Clearcast Digital Media

Who do you trust?

The issue of trust has been on my mind lately. For all the changes that the internet has wrought on our society, the basic question, "Who do you trust?" has not changed at all. We trust our friends, peers and family members. And research would suggest that those with a lot of "social clout," that is, people with hundreds of "friends,"  contacts, or followers from the (new) usual places like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter rank pretty low on the old trust-o-meter.

I am talking about trust strictly as it relates to comments and reviews you might seek out when you're heading out to the marketplace to buy a product or service.

It's refreshing to see an old world remnant like good ol' word of mouth still going strong in this digital age. Authenticity rules the day and consumers own brands today as never before.

Is your company still wondering about using online video?

Horowitz Associates, a market research and consulting company,just released a report analyzing the rapid growth in consumption of broadband video content. It reveals that 61% of high speed users watch or download online video content at least once a week and 86% do so on a monthly basis. That is up 16% and 15%, respectively, from 2006.

Naysayers often set up a false choice, the way some politicians love to do. They will tell you that online media will never kill TV and radio. Who ever said it would or, for that matter, should? Radio didn't kill TV. TV didn't kill newspapers and magazines. The automobile did not kill the horse- it just repurposed it.

The point is, exploiting online media to you or your company's advantage is not akin to giving up. "Oh, well, we can't afford a big TV campaign. I guess we'll do something on YouTube and hope for the best." You now have more control than ever and you have, most importantly, an audience starving for good content that already has trained themselves to search for what they want.

Are you giving it to them? Do you even know what it is? Need some help?

IBM predicts the end of advertising as we know it

IBM Global Business Services released it's new report entitled "The End of Advertising as We Know It" in which it forecasts greater disruption for the ad industry in the next 5 years than in the previous 50.

The report is incredibly rich in both substance and fact and I would urge you to check it out here.

For those of you who read blogs so that folks like me do the heavy lifting for you, here are some highlights:

• Traditional ad players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift to new, interactive formats which are expected to grow at five times the rate of traditional advertising.
• Broadcasters need to change their mass audience mind set and deliver targeted ads across a range of multimedia devices.

Personal internet time is now rivaling TV time. Consumers are sick of interruption advertising and are ever more in control of how they interact, filter, distribute and consume their content and any ad messaging that might come with it.

Analytics will continue to play an ever increasing role in delivery, as our pals at Lotame will tell you.

I won't go on any further, but the message is clear. Change is the only constant.

The writer's strike is the harbinger of the crumbling of an unsustainable business  model. iTunes and other music services were a harbinger of a sea change in the sales and distribution of music. The world is digital and that can be a scary prospect for analog players. You cannot unring the bell, however, so how are you going to respond?

Not just preaching to the converted

Intel has decided to accelerate their shift of ad dollars to newer media like the internet and away from older media such as radio and TV. The reason they gave is that consumers are turning more and more to online media when researching purchasing decisions and they desire the level of engagement that the web offers.

Sean Maloney, EVP at Intel observed, "In the last year, there appears to be an acceleration of attitude-forming, opinion-forming online, instead of in the traditional media, and we have to respond appropriately."

OK, no surprise that a technology company would see the writing on the wall, but even lower tech companies are changing their media plans. The American Egg Board, which promotes egg consumption, used to dedicate 100% of their ad budget on traditional media but they are now adding online media such as a redesigned web site and blogs. Roughly 20% of their $10 million budget will be spent on new media. (By the way, who knew there was $10 million available to talk about eggs?)

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America predicts that over 30% of its budget will be online within the next 2 to 3 years.

All the rules of online advertising are changing. Once upon a time consigned to afterthought status inside of many media budgets, it is now taking its rightful place as a key element of any media buy.

Today, we demonstrate the concept of "link love"

On the topic of blog and podcast promotion, we left out one element in last week's podcast episode: link love. Link love is when you link back to a relevant site that supports what you might be blogging about. Very often, you can let that blogger or website know that you are doing so, and it can produce some rather nice results that benefit both parties. That's why it's called "love." It must be reciprocated. Concept is simple, now here it is in practice:

Our pal Andy at Lotame posted today about the growth of advertising on user-generated content sites. The takeaway is that these sites are experiencing phenomenal growth rates and advertisers better pay attention because this is where the eyeballs are but, more importantly, this is where the active users are. Social media sites' (even this very blog) whole raison d'etre is to get you do DO something while you're there: upload or download a picture, video or song, click on something, post a comment, etc. It would stand to reason that if you can reach these people IN THE SAME WAY THAT THEY ARE USED TO COMMUNICATING, you will probably have some success.

Which brings us to link number 2 from VNUnet.com. The article is entitled "Traditional marketing failing on social networking sites" (Kind of telegraphs what the article is about, eh?) Two key takeways from the article are, 1) "...marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value." (Bold mine.) And, 2) "People no longer want 'interruptive' brand communications; they want interactions with their peers and true value from companies..."

