are definitely costs with creating NFC, more than QR codes (since anyone with a printer can create a QR code). Though, as you see in some of the links in my article, the cost of the NFC tag kits isn’t bad. And as NFC becomes more mainstream, the costs will drop of course. I’m not sure if you would categorize NFC as open source. Anyone with the right skills can develop mobile apps that use the NFC capabilities in a phone, which should include programming NFC tags. Emily – thanks for the comment! For those interested in NFC, here’s an article with some information from Google’s annual trade conference called I/O. http://androidandme.com/2011/05/news/google-will-take-nfc-to-the-next-level-with-ice-cream-sandwich/ Good article, and we agree. NFC is very likely to replace QR codes in the few years. We just published an article about it in relation to the advertising and digital out-of-home space. Here’s the link if you’re interested in learning more: http://www.screenmediadaily.com/marketing-near-field-mobile-communication-nfc-nxp-digital-signage-out-of-home-place- based-media-advertising-bilboards-posters-0629908.shtml Implementing 'Digital Is a Philosophy' Augustine Fou Back in March, I wrote a column called "Digital Is a Philosophy" to introduce the concept. Over the subsequent months, clients and students have asked me about how to make that philosophy real and actually implement it. So I have paraphrased a few questions and collected some of my responses together below. 1. What does "Digital Is a Philosophy" mean? Historically, we defined "digital" as the online channel or online marketing tactics. This was fine. But because of it, marketers have distinguished between it and the offline channel and between digital tactics and traditional advertising tactics. "Digital" has always been the "poor stepchild" to traditional brand advertising in terms of the large disparity in the funds allocated; most large advertisers still spend the vast majority of their marketing dollars in "traditional" ways (see "The Grand Digital Canyon"). "Digital Is a Philosophy" means that instead of thinking of digital as the channel, we think of it as a set of guiding principles that can help make all advertising and marketing better, no matter if they are offline or online. These insights are derived from modern users' needs, habits, and expectations, as evidenced by their actions in digital channels. Users are empowered with information; they have access to information at all times; and they can consult peers and independent experts to inform their own purchase decisions. In this way, the balance of power has drastically shifted away from the advertiser to the would-be customer. These changes necessitate changes to the way advertising is done - "push" ads no longer work and are no longer tolerated by users. They "pull" for the information when they want it. So by defining "digital" differently - not as the online channel but as a "philosophy" - we can use the insights and guiding principles to make all advertising better. 2. A top digital challenge is measurement and ROI. How does this philosophy help? Digital is inherently and beautifully measurable. Compared to the one-way forms of media such as TV, print, and radio, digital provides instant feedback loops - like when people click on a banner ad, type in a search, or share something on social networks. There are lots more things to measure and these metrics are based on what users actually do. This contrasts with the metrics of traditional advertising, which have to do with how far and wide the ad was supposedly broadcast - i.e., "reach and frequency." "Digital Is a Philosophy" implies a focus on the user and the actions they take, especially in relation to advertisers' ads or marketing activities. For example, do users actually go online to search for more information after they get inspired by a TV ad? Do they actually buy something? Do they tell their friends about a product they love? These are all detectable in digital channels. These metrics also correlate to return on investment (ROI). They may not necessarily be able to specify exact, absolute ROI, but they can provide relative ROI. Did one marketing activity drive more of the desired consumer actions than another? If so, it delivered better relative ROI. These metrics are also what I would call "hard" metrics - e.g., clicks, click-through rates, number of visits to the website, etc. - versus "soft" metrics - e.g., brand favorability or perception. These metrics can be the unifying way to gauge the effectiveness of marketing tactics no matter online or offline because modern users will go online to do additional research no matter what ad or channel inspired them to do so. Digital is a philosophy means a focus on user actions and these actions are the metrics that can be used to gauge the relative ROI of marketing activities across all channels. 3. How do we convince "finance" to shift more dollars to "digital"? Finance will obviously be focused on ROI and metrics. The key is to introduce a new set of metrics, like we said above, and show how they correlate to business impact and ROI. In the past, it was sufficient to cite just reach and frequency because if the ad got shown to more people more often, there usually was a lift in sales. However, today, due to oversaturation of ads and modern users ignoring all "interruption media," just showing the ads more frequently does not necessarily translate into any business impact (see "Facebook Ad Metrics and Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 130
- 131. Benchmarks"). However, ifwe focus on the actions of the users - e.g., did they go search for more information about your product after seeing an ad - then we can draw a much more direct correlation between the marketing activity and the potential business impact - users going to make the purchase. And we can compare the relative impact of various marketing tactics, no matter what channel. Once we can compare the impact of various marketing tactics in an apples-to-apple way, finance will easily be able to shift spend among the tactics to the ones that are driving the greatest ROI. 4. We've got a lot of "digital" activities already going on. But they don't seem to work together and we're not really seeing noticeable results yet. What do we do? The other benefit of "Digital Is a Philosophy" is that you can now look across all tactics and all channels and compare their relative business impact and ROI based on the common metric of user actions. It also implies a focus on the needs of the customer - what information do they need, what are they searching for, where are they getting the information they need, etc. These needs (see "Missing Link Marketing") are also readily revealed through their actions in digital channels. For example, are the customers not aware of the product or service? In most cases, they are aware. There is something else further down the purchase funnel that is keeping them from moving all the way down to the purchase. Once these "missing links" have been determined, the advertiser can plot these needs on the Unified Marketing framework and also plot their marketing activities. This will reveal whether there are redundant marketing activities or whether there are gaps and opportunities. In this way, when you look across all marketing tactics and channels and have a way to not only determine what activities are needed, what are redundant, and also which are most impactful, you will have a way to synergize your marketing activities and optimize until you see noticeable impact. How to Know When You Should Advertise to Tablet Users Howie Jacobson, New data suggests that tablet computers are changing the way we search, shop, and play online. If you advertise on AdWords, more and more of your prospects will be finding you via iPads and other tablets. To reach and influence these prospects, you need to understand when, where and how they use the Internet - and adjust your advertising strategies to accommodate them. Device Search Volume by Time of Day Google search data released in September, 2011 shows that search volume on smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers varies by time of day. As tablets gain in popularity to become our "third screen", our browsing habits on smartphones and desktops shifts to accommodate the new medium. Desktops are used predominantly during business hours. Usage rises at 9am and falls at 6pm, with a small spike around 8pm. Smartphone usage increases throughout the day, spiking during the morning and evening commute and in the evening. Tablets get a rest during the day, but are used intensively in the evening. Tablet Usage Study The Google Mobile Ads team then conducted and reported the results of a 2-week-long diary study that explored how, when, and where users interacted with their tablets. The unsurprising punch line: tablets are overwhelmingly for for personal use. But that's not the only difference. Tablets appear to be the ultimate multi-task device, with over 40% of tablet use coinciding with some other activity like watching TV, cooking, eating, and even getting dressed (thankfully, the published study did not get into personal hygiene or amorous activities). During the week, tablet use tends to be "short burst"; checking email, playing a game, and watching YouTube "video snacks", to borrow Vidsense.com CEO Jaffer Ali's memorable phrase. On weekends, the activities expand to fit the larger chunks of free time: watching whole movies and TV shows. Tablets are not as mobile as mobile phones outside the home; most respondents report leaving their tablets at home when they go to work (tablets do go on vacations and business trips, however). Within the home, tablets seem to follow us everywhere; the couch, the kitchen, the table, the bedroom. Respondents listen to music and search (for recipes?) in the kitchen. They check email on the couch and in bed, and Facebook everywhere but the kitchen. More and more consumers are using tablets as "real world interface devices"; browsing and shopping online, searching for local businesses, and managing finances. Almost 20% of tablet-based activities are also carried out on desktops and smartphones, suggesting that the search funnel has just become hyper-dimensional. A consumer might begin browsing on their desktop and complete the purchase on their tablet in the privacy and convenience of their living room. Implications for Search Marketing If you advertise on Google, assume that your prospects are seeing your ads on tablets as well as desktops and phones. If you're running campaigns according to Google's default settings, you're already showing ads on all three devices so you can see actual data for each device. From the All Campaigns view in AdWords, click the Segment button and select Device from the drop-down list: Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 131
