November 2, 2009

Fly Marketing is Surprise Marketing

Eichborn, a German publisher with a fly for a logo, attached very tiny, ultra-light banners to 200 flies to promote their booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair.  These flies were like a fleet of miniature airplanes dragging promotional banners through the skies of the fair.

You can find a video of the promotion (and the reactions of the crowd) at www.eichborn.de or on YouTube.

This is another fantastic example of surprise marketing done right–use a unique and humorous approach to knock people out of their routine and get them to take notice and talk about your brand.

Well done, Eichborn.

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September 22, 2009

How to Improve Yoplait’s Save Lids to Save Lives Program

I grabbed a Yoplait yogurt out of my fridge and couldn’t help but notice the pink lid.  Yes, Yoplait is running their pink lid “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign in support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  I’m a big supporter of breast cancer awareness and the search for a cure.  I’ve had friends and family with breast cancer, so I’ve seen first hand how breast cancer dramatically affected their lives and their families.

I’m also a huge supporter of corporations making donations to charity.  Most charities would be hard-pressed to provide their services without the valued corporate support.

What I don’t like is the hoops some companies make consumers jump through to support the corporation’s charitable donation.  Yoplait, for example, will donate 10 cents for every pink lid mailed in by consumers.  So, I need to buy Yoplait yogurt, save the lids, wash the lids, put them in an envelope and mail them to Yoplait?  Then, someone at Yoplait is going to open the envelopes, count the lids and approve the corresponding donation?  Seems like a lot of unnecessary time and money to support the search for a breast cancer cure.

Yes, I know, it’s a little time and effort on my part when so many women are battling cancer and fighting for their lives.  And their families and friends are suffering as well.  Trust me, I understand and I sympathize.

My point is that companies like Yoplait, who obviously hope they sell more yogurt because of their charitable donation, should make it easier for consumers to boost the donation amount. (I’d like to know if Yoplait’s sales or market share increase during the donation period anyway.)  Yoplait says they’ll donate at least $500,000, but based on the number of lids they receive, they’ll donate up to $1.5 million.

Why not give consumers an online mechanism where they can key in a donation code from each purchased container? It’ll save all the time and money from the current process.  Keep the pink lids for marketing the program and for the donation code.

Or, why not provide a matching program where consumers can donate to the charity through Yoplait.com, and Yoplait will match the donations up to $1.5 million?  Then, the charity will receive $3 million or more in donations, instead of between $500,000 and $1.5 million.  Forget the whole lid redemption process, but keep the pink lids for marketing the program.

With social marketing and digital marketing available, why does Yoplait continue to cling to the lid redemption process?  A new approach could increase awareness of the program and increase the overall donations going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

And, Yoplait just might sell more yogurt, too.

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September 21, 2009

Can you really be private online?

Online privacy is a real concern for most people, more so as social networking becomes mainstream and keeps a detailed record of everything about us.  If you take online privacy seriously, then you’ve likely set yourself some stringent privacy settings on sites like Facebook and MySpace, and you’re careful about your Twitter updates and the information you load into LinkedIn.

Unfortunately, as a recent MIT project shows, you have little control over what someone can learn about you simply from the data you choose to share online.  The MIT project, Project Gaydar, was accurately predicting which males were homosexual simply based on their Facebook friends.  Sure, some of these males likely are already comfortable and upfront about their homosexuality, but in the case of others, they may be trying to hide their homosexuality for any variety of reasons.

There’s a quickly evolving field of social network analysis that points to some potentially troubling privacy concerns for social network users.  Your online connections, links and friends may tell someone more about you than you’d normally be willing to share.  Prospective employers, charity groups, civic groups, political groups and other institutions may be able to make predictions about you–and ultimately decisions about you–without even asking you a single question.

Will the field of social network analysis cause a social networking backlash, or will we all accept the idea that our connections and friends could be used to make assumptions or predictions about us?  Will new laws be required to keep employers from making predictions about job applicants based on a social network analysis?  Will a social network analysis be conducted for prominent politicians and used against them during campaigns?

Funny…the social effects of social networking are only just beginning to be discovered.

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September 20, 2009

Are You Marketing to Yourself?

It’s very easy to believe that you absolutely know how, when and where best to reach your customers and prospects with your marketing messages.  Especially after many years of experience with a specific marketplace, you can easily fall into the trap of assumptions and generally accepted truths.

I’ve encountered numerous clients and corporate colleagues who fell into this trap:

“We don’t need a website.  Our customers don’t go online.”

“Why would we send an email when we can send a fax or mail a postcard?  Most of our clients don’t have email.”

“We don’t need an eCommerce site because people in our industry don’t shop online.”