A new advertising philosophy

As the noted philosopher Wayne Gretzky observed, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."

In the wake of the recent YouTube presidential debate, it's worth remembering that many of the candidates chose a podcast as their method of delivery when they announced their candidacies. This speaks to the power of online video to transform the way we all communicate. EMarketer predicts that from 2006-2010, the number of online video viewers will grow 50% to 157 million consumers. That is a big number, no matter how you slice it. The advertising opportunities will grow along with that number, with an 89% growth predicted for 2007 alone.

Online video is the fastest growing way for marketers to connect with consumers, but context and environment matters.

How much of your ad budget have you allocated?

From the advertising trees to the marketing forest

Regular readers of this blog might find this redundant, but I came across a brilliant blog post today and I wanted to help extend its reach a bit, as well as add my two cents.

As social media continues to become less of a curiosity and establishes its foothold alongside other more traditional and, perhaps, better understood forms of marketing, there will be a fundamental shift in thinking that must take place in order to exploit these media to maximum benefit. Alan Schulman writes a beautifully reasoned post here which I urge anyone who is trying to sell ANYTHING to read.

A couple of points he makes really stood out to me:

1- "What matters now, more than ever, is [marketers'] ability to establish and advance relationships-- relationships they can build and grow." (Italics mine.)

It really does not matter if you're selling  cars, plumbing services, music, apples or Apples. Just rolling out an advertising campaign ain't gonna get the job done anymore.

2- "To truly affect a brand's business, you have to get out of the Advertising trees and into the Marketing forest, where the important stuff of establishing relationships, supplying insights that result in innovative products, generating cultural currency and generating real sales reside: the Business of Marketing. Today that's what we're really in the business of...not what the next television campaign should look like."

We talk about all this here and here.

My guess is that 12 to 24 months from now, all of this will become second nature to the most savvy marketers, and that goes for every marketer, from an automobile manufacturer right down to the musician recording, publishing and selling their music on their own out of their home studio using their laptop.
 

Hey, advertisers: When does 1 equal 8?

According to new research from Omnicom Group, one engaged viewer is worth eight regular ones.

The research seems to indicate that engagement really does move the sales needle. Not only does consumer engagement with media and advertising drive sales, but it can also drive sales more than media spending levels. Translation: even a relatively small media outlay might work wonders as long as the ads capture the imagination of consumers.

Three different financial services brands were tested and consumer engagement with media had three times the impact than sales media weight (GRPs) alone, and consumer engagement with the ads had an eight times larger impact on sales than GRPs.

Engagement with consumers must employ mixed models to really foster and maintain relationships. Brand loyalty is fast becoming a thing of the past.

For more on the study, click here.

More on ROE (Return on Engagement)

As we have previously noted, Return on Engagement is the gold standard of new media metrics. Ad agencies, marketers and media buyers are still trying to get their heads around the measurement tools for blogging and podcasting. It is going to require a fundamental change in the way they have always done business, but as a wise man once said, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." That might be fine for some, but for those of you who are really looking to grow your bottom line and get ahead of the media curve, there are some exciting tools out there to take the guesswork  out of behavioral marketing.

Online behavior will always reveal something of a user's passion. What you search for, where you browse, what you buy are not isolated behaviors. They form a unique pattern. One of the problems is, data crunchers try and force behavior into a pre-defined category, i.e. if you visit site X then you must belong to behavioral profile Y.

It is now possible, no, CRITICAL to customize segments for each advertiser. In our new era of user generated content or social media, people express their opinions and interests as well as talk about themselves.

There is a company called Lotame that totally gets this. Their flagship product called Crowd Control tracks, targets and pinpoints specific audiences. In essence, it makes sense of the chaos that exists in the social media realm and provides advertisers with important data that reaches the increasingly ephemeral online diaspora.

Lowest common denominator programming and advertising just simply will not get the job done anymore. We are all complex beings with multiple interests. Producers of online content figured this out awhile ago. The ad industry is now getting on board, too.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

Caught a great podcast recently featuring an interview with author David Meerman Scott. His new book is entitled The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly (whew! Quite a mouthful.)

ANYway, his premise is clear and well-delivered: "You are what you publish." In the old days, if you wanted to get your message out there you had two options: try and convince someone to write about you (and hope for the best), or buy expensive advertising, trade show floor real estate or spend a lot of money in some other way and hope your message sticks.

With the advent of blogging and podcasting, your business can now take control of the conversation and influence people based on your positive content. Think about the people you are trying to reach. Don't force your corporate message on them. We get enough of that everyday. As we have said before on this blog and in our podcast, it is not about hucksterism. Rather, write about a problem people are having, and then help them solve it. Once you establish that trust, people will stay with you and rely on you as a source.

The rules of marketing are changing for the better. This is allowing MORE people in and is making things LESS exclusionary. Take advantage. The time is now.