- 132. Now you cansee the data for each campaign broken out by device type. In the screenshot below, the campaign is targeting desktops and tablets, but not smartphones: While there are many fewer searches and clicks, the CTR from tablet traffic is twice as high as that from desktops, while the conversion rate is about one third lower. This advertiser might examine their landing page on a tablet, looking for clues and ideas about how to improve the conversion rate for those visitors. Separate Campaigns by Device If you're seeing significant traffic from tablet users, you should create a separate campaign just for that device. Here's why: your landing page may work for desktops but not tablets. Or your ads may be too attractive to tablet users, thereby delivering unqualified prospects to your landing page. Either way, you need the ability to tweak your campaign for each traffic stream separately. Bid by Device Once you've separated your traffic streams, you can now raise or lower bids by device as well as keyword or placement. In the screenshot above, suppose the value of a conversion were £2.50. The desktop traffic comes in lower, at £2.17, but the tablet traffic is too expensive, at £3.12 per conversion. While you tweak ads and landing pages, you should lower the CPC bid so that each click approaches break-even ROI. Your ads will appear lower on the page, perhaps in position 5 or 6 instead of position 2.4, while you experiment to raise the quality of your traffic/conversion funnel. Create Ads and Landing Pages Based on Context When I write a search ad, I visualize my prospect during the seven seconds leading up to their search. In the past, I saw them at their computer: wanting, worrying, wondering. Now, in the age of the iPad, I need to expand the range of my imagination. Is my prospect sitting on the couch watching Glee on Hulu, wondering if Brittany's lion hat is available from Hot Topic? Or have they just tapped away from a Facebook chat about last night's episode to do the search?? Can you see how putting yourself in your prospect's shoes (or slippers) can help you craft much more relevant ads and landing pages? Also, consider your prospect's time frame. Tablets are multitask machines; you may have less time to get and keep their attention even than on a desktop. And the ad that does catch their eye and the landing page that turns attention into interest and action may have to be more interactive and casual than if you were appealing to desktop users. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 132
- 133. Study Time Dimensionsto Optimize Your Campaigns Finally, given what we know about device usage by time of day and day of the week, you can see how those variables affect campaign performance in the AdWords dimensions tab. You may find that some campaigns should be turned off at certain times, while others should have their bids lowered or raised to achieve maximum ROI. While the Google search volume data and tablet diary study are fascinating and useful as starting points, you should make these decisions based solely on the real results in your own AdWords account. In my next article, I'll dive into the dimensions tab and day parting in detail. Digital Is a Philosophy: A New Looking Glass for Common Digital Tactics Augustine Fou | Contact Augustine Following last month's column on "Implementing Digital Is a Philosophy," let's explore how "digital" can also provide a new perspective on various digital tactics that are widely used today. Search Marketing to Search as Research Instead of thinking of search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) as just other ways of driving more traffic to your website, what if we thought of "search as research"? See the charts and examples here: Search As Research. The keyword "chocolate covered cherries" has the most search volume around Christmas while "chocolate covered strawberries" has the most searches around Valentine's Day. This can inform demand planning and product manufacturing for a company like Godiva. @GlennGabe shared another interesting example where "baby bedding" has more than 16 times the search volume of "infant bedding." By selecting the right synonym, the site enabled a lot more of the right customers to find their products. Finally, looking at Google related search or Google Instant, users can see what others are searching for, for each keyword or phrase. These insights can not only help in content creation or tailoring marketing messages, but can also provide continuous customer research as these searches evolve over time to reflect the information needs of target customers. Social Media Marketing to Social Amplification Instead of thinking of social media sites as another place to shout your brand message at people and their friends, what if we thought of it as "social amplification"? If you have a good product and there is a reason for people to talk about you - e.g., a competitive difference or competitive advantage - then they may talk about you. Obviously, it's well proven that brands shouldn't manipulate people to talk about them or pay people to do so. And further, they will probably not use the words you want them to use (i.e., approved brand terms). But good or bad, they will talk about you. And when they talk about you in social media, it sticks and will be visible to all. Think about the positive examples of JetBlue amplifying its launch of #AllYouCanJetPass on Twitter and Netflix getting feedback from its 2.1 million fans on Facebook; or think about the negative examples of "Motrin moms" or "Domino's." Social amplification goes well beyond just the typical social media sites du jour. Positive reviews of Canon's digital cameras on Amazon will continue to pay dividends for Canon whether or not it has any marketing campaign going on. Positive reviews on Yelp help new diners discover a restaurant even if it had no marketing budget. So instead of just sticking banner ads on Facebook, what if the restaurant politely asked for reviews, which then become permanent, indexed by search engines, and provide continuous free, "marketing-like" benefits to the restaurant? Mobile Marketing to Universal Access and Advocacy Instead of thinking of mobile marketing as a way to spam people 24/7 just because they have their mobile devices with them at all times, what if we thought of it as a way to serve customers wherever and whenever they need it? And in doing so, earn their advocacy. Mobile marketing has been one of the fastest growing areas of digital marketing. But too many advertisers are still thinking of it as a way to push out mobile display ads or SMS marketing messages. The problem is that many consumers see these tactics as even more of an invasion of privacy - e.g., when they get an unsolicited text message to their cellphones, even if it's from a vendor they already buy from. What if a manufacturer of a home theatre system provided something useful like a "how-to video" that was properly search engine-optimized and also optimized for mobile devices. A user standing in a store might find that video via their mobile device and decide to buy one system over another similar one because the useful video showed them how to install and wire it up properly. Finally, when users check in (e.g., on Foursquare) at their favorite restaurant or update their status with a rave review of it, their friends and others who follow them may become aware of the restaurant where other forms of marketing may not have reached them. And further, if the poster is respected as a foodie who knows the best restaurants, those followers may even put that restaurant in their consideration set right away. Few ads these days have that kind of power. If loyalty and advocacy can impact the awareness and even the consideration of new potential customers, then we can even turn the typically linear purchase funnel into a cycle -- see the chart "Unified Marketing Framework." The mobile devices that enable modern users to be always connected, always informed, and always on can now play a significant role in driving awareness that even the most targeted push ads cannot. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 133
- 134. Conclusion Given how thelandscape has been changed by digital and how modern users' habits and expectations have been permanently changed as well, it's worth taking a fresh look at the above marketing tactics and seeing how you would do them differently if you thought about it from this new perspective. Brands face "big data" test NEW YORK: Many brand owners are struggling to make the maximum use of "big data", but firms like Unilever, General Electric and AstraZeneca are rapidly developing their capabilities in this area. EMC, the consultancy, partnered with Toluna Research and Kaggle to poll 497 data scientists and business intelligence professionals in China, France, Germany, India, the UK and US. Just one third of the companies represented were perceived as effectively leveraging the array of information available across digital platforms to implement better decisions. Unilever, the FMCG giant, recently formed a tie-up with Capgemini, the consultancy, covering global business intelligence. This deal includes the creation of an "Enterprise Data Warehouse" offering real-time data on its customers, markets and operations. "This programme is one of our top strategic initiatives," Willem Eelman, Unilever's global chief information officer, said. "It will transform the way our businesses around the world access and use information, bringing enhanced insight and consistency." Only 38% of EMC's interviewees "strongly agreed" that their firm draws on big data to learn about consumers, and an even more modest 17% concurred that all employees could run experiments on the material accrued. "Part of the duty of a data scientist is to promote the data-driven culture," said Monica Rogati, senior data scientist at LinkedIn. "The way to do that is by exposing the data and making it relevant to everyone in the company, and showing them what you can do with it." While 37% of the survey panel "very frequently" worked alongside business management, figures fell to 31% for marketing teams, 29% concerning sales departments and 28% for strategic planners. General Electric, the conglomerate, has been building company-wide tools providing staff with greater capabilities, but also understands the potential risks. "Security has become more important … We're attacked every day, as is everybody," said Greg Simpson, GE's chief technology officer. "We do use external services - for example, we use external chat services from Cisco. But there is a certain type of data we're not comfortable putting in the cloud." When discussing barriers to progress, a shortage of skills and training posted 32% among EMC's panel, the same score as a lack of resources, while 14% of those questioned blamed sub-optimal organisational structures. In a bid to expand its strengths in this discipline, AstraZeneca, the pharma firm, has allied with HealthCore, part of Wellpoint, an approach yielding mutual benefits. "By working together, we all get access to a broader, richer data environment, and we can work together on creating state- of-the-art access tools and real-world methodologies," said Mark Lelinski, AstraZeneca's VP, global marketing. Google Adds Graphical Math Calculator To Search Results Barry Schwartz Google announced their answer to Wolfram Alpha‘s advanced math skills with math graphing functionality on Google search results. All you need to do is type basic and complex math functions into the Google search box and Google will return neat graphics. From basic charts for sin(x) to more complex graphs for x/2, (x/2)^2, ln(x), cos(pi*x/5). Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 134