“We don’t need to be on Facebook because that’s for kids.”

“Twitter?  Is that real?  Never heard of it.  None of our consumers would ever use that.”

Change can be unsettling and frightening.  It seems that a new technology pops up every week and it’s a lot of work to figure out how or why to understand its potential marketing opportunities.  It takes a lot less effort to dismiss the new and different, and claim to understand the needs, motivations and behaviors of the marketplace, consumers, clients and prospects.  It’s easy to market to yourself.

If I don’t shop online, then my customers must not do it either.

If I’ve never used Twitter, then it must not be an important marketing tool.

My kids use Facebook and I don’t sell kid stuff, so Facebook is not important for my business.

It takes a lot more work to do the research, conduct interviews, read reports, look at graphs, participate in meetings, conferences, panel discussions and other conversations to stay on top of the changes happening in your business and in your marketplace.

You’re not marketing to yourself.

You’re marketing to your customers and your prospects. You need to figure out how best to market to them, and that takes a lot of effort and a lot of testing.

If it was supposed to be easy, then you wouldn’t get paid to do it.

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September 1, 2009

Who wants to be the next Matt Drudge?

If you’re starting a blog to develop your own online cash cow, well get in line.  There are thousands of people already in line ahead of you.  Sure, it might happen, and I wish you the greatest luck and success.  Truly.

Somewhere in the online abyss I read some rules for making money at blogging.  One of the rules was to never blog about something that was more than a few hours old since the news item would already have been spread throughout the interwebs and considered old news by most people.  Further, you should only focus on the newest bits of news and get it on your blog ASAP.

This is a great rule if you want to be the next Matt Drudge.  Most people either don’t want to be Matt Drudge or don’t have the ability to be him.

Most people start a blog to share their opinions and experiences with the world.  Maybe not even the whole world, maybe just a thin slice of it.

The best focus for a news blog is the local market.  Local news isn’t covered well online, and the coverage is getting worse and worse for local events on TV and in print.

The best focus for most blogs is a niche market…a blog focused on midwest artists or northwest poets for example.  There are a lot of niches without good coverage online that have a ready and willing audience.   The audience may not be extensive, but they’ll be focused and loyal if your content is compelling and if you invite them in.

Monetizing a niche may be difficult or impossible, but it may very well become a great side venture for you.  And, maybe one day it will become profitable enough to become your full-time job.  Although, sometimes a hobby is better than a job.

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August 21, 2009

There’s a big difference between being anonymous and being anonymous online

There’s a big difference between being anonymous and being anonymous online.  A huge difference.

CNN posted a story about the outing of anonymous bloggers. They cited stories about bloggers forced to reveal their true identities when they had preferred to remain anonymous.  One example was PittGirl, another was Waiter Rant. PittGirl knew the heat was on, so she revealed her identity and then was fired from her job the next day.  Waiter Rant revealed his identity to cash in on a book deal and soak up the publicity.

This kind of blogger anonymity is common and understandable.  Most of these bloggers remain anonymous because they’re shy, or because they have a primary job that is completely removed from their blogger job.  The anonymity helps to keep the two worlds separated and happy.

The anonymity that some people seek online allows them to hurl insults and to harm the reputation of their target victims while hiding in the shadows of anonymity.  This type of cowardly, aggressive and offensive anonymity is also common, but should be eliminated online.

All anonymity is not the same and should not be treated the same.  The intent of the anonymous blogger or commenter must be weighed.

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August 21, 2009

Suprise Marketing: Hasbro Celebrates the Candyland 60th Anniversary

Hasbro uses the most crooked street in America, Lombard Street in San Francisco, as a life-sized Candyland board.

Of course, a few cranky onlookers may turn their nose up at this blatant act of consumerism and capitalism, but most people will get a kick out of seeing a life-sized board game from their childhood and enjoy some good memories from a simpler time.

Hasbro has created some successful surprise marketing here and surely has generated some good buzz–conversations, discussions, comments–both offline and online.

That’s the whole idea of great marketing–getting people to talk positively about your brand, your products, your services.

If they aren’t talking about you, you’re not doing anything worth talking about.

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August 20, 2009

One small step for print media, one giant leap for marketing?

CBS and Pepsi have, to my knowledge, embedded the first video player in a print ad in the latest Entertainment Weekly.

This experiment is surely to spur several different reactions:

How cool!

How annoying!

How do you recycle this thing?

Whatever.

What about all the garbage this will create?

It’s only a matter of time before print and video merge.  Companies like eInk and others are creating thinner and thinner screens–or electronic paper– that can transmit still images for signs or books as well as video.  One day you’ll be able to wallpaper an entire wall of your living room and have it be your television and computer screen.  Or make your clothes out of thin screens and be a walking TV.  Or roll up a screen and carry it with you and be able to access online content anywhere at anytime without a bulky computer or PDA (the future of the Kindle?)