- 135. Of course, Googlegets their ‘geek on’ by showing off their math skills: Did I mention you can zoom into these charts? This is Google’s graphical calculator, right on the search page. The 20 Best New Startups Of 2011 1/21 Simple wants to get rid of bank fees altogether and become a whole new mobile bank. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 135
- 136. Founders: Alex Payne,Josh Reich and Shamir Karkal Funding: Raised $10 million in August and has raised ~$13 million to date. What it is: People keep their money in more than one place and they get charged a lot of money by every bank. Simple (formerly called BankSimple) wants to merge all accounts into one and do away with fees by splitting the net interest between all of the banks involved. It's partnering with Visa to create one, ultimate credit card that connects to all of its partner banks and 40,000 fee-free ATMs It opened its beta a few weeks ago and will officially launch in 2012. Lytro raised $50 million pre-launch to make the first "shoot now, focus later" camera Image: Lytro Founder: Dr. Ren Ng Funding: $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, NEA and K9 Ventures, and other angels What it is: Lytro is the first light field camera that allows you to "shoot now and focus later." Here's how it works: 1) Take a picture 2) Upload it 3) Click on a blurry section that you'd like to highlight 4) Watch the image instantly shift focus from 2D to 3D. Try it out. Click on different parts of the tree below to focus on different areas Betterworks raised a round at a $100 million valuation to create an employee rewards network for small businesses Founders: Paige Craig and Sizhao "Zao" Yang Funding: $8 million from Redpoint Ventures What it is: Betterworks is an employee rewards network for small businesses. Instead of having to scout out great deals for employees, small businesses and startups can use BetterWorks to offer their staff deals at local gyms, restaurants and more. BetterWorks secures the partnerships, and all employees in its network can buy the deals, no matter which small business they work for or how many of their fellow employees sign up. Zaarly launched at Startup Weekend LA earlier this year. It raised $14 million so anyone can hire a minion or sell things to neighbors Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 136
- 137. Ian Hunter, BoFishback and Eric Koester cofounded Zaarly Image: Zaarly Founders: Eric Koester, Bo Fishback, Ian Hunter Funding: $1 million seed round, $14.1 million Series A from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sands Capital Ventures, Ashton Kutcher, SV Angel, CMEA, Venture51, Crunchfund, Mark Ecko, and Artists and Instigator What it is: Zaarly is a local marketplace for real-time requests. Need chips at your party in five minutes? Find a neighbor on Zaarly who will do it now. Think Craigslist meets Twitter. Turntable.fm raised $7 million this summer so users could DJ and listen to music in chat rooms with friends Founders: Seth Goldstein, Billy Chasen Funding: $7 million led by Union Square Ventures What it is: Turntable.fm is a way to listen to music online with groups of people. Users can join chat rooms and battle to become a DJ in a socially-integrated experience. Oink is a new app from Digg founder Kevin Rose that already has 100,000 users. Founder: Kevin Rose Funding: Parent company Milk raised $1.5 million from angel investors What it is: Oink is a recommendation app that lets you rate items at the venues you visit, like hamburgers and coffees. For more information, here's a walkthrough of Oink. General Assembly opened up a startup school in NYC earlier this year and it just announced another campus in London. Image: Dan Frommer, Business Insider Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 137
- 138. Founders: Adam Pritzker,Jake Schwartz, Brad Hargreaves, and Matt Brimer Funding: $4.25 million plus other unattributed amounts from Yuri Milner and others What it is: General Assembly is a school for entrepreneurs with courses taught by the community and cheap desks to rent office space. The founders believe school is important but feel traditional universities aren't training students to succeed in the 21st century. Prtizker says General Assembly fills that void by focusing on collaboration and innovation instead of lectures. ―People always talk about Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all dropping out [of university]. The reality is they all thought of those ideas in college,‖ Pritzker tells Financial Times. Giftly is a way for anyone to buy a gift card to any store in the world, even ones that aren't nearby. Founder: Tim Bentley Funding: Giftly has a few million in funding; Thrive Capital and Dave Tisch are investors What it is: Giftly offers a way for anyone to buy a gift card to any store in the world, even ones that aren't nearby. Gift cards are designed by the gifter and sent via email. The recipient opens the email and unlocks the payment when they're in the store. Money (a refund for the purchase) is sent to his or her bank account. GetAround is like Airbnb for cars. Rent your vehicles to neighbors when you're not using them Founders: Elliot Kroo and Jessica Scorpio Funding: $3.4 million from CrunchFund, Netflix founder Marc Randolph, Time Warner’s largest shareholder Vivi Nevo, Redpoint Ventures, and others. What it is: Car rental service for you and your neighbors. Rent cars from each other instead of from Hertz. Skillshare turns any place into a classroom and turns anyone into a teacher Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 138
- 139. Michael-Karnjanaprakorn, SkillShare cofounder Founders:Mike Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong Funding: $3.1 million round from Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. What it is: Skillshare is a way to learn anything from anyone. People post what they want to teach on Skillshare and then find a venue. Other Skillshare users can sign up to attend the course and pay for tickets. Fab is a flash sales site for design and home decor. It launched six months ago and already has 1,000,000 registered users Founders: Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer Funding: $11.3 million to date; raised $7.7 million in August What it is: Fab is a flash sales design and home decor site. It has scaled quickly with smart marketing and a viral invite scheme. The members-only site asks you to invite three friends before giving you access to its sales. It sells really unique things too, like iPhone covers made from newspaper clippings. Codecademy is a fun, easy way to learn basic JavaScript online Founders: Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski Funding: $2.5 million led by Union Square Ventures What it is: An online programming tutorial. It's an easy way to learn JavaScript, starting with the spelling of your name. Sphero is a robotic ball that can be controlled by your phone Founders: Adam Wilson and Ian Bernstein Funding: Parent company Orbotix has raised $6 million Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 139
- 140. What it is:"It's the size of a tennis ball with a little robot inside that can be guided around," explains Foundry Group's Brad Feld. "It's fabulous for dogs and cats. Give it to an eight-year-old boy or girl and they won't let go of it. You can imagine the military applications for something like that too." Goodsie is one of the easiest, cheapest ways to create a good-looking e-commerce site Image: Valerie Caviness Photography Founders: Jonathan Marcus, David Marcus, and Jack Zerby Funding: $3 Million+ in funding led by Alex Zubillaga of the Rhone Group. Additional angel investors include Dave Morin of Path, David Tisch of TechStars, Vimeo founder Jake Lodwick, Joey Levin of Mindspark, and John Foley of Barnes & Noble. What it is: An incredibly easy to use e-commerce site. Goodsie makes setting up stores very similar to setting up Wordpress blogs. Users choose from multiple layout options, color pallets, background patterns, and typography without ever having to muck in code. After writing about Goodsie's launch, I tried the service myself. Within a week I shut down my Yahoo e-commerce site and switched to Goodsie instead. The site looks better and is much easier to manage now. Chloe + Isabel turns all of its users into mini jewelry entrepreneurs Chantel Waterbury is the foudner of Chloe + Isabel Founders: Chantel Waterbury Funding: $8.5 million Series A round led by General Catalyst Partners. First Round Capitaland other Chloe + Isabel seed investors participated. What it is: Chloe + Isabel is a jewelry startup that turns each of its users into mini entrepreneurs. Users are encouraged to sell the Chloe + Isabel jewelry lines to friends and at house parties. Chloe + Isabel designs and creates the jewelry, provides online training for its users/salespeople, gives them marketing tools and helps them build e- boutiques. SoJo Studios is like Zynga for the real world; it partners with charities. Plant a tree in the game and you'll plant a tree in real life. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 140
- 141. Founder: Lincoln Brown Funding:$8 million; Ellen DeGeneres is an investor; so is at least one other A-list celebrity. Warner Brothers is affiliated with SoJo Studios; Ester Dyson and Dave Morinare on its advisory team. What it is: SoJo stands for Social Joy. Brown's mission is to get people to play online games that actually impact the real world. In Zynga's games, users build fake farms and landscapes. In SoJo's WeTopia, most actions have some sort of real world, charity-driven effect. Instead of virtual currency, SoJo's users earn Joy and they can spend it on projects like planting trees or giving schools clean water. Whenever Joy is spent on a project, SoJo gives one of its partnering charities money to accomplish the task, or a similar task, in real life. Here's Ellen promoting it on her show (this advertorial crashed SoJo's site): Warby Parker is taking on Luxottica. It sells designer and prescription glasses at discounted rates Image: Warby Parker Founders: David Gilboa, Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt and Jeffrey Raider Funding: $13.5 million total; $12 million Series A led by Tiger Global. What it is: Warby Parker is a prescription glasses online discount retailer. There are other online glasses retailers, but investors' excitement for New York-based Warby Parker seems to stem from its early traction and the big industry it disrupts. "It's an overnight sensation which is very attractive," says an investor. "It came out of the gate fast and hard and solves a real problem. No one has been able to cut Luxottica [the force behind LensCrafters and Sunglass Hut] out of the market yet." WeWork Labs is a startup incubator in New York City that houses more than 50 entrepreneurs. Founders: Matt Shampine, Jesse Middleton, and Adam Neumann Funding: Backed by WeWork and some of its sponsors. What it is: WeWork Labs is New York City's newest stomping grounds for aspiring entrepreneurs. For $250/month, founders and freelancers with backgrounds ranging from PR and marketing to IT and biz dev can rent desks. The founders hope sticking talented people in a room together for months at a time will lead to great new startups. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 141
- 142. The Verge justlaunched and it's already breaking tech news stories Image: The Verge Founders: Joshua Topolsky and Marty Moe in partnership with Vox Media and its CEO Jim Bankoff Funding: Backed by Vox Media What it is: The Verge is the newest, buzziest tech blog and it's already breaking news. "The Verge's mission is to offer breaking news coverage and in-depth reporting, product information, and community content via a unified, modern platform." Kogeto Dot lets you shoot 360-degree videos with your iPhone Image: Kogeto Founders: Jeff Glasse and David Sosnow Funding: Raised $120,514 on Kickstarter from 1,023 backers What it is: Kogeto has been around for a little bit, but it launched it's latest, coolest gadget, Kogeto Dot, this year. Kogeto Dot lets iPhone users shoot 360 degree videos on their phones. It's the ultimate (and smallest) panoramic camera. Who Are the Top 10 Influencers in Social Media? Who are the top social media influencers? As the social web evolves rapidly it’s clear that some influencers have the same reach and pull as media outlets. Individuals matter in a way that’s never been possible before. I’ve been discussing with personal data specialists PeekYou how we can understand this phenomenon better. PeekYou’s mission is to render the web into a gallery of identifiable people. So instead of those well known but mostly obscurenames out there, you start to get the real measure of people. How influential are the people you deal with? PeekYou have created a ―social media audience‖ metric to help you find out. I will be using it to analyze what topics influential people discuss. But here I want to discuss with you what the metric means and how it applies to a set of well known social media influencers. The social media audience metric measures people by the strength of their identifiable networks. It’s all about people, who in your networks are identifiable, who in your followers is out there contributing and building their own networks? It can be used by brands to understand the pulling power of social media experts or by people to understand the scale and reach of their audience. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 142
- 143. Note in thetable below (I’ll be posting more next week) the strong showing of Scott Monty, head of social at Ford. Another notable feature is the extent to which major social media figures are aligned or affiliated with a major outlet or platform, like Ann Handley at MarketingProfs, Jason Falls at Social MediaExplorer, and Mari Smith, the Facebook marketing expert. There are different ways to assess reach and in the table you see it measured as ―pull‖. To quote PeekYou: Simply put, if an individual has a Pull of 10x, that means that the audience the individual in question could reach is at least ten times greater than that of the average social media user. In other words, if someone with a Pull of 10x posted a Tweet, it would receive the same audience coverage as 10 average people tweeting the same message. The essence of the pull metric however is a person’s identifiable audience – The Identified Consumer Count. You might note at this stage that we are talking exclusively about a Twitter audience. The assumption is a blogger with pull can amplify his or her own message substantially through Twitter. But there are other factors, like Facebook followers, and we’ll come to those. A person’s identifiable audience is the number of people within a following who can actually be identified, that is they follow someone, people follow them and they share information about themselves online. They are real. The audience is expressed as an absolute number and as a ratio. To quote PeekYou: The Consumer Ratio is the ratio of verifiable, addressable users to non-verifiable. The ―non‖ are identified in our reporting as falling under one of three broad categories: Private consumers (people with private settings, whichPeekYou never indexes), businesses and other organizations (brands, corporate profiles, apps, charities, government agencies, etc.), and unidentified profiles (either not connected to a real-world identity in any way, or spam bots). Are these consumers influential, and are these consumers’ followers listening? PeekAnalytics measures not only the size of the consumer audience, but their quality in terms of their network size, social participation and their ability to spread a message further. In this table we’ve summarised pull, total audience, identified consumer count, and consumer ratio. 15 Ways to Bring Social Media to Events By Ekaterina Walter Do you host events or informal gatherings? Social media enables event attendees to connect in powerful ways. Social media can help promote events and empower attendees to share. This article will reveal 15 ways you can infuse social media into your events. Creating Pre-Event Buzz #1: Registration Buzz You don’t have to wait until the day of your event to create a buzz—it can start at the registration stage. Services such as Eventbrite let your attendees share the event with their networks as they register. #2: Sharing Buzz Encourage your attendees to share details of your event early by offering incentives for spreading the word. Meteor Solutions helps you to incentivize your event by offering rewards for sharing your content. The Online Marketing Summit 2012 is offering the chance to win a free trip to San Diego by sharing their event. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 143
- 144. OMS is givingaway a free trip to San Diego for spreading the word about the event. South by Southwest (SXSW) goes one step further with SXSocial, their own registrant tool which allows attendees to get to know like-minded users and exchange messages before the event. The entire front page of the TEDx SoMa Event is dedicated to pre-registering and sharing information about the next event: all their blogs, Twitter feed, Facebook fans, Flickr and YouTube channels are up there to excite next year’s attendees, with your attention directed towards the large ‘pre-register’ button. TEDxSoMa does a good job at highlighting their content socially, as well as the opportunities to share their content. Make sure all your event promotions include pre-agreed hashtags in prominent positions to encourage people to start using them early when they talk about your event. You don’t want two or three variations getting coined as it will be much harder to follow conversation threads. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 144
- 145. OMS features theirevent's hashtag up front and center. Once you’ve got your speakers lined up you can include their profiles—and Twitter handles—on your website and other promotions, which will help your audience get to know them if they don’t already and even start suggesting questions and topics that might help your speakers gauge the audience better. #3: Event-Shaping Buzz SXSW has always been active in asking attendees for their views to help shape events, with 30% of their programming chosen by attendees. Without going to these lengths, you can use PollDaddy and TwtPoll to conduct simple polls before your event. SXSW crowd is buzzing with excitement. #4: Rumor Buzz In 2009 a rumor flew around Twitter that comedian Dave Chappell would be playing a secret midnight show at Portland’s Pioneer Square. No-one was able to confirm or deny the rumor, so it just kept running until 5,000 people had showed up. Midnight came and went, and no Dave Chappell. Still, people kept arriving. Had the Twitter rumor just been a massive hoax? At 1 am, just as everyone was starting to think they’d been victims of a Twitter con, Dave Chappell walked on stage and rewarded the crowd with an impromptu gig. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 145
- 146. Rumors of surprisespecial guests or exciting prizes can help to invigorate your event and get people talking. Crowd going crazy when the Dave Chappelle rumor is confirmed by his appearance. Keeping Attendees Informed #5: Use QR Codes for Ad-Hoc Presentations Nowadays it doesn’t matter how ad-hoc your event is. Even if it’s being held outside with no traditional conference facilities, you can use QR codes to share your presentation without a projector by uploading your presentation to Slideshare, then creating a QR code that points to the presentation. Print an image of the code and anyone with a smartphone can scan it and go straight to the presentation. Example of QR codes used to download a presentation. #6: Collect All of Your Speakers’ Blogs in One Place How do you keep your attendees up to date with all your speakers’ news, whether before, during or after the event? With Netvibes, you can use the RSS feeds from their blogs to create a dashboard of all their latest posts. Netvibes can also be used to round up Twitter conversations, which is particularly useful at large events if there are several different hashtags being used. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 146
- 147. Netvibes' conversation feed. HelpingAttendees Share Information #7: Twitter Backchannels There’s no need to stick to the rigid format of talking, then opening up to questions from the audience. With a Twitter backchannel run on something like Tweetwally, not only can the audience provide commentary on the talks, but also non- attendees canfollow along on Twitter. There can be issues around this, though: running commentary behind the speaker can be distracting and as the format isn’t censored, comments could go off-topic or even turn negative. A good solution is to have a screen up in a communal areaaway from the live events, with marshals collecting comments and feedback to put to the speaker at an appropriate time. #8: Sharing Images By setting up an official Flickr page and using small prizes and incentives to encourage participants to upload their own photos, you can quickly build a great unofficial photo record of the event, which you can use again in future promotions. #9: Sharing Locations Encourage attendees to check in using Foursquare at different locations around the venue by rewarding them with discounts, special offers and other incentives. Not only can everyone see which booths are popular, but also you can encourage them toexplore locations that they might otherwise have missed. Absent Attendees #10: Open Up Your Event to Virtual Attendees If you don’t want space to limit your attendance, consider opening your event up to virtual attendees. The 2011 Blog World and New Media Expo is selling virtual tickets for anyone not able to physically get to LA. BlogWorld is offering recordings of presentations for a smaller fee to those who can't attend. Some events, such as the 2011 International Freelancers Day Conference go one step further and are entirely virtual, with speakers recording sessions miles apart, cutting the need for a conference venue, travel or accommodation. Virtual attendees can ask questions via Twitter or Facebook, or comment on events using hashtags to create what is potentially a global conversation. #11: Video Streaming Live recording is the keystone to a virtual event. UStream, Facebook or a dedicated YouTube channel can enable you to stream events live, either in whole or in part. This is particularly valuable at large events where attendees are never going to get around to all the talks. If you’re going to do this on a large scale, it’s worth investing in dedicated recording equipment and a separate Internet connection, as you’ll be using a lot of bandwidth. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 147