This technology can bring us all to a wild new level of marketing and advertising immersion.  Imagine video snippets and moving images on every sign, in every newspaper or magazine, on every label.  Yes, marketers can’t wait.

But, consumers may all be given seizures by the blast of video marketing attacking them at every turn.  Walk down a supermarket aisle and every package is dancing and flashing and talking and singing and playing music.  Like any new technology or platform video marketing everywhere will go through a growth and maturity cycle and become accepted and commonplace.  The technology will have its pros and cons and not everyone will be a fan.

Get ready, everyone.  The CBS and Pepsi example in Entertainment Weekly is simply the first small step.

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August 19, 2009

What is free speech online?

A New York Supreme Court judge very recently ruled in favor of a former model who wants to discover the identity of an anonymous blogger who posted pictures and disparaging comments about her online using Google’s Blogger.com service.  The ruling required Google to hand over any and all identifying information about the blogger to the plaintiff’s legal team.  Google handed over an IP address and email address.  While Google sympathizes with victims of cyber-bullying the company only provides information when required by court rulings or subpoenas to protect the privacy of its users.

Once the identity of the blogger is known, the blogger will certainly be sued for defamation.

The anonymous blogger’s legal team argued that the ruling would damage free speech online, that rampant name-calling is practically part of the DNA of the internet.

What a joke.

The biggest problem with the internet is that people feel they can hide their identity and anonymously hurl insults and post rude, malicious, hateful and hurtful comments.  In the shadows, certain people feel they can say something that they otherwise would never say in the real world where their identity would be known.

This court case has nothing to do with limiting free speech.  It aims to eliminate anonymous hate-postings.  If someone wants to post insults online, then do so using your real identity.  This court case should help to reduce the degree of over-the-top hate in postings and bring them more in line with common criticism.

As the internet matures and becomes more and more entwined with our daily lives, it’s sure to grow more comfortable with being the World Wide Web and less the Wild Wild Web.

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August 16, 2009

Everyone’s worried about measurement

It’s not just digital marketing that’s worried about measurement.  Nielsen is directly in the cross hairs of the major TV companies, big advertisers and some of the biggest ad companies.  Top TV companies are banding together to form a new measurement consortium.

I guess Nielsen was a good friend when ratings were rosy and TV was the central entertainment vehicle for most Americans. Unfortunately for Nielsen, this summer has been a huge disappointment to the major networks–all the new shows are duds.  Beyond the recent bad news, it’s been a slow decline for the major networks and network TV for almost a decade.  Video games, the internet and online media, and the fragmentation and specialization of entertainment choices have all eroded the viewership and power of the major networks.  The average age of a prime time viewer is now 50.  Younger viewers are ignoring the major networks.

Of course, advertisers are demanding to know what they’re paying for.  If fewer people are watching, and the people watching are getting older and older on average, a lot of brands have no reason to advertise on the major networks.  Their demographic is best targeted somewhere else since they certainly aren’t watching TV.

So, Nielsen is caught in the position of “shoot the messenger” when the news is bad.

But, Nielsen is probably not completely innocent either.  Their measurement process has been a source of frustration for the networks and advertisers in the past.  And now with more and more TV not being viewed on a TV, there’s a larger chance that their ratings are inaccurate.  With so much riding on the accuracy of the ratings–billions of dollars of advertising and the survival of the TV networks themselves–both Nielsen and the networks need to get it right.

For now it seems that the networks are taking matters into their own hands, and are smartly bringing the major advertisers and ad companies with them.  Nielsen continues to work on measurement improvements with the hope that this current showdown will subside.

What we’re witnessing is the death of TV as we know it…or knew it.  Consumers want entertainment to cater to them, they want personalized and controlled entertainment.  The days of staying at home to watch a TV show when it’s aired are over.  Tivo and DVRs put an end to that.  Sites like Hulu and products like Slingbox or SlingPlayer let you watch TV wherever and whenever you want.  And now some “TV shows” are purely internet properties.  You won’t find them on TV at all.

The internet is converging with TV.  What the major networks will need to figure out is how they’ll live in the converged world, how they’ll measure viewership and how they’ll charge for advertising.  Nielsen is trying to figure it out but won’t be ready to implement the “converged measurement process” for another 2 years.  The major networks are trying to figure it out themselves.

The evolution of media consumption will continue to outpace the metrics.  One certainty is the TV world as we know it will never be the same again.  Technology advancement and entertainment fragmentation will keep advertisers, agencies, consumers and entertainment companies quite busy.

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