- 148. Energize Your Event #12:QR Code Scavenger Hunts How can you make visiting your booth more fun and stand out in a busy venue? This year’s Comic-Con in San Diego used QR codes to create a Voltron-themed scavenger hunt for fans to win prizes. At the same event, BBC America ran their own Doctor Who QR game to encourage attendees to visit all of their Doctor Who exhibits, with the chance to win related prize-packs. Comic-Con is always buzzing with activity. Doctor Who QR game. Reward your attendees for sharing blog posts, weblogs and photo galleriesat your event with prizes and discounts. The MarketingProf’s B2B Forum offered free tickets to next year’s event for the best content posted to their blog. After the Event #13: Publish Your Twitter Wall If you have a whole lot of media you don’t know what to do with, try using Storify to collect Tweets, videos and photos and embed them in your website or share them through social media. #14: Give Access to All of Your Talks With Links to Videos You can make your website the main place for post-event catch-up by using Ustream and YouTube to embed video of your biggest events. This can also serve as a great marketing tool for next year’s event. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 148
- 149. Make sure youhave an email sign-up (you can use AWeber or MailChimp) on the same page to capture interest, and you can even get ahead of the game by offering incentives for early interest. X.commerce is a new and innovative distribution channel. #15: Publish Your Presentations You can use Slideshare to reach a whole new audience beyond your own website and help convince new audiences to sign up for next year’s event. What do you think? How have you promoted your event? Leave your questions and comments in the box below. DATA CRUNCHED: How email deluge makes workers go postal Experts say information overload is damaging mental health and impacting productivity. Picture: ThinkStock THE culture of modern business needs to change with workers drowning under a deluge of emails and information, experts have warned. Corporations are failing to help staff cope with the technological barrage, daily meetings and constant connection, leading to rising levels of stress and psychological illness and costing billions in lost productivity. Psychologists and experts say the information glut is becoming a major issue for firms who are searching for realistic answers to the problem. A recent report, commissioned by Hitachi Data Systems, found 40 per cent of companies in Australia and New Zealand are suffering from the information glut, up from 34 per cent two years ago. The report also found 81 per cent of companies surveyed now considered it important to manage data growth, up from 68 per cent two years ago. Dr Ben Searle, senior lecturer of Psychology at Macquarie University, said information overload was now a major source of psychological illness in the workplace and is expected to become an increasing problem. Common solutions offered by managers such as only checking emails at certain times during the day were difficult to implement and often did not work. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 149
- 150. ―These solutions won’twork if your company doesn’t embrace it,‖ Dr Searle said. ―If a culture exists where a reply to an email is expected straight away, it will not work.‖ He said changes needed to be part of company policies handed down to workers from the top. Marc Peter, director of technology at LexisNexis which conducted an International Workplace Productivity study last year, said many employees were reaching ―breaking point‖ with the amount of information they receive and there was a huge need for employers to step in and help. Mr Peter said most workers admit data overload is causing their quality of work to suffer, making them feel demoralised and looking for guidance from employers. ―There are two key drivers for information overload," he said. "A lot of the information is irrelevant for the person who is receiving it and the second one is there is an inability of systems and processes in organisations to manage information efficiently.‖ Scroll down for tips to cope with information overload Most workers receive an average of 36 emails a day and huge volumes of other information. Add to this social media, instant messenger, daily meetings and the ever-present telephone plus the arrival of new technologies which employees are expected embrace to stay ahead of the game. Macquarie University's Dr Searle said trying to straddle all these technologies is a productivity killer and could lead to further stress. ―Switching from iPad, to smartphone, to laptop can increase stress,‖ he said. ―And if you are working on a complex task it is important to remove yourself from interruptions.‖ Are you drowning in data? Tell us some of your best coping tips below Hitachi Data Systems general manager Neville Vincent said while Australians worked incredibly hard in the developed economies they were probably one of the least productive. "We are verging on an information disorder, beyond an information glut," Mr Vincent said. "To use the gluttony/obesity analogy, people have recognised that they are putting on weight, from an additional information mismanagement perspective. "But they are not actually doing anything about it." Solutions offered are often a combination of data-management technology, willpower, and embracing some common principles, such as only checking emails twice a day. The inescapable data deluge Being unable to escape information is another source of ―information rage‖. A survey last month by news.com.au found one in four people say they ―can’t escape‖ working on their own time, mostly due to work emails being synched to smartphones. The survey also revealed constant interruptions and meetings were impacting their productivity. Of 31,260 respondents, 30 per cent said their top wish to boost their own productivity would be to work away from constant interruptions, while another one in four said ―fewer meetings‖. Dr Searle said these constant interruptions are one of the biggest productivity killers and causes of severe stress. How to survive: Focus, Filter and Forget Management consultants McKinsey urge workers to embrace three principles to deal with data overload: find time to focus, filter out noise and forget about work when you can. Finding time to think and having alone time is one of the most important coping mechanisms. Conversely, multitasking is a terrible coping mechanism. ―A body of scientific evidence demonstrates fairly conclusively that multitasking makes human beings less productive, less creative, and less able to make good decisions,‖ says the article. Filtering out the noise by shutting down e-mail, closing web browsers and having phone calls go automatically to voice mail can also help, they say. According to Mr Peter the three ways organisations can help is through investment into information management and decide how information is filtered, train employees and providing the tools and workflow and productivity technology. Tips to avoid choking on emails 1. Cull reading material ruthlessly. Throw out anything you don’t need to read. 2. Focus on the quality of information, rather than quantity. 3. Set a time limit before using the internet. Only look up information you need. 4. Set rules for your emails so they are automatically organised into a relevant folder as soon as you receive them. 4. Planning a project or campaign often means trying to assimilate lots of data in different formats and from different sources. It’s often easier to organise this data visually – like a spider diagram or mind map. 5. Check emails and voicemails twice a day, at most. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 150
- 151. 6. Delete unwantedemails immediately. 7. Take regular breaks. Walk away from the machines. Giving the brain downtime to process information is a critical element of learning and thinking creatively. MAGNAGLOBAL MEDIA OWNERS ADVERTISING REVENUE FORECAST: BRICs and Sports Will Help Global Advertising Revenues to Grow In 2012 New York, December 5, 2011 – MAGNAGLOBAL, a division of IPG Mediabrands, released updated Global Advertising Forecasts, showing media owners’ revenue growth for 2011 and 2012 to be slower than previously projected, but still resilient. Key Findings 2011 global growth is revised down to +4.7% (downgraded by -0.5%), totaling $427 billion. 2012 global growth is revised to +5.0% (downgraded by -1.5%), totaling $449 billion. Quadrennial events, combined with the scale and dynamism of the BRIC countries will help sustain global growth despite worsening economic outlook. They contribute to 45% of the global growth in 2011. Internet will become the second biggest media category in 2011, reaching a 20% global market share in 2012. China will become the second largest advertising market in 2012, outgrowing Japan. 2011: The Slowdown In 2011, media suppliers around the world will see their advertising revenues grow by +4.7% to total $427 billion (constant USD 2010 basis). That estimate is down slightly (-0.5%) from our +5.2% forecast published in June 2011, due to the softening of some markets in the second half of the year. Our media suppliers advertising revenue projection includes: television (pay and free), Internet (search, display, video, mobile), newspapers, magazines, radio, cinema and out-of-home (traditional and digital). It excludes direct marketing categories such as direct mail or traditional "yellow page" directories. We monitor media suppliers’ revenues in 63 markets (including all major markets), representing more than 95% of the world’s economy. The geography of growth. More than ever, emerging economies drove global advertising revenue growth in 2011, posting an average +15.0% growth during the year. Among these developing economies, Latin America posted the strongest growth rates, averaging +13.2%, closely followed by Central and Eastern Europe (+13.0%). Developed markets, meanwhile, grew at much slower rates, such as +1.6% in Western Europe and +3.1% in North America, due to a number of factors including: a strong 2010 comparison (revenues were up +8.2% compared with 2009); macro-economic slow-down and persistent financial uncertainties; the absence of major sporting events or U.S. elections; and natural disasters in Asia. Among individual countries, the strongest growth rates came from: Argentina (+37.9% in the context of a strong inflationary economic growth), China (+22.5%), Kazakhstan (+25.6%), Russia (+20.4%), India (+15%) and Brazil (+10.2%). Eleven countries (out of the 63 analyzed by MAGNAGLOBAL) suffered a decline in advertising revenues, including countries in Southern Europe hit by protracted economic turmoil and political instability (Greece: -19.3%; Portugal: -6.9%; Spain: -6.3%; Italy: -2.5%); emerging markets temporarily destabilized by the Arab Spring (Egypt -21%); and Asian countries hit by natural disasters (Japan -2.0%, Thailand: -2.0%). Many of the large markets of Western Europe and North America wound up in the middle, typically showing low single-digit growth (UK: +1.8%; Germany: +3.0%; U.S.: +2.9%). Among media categories, television, an unexpected winner in 2010 (+12.7%), continued to show strength in 2011, despite the absence of cyclical sporting events or elections in the U.S. Broadcasters’ advertising revenues grew +4.8% to $175 billion, in 2011, maintaining TV’s leadership with a 41.0% market share globally. Strong audience levels and audience measurement improvements – such as the integration of time-shifted DVR viewing into ratings for the first time (e.g. France) – made the medium attractive. Out-of-home (OOH) media fared even better. Including cinema, OOH grew +6.4% globally, driven by the incremental revenues generated through digital billboards (+19.9%), which have rolled out in various parts of continental Europe and Asia. Other traditional media categories, however, had a tougher year. Radio grew only +2.2%; newspapers’ revenues were down -2.4% and magazines declined -0.9%. Declining circulation, shrinking readership, Internet competition and short term media buying patterns (which penalizes monthly magazines), all contributed to print’s decline in developed markets. Things are different in emerging markets, however, where literacy is still increasing and broadband access is still relatively low. In those markets, magazines are growing along with the middle class, and there is enough advertising demand for every media beyond TV to benefit. Overall, print advertising revenues are up by high single digit percentage points in emerging markets. The big winner of 2011, however, was Internet media. Total Internet advertising revenues increased +16.9% to $78.5 billion. While Display subcategories increased +15%, Paid Search reaped the benefits of usage growth and algorithm improvements to reclaim its position as the largest digital revenue driver (+19%). Within Display, online video continues to show impressive growth (+58.5%), reaching $4.7 billion in revenues. Pre- and mid-rolls in online videos now generate 6% of total Internet advertising revenues and one percent (1.1%) of global advertising revenues. Even more than online video sharing specialists, TV broadcasters offering free, ad-funded online ―catch-up‖ of long-form, full-length episodes are driving category growth. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 151
- 152. Overall, coming aftera strong 2010 and in a poor macro-economic context, media suppliers displayed a resilient performance in 2011. But the global market is barely back to where it was in 2007 ($423 billion in constant USD), and still smaller in the case of Western Europe (2007: $112 billion, 2011: $106 billion). This reflects that media costs that are still low from a historical perspective. 2012: The BRIC Engine For 2012, we now forecast media owners’ advertising revenues to grow by +5.0% to $449 billion. This is -1.5% below our previous prediction published in June 2011 (+6.5%). This downward revision is due to deteriorating macro-economic perspectives. Our forecast model is based on current, official economic forecasts that are generally predicting weaker – but still positive – growth next year. However, the uncertainty remains high, especially in Europe. In September, the IMF reduced its global output forecast (real GDP growth) from +4.5% to +4.0%. Although that forecast suggests the world economy would still grow, it’s an awkward average between emerging economies that are growing at healthy rates and developed economies that are still sputtering (average +1.9%, US: +1.8%). In late November, OECD revised its own global output forecast to +3.4% (including +1.6% for OECD countries and only +0.2% for the Euro area) warning that 4Q11 and 1Q12 could tip negative in most European countries, in line with 3Q11 slowdown. Greece, Italy and Portugal, in particular, are now expected to suffer full-year recessions in 2012. Other economic indicators (industrial production, personal consumption and business confidence) have been similarly downgraded in recent months and some independent forecasters have expressed increasingly gloomier views. Despite the worsening economic outlook, we are still projecting a positive growth rate based on a few factors: First, the well-known ―quadrennial‖ cyclical driver is back, and we believe it will be stronger than ever. The incremental ad spend generated by major sporting events (London Summer Olympics, Poland/Ukraine European Soccer Championship) and the U.S. Presidential Elections will bring an additional +1% to +2% on top of organic revenue growth across markets. In the U.S., Political and Olympic (P&O) money will account for three billion dollars of incremental ad spend, mostly on television ($2.4 billion related to the Elections, $600 million generated by Olympic Broadcasts). Meanwhile, major sporting events will help in European markets that are otherwise hit by economic stagnation, such as the UK (which is hosting the Olympics, although the games are broadcast on the ad-free BCC) and Italy (where the Games and Soccer tournament will mostly be broadcast by RAI, one of the few European public television groups still allowed to carry a full, all-day advertising load). Second, big emerging countries will increase their share of global economic and advertising influence. At the end of 2012, emerging markets will represent 24% of global advertising revenues (compared with 7% in 1999) and the four BRIC countries alone will account for 14% (compared with 3% in 1999). Adding scale to dynamism, the BRIC markets have the capacity to offset part or all of the Western weakness. The four BRIC markets equated to only 10% of Western Europe’s advertising revenues in 1999. That ratio will grow to 59% by the end of 2012, and by 2016 the BRIC countries will almost match the size of Western Europe (94%). The BRIC countries contributed to 45% of the global market growth in 2011 ($9 billion out of $19 billion). With a growing proportion of the BRIC countries’ population adopting Western-style media consumption patterns, and with Western and local brands competing for top-of-mind among the emerging middle class, media demand is in excess of supply and inflation reigns. BRIC countries lag behind the global average advertising spend per capita ($80) – Russia: $70, Brazil: $60; China: $21, and India: $4. With such structural factors, we expect advertising spending and revenues in those markets to keep growing faster than the general economy, supporting global revenues in their wake. Thirdly, some lessons learned in 2009 may help avoid a replay. Some major advertisers, e.g. in FMCG, have since admitted that they may have over-reacted back then by cutting advertising expenditures too hard and too quickly, harming their brands. We believe that this time, even if sales forecasts are being revised downwards, marketers will remember that market shares are subject to losses or gains, including – and perhaps even more so – during a recession, as consumers reconsider their choices. In addition, the Western advertising market is still smaller than five years ago, which means prices and net costs per thousand - despite some inflation in 2010-2011 - are still competitive and attractive by long term standards. Therefore, brands in various sectors have both the incentive and capacity to invest smartly to boost or defend their market shares. In 2012, advertising revenues will grow by +12.4% in emerging economies, with Latin America still leading the charge (+13.0%) followed by Central and Eastern Europe (slowing down at +7.7%). Asia Pacific will re-accelerate to +8.3% due to the recovery of Japan and the continued growth of China. Western Europe will slow down at +1.1%. The sports driver will not be enough to offset recession in many European countries: Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland will decrease again (between -2% and -6%); Italy and France will be flat at best. UK and Germany will grow below +2%. The biggest growth rates of 2012 will come from Argentina (+26.4%), Ukraine (+21.0%), Indonesia (+16.0%), China (+16.1%), Brazil (+12.0%), India (+13.5%) and Russia (+9.6%). In terms of media market share, Internet will grow by 11.2% and outrank newspapers to become the second biggest media category globally, accounting for nearly 20% of global advertising dollars (19.5% at $87.4 billion). The category already stands at 23% in both North America and Western Europe (where it even takes the #1 spot in a few markets, such as the UK). Television will receive the bulk of the ―quadrennial‖ bonanza and will benefit from the typical concentration of advertisers into leading media at the expense of secondary media during harsh times. TV will grow by +6.7% globally to $187.1 billion. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 152
- 153. Newspaper and magazinerevenues will shrink by an average -1.0% and -1.3% respectively, with much deeper drops in Western markets, where circulation losses of 2011 will be reflected in 2012 ad pricing. Radio will grow by +1.6% to $30.4 billion. OOH will also benefit from the ―quadrennial‖ events and the roll-out of new digital (+6.3% to $28.3 billion) platforms. In the UK, the innovative upfront auction process conducted last summer to allocate the most premium London inventory during the Games did not quite meet the high expectations, but the industry is still expected to grow healthily next year. China Takes the #2 Spot China’s advertising market is expected to continue outperforming its already impressive economic growth in 2012, with a +16.1% growth. At $33.3 billion, China will become the second biggest advertising market, ahead of Japan, now third at $32.1 billion. Germany remains the fourth biggest market, some distance behind ($25 billion). Other top 10 markets are – in order - UK, France, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Italy. Russia will enter the top 10 in 2013, at the expense of Italy. Chart 1: Top 10 advertising in 2012 (constant USD 2010) Rank Country USD % 1 United States 152,887 34.0% 2 China 33,258 7.4% 3 Japan 32,113 7.2% 4 Germany 24,769 5.5% 5 United Kingdom 19,619 4.4% 6 France 14,582 3.2% 7 Brazil 13,134 2.9% 8 Canada 12,384 2.8% 9 Australia 12,167 2.7% 10 Italy 11,337 2.5% Top 10 326,250 72.7% Grand total (63 countries) 449,019 100.0% Chart 2: Global Media Owners Advertising Revenues (2006-2013) Chart 3: Global Advertising Growth by Media Category (2011-2012) Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 153
- 154. Social Media -It's Not About Technology According to Pew Research, Baby Boomers and older folks using social media has increased enormously in 2010 and it continues to grow into 2011. The 55 to 64 and 65+ age groups are catching up to younger demos. In fact, it’s the 65+ age group that has grown the most in the past two years, increasing by 49%. At more than 100 million strong, baby boomer and older customers (born before 1965) are the single largest consumer group in America, and they are the wealthiest, best educated and most sophisticated of purchasers. With more disposable income than any population in America, they are, in fact, as author David Wolfe coined them the ―New Customer Majority." Baby Boomers created the technology we enjoy today. Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates from Microsoft, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Sir Timothy John ―Tim‖ Berners-Lee, the man who ―invented‖ the internet are all baby boomers. But social media is not about technology. It’s about people connecting with people. And it’s so much more. According to an Experian 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend Report it also provides consumers with personalized way to connect to companies, brands and media and vice versa, making it an undeniable, if often complex, marketing tool. Other tidbits from the Experian report included: 91% of Americans use social media in an average month. That’s 129 million. 58% use Facebook monthly. The average number of friends is 130. 18% of parents try to connect with their children via Facebook, up from 6% in 2009. Facebook visits last five times longer than visits to Google+. Social networks are an infinite loop: 19% of all visits are immediately followed by a visit to another social network. 20% of users now access social media via their phones, up from 11%. 14% use phones to upload photos and video. Social media content and advertising should be easy to read and be experiential in nature. It should reflect empathy for the values mentioned above. Positioning your company as a gateway to desired experiences of your target markets should be your goal. Consultant Jeff Korhan says ―traditional media may be dying, but you can learn a lot from it.‖ He goes on to say that ―traditional media provides entertainment or educational content (including the news) – and in exchange for their hard work you accept commercials and other forms of advertising.‖ Social media efforts, (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) have often taken a similar approach by becoming another distribution channel for traditional media saturating content with slick advertising making the experience more like an electronic brochure for products and services than an interactive experience. Now it’s clear social media has evolved to focus on making profits, and that’s good and acceptable. Social media reaches out to an audience to engage it, and make a profit for all its efforts. However, if you want to be successful in your social media efforts you have you make it ―sticky‖; encouraging visitors to come back and interact. Visitors will come back and interact when they believe you are about them and their needs and desires. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 154
- 155. So, how doyou best use social media? Create interactive experiences. Since the primary purpose of social media is to encourage people to connect, content and advertising needs to have the best chance of generating interest and converting that interest into a longevity and loyalty reflecting empathy with the values and motivators of this demo. Our experience tells us that a key to capturing and keeping these rapidly growing lucrative demos is a better understanding of their values and how their behavior, buying motivators and satisfaction needs change as they get older. Their values typically include: Autonomy and self-sufficiency (independence/participation) Social connectedness (relationships/friendships) Altruism (opportunity to share wisdom and ability to do for others: family, community & country) Personal growth (gain knowledge) Revitalization (need to rejuvenate) The next step is applying knowledge gained to create effective content, titillating interactivity and online advertising, communications and sales strategies and tactics. To succeed in social media, marketers must have foresight. Yet at times they seem to have vastly better hindsight. Marketers can be forgiven for not jumping on—if not foreseeing—radically new platforms, channels, and opportunities. How can someone predict the impact of flash sales or social gaming? The point isn’t that marketers can’t agree on the future. If there are no longer one-size-fits-all solutions for reaching audiences, why should there be any for the marketers themselves? Progressive marketers are the ones pushing the envelope, setting dialogues, and defining the industry. They’re willing to commit, experiment and adjust aided, of course, by robust data collected at every step in the process. Has the ship sailed, then? Is it too late for the latecomers? No, it’s never too late. Even brands that have an early lead in social media will need to constantly innovate in order to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape.‖ What’s more, brands just getting into social media have the advantage of learning from the success and failures of early entries into social media. Social Media Connections Between Consumers and Brands That Inspire Sales Lee Odden While the topic of return on investment with social media participation seems to polarize many marketing, advertising, and public relations pundits, there are a growing number of companies and agencies that are implementing social media marketing and analysis efforts to answer the question firsthand. We've all read about or seen favorite examples going back to Dell Outlet selling a few million dollars worth of discounted computer equipment through Twitter, to Blendtec selling more blenders because of its YouTube videos showing what happens when a Blendtec meets an iPhone, or a rake. Of course, there's also the famed Old Spice example of selling more body wash because of Isaiah Mustafa on a horse on a beach. It's about the customers. Besides those very viral and frequently shared social media ROI examples, there are also marketers that realize that it's not always about selling widgets on Facebook or YouTube. It's about the connections they make with customers being instrumental for recommendations and serving as inspiration to buy. It might not mean purchasing at the moment of social media interaction, but at some point in the future as the customer navigates the search, social, and mobile web. It's about relationships. The value companies can get from investment in social media is directly tied to the relationships they build with customers and a relevant community. If a business wants to sell more widgets through Twitter, they could certainly achieve that goal providing they understand what information and experiences trigger those purchases and respond with an appropriate customer engagement plan. Whether Twitter is the sales channel or simply a proxy to the sales experience depends on the customers - not the brand's objective of selling widgets on Twitter. ROI is also about cost savings. Sometimes realizing measurable business value from social media investment is a matter of creating efficiencies as some companies have by developing internal social network platforms that result in more effective collaboration and operational effectiveness. Those efficiencies often translate into better, faster, and more useful information for customers that result in cost savings or even more sales. Measure what matters. The better connections brands have with consumers, the more likely those consumers will be positively inclined to buy. Many social media ROI models are based on a direct marketing approach with an offer and response model. The problem is that companies are chasing after a platform where relevant customers might be vs. understanding how to influence those customers through a social experience. The ROI from social media investment doesn't have to come from direct sales through social networks, but that's exactly how most companies evaluate. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 155
- 156. It's about inspirationand influence. A lot of productive social media marketing efforts are more likely to influence business outcomes than be the channel where those outcomes occur. Public and media relations, for example, isn't that different. Positive media coverage creates awareness and inspires search or discovery of the brand and the sale occurs on the company website. Social experiences can provide brand-advertising benefits and inspire consumers to buy sooner, more quantity, or more often, as well as to choose one brand vs. another. What company wouldn't want to sell more products, more often, more quickly? Here are a few interesting data points and examples that suggest a correlation between social engagement and consumer buying behavior: eMarketer - Over 50 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to purchase from brands they follow. USA Today - Coca-Cola Facebook fans are two times as likely to consume product and 10 times more likely to purchase than non-fans, according to Wendy Clark, senior vice president of integrated marketing. Yahoo - Brands who sponsored content with social features increased purchase intent by 13 percent. Mashable - "Following Brands on Twitter Increases Purchase Intent." A study by Constant Contact and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey reports that 60 percent of brand followers are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after following the brand on Twitter, and 50 percent of brand followers are more likely to buy from that brand. The missing piece to many assessments of what value social media participation provides is that most marketers are chasing popular platforms with their own interpretation of what will motivate customers to buy. What they should be doing is understanding customer preferences and optimizing for the kinds of social experiences that will not only inspire purchase, but social sharing, advocacy, and loyalty. Social media is a communications platform that can help businesses serve customer needs across the lifecycle, not just at the top of the sales funnel. Understand that and an entirely new opportunity is revealed. Do We Need Stinkin' Badges? Sean Carton "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" Mexican Bandit, "Blazing Saddles," 1974 If you've ever been responsible for hiring someone, you know that it can be a nerve-wracking experience. Sure, they might have a stellar resume, have sailed through the interview process, and have glowing references, but it's still tough not to feel that little tug in your gut the first day they show up at work and you have to ask yourself "Will they actually be able to do what they say they can do?" Hiring an agency or a consultant is no different. Will they perform? Were they worth the investment? Will they embarrass you in front of your boss? Will one bad consultant hiring decision cost you your job? Considering the kind of work marketing professionals do, there are good reasons to be nervous. After all, measuring what makes someone "good" at their job is often more of an art than a science. Marketers deal with a lot of subjectivity and most work is done in teams. Even if someone brings you a portfolio of their past work, it's tough to determine exactly what part they had to play in it. Because we online marketers are in such a young industry, job titles don't mean much either. The person who is a "web designer" at one place might be considered a "developer" somewhere else. An "account leader" at one agency might have similar skills to a "project manager" at another. Heck, just because someone's a "chief [insert noun] officer" doesn't guarantee that they know more than a lowly "director" or "manager" or even "analyst" somewhere else. When looking at any job in the "digital" industry (even though we have a tough time defining even whatthat means), it seems like they usually follow a pattern as a technology matures. When a new technology arises, those who "specialize" in it are usually more technically-oriented. As that technology matures, jobs seem to split into technical and strategic/creative/content camps. Rising complexity necessitates increasing specialization. In the early days, self-taught "experts" usually have to be able to master both the technical and the creative, but over time the "creative" and/or "strategic" folks move away from the hands-on work of mastering the "technology" and the more technical move closer and closer to the code. It wouldn't surprise me if many of you old-timers reading this (or…ahem…writing this) who now function in more strategic roles haven't touched a line of code or had to master the intricacies of a new application for a long time. You've got other people to do that stuff. You focus on the big picture. The result of all this is a lot of confusion when it comes to hiring. Titles don't mean much. Skills are hard to determine. Standards vary from organization to organization. While older, more mature disciplines like medicine and the law have standardized job titles and credentials through a system of certifications and licensure, we're still in a state of flux. Right now there's probably nothing more confusing than trying to sort out what people with "social media" in their title do. But that's not surprising…the whole social media marketing industry is pretty young. Still, however, the slapping of "social Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 156
- 157. media" onto someone'stitle can cause some pretty strong reactions: Peter Shankman (of HARO fame) even goes as far as to declare "I'd never hire a 'social media expert,' and neither should you" in his article of the same name. "I was going to call this article 'All Social Media Experts' need to go die in a fire," he writes, "…If you call yourself a 'Social Media Expert,' don't even bother sending me your resume." I'm not so sure about the "die in a fire" thing, but I know that I'm not the only one out there who's snorted in disgust when encountering so-called "social media experts." Sure, there are some people out there who are pretty savvy about how to market with social media, but there are also an awful lot of BS artists who declare their "expertise" after creating their first blog or Facebook page or Twitter feed. There are also a lot of "experts" who happen to be pretty adept at making HootSuite dance, but who couldn't write (or strategically think) themselves out of the proverbial paper bag. Slapping the "expert" sobriquet on themselves seems a little extreme. Extreme, but understandable. After all, what does it mean to be a "social media expert" anyway? Is it an indication of your technical expertise? Does it mean that you're great at devising ways to build relationships with customers using social media tools? Does your "expertise" derive from the fact that you're incredibly connected and have managed to build a list of followers in the thousands? Could it be that you're just an obsessive tweeter? The fact is that there's no way of knowing. And the disappointment left in the wake of this expertise confusion does nothing but damage the industry. People with real expertise are lumped together with others calling themselves "experts," and clients have no way to tell what's what. "Heck, my son/niece/neighbor's kid put up a Facebook page," they think, "what makes you such an 'expert'?" But before you get too worked up, you have to look at it in the context of the history of the digital industry in general. In the early days of the web, those of us building professional websites often had to contend with the "my kid can do this…why should I pay you?" attitude often displayed by unsophisticated clients. And while we've pretty much long gotten past that (I used to respond with "I'm sure your kid knows how to use a video camera too…do you want him to shoot your next TV spot?"), the rapid growth of new technologies keeps bringing back the problem. And until we do something about it, we're all going to continue to suffer the consequences of skill and title confusion. That's why I was excited recently when I received an email from the eMarketing Association announcing its new Certified Social Media Marketing Association Certification. While details about what exactly is being "certified" are still sketchy (and the industry recognition and influence of the eMarketing Association are somewhat debatable), it's a step in the right direction. Creating an industry-wide certification is a big step in the maturation of the digital marketing industry…and a big step in making everyone's life easier by insuring a standard set of competencies. Whether this takes off or not, it definitely bares a serious look…and serious support. And yeah, I know: many of you out there are going to balk at the idea of "standardizing" your "complex skill set." Heck, the AIGA has resisted any kind of "designer" certification for decades now, and it's incredibly well recognized and respected. But all you have to do is look at one of the other biggest creative industries - architecture - and compare it to the design industry if you want to see what a difference certification can make. Anyone can call themselves a "designer" (with cringe- worthy results in many cases), but calling oneself an "architect" means something very specific and understandable, mainly as a result of the efforts of their trade association, the American Institute of Architects. The PR trade has made great steps in this same direction with the PRSA's "APR" certification. If you've had to hire a PR person, you know that an "APR" after their name actually means something. If you step back and look at the big picture, it's no wonder that the eMarketing Association is moving toward certification. In a world of rapidly-changing technologies, multiple alternative avenues for learning (such as free online universities, self-study, online tutorials, etc.), declining valuation of college degrees, and general industry confusion, the idea of creating standardized (and recognized) ways of identifying someone's skills in many different areas starts to make sense. In fact, the Mozilla Foundation (along with the MacArthur Foundation) has even begun an "Open Badges Initiative" to examine ways of awarding "badges" (really "mini-certifications") for a wide variety of life skills…no matter where they're learned. It's a great idea and one that I hope catches on. Do we really need those stinkin' badges? If we're going to grow and mature as an industry, the answer is "yes." Casting the Right Hook Into the Digital Talent Pool Chris Copeland We're an industry of fisherman. This advertising industry is one built on ideas, but funded on the hours spent executing off those ideas. In many ways, advertising (especially digital advertising) has become the antithesis of the Chinese proverb, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats forever." But to teach a man to fish, he must first be receptive to learning. When I consider what this means for digital advertising talent, it's clear that before we can become greater than our parts, we must change the current culture. There's little doubt that the present digital environment is challenged by a shortage of talent based on the demand the marketplace has created. Sitting on the agency side, this is further compromised by the opportunities for financial growth that are constantly presented at virtually every turn, which lead to job hopping and a Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 157
- 158. reticence to investin talent just to see it walk out the door for greater pay elsewhere. This growth, however, comes with a price. I recently spent time with an individual who, during our conversation, lamented that he didn't have the right mentor to help with his career growth. The tragedy of the moment was that the individual, who is immensely talented with great potential, doesn't lack a mentor. He lacks a manager. Therein lies the real challenge with today's talent crunch - the lack of individuals qualified to be actual managers of people. In the digital space, we hire for talent, we develop skills to manage clients and execute strategies, but we rarely hire managers who truly understand how to cultivate and inspire those who work for them. Yes, we have team leaders, but that responsibility set and the rewards we place on them are rarely tied to developing our talent to the degree that they will become the next generation of leaders. In sports, it's suggested that a great coach is, above all, a leader of men and women. She is someone who can unify and align people behind a common vision. This person is someone who can motivate people to give more of themselves than what they might have otherwise believed possible. Are we doing the same in our digital environment? Are we hiring people because they can plan and execute a media buy alone? Is that enough? Are we not obligated to them and ourselves to expect more because the returns will have tangible value for us in the work product and business growth that can be delivered over time? When was the last time you heard someone utter the phrase "They taught me everything I know" and it meant more than how to buy something? Digital advertising has the benefit and curse of being a very, very young industry. Yesterday's planners are just now starting to evolve into strategists and even bleeding into traditional media roles in select cases. However, for the digital side to truly meet the challenges of tomorrow, we need more managers and stronger leaders who understand and prioritize the value of training and investing in employees. Without these managers and leaders, we'll continue simply fishing for our supper day in and day out, and will miss the opportunities to teach team members to fish so they're able to eat forever. Babelfish Articles Dec 2011 Page 158